Wildlife

James Lowen

Ironically for a birding trip, we fared better with insects. Small Coppers were everywhere when the sun shone, and typically pugnacious. Day-flying moths included a few Cinnabars and a Yellow Belle. My first Odonata of the year were a Hairy Hawker, two Large Red Damselflies and my earliest ever Common Blue Damselfly. Small mercies...

27 April 2014 General birding at Dungeness

Over recent years, the naturalist in me has grown much larger than the birder. But there are periods in the year where the birder turns the tables.

Spring migration - when the weather conditions are right - is one such period. And today held much promise. A south-easterly wind, with clear conditions on the continent but pre-dawn rain and low cloud over the Kent coast. This was sufficient to coax Dave Gandy, visiting from Bangkok, and myself to Dungeness. Dave's jetlag and my 'pre-tick tension' enabled us to have a stupidly early start, such that we were on the coast as the sky paled, full of optimism and energy.

Error. There was very little migration of note. Indeed, the only surefire passerine migrant we found on land was a single skulking Chiffchaff. Failure - and abject at that. As is the case at Dungeness, we nevertheless had a decent day. A pair of Black-winged Stilts were the highlight, followed by an abundance of terns that included two Black and one Little. Singing Sedge Warblers and Whitethroats held territories at a remarkable density. A handful of Arctic Skuas beetled their way eastwards past the Point, and a Black-throated Diver popped up offshore. But, overall, a long way short of expectations.

21 April 2014 Pasqueflower

Easter = Pascua = Paques. And thus, appropriately, today was about Pasqueflowers. One of (if not the) finest British colonies of this rare and beautiful bloom is at Therfield Heath, near Royston in Hertfordshire. The north slope of the chalk escarpment was covered with Cowslips, leaving the south slope as the purview of Pasqueflowers.

My only previous experience of this species was of clumps that had almost entirely gone over in June last year, at the Newmarket Lizard Orchid site (right). Understandably, then, today's sight of hundreds of these intense purple and yellow flowers atop the shortest of turf was greatly appreciated. Gorgeous. Once again, Happy Easter!

20 April 2014 Stop press!

Happy Easter! The May issue of Wild Travel magazine has been published and contains two of my articles. First, the regular monthly feature on a wildlife weekend: this time 'Fantastic fish and fishers' in mid-Wales. Second, a cover article on the Esteros de Ibera in northern Argentina; that country's 'wet and wild' answer to the Pantanalof Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. Copies of the articles are now on the relevant section of my Media page.

19 April 2014 A mammal quartet

Kent has been kind this week. After my first Orange Tip and Garden Warbler of spring at Sissinghurst, I have wandered the Downs on successive sunny days. Adders are becoming more elusive, the adult males having sloughed and (probably) mated. So only a couple of young males made themselves known: the one in the photograph below is a sub-adult, and was barely the size of a Slow Worm. As for the yearling juvenile I saw later, that was barely the dimensions of a worm! I jest (a little), but confess to surprise at these youngsters' (lack of) stature.

Plenty of Slow Worms were around, and a couple of Common Lizards too. Butterflies were on the go, with Small Heath and Green Hairstreak new for the year, plus Grizzled Skipper, Brimstone and Orange Tip. Burnet Companions formed the identifiable day-flying moth contingent. The highlight, however, was mammalian. In a single hour, I racked up decent views of Common Shrew, Bank Vole, Short-tailed Vole and Wood Mouse. Perhaps they felt safe given the absence of serpents...

15 April 2014 Stop press!

This weekend's Independent on Sunday carried its monthly extract from 52 wildlife weekends. For April it chose South Devon - where Sand Crocus and Sand Lizard vie for your attentions with rockpooling and Cirl Buntings.

10 April 2014 Bluebelle amidst the Bluebells

A quick pootle onto the Kent Downs at Trosley country park today. A wan sun took the edge off the windchill, and I confess to fairly soggy perspiration as I yomped up, down and back up Trosley's steep chalk escarpment. Rewards came from seeing very fresh Grizzled and Dingy Skippers; the earliest I have ever encountered them. Several Slow Worms were warming themselves under felt refuges, but I failed to track down my principal quarry of Adder. Bluebells put on a decent show, and I took advantage to stash our very own Bluebelle in their midst.

13 April 2014 The beast of Dungeness

A fun day at Dungeness in Kent yesterday... up until news broke that the Flamborough Crag Martin had been relocated. This extreme rarity was found on Friday but disappeared about lunchtime. Plans to travel overnight were abandoned and the exeat switched to a day's wildlife-ing with Dave Capper. Not the best move, as it transpired.

Dunge was surprisingly devoid of summer migrants, with just a Lesser Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler and three Swallows of note. The Hume's Leaf Warbler called a few times and showed in flight (only). The Early Purple Orchids were still largely in bud, but were being guarded by three Small Coppers. Dave and I never luck out with scarce gulls at Dunge: it's a standing joke that we never see either Glaucous or Caspian Gulls on our trips to this remarkable national nature reserve. This time, however, was different. We bumped into Mick Southcott and Richard Green. These gullnuts come well equipped, with fish heads and entrails to accompany loaf upon loaf of sliced white. This soon attracted The Beast of Dungeness, aka the overwintering whippersnapper of a Glaucous Gull. The light was hardly brilliant (Mick didn't take a single frame) but something about beggars and choosers springs to mind...

8 April 2014

A fun hour or two trekking the north Kent Downs today, looking for Adders. I had five encounters with probably four separate males. All allowed themselves to be photographed, but only one posed for longer than a few seconds. But did it pose?!

I also met Rick Hodges, a herpetologist who has been studying Adders at this site for several years. And met Fred, who writes the excellent 'Greenie in the wild' blog, which focuses on wildlife around the South Downs of Surrey and Kent.

9 April 2014 Bathroom moth

I have yet to really indulge in moth-ing but that may change once we move to Norfolk and I have the space and seclusion to trap in the garden. In the meantime, I am restricted to ad-hoc explorations of these insects' untrammeled beauty. This is a Many-plumed Moth Alucita hexadactyla that frequented our bathroom mirror. A fun surface for a portrait.

5 April 2014

One of my favourite spring critters has emerged: Large Bee-Fly. I photographed this one as it was suspended a few foot off the ground. Was it checking me out rather than vice versa?

WILDLIFE BLOG

April 2014