In search of the mountain hare

Today I was out with Staffordshire Mammal Group for my favourite meeting of the year, the search for mountain hares in the Peak District.  This year was a little different, and we headed a couple of miles down the road from Ladybower towards Snake Pass to survey an area known as Hope Woodlands Moor, part of the National Trust estate.

Conditions were very picturesque on the ground, with clear blue skies and several inches of clean white fluffy snow coating the moorland.  As we left the car, a raven flew over head cronking, whilst a covey of red grouse flew low across the landscape.  It turns out, red grouse are incredibly easy to see hear, and at reasonably close range.  Before we'd even made it to the moor, the car park further down the road, in amongst a small woodland held a few brambling, a nice year tick!

The group of 9 followed the Pennine Way north and we very quickly came across many hare tracks through the snow.  At the crossroad, we headed west to over look a valley.  Sadly we didn't see any hares here, but a merlin working along a distant fence line was a welcome treat and another year tick!

We headed back to the Pennine Way and continued until we found more hare tracks, which the group then followed east across the open moor.  A single hare was seen on top of the moor, allowing a couple of pictures before taking off.  It took a couple of hours, but we eventually found several more hares in a wide valley, with at least 6 individuals seen.

We only managed a couple of hours on the moor before the weather set in.  You can compare the before and after photos at the top and bottom of the blog to see how conditions varied so much.  A few miles down the road and conditions cleared allowing a much safer drive home.

If you ever get chance to get up there one winter, or would like to join the Staffordshire Mammal Group on their visit next year, I'd highly recommend it.  Take a look at their Facebook page for more details and dates here.  There are also loads more photos, all much better than mine!

Not scrubbing up too badly

Being back at work can seem like the last thing you want to do following on from Christmas and the New Year, but some jobs aren't quite so bad.  Along with the catching up with emails, colleagues and switching my brain in to gear to write 2015, I'd programmed in a few surveys to get me out of the office.  The main focus of these surveys so far has been scrub, both wanted and unwanted.  For one of the surveys I've also been fortunate enough to visit one of my favourite Trust reserves, Loynton Moss.

Loynton Moss was the first Trust reserve and part of the reserve, the 'Moss' and surrounding alder carr, is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).  Like any wetland surrounded by woodland, there is an ongoing battle to keep scrub encroachment in check.  To try and record this and help monitor the condition of the SSSI, I've been testing out a few ways technology might be able to help.  As you may have seen in earlier posts, I've tried a GPS tracking app on my iPhone but sadly this didn't produce anything I could use back in the office, despite looking pretty accurate.  So it was time to don the wellies again and head out with a real GPS.  Thankfully the results are much better, and transferable to the Trust's mapping software.

The data gathered will allow the Trust to monitor any further encroachment and keep track of what methods of control have worked best, or if some areas are more prone to being encroached than others.  You could argue that this knowledge is easily gathered by people on the ground rather than a record on a computer, but the record on the computer will allow anyone to monitor the situation and not rely on the person still being around or how accurately they remember what was a few years ago.  In other news, the snowdrops at Loynton Moss are coming along nicely, so make sure you visit soon to see the bank in full bloom.

I've also been monitoring scrub at two other Trust reserves; Rod Wood and Weag's Barn.  The object here is that all the scrub is wanted, just in the right condition.  The main challenge with both reserves to the scrubby areas is access.  The scrub at Rod Wood is at the bottom of a slippery slope and across a very wet piece of unimproved grassland.  Meanwhile, the scrub at Weag's Barn is very much on the slope, which is perhaps even more slippery and much steeper!

I'd highly recommend a visit to either Rod Wood or Weag's Barn, but you're probably best leaving it until the summer when the hay meadows are blooming, the scrub is full of breeding birds and the conditions underfoot don't leave your boots in the state they left mine!

Find more details about the reserves here:
Loynton Moss - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/loynton-moss
Rod Wood - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/rod-wood
Weag's Barn - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/weags-barn

The long way round

Today's main task was the rather mundane grocery shopping, so to spice things up I decided to go via Rickerscote Marsh and Radford Meadows on the east side of Stafford town centre.  The latter site is a Staffordshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve.

Sadly, traffic on and off the retail park prevented me (nay, persuaded me) not to venture to Radford Meadows, so instead I took a look at Just Rickerscote Marsh.  Practically the only place to view the marsh and pool is from the very end of Rickerscote Avenue, click here for a map showing where.

The pool can hold several hundred duck such as teal, wigeon, shelduck and pintail with a few waders also sometimes seen.  Today's visit seemed to compound my thoughts that there are so few ducks around this winter, other than teal.  The only birds seen were 382 teal, 6 wigeon, 8 shoveler, 2 gadwall and a handful of mallard and black-headed gulls.

The main highlight was 2 little egret in the distance over on Radford Meadows.  Hopefully we'll get an increase in winter duck numbers before the season is over!

Pottering around in the reeds again

I can't resist the chance to explore wetland habitats, especially reedbeds.  There is something magical about them.  At this time of the year they seem empty of life, the golden but dead reed stems rising out of the water.  By comparison, in spring, they are filled with life.  The song of reed warbler fills the air, water rail skulk through the vegetation raising young with the odd pig-like squeal and thousands of insects emerge.

Reedbeds, like many habitats in the UK, benefit from careful management including scrub control.  Scrub is a great habitat in its own right, essential for nesting birds and providing cover in winter, but if left unchecked it can spread throughout a reedbed, eventually replacing it leaving no room for the numerous species that rely on the habitat.

Today I was at the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust's Loynton Moss nature reserve near Woodseaves to monitor the encroachment of scrub on the reedbed and bog, which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).  Rather than use out of date aerial photographs or take a series of GPS points around the reedbed, I thought I'd embrace technology and see what the Apple App Store had to offer.  I downloaded a GPS logging walking app, designed to track your favourite walks and tell you how far you've travelled, how many calories you burnt and then share with other users.  I wasn't sure how accurate the app would be, but I thought I'd give it a go, so on when the app, hit 'Begin workout' and off I set, walking the front edge of the scrub.

As you can see from the images below, the results aren't bad and the app did track even the slightest change in my position and route.  The main challenge now is to see if I can make use of this back in the office on our mapping software.

After mapping the reedbed I checked the banks at the eastern end of the coppice to see how the snowdrops were progressing.  At first glance, the plants appeared to be just tiny shoots, only just tall enough to break the surface.  But on a more sunny aspect, a few plants have already burst in to full bloom, a sign that winter won't last forever so get out and enjoy it!  The coppice and woodland held a few birds of interest including a flock of lesser redpoll feeding in the alders and a group of 6 marsh tits busy searching through the coppice for food.  I don't think I've ever had so many birds of this species together in one go.

New Year birding

A few hours on Doxey Marshes was on the agenda today to get my New Year bird list off to a great start.  Following on from the surprises of treecreeper and goldcrest a few days ago.  Sadly I only managed 45 species today, which comprised of black-headed gull, wren, mallard, teal, snipe, water rail, blue tit, long-tailed tit, magpie, kestrel, fieldfare, redwing, blackbird, kingfisher, moorhen, carrion crow, coot, goldfinch, wood pigeon, little egret, goosander, gadwall, shoveler, lesser black-backed gull, canada goose, greylag goose, barnacle goose, pied wagtail, pheasant, grey heron, starling, buzzard, stonechat, tufted duck, great tit, house sparrow, greenfinch, cormorant, great spotted woodpecker, wigeon, mute swan, lapwing, collared dove and lesser redpoll.

A careful check of the list will reveal some embarrassing omissions.  Robin.  Song thrush.  Dunnock. Could I find one of any of these species anywhere?  Why does it always fall that on the one day you want to see everything, they go and hide.  Here's to hoping that the rest of the year won't be as difficult!

There was some conciliation however in the form of lesser redpoll.  Its not too tricky to pick up a couple of birds around the scrub at the eastern end of the reserve in winter, but I was amazed to find a flock of at least 76 (counted from a photograph) flitting around above the alder trees.  This is by far my biggest total I've ever seen on the reserve, and could be one of the biggest counts ever?