Category Archives: Natural History

Love of Nature, Natural History, Nature Reserves

Nightingales at Northward Hill

Northward Hill, looking over oakwood, scrub, grazing marshes, and river

Well there are some things one just has to do, even if it means braving the traffic. Nightingales, once common all over the south of England, can now only be heard in a few special places, and Northward Hill is one of them. There are some others in the southeast, like Lodge Hill, and guess what, they want to build houses all over it. Better go and enjoy the birdsong while it lasts.

A very shy Wall Brown, now a mainly coastal butterfly, the first I’ve seen for years

I was greeted by the song of blackbird, chaffinch, robin, song thrush, and wren as I walked in. A few ‘whites’ – large white, orange tip, green-veined white – skittered about as I reached the attractively rough scrub of hawthorn in full May blossom, blackthorn, wild pear, wild plum, and wild cherry, topped by the occasional whitethroat singing away scratchily.

Into the woods, with a handsome old cherry orchard on the right. Some of the oaks were straight out of Lord of the Rings, splendidly gnarled, knobbly, with massive trunks and holes to hide a good few goblins in.

Nightingale country: a fine old Oak. It looks to have been pollarded at about 12 feet up some centuries ago, so it was probably cut to that height while smaller wood was coppiced all around it.

And yes, sure enough, a nightingale obliged by singing its hesitant but amazingly rich and varied song from the thick cover. A little further, another; and a cuckoo kindly sang its unmistakable song from an oak almost in front of me, then with a ‘gok’ call flew, sparrowhawk-like, from the tree, a special sight.

Down to the hide overlooking the pool in the top photo; I wasn’t expecting more than a coot and maybe a mallard, but there were breeding lapwings chasing off the crows; breeding oystercatchers, and an avocet sitting with them; and a couple of solitary little egrets, stalking and stabbing at small fish or frogs. A redshank gave its wild teuk-teuk-teuk call and flashed its wingbar briefly.

Little Egret Stalking

Overhead a few swallows flitted about, and three swifts raced over the marsh.

The Hoo Peninsula is still a wild, spacious, lonely place, even with the swelling villages. You can see the Shard and Canary Wharf in the distance (some 30 miles); the river with its cranes and giant ships is ever-present; but the North Kent Marshes are special, as is Northward Hill with its fine old woods, still unspoilt for birds. Go and see it while you can.

 

 

Natural History, Nature Reserves, Wetlands

Spring Migrants at Thursley Common

Eriophorum angustifolium, Bog Cotton, a plant of wild, wet and rugged places

A bright, breezy, and much cooler day (16 C, not 29 any more) was just perfect for a visit to Thursley. Perhaps many of the dragonflies decided not to fly: I saw one Common Darter and (I think) one Brown Hawker, and nothing else, so anyone who went along hoping to see the Hobbies hawking for dragonflies by the dozen will have had a wasted trip (and indeed I saw several extravagantly camouflaged types with gigantic telescopes standing about looking very bored).

But everything else was in full swing. A Cuckoo called from the pinewoods. A Curlew gave its marvellously wild, bubbling call from the open marsh. A Dartford Warbler gave me the best view ever of its rufous belly and long tail, as it sat low in a scrubby Birch, giving its rasping anxiety call repeatedly. I enjoyed the view through binoculars. By the time I remembered to take a photo it was half-hidden again.

A scrappy photo of the Dartford Warbler

A Stonechat gave its scratchy call from a small Birch, then hopped up to some Pine trees (so, a distant shot).

Stonechat on Pine branch

A few Chiffchaffs called from the woods; plenty of Whitethroats sang from the regenerating Birches that are encroaching on to the heath. A Green Woodpecker gave its fine laughing call.

Birches regenerating on to heath below Pines

So I heard three warblers today to add to the four yesterday, so seven singing warblers in 24 hours, a little bit special.

The lichen flora on the heath was quite beautiful, with Usnea beard lichen, leafy Parmelia, bristly Ramalina (all on old Heather), and elegant Cladonia potscourer, cup, and stalk lichens (three species).

Miniature elegance: Cladonia cf fimbriata, cup lichen

A Linnet sang from the top of a Birch. Goldfinches twittered and flitted about.

Dove’s Food Cranesbill, Geranium molle, (?), on dry heath beside path
Musk Stork’s-bill, Erodium moschatum, (?) on dry heath beside path

And on the path out, a Hobby leapt from a tree right in front of me, where it had been sitting watching the bog pools,  waiting for dragonflies to come out and display themselves. It flew round and up, then circled, soaring, away to the south. Perhaps it was the one the twitchers had been waiting to see flying all morning.

Natural History

Lesser Whitethroat at Wraysbury Lakes

Cardinal Beetle, Pyrochroa coccinea

Well, I had two delightful surprises on my Wraysbury walk today. The first, as you can see, was a Cardinal Beetle, by no means a common sight any more, and unlike many claimed sightings, seems to be the actual species. I say seems to be, because the antennae were not especially toothy: the detail below shows that the end segments were certainly well toothed, the rest not. So either this was an individual with a slightly aberrant pattern, or it was a closely related species.

Cardinal Beetle – detail of antenna, well toothed at least at the end

The other thing was the warblers. There have been hardly any Chiffchaffs around in the reserve, but today I heard about six of them. They struggled to be heard above a background of Blackcaps with varied songs; and in some spots, a barrage of Garden Warblers as well (mixed with a bit of Blackbird, Robin, Chaffinch, Robin, and Wren). And, just once, the second delightful surprise: a Lesser Whitethroat, with its distinctive trill. So it was a Four Warbler Walk. I listened out carefully for Sedge Warbler, Cetti’s Warbler, and Willow Warbler but there weren’t any singing – the Cetti’s were surely lurking nearby.

Overhead, apart from the planes, were a Buzzard,  gently mobbed by a Carrion Crow, later joined by a circling Sparrowhawk.

The brambles and herbs (from nettles to Comfrey) were being used as perches by a mass of Banded Demoiselles, both the blue males with their glorious dark blue wing-patches, and the more subdued green females. They were joined by a few Common Blue Damselflies, the first of the year for me, as the demoiselles were.

Natural History

A sunny winter’s day at Wraysbury

Muntjac Deer prints (3, 3.5 cm long)

I arrived at Wraysbury with nobody else about, the morning crisp and cold but lovely in the sunshine with no wind.

A dozen Goldeneye were calling their strange growling and trumpeting song, the males chasing about and displaying, throwing their heads back to call and signal. One or two females looked on, from a little distance.

A few Pochard and Great Crested Grebes made up most of the rest of the lake birds, apart from Tufted Ducks and a Black-Headed Gull or two.

The path had been trodden by Muntjac, large and small, not much earlier.

A Song Thrush sang, still a little hesitantly: it’s still Winter.

A small party of Redwings fluttered about in the bushes.

Over Hythe End, a pair of Red Kites circled and drifted along. A Pied Wagtail, the Chiswick bird (which is how its call sounds) sat on a gable end as I ended my walk.

 

Natural History

Displaying Goldeneyes at Wraysbury

Five Goldeneyes: a male is displaying to the (brown-headed) female

It was a glorious winter morning at Wraysbury Lakes. The lakes themselves held few birds, but the Goldeneyes had arrived with the recent cold weather, and the males were giving their fine trumpeting call (they’re not called “clangula” for nothing, the duck with the resounding bell-like music) and displaying, too.

A few herons flapped lazily over the water; a small group of tits hopped through the bushes. My first fieldfares of the winter chack-chacked in the willows and obligingly gave good views of their handsome brown-and-grey plumage.

A sparrowhawk raced very low over the meadow. On the way home, a peregrine falcon perched on a streetlight.

 

Natural History

Bughunters at work – with a rare spider

Anyphaena numida in GT – only the 2nd UK record for this North African spider. Many thanks to Mick Massie for letting me photograph his specimen! This is the female. Mick also caught a male (smaller), so presumably they are breeding here. She certainly looks plumply pregnant.
Entomologists in the Triangle on a beautiful autumn day
Beating Oak leaves for arthropods
Examining the catch