Marsh tit and early autumn round up

Clearly I am not managing to post to this blog very often - which does not mean that my interest in natural history has waned. Rather, it is a reflection of 1) prioritising my welsh blog Ailddysgu and 2) that I do at times do the nature related blogging in Welsh that I would otherwise do in English - and having limited time, as always.

Yesterday Jim and I went on a walk at the Hanson reserve - our local nature reserve - with our county bird recorder, Andy. The weather was kind and we had an ausipcious start, as he told us that the bird flying so quickly past us and the hedge was a sparrowhawk. Although I do see sparrowhawks from time to time around us, I certainly could not identify such a bird flying past very quickly - giving you only a glimpse.

It made me realise that we had not been to the reserve for some time, but apparently there is a short-eared owl there again so I will plan to go a bit more often and see if I can spot it. There is also a great white egret around - and has been for a month so hope to look for that too. It was not apparent yesterday, at any rate.

In addition to the water birds (the usual crew of lapwing, heron, many black headed gulls and one common gull - which I don't think I've seen before, heron, shoveller, teal, coot, gadwall, widgeon, swans, canada geese, cormorants and a very large roost (around 16?) of little white egrets) we saw a beautiful bird at the woodland hide. This was a marsh tit - which I have never seen. Apparently they are quite difficult to separate from willow tits, but Andy was pretty certain that this pair were marsh tits - and pointed us to all the features to support that identification. Not that I would be able to tell the difference if I see another one. It was a striking bird - much prettier than it looks in the field guide with a warm, buffish colour on its breast and a very smart black cap. The photo is my best go on my little camera - but it is not really able to show it very well.

We are having quite a mild autumn so far, having had really hot weather at the beginning of the month. To round up: in the last couple of months, I have seen a kingfisher on the way back from work on the river - I stopped my bike having seen a bird fly past quickly and as it perched on the bank, saw that it was a kingfisher before it flew back again. A few weeks earlier I saw the first weasel I have seen for a long time - running across the road this time. And a couple of weeks later we saw a large fox on our way back from the city centre. Again, I have not seen a fox for quite a while, though the rabbit population is still pretty high with a large number on the verges as we drove back into Newport Pagnell last night.

Spring, spawn, swans and falcons

Spring has finally arrived after February remained very cold with frosts most day - and indeed the beginning of March was also very cold. During the week beginning the 1st March, much of the land around here was flooded after the river had broken its banks and then froze over leaving very icy conditions. By the 3rd the temperature had risen enough for the ice to have gone butone of the paths that I cycle on had patches that were completely under water - and I found a small fish swimming around in what used to be the path. The water receded over the next few days but it still remained very very cold.

However, by around the 12th March there were clear signs of Spring - the daffodils finally out when I was down in Bristol and by the 14th March (much later than last year) the first spawn was in our pond. However, it quickly disappeared (I suspect the wood pidgeons as it was near the edge of the pond) but more appeared over the next few days and by March 19th we had several clumps - and over the weekend there were up to 7 frogs at one time in the pond (see the photo of one of the parents). The apricot also came into blossom finally and I was pleased to see that there were a number of bees - bumble and honey in the greenhouse so I didn't hand pollinate this year - perhaps one of the perks of a late onset of Spring?

We went to the Ouse washes at the beginning of the month and I was pleased to be able to see tree sparrows outside the RSPB centre - and also that there were still swans to be seen. They weren't very close - and it was a very bitter cold day (though sunny) and I could not work out whether they were Bewick or Whooper (I haven't ever seen either of these before) and though I took some photos they are rather distant and not very clear. The sound recordings on the RSPB site did not really help either - though the swans were very vocal, they didn't sound like either of the recordings to me.

I spent the weekend before last in Bristol and we walked along the Avon Gorge and in the nearby park. The daffodils were finally out (again much later than usual). On the Sunday we saw a pair of peregrines (one much closer than the other) flying above the gorge. A pair have regularly nested there now for some years - and apparently know where they are supposed to be as I saw the first one just before the Peregrine Watch point.

Back home I was really pleased to see a kingfisher at the weekend on our local river (at Castle Meadow). They are always wonderful birds to see - but after such a hard winter, it was good to know that at least one had survived