A beautiful morning this morning – the above picture of a mill pool calm Ibsley Water in morning sunshine is not a view that we have been able to enjoy many of over the last year or so! A redshank was patroling along the shore when I opened up, but was quickly seen off by a territorial lapwing. A few minutes later the same lapwing put up this little ringed plover which conveniently flew closer to, rather than further away from, the hide:
Unfortunately there was no sign of the otter which someone has recorded as having seen from Lapwing Hide earlier in the week. I await my first view patiently!
The black headed gull colony seems to be doing very well – to the extent that, coupled with the unusually high water levels, nesting sites are at a premium and they are therefore seeking out new alternative sites both around Ibsley Water itself and elsewhere.
Unfortunately one of the “elsewheres” are the tern rafts deployed out on Ivy Lake. Two went out on Monday this week and the remainder on Thursday – on both occasions they were immediately descended upon by the common terns who have clearly been on the look out for them since they arrived and were no doubt perplexed by their absence before-hand. They are not made of as stern a stuff as in previous years though and on both occasions by the following morning they have been supplanted by the black headed gulls. However six plucky terns have stuck to their guns and so far are holding their own against a single pair of gulls on the left-most raft and this morning their were another 3 pairs of terns hanging around looking hopefull so with a bit of luck they’ll pluck up the courage to gang up and see off the interloping pair and perhaps even the rest that are currently monopolising the other rafts. At least one of the pairs of terns on the raft were mating this morning, so they mean business!
Common terns stand off against black headed gulls on Ivy Lake
Other recent news on the bird front is an update from the BTO ringers running the CES site on the reserve who were pleased to ring their first willow warbler of the year (pictured below, thanks to Kevin Sayer):
Willow warbler
Also caught and rung were: Reed Warbler 19, Reed Bunting 6, Garden Warbler 1, Great Tit 1, Blackbird 4, Long-tailed Tit 2, Blue Tit 1. Particularly exciting news from the ringing team were reports of what appeared to be a whitethroat territory, which if it was and they do nest, is possibly the first record of nesting whitethroat for the reserve.
I was out until dark digging over a much neglected allotment last night and being well and truly “midged” so I was anticipating a bumper moth catch this morning – or at least more moths than there have been of late. I was therefore disapointed to find just two hebrew character, one flameshoulder, one common quaker and one lesser swallow prominent (flameshoulder and prominent pictured below):
Also in the trap, and the first of the year for me, if not the reserve, was a single May bug:
In the pond a lovely grass snake (other visitors photographed a grass snake eating a toad in the reed/scub between Lapwing and Goosander Hides today):
And the bluebells are looking (and smelling!) wonderful all along the Dockens Water:
The wonderful and uniquely British bluebell wood!
There are lots of woods with more extravagant displays of bluebells than Blashford Lakes, but even so I look forward to seeing them every year. One of the best (if not the best!) places to enjoy bluebells locally is the Trusts Roydon Woods Nature Reserve between Lymington and Brockenhurst which I will be heading to soon with the family!
Sadly not everyone who visits our Nature Reserves do so with the same sense of awe, wonder and responsibility as we do. Ed and I had the unpleasant task of removing the fly-tipped waste (apparently the contents of a house clearance judging by the amount and type of assorted rubbish that had been dumped) left by one such visitor. No doubt tipped by a “business” involved in commercial removal of domestic waste for a ludicrously cheap price who avoids paying any waste trasfer duty (and no doubt saves a bit of diesel) by dumping in the nearest secluded green space – then to be removed at the expense of the landowner unfortunate enough to be the recipient of the rubbish, in this case us. Fortunately there were no farm animal carcasses or asbestos dumped this time, but sadly that is not an uncommon occurence either.
Here’s Ed with what was a very full trailer of rubbish at the end of the day yesterday (we were both as disgusted as he looks):
Fly tipped rubbish – not one of the more glamorous aspects of work at Blashford
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 
we also, suffer fly tipping on occasoins did you check to see if an address could be found. If we suffer again i will be checking it and if an address is found i will give them a day to come and collect thier rubbish or take what ever legal moves we can take. They might be inoccent in thier eyes but its still thier responsibility from thier house/buissness to the tip if they use a dodgey builder/refuse clearence firm then its up to them to take issue with the builder/buissness or face an even bigger bill for the removal. If we all did this then the tipping may stop altoghether as it allways seem to be the same person/buissness doing it.
Would that we had, but sadly the rubbish remains anonymous. Having said that some of the rubbish (like an old teasmaid, paint tin and other stuff I don’t recall) will not be allowed in the skip that I’ll be getting in to dispose of most of the rubbish and some other junk that has accumulated over the last few months, so it maybe that we do turn up something as we sift through it – in which case you can be sure that the owners of the rubbish and the police will receive a telephone call.