A Week of Big Bird Watches

Three different bird watch events in four days: Big Schools' Bird Watch, Big Garden Bird Watch and Big Castle Bird Watch.

RSPB Big School's Bird Watch - 28th January

This is the fourth consecutive year that I have run the Big Schools' Bird Watch at my school. Our bird watch this year, in numbers, looked like this: 2 teachers, 70 pupils and 99 birds. Our results looked like this:

It may not have been a record year for the number of birds seen, but it was certainly a record for the number of pupils who wanted to get involved! It was great to have so many individuals, most of which did have a genuine interest in the bird watch and nature. However, a few conversations I had with pupils and staff struck a cord with me, and with an article in the February issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine. Why are we so blasé about 'common' species? Or even about locally common species. With my school being so close to farmland, we do get a lot of house sparrows in the local area. Very few of the individuals I spoke to had any idea that sparrow populations have declined so spectacularly on a national level. Hopefully, through the assemblies and conversations I have taken part in, this message may have got through to some. I do think that the Big Schools' Bird Watch was a positive experience for all the pupils that took part, even if some of them did get a little chilly. Hopefully, they all learnt something too.

RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch - 30th January

We carried out our Big Garden Bird Watch on Saturday lunch time, it was a bright and cool day in Norwich and it was nice to watch the birds visiting from the comfort of our flat. It was a busy hour, especially for the starlings! We had RSPB 'bird cakes', 'super suet balls' and mixed seed on offer. This seems to be the best combination of food for attracting a relatively wide range of species to our patch. Since spring last year we have had a healthy number of green finches visiting, I was particularly pleased about this, especially due to their decline in numbers due to the arrival of trichomoniasis in recent years. I am also excited to have finally attracted a regular gang of long tailed tits, one of my favourite British birds, although they were not representing their usual number in this set of data. Our flock of starlings are regulars and, although they take over the entire feeding station when they arrive (intimidating the local wood pigeons), I love watching their squabbling and occasionally comedic antics. They are such beautiful and overlooked birds too, most people I have spoken to recently describe them as 'greedy' and aren't quite as enthusiastic about having them in their area.

The Big Castle Bird Watch - 31st January

I spent my afternoon on Sunday volunteering at the Big Castle Bird Watch; an event held at the Norwich Castle Museum and run by RSPB Strumpshaw Fen. There were lots of activities for the public to get involved with, all of them aimed at raising awareness of the natural world, the dangers wildlife faces, why people should take part in the Big Garden Bird Watch and why they should visit Strumpshaw Fen. My small part of the event was mostly spent encouraging younger children to dress up as a dragonfly and attempt to catch beanbags made into flies in a net. The idea was for them to dart around like a dragonfly would when hunting and give them an appreciation of how agile and maneuverable these amazing insects are. I'm not sure they all took this message away from the game, but they certainly had fun with it!

Canoeing and fungi at Foxley

It's been a while since my last post; the start of the new school year has been a little on the hectic side! I am happy though - our wild flower meadow has worked, I just need to take some photos for a proper update on it soon. For now though, here are my wildlife outings we managed in September - two in one day!

An early start on a Sunday morning... at 6:00 am some friends and I decided to go on a 'River Bure Otter Spotting' trail with the Canoe Man. Unfortunately, the otters stayed well out of our way, but the river at this time of day was beautiful; an ethereal mist rose from the surface in the early morning sunlight and wraith-like herons merged with the mist until their movements betrayed them. An occasional kingfisher would dart in front of the boat, showing off its neon plumage, bright compared with the rising mist. Long tailed tits 'see see seed' to each other in the branches around us, giving a constant chorus to the still air.

Later the same day, to a completely different habitat, we took a trip to Foxley Woods. The ancient woodland that, in spring, is carpeted with fragrant swathes of bluebells, becomes a heaven for fungi in autumn. Fungi are my least competent kingdom when it comes to identification, but their shapes, textures and colours fascinate me, even if I won't ever master the tricks of identifying them.

Spectacular rustgill?

Paxillus?

Agaricus sp.?

Also below us, in the mud of the passed rains, were huge deer footprints - far too large to be roe, I think, they must be the work of a red deer. The stride length between prints was incredibly large. Above us, charms of gold finches flitted from tree to tree chattering their charming musical calls. Marsh tits, blue tits and great tits were also busy feeding from hidden insects in the tree canopy. A great spotted woodpecker betrayed itself by its loud genial call from the top of a pine tree.

In the sunnier spots of the wood were some late butterflies and dragonflies; common darter dragonflies and speckled wood butterflies alighting on living and dead leaves in bright shafts of sunlight.

Blue butterflies and darting dragonflies at Strumpshaw

Last Sunday had good weather for cycling, so rather than driving to Strumpshaw Fen as we usually would, we decided to attempt the cycle out from Norwich. It took a while, but was a satisfying ride. Arriving slightly(!) more exhausted than usual, we were cheered by seeing a young blackbird sitting atop the 'Nature trails' sign outside the reception hide.

Aware of time and the fact that we would need to cycle home after our visit, we didn't complete a full circuit, but instead followed the Fen trail to Fen hide, Tower hide, then returned along the same route back to reception.

Stopping at the pond dipping station not far from the reception, common darters alighted regularly on the wooden fence. In the process of trying to photograph one, a fly took my camera's focus instead, resulting in the image below. Eventually, an opportunity presented itself to photograph an un-obscured common darter dragonfly. The other dragonflies we saw were too fast for me to photograph, but included brown hawkers, emperors and black-tailed skimmers.

The usual birds of the reserve were remarkably quiet, but the butterflies were out in force. On the short trail to Fen hide, a painted lady landed, sunning itself on the dry mud of the 'path'. Except for the individuals I have raised and released with my classes at school, I had not seen a painted lady in the UK before.


There were three stars of the show in Fen hide. From speaking to other visitors, we had just missed a kingfisher, but we had other avian species to occupy us. A young marsh harrier had claimed a spot in a small tree not far from the hide. After a few minutes of waiting and watching, a black swan gracefully swam into view, preening itself in the shallow water. A bittern also appeared a way back, lightly skimming over the reeds before descending and vanishing again.


We lingered by the buddleia where, on our last visit, we saw a swallowtail butterfly. No swallowtails today, despite hearing news of the second brood being on the wing, but plenty of other butterflies taking the limelight and looking glorious in the sunshine. The brimstones and red admirals looked particularly impressive today, with the sun back lighting their delicate forms.


Before we even reached Tower hide we could hear the lovely, incessant calling of a desert of lapwings. Entering the hide painted a more detailed scene; intermingled with the sea of purpley-green lapwings were orange-beaked ruffs, a single common tern, a royal looking cormorant on a throne of driftwood, bright white little egrets, statuesque grey herons and snow white mute swans. Above them all were dancing marsh harriers silhouetted against the bright sky. There was also a sleeping wader which has proved a bit of a mystery to identify. I think it may be a ruff, but opinion on iSpot is split, so I would appreciate any suggestions.


After watching the antics of lapwings chasing each other and the mallards that got in their way, we made our way back to the reception. On the way, we encountered a gentleman from Butterfly Conservation and some photographers who had discovered a common blue butterfly. They very kindly let me take a couple of pictures before continuing on our way. A good way to end the walk and start the long cycle home.

Dragons and damsels at UEA

In the glorious sunshine of last weekend, like many students investigating the open day, we visited UEA. We haven't walked the boardwalk around the broads there for ages, and we picked a good day for some of my favourite invertebrates.

I am still learning how to identify our various Odonata species, but I am improving slowly. We paused next to a gap in the bank side vegetation to admire some bright yellow lillies. Perched delicately on the petals of one, we noticed a male banded demoiselle being reflected perfectly in the still water below.

As we watched, we noticed the electric blue of the common blue damselfly males zipping past at speed (you might just be able to see one in the right of the above picture), occasionally settling to rest on reeds which seemed dangerously close to the fish lurking below. These dainty creatures were also joined by a larger relative, a brown hawker, with its beautifully tinges wings, patrolling its territory up and down the bank, never settling or getting too close to us. Whilst we were watching, an equally electric blue flash passed us - a kingfisher who disappeared as quickly as it appeared.


The hedgerows were also humming with bees and butterflies. The striking small tortoiseshells were fluttering in abundance, in the company of speckled woods and meadow browns. We were also lucky to spot the tiny small skipper butterfly along the footpath, moving away from us a few feet at a time. The larger red admiral was also present on bramble flowers in the shadier parts of our walk. None would pose with wings open, presumably they were already at optimum temperature (and may have been preventing overheating?).

When we returned to the river, we spotted an Emperor dragonfly patrolling its patch and a perched female banded demoiselle.

Pensthorpe and Baby Birds

What better way to start off half term than with a trip to Pensthorpe? Eighteen wild bird species spotted, my first brimstone butterfly of the year and a multitude of just-hatched and young birds.

Before we even got through the gates of the reserve, we encountered a couple of mallard ducklings, frantically calling and wandering from water to land and back looking for their mother, only the second brood of ducklings I've seen so far this year. As we arrived quite late, we then went straight to the cafe, where, in a corner, there were communal nest boxes for sparrows, of which there were plenty and they were confident too, attempting to steal pieces of my scone from right under my nose!


We started off with a visit to the turtle dove breeding aviary. We both agreed that we could listen to the purring of these tortoiseshell and increasingly rare beauties. The bearded reedlings were also on good form, snuggling together amongst the reeds. There were also young corncrake and very tiny avocet hatchlings.


On entering the reserve proper, we, as we always do, fed their captive collection of wildfowl, then entered wilder territory. But, by their white-naped crane enclosure (who are still incubating a single egg, if you read my blog in April), there were a family of coots, including five youngsters, not long hatched from their size and comparative fuzziness! All were imitating the adult coots by preening and washing in the shallow water.


In the glorious sunshine, we walked under the archway of wisteria, emerging by one of the many lakes on the reserve. Suddenly, we heard a mechanical churring and singing from a waterside tree; a warbler which I could not differentiate by sound alone (I am still learning these magnificent songsters, but am struggling to tell them apart by both song and sight). I craned around different bushes, scanning them with both binoculars and camera to try to spot the bird. Eventually, I came across a reed bunting, but he was not the source of the melody. We had to continue on, but by chance, I stumbled across two of my marks, they turned out to be two reed warblers very low in the reeds by the pathway.

We continued on to head into the woodland and the bird hides, but before we could, we had to walk through gaggles of Canada, barnacle and greylag geese, five of which were greylag goslings. All were relaxing, sprawled out in the shade, apart from mother goose, who stayed very alert, keeping a wary eye on us as we passed. I knelt to photograph them and one gosling stood up and wandered towards us. Watching it walk and peck at the ground as it waddled along, with its tiny wings and oversized feet, really made me realise their similarity to their prehistoric ancestors, reaching back to archeopteryx and beyond.


There was little to be seen from the woodland bird hide, but a stock dove, a great spotted woodpecker and a grey squirrel graced us with their presence. After a five minute stint in the hide, we continued on rather briskly, realising that we didn't have long before we needed to depart the reserve and head home. But, on our return walk, we were rewarded with great views of a great crested grebe preening and apparently 'dancing' next to the wave garden. A fantastic end to our visit!

Butterfly rearing and releasing

For the second year, I decided to buy in some painted lady butterfly caterpillars to rear in my lab on my nature table at work. Last year, the pupils loved watching them develop and emerge as butterflies, so I thought I would try it again. Little did I know that this year, they would get 'lost' in the post, arriving a week late and looking like monsters already! We did still watch them grow and develop for a week before they became chrysalises though. When they reach this stage, they have to be transferred to their 'hatching habitat' to stop their wings getting trapped. I had forgotten how much these seemingly motionless hanging brown blobs could wriggle when threatened!

My STEM Club of three found them fascinating and wrote some observations of the caterpillars on a few different days. For the first time ever, I actually saw one emerge from its chrysalis; the process took much less time than I imagined - a wriggle, a tear, then out within 30 seconds! A little bit longer to pump up the wings using meconium, which is then expelled from the abdomen, but still completed within no more than 20 minutes or so.

The bit my pupils enjoyed most though was releasing them. This year, the butterflies hung around for longer, fueling up on nectar before disappearing for good. We got to watch them fly, then float towards the dandelions and daisies on the school field. The pupils watched them unfurl their proboscis' and sip nectar, like drinking through a straw. Eventually, we decided to leave them be and hope that the sun continued to shine so they could finish fueling, warm up, disperse and continue the battle for survival.

Still inside the hatching habitat before being released

Sitting on the hand of a year 7 member of STEM Club

Sipping nectar using its very visible proboscis!

Changes of season

During the Easter holiday, we have visited Taunton, Cambridge and a few places in Norfolk. Now, I have already mentioned my first chiff chaff of the year in my blog last week, but there have been substantially more changes that I've been noticing.

The first has been the crocus, one of my favourite flowers, passing its center stage position to the primrose, both wild and cultivated. They have gone from being slightly folorn, like this example in Taunton at the beginning of the two week break, to prolific blooms all over the place now. It goes to show what a significant change only two weeks have made to our plant life.

Unfortunately, these blooms came too late for one of our beehives at school. Although one is big and happy, the other hive seems to have starved, despite us providing it with food. Whilst checking the hives during the holiday, I also saw that our oystercatchers have returned, all three of them. Perhaps we will get see them breed successfully this year...

Other changes have been not only been due to the season, I feel, but perhaps to a change in food availability. Growing up in Cambridge, I can always remember the flocks of house sparrows and starlings we would have in the garden and nesting under the tiles of the house next door, along with a few blue and great tits. Now, my parents garden is host to a full range of birds, 15 species I counted on our Easter weekend visit, including a male black cap; a bird I rarely see and one neither of my parents had ever seen before. Is this due only to my suggestion of putting out sunflower hearts as a food source? Or is it due to the development of areas of previously 'un-utilised' land that has driven them into the city and gardens for food?

Our birdfeeders outside our flat in Norwich are bursting with life now too. The green finches have returned post winter; we have at least two healthy looking pairs, with squabbling males and nonchalant females, with the odd copulation on the fence. A few goldfinches have finally crept back in after the winter months, and our first ever chaffinches, who are clearly not used to using bird feeders, have arrived. I was distracted from my school work only a few days ago by a feisty long tailed tit who had decided to perch on the window frame and peck at our windows, sounding like he was asking to be let in.

I'm looking forward to the arrival of more birds as the migrants continue to arrive, but the botanical spectacle I'm now waiting for is the explosion of bluebells at Foxley Woods...

'Hiraeth'

This is a long overdue blog post about a fascinating talk I went to as part of the 'Norfolk Festival of Nature' on 27th February. The talk was by naturalists Patrick Barkham and Matthew Oates and was on the subject of 'Spirit of Place'. This really got me thinking about the reasons behind why I visit the places I do, and why I feel the way I do when I visit them.

Matthew Oates started the talk, and introduced us to a number of Welsh terms, not all of which have direct translations into English; two which stood out the most to me were 'Hiraeth' and 'Cynefin'. Hiraeth roughly translates to mean something along the lines of longing or homesickness and Cynefin as habitat or heartland. Both are far more complicated than this though, and together they explain why I long to be out of doors at times and why, when I'm almost any wild place, I feel some sense of belonging. Sometimes this can be in places which are familiar to me or sometimes when I first visit a place, which is a phenomena I can't really explain.

I feel this way when we visit our local patch, just down the road from our flat and just off the A140; for such a 'city' location, we frequently spot kingfishers traversing the River Wensum, are still overjoyed at our chance sighting of a pair of otters, and have used it as a location to learn the calls of different birds. I miss it when we don't get the chance to do 'our walk' at least weekly, and if I go for more than two weeks without at least a walk here, or a trip to another wild place within reach of our local patch (or not), then I really do feel it. It is hard to explain this feeling of 'longing', but when I return to the outdoors, I feel more... complete? This is surely something that all wildlife enthusiasts know?

Patrick Barkham spoke of places which have this impact and we, as an audience, had the chance to discuss our ideas with both speakers, about our feelings and concerns for the natural world. Something I did not voice, but certainly something which concerns me, is the lack of people my age or younger who attended this talk. There must have only been a handful of people, out of almost a full auditorium, who were below the age of 40. Why are our younger people not concerned or interested in the natural world? Is it because, as many say, they are glued to televisions and computer games? Or is it because at key points in their lives, we have failed to make them inspired by the world around them?

As a teacher, I try to play my part in inspiring pupils about the natural world. My bird box cam had all year groups (age 11 - 18) enthralled, as did watching caterpillars morph into butterflies, then releasing them. My STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Club are embarking upon BBC Wildlife Magazine's 'Digital Schools' Project', even if I do only have three attendees.

I don't have the answers, but I hope that I make at least some difference to the number of young people vaguely aware of and interested in nature.

Sculthorpe Moor Community Nature Reserve

Mixed flock of bramblings and chaffinches

We visited a new place today, thanks to several suggestions: Sculthorpe Moor Nature Reserve, run by the Hawk and Owl Trust.

It was unbelievable; within our first five minutes, at the viewing panel closest to the entrance, we had seen bramblings (my first ever - and five of them altogether!), bullfinches (both male and female), a water rail, a great spotted woodpecker, a nuthatch and more greenfinches and chaffinches than I had ever seen in one place before. It was heard to tear ourselves away from such an interesting gathering, but after a good length of time, and several conversations with other birders about what we'd missed elsewhere, we decided to explore the rest of this magical little wildlife haven.

Water rail

We made our way along the boardwalk, starting with the woodland loop which leads to the first hide. On our way to the woodland hide, I became distracted by rustling in the dry leaf litter and a fast, well camouflaged shape shooting from one tree to another, almost faster than we were able to keep up. Patience paid off here, we watched and waited and eventually were graced with good and quite close up views of a weasel (I think... it lacked an obvious black tail, you can see a video of it here). This was a real treat, I've only ever had fleeting glimpses of these small mustelids before.

Weasel?

The woodland hide gave us stunning views of another great spotted woodpecker, as well as huge densities of chaffinch and greenfinch and a few blue-, coal- and long tailed tits. We left the hide to the cheerful song of a wren part way up the closest tree, and continued through the woodland to eventually reach the Whitley (Fen) hide. Here, we saw more bullfinches as well as a reed bunting and many more chaffinches. Finally, we headed to the scrape, but unfortunately saw nothing from the hide here. However, on the walk to these hides, there was a sudden explosion of small birds from the Fen hide which flew over the pathway; they had been spooked by the kestrel circling overhead; a perfect silhouette against the bright sky. Luckily, it didn't spook another treat for us as we re-entered the woodland; a marsh tit and a tree creeper both making their way up the bark on the same tree.

Common frog

Our final reward of the day was provided by one of the friendly volunteers at the reserve who pointed out scarlet elf cap fungi that was evident either side of the board walk, then took us to the likely location of a nuthatch nest. They had nested in this particular hole last year and had been seen this morning inspecting it again. On our way out of the restricted area, we also saw our first common frog of the year! Looks like spring has arrived!

It's always lovely to discover new places to explore through like minded people, but even better when it turns out that the new place is as full of wildlife as this small reserve seems to be. We'll definitely be making this a more visited area of our 'local patch' of Norfolk!

Nuthatch

Coal tit

Great spotted woodpecker

Male bullfinch