Wildfowl, Wasps and a few Butterflies

Bird News: Ibsley Water -green sandpiper 2, black-necked grebe 1, pintail 1 drake, hobby 1.

Rockford Lake - common tern 1 juvenile.

Ibsley North Lake - greenshank 1.

Dockens Water Woodland - crossbill 2+

We did the first waterbird count of the "winter" today, no great surprises, although on Iblsey Water 866 coot were notable as were 58 little grebe, although they are so hard to count that this will have been a fair bit fewer than were actually present.

The weather was fabulous, if a bit too hot and humid. The sun shone from the start, a real reminder of summer, or at least what we might have hoped for in summer but actually got in spring. That it was actually autumn was plain from the fungi sprouting all over the place, I found the ones below on the trunk of a cherry plum, they are vaguely like a hoof fungus, but I don't think that is what they are.

As I went between the lakes I also came across the bird of the day, which was crossbill, or probably crossbills, calling in the top of a tree along the Dockens Water path. I was on the edge of the lichen heath at the time investigating some nesting holes of a Colletes bee, the picture I got was of a wasp though, it seemed to be digging a nest hole. Only when I looked at the picture did I notice the fly beside it, I suspect it is the wasp's prey and there to provision the nesting hole, but that is just a guess.

There were also fungi out on the heath including the one below that looks like it belongs on a flower-pot man's head (ask your granny).

The sun brought out a few butterflies, there have been very few about recently, but today I saw red admiral, speckled wood, a very late meadow brown and the small copper below.

The butterflies that are out and about do not have much choice of flowers to nectar from, I found a few heath speedwell flowering.

One or two mid summer species are flowering again, a little anyway, one of these is the ox-eye daisy, I even saw a foxglove with a few flowers the other day.

I have not totalled all the counts yet but here are a few of the totals for all the counted lakes:

Coot 1555, little grebe 77, wigeon 54, tufted duck 186.

A Tern, a Grebe and a Slug

Bird News: Ibsley Water - black tern the adult still at least in the morning, ruff 1 juv, knot 1, dunlin 2, ringed plover 1 juv, common sandpiper 1, black-necked grebe 1, sand martin c1200, house martin c500, swallow c200, wigeon 9.

Ivy Lake - green sandpiper 2, water rail 1, wigeon 10.

Not much change in the birds of late, although this does mean there is a good range of species. The high numbers of martins have really been a feature of this autumn and they continue to swarm over Ibsley Water, strictly the sand martins and swallows are over the lake and the house martins over the trees beside the lake. When I opened the Ivy North hide I was greeted by one of those scenes you sometimes see of "Birds you can see from here" an assemblage that you never actually seem to see, but today I did. Just below the hide 2 green sandpiper were feeding with a kingfisher perched on a reed mace stem just above them, when a water rail ran out and stopped briefly beside the sandpipers.

Less appealing, at least to most, was the very fine slug I found crossing the path to the Ivy South hide, it was the common slug Arion ater.

We were working beside Ivy Lake again today, clearing yet more of the willows that have invaded the shallows, this will be the last session as tomorrow I am getting the stumps dug out, just in time as the lake level is rising as the water pumped out slowly returns from Blashford Lake. The pictures show before we started this morning.

Followed by the view at the end of the day, it is wonderful what five volunteers and me and my chainsaw can do in a day. In fact we cleared so far that I could not get it all in shot, but you get the idea. Hopefully the reeds will spread back into the cleared area over the next few years to give us a valuable new area of habitat.

Three Gulls, Three Grebes and a Peacock

A sunny, cold start, I had hoped the wind had died down as it was almost calm at dawn, however the wind still blew strongly over Ibsley water as I opened up. The coot below was feeding outside the Tern hide, it was facing downwind blowing the feathers up, which must have been cold.
The dipping pond at the Centre was iced over as were areas of Ivy Lake outside the Ivy North hide. On the silt pond near the Ivy South hide a pair of tufted duck were looking fine in the sunshine, the drake had a very fine "tuft" and was really living up to the name. Whilst watching them I heard a calling lesser spotted woodpecker, the third day in a row I have recorded this species, in fact I heard all three woodpecker species in the space of a couple of minutes.

After my failure at getting a picture of brambling yesterday, I tried with chaffinch today, slightly better, but it still kept turning towards me so the eye was in shadow.

Having at last got confirmation of the route of the seasonal path I went over to Mockbeggar Lake to trim some of the regrowth from last year's cut through. The edges of the lake have small areas of shallows and these attract a few snipe, I incidentally flushed about ten as I worked. I also flushed a single woodcock, the first I have seen for some time. I also saw my first butterfly of the year, a peacock and found a large mass of common frog spawn and saw a common toad. I plan to start clearing some of the trees in the shallower areas to promote the reeds and other emergent plants, hopefully next winter we will make a significant difference.

At lunchtime I had a quick look at the Dockens Water near the Centre, in a backwater I came across a mass of fish fry, I don't know what species, but there were lots of them.

In the afternoon I was sorting out materials for completing the sand martin bank refurbishment. I took the chance to take a look from the Goosander hide and finally confirmed my suspicion that there are at least 3 black-necked grebe. I gone one poor picture, the bird looked away, again! This did give the opportunity to see how closely the white sides to the upper-neck, lower cheeks area nearly meet at the back. On a Slavonian grebe the effect is similar but they nearly meet much higher up, more at the nape than on the hind-neck.

During the day a bittern was reported seen from the Ivy North hide as were the 2 smew, surely these birds must be due to leave soon, neither species often stay beyond February, perhaps they are waiting for the wind to change to a more favourable direction.

At the very end of the day a quick look from the Tern hide produced three adult Mediterranean gull with the black-headed gulls. They were two in full breeding plumage with fine black hoods and one still in complete winter plumage.