Paul's Blog - All comments and views are my own,

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; n

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.    

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!!!

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).

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.

This morning was looking like a good time to do a spot of birding, ok I go birding every week!!! I went down to Slimbridge WWT, and was in the hides by 08:10hrs, when I went to the Robbie Garnett hide there was nothing to note within seconds a chap in the hide asked "is that a phalarope", a quick scan saw the unmistakable spinning action of a small bird on the water, a female Red Necked Phalarope, I managed a few seconds of video and a dodgy photo before the bird was chased off, now how do I upload the video onto my blog? Mmmm no idea so instead here's a dodgy photo, you can view the video on my Facebook page. Later in the morning I joined one of the twice daily Landrover safaris to parts of Slimbridge that usually only the staff visit, we had great views of Hobbies and  breeding Redshank, plus a female Common Blue butterfly but very few dragonflies as it was cool and windy.

Today I went out to Lackham College near Chippenham to help one of the North Wiltshire Ringing Group team to ring seven Nuthatch nestlings, it was great to see these birds using a nest box within 30ft of the kitchen window, sorry no photo? I forgot to take one. I did a spot of "weeding" this afternoon in the gravel court yard area of the garden and I pulled out this.. . nature is amazing, a Hazel seedling still with the seed nut attached.