Flying Teaspoons and Blackbird DIY

 Nest construction is well under way in our garden. I'll begin with the apex nest box in our oak tree which housed a family of blue tits last year. This year I have observed both blues and great tits inspecting the box and gradually I began to see only the greats popping in and out. Yesterday the greats started to bring in nesting materials, their beaks stuffed with moss, which is a promising sign and exactly what I'd hoped for. I obviously did a decent enough job of clearing out the box.

Over the past week or so, I have noticed a female blackbird spending quite a lot of time in one of the bushes just across from our kitchen window and I wondered whether she might be building a nest there. Balancing on a chair, I ventured a peek through the branches and saw that I was right! A very neat, well-shaped nest it is too. I managed to take a few snaps, though not particularly good ones but enough to see inside and spot the mud lining. She has been back and forth with new materials since I discovered it and watching her sitting and squashing everything down has been wonderful.

Based on when I originally saw nest material start to appear on this site, I have estimated that she has been building for around a week and a half which suggests that she should more or less be done now. I am really hoping that she does choose to lay a clutch of eggs as I will be able to monitor her progress and make observations. With the visibility of the nest site being so clear, I am keen to watch the eggs hatch and the chicks fledge and hang around to be fed by their parents. We shall see what the next few weeks hold!

Today, I actually discovered another new nest site and this was purely by chance. I happened to be taking a photo of a patch of primroses at the edge of our driveway when a "chuck chuck" sound caught my attention and brought my gaze up, where a long-tailed tit, affectionately known as flying teaspoons (!) was perched on an overhanging branch, its beak filled with a white, fluffy material that looked to me like cotton wool. I stood up slowly, keeping my eyes on the bird and watched it flit around, still chuck chucking before it flew inside the hedgerow in front of me. It didn't seem particularly fazed by my which is surprising, given that they are quite a timid species. I was stood very still and quiet so it's likely it didn't know I was still there. 

It was soon joined by another long-tail and the pair of them chuck chucked for a while before darting out of the hedge. I waited for them to leave the area before I had a look at their handiwork, as I didn't want them to become distressed. From what I could see, they are at the very early stages of building a nest as there was a layer of moss, some feathers and leaves starting to form the foundations. Long-tails are similar to wrens in that they build a dome-like structure that fully surrounds them and their chicks. Although there were no signs of a dome just yet, I will most certainly be keeping my eyes on their progress. It can take up to three weeks before they complete it so it will be interesting to see how it takes shape.  

The nest site is quite well-hidden in dense vegetation so the chance of predation is unlikely, though the threat is always there, no matter the location. I'm pleased that they've chosen a spot where I will be able to observe them with relative ease. In the below photo, you can see one of the pair leaving the hedge; the nest is located in the top right section.

I read up on the nesting and breeding habits of long-tails and I am quite amazed that they can lay between eight and fifteen eggs in one clutch! I wouldn't have thought such a compact nest structure would be enough to house that many chicks, once they all hatch out.

I have registered both of these new nests with the BTO Nest Box Challenge as I can monitor the progress of them with relative ease. I now have three nest sites and more importantly, three different nesting species to observe so, assuming they all successfully lay eggs in their chosen spots, I will be kept quite busy!

Cleaning up Goring-by-Sea!

It may have been heavily overcast and the wind may have had a slight chill to it, but that didn't stop myself and 22 other brilliant volunteers from arming ourselves with litter pickers and tackling the shores of Worthing on Sunday!

I posted back in January about becoming a beachwatch survey organiser for the Marine Conservation Society and the weekend just gone saw my first event go ahead. I was quite nervous beforehand, having never arranged anything like this before, and I was concerned that less volunteers would turn up than the 18 I had confirmed on the site. Particularly as, despite the Saturday being gloriously sunny and (dare I say) Spring-like, the weather on Sunday was that of heavy cloud that was certainly not budging. I was pleasantly surprised when the allotted time came around (an hour after high tide, of course) and lots of people began to arrive, some seasoned beach-cleaners and some (like me!) who were brand new to the game, but all raring to go! We even had several younger (and very eager) volunteers which I was especially pleased to see. 

After giving a safety briefing and dividing everyone up into groups, all 23 of us headed over to the 100m strip of beach I had measured out earlier, with clipboards, litter-pickers and bin bags in hand. At first glance, there was a fair amount of rubbish to be collected but once we all got going and started recording each piece we found, it didn't take long at all for the bags to start bulging! I was both amazed and disgusted at the level of litter in such a small area. 

A huge amount of cable ties were found as well as fishing line, cotton bud sticks and rope. As would be expected, the vast majority of litter recorded was plastic. Happily, I had several volunteers say to me that they were really enjoying it and finding relaxing and therapeutic. I'm inclined to agree with that and after a while, I wasn't taking any notice of the biting wind, just focusing on the stretch of pebbles at my feet.

I estimated with the number of hands we had that the survey would take about an hour and I was more or less on the money. We piled all of our bags together and I weighed each one individually, finally coming to a grand total of 13.45kg! It really was astounding that we had jointly managed to collect quite so much from only 100m. When you stop and think about the amount of coastline we have in this country though, it's really very worrying to think how much litter is sitting on our beaches. If 23 people can pick up seven refuse bags worth of rubbish in an hour, just think how much more could be achieved if this was carried out all around the UK!

Even though the sun hadn't made an appearance all day, there were plenty of smiling faces as we finished up and started heading back to the car park. Several of the volunteers asked if there would be more cleans coming up and I am certainly eager to arrange future events based on the success of this one. It was really encouraging to see just how many people genuinely wanted to give up their time to do something so worthwhile. As one volunteer said, it really gives you a sense of pride.

In a nutshell, we collected:

-55 metal items

-3 medical items

-26 sanitary items

-31 paper items

-15 wood items

-26 glass items

-3 ceramic items

-615 plastic items!

-37 polystyrene items

-23 rubber items

-72 cloth items

A huge thank you to everyone who turned up and donated their time and energy! You were all fantastic!

If you are interested in future beach clean-ups, visit the MCS website.

"For blackberry, read Blackberry"

During a scroll through my Twitter newsfeed this week, I came across an article that I found rather alarming and I know I'm not alone in my reaction. According to this article from The Guardian, the Oxford Junior Dictionary has had a 50-word cull of terms relating to nature in an attempt to make the revised edition more relatable to the "modern child". Words such as "acorn" "otter" "newt" and "heron" have been removed to make way for "broadband" "chatroom" and "database". 

Granted, in a dictionary containing 10,000 entries, 400 of those are related to the natural world but that's not the point. We live in a time where the majority of the first-world population owns at least one hand-held digital device and information is accessible without lifting more than a finger. This does NOT mean that the natural world is any less important and therefore any less worthy of teaching to our children. Surely, at the age of seven, children have more of a need to know about the wildlife they might encounter on their walk to school or while playing in the garden than being able to explain what the definition of a "celebrity" is. 

There lies the biggest problem though. Children are spending less and less time outside exploring, playing and exercising in the fresh air. Many would rather stay inside on laptops and tablets than kick a ball around a field or climb a tree. The decision to remove 50 words related to nature from the OJD is a reflection of this changed attitude. However, as I type this there are endless initiatives, such as Project Wild Thing, underway to try and encourage children to spend more time outdoors, not only to get them more interested in nature but to dispel the ongoing threat of childhood obesity. Of course there is a balance between technology and nature but in the state we are currently in, the latter holds more importance for a seven year-old child, in my opinion. 

"...we should remember that the Junior Dictionary may be one of the few dictionaries a child will ever encounter, and that the selection will influence his or her use of language for life." Henry Porter, the Guardian 

I can perhaps understand slightly outdated words being given the elbow, but "raven" "tulip" and "catkin"? Even in this modern digital era, these things still exist and children referring to this dictionary will not have access to a definition for any of these terms; instead these seven year-olds will be able to define "celebrity" "database" and "democratic". These aren't words that take precedence at such a young age, surely? 

 "The Oxford Dictionaries have a rightful authority and a leading place in cultural life. We believe the OJD should address these issues and that it should seek to help shape children’s understanding of the world, not just to mirror its trends" Laurence Rose, RSPB 

There's been quite a bit of outrage expressed online over the decision to remove so many relevant words from the OJD. Part of the defence from Oxford University Press is that the environment that children grow up in has changed: they are living in more urban and suburban areas, rather than open countryside where they might encounter various animals, plants and flowers. However, this to me is even more reason for them to be made aware of these words, because what is education if not to inform us about things we have never seen?

 I don't currently have any children but should I be fortunate enough in the future, I would 100% rather they know what a conker is over a chatroom.

Image credits:

www.rspb.org.uk

www.salamtoronto.net/?p=18419

The Wildlife Trust: My Wildlife Story

In order to discover why nature matters to us all individually, The Wildlife Trust is running a new social media project that encourages anyone and everyone to share their wildlife story with the world through their website or using the tag #MyWildLife. As today is World Wildlife Day, I thought I would share "My Wildlife Story" that I submitted on their site yesterday.

When I was much younger, maybe seven or eight, I declared that I wanted to be either a vet or a marine biologist. At the time, I was reading my way through the Animal Ark series by Ben M. Baglio (under the pseudonym Lucy Daniels) and I was obsessed with all things related to animals. I was determined that I would be a vet, saving hedgehogs and cats and then I developed a passion for dolphins, which was when I switched my dream job to marine biologist. I can confidently say that I have always held the natural world in my heart.

Needless to say, I didn't go on to study veterinary science or marine biology. In fact, I went down a different path altogether, choosing my passion for art and all things creative over nature but I never lost my interest in it. As corny as it might sound, the past few years have been a bit of a journey of self-discovery for me, after plans I made for my future just didn't pan out the way they were meant to. I started drawing birds in my spare time which meant that I was suddenly taking a lot more notice of the feathery creatures in our back garden. As I was drawing, I was learning, discovering species I had never known existed and building my knowledge up, bit by bit.

In 2012, my family and I moved house, from a suburban cul-de-sac property to a chocolate-box cottage in rural Sussex and it was there, in the middle of ancient woodland, that the natural world began to fully reintroduce itself to me, showing me wonderful sights I had never seen before. A great-spotted woodpecker drumming against the bark of an oak. A nuthatch scaling up and down tree trunks like a feathered ninja. A wake of buzzards riding thermals on a perfectly clear day. All of these and more were happening within a few feet of our back door and I had never felt quite so fascinated by anything, and never so hungry for more similar experiences. I was lucky to have the freedom of working from home so my working hours were flexible and I was therefore able to venture out into the surrounding countryside in search of new discoveries. One particular day sticks clear in my mind because it was just so memorable and almost once-in-a-lifetime. During the Summer of 2013, I was walking through a patch of woodland that our house directly backs on to, camera and binoculars in hand and not 500 yards down the path, in a sunny clearing, I came across a female roe deer and her very young fawn, who still had spots on its back. I stood watching the pair for quite some time, as the doe sniffed across the ground for food and the fawn stayed close to its mother's side, until they became aware of my presence and bounded off into the thicker trees. I was amazed to have witnessed such a beautiful sight so close to home!

I've never felt 100% sure of what I wanted to do or where I wanted to take my life until I realised that working in conservation was the answer. It took a long time to finally click but I got there and I'm now actively pursuing it as a career, through volunteer and field work with various conservation charities, citizen science projects such as the BTO Nestbox Challenge and the Woodland Trust's Nature's Calendar and I am planning to start studying for a Zoology diploma this year. My eyes have been opened to so much over the past two years and I'm constantly learning, even when I simply look out of the window and observe the behaviour of  the birds on the feeders. Something that I have picked up on particularly is the value of each individual species, not just the "cute and fluffy" ones. Everything serves a purpose in the ecosystem and this is why it is so important to gain a better understanding of how to protect and preserve the species on this planet.

My wildlife story is one of discovery. A change of location opened up a door to me and cleared away the fog of confusion that had settled on my life. Nature has helped me and now I am hoping that I can return the favour. There's so much we can take away from the natural world but at the same time, we should be giving back as much as we can.

A Very Pleasant Risk Assessment

As you may or may not know, I am holding a beach clean-up event on Sunday 8th March on behalf of the Marine Conservation Society. Part of being the organiser involves carrying out a risk assessment of the beach in question and today myself and my mum popped down to Worthing for that very reason. I have been to the beach several times in the past so I know it reasonably well but I also wanted to get an idea of the space we would be litter-picking in and the sorts of facilities available to us on the day.

The last time I visited this beach, Goring-by-Sea, the wind was absolutely howling and there was misty rain in the air which made a casual stroll rather unpleasant after some time! This afternoon was a total contrast to this; the heavy clouds from earlier on in the day had broken up and the sun was out, lending a mildness to the air. We were both surprised at the lack of a coastal breeze once we were on the beach, which is often responsible for bringing the temperature down a few degrees. It was actually very pleasant and I have my fingers firmly crossed that we will have a repeat of such conditions on the day of the event!

Having forgotten to bring either a tape measure or pedometer, I roughly paced out the space we will need for the survey and then checked this area for potential hazards. While wandering along the beach, we spotted various naturally occurring debris such as fish vertebrae and various egg cases. I had to do a little I.D. work on the egg cases when we got back home as I know very little about them. I found them to be whelk and either dogfish or catshark cases. I had an inkling about the latter but the whelk case was news to me: I've always wondered where those strange objects resembling bubble-wrap came from!

I have a decent number of confirmed volunteers for the beachwatch event but more are always welcome! If you are interested in taking part, you can visit this link to register. 

My First Water Rail: Warnham Nature Reserve

After a week of working on hard on a particularly complicated portrait which I finally finished last night, I found myself longing for a little me time away from work. The weather forecast this morning read thick cloud all day and a high of 5°C. That was good enough for me since there was no rain forecast and frankly, during a British winter, that is a bonus. I decided to go to my nearest nature reserve, Warnham, about a 10 minute car journey from me. I hadn't been there in a while and it has a lovely big pond that at this time of year should be hosting a variety of waterfowl.

Warnham Nature Reserve is located just outside of Horsham, and borders the A24. It has 92 acres of land with a range of habitats including marshes, grassland and reed beds, and has three bird hides, feeding stations and a raised walkway through the marshes.

When I pulled into the car park, I saw that there were only three other cars there. Hardly surprising given that it was only 10:45am and the air was a little on the nippy side. I wasn't fazed, having bundled up beforehand and with my rambling binoculars around my neck and my handheld camera in my pocket, I headed through the visitor's centre and towards the first hide. Out of the three hides, it is the smallest and gives a view of the pond bank and reeds. A pair of mute swans were there, a male and female, softly honking at one another. Several coots and some woodpigeon paddled in the shallows, drinking and preening their feathers.

On from here, I followed the path around the meadow area which in the Summer, when there are no livestock being kept there, you can walk through and see a wonderful array of butterflies and dragonflies.  21 different species of the latter have been recorded here in the past. A number of different songs and calls overlapped each other, the sweet tune of the Robin mixing with the squeaky chirp of Chaffinch and Gpldfinch. From the trees on my left a bright dart of green swooped across the path in front of me and over to the woodland in the distance; unmistakably a Green Woodpecker. Up on a large tussock in the meadow landed a Song Thrush, briefly looking around before disappearing into the shrubbery.

Inside the second hide, the largest of the three, I sat watching flocks of Great tits, Blue tits and Goldfinch squabble over the hanging feeders, the surrounding trees full of chirrups that suggested many more Goldfinch were waiting for their turn, while on the ground, 10 or so Chaffinches pecked at the seed, darting in and out of the undergrowth. A pair of Dunnocks were half-concealed in the low branches of the hedges, keeping themselves to themselves as they often do. Two Robins kept watch over the area.

By the time I left this hide, the sun had pushed through the layer of cloud and the wind had picked up, making my eyes stream with the chill of it. I longed for the woolly hat I had chosen not to wear. Following the path, I wandered in the direction of the marshland, listening to the squawking calls of the gulls on the pond. The dry leaf litter rustled occasionally from a foraging Blackbird and high above me, Magpies hopped from branch to branch.

The raised walkway took me into the marshland which was very quiet, save for a Wren, Long-tailed Tit and lone Wood mouse scrabbling about among the reeds. If you carry on following this path, you go deeper into the marsh and eventually into woodland but on this occasion, I chose to turn around and head for the third and final hide which, incidentally, is my favourite. It gives a fantastic double-aspect view of the whole pond and offers the best perspective of the thriving Heronry.

The gulls were perhaps the hardest to miss since they were being particularly noisy. The 30+ Black-Headed gulls were in their Winter plumage, lacking the black caps, which leaves them looking completely different from their Summer selves. To be fair, the majority of raucous noise was coming from the Common gulls, all 40+ of them. Across the other side of the pond was a group of Greylag geese and I was delighted to see these as it was a first for me to see them in the flesh. Their orange-pink bills and white wing bars helped me I.D. them straightaway.

I had several other "firsts" on this trip, one of them being a sighting of seven tufted ducks. These were diving and reappearing all over the place so I struggled to get a firm count but I got there in the end. Unfortunately, as with all my photos today, the shots I got weren't that great. My main aim was to catalogue them as a sighting though and you can at least see the tufts that gave them their name!

By this point, I glanced at my watch and realised I had been on the reserve for nearly an hour and a half; the time had quite honestly-no pun intended-flown! I left the hide and made my way back towards the visitor's centre. I paused on a bridge outside the second hide to watch a Wren that was hopping about in the reed bed and I am so glad I did as this is where I had my third "first" of the day, and definitely my most exciting one. A rustling made me turn my attention away from the Wren, just in time to see a Water Rail go sloping off into the reeds! I was thrilled to spot one and quite amazed I did when I studied the size of it. The red colour of its long, thin bill glinted in the sun and I could just make out the blueish colour of its chest before it disappeared. Sadly, I didn't manage to snap a photo but it's in my memory and that's the most important bit, I think.

Before leaving, I nipped back into the first hide to get a closer look at a group of large birds. I was yo-yoing between them either being Shags or Sormorants and since looking at the photos, I've decided they were Sormorants (please do correct me if I'm wrong!) It was quite amusing to see them holding out their wings to dry.

Just as I was about to turn to leave, a group of Mallards swam towards the hide and with them was my fourth and final "first" of the day; a Shoveller! It was a pretty good way to end my trip, despite the fact I was definitely feeling the cold by that point. 

Here's a full list of my spots today:

11 Greylag geese*
7 Tufted ducks*
1 Shoveller*
1 Water rail*
1 Long-tailed tit
2 Canada geese
2 Wrens
1 Goldcrest
Blackbirds (male and female)
Magpies
1 Carrion crow
2 Song thrush
10+ Blue tits
10+ Great tits
1 Green woodpecker
2 Heron
7 Cormorants
40+ Common gulls
30+ Black-headed gulls (winter plumage)
10+ Chaffinch (male and female)
6 Mallard (5 male, 1 female)
6 Goldfinch
2 Dunnock
3 Moorhen
5 Coot
2 Mute swans
1 Great-spotted woodpecker
1 Wood mouse
2 Grey squirrels
4 Robin

Up Close and Personal!

Our garden feeders have been getting busier and busier over the past weeks. Flocks of great and blue tits have been squabbling amongst themselves and the lawn has been scattered with ground-feeders. I try to keep the various feeders filled but it's hard to keep up with them sometimes! Yesterday morning, while still wearing my pajamas, I wrapped up in my coat, gloves and bobble hat and blinked my way through the flurrying snow to refill the feeders. I normally put out a variety of food to keep everyone happy; suet pellets, peanuts, mixed seed, sunflower hearts, suet balls and some nyger seed for the occasional visiting goldfinches.

The great tits are certainly the boldest of our garden birds as they don't even wait for me to leave the area before helping themselves. In fact, I barely even step through the back door before they all descend from the surrounding branches, calling to each other to declare breakfast served! This is my favourite time to watch them, when the food is fresh (out of the packet) and there is a sense of excitement among the birds as they discover if there is anything new on the menu. 

Usually I try to take photos of our feathery visitors from the kitchen window but the feeders are too far away for it to really be worth it, until I get my hands on a telephoto lens for the SLR! On this particular morning, however, I decided to try something new. I took my handheld camera, a tripod and a large umbrella (the snow had turned to drizzle at this point) and set up a rudimentary filming rig on a chair about 2 metres away from the feeding station. My handheld is of reasonable quality and has a good zoom on it but being so close to the station meant that I didn't need to zoom in too far and lose too much image quality. I pushed the record button and went back inside, leaving the birds to do their thing, with the hope of getting some good, close-up footage of them. 

I wasn't disappointed at all! The images in this post are screen grabs from the footage I got and I was particularly pleased with the very close shots of the seed feeder, where it was easy to see the birds picking out the seeds they wanted and flicking the rest on the floor. At least the blackbirds and pigeons are kept busy! What was perhaps the best observation was seeing how many seeds the nuthatch slotted into his long beak before flying off. One of the marsh tits too paid a visit, flew off then returned still holding a seed only to add an extra one to his already-full mouth. 

It's fascinating to see all of these species at such close range, enough to be able to see the detail on their faces and the markings on their wings. Considering I was only using a small handheld camera, I'm quite impressed with the footage I managed to get from this endeavour. I went through it all, taking the best clips and put them all together to create a five-minute video which is actually very relaxing to watch; there's something almost mesmerising about it. Or maybe that's just me!

You can watch the video on my YouTube channel here or below. Let me know what you think!