Fieldfare (Turdus pilarus) and redwing (Turdus musicus), migratory thrushes from mainland Europe, are common winter visitors to the park. They are easily confused; here is a video to help you distinguish the two species.
Header picture: Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) by Teresa Reynolds (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Jenny Wren, the Eurasian wren, Troglodytes troglodytes.
Continue reading “Jenny Wren”
Simon Knight, our in-house wildlife photographer, has sent us a long tailed tit huddled against the cold of a frosty morning.
click here to see how such tiny birds cope with these freezing nights
Charles Darwin calculated that there would be 53,000 earthworms in an acre of soil. That number has been adjusted upwards over the years and at the moment stands anywhere between 500,000 and a million. The reserve covers about 140 acres so, even at the lowest of modern estimates, there are 70 million earthworms in the park.
Treat your garden birds with a Christmas bird table. Here are some suggestions:
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On the winter’s coldest day so far, let’s look back to the summer for a while: here is Simon Knight’s picture of a golden-bloomed longhorn beetle sunbathing among the grass stems.
Birds need clean water for both drinking and bathing whatever the weather. We know you put out clean water for your garden visitors during the drought but please don’t forget they will need the same support as the temperature falls and natural sources of water freeze over.
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On this very cold and damp Sunday morning, let’s look back at one of our summer visitors: Muscicapa striata, the spotted fly catcher.
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Some of our residents are really quite hard to see. Here are some of the late DKG’s pictures of the well-camouflaged.
Header picture: public domain.
Eurasian wrens (Troglodytes troglodytes) share territories during the winter, in particular they will share sheltered winter roosts, sometimes crowding together for warmth in nesting boxes. The record number of wrens seen leaving a nesting box after a cold night is sixty three.
Header image: wren by Cheryl Cronnie
In the world of invertebrates, black and yellow signals danger. It says to predators: I am poisonous or I will bite you.
Read on to discover more:
At this time of year, if you find a butterfly fluttering on the inside of your window, it will probably be either a peacock (Aglais io) or a small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae). It will have come in during the autumn looking for a cool, dark and sheltered place to overwinter and the gap behind the wardrobe in your bedroom must have seemed just right.
Continue reading “Butterfly rescue”
According to the sort of scientists that count things, there is only one mammal in the UK more numerous than we humans: Microtus agrestis, the field vole. The latest estimates put the field vole’s population at 75 million while our own is only 67 million.
Header image: field vole by Sam McMillan (CC BY-NC 2.0) flickr.com
Hoping for a pine marten, a top predator, to move into the reserve might seem a strange idea but predation is an important factor in ecological dynamics. The lack of predators is one of the reasons the UK’s biosphere is so unbalanced and in such danger.
Continue reading “Predation”
The reserve provides habitat for all kinds of wasps. This year, despite the drought, must have been a good year for gall wasps because our oak trees are showing a goodish crop of the various round galls we call oak apples.
Continue reading “More about our oaks”
Clive Knight has sent in pictures of the wetland scrapes in Lambrok Meadow. Now that the rain has refilled Lambrok Stream and spilled into the scrapes, we can see how they are intended to develop.
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A magpie moth (Abraxas grossulariata), identified in the reserve during the summer.
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The Winter moth (Operophtera brumata) is one of the few Lepidopterans that can cope with winter’s freezing temperatures in its adult stage. They are endothermic which means that they can produce heat internally by biochemical processes, just as warm-blooded creatures do.
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There are six species of native British reptiles and three of them are resident in the reserve: we have European adders (Vipera berus), grass snakes (Natrix natrix), and slow worms (Anguis fragilis).
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A message from Barbara Johnson:
Where have all the blackbirds gone? Are they able to find enough food in the wild so don’t need to visit our gardens?
Continue reading “The blackbird question.”
Here are ten things you may not have known about Sciurus carolinensis.
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There is no scientific distinction between frogs and toads. They all belong to the order Anura and most anurans are commonly referred to as one or the other – which is why we try to use scientific names when we can.
There are always jays somewhere in the reserve
Continue reading “Jay”
Of all the mammals on our species list, only the bats and hedgehogs truly hibernate. We have found the tiniest piece of evidence that there might be dormice in the reserve; if so, that would be a third hibernating species.
Continue reading “Hibernating mammals”
by Ian Bushell
Email from Dr R.L.Brown, of Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, NZ:
Continue reading “International cooperation 2”
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 