Tree Rat!

A lot of young birds have been seen in the garden in recent days with families of Blue Tit picking up grubs from the Wisteria, a Great Tit family (2 adults & 3 youngsters) feeding on the peanut feeders, a young Starling family was seen around the roof top too.

With all this activity, it has inevitably caught the attention of the local Sparrowhawk and a grey backed male whizzed low over the garden first thing this morning. His mate, the female repeated this aerial feet an hour later.

The local Green Woodpecker was also for a time perched on in one of our trees at the back calling but by the time I retrieved my camera it had buried itself deeper into the foliage of the opposite tree.

A Tree Rat, sorry Grey Squirrel, spent over an hour perched on the apex of our garage roof and performed nicely for the camera before I shot it (photographically)!

Grey squirrels are, in my opinion vermin and should be eradicated from this country.

They were originally introduced from America, their original country of origin.

They do untold damage to trees stripping the bark off mature trees, they take birds eggs (leading to the decline of woodland species where the Greys are prevalent) and they not only out compete our lovely native Red Squirrel but they have also forced out the Reds from many areas where they used to live. They also carry a virus which quickly kills off our native Reds.

To some people they make look nice and cuddly in our local parks but they have done untold damage to our native wildlife.

I fully support and endorse the recent comments made by Prince Charles about the problem of Grey Squirrels. 

NOT A Suffolk tick!

A "burn" down the A12 (makes a change from the A47!) resulted in me visiting Felixstowe Ferry, in the company of Andrew & Rob, visiting Felixstowe Ferry in order to see a newly found American Golden Plover. We were told it was distant but when we eventually reached the spot, it was on the near muddy bank bordering the river giving reasonable views through the telescope. A 1st summer bird, it appeared to be an AGP because  compared to Golden Plover, it was a greyer bird lacking the goldish- buff tinge on the neck and breast and sporting a distinct wide whitish supercilium but still showing some golden plumage. The greyer part of the plumage was even more readily apparent when it walked in front of the blue keel of a moored boat nearby. Stucturally, compared to Golden Plover AGP's are slightly smaller, with a more attenuated rear end and are slightly longer legged, although these features were difficult to ascertain on this bird, (appearing the same size as a Golden Plover) as the only other waders present were Common Redshank. It spent some of its time with its feathers puffed out to insulate it from the biting east wind, making it look rather plump compared to an AGP. Again there are no pictures because it wasn't that close and we observed the bird quite poorly in very windy conditions.

POSTSCRIPT Having seen photo's of this bird, I am now not convinced and have come to the conclusion it is a grey 1st year Golden Plover, I'll have to wait a little longer to add AGP to my

Suffolk list! 

An excellent Yellow Wagtail called and flew past as we walked back.

Third sight of Black- winged Pratincole

A one hundred and forty mile round trip, to some arable fields just inland of Thornham in North west Norfolk was required this evening after work in order to see my third ever Black- winged Pratincole. The exact site was viewed from a small road, looking through a gap in the hedge into an arable field sporting nesting Lapwing and even nesting Avocet too! Looking closer, I could see the dark Bourneville chocolate- coloured back of the Black- winged Pratincole and compared to Collared it showed more black on its bill with the red restricted just to the base of the bill. It also showed noticeably more black on its lores than Collared. The pale cream throat bordered by a thin black line did not stand out so much against its whitish breast. The Black- Winged Pratincole is a very rare vagrant to these shores, which was almost definately blown across by the strong easterly winds we experienced in May. It is only my second Norfolk record of this species and my first sighting of this species since I saw one at Titchwell in July 1999 & Livermere in West Suffolk, 16 years ago in September 1993. Its breeding range is restricted to the steppes of south-east Europe and southern Russia. This bird is almost surely the same bird that commuted between 2 sites of Grove Ferry and Stodmarsh in Kent, earlier in May. This bird is also following the same pattern commuting mainly between Titchwell RSPB reserve and the arable fields at Thornham and occasionally visiting Holme too.

The bird sat for most of the time during the evening, situated just a metre left of the Lapwing. It then walked around from time to time once flicking its wings showing its distinctive black underwings and repeated this action several time before sitting down again, occasionally disappearing from sight behind a clod of earth (its back was a much darker brown than the colour of the clods of earth around it)

It then crouched right down looking for the world it was roosting before it suddenly stood up again. A wonderful bird which sadly didn't hawk for insects due to the cold weather and overcast conditions, a real contrast to the weather from a week ago. No photos I'm afraid as the bird was too far away to photograph but reasonable views were obtained through the telescope. At the back of the field, a Hare ran and a male Marsh harrier patrolled the edge of the field.

Back at a supermarket site neat Great Yarmouth, the first Bee Orchids were starting to flower today.

Yesterday morning I also noticed Spotted Orchids starting to flower near Corton woods.

Very Scarce Chasers

A visit to an area in the Waveney valley just south of Lowestoft is always a delight in late Spring and Summer. This is to search for a number of dragonfly species, in particular the Scarce Chaser.

It lived up to its name admirably by not showing at all today. Their flight period is between late May and late July so they should really be around. But although the weather was hot there was also a strong cooling North wind, not ideal weather to photograph Dragonflies! 

However, up to 5 Four Spotted Chasers were seen and 4 Hairy Hawkers flew around the dykes.

A Cuckoo called in the distance, whilst 1 of 2 singing Garden Warblers eventually showed itself to me in bushes beside the path just past the meadow.

Near the railway line a Marsh Tit and 2 juvenile Long- tailed Tits were also seen.

I'll have to visit the site again soon and try again!

Back in the garden in the late afternoon, a Painted Lady butterfly briefly alighted onto a stone beneath the pergala. Whilst a Speckled Wood butterfly and Large red Damselfly were seen during the morning around the wildlife pond, which also held a sunbathing Frog.

Marvellous Mammals- 1, 2, 3!

An early start at Breydon hoping to clear up the great Knot controversy, only muddied the waters further, the finder had seen the bird earlier but it had flown off at 5.45am. A bird pointed out to me as THE bird by twitchers already there, was definately a Knot in winter plumage, 3 other Knots joined it including one fine Red Knot. They posed next to an Oystercatcher and appeared to me the same size as the bird last night.    

Incredibly an Otter (only my 2nd sighting of one, my first had been a pair of Otters swimming along the Island Mere at Minsmere in May 2007 & marvellous mammal no.1) swam left down the channel, it clambered briefly onto the muddy bank and looked at us briefly. It then flopped into the water and disappeared from sight. Later on a Common Seal (marvellous mammal no.2) swam up right along the channel.

Around the approach road, a Cuckoo called incessantly, I saw it very well in flight briefly but sadly this species eluded my camera lens yet again!

I then undertook a 2 and a 1/2 hour journey to College Lake near Tring in the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire in the hope of seeing some usually rarely seen European Polecats. 

European Polecats had been hunted to almost extinction in England in the past because they were considered a "pest" for sometimes hunting feral poultry. The European polecat stronghold in the UK is in central Wales. I had heard reports of up to 4 cub Polecats being seen regularly hunting, drinking and playing at a manmade pool overlooked by a small hide called the "Window in the Woods". The Reserve is very well run and having paid my £1 donation, I was given excellent directions to the hide. I had to wait just 5 minutes outside before I was ushered into the hide (there is standing room only for about 8 people at a push)!

After a 2 hour wait, where we were treated to views of Smooth Newt, feeding Jay and several Speckled Wood butterflies, one excellent juvenile European Polecat (marvellous mammal no.3) appeared suddenly really close in front of the left hand side of the hide. It was like a diminutive ferret it looked up at us showing its creamy brown face, the brown appearing like a mask and it also had a very brown back too. The Polecat then ran right in front of the hide and darted in and out of the vegetation and nettles. Over the next half an hour, we were treated to some very confiding but mostly obscured views of this rarely seen creature; hunting at the back, leaping on prey (probably a small rodent) and drinking from the pool (unfortunately right behind a log giving us again very obscured views). Once it must have stood on it's head up because a head suddenly appeared from above the vegetation at the back left, where it then bounded off to the right behind the pool. It was a real privilege to see to see this rare and elusive but marvellous mammal.

NOTE 6/6/09 Simon King & the Springwatch team are still struggling to film Polecats near Lake Vrnwy in Wales they should come to College Lake to film them! 

The great Knot controversy

A call at 6.15 pm led me to hot foot it over to Breydon Water in search of a "mega"!

A "mega" is twitcher's  slang for a very rare bird rarely seen on these shores, usually one seen less than 20X ever in the UK.

A Great Knot (normally seen in Asia in place like China) had been spotted from the south shore of Breydon Water by 2 very reliable observers and I joined a small throng of observers who were watching it. Only 4 have previously seen in Britain. I personally had seen several Great Knots before in China in 1999. The only problem was the bird was very distant, but looking at it through a 60X and 80X telescope, I could not see anything other than a pale grey back, (I could see no dark centered feathering or for that matter any brown on the plumage, but it did show a dark cap) a diffuse high pale grey chest band. In my opinion, the bird just didn't look big enough for a Great Knot. Although it was distant and the only other bird for comparison was an Oystercatcher, which positively dwarfed the bird. I was having serious doubts about the identity of the bird.

Structure wise, the length of the bill appeared equal to the width of the head (Great Knot should have a longer bill) it didn't appear particularly pot-bellied which I remember was a feature I saw on the birds seen in China and the legs appeared to me too short for a Great Knot.

Before you ask, I was looking at the right bird as it was initially pointed out to me by one of the finders.

I am not doubting the original identification made by the finders (they saw the bird much closer) but maybe the bird flew off before myself and the other twitchers arrived and an error was made and we were all looking at the wrong bird, a Knot?

 

Military Beauties

After feeling a bit narked for missing last weeks Melodious warbler, I needed a pick me up and what better than a trip looking for some really rare and attractive orchids. I particularly wanted to get some sharp digital pictures of Military Orchids as taken and not "improved" using Photoshop! As Oliver Cromwell once memorably said when commissioning a painter to paint his portrait "Remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never pay a farthing!"

I think I know what he would think of Parliament's latest troubles and he would condemn them vociferously and another famous Oliver Cromwell quote springs to mind "In the name of God go!" but that's enough of politics.

Military Orchids are one of the "mannikin" Orchids where the flower or sepal resembles a human figure and its Military name stems from the "coal scuttle style helmet" which it wears on its "head" recalling to my mind (and another Oliver Cromwell link!), the helmets worn by the Roundheads during the English Civil Wars.

Also on the "body" of the sepal are 2 rows of dots "threads" running parallel down the "body" seemingly like buttons on a soldiers battledress.   

The Military orchids beauty coupled together with its extreme rarity in the UK (there only a couple of sites where the public can visit this magnificent Orchid species) make it a highly desirable species to see. Luckily, one of those sites is in Suffolk at the Rex Graham reserve near Mildenhall, managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

Unfortunately the reserve is open on only 1 day a year! That day is the Spring Bank Holiday Monday. This, indirectly, caused a three year wait before I could go down and photograph them, because if you remember the weather for the previous 2 Spring Bank Holiday Mondays, we had torrential rain that poured down all day (typical bank Holiday weather, or should I clarify that to typical Spring bank Holiday Monday weather!)

On Thursday of last week, according to the weather forecasters the weather for the Monday was predicted to follow the same course as the previous 2 years, but fortunately the forecast thundery rain was delayed. 

The weather in fact, turned out to be bright and hazy changing to cloudy conditions and I was able to visit the site deep in a Pine woodland glade. It was well managed by a number of SWT volunteers. Indeed, the scene when I arrived,  resembled the red carpet premiere of a Hollywood blockbuster movie with the "stars" and substitute the Military Orchids for the "stars", being photographed by a myriad of photographers jostling for position (or rather quietly queuing and waiting their turn!) and a crowd of general admirers. The site has a series of walkways leading around the site and the SWT had even put a mat down for a special "photograph the orchids area", very considerate! 

A few Common Twayblades were also in evidence but were inevitably being overlooked by most visitors for their gaudy cousins.