October nature nates - and a rarity!

Back in August I signed up for a virtual Land's End to John O' Groats challenge - 874 miles to be completed in a year. I'm alternating running and walking days, and the challenge has certainly got me out and about more regularly, especially walking. I usually just walk around the fields here in my corner of Cambridgeshire - nothing spectacular, but pleasant rural routes nonetheless. 

And it was when I was out on one of these walks that I spotted my first ever Great Grey Shrike! I saw an unfamiliar bird flying away from me along the ditch at a field edge - found it in my binoculars (note - NEVER leave home without your binoculars!), and there it was, unmistakeable, a Great Grey Shrike with its black bandit mask, perched atop a scrubby bit of blackthorn. I watched it for a few minutes as it flew from perch to perch along the field edge, then further away down the far side of the field until it disappeared from sight. I continued my walk, which took me round the edge of the field. As I approached the far corner - there it was again! It popped back up and perched up on a stand of dog rose, then flew back across the field to where I'd first seen it, giving me a great view of its black, white-flashed wings.

I didn't really realise at the time what a rarity this bird is in the UK. I reported it to my local bird club, who sent me a UK rarities form to fill in and submit. I also recorded it on BirdTrack, and the whole thing has now prompted me to start keeping and submitting complete lists whenever I go for a walk around the fields (a habit I had fallen out of!)

Other October highlights for me included a Brambling in the rowan tree at the end of our drive. I've only ever seen them here two or three times over the last 10 years, so this was a treat!

And I've been adding weekly to my perpetual journal, bits and pieces I've found while out walking mostly...

And of course the wet and mild weather has been great for fungi. I took a couple of hours off to go and walk around a marvellously muddy Waresley Wood.

I even found a fab little beetle - a False ladybird beetle Endomychus coccineus, which I submitted to iRecord.

 As we head into November the skies are stormy, and once again lockdown is looming. It will surely be a hard winter for many people; just remember, nature endures, the rhythms of the seasons march on, and the wild, in all its forms, continues to be there for us, if we will only stop and notice it. 

 

Autumn is here - nature notes for September

September has been rather a lovely month here in this part of Cambridgeshire. There has been lots of sunny and warm weather, with things cooling down a little in the last week or so of the month. Autumn is definitely here!

I had a very pleasant afternoon walking round Paxton Pits nature reserve one sunny day. I was sitting sketching a Meadow Cranesbill flower when along came a hornet - very impressive! I watched as it spent a good few minutes thoroughly investigating the many nooks and crannies in the curled up and drying out leaves of a hedge bindweed plant that was growing up the fence. I guess it was looking for a meal, but it eventually left unsuccessful in its search. Despite their fearsome reputation I have always found hornets to be quite laid-back insects that just get on with whatever it is they are doing - wasps are much more bothersome!

A walk around the fields one damp afternoon saw me treading very carefully - there were loads of huge slugs! Another nature journal spread, and lots to learn...

I often see wildlife, and notice the roadside/pathside plants, while I'm out running - and I think keeping a nature journal makes you more attentive of what's around you. Out for a run one afternoon a couple of weeks back, I kept spotting things to include on a little map page, starting with the various crowds of house sparrows along the way, to a small flock of lapwings and a low-flying buzzard. Another day and another run, along the same road, I saw a peregrine falcon - the first I've ever seen on my 'local patch' - that was quite exciting (literally stopped me in my tracks)!

And so the year marches on. I'm seeing our summer visitors less and less, with very few swallows and martins around by the end of September, and I'm enjoying watching some bright and smart-looking chiffchaffs picking their way through the shrubs. I guess it won't be long before I hear the calls of the redwings arriving in the darkness, and the fieldfares will be here soon enough to feast on the berries on the rowan tree.

There's always another wonder of nature to look forward to!

Nature notes March 2020 - into lockdown

March started with much excitement for me, leading my very first nature journalling session, for the BCN Wildlife Trust at their Paxton Pits Environmental Education Centre. After the horrible wet and windy weather of February we were very pleased to have a lovely spring morning, mild and sunny, complete with bumblebee queens and singing birds. The session was fully booked and everyone seemed to very much enjoy being outside in nature!

I took the opportunity when I had an appointment in town, on the 11th of March, to take a walk on a rather windy, but dry, afternoon. It would turn out to be the last time I'd be able to do that! I wandered along the guided busway, which runs for some of its length alongside a series of gravel pits, and the next day had a walk around my local fields looking for signs of spring...

The rapidly changing situation soon resolved into a simple message: stay home. Luckily I already work from home, so there's no change to that part of my routine. The advice to leave your home only once a day for exercise will force changes for me though; at the start of the year I was thinking about perhaps concentrating on nature journalling in the garden as a project. Looks like that decision has been made for me!

Towards the end of March, just when people were being urged to stay at home, we had a spell of good weather. I thought I'd make the most of it by trying something I've wanted to do for a while - a soundscape spread. I picked a nice sheltered sunny spot in the garden and sat for an hour or so, just listening to everything that was going on in earshot. It was a lovely thing to do, and I'll be doing it again!

So, pretty much confined to the house and garden plus the occasional walk round the fields, I'm thinking that pigeons are likely to feature quite frequently in my journal over the next few weeks... Here's a dented and completely cold egg, found under the conifers. Did it fall, was it a predation attempt? Also, the back lawn is covered in fluffy pigeon feathers - looks like one has exploded!

Life at the end of March 2020 is almost unrecognisable compared with the start of the month. We are now in lockdown because of the COVID-19 virus pandemic, which threatens to overwhelm our health services if it should spread unchecked. So, we head into spring and summer living a new routine, a vastly reduced day-to-day lifestyle, essential movement only, the message being stay at home. But the rhythms of the natural world carry on, as they will always do, and we can find comfort and distraction in them, if only we care to look.

Autumn into winter

As we head into winter, I thought I'd take a look back over the last couple of months. Autumn this year seems to have been rather rainy and generally damp, but this has meant some fabulous fungi!

And I've had fun doing some spore prints too...

I've had a couple of lovely autumnal days out at the local nature reserve, Paxton Pits...

The rowan tree was once again a magnet for winter thrushes - bare by mid-November. And this year I spotted a brambling in the mix - only the second time I've seen one here in nearly 10 years...

We've had some beautiful crisp clear autumn days, but we've had plenty of gloomier days as well; the muted colours really caught my eye...

So the seasons turn and the year grows old, but there's always the promise of more encounters with nature and the wild, if only we take the time to look.