A week on the canals

This year, our holiday consisted of spending a week on a narrow boat on the canals around Wolverhampton and Birmingham. They might not have the best water quality in the world, but they can prove quite fruitful for wildlife that you may not usually see by foot. We began our journey at Kings Bromley Marina, starting on the Trent and Mersey Canal, turning onto the Staffordshire and Worcestershire, then finally the Shropshire Union, before turning around and heading back. We were lucky to have fantastic weather for all but the last day. Here are a few of our wildlife encounters whilst we were en route.

The first wildlife I noticed at the marina was the sheer number of housemartins and swallows swooping and diving , picking up water and flying insects. They were a constant presence throughout our canal journey, gathering on overhead cables, flying alongside us, crossing our paths, burbling and chattering to each other overhead. I completely agree with my Collins Bird Guide that their "song sounds rather sweet and 'eager'." I have never seen so many together or in such a short space of time.

Unlike the house martins, the kingfishers of the canals took a few days to discover. We saw two in our week on the boat, far fewer than a similar journey two years ago. They were equally charismatic and pleasing though. One delighted us with staying close to our boat for 10 minutes or more, waiting for us to draw level with it before taking a direct flight in front of the boat, diving in an attempt to fish and landing the other side again. It is very rare for us to get such a close up view of these electric blue birds, so having close encounters at roughly head height were a real treat.

Another treat, and very unexpected it was too, was a flock of lapwings passing overhead. We could hear their "bubbling, wheezy 'song'", peewitting to each other, showing off their apparently disproportionately long black and white wings.

Grey herons tend to be the comedians of the canals. They wait on the bank until the front of the boat begins to close on them, then they will side step and shuffle before taking off in a lazy, but agitated, flight to land only meters ahead. As the boat begins to close on them again, they look more and more irritated the greater the number of times they must repeat this performance. Eventually, they realise this can be solved by flying around and behind the boat, or by disappearing for a time into a nearby field. The canals also seem to be the only place that I ever see herons sitting in trees, surveying the surrounding habitat with their piercing yellow eyes.


Mallards, moorhens and coots are often seen either skulking in the reeds or begging for food at the boat windows. We occasionally had a following of mallards and swans, despite not feeding them, for five minutes or more. Many of them had young, who would call heartbreakingly if they were separated from their parents by the boat. They were always soon reunited, but watching their agitation is always unpleasant. On one occasion, we saw a Muscovy duck on the bank in addition to our usual crew of mallards.

When moored, the chinking chorus of blackbirds and wrens could often be heard. Robins would also sing at strange hours, sometimes bursting into full song at 9:00 pm, despite the darkness.

We saw few dragonflies and butterflies. The bankside vegetation was often choked with Himalayan balsam, but there were the occasional stretches of native wildflowers. My favourites of which were the fragrant meadowsweet and majestic fox gloves.

A literary account of the birds, dragonflies and butterflies of Strumpshaw Fen

It was our first anniversary on Sunday, so we began the celebrations with a walk around our favourite nature reserve: RSPB Strumpshaw Fen. I had an aim for today too - I wanted to see a Norfolk Hawker dragonfly. A little late in the season, but there were still a few reports of them and we thought we'd try our luck. The reserve held a few surprises for us, so I'm going to split this post into three sections: Birds, Dragonflies and Butterflies. I've also been reading the fantastically written book Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane, so I will attempt to correctly use some of the new words I have learnt to describe the habitats and locations of our sightings.

Birds

Part of the broads, the loch* at the visitor's centre can sometimes prove unfruitful for visible wildlife. Today was exceptional. The upright wall of reeds and rushes boasted a decorative electric blue gem; a kingfisher perched among them like a sapphire burning brightly, making the surrounding vegetation seem dull and uninviting. The cranks* of a tree beyond the loch held a camouflaged shape, betrayed only by its harsh swift-like silhouette; an adult hobby resting, possibly post-Odonata-hunt from the many pickings around the reserve. 

Taking the Meadow trail, in the hope of spotting dragonflies, we were passed by two gargantuan pairs of wings following the River Yare. Large white wing bars and fringed with black, I could not find their likeness in my Collins Bird Guide (I checked geese and cranes), so they had to remain our mystery birds of the day. The more recognisable shape of a hunting kestrel was a welcome distraction above the reed bed, with wings spread and tail spanned it hovered, surveying its target. Taking the trail to Tower hide, a great crested grebe made its presence known on the large lake preceding the hide. We paused for a snack, then continued on our doddle* to and up the steps of Tower hide. The vast expanse of the broads greeted our eyes with emerald greens and sapphire blues of the reed bed and water. Imperfections in the sapphire surface, other than the small ripples which could have been caused by a cat's paw upon the water, proved to be little egrets and a juvenile grey heron which looked strange to my untrained eye. I am not yet used to identifying juvenile or eclipsing plumage. The graceful white curves of the necks of the mute swans stood out in stark contrast to the dark, sharpened edges of the heron. A common tern brought attention to itself by standing behind tall, upright blooms of mauve and calling in its slightly aggravated tones, seemingly warding off other winged creatures from his spot. In the distance, sitting low and nestled within a small tree smothered in bindweed was a juvenile marsh harrier. Its dark plumage and blonde head shouting to be noticed in front of the backdrop of bleached green.

Dragonflies

 By speaking with the RSPB volunteers at the Reception, we discovered that there were still reports of Norfolk hawkers on the reserve, although they were coming to an end, and our best bet would be to try a peddel* along the Meadow trail. Many species of Odonata patrol territories, so if we paused when we thought we had glimpsed one, it would return. At every single plash*, lochan*, lidden* and hassock* we were instantly surrounding by dainty common blue and emerald damselflies. The latter of which really does appear to have an emerald stone on the thorax above the wings. Amidst the fluttering damsels rose a green clear winged dragonfly to settle on the opposite bank of the wide stream. In my mind it had to be a Norfolk hawker, but has since turned out to be a teneral (newly emerged) darter species. Surrounding us, buzzing us and disappearing from view always, as soon as we reached the path along the Yare, were large and colourful brown hawkers, flying fast and direct as military jets to do battle, to hunt or simply to vanish. As we neared Tower hide, other species of dragonfly became apparent, with the occasional passing emperor or the passing and gentle vertical resting of Southern hawkers among the leaves and twigs at the head height of a tall human (of which I am well below). The showy bright blue and green of the protruding eyes and body segments of the males standing out from the foliage and blurring together when in flight.

Butterflies

 In the glorious sunshine and among the many many Buddleia, Strumpshaw was abounding in fluttering and graceful Rhopalocera. The most numerous was the stunning peacock, alighting on almost any flowering plant in bloom we walked past. Meadow brown and gatekeeper butterflies were also abundant, flying low and indecisively over and between knee-height cover at the sides of the trails. Dark red admirals and bright white (small and large) fluttered and almost landed upon us as they flapped by to higher feeding positions. Brimstones, with their lurid yellow-green, seeming less neon in colour than they would on a duller day. The star of the butterfly show, however, one that I had not dared hope to see, and only did due to the kindness of other visitors pointing it out, was a Swallowtail. Very high on an impossibly tall Buddleia tree, not far from Tower hide, perched the large winged yellow-black-blue-red form, with its protruding hind wings far beyond the base of its abdomen. But, as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone again, leaving us doubting whether we had actually been in its spirit-like presence at all.

Glossary:

• Crank = dead branch of a tree (Cotswolds)
• Doddle = to walk slowly and pleasurably (Northern Island)
• Hassock = large pond (Kent)
• Lidden = pond (west Cornwall)
• Loch = lake (Gaelic)
• Lochan = small lake (Gaelic)
• Peddel = to walk in a hesitating manner (Shetland)
• Plash = small pool (Cotswolds)

A bird buffet

I couldn't think of a collective noun for all of the different species of bird that visited our feeders this morning, nor could I believe my eyes. I don't think we have ever had this many birds on our feeders at one time, so I had to take a video to prove to myself later how many there actually were! It is too large to upload to blogger, so you can see it on youtube here.

Whilst we were watching this volery of long tailed, blue, great and coal tits and greenfinches, I noticed another less familiar bird hiding among the honeysuckle berries. Dunnock-like in shape, but with a white nape, I didn't get a good look at first. Eventually it did return and turned out to be a beautiful little Whitethroat.

Project Wild Thing: Day 2 & 3

Day 2: Birds and Badgers

My colleague and I arrived at work at 8:00 am. She is licensed to ring birds, so to give our students an experience of bird ringing, we set up a mist net around a bird feeding station. We also checked our camera trap (nothing) and our two mammal tunnels. The weather overnight had been wet and windy, so we weren't expecting much. To our surprise though, there had been a small bird through both tunnels although we're not sure what!

We had also arranged for Dr Jen Smart (of Springwatch fame) to speak to us about her work on badgers. Follow the link to find out more about her work. She brought in a GPS collar for the pupils to look at and explained all about the behaviour or the Minsmere badgers.

During her talk, a sparrow was caught in the mist net. So we paused and brought it in to ring, weigh and record. The pupils were fascinated by being so up close to a wild bird, especially when they got to hold and release her. We caught another female sparrow later in the afternoon.

Our next mission was to look at enticing and making homes for birds. Our students, with the exception of one vegetarian, took up the gauntlet and got messy using lard, dried fruits and sunflower seeds to make 'fat balls' to hang up around the school. A very messy but hopefully worthwhile endeavor. Our technology department were also kind enough to cut us out some bird box templates, so we thoroughly exhausted ourselves trying to hammer them together and paint them. Some have opted to take theirs home to put up in their gardens, others have left them for us to put up around the school.

For the last part of the afternoon, we went on a bird walk around the field to see what we could spot, and see if we could put into practice the bird calls we had been trying to memorize throughout the day. We have five oystercatchers on site, some of which allow us to get quite close before flying and alarming, so we managed a few pictures of them.

Day 3: Pensthorpe

Today, we took our pupils to one of my favourite places. We had a lovely day out. We started off in the Wader Aviary, identifying red shank, stilt, bearded tits, avocets... then went to feed the wildfowl collection. One of our pupils went from being scared of the birds to wanting to feed them really quite quickly. They enjoyed watching the birds rushing for the food and diving for it under the water.

At 11:00 am, we had booked to meet Tulu the barn owl. We got really up close to this beautiful bird and their knowledgeable park warden explained the different adaptations of the barn owl (eyes, ears, beak, talons), quizzed our pupils and answered their questions. We even each got a turn to stroke her. All were amazed by how silky soft her feathers were and how calm she was with particular people.


After our amazing experience with the barn owl, we visited the conservation area. We looked at the red squirrels and all the different sorts of crane. Our pupils were particularly taken with the Northern bald ibis. There were also lots of young birds around these parts. The white-naped crane chick had finally hatched and there was a much larger but still young crane in another enclosure. Mallard ducklings and young moorhens were also to be seen around the park. These certainly had the cute factor for our pupils!


After lunch, we went on the long trail through the woods and along the river. I didn't notice at first, but the younger and faster eyes of some of our pupils did - there were froglets everywhere in the leaf litter either side of the path! We tried a bird hide, but there seemed to be an early afternoon lull in activity, so we only lasted five minutes before most of number were 'bored' and wanted to leave. We continued our walk and ended up at 'Wildrootz' where they could relax and have some fun before heading back to school. All in all, a successful day!

Project Wild Thing: Day 1

Wow, what a fantastic first day we've had! At the school I work, our final few days before the summer break are 'Curriculum Enhancement Week' days. A colleague and I have decided to run our own activity this year: Project Wild Thing (inspired by the film 'Project Wild Thing' and The Wild Network). Four days of 'wild time'.

Our first day has been spent mainly looking at minibeasts: signs to look for, different ways of recording and identifying, and the thing the pupils enjoyed most - catching them!

After a walk around the grounds to look for the best places, we let our students loose with cameras and tasked them to take 10 photos of any insect or other invertebrate they could. Whilst they were busy, we took the same opportunity, finding some stunning Cinnabar moth caterpillars which were spotted by one of our pupils. Our minibeast hunt was also interrupted by a common toad underneath one of our mobile classrooms!


After we had sufficient photos, we introduced our pupils to iSpot. They quickly got used to navigating the website and were excited by the speed with which some of their finds were identified. They were also fans of the quizzes once they had found them too!

After lunch, we took sweep nets and pooters out onto the school field. I think it would be fair to say that this was the part they enjoyed most... some of them picked up the technique really quickly and made some very good discoveries:

	Red soldier beetle?
		Cricket
Cricket before release		A pooter full of minibeasts

We couldn't identify everything we found, but are hoping that iSpot will give us some suggestions. If any readers have any ideas, please do comment to help us out. I think they were surprised at just how many different things we could find in just a couple of patches of long grass. There was also much excitement when one pupil caught a red tailed bumblebee and a gatekeeper butterfly in the same net!

At the very end of the day, we set up out camera trap and two mammal print traps (below) that we will check out tomorrow (Day 2). Our second day is going to focus on mammals and birds. I hope they enjoy it as much as they seemed to today.

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.

School moths

As word of my blog spread around the school where I work, more and more people bring me insects to identify, call me to look at things they've found, bring in things for my nature table or occasionally ask my advice about various wildlife dilemmas.

The latest intrigue has been two incredibly furry moths on the staff room windows, which my colleague and I think are pale tussocks. Unfortunately, I only had my phone with me for photographs and, as it was on a window, some have my reflection in too!

A student has also brought me a moth caterpillar recently, which we have kept and fed and is now a cocoon... We're looking forward to finding out what it might turn into.