November 2003
Sunday 23rd; Visit to Armstrong Woods and
Trecarrell Farm. (B.Stringer) Five of
us enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the meadows at Armstrong Woods and up
the small valley towards Trecarrell Manor, with
permission
of Neil Burden, looking for movement of winter birds, any fungi still
hanging on and for signs of mammals. Nuthatches were calling as we left the
car park (see illustration by Alexi Francis) and a Goldcrest gave us
a hard time moving almost too quickly for identification. We saw over 25
species of Birds and signs of 6 mammals as well as some interesting fungi.
Of particular note was a Woodcock, a Tree Creeper, several Skylarks, a large
flock of Starlings, a Spindle Tree, recent Otter evidence and enjoyed lovely
refreshments at the Manor in the Great Hall in front of a warming fire!
Full
Species List
October
2003
Over the past two months we have seen summer turn to autumn,
albeit quite subtly. There has be no immediate end to the one and beginning
of the other which we seem to get some years, and although we have had one
or two light frosts, some days recently have been warm enough to be outside
with only a t-shirt. This has meant that the flowers in the garden and
hedgerows have lingered longer than they might otherwise have done and as a
result certain wildlife is still around.
In
the fields a few butterflies are still in evidence, namely the small copper,
tortoiseshell and the speckled wood and in the garden I am still seeing
tortoiseshell, painted lady and comma butterflies, the latter being a second
brood and a much deeper colour at this time of year (as
shown). Earlier on, during late summer, clouded yellow
butterflies were to be seen in our pasture fields. These are a striking
deep yellow with a small amount of black on the tip of the inside of the
wing. However it is difficult to get more than a fleeting glance at this
due to the fact that they rest with their wings closed and are fast flyers,
seemly nervous of humans. They are not common and may have been more
prolific this year due to the warm dry summer. I shall look out for them
again next year.
There have been several hummingbird hawk moths about, and my neighbour saw
one only yesterday (14.10.03). There has also been a convolvulus hawk moth
in the village, and
although
I did not see it myself, I was lucky enough
to
see its caterpillar(shown
extreme right, but click to enlarge if you dare), along
with a privet hawk-moth caterpillar
(shown left)and
an elephant hawk moth caterpillar (right),
all of which are of gargantuan proportions in comparison to those of other
moths and butterflies in this country.
The swallows and house martins did their usual disappearing act, virtually
overnight, although some stragglers lingered on for a few days. I haven’t
seen any for several days now. Their absence seems to have been filled to
some degree by an influx of robins which appear to be the only birds singing
first thing in the morning. They are about in some numbers. I have
increased the amount of bird food I put out in my feeder and on the bird
tables, which has resulted in sparrows in particular putting in an
appearance. Both great its and blue tits (probably the ones I watched as
fledglings) have been taking the sunflower seeds, and I saw a chaffinch
yesterday for the first time in some months. I am particularly pleased to
note that the teasels, which seeded themselves in my wild patch, have
attracted goldfinches. I had four on them the other day and took great
delight in watching these colourful birds as they extracted the seeds from
the teasel heads. We have heard tawny owls calling at night for some weeks,
sometimes being very vocal indeed. One night we were up at the farm at
about midnight with a difficult calving and there were several calling in
trees just outside the farmyard. They must have been aware of our presence,
with the lights on and all the commotion, but they were not perturbed.
Autumn of course, brings fungus, something about which I know not a
lot. However, I did see
a
fly agaric, that of the fairytale books, on a walk in the parish recently.
It is found particularly near birch trees, a variety that we do not have on
the farm to any degree, so I don’t see this fungus often. A group of shaggy
ink caps in various stages of growth were also seen (shown),
and in one of our fields a giant puff ball. These come up most years in the
same place and reach the size of a football. There have been other fungus,
some of which I have identified, some of which remain unnamed. Clearly it
is a subject for future study.
So, as the colour of the berries make up for the loss of wildflowers, and as
the leaves turn various shades of red and yellow, maybe I shall be seen
grubbing amongst the decaying vegetation looking for fungus, or out in the
fields picking the mushrooms for the next day’s breakfast.
August 13 2003 Wildlife Report Rezare, from Alison. I saw a mink on the Inny today. It was without doubt mink, chocolate brown, about half the size of an otter. I think it saw me before I saw it, as it was skulking along the opposite side of the river bank. I waited in the same spot for several minutes, but it did not reappear and I think it was lying low whilst I was there. Sadly, although I had my camera with me, I did not manage to get a shot of it. That would have been something.
I was also delighted to see two clouded yellow butterflies. I had never seen one before today. I was so pleased that I followed one for about 1/4 mile along the wild flower bank in the vain attempt to photograph it. I didn't succeed too well however. I may try again if I get the chance. I understand they are not too common (?). [ True and it is worth recording everyone seen, along with the Marbled White -editor]. We have also had a humming bird hawk moth on my phlox bush - a beautiful sight..
July 21 2003 Wildlife Report from Rezare. From Alison. The months of June & July have been very active ones, both for us on the farm, and for the wild fauna & flora on it and its surroundings.
There have been numerous new arrivals - baby birds abound in the garden with several families of blue tits, great tits and sparrows feeding on the bird feeders. Mr & Mrs Blackbird are busy showing their baby (with its bespeckled chest) how to eat the fallen apples, as yet unripe to humans, which they seem to find irresistible, along with the odd piece of rotten pear or peach that I throw out for them from the kitchen, and if they are really lucky the odd strawberry that the slugs may have damaged. It has been reported that generally it has been a bad year for baby blue tits, but we have been watching them for some time now. We have as many as 6 on one feeder at any one time, often joined by up to 4 young great tits. (although this year none of them nested in our nest box).
Our greatest enjoyment was the fledgling nuthatch which first visited our feeder on June 8th, followed the next day by one of its parents. The youngster was around for several weeks. It was easily identified from its parent by its much paler chest. Also it seemed to be much less nervous of us humans. The other birds were rather wary of it and rarely fed at the same time.
One of my neighbours reported having two greater spotted woodpeckers on their feeder of which I was most jealous. We have had a pied flycatcher in the village, several yellowhammers, and both Eric & I have seen flying over the village one or two large birds of prey which we are as yet unable to identify (not as big as a buzzard, but bigger than a sparrow hawk or kestrel)
Currently we have an influx of butterflies, no doubt brought on by the warmth of the weather earlier on this month. In the garden we regularly see gatekeepers, ringlets, small white, peacock, and tortoiseshell. A beautiful comma butterfly was on my flower bed today, its colour striking, as well as its shape. I am expecting to see the red admirals later on which compete for the apples with the blackbirds. In the fields we are also lucky enough to have a variety of butterflies, mainly because I persuaded Eric not to top (cut the higher grass & weeds) a hilly area in one of our fields. As a result we have had a variety of wild flowers appear and consequently a large number of butterflies, most notably the marbled white. This is such a pretty butterfly but nearly drove me mad trying to photograph it as it rarely stays still.
I am also becoming more interested in moths. They too are in evidence increasingly as the summer goes on. They are quite difficult to identify, but ones I have managed to recognise (usually with the aid of books or the internet) are: an Old Lady, a bee moth (a member of the hawkmoth family), an emerald, several six spot burnets in amongst the scabious and other wild flowers in our apple orchard, and most spectacularly, a white plume moth which is well worth looking up. (I had seen it in a book only the day before - so knew what it was!) Quite stunning. I continue to learn to recognise the butterflies and moths, but it is quite a hard task when the males and females can differ so radically and they can alter in colour so much depending on the stage of their lifecycle.
Down by the river the damsel flies have been joined by the golden ringed dragonflies which skim along the river, sometimes alighting long enough for a better look, and hopefully one day a photograph. (I actually had one in my sitting room but was so stunned to see it there that I let it go before I got a chance to snap it!)
Due to the undergrowth it is becoming increasingly
difficult to see the places where "my" otter
usually goes. However, I still have a couple of places where I am able to
check for signs. The weir at Bealsmill has been rather devoid of spraint in
recent weeks, but the sand bank where the otter frequently digs and spraints
is still well in use. I recently discovered some very fresh spraint and
excellent footprints not far from there. It is good to know that he is still
around, even if it is now more difficult to track him/her.
Fresh Otter Sprint Photo from Alison
We have silaged most of our fields that are not grazed. Whilst cutting in one of them, Eric discovered a partridge and her four very tiny chicks. Needless to say he was most anxious not to hurt them and after some debate decided the best thing was not to cut that part of the field by the hedge, so we now have a field with a rather odd patch of uncut grass in it. I saw "The Partridge Family" on a couple of occasions and only hope that the chicks survived the various wild predators (fox, buzzard etc) and cats from the local estate.
I continue to do my Parish Wildlife Survey on a regular basis, jotting down anything of interest in a notebook which I then enter onto the official form when I have a moment. I have found that doing the survey makes me far more aware of what there is and where things are, and I am more likely to go and look up something I do not recognise. One thing I have certainly found and that is that I still have a lot to learn!
June 3 2003 Otters on the Inny. We know that Otters move around all the river systems in the parishes being monitored in Launceston area [the Inny, Lowly Brook, Tamar, Kensey, Ottery, Caudworthy Water and Tala Water]. The first three of these pass trough Lezant Parish. What we don't know is what the population is and which parts of the system they occupy at any one time. One way to establish this is to monitor as much as the system as possible for fresh Otter Spraint (poo!). Several people have been trained to record this information at different parts of the parish. One of our most active otter spotters is Alison Jewell and she has sent in the report below. She is studying the River Inny below Rezare.
|
"At this time of year I
am checking certain easily
accessible spots along our river field, almost
daily and recording every time what I
see. I have found a sandy place just by Bealsmill Bridge where the otter is
scraping up a sand mound. There is a very definite run where he comes in
from the river, scrapes his mound, spraints and then goes back in a bit
further along. Most days there is otter spraint and often new scrapings and
mounds. He dug quite a hole one day! I am also regularly
finding spraint on the weir and one other
place. It is becoming more difficult to see over the bank
now as the vegetation grows up. In neighbour's field here is another definite track leading from the river along very long grass that then forms into a flattened round and goes no further. Whatever is making it must come from the river. We suspect that it is an otter couch - where an adult otter rests up during the day". |
This information suggest that
there is a resident otter on this part of the Inny, at least at this time of
year. The regular visits being made by Alison are allowing us to learn
something about its daily life. We hope to build up a more detailed
picture of movement on a wider scale as information comes in from other
areas We know for example that there is fresh spraint at the same time at
Laneast on the Inny (unlikely to be the same otter) and on the Kensey at
Egloskerry.
Alison is one of about 15 people in Lezant recording all the wildlife that
is seen as part of daily life.
| "I have filled up all the available space on my recording form! Sloe worms appear to be active in Rezare. We have our regular yellowhammer back . He is always in the same spot up Carthamartha Road, every year, singing his unmistakable song - 'a liittle bit of bread and no cheese'. There are very few butterflies so far, but damsel flies are just beginning to appear along the river and around our pond - there were several yesterday". |
Please get in touch if you want to join in our recording scheme or have interesting information about wildlife in Lezant.