Oh to be in Blashford, now that April’s (nearly) there! (with apologies to Robert Browning)

The early morning sunshine lifted the spirits, if not the temperature, but it certainly gave the reserve a much missed brighter appearance as evidenced by the view across the settlement pond.

View across settlement pond as we were opening up the reserve

The recently arrived male  chiffchaff were taking the opportunity to carve out their summer territories, for the breeding season ahead, by declaring their ownership and availability to passing females, in song.   With the recent cold weather and lack of obvious insects it’s difficult to understand what they may otherwise have found to sing about.   Nevertheless there were several singing males including this one alongside the path near the Woodland Hide.

Vociferous chiffchaff by the Woodland Hide

The spring-like nature of the day prompted us to contemplate giving a couple of the hides a tidy-up so we set out for the Lapwing hide armed with brushes,to sweep out the accumulated detritus of the winter. Slightly disappointed to not see the black-necked grebe that have been viewed from there recently, although a few visitors reported seeing them there later on.  We did see a pair of goldeneye, albeit just a little distant for a decent picture with my modest camera.    On the plus side this image of the drake in sunshine, clearly shows how they acquired their name, a feature not always that obvious.

Drake goldeneye

Given the time of year, with anticipation of the arrival of  summer migrants, a glimpse of activity atop the newly installed osprey platform, proved, unfortunately, to be just a black-headed gull using it as a vantage point.

Osprey platform with an ambitious black-headed gull

Whilst on the subject of summer migrants, we have had, over the last couple of weeks, a fair number of sand martins hawking over the lakes.  Sadly the numbers seem to have been reducing and today we couldn’t find any. This may be because they were only passing through on their way further north, or they have succumbed to the low temperatures and the lack  insect food.

On a brighter note the decoration of the reserve with bright yellow flowers of celandine and coltsfoot was a delight to see.

Coltsfoot

Signs of Spring?

Apologies for lack of posting,  but I’ve been having a few problems with getting onto the internet over the last couple of days so here’s just a quick blog of some highlights from Sunday and Monday.

A scheduled guided walk on Sunday was entitled ‘Spring Firsts’ and although the conditions weren’t very spring-like we did manage to see a few token indicators of spring. The native daffodils were well in flower as were a few greater celandine. The 100+  sand martins over Ibsley water and a fine male scaup seen from Gosander Hide confirmed that birds are on the move.

Later that day we were lucky enough to catch up with a couple of little gulls (an adult and a juvenile) hunting over Ibsley Water. I believe they’ve were seen on  Saturday, but weren’t in evidence today (Monday). I know gulls aren’t everyone’s idea of exciting birds, but it’s always good to see something a little different. I managed a few distant images which show some of the field marks and behaviour to look out for.

Adult Little Gull – smaller than black-headed and lacking any black on wing tips

but they have very dark underwing and if you look closely a pinkish wash to the belly

a butterfly like flight , dipping into the water with their dangling feet as they pick-up food from the surface – often flying along the same path then flying back to repeat the run over the same patch of water – a bit ‘tern like’ in this respect

Several hundred black-tailed godwit have  also been making use of Ibsley water, many roosting on the peninsula to the right of the Tern Hide. Some ten of these are carrying colour rings on their legs and Pete Potts , co-ordinator of “Operation Godwit” and who has been ringing these birds both at Farlington and in Iceland, was trying to check out these rings. He reported that several had been ringed locally and some in Iceland and at least one of them was first ringed 18 years ago, when it was already an adult.

Pete would be very grateful if any colour ring records of black-tailed godwits that visitors might make could be e-mailed to him at pmpotts@tiscali.co.uk.

Just a few of the black-tailed godwit on Ibsley Water – some in their breeding plumage

One of the features of this time of year has been the influx of more woodland birds onto the reserve, and into many gardens, as the depletion of natural food and the fact that many birds are starting to move back to their breeding grounds, has led them to make greater use of the food we put out.  Whilst lesser redpoll and siskin numbers on the reserve are still high, the number of brambling have increased significantly with up to twenty taking spilt niger seed from around one of the feeders outside the Woodland Hide.

A few of the brambling picking through the spilt niger seed

 

Happy World Water Day!

It turns out today was designated by the UN as World Water Day – a title that seems very fitting for today! In birds news there was the first sighting of a little ringed plover today seen from Goosander Hide out on the spit alongside the impressive flock of black-tailed godwits.  From the Lapwing Hide a visitor had great views of a kingfisher and 50-60+ sand martins that were there one minute and gone the next! A first for me was a stunning pair of mandarin ducks out on Ivy Lake. The bittern has not been seen all week so it is our suspicion that they have finally left for the summer. Walking around the nature reserve it certainly sounds like spring has arrived however the weather seems to be telling a different story as there was a definite chill on the air toady amongst the heavy downpours!

Docken’s Water Stroll

I took advantage of the dry start to the day to head up to Lapwing Hide. Along the Docken’s Water path the bluebell leaves are appearing amongst the leaf litter and celandine.

Celendine and bluebells

Patches of wild daffodils are dotted all along this woodland corridor.

Dockens Water 

Quite large areas of the woodland floor are also being covered by the foliage of moschatel. Moschatel and bluebells are both ancient woodland indicator species and their presence here suggests this stretch of woodland has remained quite untouched throughout the changes that have taken place to the site during recent times.

Moschatel (foreground) Arum (background)

A close up view of the moschatel shows the buds of their distinctive ‘clockface’ flowers.

Moschatel

After a little bit of a search I found a flower head that was open. The five faces of the flower head resemble a town hall clock which is one of its other common names.

Moschatel

Further along the Docken’s Water path and there was a branch across the river that had collected debris from the weekend’s flood waters; a visual aid as to how high the river got over the weekend and how quickly it has now dropped back down. It is this spatey nature of the river that has resulted in this strip of ancient woodland being left as a buffer for the river throughout the changes to the site in recent history.

Dockens Water

Nobbi Tern

Although it was another unpromising start to the day as we arrived to open up a distinctly soggy reserve under grey skies and light rain, the great spotted woodpecker was drumming from a large tree next to the Centre. A song thrush too was assuring us that spring was here with its distinctive repetitious singing of differing phrases. Trumping even these two was the wonderfully evocative sound of a chiffchaff calling out its own name in song.

Over Ibsley Water sand martins were seen hawking for insects. Whether these birds will be staying with us in the recently refurbished sand martin bank, or are just some of those moving through we will never know.

It’s very much a period of shift change as some of the late winter visitors haven’t all departed yet. Indeed the probable late winter/early spring shortage of natural food means we seem to be hosting ever larger numbers of brightly coloured finches, taking advantage of  the largess of the Trust in providing considerable quantities of niger seed, sunflower seed  and peanuts. As well as the siskin and redpoll coming into their breeding finery there are  quite large numbers  of (forty or more) around the Woodland Hide with at least ten brambling.   Some more brambling, and other finches including greenfinch,  are around the feeders near the Centre car-park. (Picture taken by Sheila).

Brambling by feeder close to Centre building

A buzzard has been making its presence fairly obviously around the Woodland Hide, much to the consternation of some of the smaller birds and a few of our visitors. One even asked if it had been taking many of the smaller birds, personally I should think this unlikely as most of the finches and tits are probably too agile to be caught by a buzzard. Most likely its scavenging some of the spilt food, I’ve had a friend ‘phone me today reporting just such buzzard behaviour from her garden.

The snipe has been re-located from the Ivy North Hide but there has been (to my knowledge) no sighting of any bittern today – hence the title of this piece (Just in case you were wondering if there is a strange species of tern on the reserve!!!).

Still a few ducks around including pochard, wigeon, teal, mallard, gadwall, tufted duck and goldeneye.  A couple of keen-eyed visitors spotted a pair of mandarin duck on Ibsley Water and some black-necked grebe are also still there.

Perhaps the most delightful sighting was by a couple of regularly visitors who were fortunate enough to see a barn owl flitting from post to post on the fence alongside Rockford Lake. The owl was trying to hunt in the open, but was being mobbed by black-headed gulls, the whole menagerie eventually flying off in the direction of Ivy Lake.

A Beautiful Day

Despite the overnight rain and a rather soggy start to opening up the day turned out to be quite sunny eventually.  Dockens Water was running high as you can see here in this view from one of the bridges.

I didn’t open up the Tern Hide car-park first thing as the level of water was such that it was only accessible to anyone wearing Wellington boots – this eventually drained partly and so was opened later.

Next Sunday I’m due to lead a walk looking for ‘ Spring Firsts’ and when these things are planned and put in the events diary it’s always done with the hope that the weather will be kind and that nature will conform to the ‘normal’ pattern of seasonal progression.   Having had a short walk around this morning I’m quietly confident there will be things to see, but can’t promise what the weather will be like…

Many trees are starting to show signs of the changing season including  willow catkins.

Catkins just starting to burst out – note the flooded Tern Hide car-park in the background

On the ground the leaves of many plants are pushing through the soil, including lots of wild arum (Arum maculatum) like this rather delicately spotted leaf found under some trees by the path.

Arum is a fairly common and widespread plant with a distinctive flower spike (spathe)pushing up inside a cup-like leafy structure (spadix) and it has many alternative old country names including ‘cuckoo pint’ and ‘lords and ladies’. It is, perhaps, better known from the stage once the bright red berries have formed.

Woodpeckers have been drumming regularly, lapwing displaying and giving their characteristic ‘peewit‘ call and at least one pair of great crested grebe have been engaged in courtship display.

Around the feeders in the Centre car-park area both siskin and lesser redpoll  are using the feeders and taking food off the ground.

Lesser redpoll on niger seed feeder

Fine male lesser redpoll taking advantage of spilled food on the ground – probably been on the reserve for some time – note metal ring on right leg

Siskin waiting in a tree before flying down to the niger seed feeder

There are still a few brambling around and one of our regular visitors has reported seeing a hawfinch in the same area on more than one occasion. This bird is rather shy and has only been seen from some distance, so don’t expect it to be as obliging as the siskin and redpoll.

Worryingly one visitor reported hearing the sound of mating mink, it’s apparently a high-pitched screaming, just outside the Ivy South Hide .

Arrival of Summer Visitors

The first courageous sand martins have arrived! 14 sand martins were seen over Ibsley Water on Sunday.  Sand martins are one of the first summer visitors to arrive back after their long migration from their wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa! By the time Monday arrived I’m sure they regretted their prompt arrival as we woke up to a sprinkling of snow followed by freezing high winds that swept across the water creating blizzard like conditions! A group of bird watchers visiting on Sunday also enjoyed views of a very showy stonechat on the brambles in front of Lapwing hide and a chiffchaff in the scrub to the right of the hide between the two lakes.

Bob popped in on Monday with some post and we watched ‘Teal Cam’ in the lobby, watching them do their crazy display; flicking their tails up and then body rippling out of the water. We remembered the camera had a microphone on it and so, after turning up the volume,  we enjoyed the joyful whistles of the teal from the warmth of the Centre! Bob then braved the Tern Hide where he recorded 12 goldeneye and saw 2 golden plovers flying north.

On Tuesday the temperature had dropped and so had the teals’ enthusiasm on teal cam as they sat perched on an ice sheet drifting across the lake in the wind.

Teal Cam

I’m always fascinated by swans feeding; as they spend the whole time with their heads underwater reaching down into the water to eat the weed they are our very own lake giraffes! It was a challenge to time the photo right for they only came up for air for a few seconds before heading back under.

Swan Lake

The niger feeders are still hosting the full set of redpoll, siskin and goldfinch.

The full set!

Not forgetting the brambling!

Female brambling (left) and male chaffinch (right)

And at least one bittern has still been showing over the last few days too. There are also still impressive numbers of shoveler over on Iblsey.

At the weekend both frogs and toads were seen mating in the flood water of the alder carr woods by the Woodland Hide. Gary took these fantastic shots capturing the moment! The male certainly has a good grip on the female as they crawl around looking for the perfect place. Thanks to Gary Prescott for sharing these photos with us!

Toads by G Prescott

Toads by G. Prescott

Toads by G. Prescott

Toads by G. Prescott

And a frog…..

Frog by G. Prescott

Moth-er’s Day

A two-in-one posting today, as I didn’t get round to one yesterday.

The diminished activity of bittern has been one feature of the last two days. Although there have been some good views of one,  seen regularly throughout the day from the Ivy North Hide, there is little evidence of more than one being around.   Having said that, to my certain knowledge there were at least four people who had their first ever views of bittern today and another visitor (from Kent , where they have breeding bittern!)  ventured to say that he’d had his best views ever and added that he’d had one of his most memorable days of birdwatching with  excellent views of brambling and  lesser redpoll  from the Woodland Hide, which he described as ‘magic’.

With the bittern, by way of diversion, there was a snipe, hunkered down in what remains of the now somewhat ragged and tatty remnants of reeds and reedmace. A kingfisher was also seen from Ivy North.

A range of waterfowl species are still present, but in smaller numbers.  Goosander have given a number of visitors a great deal of pleasure and many of the drake  goldeneye,  gadwall , wigeon, teal and even mallard are looking particularly smart at present.

Another  measure of the somewhat chaotic temperature regime of late was the presence of a singing chiffchaff close by the Lapwing Hide yesterday.

It’s also that time of year when amphibians and reptiles are desporting themselves in any available small bodies of water.  I always think it’s amazing that they are inspired to such ‘passion’  whan the prevailing temperature has many of us reaching for the thermal underwear. Even so there have been mixed ‘flocks’ of common toad and common frog spawning in some of the wet areas close to the Woodland Hide and yesterday it  was warm enough to tempt an adder out to bask on the path close to the Lapwing hide.

As most people cannot have failed to realise, given the commercial pressures these days, today is Mothering Sunday – or to give it its now more familiar North American epithet “Mother’s Day”.   As those of you who know me will testify, I have a tendency to  mis-interpret some words for comedic effect.  Prompted by this, and a request from ‘she who must be obeyed‘ , I set out the light trap overnight to see if we could capture a few nocturnal lepidoptera.  Unfortunately given the time of year and the cool conditions it wasn’t conducive to producing the most spectacular array of moth species, but Blashford is used to attracting some very different characters including this Hebrew Character, though I don’t think they come here from Israel!

Hebrew Character – named, I believe, from the shape of the prominent dark markings on each wing.

The only other moth in the trap was a Small Brindled Beauty.    The female of this species doesn’t have wings and like many (all?)  moths attracts a mate by releasing pheromones which the male detects with its large feathery antennae visible here.

SO not the most dramatic or impressive array of moths caught in our overnight trap, but it does give me the excuse for wishing you a happy Moth-er’s Day……

Friday afternoon – Centre & Toilets Closed

I forgot to say in my last post that the Centre and toilets may be closed late Friday afternoon as we have our cleaners in doing a spring clean of the whole Centre. So its just a head’s up if you were planning on visiting then. We apologize for any inconvenience this will cause. The rest of the reserve will be open as usual 9am-4.30pm and the Centre will be open as usual on Saturday.

March in to Spring!

The bittern was fishing outside Ivy North as usual this morning. We have got so used to these fantastic views that I haven’t actually taken any photographs yet and time is surely running out as they will soon be leaving us to fly north. So today  I decided the moment had come to attempt a snap shot and of course the bittern performed beautifully!

Bittern fishing

Something seemed to catch the bittern’s eye so it stretched up for a better look and as it did so the feathers raised up on the top of its head to form a stylish Mohican!

Bittern

Over at the woodland hide an equally handsome bird was also posing rather well as it squared up to its equally handsome reflection. The pheasant always makes me smile and later on in the day he appeared at the front door of the Centre. His neck feathers are looking absolutely spectacular at the moment, shimmering with red, blue and green.

Pheasant

Spring is a very yellow time of the year as the following flowers reflect; they are like drops of sunshine on a grey day.

Wild Daffodils

As I went to pick up some more niger seed I was greeted by this same group of daffodils again; but this time they were on the front page of the Ringwood & Fordingbridge News! So they are celebrities now!

Wild Daffodils

The gorse is blooming lovely; it was noticeably free from any invertebrates though which was surprising after the swarms that appeared in yesterday’s sunshine. We even saw our first bumblebee yesterday which was very exciting!

Gorse

The primrose dotted around the site are still flowering too.

The gull roost on Ibsley Water is still quite impressive with a group of Mediterranean gulls amongst them. There is also a substantial flock of black-tailed godwits.

Yesterday was a wonderfully warm and sunny day; it certainly felt like spring was in the air. A welcome sight and sound of spring is that of the lapwings that have started to display over Ibsley Water. Listen out for their brilliant calls and flip floppy flight pattern as you approach Tern Hide.  Another sign of spring is the frogspawn that was spotted by Kevin over in the flooded pool by Lapwing Hide.

We had the most unusual sighting yesterday as we walked with a visiting school through the woods by the Centre. As we looked up at the skyline through the trees we thought at first glance we had spotted the first sand martin of the year but in actual fact it was a bat! Probably a pipistrelle or brown long eared bat that had got too warm in its roost and had had to leave. Hopefully it was worth its while though given the swarms of flies that had also emerged with the warm weather.

Most of the wigeon seem to have gone now but there are still quite a few teal and shoveler about. In the woodland the redpoll, siskin and brambling are still here too.