A stormy old week...

After all the warnings of Britain's latest hurricane we were all expecting to be out using chainsaw's for most of the day on site. Luckily for us there was little damage on any of the reserves despite some very rough weather over night. A few tree's down at Leechpool & Owlbeech Woods and a couple at Southwater Country Park were all we had to deal with.

Storm Damage

Most of the timber that came down in the stormy conditions will be recycled and available from Warnham LNR as firewood and kindling. The wood which is best for habitat piles has been left on site to allow the deadwood invertebrates to cash in.

Processing the timber

Whilst all this has been happening, the reserves have been fairly quiet on the wildlife side though there have been a few highlights. With the strong winds and scattered showers you might not expect any insects to be braving the conditions but you would be wrong. Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters are still active even in quite cool conditions as are the some of the butterflies including this stunning Clouded Yellow.

Clouded Yellow - Warnham LNR

On the bird front things seem to be settling down for the winter. Some of the Mallards are pairing up already and beginning their head-bobbing display and plenty of Redwing and Pied Wagtail have been seen coming into roost. The Woodpecker Hide feeding station is starting to get a bit busier too with 30+ Chaffinch now a regular feature. The recent flurry of activity in the mornings have also seen Marsh and Coal Tit return to the feeders. Also of note the female Shoveler which arrived on the 31st July and was still present on the 8th November making its stay 101 days at least!
As the nights have been quite warm I decided to put the moth trap out and we managed to snaffle two more moths for the year in the shape of a single Green-brindled Crescent and a Sprawler.

Sprawler