On this very cold and damp Sunday morning, let’s look back at one of our summer visitors: Muscicapa striata, the spotted fly catcher.
Continue reading “Spotted flycatcher”Spotted flycatcher
Winter moths
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.
Continue reading “Winter moths”The blackbird question.
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.”Jay
There are always jays somewhere in the reserve
Continue reading “Jay”Eurasian collared dove
Collared doves (Streptopelia decaocto) bred in Britain for the first time in 1955, in Norfolk. Within 20 years they had colonised every county in the British Isles, and had even reached Shetland and the Outer Hebrides.
Continue reading “Eurasian collared dove”Kingfisher
Kingfishers usually come to the reserve in the autumn when breeding pairs split up and the year’s fledglings spread out to look for their own territories. This year, after such a long period of drought, things might be different.
Read on:
Winter roosts
The increasing use of nest box cameras has shown how frequently garden nest boxes are used by blue tits for winter roosting.
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Quackers!
This year’s Ig Nobel prize for physics went to Professor Frank Fish , for research into the question of why ducklings swim in a line behind their mother. Apparently, the linear formation saves energy with the last duckling in the line benefitting the most. Didn’t we already know that?
by MTSOfan (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) flickr.com
Header Image: by Michael B. Smith (CC BY 2.0) flickr.com
Willow warbler migration
Most of our willow warblers will have left by now; they will be on their way to sub-Saharan Africa where they will spend their winter. Theirs is the longest journey undertaken by any of the park’s migratory birds. Why do such tiny birds fly so far and take such risks to do it?
Continue reading “Willow warbler migration”
Winter song
Robins, both male and female, sing almost the whole year round with just a pause after the breeding season, when they go into hiding for the moult.
Continue reading “Winter song”One for sorrow, two for joy…
There are several families of magpies in the reserve. This year’s crop are, as yet, short-tailed, loud- mouthed and clumsy, hanging out in gangs and still learning to fly properly. But, despite their dramatic black and white beauty, their reputation is poor.
Read on:Wood pigeon
Wood pigeons (Columba palumbus) are our largest and most common pigeon. Gregarious, very adaptable and given to flocking in enormous numbers at this time of year, they are an everyday sight in British towns and countryside.
In towns they seem unafraid but in the park they are shy and wary. Often the first indication that they are there at all is the loud clattering and clapping of their wings as they take off and fly away. Their call is the lovely, familiar background noise of spring and summer.
Grey Heron
A juvenile grey heron (Ardea cinerea) photographed in the reserve at the weekend by Cheryl Cronnie.
Continue readingWhitethroat
A common whitethroat (Sylvia communis), photographed in the park by DKG in the summer of 2019. It is probably either a female or a juvenile; the male is more distinctively coloured.
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Listen to the Reserve
by Simon Knight
During this extreme hot spell we are all currently enduring, there is no doubt that the best time to be in the reserve is first thing in the morning.
Continue readingGoldfinch
A goldfinch photographed last week in the reserve by Cheryl Cronnie.
Images: Cheryl Cronnie; recording: Jack Berteau via xeno-canto.com
Carduelis carduelis
UK breeding population:1.2 million pairs
UK conservation status: Green.
Protected by The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
Greenfinch
A greenfinch photographed in the reserve on Friday by Cheryl Cronnie.
Thrush
There are two species of thrush resident in the reserve: song thrush (Turdus philomelos) and mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorus). Here is how to tell them apart:
Cheryl Cronnie asks if this is a house sparrow (Passer domesticus) or a tree sparrow (Passer montanus) that she has photographed in the reserve.
Read on to find out
In response to yesterday’s fledglings, somebody sent me a link to a YouTube video of great tits leaving their nest. The screen is split so that you can see the inside and the outside of the nest box at the same time.
LBJ
The reserve is full of little brown birds. Small and brown seems to be some kind of default programme for birds and accurate identification can depend on an extra millimetre in a brown tail feather or the exact shade of a brown eye-stripe. Until they are otherwise identified, the RSPB calls them all LBJs: Little Brown Jobs.
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Meet the Robin Family
by Cheryl Cronnie
There’s a little story behind the robin in this picture, whom I’ve called Rocky Robin. I’ve been feeding him since the end of August 2021.
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Record holders
The record breaking swifts are back from their winter feeding grounds.
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Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 