Quinta and Swettenham meadows 14th March

With another day of sunshine and an afternoon free I ventured over  to Quinta arboretum and wildlife trust reserve, and also the nearby Swettenham meadows. Temperatures were suddenly considerably milder and with this, the insects which have overwintered as adults, were becoming increasingly visible. After a busy weekend of bird ringing and some Barn Owl box repairs (a post for another time perhaps), it was enjoyable just to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet in the sun. Driving home the day previous I’d seen a butterfly - large, dark and strong-flying I suspect it was a Peacock (though a Red Admiral which are increasingly surviving our milder winters would be another possibility) - ID-ing a butterfly whilst driving is, admittedly, not the best way to do it! Another first for the year that weekend had been a large queen Buff-tailed bumblebee, so it was with these invertebrates in mind that I included Swettenham meadows in my wanderings.

Hoverflies which overwinter as adults have been tempted from their winter slumber and several individuals of the species Eristalis pertinax were basking in the sunlight on benches and branches, the one below a female (apparent from the spacing between the eyes, male hoverflies having eyes which meet together as a general rule) on a branch encrusted with common orange lichen (Xanthoria parietina). 

Female hoverfly Eristalis pertinax

Male dung fly

The humble dung fly can always be depended upon to provide a splash of spring colour - the males being bright yellow in colour with lovely golden 'fur' on their front legs. As you'd expect from their name, they have close associations with animal dung, visiting it to hunt their smaller insect (typically fly) prey, to breed, and for the females to lay their eggs.

Another splash of colour was found in the purpley-pink flowers of common lungwort, a pretty wildflower which blooms in late winter/early spring and is quite disctinctive with its silver spotted leaves. The plant has historically been used in herbal medicine as a treatment for various lung/respiratory conditions, originally because of the leaves' supposed resemblance to a diseased lung, hence its common name and also its latin name of Pulmonaria officinalis.

Flowers of Common Lungwort

7-spot ladybird

Meanwhile, several 7-spot ladybirds could be seen ambling along branches or huddled together in evergreens.

The buff 'tail' of a queen Buff-tailed bumblebee

One of the earliest of the bumblebees to emerge from hibernation, as well as one of the largest to visit gardens, Buff-tailed bumblebee queens were buzzed around noisily. Only the mated young queens survive the winter and they are most easily seen in early spring when they emerge and go in search of suitable nest sites, perhaps using an abandoned mouse nest, or just dense undisturbed vegetation. Some bumblebees (particularly Tree bumblebees) can take up residence in bird boxes. 

This particular individual was quite happy to sit still but with her head pushed into the grass - fine for identification but perhaps not so good for photography! As with many other insects, without sudden movements they are often quite tolerant of close-up photography, of course being respectful of the fact that they can sting. Unlike honey bees bumblebees can sting more than once and it is only the females that can sting. In several years of getting very close to them, I have never (at least not yet anyway!), been stung. 

Having seen a fleeting glimpse of a butterfly the previous day, I was keen to see if I could find any more which had been tempted from hibernation so I made the short walk between Quinta arboretum and Swettenham meadows, an excellent place locally for butterflies. (In the UK most butterflies overwinter as either a caterpillar or chrysalis but a handful hibernate as adults - Brimstone, Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and increasingly with milder winters, Red Admirals.) Alas it was not meant to be, and another buff-tailed bumblebee was my only invertebrate sighting of note.

These are Oak Marble Galls induced by the gall wasp Andricus kollari, a very small and stumpy parasitic wasp.  These wasps have two quite different generations which complete their lifecycle, an asexual generation composed entirely of females and a sexual generation of males and females. Mated females of the sexual generation lay their eggs in the developing leaf buds of native oak trees, chemicals produced by the larvae cause this distortion of the buds. These galls provide a safe home to the developing agamic (asexual) females. The mature agamic wasps then leave in the autumn - you can clearly see the exit holes in the galls in this photo. This generation of wasps will then go on to lay their eggs in the buds of Turkey oak where the sexual generation of males and females develop in tiny egg-shaped galls, completing their complex lifecycle.   

Oak Marble galls

Trees were showing their readiness for the new spring with catkins - the cylindrical flower clusters produced by several types of tree, forming along the branches. Now admittedly my tree identification skills are pretty poor at the best of times, even more so when trees are leafless but I think that these are the male catkins (also sometimes called 'lambs' tails) of Hazel. (Unless of course someone tells me they're Birch....?)

Early spring and early insects

A couple of quick catch-up posts from recent visits to Quinta and Sutton;

Quinta arboretum, Swettenham, 28th Feb.

The snowdrops were in bloom in their full splendour, not far behind were crocuses and daffodils, the primroses which has only been in bud at my last visit were now flowering.

 

Snowdrops

Daffodils

I had wondered if with so many early spring bulbs in bloom whether I might spot any queen bumblebees tempted from their winter slumber by the gentle warmth of the sun. At only 6.5/7 degrees, this was perhaps being a little optimistic and invertebrate life was largely restricted to a few hardy gnats and flies. 

Primrose

I did however look closely at some of the evergreen trees which are a great place to find ladybirds at this time of year in amongst the needle-like leaves. It didn't take long before I found two 7-spot ladybirds, one in the needles of a Western hemlock, then another in a Japanese ‘something-whose-name-I’ve-forgotten’. These clearly aren't native trees, but the principle is the same - one place 7-spot ladybirds favour to overwinter is in conifer foliage so these are good places to look out for them awakening in the early spring.

7-spot ladybird on Western Hemlock

7-spot ladybird (on something else...!)

Fur from European Rabbit

Clumps of fur lying on the grass were all that remained of an unfortunate rabbit, possibly predated by one of the many Buzzards that patrol the skies here. This image of a cross-section of the fur clearly shows the densely packed insulating grey/white fur, as well as the longer and coarser ‘guard’ hairs. 

We are so used to seeing rabbits here in the UK and hearing them being referred to as an invasive species (not forgetting that it was of course humans that introduced them in the first place) that they feel an unlikely mammal to have a conservation status of 'Near Threatened'. But that they do, and in their native range of southwestern Europe and northwest Africa, numbers have declined significantly due to the introduction of the generally fatal disease myxomatosis, as well as habitat loss and excessive hunting. In turn this decline has had a negative impact on the predators such as Iberian Lynx and Spanish Imperial Eagle which rely on them as a significant food source. 

Sutton Reservoir 7th March 2016

View across the reservoir to snow-covered hills in the Peak District

Lesser Celandine

The low-growing perennial wildflowers of Lesser Celandine were now starting to bloom, the bright and shiny yellow flowers are enjoyed by many insects, but again, it was just a little cool for much insect-life. The temperature was still only about 7/8C, and in the distance, snow could still be seen on higher ground. 

  

Ivy berries were plentiful, these being a great food source for birds such as Blackbirds and other thrushes when other berries are no longer available. (Just a quick reminder at this point that ivy berries are toxic to humans!)

Common Ivy berries

Gorse bushes were in flower and it was a pleasure to find the first honey bees I've seen of the year collecting pollen from them. 

With the severe declines of so many of our pollinating insects it almost comes as a relief to see them - we can only hope that [someday] our governments will take heed of scientists' recommendations when it comes to the use of certain pesticides/insecticides that are harming these and so many other vital insects [rather than the lobbying of the agro-chemical companies]. We only need to look to China to see a particularly unfortunate example of how the future could look.... there are areas where the insect populations have been decimated to such an extent that fruit trees are having to be pollinated by [human] hand. Sadly that doesn't seem to shock our politicians nearly as much as I think it should. 

Honey bee on Gorse

Martin Mere WWT

Conscious that spring is - at least in theory - just around the corner and that our winter visiting migrant birds will soon be returning to their summer breeding quarters, I braced myself for the chore/car park that is my local stretch of the M6 and headed up to Martin Mere wetlands reserve on Monday. This has become something of an annual pilgrimage for me to visit and see the spectacular numbers of wildfowl that spend their winters there.

The reserve is famed for these winter populations of wildfowl with total numbers of wild birds at the reserve in winter estimated at over 15000 individuals. Striking Whooper Swans return here in good numbers from Iceland each year (over 1600 individuals this winter). These large swans are easily distinguished from similar sized Mute swans by the yellow of their bills, and the large triangular yellow patch on each side of the bill distinguishes them from the smaller and much less frequently seen Bewick's swan.

Whooper Swans

Whooper Swan resting

Whooper Swan portrait

One of many singing Robins

The reserve also has a selection of captive birds and I wandered through a few of their enclosures before heading over to the hides to see the wild birds which were the real reason for my visit. I admit to having mixed feeling on seeing captive birds with their pinioned wings, but at the same time it is a privilege to see these birds, many of which I am unlikely to ever see in the wild, and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust of which Martin Mere is a part, do do great conservation work for wetland habitats and their inhabitants. They are involved with and have had great successes in a number of internationally important breeding programmes of endangered birds. 

Of course the areas designated to captive birds are also great for wild birds too - in every area, native Moorhens, Mallards, Shelducks, as well as Black-headed gulls and pigeons, even an ambitiously early nesting Coot mingled with birds from all corners of the globe. Every few metres the trees seemed to have their own resident singing Robin.   

The start of the nesting season - a Coot

View from 'discovery' hide - Whoopers, Wigeon, Shelduck, Coot et al

Male Pintail

From the old 'swan link' hide and the 'discovery' hide there are great views across the largest mere at the site. From these I watched and attempted to photograph some of the ducks present such as Teal, Wigeon, Shelduck, Pochard and Pintail as well as the more familiar Mallard. The mere is also home to several species of wader such as Lapwing, Avocet, Godwit and Ruff, the distinctive cries of Oystercatchers in flight gave away their presence though they landed a little far away to photograph.  

Of the ducks, Pochard in particular I have never managed to see close enough previously to photograph although they do appear in small numbers locally in winter, (usually in single sex bachelor groups at a local country park), so I concentrated on the pair I could find and tried to catch a handful of photos between their frequent dives. (With the sheer volume of birds, one of the biggest challenges with photography here can be to get images without cropped bits of other birds in the frame!) A Cormorant made a brief swim-past between dives but was unfortunately just a little far away to really capture the beautiful turquoise colour of his/her eyes.

Male Teal

Male Pochard

Cormorant

A Lapwing feeding in the sandy mud gave me unusually close views of this beautiful bird - mostly I see them as part of larger flocks generally at some distance, but this one had struck out alone and was feeding close to the hide - the sun really brought out the beautiful colours in the wing feathers. When you see their large winter flocks of hundreds of individuals it would be easy to assume that they are doing just fine as a species, but as with so many other farmland birds, changes to and intensification of agricultural practices have led to significant population declines as they have found it increasingly difficult to rear their young. Numbers have declined by a shocking 80% in England and Wales since 1960, so they are then not surprisingly considered a 'red-listed' species of conservation concern.

Lapwing

Lapwing (same individual as above)

Looking a little lost amongst the considerably larger and more boisterous Greylag geese and Whooper swans was a lone Ross' goose. These pretty geese are usually found in North America often in the company of the Snow geese which they closely resemble except for being a little smaller with stubbier bills. They also develop bluish warty bumps (caruncles) at the base of their bill (particularly the males - with more wartiness meaning more desirable!). They spend their summers in northern Canada, then migrate in a southwesterly direction towards southern states of the US and northern Mexico. A birder might describe this bird to be of 'unknown origin' - s/he doesn't have the leg rings that you might typically expect to see on an 'owned' bird, however it is still much more likely that this goose has escaped from a more local wildfowl 'collection' rather than flown quite so far off its usual course.

Ross' goose

Nearing the end of the day I ventured out of main area of the reserve to have a look at the 'Reedbed walk' - a less trodden path from where with luck it is possible to see hunting owls and raptors. An interesting find along the way was a tiny skull - 3.5 cms in length, slightly broken unfortunately along the sutures (fibrous joints) of the skull bones. Clearly mammalian and with the 'wrong' line up of teeth for a rodent, by a process of elimination (I'd initially wondered about weasel and bat amongst the possible options) I eventually concluded that this is the skull of a mole (though as ever, if I've got it wrong please correct me). What amazing little sharp teeth they have!

Mole skull

Continuing along the path I was helpfully (?) informed that I'd just missed a Marsh Harrier, and that the owls appeared to be taking a break, so I instead focused on just enjoying the walk and the peace and quiet in the gradually setting sun.

 

Redesmere Feb 2016

With a beautiful day of sunshine on offer, I finished up work early so I could head over to Redesmere near Siddington in east Cheshire. Partly to get in some much needed practice with a new camera, but also of course to get out and enjoy wildlife watching in some sun. The birds I generally see there aren't especially unusual, but are always a pleasure to watch and photograph... the fact that conditions were calm, dry and bright made a  welcome change from recent weeks!

Greeting me as I got out of the car a Robin called, closely followed by calls of "Chiswick, Chiswick", which of course could only mean that close by were Pied wagtails. Soon enough I spotted a handful of these pretty little black and white birds running around on the tarmac, dodging the moving cars. (It always concerns me when I see them scurrying in busy car parks but they seem to be very aware and capable of avoiding the traffic.) A female Chaffinch watched from a nearby tree in case this new arrival might mean a few crumbs of bread to be had. On the far side of the mere I watched as a Sparrowhawk shot along the treeline.

Black-headed gull

The location is popular with people coming to feed the ducks, geese and swans and the usual suspects of Mallards and Black-headed gulls were there in their hundreds. As usual were a handful of larger gulls in amongst them including Common and Herring gulls of differing ages. Some old friends were there amongst the Black-headed gulls - birds wearing 'darvics' 2F70, 2F90 and 2F91. These are individual gulls I have seen and reported the details previous years (initially in 2013) and have reported the sightings to the researchers again this week. I wrote about these gulls and their monitoring (as well as how to report a ringed bird) in a previous post here. Ringed birds seen can be reported through the EURING website here. The data obtained from sightings is of great value to researchers so I would always encourage anyone to report the details of ringed birds seen or found.

Gull '2F91'

The usual gang of white farmyard (Embden) geese patrolled the car park, I felt a thwack on the leg as one ran past wings outstretched chasing off another. Common they might be but Mallards are still very beautiful ducks - oh how we'd flock to see them if they were rare. 
 

Male Mallard, resplendent in his his breeding plumage

In amongst the Mallards and geese were several pairs of Tufted ducks - small diving ducks that have a tendency to disappear underwater just as you are about to take their photo...

Male Tufted duck

Female Tufted duck

Large flocks of Greylag and Canada geese also frequent the mere - I aimed the camera at a large flock of Greylags passing overhead. I'm not sure that I managed to get a single bird in focus, and there are of course lots of chopped bits of birds but I still quite liked this image for the sense of slightly chaotic and noisy action it portrays of this incoming flock of geese. One of my favourite sounds when out watching wildlife is the humming sounds of the wingbeats of large birds.

Greylag geese

Moorhen

Rails were represented by familiar Coots and their superficially similar cousins Moorhens (more of the latter than I can remember  seeing here previously). 

A partially submerged branch afforded one Moorhen a particularly good vantage point, as well as nicely showing off the oversized feet that make them so adept at walking on and amongst partially submerged vegetation such as reeds and waterlilies. 

Making the most of the sunlight I tried to photograph the beautifully red eyes that both Coots and Moorhens have.

Another Moorhen

Coot

All in all it was a visit where I didn't see any uncommon birds but it was just a pleasure to grab an hour out in the sun watching the wildlife. (And if there was one valuable lesson learned on the camera front, it was to not assume that the exposure compensation dial works in the same direction on all cameras!!! Ah well.)

In between the storms... a quick visit to Sutton reservoir

Campbells (front) with Duclairs behind and a regular Mallard

In between the various named  storms we're experienced this winter, I paid a brief visit to Sutton reservoir for the first time this year. I was greeted by the usual motley crew of Mallards and their super-sized domesticated-gone-feral  descendants of Duclairs and Campbells which were in their usual spot near the entrance, as well as a handful of Coots. There wasn't the treat of birdsong as I'd had earlier in the month at Quinta (presumably because it was cool, windy and generally unspringlike...) but several common woodland birds were moving through the trees flanking the reservoir - the familiar contact calls of Long-tailed tits, the alarming of a Blackbird, a Robin calling and singing half-heartedly in turn. 

In the centre of the water gulls surfed the unusually choppy (for a reservoir) water - they were nearly all Black-headed gulls, with a handful starting to develop their breeding plumage of deep brown on their heads. As usual, I checked for other types of gull amongst them. With a quick glance any interlopers often stand out because of their considerably larger size - previously at Sutton I have seen Herring and Lesser Black-backed gulls mingling with their considerably smaller comrades, today the giant among them was a single Common gull. Also almost them, and almost indistinguishable amongst all the Black-headeds with its similar size was [what I'm sure is] a Mediterranean gull, just developing the black hood which it has in breeding plumage. This was a first for me locally, but also not a bird I would expect to see here in eastern Cheshire at all, their distribution in the UK generally being restricted to the southern and eastern coasts of England. It was a bit of a 'bad photography day' and I only managed a record shot... 
 

Mediterranean gull (left) amongst 100+ Black-headed gulls

Coming home to roost - Black-headed gulls

The most numerous birds I saw by far were the Black-headed gulls - they roost on the reservoir and by late afternoon dozens more were flying in from wherever they had spent their day resulting in 150-200 of these birds on the water. 

Sitting on some steps at the western end of the reservoir (where I was nicely sheltered from the wind) I watched as  Great crested grebes fished for Perch - it was impressive both how many dives seemed to result in a successful catch, and also how the birds manage to swallow the unfortunate and comparatively large fish whole! In this relatively small reservoir I saw at least 5 Great crested grebes, all but one starting to develop their striking copper coloured breeding plumage for which they are so renowned. It is heartening to know and see how well they are now faring, having previously been hunted almost to extinction here for the plume trade so that well-to-do women in Victorian times could have hats adorned with their feathers. This unsustainable hunting (do we ever learn?) of native birds led to early legislation being introduced in order to afford birds some degree of protection, such as the Sea Birds Preservation Act of 1869 and the Wild Birds Protection Act of 1880. Despite these, the trend for ever more elaborate and exotic plumage (even, to the extent to whole (stuffed) birds) being used to decorate hats, led to the foundation of the RSPB in 1889 by women who opposed this cruel trade.

All of which leads me neatly into a quick reminder that this weekend is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, details for which can be found here. I shall grab a coffee and binoculars and start my hour of watching how many and which species of birds visit the garden this year (hopefully the rain might even stop for some of it....).

Great-Crested grebe

Grebe with Perch