Nature review of 2020 part 2 - July to December

 

birch woodland. Bedford Purlieus. 

This covers the second half of 2020 in reverse chronological order - ie starting with December

December

Last sunset of 2020

the Nene in Flood

this male sparrowhawk was obligingly sitting in our apple tree

floods along the Nene

flooded cycle path south of Millenium Bridge

Christmas Day. What incredible good fortune to have the Nene Washes right on our doorstep for an exercise walk this afternoon. Nobody about on our stretch of the bank.
Nothing particularly rare birdwise, but the flocks of duck (mostly wigeon), Icelandic black tailed godwit and golden plovers were magical. Three cranes.

Nene very high.

Birch in a Suffolk wood near Waldringfield.

tree in Suffolk wood

birch

birch in Suffolk

My first visit to Felixstowe area in 40 years. Trimley Marshes walk. Misread the info on the walk - thought it was 6km not 6 miles. Fascinating walk but noisy with the docks close by.

Trimley trees

near the Sewage works Peterborough

fungi

more from the Nene West of the Millenium Bridge

near Tanholt Pit

near the Sewage works

Flag Fen

November

Not quite a Scottish Lochan, but my local Tanholt Pit is looking pretty right now. Shame about the Landfill aroma.

Arty shot of birch woodland. Bedford Purlieus. One of my favourite photos of the year.

Eye Green

Glossy Ibis - possibly my favourite bird of 2020. Dog in a Doublet Sluice

An incredible number of wild whooper swans so close to the eastern edge of Peterborough (Willow Hall Lane). Not far off 500. All photos taken by iPhone through telescope. They have a nice soft painterly quality. Worth a trip if you have a long lens and/or some decent binoculars.

17 November: America Farm as the light fades. About a mile east of my house on the fringe of fen and Peterborough. More than a hundred whooper swans were gathered nearby, the biggest herd I have seen in the vicinity.


13 November: Went with Sue Leeks to see the great northern diver today not far away west of Crowland, east of Deeping. A good find by Mike Weedon. I love the way it slips under the water with hardly a splash. Seems to spend more time under the river surface than on it. One of my favourite birds of the year.

10 November: Out on the eastern fringe of Peterborough this afternoon. America Farm. Buzzards, kestrels, red kite, yellowhammers, stonechats and a 1000 starlings.

First photo using new iPhone se 2020 on a cycle ride out at Tanholt Pit. This was taken through binoculars. Would have been nice to have seen a penduline tit (no rude comments please) feeding on these bulrushes.

October

30 October: I saw (Ie twitched) the glossy ibis at Ferry meadows today
This was a new bird for Nene Park, and a big bonus for those responsible for the successful re engineering of Heron Meadows for flood protection and wetland wildlife.
The appearance of this bird was foretold in the lovely artwork at Orton mere
Jeni Cairns

25 October: Cycling against a blustery soaking shower on this open track beside the Nene. This rainbow was worth getting wet for. Pair of kingfishers and a pair of stonechats en route.

18 October: Those cows near the millennium bridge today may look serene but two days before I watched about 20 of them ganging up to assault a male swan. 10 of them ran full pelt towards the swan joining their mates. The swan just about emerged unscathed, but it looked like the cows would kill it at one point. The swan was tossed around like a rag doll to begin with but started to fight back with its beak and wings. Maybe the swan started the fight. I’ve never seen this before. No wonder some people are afraid of cows - but it’s usually dogs that panic them.

Feathered thorn

September

scruffy magpie in the garden

24 September A couple of trips to Tanholt pit near Eye this week.
The very cute juvenile little stints were born not long ago in the high arctic and may be heading for Africa. Sparrow sized, each weighs about the same as three £1 coins. First I have seen at this site. One of my best finds of the year.

black rustic. Aka the Darth Vadar moth

Frosted orange. Theyre grrreeat!

dark spectacle was new for me.

red underwing

August

old lady

my first ever blackneck

large thorn.

burnished brass

gold spot

posing by the field guide

July

I don’t see many of these in the garden. It’s called a “shark” because of its fin shaped projection but I call it the “quiff”.

more canary shouldered thorns

lesser stag beetle attracted to the moth light

beautiful plume

noble false widow. I'm very cautious around these. Can bite and cause an allergic reaction.

An experiment today to slow down my eating, improve my appreciation of food and my gardens flora and fauna. . Lunch in the garden, about 10 different things assembled in a salad.

1. Slowly Chew and swallow a Forkful carefully savouring each individual taste.
2. get up slowly, take a few steps, and find a flower in the garden; look at it briefly, appreciating its shape and colour.
3. find an animal to look at or listen to. Could be an insect, or a bird or something else. Don’t worry if you can’t name it. That doesn’t matter. Just appreciate it, without judging how beautiful or useful it is.
4. Sit back down in front of your lunch plate
5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 until your plate is empty. Choose a different plant and animal each time.

Sue Leeks comment: “if you are doing this to irritate me, it’s not working”
I found that my hunger was satiated sooner than usual. Took me about 30mins to eat my lunch.
Will be doing this again. Very enjoyable.

July 27: I’ve just come back from a lovely weekend on the Essex coast (Dovercourt near Harwich)

A couple of nights moth trapping was interesting if not spectacular.

It struck me that many of the species represented by more than one individual are recent colonists/moths with rapidly expanding ranges.

These include

Box moth (doesn’t bode well for box hedges).

Tree lichen beauty

Toadflax brocade

Light brown apple moth.

If I had studied moths back in the days I was cutting my teeth as a naturalist in the late 70s, I’m pretty sure these would not have been present.

If you look at the birds too on the nearby coast (northern shores of Hamford water), breeders such as avocets, little egrets and Cetti’s warblers were not around those shores when I first started birding there in the late 70s.

And we’ve lost quite a few too from Eg turtle dove, corn bunting. And many moths have declined dramatically in abundance if not range.

Many of these changes are due to climate change, but agricultural intensification is also a factor for many species.

 

swallow prominent

iron prominent

yellow shell

dusky sallow

spectacle moth. Sometimes known as biggles.

white satin

pebble prominent

huge flock of knot at Frampton Marsh near Boston

black necked grebe - breeding at Frampton

Lozotaeniodes formosana. A small moth about 1cm of pretty orange patterns. A pine specialist.

one of the ermine moths

This is a new moth for me. It’s called a birds wing. Not a big moth (just over 2cm long) but those are great markings on the wings. Peterborough garden.