Drizzle, Disputation and a Murmuration

Bird News: Ibsley Water - goldeneye 1 (redhead), rock pipit 1, water pipit 1 (reported), yellow-legged gull 6.

Ivy Lake - starling c5000 to roost.

I waited for much of the day for it to get light today, it was murky, grey and drizzling for much of it, when the drizzle stopped it rained, although we did get a little sunshine in the end. This made for a poor day to see much and even worse for getting pictures of very much. I did take the chance to visit all the hides today and in the process finally saw the goldeneye which has been reported for a few days now.

At the Goosander hide there was quite a bit of grebe activity. Close to the hide 2 little grebe were feeding and the clear water allowed me to see them swimming underwater.

There was also quiet a dramatic scrap between two great crested grebe, one chased the other so much that it eventually took refuge on the shore, a very unusual thing for it to do as they are very poor at getting about on dry land. I got a really poor picture, my excuse is distance, low light etc., etc. If you look closely you can see one on the shore to the right-hand side and one in the water, as a bonus there are also 2 green sandpiper in the shot as well, although I would forgive anyone who cannot make them out!

I was also quite pleased to see another species using the perching rails, this time a cormorant, sadly without any rings.

Despite the gloom I did see a migrant hawker dragonfly int he Centre car park, hunting in the drizzle, although it was wet it was also very mild. At lunchtime a rock pipit at the Tern hide was a bonus, I heard later that a water pipit had been reported early in the morning as well, although that would have been on the eastern shore somewhere.

Right at the end of the day when I was locking the Ivy South hide the starling flock was good value over the lake wheeling and twisting, I estimated about 5000. I hope there will be some good opportunities to get pictures of them, with the grey cloud tonight was not ideal but, but you can see that there are a lot of birds out there. They were chattering and squealing, just as a good murmuration of starlings should.

Lastly, we are intending to move this blog over to WordPress very soon, information will be posted here about how to find it in the next few days

Normal service will resume shortly...

i.e. Bob returns from holiday tomorrow and the high quality images and thoughtful prose that you have all come to expect from this blog will resume!

It has been an exceptionally busy week for Michelle and I this half-term holiday, with groups, holiday activity days and public events every day, occasionally with a couple running consecutively, and we are both hoping for a quieter November to recuperate and catch up with everything else - including Bob!

As such I have little new in the way of wildlife to report as for the most part the only wildlife I have really encountered over the last week has been of the two-legged young human variety! Having said that, all went well and it was nice to venture a bit further afield than we are often able to manage with groups:

Even if that meant getting a "bit" wet on Thursday afternoon!

The great white egret has been reported most days - either on Mockbeggar Lake or Ibsley Water and there are some lovely flocks of siskin reeling around. The Ibsley Water fallow deer are regularly seen on the eastern shore of the lake in the evenings (and mornings on the days when it has been not so misty that you can't see beyond the shingle spit!), including a very handsome stag. In previous years the reserve has played host to the young males who are keen but not up to taking on the older stags on the Forest, but this year we seem to be hosting one of the main players himself.

It has (at last) definitely been autumnal weather this week and one of the obvious autumn signs this morning was the number of grey squirrels scampering about on the woodland floor where they are presumably caching their nut stores in preparation for winter. There is no shortage of acorns this year - the pigs were put out to pannage early on the Forest this year and I guess they will probably not be bought back in until a bit later then normal too (pannage being one of the ancient commoners rights that permits commoners to let their pigs out on the Forest in the autumn, normally for 60 days, in order that they "hoover up" the acorns that are poisonous to the ponies and cattle if consumed in any quantity).

The last of the cBBC "Deadly Scene Investigation" events ran today, with yet more families visiting the reserve, many for the first time, to solve the clues and find out "who done-it". Lovely weather they had to - there was even a southern hawker dragonfly hawking around the car park as I set a family off on their activity shortly after lunch.

Jay Fuller proudly showing off his certificate having successfully completed the DSI activity!

Sand Martin News

I may just have blogged about autumn, but now for a reminder of summer, to be precise sand martins. All gone now, but they will be back in just over four months.

The reason for posting on sand martins now is news of one of the birds caught at Blashford earlier this year. We knew it was an interesting one as it carried a Spanish ring, but it proved even more surprising now that the details have come back. An edited version of the details are copied below.

Ringing date: 10-Dec-2010
Reg code: --- Place code: --- Site name: Sant Louis, Djoudj Park
Biological Station, Senegal
County code: NU00 Grid ref: Co-ords: 16deg 25min N 16deg
18min W
Hab1: -- Hab2:

Biometrics: Wing: 104 mm. Weight: 10.6 g. Time: 0000hrs

Finding date: 09-Jun-2011
Reg code: --- Place code: BLASH Site name: Blashford, Ringwood,
Hampshire
County code: GBHAM Grid ref: SU1508 Co-ords: 50deg 52min
N 1deg 47min W
Hab1: A3 Hab2: G5

Biometrics: Wing: 110 mm. Weight: 13.2 g. Time: 0400hrs

Duration: 181 days Distance: 4044 km Direction: 19deg
(NNE)
Finder: Mr K Sayer, 4821

It was nesting at Blashford, in our sand martin bank, having been ringed on the wintering grounds almost six months to the day earlier.

Autumn Leaves and a Few Snaps

Bird News: Ibsley Water - goldeneye 1 redhead (reported).

Not really any news as I was not actually at work today, but I did drop in with some bird food. I then took the chance to have a try out with my newly acquired digital camera, the old one having got a bit clunky recently. Even after just a few days off it was very clear that autumn had moved on as witnessed by the splendid colour of the field maple by the entrance.

The play with the camera seemed to go reasonably well, I don't think it is quite as instantly easy as my old one but the results look as though they will be OK for the blog and hopefully pictures for talks. But you can perhaps judge for yourself, a male chaffinch sat up nicely in the sun.

He was looking quite smart in fresh plumage and was having a good look around.

Possibly on the look out for females and there was one which also sat up well for a brief time.

I had a look from the Tern hide before I returned to my days off, I could not find the reported goldeneye, or much else of real note, unless you count 5 Egyptian geese. The visit did allow me to try the camera again, this time on a pair of gadwall which were close to the hide.

DSI: Calling all nature detectives!

Apologies for the Blashford Blog silence! Bob is on holiday and myself and Jim have been busy solving a wildlife crime scene....with a little bit of help! So far over 40 families have visited the reserve to participate in CBBC's Deadly Scene Investigation which has involved following a trail of clues to find out who stole the eggs from a nest. The trail has been given a big thumbs up and was thoroughly enjoyed by all and introduced new families to the reserve who had not visited before. If you would like to take part we are running our final trail day this coming Saturday 10am-3pm. The trail should take approx. 1 hour. Please phone to book your place: 01425 472760.

On the wildlife side of things the Great White Egret has been regularly seen on Mockbeggar and Ibsley Water. Jim reported the beginnings of a big starling roost gathering over Ibsley water which then went in to roost over Mockbeggar. There is also a starling roost taking place on Ivy Lake.

We have also been hosting wildlife cameraman Graham Hatherley who has been setting a trail camera on the Docken's Water over the last month in the hope of capturing footage of tawny owls fishing for bullheads. Unfortunately so far he has not had much luck, however he has filmed some fantastic footage of a fallow stag drinking which we have uploaded onto Youtube, you can find it by copying and pasting this link (sorry I couldn't manage a hyperlink!):

http://youtu.be/xXdfBe5oAMM

He has very kindly given us all the other snippets of film he has captured which you should be able to find on Youtube with the title of "Wildlife at Blashford Lakes by Graham Hatherley" - these mostly include fallow and roe deer passing across the river and also a pigeon taking a bath! The pigeon was a particularly good result as it shows that the camera would be triggered by a similar sized tawny owl. Enjoy!

A Couple of Days

Bird News: Ibsley Water - great white egret 1 (the usual bird on both Wed and Thurs.), yellow-legged gull up to 6 (mostly adults or near adults), "white-winged" gull 1 (apparently adult reported on Thurs afternoon, but identity uncertain) , dunlin 1, goosander 5+, crossbill 1+ (reported Wed), brambling 1 (reported Wed).

Ivy Lake - water rail 2+, Cetti's warbler 1 (singing).

The last couple of nights have been much colder, resulting in our first grass frosts of the season and the moth catch reduced to zero. The misty mornings have made for some atmospheric views over the lakes though, the shot below is of Ivy Lake on Thursday as I opened up the Ivy South hide.

The same morning I kept running into roe deer. A doe with two youngsters was in the alder carr near the Woodland hide, along with a young buck. The doe and youngsters were running in circles and passed me twice without obviously seeing me. One, or possibly both of the youngsters were making a very odd squeaking sound, unlike anything I have ever heard from roe before. In the poor light I failed to get a picture of these deer, but at the Ivy North hide I came across the young buck again, this time with another doe and her two youngsters. Although the light was poor I managed a "digi-bin" shot of three of the group. Although the buck seems to have seen me they did not move off and I left them there. At the same time a very bushy-tailed fox trotted through the group, moving towards Rockford Lake.

Although the days started misty and cold, this quickly gave way to clear blue skies and a good bit of sunshine, especially on Wednesday.

These conditions favoured a movement of birds overhead, with crossbill, brambling, skylark, meadow pipit and siskin all on the move in small numbers. Siskin look like arriving in large numbers this winter, there are already flocks of fifty plus about the reserve as the alder cones open to reveal their seeds.A close up view of the alder branches shows that the sausage-shaped male catkins are already there and ready to open in the early spring as soon as the conditions are favourable. The cones in this shot are just starting to open.

Thursday was volunteer day and we set about some of the large laurel bushes planted years ago to screen the gravel works. Unfortunately most of the plantings along the western side of Ellingham Lake were of miscellaneous alien species, with just a few natives. Plants such as the laurel swamp and shade out native species and we hope to encourage the growth of some of the hawthorns and others that are hanging on in their shadow. Below is a picture of one such large bush just as we started.

Then what was left at the end of the task. We may have to come back when the branches have dried out and burn some up as there is a lot of material left. This shot also shows that laurel are far from the only alien species planted, a variety of conifer trees and other garden shrubs also got included and it will take many years to remove these and get them replaced with more desirable native species.

On both days the great white egret made quite lengthy appearances on Ibsley Water stood with the grey herons on the small island near the northern shore.

Clear(ed) View

Bird News: Iblsey Water - great white egret 1.

The bird news was a bit thin as I was working with the volunteers all day. Actually only two were ion but this was an ideal number for the tasks we had to do. Firstly we repaired the gate which had been damaged by whomsoever it was that used the reserve to get into the old block plant on Sunday night. The sooner this site is cleared the better it attracts break-ins with monotonous regularity and attendant damage to the access with broken padlocks, gates etc.

We then got down to clearing the view form the screen overlooking Mockbeggar Lake form the path to the Lapwing hide. Below is the "view" before we started.

Actually it is not really right to call it a view as you cannot see anything, However after we worked on it for a bit it became possible to see the lake again.

There is still scope for more clearance but we will be working on this lake during the winter so things will change quiet a bit in any case.

In the afternoon we relocated one of the web cams, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, it turns up.

At the end of the day I briefly saw the great white egret on Ibsley Water, where there were also rather more lesser black-backed gulls than I would have expected at such an early time. I may have another look at the roost tomorrow evening.

The occasional sunshine did tempt out a southern hawker dragonfly by the Centre pond at lunchtime and there were a few red admiral around again. Otherwise insects were few and the moth trap unremarkable after a rather cool night.