It's been a while...

I was going to blog about the last of the butterflies and dragonflies enjoying the autumnal sunshine but then I saw something I hadn't spotted for about two years - a kingfisher. No photograph I'm afraid - it didn't hang around to have it's picture taken. I saw it on the stream and was wondering whether it had been checking out the moat for sticklebacks as I hadn't seen any sticklebacks since the drought reduced water levels so much. Hey presto I went over to the moat and found sticklebacks. I fished out three in the space of a minute or so so I think there are a reasonable number in there.

Latest ducklings

Not in their earliest fluffiness but these eight ducklings are at the 'diving' stage which is very comical. They seem to set each other off as one by one they dive underwater and then bob up again a few seconds later. They seem to be spending time on the moat unlike earlier broods who mainly moved off elsewhere.

And now it's mallard central too...

Just the day after reporting that we seemed to have stacks of moorhens for the first time in a while, today it was mallards overrunning the place. As I have reported previously we had some broods of ducklings earlier in the year that didn't stay around. Their mothers took them off - probably because there wasn't much water in the moat. However today two sets of ducklings (almost fully grown) returned with mother so we had around 25 mallards from those two groups. In addition we have the duck plus one duckling born around a week ago and tonight I spotted a group of about eight newly hatched ducklings. That makes getting on for forty mallards on the moat and probably takes us over 50 for ducklings hatched this year. One more brood and 2012 could be a record year. The picture is of one group of 'ducklings' sleeping on the lawn.

Moorhens

It's been a miserable year for a lot of wildlife but the moorhens are having a good year - so far. A brood of six chicks has been born recently and at lease five or six juveniles seem to have made it through from earlier broods so there is quite a throng of them at the moment. As they are the most entertaining birds I know it is gratifying to see so many. All three generations were on the lawn today with five juveniles and most of the chicks plus an adult. The adult was showing them all how to steal potatoes from the vegetable patch so I went out and dug up the remaining ones and they had to content themselves with eating whatever it was I had uncovered. There has also been a new single duckling but it is keeping a fairly low profile. The picture shows one adult four juveniles and three chicks on the lawn.

Waxcaps on the lawn

Having left the lawn uncut for a couple of weeks during which a lot of rain fell I came back from holiday to find the lawn covered in waxcaps, one of the blackening species. From my fungi book I would have said it was Hygrocybe tristis or Hygrocybe conica var tristis as some sources have it

but the whole taxonomy of waxcaps seems a difficult area so I am not sure.

Butterflies

Is has been a terrible year for butterflies although there were unusually large numbers of Orange Tips earlier in the year (mostly before the rain started). Today it warmed up a bit despite it being damp and there were five species trying to make the most of a day when it wasn't too wet or windy. Pictured here is a Comma (one of several on the wing) and I also saw Meadow Browns, Ringlets, a Red Admiral and a Large? White.

Moorhens

After a slow start to the breeding season there are at least five moorhen chicks being raised on the moat. All five were on the front lawn today under the care of two adults and a juvenile. At one point when there was one adult and three chicks two magpies landed presumably to snatch a chick or two. The adult stood on no ceremony but charged, beak outstretched, at the nearest magpie, who, despite his size advantage cleared out pretty quickly. I went out and ensured both magpies were gone. The picture below is of three of the chicks waiting on a rush.

Even more ducklings...

We are now up to just over 40 ducklings with a further 12 born a few days ago. We shall see if these stay around or not - so far we have not this year had new ducklings around for more than a few days after hatching. However water moat levels are almost back to normal after the exceptional rain we have had in the last couple of months so maybe that will help.

More ducklings

A third set of ducklings for this year have been born in the last couple of days. Neither of the first two broods stayed around but with more water in the moat I'm hoping these will do. Thirteen this time means about 30 for the year so far - still well short of the 50+ recorded a few years ago.

First ducklings of 2012

Just a couple of days after the first moorhen chicks were hatched we had our first ducklings. I was looking for the moorhen chicks when an oddly coloured one appeared and it took me a few seconds to realise it was in fact a single duckling with no sign of adults or other chicks. A couple of hours later I spotted the whole brood who had now hatched although I didn't get a precise count. There were certainly at least half a dozen. Later however the crows and some sparrowhawks seemed to be taking a lot of interest and it's possible she lost a few. Whatever the reason she seems to have decamped with them to somewhere else as I haven't seen them around in the last day or so. I am sure there will be further broods to come. The good news is we have had some proper rain today at last. Let's hope this weather continues for a while until the moat is back to its proper water levels.

First Moorhen Chicks of 2012

After a rough year for the moorhens including the current lack of water depth it is good to see the first chicks of the year. There are definitely four and maybe five although I am not 100% sure whether they are all from the same brood. The feeding and care of young is complex and often only part of the brood is taken out by an adult.

Anyway here is a picture of three of the 2012 chicks under the care of an adult.

Ladybirds

It's been a big year for ladybirds so far; to be specific 7-spot ladybirds. They are much more plentiful than I have seen them here before. I don't know whether it is the early spring weather in February and March or the drought we have had here for the last eighteen months or what, but everywhere you can see lots of 7-spots.

Frogs are back

It's spawning time again. Due to the severe drought we have had here for the last year most of the usual spawning places are dry. The frogs are spawning in the main part of the moat where I guess the spawn is going to be a lot more available to be eaten. No doubt some will survive and keep the population going.

Pheasants competing

Two years ago we had a male pheasant here pretty much every day. Last year we had a pair of pheasants and I even caught sight of some pheasant chicks. This year it has gone one stage further and we have two male pheasants going through some competitive posturing, presumably competing for the territory. It didn't seem particularly aggressive posturing but it might be that this is just the warm-up stage.

Brimstone

I regard the first Brimstone as the opening of the butterfly season and so the season opened today. As usual I did not get a picture of this fast flying butterfly that never seems to hang around long enough for me to snap it. I see that it has arrived 12 days ahead of the first Brimstone of last year. Normally by now there should also be spawning frogs but with water levels so very low I am not quite sure where they are going to spawn this year as the normal places in the reeds are dry.

Sparrowhawk

I have at last captured a sparrowhawk on camera. It's not a good picture but I took advantage of an unusually static sparrowhawk to get the camera and long lens out. I don't know if this is part of the same family of sparrowhawks that fledged on the site last Augustbut I am hoping that it doesn't hang around too long and frighten off the smaller songbirds.

Great Garden Birdwatch 2012

I just managed to complete this year's RSPB birdwatch after getting back from holiday. It is a great discipline because it forces you to pay attention for a whole hour and having binos at the ready you get to spot birds you would otherwise miss. There was a increase to 14 species from only 10 last year and that was without either mallards or moorhens who are round about the moat most days at this time of year but not during the hour of birdwatch. The theme was probably corvids as there were significant numbers of jackdaws and rooks around and of course the usual pair of crows. Other species seen were blackbirds, wren, robin, a selection of tits (great, blue, long-tailed and coal), starling, wood pigeon, house sparrow and goldfinch. Surprising ommissions apart from the water birds were chaffinch, magpie, collared dove and stock dove. Not so surprising was the lack of greenfinches which seem rare these days.