What's about - June

Wildlife sightings for June 2012

The month started muggy, cloudy and damp. Then a few sunny days and the wellie weather came with heavy rain. The paths became 10 inch deep narrow pools. It was a wet month with a few sunny spell and a few hours of intense rain.

Families were saying – we will go as far as we can. A day out is a day out. It was still fun as the bridleway silt pool became a meeting place for nature lovers.

Heronry news:

Heronry activity continued. Foliage covered most of the trees. Teenage sentinels were seen at the start of the month but later they were obscured. Nestlings were still calling in the early mornings throughout the month.  These will by flying by the end of July and the heronry will be empty except for the occasional roosting birds until January-February.

Juvenile birds flew in and disappeared. The presence of other caring adults and nestlings became obvious as screeching – 'keep off’ - was heard.

Woodpecker news:

Green woodpeckers and young were seen on the feeders.

Three or four great spotted woodpeckers were seen around the feeders. Later young were seen as well.

One young red-headed great spottie was seen with its parent on the feeders. The young was seen trying to do what the adult did. Well, it tried to. It first climbed onto a branch support and then decided not go to the feeder perches, but jumped onto the ground – for easy pickings.  Well, it does take time to learned the correct feeding method – land on support, look around for a free feeder, then fly and land on the perch or wire frame and eat.   

Spring-Summer birds

The bridleway silt pool viewpoint had the singing of reed and sedge warbler  - a good chance to compare songs. There were reed bunting, green woodpecker flying about. A juvenile heron was learning that not all branches are sturdy enough to stand on as the wood gave way and so it was not the best way to hunt for food. The ground was the place to find food but trees are good for night roosting.

Warblers – blackcap, Cetti’s warbler, chiffchaff, garden warbler, grasshopper warbler, reed warbler, sedge warbler, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, willow warbler were seen or heard at the beginning of the month. Then it was mainly chiffchaff, blackcap, sedge warbler that were most vocal as the month progressed.

The resident blackbirds, robins and wrens were singing in the last two weeks of the month, as the summer visitors spent their energies looking after the young.

Cuckoos were calling in the first, second and third week and then silent.

A cetti's warbler was heard along the bridleway.

Young seen -  A pair of shelduck (at the end  of May, were seen with five young and then a day later there were  12 young – probably 2 families, a creche, on Middleton Hall pool). Great spotted woodpeckers were seen with young at the feeders and along the northend river (Dosthill side).  Blackcaps, tits, finches were seen feeding young along the bridleway and in the woods.   There were coots and mute swans with young on the pools.

Swallows and swifts were seen flying everywhere where the insects flew. There were a few house martins about but no sand martins as the river was too high for any nesting.

A hobby was seen over the pools, chasing flies.

Reed bunting songs were 'zee, zee, zee, zeeing' and once ' chip, chip, chip, chipping'. Did they know that the local farmer grew potatoes for direct selling to the local fish and chip shops? (smile).

A coot and two young (about 4 weeks old) were seen moving around the heron corner pool. These were probably the young we saw in the previous month. They disappeared and must have found a safer hideaway deep in the reeds for those first crucial 4 weeks.  So the good news is – they survived the herons, rooks and crows in this area.

Sedge warblers were heard but not always seen in the drizzly weather along western wetland path reeds - especially between the second and third benches in the grasslands.

The short-eared owl (and sometimes two) was seen occasionally in the grasslands areas on dry days.

Wetland trail had: black- tailed godwit, buzzard, chiffchaff, common tern, dunlin, great crested grebe, green sandpiper, hobby, house martin, kestrel, kingfisher (along the canal and river), lapwing, little egret, little gull, mute swan, oystercatcher (calling overhead), red-crested pochard, red-legged partridge, reed bunting, ringed plover, short-eared owl, skylark, swift, teal, wigeon, yellow wagtail (the comments were 'it's a bright yellow'). The water levels were too high for the waders to stay and feed.

Meadow trail had blackbird, blackcap, bullfinch, green and great spotted woodpecker, jay, kestrel, skylark.

Woodland trail had songs and sightings of finches, tits, and warblers, robin, blackbird. Also sightings of blackcap, chiffchaff, coot, raven (over the rookery), reed bunting, reed warbler, sedge warbler, treecreeper.

BUTTERFLIES:  The wet weather made it difficult to find a good day for a survey. However, these were seen - dingy skipper, common blue, large skipper, meadow brown, painted lady, ringlet, small tortoiseshell, speckled wood.

DAY-FLYING MOTHS: On those few dryish days these were spotted - burnet varieties, chimney sweeper, cinnabar, green lacewing, yellow shell.

DRAGONFLIES: There were few dry days and so the Stirling butterfly surveyors helped. The warm muggy days gave us – azure damselfly, banded demoiselle, beautiful demoiselle, blue-tailed damselfly, common blue damselfly, large red damselfly, black-tailed skimmer, brown hawker, four-spotted chaser.

WILD FLOWERS:   Bee orchid, birds-foot trefoil, foxglove, grass vetchling, oil-seed rape, ox-eyed daisy, purple loosestrife.

MAMMALS:  One early morning (9am) a muntjac was seen crossing the Bodymoor Heath entrance track and on another day one was seen jumping around the horse grazing field opposite the car park. It was using the 'new rain-filled corner pool' for a drink and then began looking excitedly for a way into the woods, which it found in the end. Also hares and rabbits.

Grass snakes (juveniles and adults) were seen under refugia mats, bathing or slithering away on dry days.

It looks like June will almost be the wettest on record (UK) – 2007 was wetter. Late spring and early summer will be seen as the wettest in 250 years for England and Wales.

What a year so far....  the warmest March on record, the coldest April and May, the wettest May and June.

With a great thank you to everyone for your nature sightings – keep them coming in. You can use the car-park sightings board, phone or email. Contact details are on the maps – a copy of which can be downloaded from the RSPB Middleton Lakes internet page and also available in the car-park.

Compiled by Nigel Palmer