Its been a while

A busy but not necessarily eventful few weeks have passed since my last post.  I'll start with this update with a visit to Doxey Marshes near the end of June.  The ditches were filled with blue-tailed damselflies going about their business but bizarrely were the only species of odonata I encountered, although it was a mid evening timed visit.

Also on the reserve was a colour ringed canada goose.  A quick email to a mate at WWT and I discovered that this was yet another bird ringed at Windermere that visits Doxey.  I think this is now the third bird we can trace back to Windermere thanks to the ringing scheme.

Another day so another post after this.

Football or insects?

Easy answer surely?  Insects win hands down, and where better to see the insects at Highgate Common in South Staffordshire?  The nature reserve is home to some of the UK's rarest creepy crawlies including oil beetles, bloody-nosed beetles, mining bees and glow worms.  The latter being the subject of tonight's expedition.

In previous years I've been lucky enough to see around 60 of these fantastic insects on the reserves.  Tonight the group found 12 glowing females and a male during the walk around, but more importantly were records from locations we'd not found them in for several years.

The group were also fortunate enough to see two tawny owl chicks in the woodland, both of which were calling loudly wanting to be fed.  A cuckoo was also calling as we arrived at the car park and at least 2 (probably 3) woodcock were rodding over the heathland as we waited for dark (see terrible video below).  All in all a brilliant evening!

Technological

As part of my role at Staffordshire Wildlife Trust I get to undertake a wide range of survey work.  Sometimes I also get to use some bits of tech to help.  Today I was at Black Firs and Cranberry Bog, an internationally important wetland site on the edge of the county.  Black Firs is open for the public to visit but Cranberry Bog is too fragile, difficult and dangerous to access.

Find out more about the nature reserve here - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/black-firs-cranberry-bog

As part of the long term restoration work of the nature reserve we're monitoring the hydrology of the site using a series of bore holes and silting wells.  This is where the tech comes in to download the data collected by remote trolls on the site.

Whilst wondering around the nature reserve I came across a rather funky looking hoverfly which appeared to imitate a bumblebee.  Further help from experts back at the office resulted in the ID being  Eristalis intricarius.  Not rare, but not common.  Still funky.  There were also several nice patches of flowering marsh cinquefoil.

Demoiselles in action

Today I've been attending a Wildlife Trust training course as part of the badger vaccination programme running across the UK.  I help run the vaccination programme in Staffordshire for Staffordshire Wildlife Trust.  You can find out more about the programme here - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/node/3682

After the course I had time to call in at the Trust's Jackson's Coppice & Marsh nature reserve near Eccleshall to see what was around and check up on the himalayan balsam in the wetland area.  Thanks to the work of volunteers there is a fantastic circular boardwalk through the wet woodland allowing visitors to enjoy this otherwise difficult to access area.  In place the boardwalk also passes over the River Sow, upon which there were many banded demoiselles on the wing giving fantastic views.

A bit damp

Fifteen braved the drizzle this morning to see what the mammal traps had caught at Loynton Moss.  In the end we managed 13 wood mice and 2 bank vole from 40 traps, so not a bad effort.  The long wet grass and drizzle made for unpleasant conditions but everyone seemed to have enjoyed their encounters with these little critters.

Thanks to Staffordshire Mammal Group for running the event.  More details about the group's great calendar of events can be found here.  They're definitely worth joining, its free and you might even bump into me some time - http://www.staffordshiremammalgroup.org.uk/calendar.html

Coming soon...

It has been another busy week of planning survey work on Trust nature reserves by day and by night, carrying out bat surveys for our sister company.  The weather has been pretty summery all week apart from the odd shower here and there.  There have been plenty of dragonflies about around the grounds of the Wolseley Centre too.

But this weekend I'll be helping to run a joint Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and Staffordshire Mammal Group event at Loynton Moss nature reserve near Woodseaves.  The event will start with a small mammal survey of the reserve (10am to 12:30pm), followed by a general walk around looking for other mammals in the afternoon (until 4pm latest).


Sunday 15th June
Small mammal trapping at Loynton Moss, near Woodseaves
10am - 4pm
Bring lunch if you want to stay all day



More details about the event can be found here - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/events/2014/06/15/loynton-moss-small-mammal-id-walk?instance=0

More details about the nature reserve can be found here - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/loynton-moss

Flower power

After a team meeting at Consall it seemed silly not to make the most of the glorious sunshine so I decided to call in at a few reserves on my way back to the office.  First up was Rod Wood, recently named one of Britain's best wildflower meadows and also designated a Coronation Meadow a few years back to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee.

Its still a little early in the season so I wasn't expecting a fantastic display, but the first orchids were beginning to flower in amongst the hay meadows, with great displays of yellow rattle too.

Moving on I next called in at Pasturefields Saltmarsh, probably one of the county's rarest habitats and home to some of the county's rarest species.  Again, I was a little early for the full display but I did manage to find sea arrowgrass in full flower.  These tiny little plants aren't easy to see, and are often nibbled by the grazing cattle before you get chance to see them.

As the day was still bathed in sunshine I headed over to Brankley Pastures after work to see for myself how the wildflower meadows I helped created have been getting on.  There have been loads of great pictures on the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Facebook and Twitter feeds, but there is nothing like seeing it for yourself!

The field next to the car park had green hay from Rod Wood spread on it like the rest, but to give an extra 'umph' we added a cornfield seed mix too.  So the initial impact of oxeye daisy, cornflower, corn cockle and poppies is obvious, even from a distance.

Its great to see these wildflowers in full bloom on a sunny day and have loads on insects buzzing around too, but I was more interested in how the species in the green hay had done.  Delve beneath the cornfield flowers and the meadow is full of yellow rattle, a great indicator!  It didn't stop there either, for flowering in the shade of the cornfield flowers were betony, eyebright, field pansy, knapweed, red clover, ribwort plantain and lesser trefoil.  Even with my very limited plant knowledge!

There is however one plant I'm yet to identify.  I haven't had a flick through Rose yet to ID it, but anyone out there know what it is?  The plant is the white flower below.

Perks of the job

After a day in the office I was out on Doxey Marshes this evening to complete some work on the water level management of the reserve.  Its that time of the year when sluice gates need adjusting and readings taken from gauge boards.  One of the perks of this is that I get to have a good look around most of the nature reserve too.

Common blue butterflies were on the wing along the motorway embankment track, stopping to nectar on trefoil in between chasing each other around.  A brimstone also whistled past and a couple of small whites were flitting from plant to plant.  A pair of common tern were fishing on Boundary Flash and along the shoreline, in the reedbed, there were several singing reed warblers.

Further down the reserve at another sluice gate I came across a female gadwall and single duckling, that's breeding confirmed for another species (and cue appalling photo below!).  The beauty of this area is that there is no public access, so this is again another perk of the job - access all areas.  Alongside the pool were a pair each of sedge warbler, reed warbler and reed bunting in a small patch of reedbed, a water rail along the shoreline of the pool and a grasshopper warbler reeling away from the other side of the river.

By the time I'd left the reserve I'd clocked at least 3 reeling males, and only covered less than half the nature reserve so who knows, there could be more out there.

I suppose the only downside to the job is getting caught out in the rain, but then again that's why I wear waterproofs!

Loving Whixall Moss

Finally!  A day in the sun and warmth, and what a great day it turned into.  I'd wanted to visit Whixall Moss for a while to see raft spider.  Last year I made a successful trip to see large heath, but the day was dull cool and grey so the butterfly was a miracle on its own.

Today was much different.  The vast National Nature Reserve (NNR) was alive with insects.  Most evident were four-spotted chasers and every single pool had several of these great insects jostling for position.  Large red and azure blue damselflies were also abundant.  The only other dragonfly seen just happens to be one of the rarest in England, the white-faced darter.  At a conservative estimate I'd day around 20 of these brilliant little things were on the wing.

My target for the day, the raft spider was proving hard to track down, but an unexpected treat was another life tick - green tiger beetle.  These fast and agile little predators were found on the bare patches along the paths.  Occasionally they'd take flight for a short distance but given patience they would happily hunt around where I sat to admire them.  They were certainly an unexpected treat.

After several hours walking around this huge site I gave in and asked a photographer for some pointers.  He was waiting patiently next to a pool as a white-faced darter emerged.  Thankfully he was a regular visitor and knew exactly which direction to point me in.  Five minutes later I'd found the pool in question and spent a good half hour watching white-faced darters and four-spotted chasers.  I even saved a bee which has crashed into the pool.  I don't know if my act of kindness deserved a reward, but as I turned to leave and try another pool and gorgeous raft spider had drifted into the centre of the pool.  I sat back down and over the next 10 minutes the spider got closer and closer until it was just a few feet away.  Brilliant.