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Nature is full of drama

What a week of drama! So much wildlife has been seen and there have been stories worthy of a TV soap opera! And oh yes, there was that general election thing as well. I’ve written about that too.

In terms of the caterpillars, they are all still alive and munching their way through large quantities of leaves. I did get quite worried about the Garden Tiger Moth caterpillars at one point as they were not moving much, or eating much. And then I found what looked like half a caterpillar! But I still had three … turns out it was the skin of one! Evidently they outgrow them and shed them. It wasn’t long before the other two went through this as well. Just after they shed it, their hairdos look particularly fresh! They are called Fluffy 1, 2 and 3, whilst the green caterpillar has been nicknamed Jade (as suggested by Jennifer Hunt).

At Lorton, we have had a couple of school groups in looking for minibeasts – pond dipping, using sweep nets in the meadow and searching under logs in the wood. An interesting beetle, caught by a little girl, caught my eye and I took it back to the centre. My line manager identified it as one of the soldier beetles, and with a bit of further investigation I do believe it is Cantharis fusca which is Nationally Scarce species. [ID was confirmed by NHM Coleoptera, I said previously that it was a Red Data Book species, but it was downgraded in 2013]. In the woods, one group found a caterpillar, so I promptly potted it up (with some leaves of course). This one is called Fusspot as he/she seems quite fussy about food.

We had a bit of a work jolly on Thursday. As part of being a volunteer at the Chesil / Lorton centres, training is provided. In this case, training took the form of a trip over to Durlston Country Park and National Nature Reserve where we had a lovely wander in the sunshine (surprisingly pleasant weather considering the wind we’d had the rest of the week!). We found yet another caterpillar – now potted up and named (Arnold – suggested by Chris Calow), as well as plenty of flowers and even my first Wall butterfly of the year!

After our wander, we were given a guided walk by one of the rangers, during which we saw some more fantastic wildlife!

Back at Lorton for the weekend, and I was anxious during Sunday morning – the eggs had been unattended all morning, with just the quickest visit from the male Kestrel. Later on, he sat on them for a good long time, though as I type at 8pm, he is absent again from the webcam. My fears were confirmed when someone found some wings and feathers in the meadow near where their box is … Kestrel wings, and according to Sean Foote, they look to belong to a female!

To cheer myself up after this tragedy, I spent an hour or so sitting by the pond after work (busman’s holiday!) looking at the insects and listening to the birds. As you can see, it is a lovely spot to relax at. I watched a damselfly nymph crawl across a lilypad, attempt to climb a vertical leaf a couple of times, before it fell into the water. I saw a bright red beetle lurking in the shade of a post, and a spider waiting for its next prey item to appear. A fellow naturalist appeared and we discussed wildlife, before he spotted a damselfly on a nearby bush – my first of the year! Just after, I spotted a dragonfly exhuvia attached to a plant near the pond – a different shape to the one I found last week, thus a different species presumably!

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We Knew We Had Been There Before

Part of me feels I should start splitting my blog posts into four sections – Chesil Beach, Lorton Meadows, the garden and adventures out and about. Thoughts on that idea welcome, but for now, let’s get on with looking at wildlife!

Wait hang on, wildlife is suffering for oh so many reasons, and I want to highlight one of them briefly – litter. Isn’t it just awful?! Cans with the last remnants of fizzy drinks, dirty plastic bottles, torn and mangled plastic bags hanging from trees or caught up in grass. You’re probably nodding as you read this, we all see litter all the time. But how often do you actually do something about it? If you’re my dad (unlikely as I don’t think he reads this blog often), that’s quite often. Rarely a dog walk goes by when he doesn’t pick up some litter and put it in the bin. The rest of you though? Have an honest think for a moment … how often do you walk past litter? Or watch someone drop litter and say nothing? Or (hopefully not!) drop litter yourself because (a) it’s just a little bit, so it doesn’t matter, (b) there are no bins around and no way are you putting it in your pocket / bag, or (b) you’re in car so it’s fine to chuck it out the window? And that’s just litter … don’t get me started about dog mess!

Why am I going on about litter? Well, first it is one of my 2015 Wildlife Resolutions to pick up more litter which I have been trying to do, and second I took a photo of one of my quick litter picks on Monday to put onto Twitter under the hashtag of #2minutebeachclean. It’s a wonderful idea, literally just spend two minutes picking up litter whilst you’re at the beach (obviously don’t add any litter to the beach during your visit!). Imagine if all the visitors did that … *dreams happily of litter-free beaches*.

Why bother though? Well! As previously mentioned, litter is awful for wildlife. It gets eaten and kills a variety of animals – including beautiful albatrosses and turtles. Even degraded plastic is not safe – it turns into microplastics and ends up in the food chain (and likely in your seafood)! Plus, litter is an eyesore, and by picking it up, perhaps you’ll inspire others to pick up litter too and soon your local area will be litter-free! Hooray!

So next time you’re out and about, do pick up some litter!

Ok, now back to wildlife. Whilst litter picking, I could see some Terns about on the Fleet. I’m still not 100% sure I have seen a Little Tern (Sternula albifrons), so won’t tick that species off for 2015 just yet. However, there were plenty of Sandwich Terns (Sterna sandvicensis) diving for food. I also managed to take a rather blurry photo of Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator). Another aim for my time here – get some better photos of that species?

I also spent time over at Lorton Meadows as expected, trying to learn a bit more about the reserve – both its history and wildlife. There’s a wonderful variety of wildflowers and insects (as well as birds of course – oh, if you don’t know of the Kestrel Webcam, go watch! I warn you though, it’s quite addictive!), and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all changes across the seasons. Fingers crossed, I’ll be allowed to do some moth trapping there as well!

I won’t keep you much longer, I just want to show off a couple of the moths that I caught in the garden this week – before it started raining at the end of the week. My catches included a particular beauty called the Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria) whose wing patterning is beautiful I think. I tweeted about this species early in the week, and it seems that others agree with my thoughts, which is marvellous (though not unexpected).

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A Quiet Appreciation For Nature

Now that winter is upon us, I am changing to posting on this blog once a fortnight as I won’t be seeing quite the variety of wildlife that the British summer provides, especially when combined with the increased hours of darkness. Whilst this is saddening in itself, the spare time provided by winter evenings will enable me to sort through various records (moths and otherwise) and submit them to county recorders, catch up on my reading (I’ve got some great magazines and books to sink into), and watch nature documentaries (including catching up on the fantastic new Attenborough series).

So the last two weeks – not a great variety of wildlife, and not too much different from my last blog post. I spent the weekend up at Gilfach Nature Reserve again, becoming mesmerised by the waterfall until being dislodged from my daydreams by the sudden flash of salmon leaping out of the water.

My first new species of this blog post is the Western Conifer Seed Bug, Leptoglossus occidentalis. An interesting insect, but not a good one to find as it is an invasive species, originally from America, imported to Europe on timber. As an invasive, there is a recording scheme in place, so if you spot one, do let the scheme know! When I saw it, it was actually on the sleeve of a visitor to the centre, and I initially thought that it may have been a type of shieldbug. However, as soon as I saw it, I knew that it was the Western Conifer Seed Bug despite never finding this species before. This is because I had seen photos of it in a couple of the insect-related Facebook groups that I’m part of. Social media is very useful sometimes.

I should add, my finding of this insect caused much excitement when I got back to the office. One of my colleagues is the invertebrate county recorder, and it turns out that there have been only 4 other recordings of this species in the vice-county, AND he had never seen one. So he was thrilled when I turned up with my specimen.

Western Conifer Seed Bug

Western Conifer Seed Bug

Naturally, I also put out the moth trap overnight. I didn’t quite catch the ridiculous number (61!!!) of December Moths that I caught the weekend before – but still a decent number at 14. I took this opportunity of calm weather to hold up one of the December Moths up against the light. You can see it in the middle of the photos below, showing the translucence of its wing. I also caught a new species for me – the Mottled Umber Moth, and another species that I had seen before but not caught myself, the Satellite moth.

This weekend, I decided that I’d not seen enough birds recently so headed over to RSPB’s Ynys-hir Nature Reserve. Whilst I didn’t see anything particularly spectacular, I had such a lovely afternoon, which is what the title of this blog post relates to. I had a relaxed walk around part of the reserve, all in beautiful light. I took the time to appreciate some of our more normal birds, watching and photographing a robin and a blackbird for a while.

Further down the reserve, I spend some time sitting a couple of the hides looking out across the landscape. It was stunning and a calming way to spend a couple of hours.

Upon spotting water, I immediately thought otter and started looking for spraint. Remembering that they spraint in obvious spots, I searched the mounds of grass and soon found some. Of course, I had to double-check so got my nose in close for a good whiff. Definitely otter! Naturally this was the point at which another person appeared in view, I felt I needed to explain what I was up to! I also saw two new bird species for me – Lapwing and Barnacle Goose, as well as Oystercatcher, Meadow Pipit and more.

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A visit to heaven, and a busman’s holiday.

You may be quite intrigued by the title of the blog post, but you’ll have to wait a little bit longer to find out what it applies to. A clue though, it is to do with my weekend off. To start off with, I shall fill you in on my working week.

There has been a lot of office work this week – I’m creating a large spreadsheet from scratch, with thousands of entries, so that’s taking up a lot of my time. I can’t say it is the most exciting of work, but the spreadsheet will be very useful once it is in existence, and I’m coming across a variety of scientific names which amuse me – one of my favourites so far as been Veronica beccabunga, which is a plant called Brooklime. I often listen to the radio whilst typing as well, need to catch up on my favourite BBC Radio 4 comedy!

 

Thursday saw 60-ish local primary school children descend upon Gilfach Reserve for an organised day of environmental education, organised by the Radnorshire Outdoor Learning Network Group. It was a fantastic day where the children and teachers tried out a range of cool activities, including my favourite of river dipping! I reckon it’s my favourite because (a) you get to wear wellies, and wellies are awesome, (b) the children are discovering what is literally a whole new world – minibeasts underwater, where they can learn all about the fascinating adaptations, (c) it’s pretty much always lovely down by a pond or river, (d) more reasons that I can’t think of right now. You can find out more information about the great day we had over at RWT’s Facebook page.

Now onto the title of this blog post. This weekend I’ve had one of the ‘parentals’ visiting and on Saturday we took a little trip over to somewhere that is heavenly for the both of us – a town FULL of bookshops, antiques, charity shops (with more books!), boutique shops and a fabulous stationery shop. Can you guess where I’m talking about? If you guessed at Hay-On-Wye, aka the “town of books”, then you would be 100% correct, well done! Now I know this has little to do with nature, however I just had to include it in this blog post as I had so much fun there! I managed to resist buying too much, and it was lovely to have a potter around looking in all the shops and admiring the books (something I do often as a bookworm).

Sunday was spent on a busman’s holiday as we went over to Gilfach Reserve, and what a perfect day we chose for it! It was gorgeously sunny with just a touch of a breeze. It was great fun to introduce my mum to somewhere I loved – her first word when we entered the reserve was “Wow!”. NB: Gilfach does look absolutely stunning in autumn! She comments that it does feel like stepping back in time – very much in keeping with “the farm that time forgot”, and pleasingly (for me) that “there was more to the visitor centre than I expected”. We had a very relaxing time visiting all my favourite spots on the reserve – one of the fields near the visitor centre, the waterfall and the picnic benches at Pont Marteg (near the entrance to the reserve). We listened to the birds, admired the rushing waters and peered at interesting insects.

We then proceeded on to somewhere I had heard much about, but hadn’t got round to visit, the Elan Valley. What a fabulous spot, and we had both completely underestimated how the expanse of the valley – it is HUGE! As I asked at one point, “How many dams [and reservoirs] are there?!” I was rather pleased as I managed to score a moth record in a new location, a Canary-shouldered Thorn resting in a corner of the visitor centre. I believe the visitor centre staff/volunteer were rather bemused by my enthusiasm for the moth, but then, it is one of my favourites as it is a great example of how moths can be just as pretty as butterflies!

Being the stereotypical enthusiast that I am, I was soon pointing out the ID features of various wildlife to my mum (including the former insects), particularly discussing the trees by the dam. Below are two features of one tree, an Ash tree, which was one of the first trees that I learnt to identify – back when I was volunteering/working at ZSL London Zoo (Ash can be used as food / enrichment for a range of animals including giraffes). The two features I remember most are the leaves and the buds.

  • LEAVES: The leaves you see on a stem are actually called leaflets, and are in pairs with an odd one on the end. The leaflets are pointed and slightly toothed.
  • BUDS: The buds are rather distinctive, they are black and quite ‘velvety’ in in appearance (in the photo below, you can just about make out the black buds).

Having had a yummy lunch at the Elan Valley visitor centre, we decided to squeeze in some more food with tea and cake at the Penbont House Tea Rooms, and I’m very glad we did. First, it was very yummy. Second, it was very quaint with cute china. Third, it has a fantastic view looking out from the Tea Rooms. Fourth, we loved watching the cheeky chickens looking for crumbs. Fifth, I had a very close encounter with a chaffinch who evidently didn’t realise I was there and came to less than a foot away from me! It was great because he was obviously looking at me, but hadn’t realised that I was not just a new part of the furniture! I am gutted that I didn’t have my camera out, but I didn’t dare try because I didn’t want to scare him off!

Last but not least, I finally stopped off on the route back from Rhayader to take a photo of the wooden sculpture on the side of the busy road. A brilliant celebration of local wildlife – an otter chasing salmon.

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Wildlife despite office days

Aye, I know, it’s a Monday and I’m posting now instead of a Sunday. But I’d worked all day on the Sunday at a food fair (more later), having camped overnight (therefore an early wake-up) and finishing with a 3-ish hour long drive back to Dorset. Thus I got home and collapsed.

In all honesty, my last week hasn’t been as jam-packed as most of my traineeship has been so far. I begun the week helping the Lorton Conservation Officer with a school group on a river in Dorchester, specifically I was helping with the kick sampling part to find the invertebrates living in the river. We found a nice variety, including a few different types of mayfly nymphs – squat, burrowing, swimming and I think flattened as well! Unfortunately no photos as I was too busy in the river!

The rest of the week was pretty much all in the office. A lot of the work I do means sitting at a computer for a long time, or on the phone! I escaped to Portland one evening and went for a walk on Broadcroft Quarry. There were a few different species of butterflies about – Marbled White, Ringlet, Small Skipper, Large Skipper and a few blues. I also saw some bunnies (musn’t say the R-word on Portland!), and managed to get a decent photo of a Whitethroat (bird)!

Another trip to Surrey saw me being roped into helping my partner’s relatives at a food fair. It was being held at Priory Farm and had a range of local producers. We were selling Yum Cha iced tea, and it was actually very enjoyable. Being in community engagement anyway, I do enjoy interacting with people. Plus I love the iced tea (sour plum flavour is lush – drinking it as I write this post!) so it was quite easy to be enthusiastic about it.

NB: Don’t you just love my scarf here? It was a gift – probably one of the best presents I’ve ever had!

And that’s my week! Like I said, not overly busy wildlife-wise but I got lots done in the office so its swings and roundabouts. Oh, before I forget, I did get featured in the local newspaper, Dorset Echo, for the bird ringing that I helped with a couple of weeks ago. A bit of promotion from last time I was in there – this time I got a photo AND a quote!

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/features/echo_country/11296267.Bird_ringers_make_first_trip_on_Portland/

With a GBB Gull chick

With a GBB Gull chick

I’ll take this opportunity to bring your attention to my favourite wildlife app – iRecord Ladybirds. It’s part of the UK Ladybird Survey, run by Dr Helen Roy of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. I particularly like this app as you can compare your photo of the ladybird to images on the app, and compare them side by side, which is so useful! As part of the record, you fill in all the usual details – location (can be done by GPS), habitat (options available), number seen, etc.

Ladybird in Wareham

Ladybird in Wareham

Best of all – it’s FREE! I may have graduated but I’m still in student mode and enjoy free things! It’s available on both Apple and Android systems. It’s so easy to do, so I thoroughly recommend it!

I’m also investigating other wildlife apps, so do comment if you do / don’t want me to discuss them on my blog!

 

 

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One twitch does not a twitcher make (but it’s a good start)

I’ve seen a lovely variety of wildlife in the last fortnight, so I’ll just have to pick out the best ones for now. Beginning with some moth trapping in my hometown of big old London City, albeit actually in the suburbs. There were some beautiful individuals caught, one of which I’d been hoping to catch for a while – the Brimstone Moth.

Brimstone Moth

Brimstone Moth

Isn’t it fab? To me, it is one of the best examples of how moths can be cool and not brown / dull / boring as most people think. Take this description: a delicate insect with large fluttering yellow wings. Many would think of a butterfly – a Clouded Yellow perhaps? But I was just trying to describe the moth. Like I said, moths can be as cool and as pretty as butterflies. I’d even go so far to say that perhaps they’re even cooler.

Small Magpie Moth (actually a micro)

Small Magpie Moth (actually a micro)

Moving on from moths to another group of beautiful insects – damselflies. On a riverside walk in Surrey (oh yeh, I went to Surrey after London), I came across a whole cloud of them and could see that there were four different patterns on the damselflies. With this prompt, I found my notes and did some identification. It turned out that the cloud consisted of two species – Banded Demoiselle and Beautiful Demoiselle, with the males and females of both.

Female Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly

Female Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly

Male Banded Demoiselle Damselfly

Male Banded Demoiselle Damselfly

Back in Portland (Dorset), I was having a nice week. Albeit that the weather was a bit grim and I couldn’t put out the moth trap which is always a shame. On a mixed weather day, someone brought a moth into the centre which naturally cheered me up. It was the first of the species that I’ve seen in a Dorset – a Cream-spot Tiger Moth. However, I had actually seen this species before but in larvae form (i.e. caterpillar) all the way back in March! 

Cream-spot Tiger Moth

Cream-spot Tiger Moth

Away from the insects and into the birding world. And not just birding … this week saw me edge into the somewhat more nerdy side of birdwatching – twitching! This is when someone travels a distance to see a particular bird and to add it to their list. For me, this was my first proper twitch, I normally just enjoy watching birds.

I decided to go for this twitch because 1) it was less than an hour away, 2) it was a bird that is very rarely seen in the UK and 3) it was an awesome bird – an eagle! More specifically a Short-toed Snake Eagle who is usually found in southwest Europe and western Europe up to the Gulf of Finland / northwest Africa / central Asia. According to ARKive, the western populations are migratory, so perhaps this is one that got blown off-course?

Short-toed Snake Eagle

Short-toed Snake Eagle

I took an awful blurry photo by taking a photo with my phone through a telescope (known as digiscoping). But thanks to an editing program, I managed to change the lighting a bit so you can actually spot it in the photo. I’d say that I’m not going to turn into a twitcher, but I can’t promise anything, there may be another cool bird that is worth travelling to see!

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No clever title, just a lovely week

There was a delay on this blog post as I was out late Sunday night on a brilliant evening of birding, but I shall come to that in due course.

As the week started with birds, the week also began with birds as I visited the Abbotsbury Swannery this week. It’s a lovely place, the only managed colony of nesting mute swans in the world – they even have a swanherd! It is at the opposite end of the Fleet to the Chesil Centre, and there are hundreds of swans who nest there.

Nesting swans

Nesting swans

That in itself is amazing as they’re very territorial creatures, so the fact that they can nest in such close proximity to each other is pretty awesome. As is the fact that you can walk through the colony without stressing them out (obviously common sense dictates and you mustn’t go too close to the swans or their nest, because that would cause stress!).

Amongst the reeds

Amongst the reeds

Whilst wandering around the swannery, I got a new tick – both for my Dorset birds list and for the birds I’ve ever seen … well, heard. It was a reed warbler, very exciting to hear.

I was back at the swannery later in the week where I saw another waterbird that I love. Specifically the chicks of a waterbird – moorhen chicks! They are just balls of complete fluff and incredibly cute.

Moorhen chick

Moorhen chick

The week saw the second session of the moth ID workshop, this one lasted at least three hours! And it was great, so many new species!

Coxcomb Prominent Moth

Coxcomb Prominent Moth

On Sunday, I spent the afternoon being crafty at the Chesil Centre, having spent some time trying to find some really fun arty crafty activities. A couple of my favourites were the jellyfish in a bottle and the cardboard octopus. I made an octopus, which was super cute, for one of the other trainees who had a birthday recently.

Octopus!

Octopus!

The evening saw my week end with birds on the Lulworth Ranges with Steve Hales, a local birdringer. It’s an amazing place, full of fabulous habitat and special species. We went there to mistnet and ring a couple of specific species, but unfortunately the birdringing session turned into a birdwatching session. Mind you, I still saw the birds – three new species for myself and some practice ID on other species. The new ones were: woodlark, Dartford warbler and nightjar. Plus I saw some bats on the drive back, thought to be pipestrelles.

As I didn’t get photos of the birds at the ranges, or the bats on the way home, I thought I would add in a photo of a fluffy lamb at the swannery.

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Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

The first fortnight of living in Dorset is now complete! I’ve been getting to know the local area, particularly the location of nearby reserves and of course, the public library – always important for a bookworm with limited funds!

The reason for moving to Dorset? A traineeship position with the Dorset Wildlife Trust, on the Skills for the Future programme (funded by the Heritage Lottery), for which I will be based at The Fine Foundation Chesil Beach Centre. Naturally the first few days consisted of the induction.

Along with the obligatory paperwork, our manager introduced us to an activity new to us all – The Tree Of Life. The idea is that you draw out a tree and write in different sections of it. The roots are your past – what your background is and your experiences; the trunk is who you are as a person – i.e. your personality; and the branches are your interests and aspirations – hobbies and hopes for the future.  I actually really liked this activity, it’s a great and quick way to learn where other people have come from, and of common interests that might otherwise take quite a few conversations to find out. I may just try it out with the Girl Guiding groups.

My Tree Of Life

My Tree Of Life

Our second day, we went shopping for necessities – waterproofs and wellies! After which we headed over to The Kingcombe Centre and more reading of the paperwork ensued. Of course I was paying attention, but I was getting slightly possibly distracted by the incredibly busy bird feeders outside. I think I counted twelve species in total, including two new ones that I’d never even seen before: marsh tit and long-tailed tit.

The new S4F trainees after our shopping trip! (I'm the tiny one on the right) Photo by Steve Davis

The new S4F trainees after our shopping trip! (I’m the tiny one on the right)
Photo by Steve Davis

A Marsh Tit

A Marsh Tit

Long-tailed Tit (and a Blue Tit)

Long-tailed Tit (and a Blue Tit)

A guided walk followed where we saw the recent hedgelaying work, an interesting fungus (King Albert’s Cakes Fungus, which can apparently be used as a firelighter?) and quite a few snowdrops (attempted species identification is occurring). The walk also revealed something amazing for us all – it seemed that we had magic wellies, highly repellent to water and mud! We went on an extremely muddy walk and managed to came back with amazingly clean wellies!

My first day away from the other S4F trainees begun at RSPB Radipole where I attended a session on  the identification, and ageing, of local gull species. Although I feel I understood the different ID features at the time, I’m pretty sure that my understanding has since lessened despite rereading my notes. I’m going to need to put it into practice so I am comfortable doing so at Chesil / The Fleet.

Black-headed Gull (I think ...)

Black-headed Gull (I think …)

During the remaining week and a half, I’ve managed to visit DWT’s Lorton Meadows (where I saw three roe deer!), started a beginner’s birdwatching course (RSPB Radipole), looked round a couple of visitors’ centres including Durlston Castle, and passed a Emergency First Aid at Work session. All during training time!

A Roe Deer (again I think, never seen one before!)

A Roe Deer (again I think, never seen one before!)

I was also given a day to explore the area around the Chesil Centre, which was fab! It was just after one of the storms so I found plenty washed up – some pink seafan, a couple of starfish and a dead dogfish. I also met Steve Trewhella, a local conservationist who had found a log covered in goose barnacles, and hiding away in the cracks of the log were a couple Columbus crabs! Now this is pretty cool stuff as they’re usually found over in the Caribbean so they’ve been on an incredible journey! You can read more about them on Steve’s blog.

A Columbus Crab

A Columbus Crab

Outside of training, I had the chance to meet up with the Dorset Mammal Group at their social event. Major thanks to the Chairlady, Suzy Varndell, for introducing a very nervous me to people. After hearing from the different sections of the group, we put our quiz hats on – my team (The Red Squirrel) came fourth out of five! Rather proud of us as there was fierce competition for sure!

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Still Falling sculpture

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Hearth sculpture

This weekend saw me venture out into the sunlight – a rare occurrence since I’ve moved here! I headed up the hill to the top of Portland to visit Tout Quarry, a DWT reserve. A great spot for seeing butterflies … in spring and summer. However I had a lovely wander round looking at the sculptures and admiring the view. I saw a few birds, plenty of robins and gulls, and also heard a great tit. Possibly a kestrel but it was very quick. I definitely saw a butterfly, however it was a distance away so I didn’t get to identify it. Oh well, next time!

Told you, stunning view!

Told you, stunning view!

Apologies for the small essay – the home internet died last weekend so I couldn’t post, and you get two weeks worth in one post!

To make up for it, here are some pretty photos I’ve taken.

The nearest coastal view, jealous?

The nearest coastal view, jealous?

Pretty waves! In the sunshine, but ridiculously windy!

Pretty waves! In the sunshine, but ridiculously windy!

Looking back to the 'mainland'

Looking back to the ‘mainland’

*In other news, I also decided on a new challenge (an extra to the general learning of birds, moths and marine wildlife) – visiting all of the DWT reserves, which you can follow at this page.

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Sleeping, watching TV, baking … wait no, ecology things!

I was very fortunate to spend a week in Yorkshire recently. Less fortunately, it was during a week of almost-constant rain. I took this as a splendid opportunity to relax. I did some nature-related bits: catching up on BBC’s Winterwatch and rereading some BBC Wildlife Magazines. However I will admit to sleeping quite a bit, watching some rubbish TV and baking some very yummy scones (I used the Taste*Chesil scone recipe and thoroughly recommend it).

Obviously, I couldn’t spend a week in Yorkshire and not go out for an adventure, even with such weather. On a precipitation-free morning, I headed over to a nearby reserve, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust owned Leyburn Old Glebe reserve. Having done some prior reading on it, I wasn’t expecting much at this time of year. It is a traditionally managed hay meadow, known for its rich variety of wildflowers – and plants in general, over 80 species have been recorded here recently, with 11 different species of grass! (I must admit, I didn’t even know there were that many British grass species!) Despite the lack of flowering plants, I still had a nice walk around. The views are lovely as the meadow is located on a small hill overlooking the River Ure.

The River Ure (taken from roadside)

The River Ure by Leyburn Old Glebe (taken from roadside)

I was very impressed by the number of mole hills in the field, always a positive in my book. I’ve only ever seen a mole once, and it was unfortunately dead. I now regret not keeping it and trying to get the bones from it, but you learn from your mistakes I suppose.

Talking of dead things, I actually found the remains of two dead animals in the field. First, half of a dead bird, which I think was a pheasant. It was rather grisly and lacking a skull (damn, I do love a good skull), but I still poked at it and took photos of course.

Half a dead bird, with a lovely view behind

Half a dead bird, with a lovely view behind

I then found the remains of something else, bits of fur and bones spread out. No upper skull remaining, but there were two lower jaw bones which looked rather like they were Rodentia in origin.

The remains scattered about

The remains scattered about

Pelvis bone

Pelvis bone

Lower jaw bones - the most caudal section (rostral?) came apart so not sure how far into the jaw it slides.

Lower jaw bones – the most caudal section (rostral?) came apart so not sure how far into the jaw it slides.

Lower jawbone, minus one tooth at the caudal end. Additionally, they all fell out but I think/hope I've put them back in the right order

Lower jawbone, minus one tooth at the caudal end. Additionally, they all fell out but I think/hope I’ve put them back in the right order

Any guesses for animal of origin? I’m going to hazard a guess at rabbit, but I’ve never seen a rabbit skeleton so taking a guess from images on the internet. If you know the correct answer, please let me know!

So although I know little of plants (something I am hoping to address) and there were no flowers out to appreciate, I still had a fab time at this reserve. I know that I’ll definitely be back when I visit Yorkshire in spring and summer, and I’ll take a plant guide with me then!

A somewhat old rosehip, with the reserve's small stream in the background

A somewhat old rosehip, with the reserve’s small stream in the background

Talking of which, I headed back to where I was staying and saw my first snowdrops of the year!

Snowdrop!

Snowdrop!

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A Walk In The Woods

Festive tradition saw my family and I taking a lovely walk, in an attempt to wear off some of the calories we had piled on during the gluttony that is Christmas. Past walks, dependent on the Christmas have been along Hertfordshire fields, up onto the South Downs, the Newhaven coastline and over the pebbles of Seaford beach. This year saw us in Sussex again where we went off to someone new – Selwyns Wood, a Wildlife Trust reserve not far from Uckfield.

Naturally, we needed a few days to wallow in our self-pity from eating so much, but soon enough we were entering the wooded and muddy reserve. Luck was on our side as we strolled in the warm sunshine, discussing how I might improve my photography and laughing at our dog’s antics.

A pretty start to our walk!

A pretty start to our walk!

I don’t think I’ve mentioned the dog before on this blog – a gorgeous black and white Lab-Collie cross called Toby. For him, a walk is not complete until two events have occurred. First, he has met at least one other friendly dog, though it need not be a playful one but he does like to be sociable and say hello. Since at home, he is often taken for walks with family friends and their dogs, that event is easily ticked off. Second, he does love to go into a river, or lacking that, a large puddle. He can’t swim mind, but he does like to jump about and then run around like a mad puppy after.

The handsome Toby

The handsome Toby

Fortunately, we met some friendly dogs, and there was a stream for him to paddle in before leaping out and barking at us. There was plenty of wildlife to take notice of as well, smaller birds flitting in and out of the trees. A walk across the heathland part of the reserve prompted discussions on the different plant species, with my attempting to remember the little I know about heathland plants. The gorse flowers were a sight for sore eyes, a bright yellow colour shining in the sunlight amid the green of the gorse.

Bright yellow makes the day feel even sunnier

Bright yellow makes the day feel even sunnier

The muddiness and puddles of the paths did little to deter us, rather instead they made it more enjoyable I think. I do always enjoy a good splashabout in my wellies, particularly when the dog joins in. One highlight of the walk were the two woodpeckers of unknown species. Naturally, they were either flying or on the opposite side of branches, so I failed in getting a photo. I shall just have to take more walks in woodland. We also came across a few types of fungus and spotted some pretty berries which made some nice photos.

Fungi!

Fungi!

A lovely spot of colour

A lovely spot of colour

A great finish to our outing was a rather late pub lunch – superb food and atmosphere! And a well-behaved dog, even when the horses went past!

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