The craft and artistry of nest building

08 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by theresagreen in bird's nests, nature of woodlands, nature photography

Tags

bird's nests, blackbird nest, Blue tit nest, chaffinch nest, robin's nest, Serin, Wren, wren's nest

Every spring I watch various species of bird select oddments of dried grass, leaves, feathers and a variety of other bits and bobs and am awed that they are going to put them all together and fashion them into a perfect home for their future family. How on earth do they know how, when and where to begin? I mean, I am pretty dexterous with my hands and can put together items by sewing, knitting, crocheting etc., but I wasn’t born knowing how to do that; I’ve had to learn how to do things and then practice to perfect the techniques over years. And I have two hands, eight fingers and two opposable thumbs to work with. A bird has one beak. Furthermore the whole process is often completed within the space of a few days, and each and every nest perfectly conforms to the design that is unique to the species of its builder, with no instruction needed. Amazing.

I still recall the thrill of finding birds’ nests when I was young and exploring the hedgerows and woods around our home, but didn’t really think much about how the nest had been put together then, being more curious about which bird had built it and how many beautiful eggs were in it. Now I take a much keener interest in the nest-building process and in the structures themselves and love to take advantage of opportunities to have a closer look at the structures of those I have found.

The first two photographs below were taken in Spain and are of a nest blown out of position during the winter following its successful use. It was built by Blackbirds in the fork of a yucca tree just a couple of metres from the kitchen window and in which three young ones were successfully raised.

A blackbird’s nest blown from a tree branch

Blackbirds build classic archetypal cup-shaped nests utilising the natural materials available to them. Partially concealed from my view I couldn’t see exactly how the work was done on this one, but I did watch both the male and the female of the pair carry in materials, long strips of dry palm leaves, twigs and leaves to begin with, which made up a substantial base. Once that was in place the bird would have built up layers of finer materials, working each strand into place, working around herself, turning and weaving each one into place to build up the sides of the cup. The turning action keeps the inside of the cup smooth and well compacted, then when it is completed she will strengthen it further with mud.

You can see that the layers of grass become progressively finer from the outside inwards. The bottom of the nest looks rough and messy, but the bulk of material provided a substantial base, filling out the space in the fork of the tree. It is also thought that birds may deliberately leave the outsides of their nests untidy as a method of camouflage, hoping a prospective predator may mistake it for a pile of debris.

The bottom of the nest

Chaffinches also build a cup-shaped nest and once again I had excellent views of a beautiful nest built on a branch of a cork oak tree that overhung the garden wall and was on a level with and very close to a first floor bathroom window. Honeysuckle had climbed up into the tree providing extra cover, but the most impressive camouflage was in the use of the blue-green lichen on the outside of the nest. Taking pictures was quite challenging, I was in the bath beneath the window, trying to get a view first through the vertical window bars, then through the branches and foliage.

The beautifully crafted nest of a pair of chaffinch. This was the last of 3 chicks to fledge and was reluctant to leave.

The beautifully crafted nest of a pair of chaffinch. The occupant was the last of 3 chicks to fledge and was reluctant to leave its cosy home.

We found the goldfinch nest on the ground beneath pine trees around a picnic area of the Sierra de Nieves Natural Park, near Ronda, Andalucia, whilst out walking there. We knew it belonged to a goldfinch as, sadly, we also found a couple of partially-feathered dead nestlings close by too. Maybe it had been blown out of the tree, but it is also possible a jay may have raided it, there are plenty of them thereabouts. It was such a delicate but cosy little nest too.

A goldfinch nest, cosily lined but dislodged from a tree

I love wrens and had the privilege of their close company during much of the time I lived in Spain, they seem much more ‘confiding’ there for some reason and are often happy to use the facilities people provide for their own use as nest sites. In our case a terracotta light fitting, fixed in a covered area between the kitchen and garage doors was used for two successive years with the male using it as a roosting place when vacated by his family.

An adult wren at the entrance to the nest in the light fitting

Male wrens are the nest builders and will construct a number of basic nests in several locations which he then shows off to prospective mates. ‘Our’ little chap began work on the light fitting nest early in a February, carrying in leaves and dried grass, then used it as a night-time roost for himself until April. I thought he’d left then , but one morning he reappeared and set about making some improvements, working hard over a period of days carrying in leaves and dried grass, until the space looked stuffed to capacity. Shortly afterwards he performed quite a spectacular and noisy display on a roof beam close by, clearly to impress a female. She subsequently appeared, inspected the nest, approved it and set about making the place more comfortable by lining it with moss she pulled out from our lawn. I helped her out a bit by pulling out more moss and putting it on the leaves of a large house plant below the site. My contributions were accepted happily and carried up to the nest, much to my delight. Some days later, a sneaky peek with the telescopic lens of a pocket camera revealed 4 eggs nestled amongst moss and feathers plucked from her own body.

Interior of the wren's nest inside our light fitting

the inside of the nest lined with moss and feathers

In more natural situations the wren’s nest is quite an elaborate, dome shaped construction, often placed against a wall or as in the one below, against a rock face and amongst vegetation (photographed in Gibraltar).

The elaborate domed nest of a tiny Wren built amongst vegetation on a rocky cliff in woodland

Another wren’s nest I found on the ground when out walking around the area local to our home in Spain had been constructed using a lot of leaves and moss, dried grasses and lengths of paper material. I would have loved to see the little bird carrying that and working it in. The photograph is of the back of the nest which is flat from having been built against a wall.

A wren’s nest using lengths of paper material on the outside

Blue Tits are naturally cavity-nesting birds, but they liked our light fittings too and several years we had a family in a particular one, again very close to the house, but this time under the covered front terrace. Their nest was a much lighter affair than the wren’s, perhaps partly because its position got a lot more sun, but it was still cosy inside, lined with fine grass, moss, feathers and quite amusingly, some of the long dark hairs from our Yorkshire Terrier (we used to brush him and clip his hair outside). I couldn’t see into the nest without the aid of my little camera’s telescopic lens, so couldn’t believe my lucky timing for this shot, taken as soon as I spotted the female exit for a few minutes. The three hatchlings were very recent and you can see fine cracks in two of the remaining eggs.

Inside the blue tit’s nest in a light fitting-Sotogrande, Spain

The next nest was built by a pair of Serin, tiny finches that are common in Spain. They built it high up in a very tall cypress fir tree and they too successfully raised a family in it. I found it on the ground beneath the tree long after they had left it and was amazed at how light and flimsy-looking it was, constructed mainly from fine grass and spent flower tassels dropped from neighbouring cork oak trees. At first I wasn’t sure who had built the nest as they and a pair of Short-toed Treecreepers were nesting at the same time in trees next to each other, but then I spotted the white feather in the lining and remembered spotting and photographing the female Serin with it in her beak, months before.

The nest of a pair of tiny Serin blown down from a tree, Sotogrande, Spain

I’ve put in a couple of pictures of Serin here, to show what I’m talking about and because I like them a lot (the birds that is).

These young Serin in a cork oak tree may well be from ‘my nest’ family

A male Serin held in a ringer’s hand shows how tiny they are

The final picture for this post is a British Robin’s nest, built in the wood pile of my friend’s house in Nevern, Pembrokeshire. It was not very far off the ground as you can see, but was so well camouflaged we walked past it for a couple of days before noticing it.

A mossy Robin’s nest built in the wood pile, Nevern, Pembrokeshire

This is definitely a Chiffchaff

21 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by theresagreen in nature of woodlands, nature photography, woodland birds

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Chiffchaff, fall of migrating warblers, migrant birds, min-y-don, river Colwyn, willow warbler

Since writing the last post this morning I’ve been wondering and reading about chiffchaffs and willow warblers and thought it might be worth nipping back down to Min-y-Don to see if there might be any of those I saw on Friday still hanging around. To my surprise and delight there were little warblers everywhere, almost every tree had at least one amongst its twigs and leaf buds and there were birds darting out after flies all over the place. They are so mobile and active that counting them was not really an option, but there are a good many. That doesn’t make identifying them any easier, but what I will say is that there is definitely a mix of the two species, indisputably so after hearing songs from both this afternoon and the fact that they are still here must indicate that they are all finding plenty to eat.

When I came to look more closely at my photographs I spotted that the one below has a leg ring – anyone recognise it? The tag I mean, not the bird!

Chiffchaff or willow warbler between buds of a sycamore.

Willow warbler between buds of a sycamore. This bird is ringed, anyone recognise it?

Getting views of the birds is not a problem at all, as I said they are all over the place, but getting sight of an individual for more than a second or two is something else. They are not too bothered about people being around, one surprised me by popping up over the wall alongside the river right in front of me: it was chasing after a fly which I saw escaped, more’s the pity as it looked like a mosquito.

I followed the path alongside the river and just the other side of the bend heard a chiffchaff singing very close by. I located it quite easily, on the branch of a tree quite surprisingly low down, but it moved away when it saw me. He didn’t go far though and reappeared on a branch overhanging the path with a good view over the water. He sang a few phrases, then suddenly dashed down to the water and swooped straight back up again with a sizeable fly in his beak.

The chiffchaff with his prize – a good-sized fly

He ate it and sat for a while longer before flying off over the river and the road to trees on the other side.

The chiffchaff after polishing off his meal. He certainly looks well-fed and healthy

I don’t suppose they will be around in these numbers for much longer, but what a joy it has been to see them and I hope they all thrive throughout the rest of the spring and summer wherever they go.

An enchanting encounter with chiffchaffs (and/or willow warblers!)

21 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by theresagreen in nature of woodlands, nature photography, woodland birds

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Chiffchaff, fall of migrating warblers, leaf warblers, migrant birds, min-y-don, Phylloscopus collybita, phylloscopus trochilus, river Colwyn, willow warbler

Friday was a beautiful day and during my lunch hour I thought I’d take some photographs of dandelions, daisies and primroses which I wanted for the next blog I intended to write. There is a lovely grassy bank alongside the road I take back to work, which is currently smothered with gold and white wildflowers and just what I wanted, so I stopped alongside and got out of the car. But, as I opened the car door, I heard a chiffchaff calling from somewhere high up in a tree, a sound I have been waiting to hear this spring, so flowers were quickly forgotten and instead I walked down the hill towards the river and the trees of Min-y-Don listening and trying to work out where he was.

(This spot is just a stone’s throw away from the sea and the point at which the little River Colwyn runs into it and the area known as Min-y-Don is a remnant of the old woodland that used once to cover the whole area, so an oasis for resident and birds on migration with water and potential food.)

As I approached the footbridge over the river I spotted two small birds on the water’s edge that were perching briefly on overhanging plant stems then darting out and flitting over the water, clearly chasing after small flying insects. I have watched Chiffchaffs do this many times in Spain, both over water and from the tall palms in our garden there when they were fruiting and attracting insects there. The tiny birds are amazingly agile in the air and watching numbers of them performing their aerobatics was always magical and enormously entertaining. I know they were doing it to feed themselves, but I could never help feeling they were enjoying the chases and taking the opportunity to show off their skills to their companions; surely the amount of energy they put into the pursuits must have burnt off any calorific value they gained from the flies they actually managed to catch?

I digress, I know, but still being able to hear one as well, you can see why Chiffchaffs came to the front of my mind as soon as I saw them.

Chiffchaff, or is it a willow warbler.

I attempted a few photographs of the birds in the very brief intervals they paused from their pursuits, one or two of which came out OK, but the more I looked at them through the long lens, the more I began to question my identification and to think they might actually be Willow Warblers. I think the problem arose from the fact that although I am very familiar with chiffchaffs, I am not so au fait with willow warblers, something I clearly need to sort out.

On the point of take off

I enjoyed watching these two birds for several minutes before they were joined there by the footbridge by another, then another, then another two. I realised then that I must have happened upon a little flock of migrants that were taking the opportunity to ‘fuel up’ before continuing their journeys to their breeding places. I was already more than happy with this encounter with the birds, so when I walked further along the footpath to where it bends around to follow the river’s edge and saw even more, I was delighted. It’s at times like this when you wish you had someone with you to share the experience, so you could stand or walk along in a public place clutching a camera with a long lens and smiling without feeling self-conscious. And so you have someone to confirm or offer alternative suggestions to your identification of tricky warblers. I guess that is why we blog- I would definitely appreciate opinions on this one, especially the first photograph.

A sunlit Willow Warbler. This bird’s front is much paler and ‘cleaner’ and it has pink legs.

Willow warbler perched on stems overhanging the river

This stretch of the river was lit by the sunshine and benefits from having trees closer to its edge as well as plenty of other perching points for the fly-catching warblers. I’m not sure if it was the better light here or just something about the general appearance of the birds, but I was more or less certain straight away that these were not chiffchaffs, so willow warblers then. These two species can be easily confused when based on appearance only, in fact the one diagnostic I remember is to look at the legs, the willow warbler’s are usually, but not always flesh-coloured, while the chiffchaff’s are darker.If only one of them had stopped to sing it would have made things easier, but no. I know mixed flocks of birds do migrate together, but do these two species join up and travel together?

Willow Warbler-Phylloscopus trochilus

Points of difference:

Chiffchaff – Phylloscopus collybita

Less tinged green and yellow than willow warbler; legs & feet always dark. Bill is also dark. The supercillium is drab and there is a distinct crescent under eye. Wings are also shorter than willow warbler’s.

Willow Warbler – Phylloscopus trochilus

The commonest warbler over much of northern Europe. Underparts are tinged yellow, especially in juveniles. Legs may be dark brown to flesh-coloured. Supercillium is fairly prominent and longer and there is a bright lower eye crescent. Wing feathers are longer than those of chiffchaff.

I deliberately haven’s zoomed in on this bird to give more of a sense of scale; these birds are tiny

I posted a blog about Chiffchaffs around this time last year, which contains a lot more information, see it at https://theresagreen.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/bird-study-a-chiffchaffs-year/ or just click on April 2012 in the ‘older posts’ to find it from here.

How to build a beach

14 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by theresagreen in coastal habitat, Colwyn Bay, nature photography, North Wales

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colwyn bay beach, dredging sand, herring gull, herring gull feeding behaviour, sea defences

The beautiful but rugged coastline of North Wales is subject to some serious battering by winds and waves throughout the year and although we love to live and holiday here, of course we prefer it to be on our terms and so demand protection from the elements too. We also need to make a living and as this whole area is designated as an outstanding area of natural beauty, capitalising on those natural assets by way of tourism is the way things are set to go forward. Great lengths of piled up rocks are already in place reinforcing the defences of the sea wall from Rhos on Sea to Penrhyn Bay, but now work has begun to improve the defences of Colwyn Bay.

A section of the Colwyn Bay promenade being battered by the sea, March 2013

Colwyn Bay was one of the North Wales holiday resorts popularised by the Victorians. It was accessible to them by way of the railway line between the ferry port of Holyhead on the Isle of Anglesey, and London, that was built to facilitate the transport of mail between the two places and onwards to Ireland by sea. It remained popular as a holiday destination for several decades following, my own parents spent their honeymoon here in 1946, but began to go into decline during the late ’80s, in common with many other British seaside resorts.

In 2010 a ‘masterplan’ was revealed to regenerate the area which includes plans for a new sandy beach to be constructed to improve sea defences and to allow people access to the shore throughout all tidal states: currently you can only walk on the shore at low tides.

As reported at the time by The Weekly Post, this build-a-beach project is not going to come cheap.

“Conwy County Council’s cabinet voted to pledge £667,000 to secure a grant of £2m from the Welsh Government to improve the town’s sea defences. The authority had already secured an additional £1m of funding from the Welsh Government for the Colwyn Bay Waterfront coastal defence scheme by offering up £333,000 of supported borrowing from this year’s capital programme. By agreeing to pay the £667,000 from next year’s (2013) budget the council…will see beach sand material imported onto Colwyn Bay seashore which is now mostly pebbled. This will result in 50m of sand to help protect the promenade.”

Work began on building the new beach on 21st March and the major project of engineering is proving to be quite fascinating. To begin with two lengths of steel pipeline were constructed on an unobstructed stretch of Pensarn beach, one a kilometre long, the other about 400m long. The two sections were then floated out at high tide, lined up and welded together. The pipeline was then connected to the steel dry-line which is pumping the sand onto the beach. A rubber floater line was also connected to the sea end of the steel pipeline, and this section of pipe will connect to the dredging vessel.

Sand begins to pour from the pipeline against the existing sea wall. Picture from Daily Post.

The dredging ship, the Barent Zanen, sailed here from Rotterdam and prepared to dredge sand from the seabed of a site 20 nautical miles north of Colwyn Bay, located within Liverpool Bay. The ship is taking the sand from the sea bed approximately 20 miles north of Colwyn Bay, and then sailing in and anchoring about a kilometre offshore. Around 10,000 tons of material is brought in each trip and it is estimated that the beach will be topped up at a rate of 25-30,000 tons a day.

The Barent Zanen off Rhos Point, connected to a smaller tug that connects the two ends of piping together

The sand and sea-water mix is blasted onto the beach during periods of low tide and attracts a huge amount of interest from a large number of gulls that arrive to take advantage of seafood, freshly delivered from the seabed. As far as I am aware, no mention has been made of any potential damage the dredging may be doing to the flora and fauna of the seabed in the dredging site, but I can’t help wondering.

The dredged sand and seawater mix arriving on the shore brings about a frenzy of gull activity

Following each delivery of sand, which is deposited in one large pile, it is distributed by mechanical diggers and bulldozers. The work often attracts groups of interested onlookers, and no doubt at least some of the big boys watching would love to be having a go.

A closer view of some of the machinery involved in the beach construction; here moving the steel pipeline into a new position

6th April, the new beach so far

The operation will take place 24 hours a day, seven days a week and should last for a period of up to four weeks, depending on the weather, which thus far has been pretty wild. Many local people are wondering how long the beach sand will stay put and how much it’s going to cost them…..?

The not-so-common House Sparrow

06 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by theresagreen in bird behaviour, Nature, nature photography

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Tags

garden birds, house sparrows, world sparrow day

Our local ‘gang’ of House Sparrows are currently livening up the neighbourhood with their cheerful chirpings and chatterings as they go about industriously sprucing up their nests. A few pairs have located theirs very close to the house but tucked safely within the depths of the fiercely prickly pyracantha hedge, then at least one or two others are sited in the loftier location of the eaves of the front of the house from where they must have wonderful views to the Little Orme and right across Colwyn Bay and the Irish Sea.

A pair of House Sparrows surveying their territory from the elder tree

I have always loved House Sparrows and in these days of generally lesser numbers of them, I consider myself very fortunate to have had their company everywhere I have ever lived and truly hope it continues that way. My affection for these charismatic little birds grew from sharing a home with them, quite literally, during the ’60s when our family lived in a thatched cottage on a country estate in Northamptonshire. Back then house sparrow numbers were much greater and along with jays, crows, wood pigeons and foxes were considered as pests and used as target practice by the estate’s gamekeeper, or indeed anyone of any age with access to even a simple air rifle. Admittedly the birds did have a tendency to make a bit of a mess of the thatch by extracting reeds to construct their nests, but how were they supposed to know our roof was not just a convenient pile of grass stalks? Besides which, their similar activities throughout the estate probably helped keep the local thatcher in steady employment.

In gardens, sparrows have an unexplained habit of tearing the petals off flowers, particularly yellow or orange ones such as crocuses. In my old garden in South Wales they would decimate first my yellow crocuses, then the berberis blossom and then later the red-hot pokers….

A male House Sparrow atop the pyracantha hedge

The first reference to a sparrow in Britain is by the Venerable Bede (?673-735) in his History of the EnglishChurch and People: “O King, the present life of men on earth is like the flight of a single sparrow through the hall where, in winter, you sit with your captains and ministers.”

Female House Sparrow with feather

on the menu

Sparrows have often been eaten and in some places still are. Sparrow pie was a common rural dish in Britain up to the time of the First World War, and even later: a sparrow pie containing 100 sparrows was served on 16 January 1967 at the Rose Inn at Peldon, near Colchester, perhaps for the remaining members of one of the “sparrow clubs” that were once common for trapping the birds.

On the Continent, where small songbirds are still a prized delicacy, sparrows are sometimes illegally imported in great numbers from China: a consignment of 1,263,000 plucked and frozen sparrows was confiscated by customs in Antwerp on 28 January 1997, and a consignment of nearly 2 million frozen tree sparrows was seized by customs in Rotterdam in November 1993, in transit for Italy.

endangered

In 2002 in the UK, the house sparrow was added to the red list for endangered species. In 2004 it was added to the Worldwide International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. According to the RSPB we have lost 50 HOUSE SPARROWS EVERY HOUR FOR 46 YEARS!

The State of the UK’s Birds 2012 report charts the ups and downs of our bird populations over the last few decades. Although still abundant, the house sparrow has seen one of the greatest losses of any bird in the UK. From an estimated 30 million individual birds in 1966, the UK house sparrow population plummeted to 10 million in 2009, a loss of 20 million sparrows in 43 years.

Dr Mark Eaton is an RSPB scientist who worked on the report. Commenting on the figures, he said: “It is shocking to think that we’ve lost one in five of the individual birds that we had in the 1960s. That loss is equivalent to the whole human population of England and Wales.”

A number of reasons for the decline have been found, including predation by domestic cats, but first and foremost is the changes in farming practices, where more farms are using pesticides and herbicides and sowing seeds at different times of the year: adult birds eat grains and seeds, but they gather thousands of insects to feed their young.

cockney sparrows

The sparrow population in London has plummeted by 68 per cent in the past 15 years, mirroring severe declines in numbers of the bird across the UK’s cities. Research has indicated that changes to urban areas including increases in traffic, paving over gardens, removing trees and developing green spaces have led to a lack of seeds and insects which has left sparrows struggling to survive.

Territorial male, feathers puffed out to make himself look intimidating

In the past the house sparrow’s likeness for crops resulted in farmers attempting to control their numbers. In the 18th century, sparrow clubs existed to destroy as many sparrows as possible and money was paid to do so until the late 19th century.

world citizen

The house sparrow’s problems have by no means been restricted to the UK. The Sparrow has followed man to most parts of the globe where they have adapted to a whole range of differing environments and habitats. Wherever they have found themselves they have quickly settled in acclimatised, found food and nesting sites. They are true world citizens, but have not always found acceptance or integration easy; they have often been the subjects of much prejudice and discrimination.

A certain traveler who knew many continents was asked what he found most remarkable of all.
He replied: the ubiquity of sparrows.
Adam Zagajewski, Another Beauty, 2002

In Europe, in the 1700s, local governments called for the extermination of house sparrows and other animals associated with agriculture. In parts of Russia, your taxes would be lowered in proportion to the number of sparrow heads you turned in.

In China, the Great Leader Mao Tse-Tung decided in 1958 to get rid of sparrows, calculating that each bird (the tree sparrow) consumed 4.5kg of grain each year and that for every million sparrows killed, there would be food for 60,000 people.

He mobilised the population to kill the birds, to great effect: at least 2.8 million sparrows were killed in Shantung province alone. But what Mao had not taken into account was the number of noxious insects the sparrows consumed when rearing their young. When the sparrows were killed, crop production increased, at least initially. But with time, something else happened. Pests of rice and other staple foods erupted in densities never seen before. The crops were mowed down and, partly as a consequence of starvation due to crop failure, 35 million Chinese people died. That is when a few scientists in China began to notice a paper published by a Chinese ornithologist before the sparrows were killed. The ornithologist had found that while adult tree sparrows mostly eat grains, their babies, like those of house sparrows, tend to be fed insects. In killing the sparrows, Mao and the Chinese had saved the crops from the sparrows, but appear to have left them to the insects. And so Mao, in 1960, ordered sparrows to be conserved (replacing them on the list of four pests with bedbugs).

It is sometimes only when a species is removed that we see clearly its value. When sparrows are rare, we often see their benefits; when they are common, we see their curse.

Rob Dunn; Smithsonian.com, March 02, 2012,

Who’s a pretty girl then

good news

Conservationists have launched a scheme to turn parts of London’s parks into meadows in an attempt to reverse the decline of the once-common house sparrow. The £170,000 scheme is being funded by the SITA Trust which manages funding raised through taxes on rubbish sent to landfill.The conservation charity has teamed up with a number of partners across Greater London to run a three-year project to try and provide food-rich habitats for the birds. Tim Webb, spokesman for the RSPB, said the plan was to sow areas of more than 20 parks in the capital with wild grasses and flowers to provide seeds and attract insects.

Many chicks are dying in the nest of dehydration or starvation because there are not enough moisture-rich insects for them to eat.

In India, where the birds have also suffered a serious decline in numbers in recent years, there are campaigns to raise public awareness of the birds and their plight, and in 2010, the date of March 20th was nominated as “World Sparrow Day”, henceforth to be celebrated annually.

World Sparrow Day is a day designated to raise awareness of the House Sparrow and other common birds to urban environments, and of threats to their populations, observed on 20 March. It is an international initiative by the Nature Forever Society of India in collaboration with the Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France) and numerous other national and international organisations across the world.

The Nature Forever Society was started by Mohammed Dilawar, an Indian conservationist who started his work helping the House Sparrow in Nashik, and who was named one of the “Heroes of the Environment” for 2008 by Time for his efforts. The idea of marking a World Sparrow Day came up during an informal discussion at the Nature Forever Society’s office. The idea was to earmark a day for the House Sparrow to convey the message of conservation of the House Sparrow and other common birds and also mark a day of celebration to appreciate the beauty of the common biodiversity which is taken so much for granted. The first World Sparrow Day was celebrated in 2010 in different parts of the world. The day was celebrated by carrying out different various kinds of activities and events like art competitions, awareness campaigns, and sparrow processions as well as interactions with media.

World Sparrow Day also has a broader vision to provide a platform where people who are working on the conservation of the House Sparrow and other common birds can network, collaborate and exchange conservation ideas which will lead to better science and improved results. It aims to provide a meeting ground for people from different parts of the world to come together and form a force that can play an important role in advocacy and in spreading the awareness on the need of conserving common biodiversity or species of lower conservation status.

NEW DELHI, October 6, 2012

House Sparrow made state bird of Delhi

The humble house sparrow has become the State bird of Delhi with the issue of a notification to this effect, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit announced o Friday.

Addressing school children at her residence during a function organised to celebrate Wildlife Week, Ms. Dikshit said the idea behind making the house sparrow the State bird was to protect it.

She said the number of house sparrows in the city had declined sharply due to rapid urbanisation.

“I can tell you that when sparrows are rare, we tend to like them, and when they are common, we tend to hate them. Our fondness is fickle and predictable and says far more about us than them. They are just sparrows. They are neither lovely nor terrible, but instead just birds searching for sustenance and finding it again and again where we live.”

Rob Dunn

Willsbridge Mill, Bristol

12 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by theresagreen in Local Nature Reserves, Nature, nature of woodlands, nature photography, woodlands

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Tags

ash keys, catscliffe woods, dark bush cricket, feather moss, haws, red berries, siston brook, spider's webs, willsbridge mill, woodland walks

I am currently staying in Bristol with my son and family, and as they always do when I am here, they make great efforts to take me out to places they know that both I and the children will enjoy.

Avon Wildlife Trust takes responsibility for 35 reserves within the Avon area, with a good few clustered closely around the city.

On Sunday we drove out to Willsbridge Mill, a Local Nature Reserve, which the website describes as ” Set in a peaceful valley on the edge of Bristol, Willsbridge Mill is an impressively restored 19th Century Corn Mill and Long Barn, located within a stunning 22 acre nature reserve.” It continues ” This green oasis, which was once a bustling industrial site, now supports an amazing array of wildlife habitats – woodland, ponds, meadows, scrub, quarries and a demonstration wildlife garden, running along the fast – flowing Siston Brook. The reserve is home to kingfishers, dippers, owls, foxes, badgers, and bats.”

Dragonfly plaque

After several days of rain and general dampness, the ground in the wildlife garden was soggy and its plants bedraggled, there were a few pond skaters skimming over the surfaces of the ponds and a robin piping a few phrases of song, but apart from that there was little movement.

One of the trails around the reserve is the Sculpture Trail, which features ” striking environmental sculptures made from local materials”. There is also a sequence of attractive brass leaf-shaped plaques bearing different designs, which today were the only indicators of the wildlife that frequents the reserve in spring and summer.

Leaves are beginning to change colour and fall

The Ash tree – Fraxinus excelsior, bears its large single-winged seeds – also commonly known as keys, in large bunches

We followed the pathway to Hawthorns are laden with good crops of haws, but there were no signs of these particular ones being eaten yet.

Haws – the fruits of the Hawthorn

On the wooded side of the pathway, on a bramble leaf in a patch of sunshine a Dark Bush Cricket sat having a meal.

Dark Bush Cricket – Pholidoptera griseoaptera

The Dark Bush cricket is a common animal across the southern half of England, occurring in gardens, hedgerows and on woodland edges, where they can often be seen in quite large numbers sunbathing on bramble patches. Males are very aggressive, fiercely defending their territories against intruders. Females lay their eggs in late summer in rotting wood or bark crevices; the young crickets emerge 18 months later, so odd-year and even-year dark bush-crickets never meet.

Bramble festooned with gauzy spiders’ webs – a classic feature of damp autumn days

The pathway through Catscliffe Woods

Common Feather- moss-Kindbergia praelonga growing on a tree trunk

The stream that flows through the woodland is Siston Brook; it flows fast here and its energy once powered Willsbridge Mill’s water wheel. The stream rises five miles away at St. Anne’s Well, just south of the village of Siston and is a tributary of the River Avon, joining it at Londonderry Wharf, near Keynsham.

A fallen tree spanning the brook

A tree has fallen on one side of the stream bank arcing gracefully over the water to form a natural bridge. It has continued to grow, pushing out branches that now grow vertically from the original trunk; those that touch the ground have probably put down roots and appear to be growing as independent trees.

Steps lead temptingly to a higher woodland trail

Comma Butterfly

23 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by theresagreen in butterflies, nature photography

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

butterfly with jagged edge wings, comma, polygonia c.album

It is a beautiful day here in North Wales and I’ve just been watching a gorgeous Comma butterfly gliding around the garden. We have nothing left in flower to keep it here, but I took some photographs of one, maybe even the same one earlier in the month when there were still some flowers on the buddleia.

Comma – Polygonia c-album

The colouring of the Comma is similar to that of the Small Tortoiseshell, but the shaped wings are distinctive

Sightings of Comma butterflies have become a familiar sight throughout most of England and Wales, particularly in the late summer, as this is one of the few species that appears to be thriving and considerably expanding its range. Primarily a woodland butterfly, where it can be seen gliding along woodland rides and country lanes, they are however frequently seen in gardens during the late summer, seeking nectar sources to build up fat reserves before entering hibernation.

In the garden they are known to be particularly drawn to the pink flowers of Sedum spectabuli (Ice Plant, Showy Stonecrop, Butterfly stonecrop) and on a sunny day will stay on one flowerhead for a considerable length of time. They also spend a good amount of time basking, favouring surfaces such as tree trunks, wood piles and fence posts; I’ve even seen them on bamboo canes.

The butterfly gets its name from the only white marking on its underside, which resembles a comma punctuation mark.

The butterfly gets its name from the only white marking on its underside, which resembles a comma. When resting with wings closed this butterfly has excellent camouflage, when the jagged outline of the wings give it the appearance of a dry withered leaf, making the butterfly inconspicuous when resting on a tree trunk or when hibernating.

Lifecycle & behaviour

The primary larval foodplant is the Common Nettle (Urtica dioica). Other plants used may include Currants (various) (Ribes spp.), Elms (various) (Ulmus spp.), Hop (Humulus lupulus) and Willows (various) (Salix spp.).

Adults feed primarily on Thistles (Cirsium spp. and Carduus spp.). Bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.), Ivy (Hedera helix), Knapweeds (Centaurea spp.) and Privet (Ligustrum vulgare) are also used.

The butterfly will stay on a single flowerhead for quite long periods of time

After emergence, the male butterfly sets up a territory, often on the sunny side of a woodland margin or at the junction of two woodland rides. Here he will sit on a favourite perch awaiting a passing female and will fly up to investigate any passing insect. The male will also make short flights – always returning to the same perch. Even when disturbed, the male will fly off for several metres or so before predictably returning to exactly the same leaf. When egg-laying the female makes short fluttering flights over the foodplant, stopping every few feet, landing on the foodplant and, if suitable, laying a single green egg.

(Some information taken from the excellent UK Butterflies website http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk )

A hill not too far – part 2

21 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Pydew, butterflies, Limestone Pavement, Nature, nature of woodlands, nature photography

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

common blue, dropwort, filipendula vulgaris, juniper, limestone pavement, Meadow Brown, scabious, scarlet pimpernel, small tortoiseshell, taxus baccata, wildflowers and insects, yew

Limestone Pavement

Limestone pavement is very scarce and only covers 2600ha in Britain, but it is a habitat with a high geological interest. The following is an extract from the Limestone Pavement Conservation website: http://www.limestone-pavements.org.uk/geology.html which explains their formation much better than I could, so I am quoting it here:

“The formation of limestone pavements in the UK and Ireland began with the scouring of the limestone by glaciers during the last ice age. The weight of the ice removed the soil that lay over the limestone, and also fractured the limestone along existing horizontal surfaces of weakness known as bedding planes. Fractured rocks were stripped away leaving level platforms of limestone on which a thick layer of boulder clay (glacial till) was deposited as the glaciers retreated. Wind blown material was then deposited on top of the boulder clay. This external material is particularly important for soil formation, as limestone does not weather down into soil which would mean if there had been no glacial deposits, there would have been no soil development. From the flat limestone surfaces, the characteristic features of limestone pavement have been formed by water in the glacially deposited soil exploiting cracks and fissures in the rock.”

Part of the limestone pavement at Bryn Pydew (my photograph)

On the website linked above there is a lot more information, including a photograph taken here, labelled ‘Sheltered wooded pavement’. under the heading ‘flora’.

I had a potter around the rocky pavement and found a few little plants still flowering, but it is a bit late in the season for most species of the wildflowers that could potentially be found here to be blooming, so I will have to come back in the spring for another look.

Scarlet Pimpernel – Anagallis arvensis

Below the pavement, loose gravelly ground slopes away and merges into a grassy area. Following recent rainfall shallow streams of run-off water were trickling down, making the bare ground muddy and the grassy area quite marshy, so any plants here would be well watered. There were some pretty groups of scabious, (not sure which species) flowering here, that were proving of great interest to a variety of insects including several species of hoverfly and a few butterflies.

Scabious is still flowering strongly

Common Blue (f)-Polyommatus icarus

A Common Drone Fly-Eristalis tenax- on scabious giving a better view of the pretty flower

Meadow Brown

During the time I was here I had the whole place to myself and as I was muddling around I suddenly realised that there were sizeable chunks of time when there was absolute peace and quiet. Not a single sound from a bird, a car, a plane, an animal or a person. It was so blissful I had to sit down on a rock to better enjoy it together with the wonderful views across to the hills in front of me and Penrhyn Bay, the sea and the Little Orme beyond.

The view over the treetops to Penrhyn Bay and the Little Orme (click to enlarge)

My peaceful reverie was suddenly broken by intermittent rather muffled but quite loud voices. I thought at first that it must be people that had arrived to picnic somewhere close by as the level of the sound didn’t change as it would had they been walking around. Then the penny dropped; what I was hearing was the disembodied commentary from the ‘fun dog show’ just down the road in the village hall. It was a breezy afternoon too which meant the instructions being delivered, amplified by a PA system being used none too expertly, were probably clearer to me half a mile away than they were to the dog owners. It amused me to picture the scenes from the little village hall and hoped dogs and owners really were having fun.

There are some interesting trees and shrubs growing around the perimeter of the pavement area, including two of our three British native conifers, juniper and yew. Juniper is now a threatened plant species in Britain. Plantlife have warned that it is in serious trouble in Britain and with some southern counties having lost 70 per cent of their populations, the species is facing extinction across lowland England within 50 years. The loss of juniper would represent more than the loss of a single species – it supports more than 40 species of insect and fungus that cannot survive without it.

Juniper shrub

Junipers have been part of Britain’s landscape for thousands of years, and were one of the first trees to colonise Britain after the last Ice Age. Their aromatic berries are used in cooking and medicine, and are the key ingredient of gin.

I have mentioned already that there were yew trees growing in the woodland, but this one out in the open was easier to photograph.

Yew-taxus baccata

Yew–Taxus baccata; Welsh: Ywen

Native to Britain and Ireland, the evergreen coniferous yew tree tolerates a wide range of conditions including the dense shading of woodland. It often grows singularly in woods but in groves elsewhere. It has long been planted in parks, gardens and has a long association with churchyards.

The leaves are highly toxic, as too is the seed inside the red berries owing to the presence of toxicantin and consuming as little as 50 to 100 grams of chopped leaves would be fatal to an adult.

Hart’s Tongue Fern – Asplenium scolopendrium.The sori (spore) pattern is reminiscent of a centipede’s legs, and scolopendrium is Latin for “centipede”.

Heading back across the limestone pavement I stopped to photograph a female Common Darter dragonfly that was basking in a sunny spot.

Common Darter (female) on limestone pavement

The information board describes the marked route around the reserve as ‘circular’, so I walked around the woodland edge to see if that meant there was another track to walk back on. As I was looking I spotted a plant with white flowers tucked in amongst some oak seedlings and long grass stems.

Dropwort flower tucked in between oak seedlings. This is a late-flowering stem, there are others around it that are going to seed.

The plant is Dropwort – Filipendula vulgaris, and is related to Meadowsweet (it is in the same Genus). The flowers are larger than those of Meadowsweet, and the plant is much shorter, typically less than half the size. Dropwort also prefers a chalky or limestone grassland whereas Meadowsweet likes to grow on damp ground or near water. This was a late-flowering stem, its main flowering time being June-August, so I was lucky to find it. There were other stems close by going to seed, but I doubt I would have noticed them it the flowers hadn’t caught my eye.

This Dropwort is not a relation to Water Dropworts which are mostly extremely poisonous to people, and in this instance the name of the plant does not mean that if it is eaten they will ‘drop down’; it refers to the large pea-sized drop-like tubers on its roots. However, the leaves and roots do contain Methyl Salicylate, which serves to attract beneficial insects but to kill any that dare try to eat it, as it is toxic. Due to the presence of the chemical, if the leaves or root are crushed they do smell faintly of oil of Wintergreen.

Dropwort – Filipendula vulgaris

I walked back through the woods and back out into the sunshine. There were a number of little dragonflies flitting about on the woodland edge, again Common Darters. Amongst them a pretty red adult male that obliging ‘perched’ for just long enough for me to photograph him.

Common Darter male

The flowery bit of land I described in the first part of this post was still busy with insects, but now they were joined by butterflies, a Meadow Brown, Large White, a couple of Small Tortoishells and an absolutely gorgeous Peacock.

Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies on red valerian

Small Tortoishell – Aglais urticae

Peacock-iInachis io

The beautifully textured underside of the Peacock

A hill not too far – part 1

15 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Pydew, fungi, hoverflies, Nature, nature of woodlands, nature photography, woodlands

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

buff-tailed bumblebee, common darter, common green grasshopper, eristalis, hoverflies, inula conyza, leucozona lucorum, ploughman's spikenard, tar spot fungus, traveller's joy

The first day of September was gloriously sunny and warm in the way that only our late summer days can be. In preparation for just such a day I had done a bit of research into other nature reserves that may be nearby and was surprised to discover there is indeed such a one, almost on our doorstep on another landmark hill just beyond Bryn Euryn, called Bryn Pydew. The land is leased and managed by the North Wales Wildlife Trust (NWWT), and just had to be explored not only because of its proximity, but also because it has within in it an area of Limestone Pavement that I have been keen to add to my round of habitats to visit.

To quote the Bryn Pydw entry on the First Nature website:

Bryn Pydew SSSI; RIGS site : “This reserve lies on carboniferous limestone and has woodland, grassland, limestone pavement and two disused quarries providing a wide variety of habitats.”

I could hardly believe it was so close by and I had never heard of it, but when I set off to find it, following the directions on the website, I did have some problems finding the ‘entrance’ to the reserve. (I must get myself an ordnance survey map and re-learn to use grid references !) I knew I was on the Bryn, it’s huge, so hard to miss, and drove up, down around and along a few lanes in the indicated direction, then through the village of Bryn Pydew and back again, finally stopping to ask for directions from a lady carrying a basket heading for the village hall. She didn’t really know either, but suggested it might be the “flat bit further on where they have been digging”. It was clear that there was little room for parking on the lane, so I asked if I should park outside the hall and walk, she said “Oh no, please don’t, we have a fun Dog Show here this afternoon, so we need all the parking space we have for that.” Not wishing to upset anyone or their dog, I drove a bit further and duly came to said ‘flat bit’ at the side of the lane, pulled onto it and got out of the car.

Woodland edge

It seemed likely that the reserve was in the general area as I was now looking at woodland to one side on the lower slope of the hill, then across the lane, a grassy slope with some scrubby vegetation leading to the summit of the Bryn. Next to where I had parked there was a mound of earth and stones, becoming vegetated with grass, with the addition of clumps of vervain, verbascum and other wild plants, which made me think this may have been a bit of a dumping ground for the village gardeners. Behind this ‘tump’ there was a ‘path’ cobbled with small pieces of limestone between it and the woodland edge, bordered on either side with wildflowers, predominantly ragwort, but also marsh hemp, cat’s ear, traveller’s joy (wild clematis), hogweed etc.

A beautiful fresh ‘Sun Fly’, also known as ‘The Footballer’ – Helophilus pendulus

The sheltered spot was buzzing with hoverflies, bees and bumblebees and even a few butterflies. Most of the hoverflies were of the larger eristalis species, some of which I have already featured photographs of in recent posts, but there were others too.

Eristalis interruptus on ragwort

Eristalis on Hemp Agrimony

The most familiar of hoverflies, the exquisite little Marmalade Fly – Episyrphus balteatus

I was also an attractive hoverfly, Leucozona lucorum, which is a new one for my collection of photographs.

Leucozona lucorum. There is a similar-looking insect – Volucella pellucens which is much shinier and does not have the orange-yellow scutellum (the triangular patch at the base of the thorax)

Buff-tailed Bumblebee- Bombus terrestris on Traveller’s Joy-Clematis vitalba

Welsh Poppy with small flies

I was really pleased to find Ploughman’s Spikenard growing here. It is a plant quite unprepossessing in its appearance, looking a bit like a giant groundsel or ragwort that is going to seed, so may be easily overlooked, but it is another of my favourite type of plant, one with a history of traditional use as a medicinal herb and that has some great alternative common names; Cinnamon-root, Great Fleabane, Horseheal and Lady’s-gloves.

Ploughman’s Spikenard – Inula Conyza (the seeds on the leaves are from nearby thistles)

Honeybee on Ploughman’s Spikenard

It was really peaceful here, so I sat down on the ground for a while to enjoy the sunshine and properly take notice of what was around me. I love to do that sometimes, to just sit still and lose myself in the moment, and feel connected to the real world. Stillness often brings other rewards too, things I may have missed if I’d been standing and wandering around. A dragonfly came to settle close by on the warm stones, as did a grasshopper and there were birds about too, a Robin came out of the woods to hop around close by and so did a Dunnock.

Common Darter Dragonfly- Sympetrum striolatum (immature male)

Common Green Grasshopper-Omocestus viridulus

A fresh-plumaged Dunnock spied through tall grass

Into the woods

Still not sure of where I was I decided to walk towards the woods to see if there may be a track I could walk on. Lo and behold as I walked towards the trees, set just inside the edge of the woodland was the information board for the reserve. It looks quite faded so has clearly been there for some years, so maybe it was originally more visible from the lane?

Information board about the Bryn Pydew Reserve- click to enlarge

There is a track, way-marked with red marks on some of the tree trunks.

Woodland trail, Bryn Pydew

The trees, mostly silver birch, as, some oak, sycamore and unusually a good many yew grow closely together, so it was quite dark and shady in there with occasional shafts of sunlight breaking through the leaf canopy. Most of the sycamore leaves I could see were sprinkled wit large black spots, the result of an infection of Tar Spot fungus.

Tar spot is a fungal disease characterised by raised, black spots on leaves, caused by the fungus Rhytisma acerinum. The tar-like spot is a fruiting structure of the fungus that survives the winter on fallen leaves. In the spring mature spores of the fungus, which have a sticky coating, are released and blown by wind to newly emerging leaves.

The undersides of the leaves appear cupped directly beneath the tar spots. This is a much-enlarged image of a tiny snail and another minute insect.

In a clearing in the woodland where there was a little more light I photographed Hart’s Tongue fern growing amongst ivy on an old stone wall and Lady Fern.

Hart’s Tongue Fern and ivy on an old stone wall

Lady Fern

On the other side of the wall where shrubby plants have colonised the clearing I watched five Speckled Wood butterflies chase one another around in the sun-dapples space. These are very territorial little butterflies that will tackle anything that tries to invade its territory; today each time one settled on a leaf to bask it was dive-bombed by another, so it took a while to get an image. It was good watching them though, this is the most I have seen together in one place for a long while and judging by their fresh appearance, I would say they were newly-emerged.

A pristine Speckled Wood-Pararge aegeria

Late summer wildflowers and insects of the Little Orme

11 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by theresagreen in butterflies, coastal habitat, coastal walks, Little Orme, Nature, nature photography, Rhiwledyn Nature Reserve, wildflowers

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

6-spot Burnet Moth, black & yellow striped caterpillars, black butterfly or moth with red spots, cinnabar moth larvae, eristalis arbustorum, eristalis pertinax, eyebright, hoverflies, large black slug, meadow grasshopper, sawfly, small skipper, toadflax, vervain

The weather took its toll on the cliff-top flora and fauna of the Little Orme too, although I think perhaps it’s not so much that the insects were not there, more that they were less able to be mobile, so were not as visible as they are in warmer, drier conditions. I took the following pictures on a warmish, sunny but fairly windy day just past the middle of August when everywhere was still damp from rain.

Ragwort is blooming strongly and every plant is supporting a colony of cinnabar moth caterpillars.

The Cinnabar moth larvae are growing fat on ragwort

The flowers of the ragwort are much in demand too, particularly by hungry hoverflies.

Eristalis interruptus (f) on ragwort

2 drone flies, Eristalis pertinax on ragwort

A smaller eristalis species – Eristalis arbustorum

Mating pair of soldier beetles

I was still on the lookout for soldier beetles and did eventually manage to find one pair; there were dozens of them this time last year. I didn’t even manage a very good photograph as the wind was blowing the ragwort stem they were on.

I walked towards the cliff edge above Angel Bay, drawn by a large patch of sunny yellow birds-foot trefoil mixed in amongst long grasses.

Flowery clifftop, most birds-foot trefoil mixed in amongst long grass

Long grass and birds-foot trefoil

As I had hoped, this flowery area turned out to be quite productive in terms of insects. I first spotted a Common Blue butterfly very low down on a grass stem, then followed a Small Skipper until it too came to rest on a flower.

Small Skipper –

That was followed by a first sighting of a Burnet Moth fluttering across the grass and flowers, and once I had ‘got my eye in’, I soon realised there were a good few more.

6-spot Burnet moth –

The Burnet moths were mostly attracted to the thistle flowers growing at the side of the pathway; at one point I found four of them all on the same plant.

3 of 4 Burnet moths that were all nectaring on a single thistle flowerhead

Stopping to photograph the single moth I was distracted by the chirping ‘song’ of a grasshopper, which I found on a grass stem just behind me. I am not great at identifying grasshoppers, but I think this was most likely a Meadow Grasshopper – Chorthippus brunneus.

Little grasshopper chirping from a grass stem

Walking along a narrow track through the long grass I saw an insect I did not immediately recognise on a thistle flower. It took little notice of me taking photographs of it, just carried on working its way around the flowerhead. To identify it I searched my favourite website for insect identification http://www.naturespot.org.uk, which is a Leicestershire site but usually comes up trumps for me. From that I believe my mystery insect may be of the Sawfly species, Tenthredo notha – but as always I am more than happy to be corrected.

Sawfly- Tenthredo notha

At the bottom of the steep grassy track that takes you higher up on the cliff, a decent number of butterflies were dancing around the bramble flowers. There is red valerian growing there too which is also a favourite nectar plant of butterflies and more ragwort attracting hoverflies. Butterflies included Large, Small and Green-veined Whites, Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers and a Tortoishell.

Green-veined White (m) on a valerian flower

I stopped half-way up the incline to draw breath and to take a photograph of the view.

The view from the Little Orme across Rhos Point, then the headland of Abergele beyond which are Rhyl & Prestatyn and the coastline of the Wirral (click to enlarge)

At the top there is a flat grassy area, popular with Jackdaws that nest on the cliffs and grazed by sheep, where the remains of some sort of winding mechanism still stands as a memorial to the quarrying that is responsible for the shape of the Little Orme.