Puncknowle, Swyre & West Bexington LIFE

INFORMATION – NATURE WATCH

NATURE WATCH – a monthly ‘column’ based on contributions from local observers

Do you have anything to tell about the natural world around us that you have seen on your walks? Do you have any information about what we can expect to see this month?

Each month we want to include information here about what flora and fauna are about us in the countryside, in your garden or on the farms. Observations about the local weather or the night sky or any other aspect of the natural world around us would be most welcome.

I am a little late following up on the May article, so this embraces a six week period from the beginning of June to mid-July.

I am starting off with a diary record from Alan in Springfield of his rarer sightings on walks around the villages and coast. [Alan is known to many as the most knowledgeable (dare I say professional!) bird-watcher in the community]. All the below were seen at or off the coast of West Bexington – except for the sighting of the Hobby – over Puncknowle.

Birds

June
1^st – Gannet Lesser Whitethroat
4^th – Gannet Fulmar
5^th – Goldcrest (adult and four juveniles) Common Scoter (8)
8^th – Manx Shearwater (4) Gannet (20) Mediterranean Gull Arctic Skua
13^th – Whinchat Mediterranean Gull
14^th – Gannet Common Whitethroat Hobby
21^st – Sanderling (3) Common Tern (6)

Butterflies

June
5^th – Red Admiral Small Heath
6^th – first Painted Lady of the year
18^th – Small Copper Small Tortoiseshell
22^nd – Gatekeeper

Dragonflies

June
5^th – Emperor Dragonfly Broad-bodied Chaser
18^th – Black-tailed Skimmer

Dolphin

June 22^nd – 6 Bottle-Nosed Dolphins heading east across Lyme Bay

In my garden, after a noticeable shortfall of birds at the feeders in the nesting season, all the usual birds are back – including the Yellowhammer with fledgling. We also had the unusual sighting of a pair of Shelduck on the lawn (see photo below.)

June and early July have been warm and essentially rain-free – the ground cracking through want of rain. A myriad of moths have been around the house. The alpaca are shorn to relieve them of their heavy fleece for the summer months – they do look relieved – despite the indignity! Mid-July has seen some squally showers and winds up to 25 mph – the rain bringing welcome relief to the gardens.

NATURE WATCH – MAY 2010 REPORT – a monthly ‘column’ based on contributions from local observers. Do you have anything to tell about the natural world around us that you have seen on your walks? Do you have any information about what we can expect to see this month? Each month we want to include information here about what flora and fauna are about us in the countryside, in your garden or on the farms. Observations about the local weather or the night sky or any other aspect of the natural world around us would be most welcome. To start us off I offer some small personal observations below.

Last night (May 12^th) around 7.30 pm was our first (brief) sighting this year of a deer – rushing out in front of the car from one side of the hedgerow in Clay Lane, Puncknowle (by the Manor Farm track) to the other. In the garden here at Sea Fret we have seen a pair of siskins (male’s colour absolutely stunningly yellow) and a very distinctively marked blackcap – the feeders, the trees and hedges are alive with blackbirds and dunnock being chased by young to feed, robins, blue- coal- and great tits, wren, chaffinch, greenfinch and others I’m sure to have forgotten. Around the villages, jackdaws are investigating the chimney-pots and I saw a rook, late-evening, with a beakful of twigs spanning about 45 cm (18 inches to you and me!) Badgers abound along the lanes as last year’s young brocks are kicked out of the family sett to look for somewhere of their own. Our heavy winter rains and localised flooding seem light-years away now; the water table has dropped, the ground surface is cracking for want of rain, and the lawns and field grass do not seem to be making much growth – but the temperatures – especially at night – are still very cool! As I write, the sea in Lyme Bay is like a millpond – and lights of ships at night indicate just how many large cargo ships are moored out there. Down at the allotments, the planting season is in full swing.

Tony Taylor of Swyre says that, despite the cold weather, he took a very enjoyable walk down to the coast last weekend. The hedgerows were full of singing blackcaps, dunnocks and chiffchaff – and he had sightings also of linnets and skylark over the fields. Near the coast and the reed-beds, he observed reed bunting and whitethroats – hearing in the reeds Cetti’s warblers (with their explosive song) and reed warblers. On the road back from Bexington, yellowhammers were seen showing off their brilliant yellow plumage and smart stonechats were flitting along the hedgerows. The skies are now full of swallows, swifts and martins – and an occasional flash past from a peregrine falcon.

Please use the Contact box to send us your contribution or e-mail Tony Edwards at seafretfantine@btinternet.com . Let us know if you are happy to have your name mentioned as the contributor of information in the article. Send us some pictures too – but don’t forget to tell us where and when you took them!

END OF MAY POSTSCRIPT

Firstly, a correction – the ‘pair of siskins’ I reported as spending quite some time feeding in the garden – were (as Tony Taylor identified from my photo and description ) actually yellowhammers! Still quite rare to see these constantly feeding on the ground so close to the house – gone now I think.

Dave Bird tells me that, on his check of footpaths in the Parish in the last few days, when the weather was warm and there was a heady scent of hawthorn blossom in the air, he was pretty sure he saw a Small Heath butterfly. Further along his walk, a Common Blue criss-crossed his path and, on two separate occasions, saw a Silver Y moth. Most spectacular fly-past, amongst all the birds he saw on his travels, was that of 4 Swifts. Bird-related spotting was the discovery on a stile of a pellet – most probably that of a Tawny Owl – still moist and, when dissected, found to contain mostly remains of large insects (body casings, heads and legs).

(Dave is Footpath Officer for Puncknowle and West Bexington, has had special responsibilities for protection of animals in his career, has specialist knowledge of bats in the UK and is licensed to hold them.)