Birds Archives - Page 4 of 5

Adventures, Community Engagement, Gilfach Nature Reserve, Moths, Wildlife

A Weekend of Firsts

This weekend has been one of those really great couple of days, there’s been fantastic wildlife, half-decent weather and some lovely people (and dogs). I spent it working up at Gilfach – the visitor centre is opened up at the weekends when the salmon are leaping so that people can warm themselves up after watching out for them. On either side of manning the centre, I went down to the viewing platform to see if I could see the salmon myself, and I did indeed! There were some impressive leaps, it’s really quite spectacular. I only got one photo, it is really blurry!

Watching the salmon is quite funny, there’s a little bit of a trick to it. You need to be really patient – they’re typical wildlife in that they make you wait around a bit. And since it’s mid-November, it’s important to layer up so that you don’t get cold. Then it’s a case of just watching the falls. I find myself getting quite mesmerized, going into a bit of a trance. Normally, I’m in the middle of daydreaming, when suddenly a salmon leaps and I get startled, almost like I’ve forgotten why I was there!

A very blurry salmon

I commented to someone there, that it is a bit like cheering on someone in a race, because you’re going “oooh, go on, you can do it!!”, but they don’t always make it and sometimes end up being washed downstream again. I honestly don’t know how they do it, the water is really flowing fast down the River Marteg, crashing down over and between the rocks. It’s not quite loud enough to drown out your thoughts, but it isn’t far off!

My commute in this morning was intriguing, it felt a bit like the valley was on fire – the trees were yellow / orange / red in colour, and the mist was down across valleys. The photo below is at Gilfach, when the mist has lifted a bit, and the trees aren’t so bright, but you get the gist. Whilst driving through the reserve, I also saw a Green Woodpecker which was fantastic. I’ve seen Greater Spotted Woodpecker, but I’m not sure if I’ve actually seen a Green before. But now I can definitely say I have!

With spending two days in a row at the reserve, I was not going to miss the chance to put my moth trap out! I put out the work one, which has a MV (Mercury Vapour) bulb (i.e. really bright). I wasn’t expecting too much, it was a bit chilly overnight and it’s quite late in the season. I was thinking maybe between 5-10 individuals, from maybe 2 or 3 species. Boy was I surprised when I open up my moth trap, it was one of my highest catches for individuals. Better yet, there were 4 new species for me – December Moth (P.populi), Winter Moth (O.brumata), Red-green Carpet (C.siterata) and Scarce Umber (A.aurantiaria).

: Scarce Umber

: Red-green Carpet

: Winter Moth

Even more exciting, the number of December moths was really rather extraordinary! I counted at least 61 individuals, and talking to a few moth-ers, anecdotal records seems to be that only a few are caught usually. So 61 does seem pretty amazing! I’m hoping to get in touch with Butterfly Conservation and find out what the highest amount of these moths caught in one night is, maybe I have a new record (unlikely, exciting stuff like that doesn’t happen for me!).

: A group of four chilling out

: These two having a natter

: Fantastic patterning

: Look at its fluffy legs!!

: Look at how feathery its antenna is!

: Are these two having sex?!

Talking of species, I’m thinking of becoming a pan-species lister. This involves keeping a record of EVERY species that I see in the UK (there are a few rules, but it’s not strict and people can pick and choose which ones they follow). I’m probably quite low in numbers currently, because I’ve not been keeping exact records for most things (particularly botanical!), so I will probably have seen more than my total will add up to.

November 16, 2014/2,315 Comments/by mgshersby

Adventures, Bones, Moths

Life is like … buses?

Sometimes we describe things like buses, you wait ages and then three (or more!) come along at once! That is just what happened with me recently – I hadn’t blogged for a couple of weeks as not much wildlife had been seen and I had no activities worth reporting either. Then this week, lots happened and I’m worrying that this blog post may end up being too long!

The week began with one of my favourite activities – moth trapping! I haven’t put my moth trap out much recently because of the weather but the end of last week was relatively mild so I decided to give it a go and hope for the best. I caught some great moths such as Feathered Thorn and Green-brindled Crescent. I also caught four Merveille Du Jour which was pretty awesome because (1) it always seem to cause excitement on Fb/Twitter, (2) the invert (but not moths) county recorder had never seen one but I’d just seen four in two nights, (3) it is a real stunner in terms of its patterning and colouration, and (4) it has a fantastic name!

: Sprawler moth

: Merveille Du Jour Moth

The middle of the week saw me trekking over to Aberystwyth where I’d been invited to give a guest lecture to third year undergraduates on my personal experience of using Twitter and blogging in science communication. It was really good fun and a great experience, but also very nerve-wracking! I got positive feedback from the lecturer and some students, apparently it was an enjoyable lecture so whoo go me! I also met a fellow moth-er (i.e. someone who traps and identifies moths) so that was nice.

I was also doing some work towards my secret upcoming project (it is getting close to being revealed!), which involved popping into the museum. This was so exciting as I hadn’t actually seen the museum when I was studying there as an undergraduate – it was so thrilling that I even took a selfie which is incredibly rare for me! I also took a photo of Barcode with a platpus skeleton as I was surprised at how small the playpus is! In my imagination it was much large – pine marten size roughly! But actually it’s pretty small!

: A rare selfie

: Barcode is confused

Thursday had even more excitement as Dr Rhys Jones (from the TV!) was visiting Radnorshire Wildlife Trust to give the Memorial Barnes Lecture. He spoke about his experiences with wildlife, and it was really inspiring to hear how he’d overcome various challenges – both personal and wildlife crime related. If you get the chance to hear him speak, don’t miss on it!

At the weekend, I did the typical thing that a passionate conservationist does on their day off – I did more wildlife / conservation related activity! In this case it was a workshop run by the MISE project / Vincent Wildlife Trust on otter dietary analysis – i.e. taking apart their spraint (aka faeces) to look at what they have been eating. It was really good fun, though quite difficult as deciding which vertebra belongs to which species of fish is rather mind-boggling!

However, it isn’t always just fish bones. There can be amphibian bones, the occasional small mammal or bird bones, and even unexpected objects. One of the spraints I was analysing had some snail shells in it! And a tiny crab claw! For the latter, I don’t think the otter actually ate this tiny crab, but rather it ate a fish who had eaten a crab. As for the snails, it may also be the same reason.

: Tiny crab claw! And some snail shells?

: Caudal vertebra of a fish

On a separate note, the workshop was being held at a Field Studies Council centre in Pembrokeshire – Orielton. I’ve actually visited the centre before, roughly 7ish years ago, on a school biology field trip. It was nice to visit again, though slightly odd because somehow I staying in exactly the same room as before! How does that even happen?

We took a break from peering down microscopes and headed out to Bosherton Lily Ponds / Stackpole. We found some relatively fresh spraint, though the one in the photo is not the freshest. The beach is also lovely if you do go down there. Plus on the walk back, we met a really relaxed robin who actually fed from my hand! I didn’t manage to get a photo of it doing so, but I did get a cute photo if it nonetheless.

: In situ spraint!

: Beautiful beach

: Very friendly robin

Last but not least, I also saw a cute ladybird (species: Orange Ladybird), who landed on my hand briefly.

: Ladybird!

October 26, 2014/1 Comment/by mgshersby

Adventures, Gilfach Nature Reserve, Moths, Wildlife

Interesting inverts

This week I’ve been amazed by the variety of wildlife – notably the terrestrial invertebrates. As this year has progressed, I have found that I am getting really intrigued by inverts, especially insects! The range of shapes, sizes, colours and so on – and even just in one group (such as my favourite group, the moths!).

Below are some of the moths I’ve caught this weekend, whilst not showing the extremes in the range of shapes and so on, they are all lovely moths I think – I can’t decide which one I like the most! Naturally all of the species has been noted down and will be sent to the county recorders.

: Oak Lutestring (C.diluta)

: Iron Prominent (N.dromedarius)

: Dusky Thorn (E.fuscantaria)

A highlight of the week was discovering a new and slightly weird fly. It’s called a Giant Tachinid Fly (Tachina grossa), which lays its eggs in the caterpillars of moths (usually big hairy caterpillars such as the Oak Eggar Moth Caterpillar). When the young hatch, they then eat the caterpillar! Gross but fascinating! The fly itself also looks pretty odd, I don’t know if the photo below shows just how big it is. It was the size of a stereotypical bumblebee, absolutely huge and really loud when buzzing about!

Giant Tachinid Fly (T.grossa)

I also got out onto the reserve a bit more this week, enjoying the views in the sunshine and looking for butterflies. I’ve realised that none of my previous blog posts actually featured any photos of the reserve, so here are a few to make up for that:

What else has happened this week? I went off to a Field Studies Council – Preston Montford in Shropshire, to learn about spiders and harvestmen. It was a great day, though I’m a little overwhelmed at the identification of them! I did get a free spi-pot where you’re able to immobilise the spider / harvestmen without harming them, so it’s possible to get a really good look at them and their anatomy.

: Collecting spiders

: Spider in a spi-pot just before immobilisation

As mentioned before, I went looking for butterflies on the reserve and saw Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Small Copper. I also took some photos of wildflowers to practice my wildflower ID. Whilst out, I also saw a number of cool fungi, but I don’t know fungus identification at all I’m afraid.

: Harebell (C.rotundifolia)

: Tormentil (P.erecta)

: Betony (S.officinalis)

: Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly (A.urticae)

: Small Copper Butterfly (L.phlaeas)

: Unknown fungus

And then, saving one of the best parts of the week until last, whilst I was out on this reserve adventure, I saw a woodpecker! Unfortunately it wasn’t being very obliging for taking photographs, but I don’t mind too much, I saw a woodpecker!

Woodpecker!

September 1, 2014/2 Comments/by mgshersby

Adventures, Moths, S4F Traineeship

If I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost.

I came across the above quote when trying to decide on the post title (when tired, my brain can’t think of quotes so I resort to the internet). It’s by Van Gogh, and I’d say it is very true here. I love searching out new wildlife and / or new information, and to no longer do so would mean that I would no longer be me (and thus, I would be lost). The past week has been no exception – I’ve been to new places, seen new species and met new people, so safe to say that I’m still myself!

But before that, I managed to forget an important photo from last week’s blog post – a rare photo of myself!

With a GBB Gull chick

I was extremely excited about Tuesday’s adventure as we were out looking for dormice (also bats and veteran trees, but they’re not as cute and fluffy as dormice!). Unfortunately nobody told the dormice I was excited to meet them as we had a grand total of zero in the nestboxes. Oh well, I’ve met some before. We did see plenty of other interesting wildlife as we were on a lovely reserve called Kilwood Reserve.

: A very impressive tree

: Wild strawberries! Very yummy

: Sarah doing some tree worshipping

: Chloe explores the undergrowth

: Stinking Iris

: More tree admiring

After the woodland adventures, I was off another trip to Surrey. My last foray there saw me getting excited about damselflies, and rightly so because they’re stunning insects by anyone’s measurement. This trip also included some amazing wildlife – the damselflies again, but also some bees (always good to see), orchids and a new species of butterfly for me, what I believe is a Dark Green Fritilliary!

: Underside of wings of the Dark Green Fritillary

: A Dark Green Fritillary

: A Meadow Brown butterfly

And of course, I cannot miss out one of the best wildlife sights of my visit – a dunnock nest hidden away within the vines on the farm!

Dunnock chicks

Back in Dorset, the latter half of the week was a whirlwind of excitement. Beginning with a walk with my traineeship mentor, Emily Brown, on Chesil Beach and Hamm Beach to practice some wildflower ID.

: Biting Stonecrop

: Restharrow

Naturally, we also saw a variety of insects, as well as a juvenile Pied Wagtail (one of my favourite birds!)

: Male Common Blue Butterfly

: Juvenile Pied Wagtail

My weekend kicked off in Swanage, where I got to camp on the seafront (practically on the beach itself) before assisting with the Wild About Swanage event. One of my morning assignments was to walk along the beach (sandy beach so I had to be barefoot!), handing out flyers to everyone. I tell you, that was arduous work!

Swanage beach – empty at dusk!

The weekend continue with a joint event between the Dorset Branch of Butterfly Conservation and the Dorset Moth Group, running a moth trap up at Broadcroft Quarry. Again I got to camp (note to self: take an eyemask and earplugs when camping AND moth trapping! [light from the moth trap and noise from the generator!]), which was very exciting – even though I was only a mile or so from where I live. Many thanks to the groups for this event, it was brilliant! Special thanks to Nigel Spring for the barbeque and running the event, and to Sean Foote and Jack Oughton for doing most of the identification.

As expected, we caught a great variety of moths and I have to admit that I have probably forgotten the names of most of them by now!

: Small Elephant Hawkmoth

: Garden Tiger Moth

There were many many Six-spot Burnet moths flying about as well, I actually found these two in the act!

Six-spot Burnet Moths

In the morning, we headed out for a wildflower / butterfly walk which, again, saw me coming across new species of butterfly. (to myself, not to science) – Marbled White, Silver-studded Blue, Small Blue and Small Skipper.

: Female Silver-studded Blue Butterfly

: Male Silver-studded Blue Butterfly

: Female Small Blue Butterfly

: Male Small Skipper Butterfly

: Marbled White Butterfly

And as I left Broadcroft Quarry, I saw this beautiful Kestrel hovering and hunting for its dinner.

Hovering Kestrel

NB: You may have noticed that I’ve been playing around with the presentation of photographs, feedback would be appreciated on which style(s) you like!

June 23, 2014/2,315 Comments/by mgshersby

Adventures, Moths, S4F Traineeship

Doing too much cool stuff, as usual!

The week began with a bang, or rather it began with squawking and chirping. I was invited out to the Portland Port breakwaters by Steve Hales who takes me birdringing. The Portland Port Authority and the local birdringers (including Steve) were going out there to ring the chicks of Great Black-backed Gulls (GBBG) – the adults of which are the really big and quite scary-looking gulls.

: Two young chicks, too small to ring

: An adult GBBG

: A clutch of gull eggs

The chicks however are adorable – incredibly fluffy when young, and actually still quite cute as they get older. We could only ring chicks of certain ages, i.e. once they were big enough for the ring not to slip off, and before they got too big to put the (coloured) ring on. Two types of ring were involved – a metal ring and a coloured ring, both used for identification purposes as part of the British Trust for Ornithology‘s (BTO) ringing scheme.

My first ringed bird!

The latter ring could only be put on the older of the chicks we were ringing, and we almost couldn’t put it on a couple of them (the method for putting coloured rings on is different than for metal rings, due to the material of the ring). In total, we ringed 28 GBBG chicks. We also ringed a couple of Herring Gull chicks with metal rings, as they were nesting nearby.

Putting a ring on

So what was the purpose of ringing? By assigning a numbered ring, and thus a specific identification, to each bird, we can keep track of where they are sighted. Through this we can learn more about the different aspects of the bird species – migration patterns, survival rates (both adults and fledgings) and other population information.

I’m very grateful to the birdringers and to the Portland Port Authority for allowing me to go on this trip, it was hugely enjoyable and one of the highlights of my time in Dorset so far.

We saw a range of ages, including chicks that were hatching on the day!

Back at the Chesil Centre, I helped with a couple of school groups that we had in. First assisting with a low tide walk with 30-ish young primary school children, then leading a group myself of 15 children. I always love working with children as they are very enthusiastic about everything (hmm … does that sound rather like someone?), and I believe it is important to get children interested in wildlife whilst they’re young. Even if they don’t become scientists, they will hopefully retain an appreciation of wildlife and that we should conserve it.

My appreciation for wildlife was heightened during a trip on the Fleet Observer, this is a glass-bottomed boat which runs trips on the the Fleet. During this trip, we got great views of the underwater world, the Little Terns and even some hares (my highlight of the trip).

: Chesil Hares!

: Little Egret

: The skipper’s dog, enjoying the ride

I also helped out with a school group up at Lorton Meadows, with one of my favourite activities – pond dipping! I consider this to be one of the best activities to do with children, as ponds are found everywhere (so what they learn will hopefully be remembered easier) and the underwater world is rather mysterious and amazing. We found a variety of creatures including efts (juvenile newts), water boatman and we also saw some dragonflies darting about. After pond dipping, they had a bug hunt in the grasses and caught some interesting insects.

Grasshopper or cricket? I’ve already forgotten how to differentiate!

The week finished off with a dash up to Shropshire for an ecology course. I am taking a few modules every year in ecology with the Lifelong Learning department of Aberystwyth University. Although I have a science degree, it is in a subject that I no longer want to pursue and I want to learn more ecology. So by taking these modules I can gain a wide variety of theory and practical knowledge, and even work towards a Certificate in Field / Conservation Ecology. This module was Ecology 1 – i.e. an introduction to the concepts involved in ecology including nutrient cycles, predator-prey relationships and food webs. Although I remember most of it from school, it was very useful to have it consolidated and drawn together.

: Our carbon cycle, with artistic license.

: I saw a moth! I think it is Silver-ground Carpet

: Discussing different types of soil.

: Lots of cute spiders in the grasses

: Nice feature that I included here for my mum

: A spread-eagled bumblebee

The course location was at Karuna, a gorgeous family project in the Shropshire AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). With a passion for trees, permaculture and Insight Design, this is a fabulous example of how living off the land can be done. Whilst not fully self-sufficient, they’re pretty close and it was fascinating to learn from them during the tour. One of the course members described it as “an oasis of hope”, and I thoroughly agree and hope to return there!

Just a quick note about the course tutor – a brilliant ecologist called Dr Jan Martin who seems to be all-knowledgeable! I really enjoy reading her blog which discusses sustainability, and has a brilliant name; The Snail of Happiness.

I do apologise for the long blog post – I guess I must limit the amount of cool stuff that I do! I shall end with a nice photo of the seal that we saw at the Portland Port breakwater.

Seal at Portland Port breakwater

June 16, 2014/2,315 Comments/by mgshersby

Adventures, Bees, Moths, S4F Traineeship

A bit of everything (well, almost)

I know that every week I say, “Wow, what an amazing and full-on week I’ve had, and I’ve learnt so much!” It just seems to be the nature of this traineeship (and my spare time!) to just be jam-packed with cool wildlife stuff. Despite not being able to top the Short-Toed Eagle from last week, this week has seen a great variety of wildlife in a range of habitats.

It started off with a trip up to Lorton Meadows Nature Reserve, a gorgeous place on the edge of Weymouth. It’s full of interesting wildlife (including a nesting barn owl whose chicks you can watch on a webcam!), but the focus of this trip was the mysterious underwater world as the Chesil Beach Centre volunteers and I were there to do some pond dipping!

A damselfly nymph, Lorton Meadows

Coming up from underwater, I headed over to Fontmell Down Reserve in the north of Dorset for the big staff field trip of Dorset Wildlife Trust. Again, a variety of wildlife but I was particularly interested by the range of wildflowers there. Naturally we also saw some animals, including my favourites – some moths!

A Yellow Shell moth, Fontmell Down

It was great to be out on a new reserve to me, and with knowledgeable people. With so many conservation people in one place, there was always someone on hand to tell you what a species was – and why (i.e. it’s identification features).

A Bee Orchid, Fontmell Down

An excursion to Somerset saw a couple of the trainees learning about bumblebees and how land managers, particularly farmers, can help them – and other pollinators – out. The focus was on field margins, excellent spots for planting wildflowers. Our case study was the Frogmary Green Farm which has made the room for wildflowers, and it had worked as we saw plenty of bumblebees. One species of note was the Tree Bumblebee, and I believe the photo below shows a melanistic Tree Bumblee (i.e. it’s abdomen is black rather than the normal orange).

Melanistic Tree Bumblebee? Somerset

The big event of the week was the Little Tern Fundraising Evening at the Chesil Beach Centre where we were raising money for the Little Terns of Chesil Beach. As the second rarest breeding seabird in the UK, and the only colony of Little Terns in the southwest, this population definitely needs help. Although numbers have gradually increased, support is still needed as the eggs and chicks are so vulnerable to predators.

I still don’t have a decent photo of a Little Tern I’m afraid, so I’ve included a photo of Morgan Vaughan (the current Little Tern Officer) from the evening where he was getting excited about the eggs. You can follow Morgan on Twitter at @Morgan_Vaughan

Morgan talks about Little Tern eggs, Chesil Centre

The weekend began with a trip up to Barton Meadows Farm to learn about butterfly identification with the Dorset Branch of Butterfly Conservation. Although I knew a few species (e.g. Red Admiral / Peacock / Large Skipper), I wanted to know about the key identification features to look for when I see a butterfly. I can say that these are:

Family (e.g. Skippers or Blues)
Flight period
Habitat
Food plants
Behaviour
And last, but most obvious, patterning on wings

After a morning of theory, we put it into practice with a walk in the afternoon sun. We saw 16 butterfly species, as well as a number of moths (including Mother Shipton, Burnet Companion and Cinnabar), beetles and interesting wildflowers. A big thank you to Bill Shreeves and other members of the Dorset Branch for running the day – I know I learnt a lot and hope to get out there more often to get butterfly records!

Theory session. NB: the pinned butterflies are from an old collection donated to the Dorset Branch.

Marsh Fritillary butterfly, Barton Meadows Farm

A female Large Skipper butterfly, Barton Meadows Farm

The evening saw me out birdringing, or should I say birdwatching! With the target species of Cuckoo and Nightjar, we had set up mist nets on the heathland of the Lulworth Ranges. We referring to Steve Hales, Luke Philips and I. One of each of the target species flew into the net, but both promptly flew out again! Very frustrating, but at least I saw both of them – and I saw / heard a number of other birds including Woodlark, Meadow Pipit and Swallows.

I’m new to wildflowers, but thought maybe a Spotted Heath orchid, Lulworth Ranges.

Therein is the end of this week’s roundup, though I will admit to missing some things out – roadside verges surveying, World Oceans Day at the Chesil Beach Centre, my personal moth trapping. But to cover everything would be too much!

June 8, 2014/2,315 Comments/by mgshersby

Adventures, Moths, S4F Traineeship

There’s a snake in my boot!

I lied, there wasn’t a snake in my boot this week … but snakes did feature, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to use this quote from such an epic film (Toy Story in case you didn’t know, but you should know because Toy Story is amazing and everyone has seen it!).

Before the snakes, there were birds. Lots of birds. I was doing a BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) course at the Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve, and it was fab to go out into the countryside with someone who could identify all the birds we could see and hear. The latter is particularly difficult most of the time as although some birds are very distinctive in their call or song, there are many that sound fairly similar. Plus, many have a variety of calls or song, and some birds mimic other species (I’m looking at you Great Tit!).

Blackcap hiding behind branches

All in all, there were: Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit, House Sparrow, Chiff Chaff, Swallow, House Martin, Whitethroat, Blackcap, Wren, Goldcrest, Garden Warbler, Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, Treecreeper, Buzzard and Rook. Another walk after the course had finished saw me adding Greater-spotted Woodpecker, Yellowhammer and Bullfinch to the list.

Bullfinch

I love this photo of a cheeky female House Sparrow in the chicken feed trough at Kingcombe

Reptilian training took place on Upton Heath Nature Reserve with the traineeship manager, and smooth snake / sand lizard licence holder, Steve Davis. It was an epic day – Common Lizard, Sand Lizard, Slow Worm and Smooth Snake were seen, and we got to handle the latter! I was quite nervous because … well, it’s a snake! I was afraid it might bite me, but I was also really nervous about stressing it out or dropping it. Luckily none of that happened, and instead we all marvelled over how cute they are!

Smooth snake, not too sure about having its photo taken!

Male sand lizard soaking up some rays

I also saw some lovely moths (naturally!) including the Common Heath moth of whom I saw both a male and a female! In addition, there were lots of lovely birds about – Stonechat, Linnet, Tree Pipit, Cuckoo and Dartford Warbler.

Common Heath moth (male)

Common Heath moth (female)

The second half of the week saw me back at the Chesil Beach Centre, but I was soon whisked away to do a quick search for a rare moth – the Least Owlet, whose only UK distribution is on Chesil Beach! We were looking for the larvae of this caterpillar, who are quite pedantic about their habitat, so it wasn’t too hard to find them once I got my eye into it.

The Least Owlet Moth larvae (just below the shell and leaf)

Following this mini expedition, I headed out on another one – a wildflower walk on Chesil Beach with Angela Thomas, the assistant warden for the Fleet Nature Reserve. There are many flowers out on the beach, and they are stunning. A couple of of my favourites are Sea Campion (white) and Thrift (pink), and you can see why – it’s gorgeous!

Sea Campion and Thrift with the Chesil Centre in the background

Naturally we saw a variety of other wildlife out on the beach, from birds (Linnet, Skylark, Wheatear, Herring Gull, Little Tern), to beetles and moths (I’m finding that there are moths everywhere if you look for them!).

Wheatear

Yellow Belle moth

So a very packed week, and I’ve not even included everything – I’ve seen a number of other moths (Muslin, Shuttle-shaped Dart, Cinnabar and some micros whose names I can’t remember!), startled a hedgehog in the garden and seen a number of butterflies (they’re not as interesting as moths though).

May 18, 2014/2 Comments/by mgshersby

Adventures, S4F Traineeship

Signals and mi-newt details

I know that every blog post, I say how amazing the last week has been and how I’ve seen so many cool species. This week is no exception and what a week it has been! There has been so much awesome stuff happen that this blog post would be ridiculously long if I were to mention everything, or even half of it! So it shall be a very slimmed down affair.

It started off with a visit to one of my favourite Dorset places – Brownsea island! It was just a super quick visit, but I saw a bird that I love which is the Black-Headed Gull, as it was among the first birds I learnt to identify at Chesil and I think that it is generally quite cute.

Black-headed Gull

Crayfish training was rather surprising as there are more non-native species in the UK than I thought! However, the big baddy is the Signal Crayfish from America which is a really awful invasive species and our native White-clawed Crayfish is really suffering as a result.

White-clawed Crayfish (note the whiteness on the underside of its claw)

It’s a combination of the American species acting as carriers for a disease that is fatal for our species, it is also bigger and breeds earlier, thus pushing out the native species. In addition, it’s practically impossible to remove the American species once it establishes itself in a river. Lastly, it is possible to spread the disease through human transmission – wellies and, I should think, leisure craft (e.g. kayaks).

It’s me! For once, there were waders in my size and I jumped in. I didn’t find any crayfish though.

From crayfish to amphibians, and even more awesomeness. After a theory session on ID on the different native and non-native species, we headed out to Powerstock Common Reserve and had a look for the species. We were particularly interested in Great Crested Newts (GCNs) as they’re a protected species and are also quite groovy animals. They’re relatively large, the largest of our newt species and the adults at unmistakable. The juveniles can have a bit of confusion with other species. SUPER COOL FACT: juvenile newts are called efts!

An eft! Not a great photo, but can you make out the gills at the back of the head?
Unknown whether smooth or palmate newt species.

ID features for GCNs include: size (up t0 16cm!), colouring (black on back, orange on belly), pattern on throat (spotted), feet (stripy!) and the male has a large crest with a distinct dip (this may only be during the breeding season though).

I enjoyed the amphibians training day so much that I’m considering doing a species/group profile post on newts! For now, Amphibian and Reptile Conservation have got a new ID guide in PDF format which can be downloaded for free.

Great Crested Newt male (note the large crest on his back). He is next to another newt species (much smaller!)

The last training of the week with Dorset Wildlife Trust was on Odonata – i.e. dragonflies and damselflies, of which there are far more species than of the amphibians! Again, a theory session in the morning was followed by a practical afternoon with a visit to Winfrith Nature Reserve. We were netting damselflies for ID, but you shouldn’t net dragonflies, so we were relying on them to rest for a little while in order to look at their ID features (body shape, colour, wing spots and patterning are the main ones).

I do believe one of the favourites of the day was the Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly, whose specific ID features are the last segments on the abdomen (though we would call it the tail). Segment 8 is half blue and half black, whilst segment 9 is blue with a distinctive black line one it (of 10 segments along the abdomen [tail]). You should be able to see it relatively easily in the photo (I would suggest opening up the photo separately in order to zoom).

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly (note the end segments of the abdomen [tail])

In addition to the lovely creatures that were the focus of the training days, there were so many other amazing species seen from a variety of groups including (but not limited to): Hobby, Grey Wagtail and Lapwing (birds), Green-veined White and Dingy Skipper (butterflies), Cream-spot (ladybird), Bugle, Green-winged Orchid and Yellow Archangel (flowers). I shall finish off this post with nice photos of some of the mentioned species.

Grey Wagtail flitting about whilst we were finding crayfish. Really amazing to watch it.

Dingy Skipper Butterfly. Although less bright and flashy than other butterflies, it is still a beauty.

Cream-spot Ladybird. A favourite of mine as it was one of the first ladybird species that I properly identified.

Yellow Archangel – look at that patterning!

May 13, 2014/5 Comments/by mgshersby

Bees, Moths, S4F Traineeship

A number of new beasties

I gave myself the weekend off from blogging last weekend so there are two weeks to catch up on and it’s been a mixed lot! In the Lepidoptera world, I’ve caught some beautiful moths recently including a Powdered Quaker, Angle Shades and a Plume Moth.

Plume Moth, note the T-shaped wings

I took the Angle Shades into work (moths are usually fairly happy to be in a bug pot for the day) to convert more people to the moth cause. Well, convert them into appreciating moths. It’s a fantastic example of how amazing moths can be – the way it holds its wings, the pattern, the colouring and the edges of its wing. And everyone was very impressed with it, although I shall continue improving peoples’ perceptions of moths of course (and other wildlife).

Angle Shades Moth – very distinctive!

For the start of this week, my housemates and I did a lot of squealing as we found a slow worm in the garden!

Slow Worm

Despite its name, it isn’t a worm. And despite its appearance, it isn’t a snake. It’s actually a lizard, albeit without the legs. Like other lizards, it is able to lose its tail and regrow it again. This is a neat little trick because if a predator catches its tail, it can just drop it and slither off into cover, and thus survive. The one that I saw in the garden did look like it might have had this occur and new growth was going back. However, I’ve not come across slow worms much so I’m not entirely sure about that.

Thursday saw the volunteers of the Chesil Centre heading up to the wonderful Portland Bird Observatory where the warden (Martin Cade) and assistant warden (Joe Stockwell) showed us how they do bird ringing up there.

Joe Stockwell (assistant warden) does some alfresco ringing

Martin had also saved the moths from their moth traps (I believe they run four?!), which I was thrilled with – especially as two of them were new species to me, the Herald and the Red Sword-grass (the latter was caught over on the ‘mainland’ in Preston). I do believe that the volunteers are slowly being converted to appreciating moths, I’m sure my enthusiasm for them helps a lot.

Herald Moth – distinctive orange patches with white dots, and edges of wings

With the help of Sean Foote, I got two more Dorset species “ticked off” – a Little Ringed Plover and a Sanderling, both by the Chesil Centre with a larger group of Ringed Plover and Dunlin. The Little Ringed Plover does look a lot like a Ringed Plover (hence the name) but is quite a bit smaller (again, hence the name). It also has a distinctive yellow around its eye.

Little Ringed Plover, photo by Sean Foote.

My Saturday afternoon was filled with a hunt for otters – unfortunately I didn’t find any (though there may be one nearby) but I did have a nice time outside in the (mostly) sunshine. I did come across an interesting bee as well, who as identified as an Ashy Mining Bee by @Bex_Cartwright. Fun fact: there are around 250 species of bee in the UK, 24 of the 250 are bumblebee species, 1 is a honeybee species and the remaining are solitary bees (like the Ashy Mining Bee). Pretty amazing stuff – 250!!!!

Ashy Mining Bee

Apologies for the last couple of blog posts in terms of the quality of the photos – my camera is in for repair and I’m having to rely on my phone. Saying that though, they are pretty decent photos for a phone! Technology is pretty amazing!

April 27, 2014/1 Comment/by mgshersby

Adventures, Moths, S4F Traineeship

The bumblebee goes on flying anyway

This blog post focuses less on the traineeship and more on what I’ve been doing in my own time, and as with most of my learning so far, the majority has been on birds and moths. First, there was a revisit back to this gorgeous gull – the Iceland Gull. It’s been spending a lot of time on the Fleet recently, though at the time of writing I haven’t seen it in the last couple of days. It was actually pretty chilled about my presence, I got quite close and took some lovely photos, if only it had been a sunny day!

Iceland Gull

20 bags!

Last weekend was a blustery one, which was difficult for those taking part in the beach clean! But the volunteers were determined and 20 bags of litter were collected which I am thrilled with. Unfortunately, it’s a never-ending battle with marine litter on Chesil Beach – a reflection of just how much rubbish we throw away. There’s going to be another beach clean at the end of April (Sunday 27^th if you’re free) which will be a good opportunity to really hit out and get as much off the beach as possible.

A couple of days later saw me doing something that’s almost unthinkable for me – getting up for 4.30am! For my first ever twitch! Ok, I wasn’t travelling that far (just to the ‘mainland’) and it wasn’t a very rare bird (but locally rare!), and I wasn’t even going to see the bird (just to hear it!), but I’m counting it as a twitch! So what was I getting up this early for?! A booming bittern! And what an interesting sound it was! Rather like the noise of blowing across a bottle, it was a really odd noise for a bird to make! For the non-birders, I had to get up this early as the bittern actually stops booming just after dawn!

Ready for the dawn chorus

Despite the awful hour, it was a lovely time. Helpfully, a fellow naturalist, Sean Foote, was with me and he was able to point out the different bird calls and songs that I’d not learnt yet. I’ve got my chiffchaffs, blackbirds, great tits and coots down, but had never heard a Cetti’s warbler before! You can hear the dawn chorus at Sean’s blog.

Back to the daylight world and a day off! Well, it was a day off from work but not from enthusiasm! I headed up to the Portland Bird Observatory to eye up the moths they’ve been catching – Common Quaker, Early Grey, Clouded Drab and Hebrew Character.

Early Grey (centre) and x2 Hebrew Characters (bottom)

As well as to check up on the status of the spawn in the pond – now tadpoles! Though I believe they are toad tadpoles if I remember the shape of the spawn correctly (toad spawn is laid in lines rather than clumped together like frogspawn).

Toad tadpoles … I think (it’s been a while since I’ve done amphibians!)

I was also slightly cheeky and tagged along for the checking of the bird mist nets, i.e. large nets which birds fly into. These birds are then ringed and then their movements can be studied. Whilst the exciting period occurred earlier during the day, I still saw a new bird get caught (male House Sparrow) and the recatch of a Chiffchaff. Plus, there were the usual suspects flying around – goldfinches, greenfinches, stonechats and my first linnet!

The recaught Chiffchaff

Linnet

Extra bonuses – a bumblebee and shieldbug caught in the mist nets! Obviously I set both of them free.

Poor bumblebee

Shieldbug

The fortnight ended splendidly with a Sandwich Tern on a buoy near Ferrybridge, having travelled all the way from Africa! This one wasn’t quite in its breeding plumage, but still a great sight.

Sandwich Tern, it wasn’t actually taking off, just having a stretch

Last but not least, I caught my first Dorset moth – a Bloxworth Snout (what a name!). Thought to be a hibernating adult, especially as it was found inside. A slightly blurry photo I’m afraid.

Bloxworth Snout

And just because I’ve been practicing my birds in flight photography, I’m going to include this photo as well.

Herring Gull in flight (guess at a 3rd winter but don’t have my notes to hand)

March 30, 2014/2,315 Comments/by admin

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