If I were as avid a bird-watcher as some, I would be resetting my year list and starting a new one for 2010. I don’t do yearly lists any more, but nevertheless just for the record I decided to go for a bimble to see what I could see on this third day of the New Year.

I started out in Poor park woods and then made my way across the fields at the back of my house. What I saw nearly made me start up my birding lists again.

Apart from the normal great tits, blue tits, starlings, fieldfares, blackbirds, robins, wrens and redwings I saw a coal tit and tree-creeper.

As I walked along one of the fences, I stood with mouth wide open as a barn owl (this was at 12 mid-day) fly along the fence line and then turn north out of sight.  Alas no photo.

Before I left the woods I spotted this fallow deer being swallowed by a tree…

…and this fox sunning himself by the edge of the field.

The temperature in the woods didn’t rise above -2C which made the mutjac and badger prints stand out well as they were incased in ice. In fact, I followed some badger tracks back to an old sett which I thought was disused. There was obvious recent activity which was pleasing to note.

On the way back I glimpsed in a nearby field and saw not one, not two but three herons.

Amazingly, a buzzard flew down from a tree but, after a short staring match with one of the herons, it wandered off out of sight.

All in all I thought that my sightings deserved some form of praise and recognition so I phoned up my birding mate Big Dave, only to remember he was in Morocco – bird watching!

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

Although I like padding around my local woods and getting to know it intimately, I also like to explore new areas. There’s quite a few nooks and crannies which are not obvious, being hidden away in some corner of the countryside.

My mate Dave (of birding fame) gave me a tip to check out an area not far from where I live. I didn’t quite believe him when he said it was a Nature Reserve, but nevertheless, I set out late Saturday morning to find the place.

As described, the area was hidden away at the rear of a housing estate and comprised of some small disused gravel pits and some pathways around them, complete with a grassed picnic area. I shuddered at the sight of the picnic benches and galvanised steel dustbins chained to trees and imagined the cacophony of screaming and shouting people on a fine summers day. You never know though. It may well be hidden enough away for only locals to be aware of it. For now, the place was mine alone.

I tried to find an area off the paths to make my lunch, but soon realised that the paths were so close together that this was quite difficult. This really was a small area, but I was warming to it as I eventually found a spot overlooking one of the larger ponds.

Dave had said he had seen kingfishers in the area, so I kept my camera close. Alas, I only saw the resident mallards struggling to walk on the still frozen smaller ponds, and a pair of grey wagtails.

I sparked up the my bushbuddy with the Trangia burner adaption and settled down to devour some scrambled egg.

I had walked around the reserve twice when the adventurous spirit really took over, and I followed a public footpath by the side of a field which took me close to some woods. I couldn’t help but nip in and out of the woods to see what was going on and a good track trap showed roe, fallow, fox and badger.

At the bottom of the valley, I came across a bit of a surprise. It was a beautiful lake complete with swans. Because of the green vegetation floating on the top (and because the photo was taken in summer) the satellite picture showed it as a paler green field. The name “Sparrows Pond” was also deceiving as it was quite a large lake (by UK standards that is.)

More surprises followed as at one end of the lake there was a small dam which gushed water into a fast flowing stream and, after walking along the lake’s south side, I discovered an old bridge across the lake. This appeared to be constructed as an ornamental bridge in better days and the whole lake complex must have formed part of the estate of the nearby medieval hall.

A track from the bridge brought me almost full circle back to the nature reserve.

This is certainly a hidden gem. I could imagine the place teeming with wildlife in the spring and summer and certainly worth another visit. It would also be worthwhile finding out the landowner for permission to spend some more time exploring the woods.

Thanks for the visit.

My post of 10th March bemoaned the fact that there was very little sign of spring in the UK woodlands.  However, I can now report that these signs have arrived and furthermore I can declare winter over and spring has now sprung (despite what others define as the official date for the first day of spring).

I can base this reasoning on several facts. Firstly, bluebells are pushing their way through the woodland floor and catkins are becoming visible on the trees. This last week has been quite warm with temperatures in the teens, culminating in a glorious early spring day, yesterday, with bright sunshine. I recorded the temperature at 3pm as 15 degrees C. My humble calculations suggest that spring in the UK has arrived this year about 3 weeks later that last year.

On Sunday morning I went ‘bird-catching’ (as I call it) with Big Dave and Ken who is an official bird-ringer for this part of Essex. While I was there they ringed 2 Great tits, a Dunnock, a tree-creeper, a chiff-chaff and a couple of blackbirds. I’ll describe the process and a little bit more about bird-ringing in a separate post.

The second spring fact is that there is much more bird activity which may be an obvious sign of spring but there are also a couple of facts that you couldn’t tell unless you were involved in bird-ringing.

The first is that a number of birds caught (particularly Dunnocks) have been recorded during the winter in gardens. Now the warmer weather has arrived with the additional availability of food, they have now moved to the more natural woodland areas. I think that fact speaks for itself .

Also, the female birds caught have now begun to show a brood patch. This is where the feathers have thinned out on the female bird’s underside which will shortly be engorged with blood vessels. This will assist in incubating the eggs by providing additional warmth.

The second part of Sunday was spent in Lowt’s wood. Apart from bird activity, it was quite quiet. I almost stumbled on a single fallow doe and and later a muntjac but that was about it. There was quite a lot of squirrel activity as they chased each other around the tree trunks.

The final reason I know spring is here is by my own reaction to spring in the the UK woodlands. After lunch I fell soundly asleep on the woodland floor!

Thanks for the visit.

I’ve set myself a bit of a challenge in the last few weeks. Instead of the normal pictures of spring, I wanted to photograph one species of each category of mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile, wildflower, butterfly in a spring setting, but one of each species that you don’t see too often. I gave myself a deadline of today.

Initially, I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew, but looking back, I’ve actually not done too bad. Unfortunately, the only one I couldn’t ‘collect’ was the reptile. The weather just hasn’t been warm enough for them to sun themselves. It’s still a little too early for dragonflies around this area as well.

I was worried that I would be stuck with the usual picture of a deer for the mammal category until, as luck would have it, we had a visitor to the garden yesterday and I managed to snap this little Bank vole eating some seeds.

The piece de resistance came when I photographed what I thought was a slightly different form of cowslip in Park Woods. When I showed it to our wildflower expert from Essex Wildlife Trust, he identified it as an oxlip. This is now a scarce flower and only found in this area of the East of England. The flowers are bigger and paler than the cowslip and haven’t got the predominant red dots inside the flower. I’ve since identified quite a few patches around the locality.

Erratum: The previously posted picture was of a cowslip which is very similar. The picture above is definitely an oxlip.

I was lucky to photograph this Sawfly lifting off from some Lesser stitchwort and together with the ladybirds, I deemed that to satisfy the criteria for the insect category.

The pendulous sedge isn’t at all scarce but is a good indicator of ancient woodland.

As for the choice of birds, I opted for this newly hatched wren. The nest has been made inside an unused external electrical box. Don’t worry, the electricity is off.

I’ve combined amphibians and pond life. There’s literally thousands of tadpoles in this large puddle.

I saw this Common frog not too far from the puddle. I think it’s still quite young and was very pale.

Not a great picture of a Speckled wood butterfly.

Bill and I have had great fun on this quest. Most of the time he’s come along and seems to have developed a nose for unusual events.

He spotted this young rook that had fallen out of the rookery.

If the rook remains hidden, he may well stay out of the foxes reach until he’s strong enough to fly.

Thanks for the visit.

I’m off to Wiltshire this weekend helping out Max Maxwell of Shadowhawk on a tracking course. This one’s a man-tracking course for the UK Lowland Search institute.

We finish the course on Sunday and I drive to Gatwick to meet Mrs P and we’re off to the Mediterranean for a week’s break.

Last time I was there, I did some underwater tracking and came face to face with an octopus (read post). This time I’m going armed to do some serious fishing and a bit of snorkelling.

The pictures are of our local Lapwings. There are about 6 pairs on the fields around the area. Unfortunately, I found 3 dead chicks but there are others about.

They nest on the ground which makes them very vulnerable but camouflage and stillness is quite a good defence. You have to look very hard to spot them.

Obviously, I don’t hang around too long as the parents get very distressed and can abandon the chicks.

I’ve also found some more Oxlip clusters. These are getting past their sell-by date, but they still make a good picture. We are extremely lucky here as these plants are very, very scarce.

I will update this blog when I can but it might be best to keep an eye out for the mini-blog on the left (Twitter) to see what I’m up to.

Until next time.

Pablo.

Here’s some random events that’s happened in the last week either in my garden or very close to it …

Ever seen a white-winged crow? Well, here it is. My mate Dave phoned me up after he caught and ringed it. It’s not injured, just too young to fly. He was last seen attempting a take-off on the local disused runway!

What do you mean – who’s got the bigger beak? This baby rook crash-landed in the garden. He seemed ok until, after this pic was taken, the local pheasant decided to try and stamp on him. Billy chased off the pheasant and despite what looked like a broken leg, the rook managed to become airborne again.

This guy must have escaped from a local farm. Good job I’ve had my Sunday dinner.

Oxeye daisies in my garden.

Field Mouse ear in a nearby meadow

Vetch

Oxeye daisies

Blue tit nesting in the garden.

This rabbit met an untimely end. The puncture marks at the back of the neck are typical of a killing bite of a stoat or weasel. It shows that either or both are in the vicinity. A crow has started on the back end before I disturbed it.

The crops are at an ideal height to remain hidden from fallow deer in the local field.

Talking of fallow deer, don’t forget to buy the latest Bushcraft and Survival Mag. We’re on the cover…

…and inside of course!!

More flowers – cinqfoil [edit: Silverweed - thanks Laplander]

Birds-foot trefoil

Herb bennet or wood avens

Even if you don’t like football, the World Cup is certainly sparking  national fervour. Billy joins in of course, although his ancestors are from the Mediterranean and he comes from Wales.

We probably haven’t got a cat (don’t say it too loud) in hell’s chance of winning – but it’s fun watching the games.

I hope you have a great week.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

It was a very blustery day today; the sort of day where you keep to the outskirts of the woods, which is exactly what I did.

I walked around the outside of Park Wood, my nearest wood. I guessed that the recent rains would provide some tracks. This little wood doesn;t have a great deal of mammal activity but there was bound to be something.

As suspected I picked up rabbit prints…

… and two lots of muntjac. The second set of tracks was considerably smaller and I managed to track it slipping about on the mud for about 20 meters before I lost it. The only mammal activity I actually saw was a squirrel.

A kestrel was making the most of the strong northerly wind but needed to come down often to rest.

The woodland edges provides for many plants. Water mint, great willowherb, rosebay willowherb, teasel…

…scarlet pimpernel, burdock, silverweed and thistle…

… and the associated butterflies like gatekeepers, speckled woods and cabbage whites.

My best sighting of the day was this wonderful brown hawker (A. grandis). I thought it was a bit odd seeing this at the woodland edge where there’s little water, but apparently they like to hunt here as opposed to rivers and ponds.

I’m off to the Wilderness Gathering on Thursday. I’ll send updates via Twitter (on the left). Let’s hope the weather stays fine.

Thanks for the visit.