Monday, 24th March 2014

After a foggy start, it became nice and sunny, although the wind was definitely on the chilly side. The temperature was 2C at the start, and remained on the low side until the fog lifted, when it climbed up to a heady 9C, but the wind remained stubbornly chilly and took the edge off what would have been a beautiful spring day.

There was a pair of green woodpeckers calling from each end of the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital wood and a pair of great spotted woodpeckers that were only about 100 yards apart. I know the great spots breed in the wood, but I have never found the nest site in the 4 years that I have been exploring the area.

The definitive sound of spring, for me, is the sound of chiffchaffs calling. I already saw a chiffchaff in the Gaywood Valley a couple of weeks ago, so it was great to actually hear them calling today. I say them because the single bird of two weeks ago has now turned into 7 singing males calling from all around the Osier Marsh. Surprisingly, I didn't hear one in Reffley Wood.

At least one water rail is still present and I heard a brief snatch of a woodlark. The treecreepers are making a lot of noise now (relatively) and everything is definitely gearing up for breeding. Several blackbirds seemed to be particularly interested in potential nesting sites, woodpigeons were seen carrying sticks and collared doves were seen mating. A single skylark was still singing from it's usual location, but I am still uncertain as to whether breeding takes place for this species. I am sure it does, I just need to prove it! Three grey partridges and a male Sparrowhawk were other birds of note to bee seen.

Although the wind was cold, it didn't put off the butterflies, with 2 commas and a superb count of 26 small tortoiseshells. Whilst I have seen a single brimstone outside of the recording area, I still haven't noted a single one on my patch yet.

Plenty of bumblebees were seen, although most buzzed by too fast or too high to ID, but I did manage to record 5 buff-tailed and 1 red-tailed bumblebee for the day.

The moles have been busy on the Osier Marsh with plenty more fresh mole hills noted, a pair of muntjacs were seen together and a single roe deer was noted feeding at the edge of  Trundle Wood.

I have only seen a live fox on one occasion in the Gaywood Valley and I am always on the look out for tracks and trails. It wasn't until 2012 that I saw the fox, and it is only since then that I have started to occasionally find any signs of them. I haven't seen anything to do with foxes for quite some time, but a fresh scat was found two weeks ago and I found another today. So it would seem that at least one has returned to the patch.

An investigation of the Reffley reservoir turned up three new clumps of frog spawn and the years first clump of toad spawn. The water levels have dropped considerably over the last few weeks and there is quite a lot of pond detritus left surrounding the high water mark. Whilst investigating this, I found a snail shell and took it home to try and ID. I had little hope finding out what it was, but was surprised to find that I managed to discover that it was the shell of a Great Rams-horn snail - a common species that I wasn't even aware of!

 

 



The first grape-hyacinth was noted flowering today, and I also recorded the first flowering cowslips of the year over by the reservoir.