Highlights of the Year - Part 1

As this is the first full year of blogging I thought I'd do a series of posts on highlights (and perhaps a few "lows"!) of the year - mainly covering natural history.

The first post on the topic covers January to March.

Birds

The undoubted highlight of the year (in fact it probably ranks amongst my top 6 birding highlights ever!) was the discovery of my own flock of waxwings in January. Waxwings are probably my very favourite bird and they started to arrive very early in the country in Autumn 2010. By January, despite visiting many local areas with good supplies of berries where I knew they had been spotted before, I still hadn't managed to catch up with this species and was beginning to feel I was the only birder in the country who hadn't seen them! In the end on 24th January I gave in to the temptation to twitch them in Nuneaton where I had a fleeting glimpse of 20 of these gorgeous birds. A few days later on the 28th I turned into an avenue where there were around 14 trees full of berries which I had been checking on and off for months and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw 6 starling sized birds eating berries and realised at long last I had found my own waxwing flock. I was so lucky especially as I happened to have my camera and telephoto lens with me.

Waxwings







A trip to Ladywalk on 3rd January had got the year bird list off to a good start and several trips to Brandon Marsh between January and March added more species. I saw great crested grebes in a courtship display on 8th March and a ringed plover the same day.

In the garden a wren was roosting in a hanging basket on the patio and blue tits started investigating one of the nest boxes from the 16th January. On the 18th March I saw a goldcrest in the garden and a female mallard visited the garden pond at the end of the month.

Amphibians

Frogspawn first started appearing in the garden pond on 24th February - one of the earliest dates ever. Since 1993 when I first started to keep records spawn has always been laid in March except for 1998 when an even earlier date in February was recorded. Two common/smooth newts were spotted in the pond on 13th March.

Frogspawn



Moths

First moth of the year was a winter moth on the outside kitchen window on 12th January. I started running the moth trap on 4th March to coincide with the start of the Garden Moth Scheme. The first two trapping sessions failed to produce any moths but on 18th March I trapped a Dotted Border (a new species for the garden) a Common Quaker and a Chestnut. 23rd March produced 2 Clouded Drabs and Diurnea fagella (a new micro for the garden) and on 25th March Emmelina Monodactyla, Common Quaker and Hebrew Character were caught.

Butterflies


On 21st March I saw my first butterfly of the year a comma at Brandon Marsh



and the first butterflies seen in the garden were a Small Tortoiseshell nectaring on pansies/violas on 23rd March and a Brimstone the following day.

Mining Bees

A trip to Brandon Marsh on 8th March proved fascinating as I watched many mining bees excavating tunnels



and managed to get a photo (well, a record shot!) of a Treecreeper



On 9th March I spotted a Hairy Footed Flower Bee at home and the first Buff-tailed Bumble Bee was seen on 17th March.

Super Moon

On the 18th March we were lucky to have clear skies as a Perigee "Super Moon" the biggest in 20 years appeared



To finish off the first quarter's highlights

Male and Female Hazel Catkins at Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens



Its always a delight to see the first snowdrops and winter aconites





Snakeshead Fritillaries in March at Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens



I went to Packwood House at the end of March because they always have a superb display of daffodils.

Miners, Treecreepers and Grebes

It was the second consecutive day of warm, spring sunshine with clear blue skies and I could resist temptation no longer. So this afternoon I jumped in the car and drove over to Brandon Marsh for a couple of hours.

I saw my first lambs of the year gambolling around their mothers in a field during the journey and a pair of buzzard soaring near the entrance to Brandon Marsh.

The reserve was quieter today and it looks as though the bitterns have moved on - there doesn't seem to have been a sighting for a few weeks and the hides were a lot quieter!




I lingered for quite a while in Horsetail Glade again looking for lesser spotted woodpecker and nuthatch - neither showed but I haven't seen any reports of the former being seen at the reserve yet this year. Still I can't complain after my sighting near Ladywalk NR late last year.

I spent quite a while in the John Baldwin Hide overlooking East Marsh Hide. Some species came quite close to the hide so I was able to take photos with the new telephoto lens - some are better than others but overall I am quite pleased as the camera was handheld and the camera and lens are without IS.

Canada Goose - easy to photo as they are so large!





The reserve holds large numbers of Coot



Lapwing/Peewit - not the sharpest of photos but I love the way the picture shows the colours



Gadwall



It was lovely to see a pair of great crested grebe in all their breeding finery. They even indulged in some courtship display with lots of head shaking. No photo of this as I had just turned off the camera and put on the lens cap!







The ringed plovers are back - there were a couple on Willow Island although far too far away to attempt a photo.

Highlight of the afternoon was watching a group of mining/digger bees excavating nest holes in a sandy bank. Although they are solitary bees, if soil conditions are ideal many bees will nest close to each other. Each female digs a burrow to raise her young. The burrow holes are about 6 mm in diameter. I am not sure of the exact species but I think there may have been two as several of the bees were about half the size of the others.

Clicking on the photos to enlarge them will reveal more detail.














I saw a couple of treecreepers whilst walking along the path to East Marsh Hide



I had spent that long entranced with the mining bees behaviour that I didn't have time to visit Carlton Hide so I just popped into East Marsh Hide where I could see 3 snipe on the far bank and took a few photos of tufted duck followed by a pair of teal.





Goose Pool





I walked back to the Visitor Centre via New Hare Covert and around the back of Grebe Pool seeing several rabbits.




Several primroses on primrose bank had buds and I also saw a dandelion flower.

I added six new bird ticks to the year list today - great crested grebe, gadwall, ringed plover, wigeon, treecreeper and snipe and managed to see 27 species. To be honest the number of species seen is not that important as Brandon Marsh is my favourite reserve and I visit just to enjoy nature and recharge batteries. Its a pity its not closer to home as I would go every week!

If I can ever resist the temptation of visiting Brandon Marsh there are several other places in the vicinity I really would like to visit this year. Ryton Organic Gardens is very close and a bit further on are Ryton Woods a semi-natural ancient woodland and Ryton Wood Meadows - a Warwickshire Butterfly Conservation reserve. A bit further on is Draycote Water which I have never visited.