Bredon Hill

/

Some beautiful hoar frost on the trees at Bredon Hill, where thanks to fog on the higher areas the snow still persists. Wildlife was a bit on the sparse side, but a small flock of finches in one of the game strips on the top of the hill included at least one brambling - my first this winter. We’re lucky to have some great walks close to home.

Leaf Galls at Kemerton

/

I recently became a “friend” of Kemerton Lakes Reserve, so took the opportunity to walk some of the member-only paths. One interesting thing I came across were leaf galls made by small mites. The red “pustules” on Field Maple are from a tiny mite called Aceria aceriscampestris, while those on the Alder are Eriophyes laevis.

There were a few past-their-best Pyramidal Orchids about, but this Broad-leaved Helleborine (Epipactis helleborineas) was in full bloom - a new orchid for me.

This fungus, looking like a cluster of dirty potatoes, growing on one of the paths was interesting, and so far I wasn’t able to put a name to it.

Fungi on Bredon Hill

/

Walking up Bredon Hill at the weekend, there was a fine array of fungi on view in the sheep-grazed meadows at the top of the Hill. They mostly appeared to be Waxcaps of different kinds, including Snowy Waxcap (Cuphophyllus virgineus), Meadow Puffballs (Lycoperdon pratense) and some dark-coloured leathery looking toadstools I took to be Melanoleuca species (probably based on habitat, M. melaleuca). Puffballs are edible, but I didn’t pick them; so are Snowy Waxcaps, but with these I’m just not confident enough in my identification skills to be sure I’m not eating something poisonous.

Bredon Hill & Cleeve Hill

/

Thanks to some really lovely weather this weekend, I had a couple of beautiful walks up the local hills enjoying the butterflies and wild flowers. I was very happy to find Bee Orchids on Cleeve Hill and many Pyramidal Orchids on Bredon Hill. No photos, but a calling Quail at the top of Bredon Hill was also a good find.

Winter Bird Survey

/

Last weekend saw my final survey visit for the new BTO English Winter Bird Survey. This survey covers my regular Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) km square just outside Broadway, Worcestershire. Due to the recent warm weather it was more like an early Breeding Bird Survey, with resident birds like song thrush, robin, wren, chaffinch, linnet and skylarks singing everywhere. There were some winter redwings still around and a fly-over siskin, but due to the lack of leaves I saw more of the resident birds than I often do when I visit in April. Bullfinch, marsh tit and treecreeper are some of the less common residents on this square that were showing well. Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers are easiest seen at this time of year, but one seen calling and drumming on a dead tree is a rare sighting here or in indeed most other places in UK.

I liked doing the survey on my regular square and seeing different birds there, but doing the expected 4 visits was a problem as short winter days make it hard to do the survey around other weekend activities, especially in the pre-Christmas period. As it was I only managed the two visits in December and February, but I do think this was enough to accurately survey the wintering bird population on the site.

Murmuration at Kemerton

/

I was in the area, so dropped into Kemerton Lake NR, a reserve near Tewkesbury. Turned out that there were quite a few other visitors there to see a good-sized murmuration of starlings that come into roost in the reed beds. Apparently there’s up to 25,000 birds in the roost. They put up a great show wheeling around in a fast-moving flock, trying to keep away from a couple of hungry sparrowhawks, before dropping into the reeds en-masse for the night. As well as the starling spectacle there were also lots of ducks, including this beautiful male smew - a rare winter visitor to these parts from the Russian taiga. With all this, plus kingfisher and a calling water rail, that’s pretty impressive birding for somewhere right on my doorstep.