rspb canterbury local group · the st peters place roundabout, and take the first exit at the next...
TRANSCRIPT
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RSPB Canterbury Local Group
Avocets courtesy of Dave Smith Autumn 2018
CONTENTS
Leader’s Letter 2
Indoor meetings 11
We’ve moved to a new hall 3 Field Trips 12 Noticeboard 4-6 Monday Walks 13 Photo Feature 7-8 Whitstable Harbour Day 9
2019 Group Calendar 14 Focus On….The Cormorant 15-16
Diary Dates 10 Turtle dove project 18-19 Reserves Roundup 20-23
Advertisements appearing in this newsletter are not specifically
endorsed by the Canterbury Local Group or the RSPB
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Valued Members, A fine new venue awaits us for our indoor meetings, as detailed in this newsletter, along with the other interests and activities we can look forward to this coming season. As a keen wildlife group we are well set up for a rosy future with many different wildlife aspects to learn and enjoy together. Yet there is a cloud on that horizon! Your committee are too few in number! Without more of you coming forward forthwith, to join and strengthen us, the future looks rather indistinct and, I’m sorry to say, uncertain. Therefore, in order of urgency we must find these roles: Membership Secretary; Merchandise Sales Organiser; Events/Fundraising Organiser; and in April, a Minutes Secretary. I am sure you believe in the relevance of our helping nature and fund-raising. The RSPB Canterbury Group is simply too good to lose. Please contact me soon with your offer of a committee role or nomination of a willing volunteer. Looking forward to seeing many of you quite soon at the Academy, Babs
Annual Subscriptions to Canterbury Group
Single membership £6.00
Family membership £8.00
The RSPB is the country’s largest nature conservation charity, inspiring everyone to give nature a home. Together with our partners, we protect threatened birds and wildlife so our towns, coast and countryside will teem with life once again. We play a leading role in BirdLife International, a worldwide partnership of nature conservation organisations. Unless otherwise stated, all bird photos in this newsletter are courtesy of group member Dave Smith
Registered Charity Nos. England and Wales 207076, Scotland SC037654
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We’ve moved to a new hall!
Starting with our talk on 11th September, all future monthly meetings will be held at the Canterbury Academy
After more than two happy years holding our winter talks in the St Stephen’s Community Centre, that hall is no longer available to us on the second Tuesday of the month. We could have changed to the second Thursday or Friday, but most of the committee would be unavailable on that day. So, with great reluctance, we decided to look for a new hall, and after extensive research have found one that we think will be suitable at the Canterbury Academy (formerly Canterbury High School or, for those with longer memories, the Frank Hooker School). In its favour, it boasts a number of features, such as:
Free, off-road, lit parking
Close to the centre of Canterbury
Reasonable evening hire rate
Fair-sized hall
On a bus route: the 7.41pm 22A from the bus station reaches the Mill Road junction bus stop in Knight Avenue, about 120yd from the academy entrance, at 8pm. The return bus is at 10.02pm.
The address is: Canterbury Academy Knight Avenue CT2 8QA Directions to the academy: From London Road, Canterbury, at the roundabout take the second exit into Knight Avenue or, coming from Rheims Way, continue along Rheims Way at the St Peter’s Place roundabout, and take the first exit at the next roundabout into Knight Avenue. Drive along Knight Avenue for 200yd, and then the entrance to the academy is on your left. Parking is on the left, and the entrance to the building is about halfway along the parking area, up a short flight of steps. Start time remains 8pm. Committee members will be on hand to help you find your way to the hall from the reception area on the first few evenings.
Entrance to Canterbury Academy
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Noticeboard
Long-running heron survey The British Trust for
Ornithology’s heronries count has been carried out annually since 1928, making it probably the longest-running bird study anywhere in the world. The graph below shows there has been a general upward trend, but with abrupt slumps following harsh
winters, most notably in 1947 and 1963, and to a lesser extent in 1985 and 2011. Herons are sedentary birds, reluctant to move great distances when their feeding grounds are frozen, so can suffer severe losses in harsh weather, but the graph shows that each time they have been able to recover in a few years.
Keeping tabs on gannets One of the many tracking devices now available for attaching to birds and other wildlife is an accelerometer. This can detect movement in three dimensions – surge, heave and pitch. When the signals are played out as three lines on graph paper, it is possible for a researcher to know what the bird is doing at the time: a fairly steady line indicates gliding, a series of up and down strokes are for flapping flight, a dive into the sea is depicted as a vertiginous plummeting of the line, while floating on the water appears as small, regular peaks and troughs as the bird rises and falls on the swell.
Punching above our weight Considering humans only account for 0.01% of the earth’s biomass, we are causing an awful lot of damage to the ecosystem that supports us. To put the figures another way, for every ton of living plant and animal matter, there are 3½ ounces of human flesh and bone. We all know that insects, spiders and crustaceans seem to be everywhere, and their biomass is indeed 17 times greater than that of humans, but that figure is dwarfed by fungi, which are 200 times more abundant, while bacteria, invisible to the naked eye, have an accumulated weight 1200 times greater than that of humanity. But the vast bulk of our ecosystems is made up of plants, a whacking 7500 times more than the weight of all us already overweight humans. In a natural ecosystem we would be just one species in the mix of mammals, but now wild mammals, from shrews to elephants, make up just 4% of total mammal biomass, the remaining 96% consisting of our livestock (60%) and us (36%) – we are the mammalian ecosystem. The statistics go on and on…….. and still we are struggling to get to grips with our toxic impact on the environment, from climate change to polluted oceans.
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Number of herons in UK
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Differing fortunes of sedge and reed warblers Although they both nest in reedbeds and other wet places in this country, sedge and reed warblers do have somewhat different lifestyles. The reed warbler has a much broader diet than the sedge warbler, which means it can cope with a greater variety of habitats, both here and in its sub-Saharan winter quarters. Climate change is leading to drier winters in the Sahel, the broad strip of scrubby savannah south of the Sahara, which the more adaptable reed warbler is coping with. The graph above shows how the breeding populations of the two species have changed in the UK since 1966: sedge warbler numbers may now have stabilised after a marked decline in the 1970s, but reed warblers have shown an almost continuous increase over the past fifty years.
Squirrels at bird feeders
It is estimated that 40% of households put out food for birds, a total of 150,000 tons a year worth £210 million. But recent automated video recordings at a number of gardens in Reading indicate that up to half of that food is in fact being taken by grey squirrels! Not only did the squirrels prevent birds from having access to the feeders but the mere fact that they were using the feeders appeared to deter birds even when the squirrels weren’t actually present.
Did ancient birds become flightless? Latest analysis of the fossil record suggests that, following the meteor impact 66 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs, the only birds to survive were flightless birds like kiwis and emus. It is thought that burning debris raining down on earth from the colossal impact caused worldwide wildfires that destroyed all the forests, leaving behind a savannah landscape in which long-legged running birds were better adapted to the new environment.
German Supper Our tour of the gastronomic world continues, and it seems that there is a way to go yet before we start running out of countries to choose as our theme. This winter’s ever-popular supper will be on Saturday 2nd February at 7.15 for 7.30pm in Blean village hall. The price is being held at £17, which represents even better value for money. It promises to be another enjoyable evening, with a three-course meal adopting German recipes, raffle and German-themed quizzes. You must book to be sure of a place, so please contact Elaine on [email protected] or fill in a form at one of the indoor meetings.
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Sedge warbler
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Toothy birds Recent CT scans of four partial skulls of Ichthyornis dispar, a bird that lived about 100 million years ago, have revealed unexpected details. These gull-like birds had strong jaws and toothed beaks, confirming their close relationship to reptiles, and suggesting that they used their beaks to tear up prey more actively than modern birds do.
Peregrines doing well Peregrines have enjoyed varying fortunes during the 20th century, and the graph below shows that they are now on a high, but they haven’t always had it their own way. The first dip, during the Second World War, was due to their being persecuted, especially along the southern coast, in a bid to increase the safety of pigeons that were still being used to carry messages to resistance fighters in occupied Europe. No sooner had they begun to recover following the cessation of hostilities than they were hit far more severely by the introduction of persistent organochlorine pesticides to the farmed landscape, leading to the direct or indirect death of many birds in the 1950s and 60s. Fortunately, the cause of the disastrous decline was identified before the birds became extinct in the UK, and since the chemicals were banned peregrines have enjoyed unparalleled success, reoccupying all their traditional sites, and colonising many new ones, such as electricity pylons and ledges on cathedrals, and they are now nearly as common in England as in Scotland, where there has in fact been a small decline since 2004.
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Peregrine pairs in UK
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Photo Feature
My wife and I managed to escape to Wales for a couple of weeks in spring to photograph chough, redstart and a few other obliging species. It was a very enjoyable break, especially getting to South Stack on Anglesey where the choughs performed magnificently and we returned twice. Apart from that I’ve been somewhat confined to base which has been a little frustrating as I really enjoy taking my camera out for the day to some wilder places. However, necessity being the mother of invention, I decided to redesign the bottom half of my Blean garden and make it more bird-friendly. I put in a small stream with a waterfall and a pond, added some bird feeders, erected some prominent perches and converted a 6x4 shed into a ‘hide’, the latter being a major feat for me as I’m certainly not Mr DIY. Since then I’ve begun to see some of our ‘common’ birds in a completely different light. Firstly, as far as photographs are concerned, I’ve been able to get much closer to my subjects and so create some sharper, more intimate images. Secondly, due to the close proximity, I’ve been able to study the different shapes, colours and sizes of my birds in more detail and been quite amazed at how little I really knew, especially how much birds’ plumage, size, behavior and so on varies within their species and through the seasons. Thirdly, I noticed song more and realised that birds don’t always sing at the same volume and have a far wider repertoire of songs and calls than I had imagined. I then tried to imagine that I’d never seen a blue tit or a young greenfinch before and noticed the soft, subtle colours on the former and the handsomeness (is that a word?) of the latter. House sparrows’ beaks can be huge. I think I did know how argumentative starlings were; nevertheless, their summer plumage is extremely beautiful. Winter gave me close views of siskin, redpoll, fieldfare, redwing and most of the tit family, among others; brought in by the severe weather. Summer produced a large stock of young birds and seeing them feed and being fed has been fascinating; watching as fluttering, bumbling chicks become masters of the air, noticing their plumage change as gapes disappear to reveal adult birds. There have been surprises too. On completion of my stream, I popped into the hide and was staggered when a young grey wagtail put in a fairly lengthy appearance. So, my ‘Bourne Lodge Nature Reserve’ (I live in Bourne Lodge Close) has been a roaring success for me and I could have shown many photographs to illustrate this. I still miss day-trips out a little, but the disappointment is eased considerably, by the variety on my doorstep.
Dave Smith Two of Dave’s splendid photos are on the next page.
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Canon EOS 5D Mk IV - 560mm - ISO 1600 - f8 - 1/640
Canon EOS 5D Mk IV - 560 mm - ISO 800 - f8 - 1/1250
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Whitstable Harbour Day – 11th August
After our successful day at this event last year (carefully overlooking the deluge at the end of the afternoon that ruined much of our stock!), we agreed to repeat the exercise, our optimism being rewarded with sunshine and not a spot of rain in sight. The setup was much the same as last time, with our sales goods on display in the shade of our handy gazebo, and Marion Walter’s clay modelling stall along one side. As before, Marion was inviting children to try their hand at creating a work of art in clay, using templates of a starfish, yacht or octopus. The special clay used doesn’t need to be fired, and can be painted once it has hardened naturally. Kept busy by a constant queue of children, Marion was quite relieved when the clay ran out during the afternoon! Parents were invited to make a contribution to the RSPB, and while they were gathered round the young modellers we had an opportunity of talking to this captive audience about the RSPB’s work. One innovation this time was to invite people to join Michael at the end of the harbour wall to view the roosting flock of 200 turnstones through binoculars. Michael was able to play four Whitstable Harbour “Tweets of the Day” over the PA system, starting with a short description of the bird, where and when to find it, before finally playing the call. The quality of the PA left something to be desired – they’re hoping to obtain a superior model for 2019 – and it was hard to judge how much attention was being paid to it. So, a pleasant time was had by all, and we even recruited two, possibly three, new members to our group, which can’t be bad. We could, however, have done with one or two extra helpers, so please consider lending a hand at this event next year.
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Diary Dates All are welcome to attend!
OCTOBER Sun 21st Festival Walk 8.30am Our annual walk for the general public, publicised by the
Canterbury Festival, and our one chance to enthuse non-members with the delights of birdwatching, making it also our best opportunity to recruit new members.
NOVEMBER Sat 3rd Kent Ornithological Society Conference Exploring the ways in which counting
birds can help them. Chaucer College, Canterbury. £25 KOS members, £30 non-KOS (incl coffee and lunch). Topping the bill is Andy Clements, director of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). You can book your place online at www.kentos.org.uk/events-programme .
Sat 3rd Quiz Night at St Stephen’s Community Centre, Tenterden Drive, Canterbury CT2
7BN at 7.30pm. Bring a table of 6-8 competitors, or join up with another group. £5. Drinks at the bar. Phone 462491 or email [email protected] if interested.
Sat 17th Blean Christmas Fair 10am-3pm. We’ll be having a stall in the Blean village hall,
so please come along and support us. A chance to buy RSPB Christmas cards and the group’s 2019 calendar.
JANUARY 26th-28th Big Garden Bird Watch Please do your bit for citizen science by counting the birds
in your garden for an hour this weekend. It can become addictive, so be careful! FEBRUARY Sat 2nd German Supper 7 for 7.30pm in Blean Village Hall. £17. This will be our eleventh
themed supper, and they remain as popular as ever, so book earlier to avoid disappointment. See page 5 for details.
MARCH Sat 16th Quiz Night at St Stephen’s Community Centre, Tenterden Drive, Canterbury CT2
7BN at 7.30pm. Bring a table of 6-8 competitors, or join up with another group. £5. Drinks at the bar. Phone 462491 or email [email protected] if interested.
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Indoor Meetings - Winter 2018-19
All meetings start at 8pm at the Canterbury Academy, Knight Avenue, Canterbury CT2 8QA (see map on outer back cover) on the second Tuesday of the month. Admission £3.50 group members, £4.50 non-group members. Sept 11th The River Stour (part 2) – Michael Walter. Last year we were escorted down the
Stour from its Lenham source to the outskirts. Tonight we complete the trip down to the sea.
Oct 9th The Westgate Parks Project – Anna Bell. Anna is the project officer for this
Heritage Lottery-funded initiative to improve its appearance and wildlife, involve schools and host events.
Nov 13th The Wonders of Bird Migration – John Buckingham. A look at the strategies
employed by birds – winter and summer visitors, passage migrants and vagrants. Dec 11th DVD, Christmas Social and Quiz Jan 8th Green Birding and the Biking Birder’s Adventures – Gary Prescott. As seen on
Springwatch, Gary is the only person to have visited every RSPB reserve by bike……. Twice!
Feb 12th Wildlife in Estonia – Paul Hale. A look at Estonian birds and mammals, plus a dip
into the local culture and history. Mar 12th The Geology, Landscapes and Wildlife of the Canary Islands – Peter and Vic
Golding. Peter and Vic will describe the formation and development of these islands, whose wildlife has been overlooked for far too long.
Apr 9th AGM, followed by Living Landscapes – Paul Hadaway. Paul works for Kent
Wildlife Trust developing the concept of landscape-scale conservation to help mend our fragmented countryside.
Slavonian grebes feature in Paul Hale’s February talk on the wildlife of Estonia. Photo Paul Hale
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Field Trips - Winter 2018-19
SEPTEMBER Sun 2nd DUNGENESS (all day) Leader - Glynn Crocker (275186) Sun 23rd OARE MARSHES (morning) Leader - Glynn Crocker (275186) OCTOBER Sun 21st CANTERBURY FESTIVAL WALK 8.30am Meet at the Sportsman PH Seasalter.
Please contact Glynn on 275186 if you can help. NOVEMBER Sun 4th PEGWELL BAY (morning) Leader - Glynn Crocker (275186). Sun 25th OARE MARSHES (morning) Leader - Glynn Crocker (275186) DECEMBER Sun 9th CONYER (afternoon) Leader - Glynn Crocker (275186) JANUARY Sun 13th STODMARSH (afternoon) Leader - Glynn Crocker ( 275186). The challenge of
seeing hen harriers coming to roost in the reeds. Sun 27th DUNGENESS (all day) Leader - Glynn Crocker (275186) FEBRUARY Sun 17th RYE HARBOUR (all day) Leader - Glynn Crocker (275186) MARCH Sun 10th PEGWELL BAY (morning) Leader - Glynn Crocker (275186) APRIL Sun 21st STODMARSH (morning) Leader - Glynn Crocker ( 275186) Everyone is always welcome to all the outdoor meetings, beginner and expert alike. A number of this season's trips have been planned especially for beginners. The leaders are all volunteering their time and may, on occasion, have to alter venue or date, so please BOOK EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT! Where possible, please arrange to share cars and petrol costs. In case of any difficulty with transport, please contact Glynn Crocker on 01227 275186. ♣♣♣ A donation to Group funds is requested – suggested rate £1 per person ♣♣♣
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Autumn and winter Monday Walks
What a start to the year: the wind at Dungeness in January was so strong I could hardly open the car door, and the rain horizontal, but was joined in the visitor centre by two others. At times the power station disappeared from view! We visited two hides and had a list of 15 species!! We then adjourned to The Pilot for an early lunch before calling it a day. Dave braved the weather in the afternoon and doubled the number of species seen. As mentioned in the last newsletter, we abandoned February’s Conyer trip before we started - rain again and very little shelter. March was very cold and the waterways at Grove were frozen so, after discussion with the two people who did contact me, we decided to abort. At Mote Park almost the first bird seen was a nuthatch and we recorded 33 other species plus, for most of us, the first orange tip butterfly of the year. There was a very good display of toothwort, in a different location to where we normally see it. At Oare in May we saw 38 species, and in June we were at Rye Harbour where the species total was 49, including three tern species. July and we were in the middle of the heat wave; six of us spent a long morning at Stodmarsh, and then just two of us drove round to the Grove end before the high temperature made us give up. We recorded 38 species, again lower than expected. Nothing really special apart from three green sandpipers at Grove. The schedule for the autumn and winter is below, 48 hours’ notice, please, on either 01227 361362 or [email protected]. Please note that the November meeting at Pegwell Bay is not the third but fourth Monday.
Location/meeting place Map ref
17th Sept Grove Ferry car park (charge) TR236631
15th Oct Rye Harbour car park TQ942189
26th Nov Pegwell Bay country park (charge) TR342637
17th Dec Oare Marshes car park TR013647
21st Jan Dungeness RSPB reserve (Lunch at The Pilot) TR065186
18th Feb Conyer TQ962650
18th March Grove Ferry car park (charge) TR236631
15th April Mote Park, Maidstone (charge) TQ771555
The Monday group saw three green sandpipers at Grove Ferry.
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RSPB Canterbury Group’s 2019 calendar
RSPB Canterbury Local Group
2019 Calendar
All images contributed by group members
The 2019 calendar will be available shortly, priced at just £6.50. As we have come to expect, it contains some stunning photos of a variety of wildlife, and the quality is as high as ever. The calendar will be on sale at our indoor meetings each month up to Christmas, but if you are unable to attend, I can arrange hand delivery if you live in the Canterbury area, or post it to you for an extra £1.30. If you require delivery, please contact me on 01227 462491 or [email protected].
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Focus On......The Cormorant
My earliest memory of a cormorant is in a full-page colour illustration in a children’s encyclopaedia of Chinese fishermen using tame birds to catch fish, a stricture around their throats preventing them from swallowing their catch before the fishermen could lay their hands on it. The thought probably didn’t impress itself on me then, but here was a remarkable demonstration of man’s centuries-old relationship with wild animals, albeit for a purely economic end. In England James I and later his son, Charles I, were intrigued by the Chinese domestication of cormorants, and they put considerable effort into establishing a tame population of birds to catch fish and then return to the trainer’s arm, following the fashion in falconry, but this imitative tradition soon died out here. Today the relationship between cormorants and fishing interests is rather more strained, with fish farmers and anglers alike complaining about the number of fish undoubtedly taken by these voracious birds, although I am left with the nagging suspicion that fishermen harbour bitter resentment because the birds are so much more adept at catching fish than they are. Admittedly, they can eat up to two pounds of fish a day, but the cormorant is a protected species, although some licences are issued on a case by case basis for the slaughter of a limited number of birds. In the late 19th century cormorants were almost confined to the coastline, particularly the west side of the UK, but in the past 25 years, while declining in its typical marine habitat, its breeding range has expanded considerably, as birds moved inland to colonise former gravel pits, especially in the Greater London area and Midlands, precipitating the ongoing battle with anglers. With no cliffs or rocky islets in sight, the birds are now nesting in trees and even on electricity pylons. In Kent breeding wasn’t recorded until the 1990s, but there is now a colony of up to 70 pairs at RSPB Dungeness reserve and over 100 at Stodmarsh, with a few pairs getting established at Cliffe, but you don’t have to travel far for a spectacle, as up to 1100 birds roost in trees around the edges of the shallow Stodmarsh lakes in winter. Interestingly, the move to inland nesting has been largely by the continental sub-species (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis), which has a broad,sinuous white strip running from its head down the side of its neck. But, just to confuse matters, our native sub-species (P.c. carbo) tends to develop white frosting on its head and neck with age which, if nothing else, just goes to show that the concepts of species and sub-species are human constructs. Both sub-species flaunt a large white thigh patch at the start of the breeding season, but this disappears in June or July. Whether spreading out their wings to dry (oddly for a waterbird, their plumage isn’t fully waterproof), or flying overhead in slightly sinister black V-formations, the cormorant has a distinctly prehistoric, reptilian appearance, allowing the idea of birds having evolved from reptiles to be readily accepted. One city that seems to have taken the cormorant to its heart is Liverpool: the first Liver bird was an eagle, but when the original seal was lost in
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1655 its replacement looked more like a cormorant, and birds with varying degrees of resemblance to that species now appear on the council’s headed notepaper, flags and vehicles, as well as atop the Royal Liver Building in 18’ copper statues, and on the badge of Liverpool Football Club.
The common cormorant or shag Lays eggs inside a paper bag. You follow the idea, no doubt? It’s to keep the lightning out. But what these unobservant birds Have never thought of, is that herds Of wandering bears might come with buns And steal the bags to hold the crumbs. Christopher Isherwood
Plastic breeding cages for canaries and budgerigars also made to order
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Summer Field turtle dove project
In May two small parties from our group were privileged to be allowed to view the progress of the turtle dove project at Staple, as an article about the project in the autumn 2017 issue of this newsletter had set us thinking how wonderful it would be to see what has been achieved. Briefly, it is a story of two Davids – Tingey and Burridge – and their wives, Ann and Bridget. Adjoining David Burridge’s garden was a half-acre plot that belonged to the nearby plant nursery, but which had been abandoned for some time. Consequently, it became very weedy, and started to attract in turtle doves, which are dependent on weed seeds. Then in 2016 the nursery decided to sell the land, which is where the Black Pig pub in Staple played a pivotal role. Mulling things over while enjoying a pint, the two friends thought “wouldn’t it be brilliant if we could get hold of that land for ourselves and protect the turtle doves”. So a scheme was hatched and, with the help of friends in the village, enough money was raised to buy the land. Full of enthusiasm, they then installed a small pond, and acquired an old rotovator so that they could turn over the soil in parts of the area once a fortnight, making it more suitable for the germination of the birds’ preferred seed-plants. The RSPB were involved right from the start, providing advice, as well as a 6kg weekly supply of the doves’ favourite, but expensive, seed. A small garden shed was cunningly converted into a hide and the scene was set. The turtle doves arrived back this spring on 19th April, four days earlier than in 2017. The most seen on the plot this year at any one time was nine and “turring” could be heard from adjacent trees at the same time as this sighting (eight were present in 2017). Five fledglings have also been seen, which is one more than last year. The last sighting in 2017 was on 8th August, but this year the doves were still around on 13th August. On our visit on 10th May we saw up to seven turtle doves, sometimes at remarkably close quarters. Returning three weeks later we struggled to see a single dove, but were regaled with close views of linnets, a yellow wagtail that dropped down to the pond and an overflying red kite, so we left more than happy. Turtle doves have declined by 93% in the UK since 1995, so they need all the help that Bridget, Ann, the two Davids, and others like them, can offer. Seeing first-hand what they have achieved in a purely voluntary capacity, has been truly inspirational, and we wish them the best of luck for the future.
Freshly rotovated soil in the foreground, with the pond behind
and in the distance the tops of the nursery’s greenhouses are just
visible behind the hedge.
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The two photos here, taken with my simple camera, give an impression of just how close we were to these gorgeous birds – pity I cut off the bird’s tail in the second shot!
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Reserves Roundup
Dungeness Visitor Experience Officer: Louise Kelly
Three eight-foot tern rafts, complete with dummy terns, were built and floated out onto Burrowes Pit. Decoy terns were also deployed on the islands to encourage birds to nest on these safer areas. Migration got off to a slow start, but included ospreys, harriers and whimbrels. In spring the reserve resounded to calling cuckoos, along with sedge warblers and booming bitterns. Bumblebees were abundant and Andrena vaga (or grey-backed mining bee) was visible from the sandy bank by Dennis’s hide. This is one of the only colonies of this species in the UK. Please don’t stray from the path as that could destroy their habitat and nests. Common lizards and grass snakes basked on the stone gabions in the garden and newts laid their eggs in the pond. The cold spring and bad weather in Africa meant a late start to the breeding season, but we do have two pairs of bittern over at ARC and a pair of marsh harriers (right) have been seen ‘dancing’ in the sky. Numbers of swifts, swallows and martins eventually built up, but there are nowhere near as many as we have had in previous years. Great crested newt surveys were carried out at night, shining torches into ponds. We’ve also had a very successful count of Sussex emerald moth larvae; this moth only exists on the RSPB Dungeness reserve and the Dungeness peninsular so we are collaborating with different organisations in the Sussex emerald moth Partnership to try and bring these moths back from the brink of extinction. We have found eight caterpillars in total on designated plots of wild carrot and ragwort which are their main food plants. That may not sound like much but it is the second highest count we have had since the partnership began so we are very pleased! Work continued on Makepeace hide and we aim to have this finished and looking as good as we can get it by the end of the summer. We are also replacing and repairing broken fencing – particularly parts of fencing on our boundary beside the main road as it has been subject to a bit of bashing by some cars over the last year, and a picnic bench was installed in our Discovery Area. It was a particularly good year for viper’s bugloss and Nottingham catchfly. Some fields were mown for hay to feed to the cattle over the winter. Ragwort can be poisonous to cows and horses when digested, so we had pulling sessions, but their flowers have benefits for bees and butterflies, and the caterpillars of the cinnabar moth enjoy munching on its leaves, so we leave ragwort to grow outside of our fenced areas for the wildlife to enjoy. Look out for cinnabar moth caterpillars on any ragwort you find; they are fairly small but have bright yellow-orange and black stripes. The moths themselves are black and red. Return migration has begun with wood sandpiper, dunlin, black-tailed godwit and common sandpiper feeding on our islands on Burrowes Pit.
Jackdaw
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Blean Woods Volunteer: Michael Walter
This spring and summer have been rather a curate’s egg for our main monitored groups – birds and butterflies – with some exceptional counts of three of our rarer butterflies, but dismal numbers of many bird species, which were doubtless hampered by the cold, wet spring. So, to get the largely disappointing news out of the way first: wren (right) numbers were 46% down on last year, and close to the lowest ever count, with just 53 territories on the 310 hectare (766 acres) monitored area. One of our smallest birds, the wren always suffers in cold spells, and you may remember the freezing rain that fell at the beginning of March (the sting in the tail of the “Beast from the East”). This coated all the vegetation in a layer of ice, locking away the wren’s insect prey, and so compounding their woes. However, they are prolific breeders and, given better conditions next spring, they will already be on the road to recovery. Nightingales had a disastrous season with just one more territory than the lowest ever count in 37 years. This is partly due to insufficient suitable habitat being available, an issue being addressed by the warden, but also because of problems in their African winter quarters, as other long-distance migrants have also
turned up in reduced numbers this spring. Chiffchaff numbers weren’t far below the long-term average, but after 40 territories in 2016 and 50 last year, the 32 this season were discouraging to say the least. Perhaps the worst result was the continuing decline of the willow warbler (left), once one of our commonest species. The graph on the next page shows that it has been more or less in freefall
since 2001, and it seems that nothing can be done to prevent its possible extinction on the reserve, as there was plenty of apparently suitable, but unoccupied, habitat this year. The willow warbler is rapidly becoming a scarce bird throughout England and, although the reserve was able to buck the trend for some years, it now looks as though we may have to bid farewell to its attractive song. The fact that it is increasing in Scotland suggests that the decline may be climate-related, and that it is unable to adapt to our warmer, drier summers.
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Another bird doing poorly is the spotted flycatcher: it had been showing some signs of recovery, but this year I found birds at only two sites, and cannot be sure that they even attempted to breed. Not one species was significantly commoner than the long-term average, so the breeding data do make for gloomy reading. One glimmer of light was provided by nightjars, which had gone through a wobbly period, but there were a definite four territories this year. With its preference for heathland and extensive areas of young
coppice, this isn’t the easiest of species to cater for, but with an estimated Kent population of only 25-35 pairs, Blean Woods is doing its bit to ensure its survival in the county. So, to raise our spirits, we can turn to the glorious season for our nationally rare butterfly, the heath fritillary. As you can see from the graph (left), numbers had been in the doldrums for a few years, but
they shot up this year, although still with a little way to go before they reach the heady heights of 2009 and 2011. One site, whose shadiness has made it largely unsuitable for the heath fritillary, contains vast quantities of cow-wheat, the caterpillars’ foodplant, and work planned there for this winter should open up the area dramatically, with the possibility of this becoming a major fritillary colony. Two other success stories this year concern butterflies that had become extinct on the reserve, probably in the 1950s or 1960s, but had made a tentative re-colonisation in the past ten years. The graph on the next page shows that numbers of silver-washed fritillaries and white admirals (right) had crept up a little in
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recent years, but that this year there was a marked surge. Given that the numbers shown are totals seen during the whole season, it is evident that these butterflies remain quite scarce, and on any one suitable day you couldn’t expect to see more than a handful of either. However, these two species are always fairly solitary, never occurring in the numbers in which gatekeepers and some of our more familiar species are found.
All bird photos appearing in this newsletter, apart from the turtle doves, are courtesy of Dave Smith.
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