Wednesday 10th June 2015 FLOWER QUIZ

Hi, taken a day off from house sorting and packing so here are some flowers/plants to identify use the comments box to reply or use the contact page on my website
nativewildliferesearschandnaturallesvos.com. Plus some cute Lapwings

Sunday 7th June 2015

Today saw me out with the team from the North Wilts Ringing Group  (NWRG), for the fourth CES session of the season, a 4am start on site and it was already light!!

Much quieter today we think that the poor weather in May has had a negative effect on the early nesters, the beauty of the CES science is that it can monitor such an event.

There were a few highlights with young Robins, Dunnocks and Great Tits evident plus smart, recently fledged, Greenfinch, Reed Warbler and a family of four Chiffchaffs and best of all a Lesser Whitethroat which had clearly left the nest this morning.

Lesser Whitethroats are remarkable warblers spending the summers in the UK and Europe then migrating south of the Sahara for the winter, the entire world population is thought to follow the eastern Mediterranean coast into Israel/Jordan before hitting Africa... amazing

Tree Creeper fledgling

Reed Warbler Fledgling



Common Blue butterfly, female



Slow Worm, female

Lesser Whitethroat fledgling

Saturday 6th June 2015

Nest Boxes Upper Thames Valley, that's what I did this morning accompanied by my good friend Nick.

Due to other commitments I've missed the Tit broods that I hadn't ringed which is a shame but it does look like the majority fledged ok, however one box which originally had 10 nestlings was not so lucky, four had died within days of hatching, one had died with days of fledging and the remaining five I can only guess exited the nest safely.

What was great to see was that the Sparrows had nested again, I only hope they are the Tree Sparrows we are trying to save, and not the House Sparrows who have plenty of other nesting sites around the farms to use, since the eggs and small young look similar we don't confirm identity until we are 100% certain.

We managed to ring two stock dove squabs (that's what young of the pigeon family are called) which was good, they are however quite dirty nesters and the first handful I grabbed was not a bird but a pile of sticky poo; nice!

It wasn't all birds and in less than perfect conditions, (it was windy) we found a few damselflies on the wing, Large Red Damsel, and Common Blue, we also found a stunning Hornet in one of the boxes and I wasn't about to poke it to turn around so its a "bum," shot.

Large Red Damsel

Common Blue Damsel

Hornet

Thursday 4th June 2015

Due to a technical difficulty, no ladder!, I was unable to visit the nest boxes in the Upper Thames Valley today, so I decided to carry on with a survey I started on a piece of Calcareous grassland in the Cotswolds.


Cow Parsley

Quaking Grass

The weather at last seems to have turned a corner and it was pleasure to be out, although still too early for the main flush of Orchids there were signs of Common Spotted and Greater Butterfly and Common Twayblade orchids, as well as Field Forget-me-Not, Horseshoe Vetch, Germander Speedwell and Meadow Buttercup.


    

Field Forget-me-Not
 
 
 
 
 
 

Greater Butterfly Orchid
 
 
 

Garden Chafer
 
 

Kidney Vetch
 
 

 
 Lapwing, once a common nesting bird on many farms, often seen in flocks during the winter months.
 



Wednesday 3rd June 2015

Not much going on today, still house hunting so organising viewings has been the priority.

I did notice the Blue Tits were being particularly noisy and when I looked it was clear they are soon going to fledge the nest and take their chances in the garden.

I had planned to ring them but with the weather having been so cool and windy I left them, and its too late now!!!

Tuesday 2nd June 2015

Spent Monday and Tuesday at Acorn Ecology, in Exeter Devon on a protected species surveying techniques course.

Despite the weather cancelling a planned bat walk/survey the two days went well with Otter, Badger, Dormouse, Bats and all the Reptiles being covered off.

The reptile session included looking under "reptile mats" for the little critters where we found two Slow worms and a Grass Snake given the weather I think we did well.

The Dormouse exercise involved checking nesting tubes, to everyone's surprise one of the tubes contained a part built Dormouse nest (the tubes have been in place for three years and this was the first time one had shown any signs of occupancy).

Saturday 30th May 2015

We have been house hunting today in Wales, with little success, as for the next few days I am away on an European Protected Species (EPS) surveying course in Exeter so no blog until Wednesday I guess.