Hazel Catkins

Another sign of spring!  

Waltham Park Woods

Here are two views of Waltham Park Woods from last December. One shows the dense area of Birch looking very attractive in the pale winter light and the other shows the clearance of a large area of dense conifer plantation.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the cleared area this year.  The conifer plantation was very dense, with no understory (apart from fungi).  It had clearly been ready for harvesting for some time, but it came as a surprise to find that it had just been cut and the aftermath was being burned off.  It had been such a feature of an occasional winter walk that we felt rather disorientated to find that it had disappeared.

Spoonbils at Pagham

We saw this pair of Spoonbills in Bremere Rife in the northeastern corner of Pagham Harbour.  The intrusion by the rather stroppy-looking Little Egret was quite unexpected.  It strode up as if intending to see them off and the decided that it had bitten off more than it could chew and flew away.  Apparently there were three Spoonbills in and around the area at the time.  One of these had rings and it was thought that they had come from Belgium.  This was our second sighting of Spoonbills ever in Britain.  The first time was last year at Church Norton where we saw just one.  

Lichens on Ash trees

Ash die-back or Chalara (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus) could wipe out a large proportion of one of the commonest and most characteristic trees in the British landscape.  If the Ash trees disappear then so will a lot of the species that depend on them, especially lichens and bryophytes.  There are several efforts going on to survey the lichens and bryophytes to find out what may be lost and where. There are a lot of Ash trees in the woodland parts of the Steyning Downland Sheme and I thought I would have a go at finding out which lichens they support.  I am not an expert on lichens and I am using this is a this is an exercise to improve my identification skills.  So far I have found and identified the following:

Lepraria incana, Candellaria reflexa, Hypotrachyna revoluta,  on tree trunks and Xanthoria parietina  and Physcia adscendens on twigs.  They are all very common and none are confined to Ash trees.

Lepraria incana can occur in very large patches on tree trunks  

Xanthoria parietina (yellow) and Physcia adscendens are common on twigs

Red Admiral on the wing in February

This is a Red Admiral butterfly we saw on Ambersham Common last weekend.  A lovely sunny day can bring them out even as early as this.  We also saw a pair of Dartford Warblers and some Goldcrests.

Kittiwakes at Splash Point

There were a few Kittiwakes, both on the cliff-face nest sites and circling around, when we arrived at about 11:00am, but many more had turned up when we passed by again at about 14:00.  They were all over the cliffs and circling excitedly in front of it and there was a flock of about 50 birds on the sea.  I guess there were at least 150 birds in the area, and possibly many more.  This seems very early.  They are normally expected in mid March, so this is about a month early.  Large flocks are reported along the coast in January and February in some years, but I cannot find a record of a lot of birds on the breeding area at this time.   The video gives you an impression of the noise and excitement of this first arrival, even if you cannot see the individual birds.

Adur Valley

We took our usual short walk along the bank of the River Adur above the White Bridge this afternoon.  This was the first time since November that we have not seen Fieldfares or Redwings. They long ago exhausted berries in the hedgerows and had been feeding in the meadows, but today there were none to be seen anywhere.  But there were plenty of other birds to see.  We had good views of a Barn Owl, mainly working the fields below Stretham Manor. There were two Ravens on the top of a pylon which made a very peculiar noise, presumably some sort of an alarm call, when a lady with a Great Dane walked past on the footpath below.  Also high up on the pylons were 29 Cormorants with more arriving as we walked home. There are nothing like the numbers that I have seen in colder winters, but that is quite a respectable number.

In the river a male Mute Swan vigorously saw off some rivals and Songthrushes, Wrens Great tits and Robins were all heard singing.  A pair of  Herons seemed to be on friendly terms and it was almost possible to imagine that spring was just around the corner.