Birds

Island Life – Part 2 – Birds & Mammals

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I thought it would only take me a day or two to write part 2 of this, but with 2 heatwaves this month, my productivity (always dubious at the best of times) has plummeted. But here at last are some of the gorgeous birds and mammals we saw on the Isles of Scilly in June.

I took a couple of bird-watching boat trips; one with my long-suffering family and one alone when they’d had enough of me. The Scillies are a fantastic place to spot seabirds; it made me wish I was better at identifying them. So please feel free to correct me if I’ve got any of these wrong. As so often is the case, I didn’t really have the right camera lens with me and that combined with rocking boats and user error, means none of these are exactly amazing photos, but hopefully they’re recognisable at least.

First up, what I am assuming to be a Black-headed Gull, due to its black head! I realise though there are other species that would fit this somewhat basic description, so please correct me if I’m wrong.

The next one I am at least confident is an Oystercatcher, although it does to my eye look quite like the penguin from Wallace & Gromit with a red beak stuff on it! Again a shockingly bad photo and I can’t even blame a rocking boat for this one as I think I took it from land.

 

We saw a few Shags, often standing looking quite aloof with a crowd of other birds nearby. Seen alone they are quite gawky looking birds and I always think there’s something a bit archaic about them.

One of the few seabirds I can readily recognise is the Gannet. It’s distinctive enough that it’s pretty much unmistakeable.  This one floated serenely by the boat, looking as if it had recently had a right good feed.

There were of course lots of large gulls present everywhere. We passed a fisherman, hauling in lobster pots at one point and the sky around his boat was just full of an assortment of gulls. Some have black backs (Black-backed gulls?), some have grey backs – to my disappointment there doesn’t seem to be one called a Grey-backed Gull, so I’m guessing these are Herring Gulls?

All the seabirds above are beautiful, but I can’t help having a soft spot for the Auk family. Apparently there are 5 species seen regularly in the UK and we were lucky enough to see 3 of these. The most plentiful that week were the Guillemots – sleek black/dark brown and white birds, gathering in groups on the rocks and in the water.

Then there were the Razorbills; I never saw these on the rocks, only in the water and often swimming with the Guillemots too. Razorbills are named for their famously sharp-edged beaks, ideal for grabbing fish.

But of course top of the wish list was to see Puffins and thankfully we did. The Skipper wouldn’t take the boat too close to the cliffs where the puffins were nesting as we didn’t want to disturb them, but we were close enough to see several outside their burrows.

Then there were the ones we saw on the water. It’s no surprise that they are everyone’s favourite seabird; what’s not to love about those cheeky little faces.

So on to the mammals. I did see a split-second glimpse of a dolphin from the Scillonian on the way back to the mainland, but that was it as far as cetaceans went. Grey seals were much more obliging. Again our skipper managed to get close enough for us to see some hauled up on the rocks, but not too close to frighten them.

At first we thought it was just adults, but in the second photo from a slightly different angle, you can see a seal pup at the back of the group. I was so thrilled; I’ve seen seals many times (even sieved seal poop for a living for a while – that’s a whole other story), but never seen a young one like this!

But the mammalian star of the show for me had to be a surprise we found on Tresco. I say surprise, but obviously the locals knew they were there as they’d been deliberately introduced. Red Squirrels! We saw a sign saying there were red squirrels as soon as we entered Tresco gardens, but I thought we’d be lucky just to get a glimpse. But then we turned around and there was a beautiful squirrel sitting right there, enjoying some nuts. I was fumbling with my camera , sure it would disappear, but no it was clearly unfazed by our presence and carried on snacking. The best views I’ve ever had of a red squirrel.

We saw several more as we enjoyed the gardens, although none as close as that first one. It must be an ideal habitat for them and they seemed to be doing really well.

So that’s my round-up of the wildlife we saw on the Isles of Scilly. It really is a fantastic place to visit, although I’m tempted to say “no it’s dreadful” to stop loads of people going and spoiling it! The isolation, the warm climate (warmer than most of the UK at least) and beautiful scenery make the islands the best wildlife destination I’ve been to in Britain and I can’t wait to go back.

The Blog is Back!

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Hello again!

It may seem like I’ve just been Too Lazy To Blog, and I can’t deny there’s an element of that, but mainly life in the form of a very difficult 3 years has just got in the way. But hopefully now things are getting back on an even keel and I can resume my wildlife ramblings. The weeds in the garden have continued to grow and there’s still plenty of wildlife to be seen, photographed and waffled on about. So the blog is back!

I may not have been blogging, but I have seen a lot of amazing stuff in the last 3 years. Maybe not attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion (who doesn’t love Rutger Hauer), but all sorts of other interesting things. So in no particular order, here are some of the highlights of the last few years.

In December 2023 there was a lot of excitement on Twitter/X about Waxwings being seen in and around Malvern. Like many others I grabbed my camera and headed out in search. Not only did I eventually get to see them, but I made a new friend in the process, without whom I’d never have found them, so a definite win-win situation.

Last summer I was really excited to see my first ever glow worms. Tiny little green glows at a reserve just a few miles from home.  Not easy to spot, but once you get your eye in they really do what it says on the tin and glow a bright green. I only had my phone with me, so this “magnificent” picture will probably go down in history as one of the most atrocious photos ever. Perhaps I should just give it an abstract name – “Green Glow on Black Canvas” or something. But it’s the only proof I have that I saw a glow worm, so here it is!

In October last year I finally got to see the Northern Lights and from my back garden. Not quite the awe-inspiring spectacle you see photos of, but definite streaks of pink and green nonetheless. Again I’m probably up for some kind of award for awful photography for this, but I’m just happy to have finally seen this. Twenty odd years living in Scotland and I finally see it in Malvern!

I’ve had a few days out and about doing some not-strictly wildlife things, but it was out in lovely countryside so I reckon that counts. In August last year my sister and I went whinberry picking for the first time since we were children. Whinberries (or Wimberries, Bilberries, or Blaeberries, depending on where you’re from) were our Dad’s favourite and grow wild in the Shropshire hills. We were a bit late in the season, so only managed to gather enough for a very small pie, but it was well worth it – the taste brought back many happy childhood memories and we certainly got to see a lot of the wilds of Shropshire while we hunted for them.

We also had a slightly bonkers trip to see the famous cheese rolling race in Gloucestershire. I must stress we valued our lives and vertebrae too much to actually take part chasing a 4 kilo wheel of Double Gloucester down a very steep hill. It was hard enough climbing high enough to watch it, without hurling ourselves at break-neck speed back down again. But it was a glorious spectacle when viewed from a safe distance.

There have been lots of moths recorded in the garden in the last few years, but I’ll post about those separately. One interesting moth seen while venturing outside the garden was a Lunar Hornet Moth. These stunning moths don’t really look like moths with their clear wings and hornet like bodies. Their caterpillars live in the wood of old trees and the adults are attracted to pheromone lures.

Other highlights of the last few years include dolphin watching on a glorious sunny day in New Quay in Wales and a visit to the lovely Westonbury Mill Water Garden in Herefordshire just as the new season’s toadlets all emerged from the ponds. Never seen so many tiny toads (they were literally the size of a fingernail), it was virtually impossible to walk – we went round at a snail’s pace to avoid standing on them. Speaking of toads, I’ve also joined a local toad patrol – more of that in another blog post too.

There’s been a visit to the Diglis Fish Pass in Worcester. Our guide showed us fantastic photos of large salmon, pike and even otters swimming by the viewing window, although on the day, all we saw were a few minnows. Another day out took us to the confetti fields, also in Worcestershire. The delphiniums are grown specifically to turn into environmentally friendly confetti, but I actually preferred the wildflower borders around the main crop.

One final highlight of the last few years was a weekend in Harrogate for a slug conference! Harrogate is a really lovely town and a slug conference at Harlow Carr gardens to discuss the results of the slug survey I took part in, was a delightful, if slightly unusual treat! (as was Betty’s tearoom’s Fat Rascals!)

I felt ridiculously pleased that my garden had produced above average numbers of slugs compared to the other slug counters – something most gardeners would be horrified by, but I viewed it as a badge of honour for my scruffy garden.

So there are just a few hopefully interesting bits and pieces from the last few years. The plan is to start blogging again regularly, or at least not wait another 3 years before I can think of something to say.

 

Holiday Snaps – Part 2

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It occurred to me as I wrote this that blogging is the modern day equivalent of boring your friends and family to death with a slideshow of your holiday pics – only with blogging you get to inflict them on a much wider audience! So apologies for indulging here and sharing more photos.

So just to prove that I do occasionally look at other things besides butterflies and moths, here are some of the best of the rest. The cottage we’d rented was on the edge of a nature reserve, so we were off to a good start without even going anywhere. There was a path leading own to the nature reserve’s lake (Hawes Water) and it was obviously a bit of a thoroughfare for a lot of wildlife. The trail cameras picked up what I think is a female Roe deer both at night and during the day, plus it was nice to see a hedgehog at dusk too.

 

The lake itself had plenty of damselflies buzzing around our little jetty. I identified at least 2 species – Azure (below top) and a male Blue-tailed (below bottom), both beautiful insects.

 

Not exactly wildlife, but it was also nice to have a family of Gloucester Old Spot pigs in the field opposite the cottage.

Venturing out from our cottage we visited some amazing sites. Irton Fell, which we’d gone to primarily for the Mountain Ringlet, had plenty of other wildlife too. Despite the windy conditions up there, there were plenty of insects around including this Tiger beetle.

There were lots of small birds flitting between rocky outcrops and fences. Bird ID is not a strong point of mine, but I think this is a Skylark.

On the last day, freed from the need to search for butterflies, I went to Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve. Foulshaw is known for it’s Ospreys. Technically I did see them, via a webcam set up on the reserve. They’d got chicks which I could just about make out on the monitor. The nest was a long way from public footpaths (and rightly so), so no chance of photos – but it’s still the closest I’ve ever been to an Osprey, so it felt like a win.

Foulshaw was also known for a species of dragonfly that would be new to us too – the White-faced Darter. There were a few flitting around, but none were settling. One finally landed in front of me on the boardwalk. I managed a quick record shot, planning to then zoom in for a better one. Just got it focused and a small child ran up and scared it off – I may get over this eventually! So here’s the poor record shot.

So here endeth my holiday snaps. A couple of lifers (Ospreys & Darter) ticked off the list if not photographed properly and a few other favourites seen again. My holidays tend to be primarily wildlife focussed, but just to prove I do manage a few other activities, here’s me doing the inevitable pose next to Eric Morecambe’s statue at Morecambe Bay.

 

Out & About – Blackhouse Wood & Crews Hill

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Yesterday was a lovely sunny Sunday, so we thought we’d try and have a walk around the little nature reserve we’d failed to get to a few weeks ago – Blackhouse Wood and Crews Hill. Apparently yesterday was National Dawn Chorus Day, so a walk in the woods seemed like a nice idea to hear some bird song. With the Too Lazy ethos we were of course too late to really get the dawn chorus – the birds were doing more of a brunch chorus, by the time we got there, but it was lovely all the same.

Crews Hill signBlackhouse Wood and Crews Hill (which is also wooded) are both owned by Worcestershire Wildlife Trust and are joined to form one long thin area of semi-natural ancient woodland. The shape of the wood meant that for once, we were reasonably confident that we couldn’t possibly get lost!

The path ran pretty much straight through the wood, although it did undulate quite a bit thanks to old quarrying efforts years ago. We may not have quite been up in time for the dawn chorus, but for the first hour or so we didn’t see a soul. A lovely peaceful place to visit.

Crews woodland trail

There were a lot of squirrels (all grey of course round here) scampering through the trees and lots of rustling of mice in the undergrowth.

Squirrel

The wood was full of bird song, although spotting the birds themselves wasn’t that easy. To start with there seemed to be loads of different birds singing, but they almost always turned out to be Blue Tits. I’d no idea Blue Tits had such a variety of songs!

Eventually of course we did manage to differentiate some other bird species. We had one of those apps that will identify bird songs for you and it picked up a song thrush although we didn’t actually see it. One of the few songs I can recognise is the chiffchaff but sadly it wasn’t obliging enough to pose for photos,

Blackbirds, robins, goldfinches and of course woodpigeons could also be heard singing their socks off. The surprising highlight of the vocals though was an owl calling – neither of us have ever heard one calling in broad daylight like that. Sadly we didn’t see the owl, but we were really lucky to get a good view of a buzzard.

There were quite a few butterflies flitting about in the more open sunny patches; most as usual too quick to photograph. Invertebrate highlight for me was spotting this tiny longhorn moth. As it fluttered down to land, it was its enormous antennae that caught my eye. The antennae are way longer than the moth’s body (hence the name) and it looks like it must take an extraordinary effort to keep them out of the way when flying.

Longhorn moth

We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours pottering around the wood; it’s nice to find another little gem of a reserve virtually on our doorstep.

Knapp Time

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Lovely weather at the weekend, so we set out with great intentions of visiting a new (to us) nature reserve. Our chosen spot was a small wood not far away – unfortunately this wood only has a tiny car park and others clearly had the same idea. With nowhere to park, we headed back to our perennial favourite – the Knapp and Papermill Nature Reserve. We didn’t manage to get there last year so it was a very welcome “Plan B”.

In the wooded areas we were treated to our first banks of bluebells for the year, looking fabulous in the dappled light.

bluebells

The smell of garlic was heavy in the air in places, with banks of Wild Garlic just coming into flower.

wild garlic 2

Lesser celandines, wood anemones and primroses completed the spring flower array. A plant we don’t see so often was the Butterbur. I always think the Butterbur flowerheads look slightly alien. The leaves in the summer grow huge and were apparently used to wrap butter before the invention of fridges!

butterbur

We’d hoped for some spring butterflies to complement the spring flowers and we weren’t disappointed – 6 species at least – Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells, Commas, Holly Blues, Brimstones and Orange-Tips. The Orange-Tips really signal spring to me. We only saw males – hard to miss with their bright orange tipped wings. They were particularly prevalent around the cuckooflowers, a favourite food for their caterpillars.

There were buzzards overhead and what I thought was some weird loud bird in the woods, until we decided it was actually a deer calling! Slightly more recognisable were the calls of blue tits and chiffchaffs, although we never actually saw the latter and a pair of blackcaps.

Further upstream a Grey Wagtail was bobbing about around the weir. The weir seems to be a favourite spot for them to catch insects washed down the slope and we see wagtails here on most visits.

 

Big Garden Birdwatch 2021

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Another year, another lockdown; or more cheerily – another year, another Big Garden Birdwatch! The perfect thing to do for an hour when you can’t leave home.

Saturday it pretty much poured with rain all day, so today seemed like a better birding day. It was still bloomin’ cold sitting there though for an hour and my derrière was pretty numb by the time I finished.  Still it was worth it to record a very respectable 34 individuals of 12 species.

Top of the abundance was, as usual, the house sparrow. I  counted at least 12 in one go, although I’m sure we actually have more than that. Joint second were the blackbirds and jackdaws – 4 of each. I can’t tell the difference between male and female jackdaws, but for the blackbirds there was one female and at least 3 males.

Most of the rest arrived in pairs – goldfinches, great tits, collared doves, wood pigeons, starlings and magpies, although I only seemed to manage to get photos of them one at a time.

And then there was a singleton blue tit, dunnock and robin. The robin was the most sociable of the whole bunch. He even landed on the camouflage netting right by my head – too close to even get a photo. As if sensing that he might be missing his photo op, he then obligingly hopped down to some stems in front of me and posed so I could get his good side. Of course there was still a twig in the way – isn’t there always?

The (almost) highlight of the whole hour came near the end when I think a sparrowhawk zoomed across the garden after a small bird. Unfortunately it all happened so fast that I couldn’t be sure that’s what I saw and I almost got tangled in the camouflage netting in my haste to stand up and get a better look. So although I’m about 80% certain it was a sparrowhawk, I wasn’t sure enough to include it in my birdwatch results. So close!

A bit disappointed that our wren didn’t put in an appearance, nor the long-tailed tits. And really disappointed that our male blackcap was a no-show too. He’s been pretty much resident outside our patio doors for the last 3 weeks, but today of course he chose to have the morning off. Just to prove it, here he is from a few weeks ago.

Submitting my data took a few goes as the RSPB website seemed to be struggling. Hopefully that’s a good sign and means lots of people have been doing the count.

Success in the end though and nice to know I’d contributed in a small way to another bit of citizen science. Talking of which, tonight happens to be my next slug collection night for the Slug Count project. It’s all go!

Back Down to Daneway

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As we were still technically on our holiday that never happened/staycation at the weekend, we decided to head out again for another butterfly day. Not a new species this time, but back down to Daneway Banks in Gloucestershire to see the Large Blues that we had only seen once before.

As we entered the reserve, the air was positively buzzing with the sound of grasshoppers. I think they were Meadow Grasshoppers and they were everywhere, pinging away from us as we walked across the grass.

The commonest butterflies by far were the Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns.

The Marbled Whites in particular were very fresh looking and quite stunning in the sunshine.

We even managed to find a mating pair; the female is the one at the top with the browner looking markings on the underwings.

It was a bit cloudy when we first arrived, so the Large Blues weren’t flying much, but as the sun started to come out we spotted a couple. On our previous visit we had only managed to get photos of a mating pair of Large Blues – most unusual for that to be our only shots, but it meant they had their wings closed. So this time we were keen to get one with its wings open. Fortunately the first one was fairly relaxed and let us take a few photos.

A very helpful reserve warden then pointed us in the direction of a “hot spot” for them, further into the reserve. This coincided with the sun really coming out, which made them much flightier. So although we probably saw about 10 more, we couldn’t get as close again to get better photos.

We’d seen a few skippers about during the day, but they are so fast it is often hard to tell which species until we can download the photos. Turns out these ones were Small Skippers, our first of the year.

The final butterfly species appeared just as we were leaving the reserve – a Small Heath, again the first of these we’d seen this year.

Once again I failed to get decent shots of a couple of birds. This woodpecker sat on a fence post for ages as I crept closer trying to get a photo, then of course just as I was getting within reasonable focal distance he flew off.

Most unusually a swallow landed on the ground only a few metres away from me. I was so surprised that I didn’t react quick enough to get a photo of it on the ground, only this blurry one as it took off again. I’d always thought they stayed on the wing almost permanently apart from egg time, but clearly this one had other ideas.

As we were about to leave the same helpful warden suggested that we might want to nip across the road on our way back to the car and have a quick look in Siccaridge Wood. It is an ancient coppiced woodland and there was apparently a Greater Butterfly-Orchid just 30 yards in. Never having heard of this, let alone seen one, it seemed worth a small detour. Sure enough, exactly as described was the tallest British orchid we’ve ever seen; it must have been at least 50cm tall. With hindsight I should have got someone taller to take a photo of me next to it for scale (I stand a majestic 1.5m tall).

I can’t say the flowers looked particularly butterfly like to us, but it was certainly an impressive plant.

On our previous trip to Daneway we had finished up at the very nice Daneway Inn, but sadly of course that wasn’t possible this time. Daneway Banks is a fantastic site and a real success story for the Large Blue butterfly, which had gone extinct in the UK before the heroic efforts to bring it back. The perfect way to round off our non-holiday.

Butterflies Old and New

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2020 has certainly been a most unusual (and hopefully never to be repeated) year for all of us, but finding solace in nature has been a great help getting through these strange times. At the height of the lockdown, we felt very lucky to have a garden full of wildlife that we could enjoy. We have spent an awful lot of time watching the wildlife emerge as the weeks went by and have particularly enjoyed seeing how the new pond developed. But after a while you do start to go a little stir crazy and we were longing to get out and see things beyond the confines of our garden. So as things began to ease a couple of weeks ago and nature reserves started to reopen, we made our first tentative ventures out, first to a local one and then to one a bit further afield.

First stop was Monkwood, just a few miles away and a lovely reserve that we’ve been to quite a few times before. First delight was that we heard a cuckoo calling on and off the whole time we were there – our first cuckoo of the year.  It was the end of May and the Wood White butterflies were out in abundance. They had only been reintroduced to Monkwood a few years ago, but are clearly doing really well. They are small delicate little butterflies, not as showy as say the fritillaries, but really delightful to watch and very pretty in their own subtle way.

Several other butterfly species were out, but it was particularly nice to see some Large Skippers, our first of the year.

We also saw several small and non-descript moths flitting about. Despite me chasing them around, the best photo I could manage was this blurry specimen. Turns out that they were Drab Loopers, not perhaps the most attractive of names for the poor things. They are generally a bit of a rarity though and Monkwood is a stronghold for them.

Next up was a splendid large caterpillar of the Drinker moth. The Drinker is supposedly fairly common in the West Midlands, but we’ve never seen the adult moth; so it was nice at least to see junior here trundling across the path.

Finally for Monkwood, it was great to see my perennial favourite, the Swollen-thighed Beetle.

This week as the lockdown measures relaxed a bit more, we decided to venture further afield. This was the week that we were supposed to be going on holiday to Norfolk, where we’d hoped to see our 51st British butterfly species – the Swallowtail. Obviously all holidays were cancelled, but we came up with a plan B to at least see a 51st species. The Black Hairstreak was on our yet-to-see list and the nearest sites were about 2 hours away in Northamptonshire – just about doable in a day trip. So we set off at the crack of dawn (well a bit later than that to be honest) and headed to Glapthorn Cow Pastures.

The name might suggest it was more of a meadow and indeed it did used to be grazed by cows. But now it is managed as a mix of woodland and blackthorn scrub – ideal habitat for the rare Black Hairstreak. We got there about 09:30 just as another keen butterfly spotter arrived. Funnily enough we heard a cuckoo calling here too as we got out of the car – a good omen perhaps? We’d had tips from kind people on Facebook as to where to look, but still finding a small butterfly in a big wood did feel a bit like a needle in a haystack job. We wandered around for a bit until we met up with the other traveller again who had found a local who knew where to look and consequently found the butterfly too!

We saw at least 2 Black Hairstreaks while we were there. The first was a perfect looking specimen, but rather flighty. So apologies that all the photos are either a bit blurry or it’s got its head stuck in a bramble. But it is at least recognisably a Black Hairstreak with the black spots on an orange background around the edge of the wings and the little tail.

The second individual has unfortunately lost his tail and half his black spots (the best bits of a hairstreak) and we nick-named him Raggedy.

Raggedy was however quite obliging and hung around long after the more perfect one had disappeared. He was so keen to be seen in fact that as more people arrived we could point him out to the newcomers. Glapthorn is clearly a popular spot; by the time we left there were 9 people all trying to see the hairstreaks (Raggedy’s moment to shine) – all trying to socially distance themselves at the same time of course.

It was a lovely hot day and plenty of other butterflies around – skippers, speckled woods, red admirals, lots of meadow browns, whites (too fast to determine which) and a small tortoiseshell. There were also quite a few of these stunning black and yellow longhorn beetles (Rutpela maculata) enjoying the flowering brambles.

Having come so far, we had a walk around the rest of the wood to make the most of the day.  There were lots of very pretty orchids in full bloom (possibly Common Spotted Orchids although I’m not sure).

The sounds of the cuckoo had given way to the calls of a woodpecker. We saw a couple of them flying high in the trees and managed a distant shot of a Great Spotted, although there was also a Green Woodpecker.

So that’s it, our 51st butterfly seen and photographed and a couple of lovely days out to quench our thirst for wildlife. It would have been great to have been in Norfolk this week for our holiday, but hopefully we can do that next year instead. In the meantime we are very grateful not only to have such wonderful nature close by, but also that we have been very lucky to have stayed safe and well during these unprecedented times. Stay safe everyone. xx