Message and video from Simon Henstock.
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Kestrel
There have been several reports this week of kestrels hunting over Kestrel Field.
Continue readingCuckoo
The year’s first cuckoo was heard in the reserve this week.
It’s Hedgehog Awareness Week
During this year’s Hedgehog Awareness Week, the British Hedgehog Preservation Society is asking people to turn their gardens into safe havens for hedgehogs. Our gardens are a stronghold for hedgehogs, perhaps the key to their survival as a species, and we can make their lives so much easier with just a little effort.
Bird table ID
The header picture is a male chaffinch (CC0).
Red kites again
Message from Ian, Sunday April 18th:
A Red Kite appeared over Sleepers Field and settled briefly on top of the Oak in the hedge between Sleepers and Cornfield before continuing towards Lambrok Meadow. I spoke with a nearby walker who said it joined up with another over Kestrel Field; we seem to have a pair that have included the park in their territory!
Continue readingPark nightlife
Wildlife photographer Simon Knight has been sneaking up on our badgers. Click the green button for a little peek into the park’s nightlife.
Header picture: badgers at a bird feeder in Lambrok Close: by Jude Summers
Buff tailed bumblebees
The aerodynamically unlikely buff tailed bumble bee queens are out of hibernation and, buzzing around between the park’s spring flowers. Here is a video about their surprising flying skills:
Nesting
At this time of year, the reserve’s blue tits are looking for nest holes in our old trees. The ash tree at Fiveways harbours a nest every year and the newly fenced oak near at the bottom of the Arboretum seems to have attracted more than one pair already.
Here is a video of a female blue tit building a nest while, outside, the male guards the site from marauders and thieves.
Video from The Nest Box
Header picture by Simon Knight
Rooks in February
Before the end of February, the nature reserve’s rooks will have started collecting building materials for their nests. Here is a video that shows us what kind of behaviour to look out for:
Video by Film Studio Aves;
Header picture (CC0) pixabay.com
On the twelfth day of Christmas
The park’s twelve drummers drumming are great spotted woodpeckers. They begin drumming at the end of winter as part of a courtship ritual in which the male marks out his territory and advertises his presence by drumming his beak against hollow wood 10 to 20 times in just 2 seconds, and the females replies briefly as she enters his territory.
Here is a video:
Video recorded in March 2019 by George Ewart
Woodpeckers
We have both greater and lesser spotted woodpeckers on our species lists but it is many years since the single sighting of a lesser spotted woodpecker in the park. Here is a video from the BTO to help you tell the difference between the two.
And while we’re on the subject of winter roosts….
….here are long tail tits preparing for a cold February night.
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It’s garden-tidy-up time.
Keep a look out for hibernating amphibians as you tidy up your garden ready for winter. Frogs, toads and newts will find sheltered places to hibernate in hedge bottoms, compost heaps, under stones and in log piles and are best not disturbed. Take particular care if you are planning to clear out a pond: frogs and newts will sometimes overwinter in the mud at the bottom.
Continue readingOak gall ink
More about our oaks.
Continue reading “Oak gall ink”
No Humans!
Here’s a thing worth thinking about over your coffee of a Sunday morning.
The header picture is of the path through the copse between Sleeper Field and Sheep Field.
More about acorns…
…and squirrels.
Here is a video, taken from BBC Earth’s Spy In The Wild series, about squirrels caching acorns.
The header picture was taken by DKG
Swallows, swifts and martins
All summer long, swallows, house martins and swifts have hawked and hunted for winged insects over the park. The swifts have already begun their migration, the swallows will leave next and the house martins will go last of all.
Here is a short video to help you tell the three species apart.
Water voles
Lambrok Stream is home to rare and protected water voles.
Roesel’s bush cricket
Simon Knight has sent us video taken in the park, of a Roesel’s bush cricket.
Continue reading “Roesel’s bush cricket”
Moles
Another video about the park’s burrowers.
Rabbit warren
There are two rabbit warrens in the park: one at the far end of Sleepers and one in the thick bramble hedge that runs alongside the central path from Fiveways to Puddle Corner.
Here is a fascinating video, narrated by Chris Packham, about a rabbit warren.
A short video while we wait for the next sighting of the barn owls in the park:
The snowdrops are opening
The snowdrops in the copse in the southern corner of Village Green are beginning to open.
Video by Neil Bromhall
Header picture taken in the park by DKG
Here’s one of last year’s posts from snowdrop time:
