Warnham Moths & Birds

Oak Beauty - Warnham LNR

You might well think that as it is winter there would be very little by way of moth activity on the Reserves but this is not the case at all. Over the past couple of weeks you might have seen the odd moth start to appear in your headlights. These are almost certainly Dotted Border which is a dainty moth in the Geometridae family. The moth trap at Warnham has been pretty good with lots to look at considering the time of year.

Small Quaker - Warnham LNR

Common Quaker - Warnham LNR

Hebrew Character - Warnham LNR

As you will notice above many of the moths at this time of year are what everyone thinks of as 'boring brown moths' however this is for very good reason. At the time when the adults of these moths are on the wing there is very little by way of colour in our environment. The leaves are yet to come out and the habitat they frequent is mainly a brown, beige colourless one. So there would be little use being bright pink and green like an Elephant Hawkmoth as you would simply get eaten by a predator.

As the leaves come out and the flowers start to appear so do the more colourful moths which I will show you later in the year but for now, most of the moths we catch will be camouflage for the time of year so they are not boring moths at all but in fact very sensible moths!

Early Grey - Warnham LNR

Another interesting fact about our winter and early spring moths is that they adopt a very different approach to being eaten to that of our summer moths. You will be well versed in how active a summer moth can be around a light as they buzz around your living rooms and just how hard they can be to catch to release back outdoors. This is due to the warm ambient temperature that they have the energy to try and escape capture. In the winter it is quite the reverse due to the lower temperatures they simply play dead rather than try and flee to preserve energy.

Meanwhile Paul Shergold has been busy with the camera again around the Reserve and has managed to get some excellent photos. The Kestrel seems to have found a mate so fingers crossed we might have a new pair on site. The Teal have been seen displaying and finally I managed to see a pair mating in front of Tern Hide yesterday. The Mute Swan pair seem to be having issues with deciding exactly where they would like to nest and they now have two half built nests! Thanks to Paul for the excellent photos.

Kestrel - P. Shergold

Teal - P. Shergold

Mute Swan - P. Shergold

Owlbeech Woods - Bird Survey

Mike Ayling carried out some survey work up on the heathland today and also carried out a bird count for us. The full list of species seen is below:

Black-headed Gull 1, Blue Tit 3, Carrion Crow 5, Coal Tit 1, Goldfinch 2, Great Tit 2, Jackdaw 2, Mallard 3, Robin 7, Stock Dove 1, Wren 3, Blackbird 5, Bullfinch 1, Chaffinch 2, Dunnock 1, Great Spotted Woodpecker 2, Green Woodpecker 1, Magpie 4, Pheasant 1, Song Thrush 2, Woodpigeon 13, Yellowhammer 1

Eddie Bew was also on the heath this morning and he recorded the following:

House Sparrow 4, Blackbird 11, Starling 3, Robin 11, Woodpigeon 9, Nuthatch 2, Mistle Thrush 3, Great Tit 4, Blue Tit 4, Mallard 2, Great Spotted Woodpecker 2, Song Thrush 4, Common Buzzard 1, Carrion Crow 6, Magpie 8, Green Woodpecker 1, Jackdaw 1, Dunnock 2, Bullfinch 1, Redwing 1, Long-tailed Tit 2

Grey Squirrel 1, Roe Deer 2

Warnham LNR - Love is in the air

Mallard Duckling - Warnham LNR

Spring has truely sprung and young of many species are either starting to show in the case of the Mallard duckling above or are being eagerly awaited. A quick check of some of the nest boxes with Kevin showed that many of the boxes are being used and most of them are at incubation stage. Several of the Grey Heron nests have fledged already as to have the Grey Wagtails which were nesting on camera in the sluice.

Grey Wagtail Chicks - Warnham LNR

Grey Wagtail Fledgling - Warnham LNR

Other birds which have been mating, laying eggs, incubating or nest building include Great Crested Grebe, Mute Swan, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Robin, Dunnock, Mandarin, Stock Dove and Bullfinch but hopefully more of that to come in the next few weeks.

Whilst on the breeding front it is not only the birds that have been busy. This week I also noticed a female Brimstone flitting around the Alder Buckthorn in the garden. Sure enough on inspection I found several eggs on the underside of the new leaf buds. It is worth checking any Alder Buckthorn to see if you can find any too. Below it what you are looking for:

Brimstone Egg on Alder Buckthorn

Close-up of Brimstone Egg

MEGA Birds at Warnham LNR

Goldeneye - Warnham LNR

On Thursday I was out doing the hide rounds first thing in the morning and was just scanning through the Tufted Duck flock counting them as I went thinking how strange it was that there were quite a few more than on Wednesday when I clocked eyes on this stunning 1st summer drake GOLDENEYE. This was a first for me at Warnham LNR but I know there have been several other records in the past. Still it was as stunning looking duck which showed nicely all day even displaying to female Tufted Ducks on occasions.

Goldeneye - Warnham LNR

Goldeneye - Warnham LNR

After this excitement I was pretty much satisfied for the spring! At Warnham LNR we are far enough inland that we very rarely get much by way of really exciting passage birds such as Goldeneye, Black-necked Grebes or any waders so this really was a dream inland bird.

Avocet - Warnham LNR (1st for Reserve)

What happened on Saturday morning was even more amazing...Stuart was doing a birdwatching course early on Saturday in which he discovered a pair of Avocets which dropped in shortly after 9.30am and finally departed at c3.00pm. It was a truly unbelievable sight and one I hope I see again whilst working at the Reserve. Both birds did a lot of sleeping but it was fantastic to see them wake up and actually feeding using their unique upturned bills. The pair of Avocet represent the first record for Warnham LNR and I believe for the Horsham area too.

Common Tern - Warnham LNR

On Tuesday morning we heard the familiar call of the Common Tern and sure enough Stuart then clapped eyes onto the first returning bird of the spring. It soon settled down onto the goal post in front of Tern Hide and even made a few forays over to the new Tern Raft to check it out for size!

Common Tern Inspecting the Nesting Raft

The final surprise of the mad period was the arrival of a Redstart or quite possibly two Redstarts. The female type bird pictured below spent the evening hunting around Mill Meadow hopping from Bramble to Bramble avidly catching flies. A male was reported earlier in the day but sadly I could not relocate it in the evening.

Redstart - Warnham LNR

So this begs the question...will this be the end of the brilliant run of birds at Warnham or will it carry on. Other highlights over the period were a flyover Hobby, 6 Sand Martins and a flyover Linnet but more on these to come soon.

Spring Flower Walk on the Farm

Spring Flower Walk in full flow - M. Ayling

The Friends of Chesworth Farm hosted their first public event of 2014 today in wonderful conditions. The Spring Flower Walk went down a storm with a good number attending and plenty of bits to keep the group occupied.

Lesser Celandine - M. Ayling

Most of the spring species which were expected around the Farm such as Primrose, Lesser Celandine (above), Cuckooflower and Greater Stitchwort were all seen during the mornings saunter. It was a nice opportunity for the leader Tim to also explain a little about the up and coming projects on the Farm as well as bit of the history too.

Cuckooflower - M. Ayling

Many thanks to the Friends of Chesworth Farm and in particular Tim and Mike for arranging and leading the event. Hopefully these kind of events will attract more people to the Farm with varying levels of interest and expertise.

Warnham LNR - A Busy Weekend

A very busy week at Warnham LNR with plenty of new bits for you to come and look at. The bird nesting season is in full swing and we already have some little balls of fluff running around! At the top end of the Reserve on the new Scrape which is viewable form the 2nd Boardwalk or the new Sandpiper Hide Mrs Mallard has been proudly showing off her 11 little ducklings.

We have also had a couple of other visitors to the new Scrape which should start to slowly drop in water level as the year progresses. The first of the new visitors was this stunning male Shoveler. I am pretty sure it is the male which has spent the winter on the millpond relocating but he certainly seems to be happy there as is regularly heard calling to attract a mate.

Shoveler - Sandpiper Hide

Shoveler - Sandpiper Hide

This morning there was also a Stock Dove drinking from the edge of the stream as well as pair of Mandarin which were mating on the island. A flyover Common Buzzard sent the Mallard ducklings scattering for cover but they soon reappeared to carry on feeding on the emergent weeds.

Stock Dove - Warnham LNR

We have also had a pair of Grey Wagtails which seem to be finding plenty to eat along the edges of the muddy scrape. Whilst on the subject of Grey Wagtails we seem to be blessed with three pairs this year and our recorder Jo Glossop managed to take this stunning image last week.

Grey Wagtail - J. Glossop

We have also had a number of migrant birds arriving with two White Wagtails flying over on Saturday morning as well as numerous Chiffchaff's spread all around the Reserve. On Friday we heard our first Blackcap of this spring followed by another on Saturday morning in the Courtyard.

Chiffchaff - Warnham LNR

What will this week bring...well hopefully some baby Grey Heron's on the nest camera. The first egg is due to hatch on Weds or Thurs of this week so our fingers are firmly crossed. We are also still awaiting out first hirundine of the spring so maybe that will be this week too.