Greetings from Greylake, West Sedgemoor and Swell Wood. Thanks for stopping by this week.
I thought I'd start this blog with our amazing swallows. With two broods successfully fledged already (perhaps nine or ten chicks), they're back on eggs again. I hope that means that there's plenty of food out there for our flying invertebrate eaters as we know that this is becoming more of a problem for them in general. Levels of insects and other inverts seem to be declining seriously. But for now, this pair of swallows are defying the odds.
One of the adults is always hunkered down on the nest.
The other adult is usually hanging about nearby or feeding in the skies over the farm. You can often hear them chattering to each other.
I've noticed something interesting over the last few days. I always think of little egrets as being wetland birds, only found in areas that are wet, or at least damp underfoot. However, this week I've seen a group of five or six regularly feeding in the field across the road, which is bone dry. I can only assume they are eating things like grasshoppers (which are very abundant), and perhaps spiders and beetles. Whatever the reason, I enjoy watching them, although they're very wary and fly away as soon as I step into the field.
A slightly distant view of the little egrets.
I mowed the lawn this week, well some of it anyway. We like to leave plenty long grass for the inverts and wildflowers, but it's helpful to have a path mown to move around. I was watching out for any interesting creatures while I mowed and I found some. We have an old nest box up on the side of the house which wasn't used by any birds this year. It's south facing and I suspect it gets rather hot for the birds, but it's perfect for something else. European hornets. These are the native type, not the invasive and destructive Asian hornet, and are a type of very large wasp. They usually nest in hollow trees but I guess this works too. It may seem alarming to have a large stinging insect nesting on the side of the house, but they will only sting if threatened and I intend to keep well away. It was lovely to watch them and see how they've papered over part of the box hole to make it smaller and better protect the nest. Later in the summer, males and fertile females will hatch out and mate. These females will hibernate over winter and become next years queens, while all the others die off in autumn.
I've had a couple of visitors comment on how quiet Greylake seems to be at the moment, and in a sense they're right. There are no large flocks of wintering ducks and waders and the cacophony of birdsong from the spring has almost vanished. Yet there is wildlife to be found, you just have to look a bit more closely.
This striking magpie moth is a fairly common species in the UK, but lovely to look at all the same.
The orange head of this damselfly, which I think is a female blue-tailed damselfly, attracted my attention.
This pretty speckled wood posed nicely for me.
If you want birds, I'll grant you, it's a little quiet. I head reed and cetti's warbler but didn't have time to look for them more closely. I saw some long-tailed and great tits, a couple of moorhen and swans. I've seen a kingfisher twice in the last month or so, once just outside the picnic area and once on the far side of the reedbed. They were just flashes of blue, but still special. And if nothing else, Greylake is a pleasant place to take a walk and enjoy some fresh air.
I had another great siting this week, which confirmed something we had hoped. I was out checking the cattle when I noticed several cranes in one of the fields. As I got closer, I realised two of them were juveniles, lacking the red and black head of the adults. It was the family of four, which we hadn't seen for a little while. Eventually they decided I was too close and they all flew off. We assumed the young would have flown by now, but it was nice to be sure. I was the first to see those chicks back in the spring and the first to see them fly, which has been incredible. The family with one chick has also been seen flying. Apart from one pair in Cambridgeshire that have fledged a chick, these are the only one's to successfully fledge from the crane release project, showing how important West Sedgemoor is for them.
Join me again next week for another blog. Take care until then.
Kathryn
West Sedgemoor Residential Volunteering team