End of Year Review, December 2013

So here we are at the end of my third full year writing this blog, I hope you have enjoyed its content and would like to thank all those who follow it and those who have visited over the years. This year (2013) has been an interesting one for me as back in February I started a new job, which I had hoped would give me more spare time to enjoy bird ringing and other natural history activities. In reality, more spare time meant more out of work social commitments, which did limit the amount of free time I had, and three stints in hospital were certainly not welcome. Despite the set backs I still had a great year which resulted in several new birds in for me in Hampshire, over 20 new moth species in the garden, a couple of new birds in the hand and ended with a British tick (Brunnich's guillemot). In typical fashion for a year end post I thought I would do a quick summary of my personal highlights of the year, and please feel free to share yours with me.

January
The start of the year for me was all about trying to see as many bird species as possible on the patch. There were no real highlights to speak of with this, that came in the form of a recovery notification from the BTO of one of the common nightingales that I had ringed at Botley Wood. Unfortunately the bird was found dead in France 488 days since being ringed, which was not good news for the bird, but was my first foreign control of this species since starting the project.

Adult Common Nightingale - Sadly found dead in France

February
The long staying and very confiding black-bellied dipper at the BTO HQ Thetford in Norfolk was the first that I had seen in the UK, and got my annual Norfolk pilgrimage off to a good start.

Black-bellied Dipper - Norfolk

March
Eurasian siskins came into my garden in good numbers this year and I ended with a record number of 40 new birds ringed, beating the previous best of 12 back in 2003. Individuals were trapped throughout January, February, March, April, May and one bird was re-trapped in August. The peak month though was March when 22 new birds were ringed.

Male Eurasian Siskin

April
The return of the common nightingale is always a highlight for me and this year was no exception. At least eight singing males were back on territories, and I managed to catch four of those, one being a bird from May 2009. This month was also memorable for the presence of a singing male common redstart and a lesser spotted woodpecker, both found whilst surveying for nightingales.

Retrap Adult Nightingale - Botley Wood

May
Being my 25th wedding anniversary this year my wife and I took short break to the Greek Island of Rhodes. There were no new birds for me but we did have a great trip with a variety of wildlife being seen. The highlight for me had to be snake-eyed lizard which was stunning beast, the resultant blog post has become the most read post on this site. 

Snake-eyed Lizard, Rhodes

June
The undoubted highlight for me this year was being invited out to ring northern goshawk pulli. I had ringed common buzzards before but the size of these birds, in particular the females and their talons was amazing. The low point was being savaged by a cat and spending four days in hospital with an infected arm.

Juvenile Goshawk

July
Mothing really took off this month and checking the trap before work became near on impossible due to the numbers present. On one date I recorded 250 moths of 90 species in the garden and by the end of the year I had recorded 310 species. The second high point was surviving being knocked off my bike by a car and only needing seven stitches in a gash on my chin and having mild concussion for 48 hours.

White Satin Moth - a new species for me

August
Ringing was starting to get into full swing at Titchfield Haven and on 17th we ringing 223 new birds, with 24 of those being garden warblers, the most we have ever caught in one day by a long way.

Garden Warbler - Titchfield Haven

September
This month was memorable for two amazing highs, catching my first, and second, Clifden nonpareil moths whilst staying at Castlehaven on the Isle of Wight; and seeing the first brown shrike to ever be recorded in Hampshire. An excellent find by Bob Marchant.

Clifden Nonpareil at Castlehaven, Isle of Wight

October
There were many highlights during October, but these were sadly all overshadowed by the untimely death of Tim Lawman, a popular and active member of the Hampshire birding scene. The highlights were finding a yellow-browed warbler at The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Trusts (HIWWT) Testwood Lakes Nature Reserve, and then another at Anton Lakes whilst waiting for Hampshire's second ever Radde's warbler to show. The semi-palmated plover at Sandy Point on Hayling Island, a truly amazing find by Andy Johnson. And if all that wasn't enough, it ended with us catching our first, and Hampshire's third Radde's warbler at Titchfield Haven. What an autumn this turned out to be!

Radde's Warbler at Titchfield Haven

November
Ringing bearded reedlings (or parrotbills) at the HIWWTs Farlington Marshes reserve was a real treat, but the undoubted highlight had to be the phenomenal starling roost of 10,000 to 100,000 birds at their Blashford Lakes nature reserve. As natural history spectacles go this is one of the best I have seen and is still continuing as I write this post. If you get the chance it is definitely worth a visit and if you are lucky you may even get the see one of the two bitterns wintering there.

A Murmuration of Starlings at Blashford Lakes

December
There is only one contender this month and that was the Brunnich's guillemot in Portland Harbour. We were heading home after spending Christmas in Cornwall and made the short detour. A cracking bird and a British tick for me to end the year on.

It's been a while, what have I been doing?

It has been quite a while since my last post, which has simply been a result of a lack of time to sit down and type. This shortage of time has been for a couple of reasons, firstly I have been spending a lot of time in the field and making the most of the fantastic weather we have been having of late. Secondly, I have been training for a charity cycle ride that I am doing on 11th August, which involves a 100 mile ride around the Hampshire countryside. A bit of a cheek I know, but if any readers of this blog fancy sponsoring me please click on the link, any support would be gratefully received http://www.gbss.org.uk/fundraiser/TrevorCodlin.

So what have I been doing....

Micheldever Chalkies
Micheldever Chalkies is a Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust reserve, located, as the name would suggest, near Micheldever, Hampshire. The reserve consists of heaps of chalk, that were dumped when the railway cutting was created. Since dumped they have become colonised by a variety of plant species, most notably cut-leaved germander Teucrium botrys. This species is protected under UK law and in included on Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, subsequently management activities at the site are aimed at maintaining it. On the day I visited the site, some small leaves were present and a few plants were starting to bud, but as with most plant species, the cold spring meant it was much less developed than usual for this time of year.

There were still plenty of other plant species to see though, so I spent a bit of time looking at those. Viper's bugloss was one of the most prominent species present; the flowers are pink when in bud, but as they bloom the bright blue colour becomes dominant.

Viper's Bugloss Echium vulgare

By contrast the flowers of the fly orchid were more difficult to locate, with the flower spikes hidden discretely among other vegetation. Despite its name the flower of the fly orchid has evolved to lure male digger wasps; they inadvertently pollinates the flower whilst trying to mate with it.

Fly Orchid Ophrys insectifera

Another orchid species seen was the common twayblade. This is one one of the commonest and most widely distributed orchid species in Britain and can be readily identified by its small and inconspicuous green or greenish-yellow flowers.

Common Twayblade Neottia ovata

Whilst wandering around looking at the plants I did also come across a few other fine beasts. A burnet moth caterpillar was an interesting find, but unfortunately I could not identify it to species. There are two subspecies of five-spot burnet in the British Isles, with one occurring on chalk grassland.  I have to admit that I was not going to call it, but is looks pretty good for a five-spot burnet caterpillar.

Burnet Moth Caterpillar

The mullein moth caterpillar was a bit more straight forward. The pale bluish-grey body with black spots and yellow patches make this caterpillar immediately identifiable....and of course the fact that it was feeding on great mullein.

Mullein Moth Cucullia scrophulariae Caterpillar

A wood tiger moth was a species that I am not sure I have seen before. The species is single brooded, flying from late May to July, and inhabits downland and open woodland. In warm weather adults will readily fly by day.

Wood Tiger Parasemia plantaginis

Mothing
After a slow start, the mothing season has finally got going. During the harsh spring there were some nights when not a single moth was trapped, but now the trap is crammed full. My best night to date has been 230 moths of 91 species. The only migrant species trapped have been diamond back and silver Y, but I have added10 new species to my garden list already this year.

Green Arches Anaplectoides prasina

One species which I have only caught once before is green arches, and when I pulled this one out of the trap I had to refer to Skinner to figure out what it was.

White Satin Moth Leucoma salicis

One species that was new for me was not trapped in my garden, but the garden at the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trusts office in Curdridge. This species is locally common and widespread throughout Hampshire, and is a sporadic migrant, as may be the case with this individual.

Bird Ringing
Ringing activity has been limited to a couple of sessions at Botley Wood, a few sessions in the garden, some barn swallow pulli and one session at Titchfield Haven. A kestrel nest that I checked back in the beginning of June was revisited and from the four eggs, two healthy chicks had hatched.

Young Kestrel

The net rides have all been cut in at the Haven and we have had a couple of sessions. This week saw the first grasshopper warblers of the autumn, with 18 ringed, other migrants included a few sedge and one garden warbler.

Grasshopper Warbler Locustella naevia - 18 birds have been ringed so far this
autumn; they have all been juvenile birds

Most of the other birds ringed were local breeders such as chiffchaff, reed warbler and Cetti's warbler. Cetti's seem to have had a very good breeding season since we have already ringed 39 birds, with the majority of of those caught being juveniles.

Common kingfisher Alcedo atthis - This bird was aged as a juvenile and
sexed as a female, the first ringed this autumn at the Haven

Another first for the autumn was a juvenile kingfisher. This species does not breed at the Haven but dispersing juveniles appear on the reserve during July. Coincidentally it was caught on one of the public ringing events, so some very happy visitors were present to witness it.