Chesworth and Warnham LNR Round-up

 

Blackbird Nest - Warnham LNR

The past couple of weeks have been busy on the bird front with plenty of young birds starting to leave their respective nests. The nest of Blackbirds above successfully fledged three youngsters which can usually be seen around the Orchard or around the Visitors Centre. Also of note on the fledging front the three Common Tern chicks have now been ringed and have fledged. These can be seen hassling their parents for fish and flying around the millpond at the moment. It wont be long before the adults leave and then the juveniles will soon follow on behind them. 

Common Terns (Juv on left & Adult on right)

Nuthatch Nest - Warnham LNR

Whilst Kevin Attree and I were carrying out the nest box survey at Warnham LNR we came across plenty of Blue and Great Tit nests at various stages from eggs through to nearly fully grown young. It was interesting to see the age ranges which is usually not the case in these species, due to them being so reliant on moth caterpillars usually the broods are all of a similar age. In one particular box we noticed that the front of the box seemed to have a little mud sealing the top down, on closer inspection and after carefully opening the box we were both ecstatic to find a nest of Nuthatches. The first time we have ever had these in one of our boxes. Not only did we have a Nuthatch nest we also had seven young Nuthatches! As you can see from above there was also an unhatched egg which is not unusual to find in a nest box. If you look carefully at the picture above you can see that the nest is made up of pine bark rather than the wool and moss of the Tit family.

Linnet - Chesworth Farm

Meanwhile it is not just Warnham that has been in on the fledging success. Stuart and Eddie managed to find a Linnet nest on the Farm which was fantastic and though suspected, proved the breeding of this species on the Farm once more. Linnet's can be heard flying around the Farm all the time at the moment especially around Spring Barn Field and the Niron House area.

Common Sandpiper - Warnham LNR

Believe it or not autumn migration is well under way on our sites with the wader species starting to turn up already. Mid July usually see's the arrival of our first hit of passage migrants returning and this has been shown by a couple of Common Sandpipers like the one above as well as a brief visit from a Green Sandpiper too. We also start to notice that Black-headed Gulls start to arrive as well as Little Egrets and Cormorants. It won't be long now before the Swifts and House Martins start to make their way south so make the most of them while they are here over the next couple of weeks.

Broad-bodied Chaser - Chesworth Farm

The dragonflies have also been making the most of the warm, dry conditions and have been out in force on all of our sites. Chesworth has seen plenty including the stunning male Broad-bodied Chaser above. These can often be seen holding territory on the Wetland Project Area often flying off to hunt or chase other dragonflies but nearly always returning to their favoured perch. The Farm also played host to this freshly emerged Emperor below which is a beast of a dragonfly and really dominates other dragonflies when it has chosen its breeding pond.

 

Emperor Dragonfly - Chesworth Farm

Finally as autumn approaches the Darter family of dragonflies starts to arrive with Ruddy and Common Darters already on the wing at Southwater, Chesworth and Warnham. These, together with Migrant Hawkers are our latest to emerge and will soon start to take over any pools that are suitable for them to breed in. To tell the difference between these two similar species the Ruddy Darter has all black legs whereas the Common Darter has yellowish/white stripes down there legs as in the photo below.

Common Darter - Warnham LNR