The red sunrise over the sea was very impressive this morning. The lack of wind encouraged me to walk through the setaside fields near the windmill. Reed Bunting were the only species in any numbers with just a few Chaffinch and Meadow Pipit. The highlight was a Dartford Warbler that stayed low in the cover crop.
In recent years, several local landowners have created permissive paths on their land, which provide useful access to sites of interest and links for round-trips. Yesterday, I followed some of these created by three farmers in the upper Pannel Valley, spurred by tetrad topography to vary my usual routes.
These trails are usually signalled by little maps, but they’re not always easy to see. If you go to the Defra website, however, www.countrywalks.defra.gov.uk you can download maps of these paths in order to plan your itinerary.
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Travelling around the marsh at the moment is frustrating. For once the place really lives up to its name, with extensive areas of flooded fields, so why are there so few common frogs Rana temporaria out there?
Its obvious I hear you say - those European marsh frogs Pelophylax ridibundus* have eaten them all. The great British herpetologist, Malcolm Smith reported declines in common frogs and toads after their introduction. I am not so sure though. Read the rest of this entry »