More Martins

Bird News: Ibsley Water - sand martin 3000+, house martin 500-1000, swift 1, arctic tern 1 juv.

Ivy Lake - green sandpiper 4.

Centre - hobby 1

I did not see much today as I was chasing around for much of it. I have a contractor doing a bit of reprofiling on the shore of Ibsley Water, which so far seems to be going well. We should end up with a couple of extra islands and some more shallow water habitat. Hopefully we will also be able to get some work done over on Ivy Lake as well.

In the afternoon I finally got over to see the ponies on Mockbeggar Lake for the first time in a while, thankfully they were all fine, although I will probably move them again soon. I was on Mockbeggar for a visit by possibly funders for a project on the WWII heritage of the New Forest, if all goes well it will include a restoration of the old control tower. This building has historical interest and houses a bat roost, but it has also had a history of vandalism and general decay so to see it restored would be a great relief to all concerned. I really hope this proposal goes well as there is a great story to be told. Whilst there I heard ravens flying over, my first for a couple of weeks, I was also pretty sure I heard yellow wagtail, but could not be certain.

I should have some more news tomorrow as I am leading a walk in the morning so I should get a look around the reserve.

Knot Makes Swift Return, with Breadmaking

Bird News: Ibsley Water - about 3000 martins, mainly sand martins over the lake and house martins over the trees, 1 swift, 3 dunlin, 1 knot, 1 ringed plover sp (too far to be sure), 1 hobby.

Ivy Lake - great white egret (the usual colour-ringed bird), 1 Cetti's warbler.

We were busy pretty much all day with a group of visitors from National Parks around the country. They were all volunteers from a project called MOSAIC which aims to encourage access to the countryside and especially National Parks by people who do not usually visit. We did a short walk, pond-dipping, looked through the moth trap and finished up with fire lighting and "bread" making. Actually some of the bread was really good, especially the bits flavoured with blackberries.

Hopefully they all saw something in the work we do at Blashford that they could take home, even if Blashford is not quite as challenging as the high Peaks or Northumbrian Fells. As they were cooking I found the robber-fly below resting on the upturned wheel barrow, that is why the background is such a fierce yellow.

Birds today were just at the start and finish of the day for me. The martins were again over Iblsey Water and as I locked up I once again found a single swift. Reported were 3 dunlin and a knot, I assume this is one of the two that were about for several days last week. I also spotted a single juvenile "ringed" plover, it was right up at the north end of the lake seen from the Tern hide, it was moving like a little ringed plover, but I could not say for sure. Also as we locked up the great white egret was on Ivy Lake, this was the first time I had seen it since it first returned in July! A singing Cetti's warbler in the Ivy silt pond completed the day, although this bird was there yesterday, but I forgot to include it in the blog.

Long Overdue Reserve First (for me at least)

Bird News: Ibsley Water - 1 swift, 1 osprey, 1 goshawk, 4+ wigeon, 3000-5000 sand martin, c1000 house martin, 1 wheatear.

Ivy Lake - 3 green sandpiper.

At least in the morning there were many thousands of sand martin over Ibsley Water and hundreds of house martin over the trees to the east. A lot of the sand martin were at times perched on the ground on the long shingle spit to the east of the Tern hide, I got a poor picture, but something of the numbers is clear even if the birds are not.

The moth trap was relatively quiet but the sun came out and there was the first common emerald damselfly of the year at the Centre pond and a fine male southern hawker dragonfly.

It was volunteer day today and we made further good progress clearing the north shore of Ivy Lake, the two shots are "before",

and after the day's work.

I had lunch int he Tern hide and was rewarded with an osprey which drifted down from the north, it was probably an adult, certainly it was not a juvenile. Very soon after I found the swift drifting about high over the lake. Then, perhaps best of all, a juvenile male goshawk flew west over the north of the lake, on the way narrowly missed catching a collared dove, my first goshawk at the reserve and long overdue.

Martins, Martins, Martins

Bird News: Ibsley Water - thousands of sand martin again, 500+ house martin, 1 swift (2 reported), 2 knot, 2 ringed plover, 1 redshank.

A moderate catch of moths last night included a late ruby tiger, a dark swordgrass, otherwise pretty much as expected for the time of year, but including 3 autumnal rustic (pictured below) a sign of the changing season.

There were also a couple each of hedge rustic and the rather beautifully marked feathered gothic.

Although the day was much better than yesterday the number of martins over Ibsley Water may actually have increased, there were certainly thousands, but how many I could not really estimate. There were more house martin, but I failed to see a swallow at all. The swallows have not all gone, in fact this evening I heard that further down the valley there are a pair still incubating their third clutch of eggs! I have seen house martin with young in the nest at the start of October, but never swallows so late.

A visitor to the reserve today found a second raft spider on the Centre pond. This prompted me to look up their life history. I confess I had not appreciated they usually live for three years, so these two should be full grown nest spring, if they survive the winter. Something to look out for next year.

Blow-ins

Bird News: Ibsley Water - knot 2, ringed plover 1 ad, 1 juv, common sandpiper 1 juv, peregrine 1 ad. male, sand martin 2000+, swallow c10, house martin c100, arctic tern 1 juv and little gull 1 juv .

No pictures due to terrible wet, windy weather, but as a result lots of birds. The "count " of sand martin was a guestimate at best, there could have been 5000, but the single swift was good and possibly my last until April next year. The rough weather was also responsible for the arctic tern and little tern both, no doubt, storm-driven.

Let's hope for better weather tomorrow.

Birds and Bug Hunters

Bird News: Ibsley Water - A juvenile wheatear, 1 knot, 1 juvenile ringed plover, 3 adult common tern, c700 sand martin, 1 swift and 8 goosander reported. A mixed flock of small birds reported included a spotted flycatcher. Overhead a hobby and a raven.

Arrived in heavy, fine rain to find the wheatear cowering right under the front of the Tern hide, trying to stay dry. I could not really see much else although there were clearly hundreds of sand martin over Ibsley Water.

It was the first Sunday of the month so it was volunteer day, luckily the rain stopped and we were able to clear some more of the willows at the top of Ivy Lake. Not really a bird friendly activity so wildlife was limited to one very large common frog.

At lunchtime I had a quick look out of the Ivy South hide, just in case. Yesterday the great white egret was reported from there, but this report was nothing compared to, a surely not serious, report in the book of pygmy cormorant!!!! The worry of course is that one day there will be one, so I just had to take a look. Unsurprisingly no luck on either count.

In the afternoon I was doing a public event looking for fifty types of "bugs". With a selection of moths from the trap followed by the raft spider and, alder sawfly larva all at the Centre we were off to a good start even before we went to the meadow. In the meadow we found meadow grasshopper, long-winged conehead and, only days after the first reserve record, a lesser marsh grasshopper. Then out on the lichen heath for field grasshoppers and small copper. Elsewhere we found three species of harvestmen, common blue damselfly, common darter, common carder bee, woodlice, slugs, snails, ants, wasps, bees and various flies. We lost count but agreed we had well exceeded the fifty target.

Pipits Netted

Tree pipit picture thanks to Kevin Sayer

Birds: Ibsley Water - at least 4 common sandpiper, the red-crested pochard reported, the black swan and at the end of the day at least 4 swift.

The ringers were in this morning and had a great day, catching over 80 birds including redstarts and 5 tree pipit! The area on the eastern shore of Ibsley Water is proving to be a very productive ringing site.

Opening the Tern hide the young roe deer buck was feeding on the shore close to the hide, surprisingly there was a young one with it, one of this year's still with the shadow of spots on the flanks. There was no sign of a doe, the young will usually stay with their mother much longer than this so I wonder if this youngster has been orphaned or just got lost.

It was a day for house-keeping tasks, I cleared debris off the paths in the morning and rigged up some new leaflet dispensers int he afternoon. We also tried and failed to get the webcam to stream again, so I'm afraid it is still not viewable, still I will keep working on it. Michelle did a good job of cleaning the lens of the camera in the pond, it is remarkable how quickly it gets covered in algae.

Lastly, the mysterious brown-black "buzzard" was still in the tree on the northern shore of Ibsley Water, my skepticism about it even being alive was perhaps well founded.

All That Buzzes is Not a Bee

Although still sunny, today was a good bit cooler, especially in places exposed to the rather stiff north-east breeze. Overnight it was mild again and the moth trap was quite busy, included in the catch was a chocolate-tip, pictured below.
There was also my first hawk-moth of the year, a poplar hawk, I upset it a bit trying to get the picture and it went into threat posture showing the spots at the base of the hind-wings, not quite as spectacular as the "eyes" of the eyed hawk-moth, but possibly still enough to surprise a predator.

There are a number of schemes that aim to monitor populations of different insects by the walking of a regular route. The best know are the butterfly transects, but recently similar projects have been started to look at dragonflies and bumble-bees. Today I decided to do my April bumble-bee walk, the route takes about 45 minutes and in all that time I encountered only one bumble-bee!. Had I been doing a dragonfly walk I would have had two species of dragonflies and five species of damselflies to record, including my first broad-bodied chaser of the year. I also saw a good range of hoverflies including the Helophilus trivittatus pictured, it is the largest of three similar species that are all found on the reserve.

I also have a late insect report from yesterday, a species of click-beetle, but not the common brown one, this was mottled and rather wider, I managed to identify it today. Although not a rare species it is a new reserve record, it is Agrypnus murinus.

Birds of note were rather few, a common sandpiper on Ibsley Water first thing seemed to be new as none were reported yesterday. Late in the afternoon it seems that a few swift and house martin had arrived, with a handful of each over Ibsley Water. A willow warbler near the Centre was also new in since yesterday, but will probably be gone tomorrow as this area is not really willow warbler habitat.