Spring update

I am still finding it hard to contribute to this blog as I favour making entries in the other blog http://aildysgu.blogspot.co.uk in order to keep practising and writing in Welsh and just don't find the time for both. Of course, many of the entries are about nature and gardening anyway, although it is always harder writing about them in Welsh.

Over the past few weeks I have seen a barn owl locally – just a passing view, but am told there are a pair down by the old church near the nature reserve, so hope to get along at some point. We saw a yellow hammer on a walk a couple of weeks ago – which are now unusual enough here to warrant a mention. I’m always happy to see lapwings which are not generally frequent in the fields, but do use the spits of land on the flooded gravel pits.

Now that the bird feeder is established in the garden, and the one car, who is now fairly old is not hassling the birds, we are seeing more the garden is now getting a lot more birds, although nothing very unusual. Among the finches we get chaffinches, goldfinches and greenfinches. Great tits, coal tits and blue tits. We have had long tailed tits but they are not around now, and neither are the goldcrests we have seen in previous years, unfortunately. Other visitors are blackbirds, a pair of starlings (which are on the decline apparently), collared doves, wood pidgeons, robins and sparrows (although these are rather occasional). More frequently we see dunnocks and also the occasional wren.

The sighting I have enjoyed most recently was a stoat – although it was rather a short event as it was running across the road.

We now have a hose pipe ban in this area and so the jobs in the garden are getting harder. I do try to be very conscious of water use and always re-use water that I have washed up with (i.e. empty it where it is needed in the garden). Even so, with our large garden, watering all the vegetables by hand is hard work. We don’t water ornamental plants unless they have bee recently planted, and given the dry weather we have not been planting except for the Amelanchier tree to replace the dead cherry that fell on our car in the January gales.

I’m still not very good at identifying trees and the one in the photo is one that has striking flowers coming out when we saw it (a week ago) and I am not sure what it is.

Great white egret

We went along to the Hanson nature reserve, or Linford Lakes at around 3.45 today, just as the light was starting to go on what had been a beautiful sunny day. (I nearly had another close nature encounter earlier when I saw some mushrooms growing on a city grass verge, spotted from the bus as it passed, and considered stopping on the way back to investigate, but after 3 hours' shopping, sense prevailed and I left them alone). There has been a great white egret at the Lakes for some weeks. We didn't see it when we went with the organised trip a few weeks ago, but have intended to go back since, both to see whether we could see the egret, and to see whether we might see the short eared owls or barn owls.

We went to the first hide which overlooks the lake and the spit. The lake seemed very busy: the usual ducks, quite a few swans, a small number of lapwings and one or two egrets that were still wading with the remainder roosting in the trees. We counted around 22, but the light was starting to fail and we had not seen the great white, until another bird watcher came in and pointed out that it was roosting with the others. And indeed it was. Much bigger, and still light enough to see its yellow bill and to get an impression of its size when it moved around (though we had not noticed previously!)

After 5-10 minutes it flew across the lake and we had a good view of it flying - and we presume it went off to roost somewhere else. We kept our eyes open for the owls but did not see any. When I have seen the owls, it has usually been from the public footpath at the top of the field, near the canal, rather than from the nature reserve lakes which are in the valley, but we did not have time to go there before it got dark.

I knew (or thought I knew) that the great white egret is not normally found in North Western Europe and probably had a long way to come (unlike the small white egrets which were in northern France before they came over to the UK) but I had not realised how much it is a bird of the tropics. Presumably the British climate is rather a cold one for it, although there have been a number of sightings recently.

Autumn sightings and hearings

Autumn this year continues to be amazingly mild. I picked raspberries again yesterday (November 18th) and although there weren't many it was amazing to have any!

I have seen a couple of sparrowhawks recently, and as I didn't get good views, this prompted me to look up images of sparrowhawks in flight and to read descriptions to ensure that these were not kestrels. But I am fairly certain from the flight and behaviour and what was going on.

The first was a "fly-by". Whilst cycling on a path which borders the canal last week, a bird of prey appeared ahead of me and glided past me, very skilfully flying between two poplars and disappearing. This is typical sparrowhawk behaviour - like goshawks, they can weave in and out of wooded habitat, which kestrels typically don't do. The glide is sparrowhawk like too.

Then a few days later, hearing a commotion, I looked up to the sky to see crows harrassing a bird of prey. This was quite a long way up, and the bird was circling, gliding and occasionally flapping, with the crows in hot pursuit. Again the flight pattern was indicative of a sparrowhawk and also the flap and glide pattern. And when I looked up the silhouette, that too indicated sparrowhawk. There are also kestrels near where I saw the birds, but usually these are hovering and often their tails are more fanned out - and the body has a different shape.

But it is still not always easy when you don't get a good view. I did get a good view of a buzzard the other day though. We have a small number around - in fact I think it is mainly one pair that nests in the woods beyond the field I usually walk in. So they are to be seen circling around from time to time. But this one flew into the trees the other side of the river and perched there for a while, giving me an excellent view, before flying off. And that, I thought, was the end of it. However as I walked back later, again I heard a noise and saw that the buzzard was back near the trees above the river, being mobbed by crows. We have crows, rooks and jackdaws in this area but I think it is the crows that are the main "mobbers".

Another hunting bird is the tawny owl. I have not seen a tawny owl for many years. And indeed they are more likely to be heard. And cycling home on Monday night through the fields as I left work I heard the eerie hoots of an owl and it was a good start to the journey home.

I'm hoping to visit our local reserve today, where there are short eared owls - or one at least. Visiting at around 3-4 gives the best chance of a sighting as they are often active towards the end of the day, though in winter of course, they (and barn owls sometimes) can often be seen in the day when daylight is in short supply.

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.

Ashridge Reserve: A PS

I forgot that I had taken a couple of photos of the information board about the reserve, called Aldbury Nowers. Here is one of them giving information about the chalk grassland, its history and wildlife. It tells us that the abundance of nectar in the flowers, including the wild thyme whose photo was in the last blog, attracts around 30 species of Hertfordshire's butterflies.

Two very different habitats: chalk grasslands and mud flats on the North Wales coast

I am not managing to post to this blog very often, partly because I post more frequently to my Welsh blog, Ailddysgu, to keep up my Welsh writing. So this is is a bit of a round up of the last few weeks.

Three weeks ago when my friend Jenny was over from the States the two of us went for a walk near Tring – a circular walk, versions of which I have often done – not that it stopped us getting slightly lost and doing a different variation at one point. The land is mainly owned by the National Trust (Ashridge Estate) and is a mixture of downs, woods ( a lot of beech) and farmland. It takes in part of the ridgeway and leads up to Ivinghoe beacon. Part is a designated nature reserve, and, I think, an SSSI.

I was hoping we would see some of the kites that are there, but apart what I’m fairly sure was a fleeting glimpse of a kite, the birds of prey were a buzzard, and another bird of prey we couldn’t identify from the distance.

But the flowers were beautiful, varied and abundant – not that I am too good at knowing my flowers, though they mostly those that grow on poor chalky soil. Farmland nearbly is managed for the flowers – and the insects – and birds that follow. The birds that we saw were testimony to this system, including several yellow hammer – which I have not seen for a long time and corn bunting, which I’ve never seen before.

I would not have know what the butterflies are, and even with a guide, they are quite hard to see well enough to check their markings, but according to the board, many are apparently skippers. The prettiest was the marbled white.

Since then I have also noticed a number of small brown butterflies in our local common – which is not unimproved grassland – but does have a large chunk left ungrazed, partly again, perhaps to manage wildlife. But I will need to learn my butterflies better to know what they are (and by then they may have gone!)

The following weekend we went to Caernarfon and stayed in a B&B very near the Foryd which is now nature reserve and with its extensive mud flats on the Menai Straits, attractive to a large variety of waders and also to ducks (though more in the winter).

I was so pleased to see that there were many curlews still around – we counted around 10 one morning. I find their calls very reassuring and reminiscent of my childhood when I used to walk along the Foryd (which is also very scenic facing Anglesey in one direction and the Snowdonia mountains in the other). There were always curlews around this area and I have been saddened by their general decrease. But they seem to be holding their own in the Foryd. I have seen whimbrel in the past but didn’t notice any this time.

We went on a short nature walk as part of the Caernarfon alternative festival – Gwyl Arall, and the leaders were very knowledgeable. I had not realised (or noticed perhaps) that the medieval walls of the town, built mainly from limestone from the quarries in Penmon in Anglesey, are the sites of fossils. Another surprise was seeing a rock pippit – the second we have seen recently near old buildings near the sea – there was one near the castle in Guernsey’s St Peter Port. Another sea bird that is declining in its coastal habitat is the herring gull – and again this seems to be thriving in Caernarfon and along the coast. And, as with other parts of the UK, the little egret is also now commonly found in the area.I can’t remember the plants we saw – though we saw a number on the walk both near the beach and near the castle walls but have enclosed a photo of a couple.

Coastal birds

Had a weekend sailing on Sea Scamp, a lovely classic boat built in the thirties. A new experience for me, as I’d previously only been on a small excursion around Southampton water with my brother-in-law when our children were young. We sailed to the Isle of Wight and moored at Newtown Creek, where there is a natural harbour and a nature reserve.

I saw little egrets when we were leaving Southampton: it was here that I first saw little egrets in this country and have always seen them along this bit of coast. Near our Southampton mooring there were a number of vocal oystercatchers and they were also nesting at Newtown Creek on the mudflats. Although it happened rather quickly, I rather suspect that an incident I saw when a gull swooped down near an oystercatcher, causing some consternation and flew off with something in its beak which it then ate quickly was a chick being stolen and eaten. It must be very hard trying to protect chicks with gulls around – some of which were large black backed gulls – though I think this thief was a herring gull.

There were also a couple of shelduck flying nearby and terns on the sail back. I’m not sure what kind of tern – I assumed they were probably common to start with but apparently there are arctic tern around too.

When we were sailing back to Southampton, it was quite rough, force 6 and getting towards 7 at times. Although we didn’t see any on the trip out, on the return we saw several gannets. Are they more likely to be seen in these conditions. No matter how often I see them, I think they are so amazing as they wheel around and then dive into the sea at such speed. And it is great to get the opportunity to see coastal birds given the landlocked nature of where I live.