RXwildlife Sightings

With the freeze up well under way, many birds are stuggling to find food and water…. so i suppose I should not have been surprised to find a Moorhen taking up residence in my front garden in Rye Harbour Village. The bird bath is a favoured spot much to the dismay of our local thrushes, sparrows and starlings who all take turns in trying to get it to leave. Milder weather is on the way, I believe, and it can’t come soon enough. Although the ice is so thick in the ditches, small ponds and main pit at Castle Water that it will be sometime before its gone.

As someone who does not use slug pellets I have issues in my garden with high numbers of slugs and snails.  The current spell of freezing weather has given me the opportunity to sort out at least part of the problem and help a declining bird species at the same time.

Snails tend to gather under objects in the garden and can be easily collected at this time of year.  Over the past month there has been a notable increase in the numbers of song thrush in the garden.  The species was observed only once or twice over the spring and summer, but has been ever present in the past month with three seen yesterday.  I have tried placing the snails on the path in our garden, where they remain in the freezing weather,  and the thrushes have learnt rapidly to come and feed on them.  The blackbirds do to some extent too, and tend to drive their smaller relatives off, so I have dispersed the snails about to give the thrushes more of a chance.  Often they just grab a shell and dash off with it before a blackbird appears on the scene, but I have been able to watch a few smashing shells on the path to extract the contents.

Aftermath of a song thrush banquet.

The birds in our Northiam garden have changed significantly over the past few weeks as we approach winter.  Whilst goldfinch are regular at the nyger feeders numbers have dropped from 27 birds eight weeks ago to only 2-3 birds in recent weeks, and coal tits, an ever present for much of the autumn have started to visit more sporadically in the past week or two.

The most interesting observations have been of fruit eaters with at least two blackcap in the garden over the past three weeks, enraging our resident robin which puts a lot of effort into driving them away. They are feeding on wind-fall apples and the fruits of Himalayan honeysuckle Leycesteria formosa. I did not plant this shrub, it spread from our neighbours gardens and looks likely to be one of those species that are robust enough to invite themselves. This is a troublesome invasive species in New Zealand. They are though popular with the birds and have supplied berries for 2-3 months now. This morning we even had a bullfinch on one, although starling and blackbird seem to be most partial to them.

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Following up on Pat’s earlier post, in the past few winters workers of this species have been foraging in our garden throughout the winter months, with Heleborus orientalis being the only source of pollen in our garden in December/January. Whether they are late nests that continue through the winter, or nests that started in the late summer/autumn I don’t know.

Last year I wrote about one of my favourite garden plants for wildlife, Verbena bonariensis . I did express some concern about its potential to spread, and last week my eye was drawn to a blog by Ralph Hollins who reported the plant in the countryside, far from any garden (see record for 8 October in the plants section).

With a little more web browsing I found this plant listed on the Global Invasive Species Database listed as Verbena brasiliensis.   It has the potential to displace native species throughout most of its non-native range and is a significant pest species in Mid - South USA. Whether or not it becomes such a pest over here remains to be seen, but caution might be the best policy.

In my previous post I referred to its value as a nectar source. This year it has proved to be successful in attracting comma  and red admiral, but once again we have seen no hummingbird hawkmoths on the plant, and only 1 painted lady. Evidently these insects have been scarce or non existant in Northiam this summer.

PS Yesterday (25 Oct) we had only our 2nd painted lady of the year. Rubbish

It is so easy to take everyday garden birds for granted. You put the food out, watch them feed and after a few days what was there tends to be forgotten. So one of the finds for me this year has been the BTO Garden Bird Watch website (see here). Once a week I watch the garden for 20 minutes and record the peak numbers of birds seen (you can watch for as long as you like, as long as you are consistent). Not only do you help contribute to national statistics on trends in bird numbers, but it also keeps a list of the various birds seen in your garden, and the frequency with which they have been recorded. Other species of wildlife can also be recorded.

So, over the past 6 months I can see that Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday while out in my garden in Rye Harbour Village I came across two Forest Bug (Pentatoma rufipes), which were a new species for my garden. The square shoulders help to distinguish this species from other sheild bugs. These bugs have never been recorded on the reserve and were last recorded in 1984 also from the village.

The first beautiful baby slow-worms of the year have turned up under roof felt laid on the long grass at the end of our lawn. The cool weather this month has meant that these animals have been found regularly under this material, which warms in the sun and is thus a safe basking site. In hot weather they are warm enough to disperse to hunt for prey in the long grass. Contrary to popular opinion cool weather is the best time to search for these animals

We have had a peak count of 12 animals earlier this summer, which is very welcome given that they feed on slugs and snails.  Allowing some of your lawn to grow long is a good way to attract them, although you need to be careful when you mow it at the end of the summer.

Following heavy overnight rain a fall of warblers in Mockmill Sewer, Lade this morning included: c50 Willow Warblers, c50 Whitethroats, c20 Sedge Warblers and a scattering of Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Reed Warblers. Other grounded migrants on the surrounding Desert included a single Whinchat, 10 Yellow Wagtails and 20 Meadow Pipits.