I’d never actually heard a nightingale before – they’re sadly quite a rare thing these days. There is so much history and folklore surrounding these special birds that it seemed almost like we were looking for something out of a myth or legend, and I have to confess that I wasn’t even entirely sure what nightingale song sounded like.
We weren’t disappointed. Within minutes of leaving the car park, we found one in full song – quite an exotic sound, in many ways like the song of a song thrush, but with lots of bubbling phrases, long pauses and rattles. In all, we managed to hear at least three separate males singing, and probably more, and some of the group even managed to get a glimpse of one of them.
As well as the nightingales, there were also many other birds joining in a wonderful evening chorus. The song thrushes were giving the nightingales a run for their money, and blackbirds, wrens, robins, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and the odd willow warbler were not far behind. We spotted a green woodpecker flying over, and a couple of great spotted woodpeckers were flying about and drumming. It was also great to hear the ‘cronking’ of ravens in the background, although the male pheasant that suddenly flew up from under our feet was a bit of a shock!
It was amazing to think that the nightingales, along with the chiffchaffs and willow warblers, were in Africa just a few weeks ago.
While the trees were still just coming into full leaf, the paths around the reserve were lined with glorious wildflowers such as bluebells and greater stitchwort – after lots of recent rain there was also a wonderful rich, earthy smell to the air. Perfect for an evening walk with its musical birdsong accompaniment!
You can view a short clip of the nightingales singing below:
Over Easter I managed to visit family in Kent and take a walk at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, a lovely reserve on the edge of Sevenoaks, owned by the Kent Wildlife Trust. After some glorious warm weather the week before, spring appeared to have been put on hold temporarily, and the day had turned out rather cloudy, dull and chilly.
Fortunately, unlike the weather the wildlife was still busy gearing up for spring – as soon as I got out of my car I was hit by a chorus of song from robins, blackbirds, blackcaps, chiffchaffs, chaffinches and great tits, all busy claiming territories and trying to attract a mate. There was also the occasional drum of a great spotted woodpecker, and I’m pretty sure I also heard the drum of a lesser spotted woodpecker, a species I have yet to see.
(Left: male blackcap; Right – male great spotted woodpecker)
Despite being so close to London, I’m always struck by how much there is to see and how peaceful it is at this small reserve, which was once a commercial gravel pit. There were plenty of birds out on the lakes, including a couple of newly arrived migrants such as little ringed plovers and a number of swallows and house martins. The lapwings were also busy displaying, their characteristic calls providing a backdrop to the afternoon’s birding.
(Top: view across the East Lake; Bottom left + right: little ringed plover)
Although there were a fair number of cars in the car park, I still managed to walk through the woods on the reserve without encountering many other people. There really is nothing like standing in the middle of a wood on your own and just listening – you often suddenly find yourself surrounded by birds! There was a lot of bird song, noise and activity going on, with the beautifully flutey song of blackcaps, lots of mixed tit flocks moving through, the constant “chiff-chaff-chiff-chiff-chaff” of chiffchaffs, quite a few treecreepers creeping their way up the trees, and the gorgeous song of a few song thrushes.
(Left: chiffchaff; Right: song thrush)
I even had this friendly rabbit happily grazing right beside me!
One of the oddest sights of the day was a field full of ewes and lambs behind the reserve, surrounded by a mixture of geese, woodpigeons, corvids, a pheasant and three noisy Egyptian geese which were grazing and walking about alongside them. Egyptian geese aren’t native to the UK, but they do add a bit of colour:
There were also of course lots of ‘regular’ species too, like coots, moorhens, mallards, greylag geese and Canada geese. (I was also quite chuffed to find, on a return visit I managed to make a few days later, a first year white-fronted goose – not something I expected to see there!)
It did feel very like spring was almost there, but still holding back slightly. There were a couple of bluebells starting to come out, and buds and catkins on many of the trees, but most of the trees still looked very wintry and bare, with most still to properly come into leaf.
In the couple of weeks it’s taken me to write this blog (yes, I’ve been a bit slow recently) I expect a lot has changed, and many more of the migrant birds have probably arrived, while others will be well into nesting. Around my local patch in Bristol I’ve now seen and heard the first willow warblers and reed warblers (so great to have them back) and have also spotted small flocks of meadow pipits migrating overhead. The trees and bushes are also looking decidedly more green, with that beautiful lime green of early leaves, and I’ve been lucky enough to watch some nestling song thrushes and blackbirds being ringed, as well as spotting a female mallard with 13 very young and tiny (and, it has to be said, very cute) ducklings.
Now we just need the weather to catch up and be a bit more spring-like!
It’s a funny time of year. Everywhere you look, there are tantalising glimpses of spring being just around the corner – indeed, I was writing the notes for this blog while sitting in the sunshine in the park, with my coat off and surrounded by courting pigeons, blooming daffodils and even the odd bee. I had to sit on a wall because the sudden and unexpected warmth and sun had filled with park and all its free benches with people, all desperate to soak up the best of the weather during their lunch breaks.
It’s also the 1st of March – funny how a mere change of date can make it feel so much more spring-like!
And yet the winter is still very much evident – the trees are all bare, there’s little hint of blossom yet (aside from a few stray blooms that appeared unseasonably early a few months ago), the wintering black-headed gulls are still scrapping over discarded lunches in the park, and there’s still a distinct chill in the air despite the sunshine. It could easily return to icy, cold weather any day, and despite the optimistic T-shirts and ice creams I saw a few hardy people with today I’m definitely not ready to sit out and sunbathe just yet!
The Levels in early spring
This turning of the seasons – not quite winter still, but yet to be properly spring – was very much evident on a walk I took down at Shapwick Heath and RSPB Ham Wall on the Somerset Levels at the weekend. The countryside still has a very wintry feeling – a nip in the air despite glorious sunshine; bare, barren trees that you can’t quite imagine soon having leaves; and plenty of “winter” birds still around, from wildfowl to redwings.
Spring has not quite fully sprung, yet the first promising glimpses are there – the first signs of hope that winter is nearly over. The woods are nowhere near as full of birdsong as they will be in a couple of months, and the trees and reeds on the reserves are conspicously lacking in summer migrants, but the resident birds are all busy gearing up for the breeding season. Mixed tit flocks were busy feeding and calling, while treecreepers, chaffinches, robins, blackbirds and wrens were all singing, and – most exciting for me – the first male bitterns were starting to “boom”; a loud, deep, slightly bizarre sound that lets you know that these elusive and well-camouflaged birds are out there somewhere amongst the reeds.
All the birds are also starting to look very handsome in their breeding plumage, and many were beginning to court and check out nest sites. The insects and invertebrates are starting to appear again too – it was hard to capture on camera, but if you look closely at the photo below you might be able to see the fine gossamer threads of spider silk, floating in the breeze:
It was a good day for birdwatching, particularly as the bare trees makes seeing the birds a bit easier. I also couldn’t get over the intense blue of the sky reflecting off the lakes and ditches! Although I didn’t manage to get many shots of the waterfowl that were about, I did manage to get up close to this little guy – a handsome male goldcrest, who obligingly sat in a bush next to me and preened, showing off the stunning crest that gives this tiny bird its name:
Starlings on the Somerset Levels
One of the main sights I had gone to the Levels to see was the million-strong starling roost that visits the area every winter. I’ve not had that much luck with starlings this year – the last time I went to see the roost on the Levels, the birds decided to move elsewhere and simply flew over our heads, and despite some lovely up-close views of a smaller roost at New Passage, just outside Bristol, a second attempt to see that roost didn’t give much in the way of the spectacular “murmurations” this species is famous for. I did manage to get a few video clips the first time round though so have included one below!
It seems it’s just not my year for starlings, as again at the weekend the roost on the Levels decided to go over Shapwick Heath and Ham Wall, ending up quite far away at the far end of Ham Wall. The birds pretty much went straight down into the reeds, and didn’t put on any sort of aerial display. Still, it was great to see the flocks go past and, albeit through binoculars, to see the sheer number of birds turning the reeds black and looking like thick smoke every time a group rose up from the ground.
I also managed to catch a beautiful sunset, topped off by views of the moon and two planets against a deep blue sky.
I’m sure if I was to go back to the reserves in just a couple of weeks it would all be completely changed again – assuming the wintry weather doesn’t return in the meantime! Hopefully by then it will be more spring than winter, and I look forward to all the new sights and sounds that that will bring.
So… it’s that end of the year time when everyone looks back at the past year, comes up with endless lists of the “Top 10 …….. of 2011″, and starts making their New Year’s resolutions as they look forward to the year ahead. I’ve had a great year in terms of wildlife encounters, in the number of new (and not so new) species I’ve managed to see and photograph, and in the new places I’ve explored, so I thought it was a good time to look back at my favourite wildlife of the past year and review the things I’ve seen and the encounters I’ve been lucky enough to have.
Enjoying the view at Cheddar Gorge!
Species lists
I’ve never really kept a proper, organised list of the species I have seen, and I’ve never been into going out purely with the intention of trying to tick more things off a list. This year, however, I decided to keep at least a rough list of the birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians I spotted.
I’m quite surprised and pleased with the results. With the addition of three new species on the Isle of Sheppey a few days ago, and including birds I have heard calling as well as those I have seen, I have now spotted a total of 148 bird species in 2011. A pretty decent total considering that I live in the middle of a city and, despite plenty of wildlife watching trips, I had not gone anywhere specifically to add to my list!
I wasn’t so consistent with recording mammals, but noted down at least 16 mammal species (including 4 bats), as well as 5 amphibian species and 2 reptiles.
There have also been innumberable insects and other invertebrates – these were a bit harder to keep track of, but did include some great butterflies, dragonflies and beetles, and an intriguing pseudoscorpion which, despite its tiny size, was one of my highlights of the year!
My favourite encounters
It’s quite hard to choose my top wildlife encounters in a year that has included many new and exciting species, but some of my favourite wildlife experiences of the year have to be:
This year I’ve also managed to brush up a bit on my wildlife and photography skills, learning how to identify bats in Somerset with the Somerset Wildlife Trust, and attending a fantastic wildlife photography workshop with Mark Carwardine at Bristol Zoo.
Getting to know the wildlife of the city
It’s not just been wildlife reserves and wild places that I’ve been getting to know. As I think I’ve probably mentioned several times already in this blog, I’m not much of a city person and I much prefer to be out and about in the countryside to being in the concrete jungle. However, I’m starting to learn to appreciate the wildlife that thrives even in the middle of Bristol – I’ve helped with a migration watch from the top of Cabot Tower, and have managed to spot everything from peregrines and ravens to grey wagtails and waxwings during my lunch breaks! I’ve also been loving the antics of the gulls that breed right in the city centre.
In addition to all this, running my own ‘garden bioblitz‘ in my urban back garden helped me to appreciate the smaller creatures that can thrive in the city and the difference that small actions can make in encouraging them – and it also gave me a chance to practice some close-up photography.
The Year Ahead
There are still plenty more UK species and wildlife spectacles that I hope to see in 2012, and I’m currently busy writing a list of my “must-see” wildlife for the coming year.
Hopefully there will be more opportunities to explore new places, as well as to get involved in more wildlife events and to attend things like the Birdfair and the Wildscreen Festival. I have a new bat detector which I’m itching to try out, and there are plenty of other mammals I’d love to spot – wild otters probably being at the top of the list! I’m also hoping to find wild adders, another species which has so far eluded me.
In terms of birds, I have yet to track down the little owls at Portbury Wharf, and there are a few other birds I have also yet to see, such as turtle doves, nightingales and tree sparrows. Although I’ve seen and heard nightjars before, I didn’t manage to go on a nightjar-watching trip this year, so that’s another must for the year ahead.
Also very high on my list is some whale and dolphin watching, which I’d love to combine with visiting seabird colonies. Visiting a red kite feeding station is also high up there!
I also want to look into getting others involved in ‘bioblitzing’ their own gardens and helping to encourage them to do more to attract and support garden wildlife.
So… there seems to be quite a lot for me to do in 2012 – let’s hope it’s as wildlife-packed as the last year has been!
I’d love to know what your favourite wildlife encounter has been in 2011 and what you’d love to see in 2012 – and if you have any tips for the best places to go to spot the species still on my “must-see” list!
I’m hoping to write a proper post over the next day or so giving a round-up of the wildlife I’ve seen and the wildlife adventures I’ve had over the past year. However, I couldn’t resist a final short post on my latest wildlife trip – a raptor and wader spectacular on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent!
View over salt marsh habitat, Isle of Sheppey
Raptor fest
Despite living most of my life in Kent, I’ve never been to the Isle of Sheppey before, and to be honest I didn’t think there was all that much there. It turns out I was very wrong – the island is actually home to a surprising amount of wildlife. Before we had even arrived at our destination we had already spotted a peregrine flying over, and as we got out of the car at Shellness I got my first ever view of a short-eared owl flying low over the salt marsh.
This first sighting was soon followed by a second owl flying right past us (including a magical moment when it turned its head to look straight at us), and a visit to Harty Ferry later in the afternoon gave not one but three more owls, all flying around the car in broad daylight as they hunted for voles around the fields. I felt lucky just to see a single owl so five short-eared owls in the same day – especially three all together at one point, and giving us excellent, close views – was very special. We even got to see two of the owls having a tussle, as well as one owl being chased through the air by a pheasant – not something you see every day!
Short-eared owl in flight, Harty Ferry Road, Isle of Sheppey
Short-eared owl in flight, Isle of Sheppey
It wasn’t only short-eared owls that were out and about hunting for voles and other small animals – in addition to the peregrine we had spotted earlier, we were also treated to great views of several male and female marsh harriers, plus a female hen harrier and a couple of kestrels. I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite so many raptors all in the same place in the space of just a few hours!
Wonderful waders and farmland birds
Sheppey is not just a great place for raptors. The fields around Harty Ferry were also full of what for me were quite unexpected farmland birds such as red-legged partridges and corn buntings, and we also spotted pheasants, reed buntings, meadow pipits, lapwings and water birds such as moorhens, grey herons, mute swans and a little egret. There were also plenty of rabbits and voles (we spotted one running across a path in front of us), and signs of hares and hedgehogs, although the ones we saw had sadly been hit by cars.
Despite being a grey day it was unusually mild and still, so the sea around Sheerness was exceptionally calm, making it easy to spot lots of ducks, cormorants, gulls and other birds around the shore – including my first common scoters out at sea. There were also large numbers of brent geese in nearby fields, and small flocks of turnstones quietly feeding along the shore just metres away from us. I also got my first proper close-up views of sanderlings.
Turnstone on the shore, Isle of Sheppey
Turnstones, Isle of Sheppey
High tide
The tide was in, and this had pushed a lot of waders high up onto the beach – further along at Shellness we came across huge numbers of oystercatchers and other waders packed together on the shore. Interestingly, the different species were sticking together in their own groups, turning half of the beach black with oystercatchers while the other half was grey with a mixture of dunlin and knot, interspersed with slightly larger grey plovers, and with a line of bar-tailed godwits along the edge:
Waders on the beach, Isle of Sheppey - the black mass at the back is oystercatchers; the grey mass towards the front is a mixture of knot, dunlin and other waders
The incoming tide occasionally sent a wave of dunlin, knot and plovers into the air as they were forced further up the beach, but otherwise the flocks were quite calm and not too bothered by a few distant marsh harriers. The waders were obviously on the menu for some of the local raptors though, as we came across at least two carcasses nearby.
Waders in flight, Isle of Sheppey. The grey plovers can be distinguished by their slightly larger size and dark 'armpits'.
Wader flock in flight, Isle of Sheppey
All in all I couldn’t have asked for a better end to the birding year – at least three new species to add to my bird list and some of the best views of owls I’ve ever had. Now that I know how much there is to see on Sheppey I’m sure I’ll be back!
I am not a big fan of winter. I like snow, but I don’t do well in the cold and dark, and would be more than happy to have hot sunshine all year round. However, in recent years I’ve come to realise that while winter wildlife watching may involve plenty of layers, frozen extremities and the challenge of using binoculars with gloved hands, it actually offers some of the year’s best birdwatching opportunities.
With this in mind, over the past few weeks I’ve been trying to defy the cold and dark to get out and enjoy some of the wildlife spectacles that winter has to offer. So far, I’ve been surrounded by owls at Portbury Wharf in Bristol, seen the first Bewick’s swans and other migratory wildfowl arrive at WWT Slimbridge, watched a peaceful pastel sunset over Chew Valley Lake and seen starlings, deer and winter thrushes at RSPB Ham Wall reserve in Somerset. And the weekend before last I got the chance to travel down to Devon to see some less familiar bird species on one of the RSPB’s “Avocet Cruises” on the River Exe.
Avocets on the Exe
A beautifully dainty black and white wading bird with a distinct up-curved beak, the avocet is the emblem of the RSPB and a conservation success story, having made a comeback from near extinction in the UK in the mid 1900s. The Exe Estuary in Devon is a great place to see large numbers of this elegant bird, and every year the RSPB runs a series of cruises around the estuary with great opportunities to watch them. The estuary is also home to thousands of other wintering birds, including gulls, geese, ducks and a variety of waders, so it’s also a great opportunity to see a variety of interesting species. With luck you can even spot the local grey seals!
Led by Ed Drewitt and wildlife TV presenter Nick Baker, the trip I joined was part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Avocet cruises, which are one of the RSPB’s “Date with Nature” projects that aim to get people watching wildlife across the UK. More details on the cruises and how to book can be found on the RSPB’s website at http://www.rspb.org.uk/datewithnature/146928-avocet-cruises.
Winter sunshine
The weather on my trip was glorious – a little chilly, but perfect winter sunshine followed by a gentle pastel sunset. As well as the avocets, we managed to spot cormorants, shags, red-breasted mergansers, brent geese, curlews, dunlin, oystercatchers and even a couple of goldeneye.
(Clockwise from top left: avocet; avocets in flight; red-breasted mergansers in flight; shags)
There were plenty of gulls too, including black-headed, common, herring and great black-backed. Many of the gulls were flying up with shellfish which they were then dropping to the ground, to break open the shells:
Great black-backed gull
Black-headed gull in flight
And yes, we did even manage to see a grey seal – this is not the best seal shot ever, but it did give us some good views and eventually surfaced with a large flatfish in its mouth! -
The trip was topped off with a beautiful sunset, a great end to a bird-packed day.
The next adventures…
Despite managing to go birdwatching somewhere different every weekend for about the last six weeks, I’ve still not run out of winter sights I want to see – I definitely need to make a second attempt at watching a starling murmuration as on my trip to Ham Wall they decided to switch roost sites and go somewhere else! I also want to get back to Slimbridge now the numbers of Bewick’s swans and other species have started to build up, and if we get some colder weather I’m sure there will be lots of new photo opportunities to be had. There are also a few species I have yet to see, so at some point I may be trying to track down short-eared owls or even the elusive bittern!
I will just have to start learning how to move about in hundreds of layers and how to stop my binoculars steaming up when they get cold, because getting out and about is definitely the perfect way to beat the winter blues!
Last weekend, I decided to take a trip up to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire with my friend Ed Drewitt, to try and get some shots of autumnal leaves.
However, setting out in shorts and T-shirt in near 28 degree heat, it was clear I was not going to get the photos I had envisioned – the sun shining through a myriad of red, yellow and orange leaves, hopefully with some atmospheric mist and perhaps some autumnal dew on the ground. It seemed the trees were also unaware that it was the start of October, as for the most part they were still resolutely green, with only the yellowing bracken and occasional fungi hinting that it was not, as the weather was suggesting, late August.
The trees, not quite looking autumnal yet!
Despite the lack of an autumnal feel, it was still a glorious day, and strolling through dappled light near Cannop Ponds it was also very peaceful – despite the large number of cyclists hurtling down the path and noisy squirrels in nearly every tree! Those leaves that had started to turn were floating down from the canopy in a gentle flurry, but still contrasting with the unusual weather and the summery chirr of grasshoppers.
Although relatively quiet, there were plenty of great birds around, including my first ever marsh tits, plus nuthatches, goldcrests, siskins and some beautiful robin song. The last time I visited the Forest of Dean, back in the early summer, there were summer migrants everywhere, including swallows, warblers and flycatchers, plus some new species to me such as firecrests and crossbills – it’s definitely a magical place.
After a brief stop at a local view point, we decided to drop in briefly at RSPB Nagshead Reserve… and managed to go on to have possibly one of the best wildlife encounters of my life!
Wild boar adventure
I knew there were wild boar living in the Forest, and there were clear signs of them all around Nagshead – the road verges and even the car park at the reserve have all been churned over by their activity. We had been planning for some time to try and get to the reserve one day after dusk or in the very early morning in the hope of staking the place out and hopefully getting a glimpse of a boar, but didn’t really expect that on a sunny afternoon we would stand much chance of seeing one – especially as I’ve read of other people who have spent days if not weeks trying to get close to them. I would have happily settled for even a fleeting glimpse of one running across the road!
As we headed into the woods, there were even clearer signs of the boars, and we could smell the fresh earth they had been turning over beside the path – clearly they had passed that way recently.
Soil turned over by wild boar
Wild boar prints
Even so, I was not really expecting, as we walked along chatting, that Ed would suddenly stop and call out “wild boar!” – nor that there would be a large adult boar standing right amongst the trees ahead of us!
Trying not to move or even to breathe too loudly, we watched as she sniffed the air and looked right at us, me cursing the fact that the long lens was not ready on my camera. After a brief pause, the boar slowly carried along on her way, soon followed by several more animals. Hearts racing, we slowly crept along the path in the hope that they might cross it ahead of us. Thankfully, they did, but then scooted under a fence and headed away down a hill.
Ed guessed – correctly – that the family had gone down to a stream to drink, so we crept as quickly but as quietly as we could around and down onto a lower path to try and catch up with them. Unfortunately, a couple walking past had frightened the boars back amongst the trees (we never did work out if the couple realised what they had walked straight past!), but as soon as they had passed we were treated to the wonderful sight of eight boars on the path barely 20 metres in front of us, calmly tucking into acorns amidst occasional sniffs, snorts and squeals, and constantly swishing tails.
The boar clearly knew we were there, as they occasionally looked up at us, and we were soon able to stand in full view, talk and take pictures – as long as we were quiet, made no sudden movements and kept a respectful distance they didn’t seem too concerned. We even had to back off at one point as the adult female (we think it was a female with large young) starting sauntering up the path towards us – she seemed to just be curious but we decided it was better to be cautious and treat her with respect!
Thankfully remembering that my camera has a movie mode, I was able to get a few short clips of the boar, and Ed was even able to give some commentary – I’ve given the links below. I was a bit disappointed that the photos didn’t come out better, but I struggled a bit with the low light and the fact I was so excited that my hands were somewhat shaky!
After treating us to their peaceful feeding bout, the boar eventually moved off into the forest, while we both went home still bouncing with adrenaline from the encounter. It was totally unexpected, and has to be one of the best encounters I’ve had with a wild British mammal. Wild boar are controversial and not everyone likes having them back in our countryside, but I for one think it’s a great thing.
Hopefully all the crazy fuss over the #buzzard cull will raise the profile of these beautiful birds. I only saw my 1st buzzard in my 20s... 16 hours ago
The other week I was lucky enough to join a Bristol Naturalists’ Society walk to RSPB Highnam Woods in Gloucestershire in search of that master of song, the nightingale.
As well as the nightingales, there were also many other birds joining in a wonderful evening chorus. The song thrushes were giving the nightingales a run for their money, and blackbirds, wrens, robins, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and the odd willow warbler were not far behind. We spotted a green woodpecker flying over, and a couple of great spotted woodpeckers were flying about and drumming. It was also great to hear the ‘cronking’ of ravens in the background, although the male pheasant that suddenly flew up from under our feet was a bit of a shock!
