Grass snake spotted today

For only the second time I saw a grass snake swimming in the moat. I was watching the ducks around mid day when I heard a little splash and saw a snake plop into the water about two metres away. They swim brilliantly - a very sinuous movement. It was about 400mm to 500mm long and surprisingly thin. The much fatter snake that I saw part of, a while back ,must have been pretty long if the proportions stay the same.

A small bit of good news

I saw my first fish since the sewage pollution on Monday. One tiny baby stickleback or minnow. On Tuesday I saw two tiny fish so things are heading in the right direction.

Also on the positive side the Tufted Ducks are still here.......

Tufted Duck - still here

The Tufted Duck that appeared on Sunday is still around with its three ducklings. I haven't managed any good pictures yet as it remains elusive but at least it seems to get on with the Mallards.

and now for some good news.....

Just two days after the depressing pollution incident and I feel much better. The Wimbledon men's final was in a rain break at around 8pm so I popped out to check on the stream. I was amazed to see a new species of duck on the moat - complete with three ducklings. Having never seen any duck except loads of Mallards in the four and a half years we have been here or indeed seen any other species of duck in the village in fifteen years, a Tufted Duck has made an appearance. Whilst we were watching the duck, lo and behold a kingfisher flashed by having been absent since early January.......

The duck and ducklings seem to be feeding on the moat. I am wondering where they were born since the ducklings look a couple of week sold but are not ready for flying anywhere yet. If they stay I wonder how they will get on with the mallard brood who are now all adults but still spent most of the day here and will no doubt be back shortly.

Pollution incident

I can confirm three new species for the Moat House species list - sadly the circumstances are due to pollution of the stream by raw sewage resulting in extensive fish deaths. I first smelt the problem after 4pm on Friday and soon found that the smell was coming from the stream which had turned a grey colour. Fish were gasping at the surface. I called the Environment Agency just after 5pm and to their credit they were on site just after 7pm together with Severn Trent water who they had called out. By then I had traced the source of the pollution which was coming from the grounds of a building on the opposite side of the stream. Whilst Severn Trent were tracking the problem back to a blocked sewer I started trying to rescue dying fish in order to take them upstream. I had always wondered whether the little fish in the stream were Minnows or Sticklebacks. At close quarters I was able to see we had both species and a third that I had not even suspected - Bullheads. I left the scene around 10pm, hopefully having rescued some fish to survive and breed again to repopulate the area with a larger vehicle awaited to finally unblock the sewer. By the next morning the stream refreshed by some overnight rain had returned to a proper colour but was littered with the corpses of dead fish. All very depressing but the one positive I can take out of the incident is that we have water that is normally of good quality in that it supports Minnows and Bullheads as well as the more common Sticklebacks.

Butterfly update

Tuesday was sunny and there were butterflies on the wing and mating in paddock adjacent to the church. The grass has not been cut there to date this year and that may be helping with the butterfly population. Most numerous were Ringlets followed by Meadow Browns with an occasional Small Skipper (shown)