It has been a slow start to the year with little time spent
at anything other than work at RSPB Rainham Marshes but at least we are back in
the Centre again and I can see out of the windows and across the marsh and
Thames rather than just the car park. My
time actually out on the reserve is very limited nowadays but I do my best from
in and around the building and I suspect that I am only missing a couple of bits
and bobs that have been seen by others since New Year – Jack Snipe and Bearded
Tit springing to mind.
With generally mild westerly conditions very little has
changed over the last few months but the reserve is now nice and wet and the
duck are certainly loving it. The five
Barnacle Geese from mid-December are still around but I had to wait over a week
before they had a fly round from out on Wennington and I managed to pick them
up in the scope. The winter duck look superb on the brighter days and one day
all my scanning will surely produce a Green Winged Teal or drake American
Wigeon? Pintail are my favourite though and always look so elegant an and
refined.
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| Barnacle and Canada Geese - Paul Hawkins |
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| Pintail - Ben Lucas |
Three single Great White Egrets dropped in on the 1st with one again the next day and I suspect that I have surpassed the 50 mark for
the reserve now after the first one way back in 2003 while an immature
Spoonbill that spent pre-Christmas on the still threatened Swanscombe Marsh has
now been with us for the last ten days or so.
The Cattle Egrets left in early December – a week before the cows but
two are now just off site with the horses near Fanns Farm in the bottom of the
Mardyke Valley so hopefully they will make it back to the marsh come the
spring.
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| Great White Egret - Sam Levy |
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| Spoonbill - Steve Knox |
I have bumped into our very vocal pair of Firecrests in the Wildlife
Garden a couple of times and even managed to get lucky and see the male
Dartford Warbler on my only attempt this year where he is keeping company with
his Stonechat buddies. Fieldfares and
Redwings have been along the river wall and Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps have been
seen from the windows too.
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| Firecrest - Henry Wyn-Jones |
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| Dartford Warbler - Henry Wyn-Jones |
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| Dartford Warbler - Magnus Andersson |
The Ravens have been a daily presence with up to four around
although they all head back to Swanscombe at the end of the day and are seemingly
not linked in with the birds seen in the neighbouring farmland to the north of
the A13. There are no Owls of any sort on the reserve this winter which is odd
but the Marsh Harriers have been magnificent with now seven birds at least on
site and some fantastic close quarter hunting observed daily. Two gleaming adult males and a rapidly
maturing immature male are regularly to be seen. Peregrines have been seen tearing into the
Lapwings or high tide Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwit flocks and the pair of
Sparrowhawks have been terrorising the bird feeders several times a day. The
male is an absolute peach of a bird and often passes within inches of the
public on the exit ramp as that is part of his attack route while Kirsty the
ridiculously tames Kestrel is still entertaining and spends most nights
roosting on the little plinth we made for her on the balcony.
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| Kirsty Kestrel - Ben Lucas |
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| Marsh Harrier - Pete Woods |
January is not renowned for its wealth of insect life but I
still managed to find a few bits at work with the subtle little Agonopterix
alstromeriana on the 1st and then on the 10th a delightful, tiny bejewelled Esperia
sulphurella was fluttering against the window. This cute little day
flying moth is not normally on the wing until March at the earliest, so it was
quite a find.
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| Agonopterix alstromeriana |
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| Esperia sulphurella |
A routine check on one of the old MoD bunkers by the side of
the Mardyke near our car park added the richly coloured Herald – a
larger, oddly shaped moth. This species habitually hibernates and I
counted 14 lined up along the ceiling along with five Peacock butterflies
and countless Mosquitos that all woke up as soon as I exhaled!
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| Herald |
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| Peacock |
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| Peacock |
There have even been one or two larger flies around but one on the
outside window caught my eye the other day and even through the glass I could
see that it had been killed by a very specific fungus.
The parasitic fungus is called Entomophthora
muscae (I think) goes to great lengths to exploit the mating urges of house
flies. After taking control of a fly's brain it sends its host to die on
the highest point it can reach (our main Centre window), the zombifying mould
concocts a powerful aphrodisiac to complete its ruse which then attracts more
flies to mate with it which are then also infected while the original fly
releases the fungal spores into the wind (the white bands between the segments
of the body)… gruesome but amazing.
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| The fungal victim |
The Rainham sunsets have, as ever this time of year, been
magnificent on occasion.
My days off have always coincided with the wettest, windiest
days and I have stolen the odd hour in my Strood garden to do some light tidying up
in preparation for the spring so that my woodland ground flora does not get smothered
by a foot of leaves but they are all good for the compost so they do not go to
waste.
I have actually encountered little wildlife while pottering
but a look inside the Teasel heads for a moth larvae whose name I can’t
remember (sorry Antony but still not found one) did reveal both Ten and
Twenty-two Spot Ladybirds tucked up inside along with a tiny green spider that
I think is Diaea dorsata.
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| Ten Spot Ladybird - Antony Wren |
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| Twenty-two Spot Ladybird - Antony Wren |
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| Diaea dorsata |
I looked to see if my Man and Bee Orchid rosettes had
appeared in the lawn but as yet nothing but up the top end under my mature Elder
I found the tiniest little nubbin of darkly spotted leaves that can only be
from an Early Purple Orchid. It certainly never showed last year and I am
intrigued to see what else comes up over the coming weeks.
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| Early Purple Orchid |
On the 15th I actually escaped for the day and we headed up
to visit the Wrens in Lowestoft but the fog going up was terrible and it only
really cleared when we arrived. A generally lazy day was had and Antony and I headed
out for a couple of hours walking while the ladies talked crochet and such
like. We took in a circuit from his
front door that took us down through Blackheath Woods and Pakefield Park where
a few expected mines of both fly and moths were seen with before wending our
way down to Pakefield Church with clumps of Pellitory-of-the-wall, well, on the
walls and some interesting stony inclusions within the largely Flint church
facing that had a host of tiny Crinoid fossils with in them.
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| Stigmella aurella - on Bramble |
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| Phytomyza chaerophylli - on Cow Parsley |
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| Euleia heraclei - on Alexanders |
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| Phytomyza ilicis - on Holly |
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| Ectoedemia heringella - on Holm Oak |
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| Phyllonorycter leucographella - on Pyracantha |
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| Gorse |
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| Pakefield Church and Pellitory-of-the-wall |
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| Pellitory-of-the-wall |
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| Crinoids |
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| If I have been paying attention to Enid then the little cushion moss is Grimmia |
From here we dropped down onto the beach which was covered
in Tree Mallows, Lupin bushes and a zillion dog walkers and where a coffee and
toasties beckoned.
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| Tree Mallow |
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| Yellow Lupin |
The return look took
us through Kirkly cemetery where Antony pointed out some of those funny little
moth cases and cocoons that I found in my Frindsbury graveyard before getting
back in time for another coffee and some quality paper plane making experiments
with the kids.
Another week at work has whizzed by but I did at last manage
to face up and reduce the height of the small bendy hedge outside the Centre
which will encourage it to put on more new growth this year and thicken up further. I was kept company by Robins, Sparrows, Wren,
Cetti’s Warbler and even a couple of the more inquisitive and bold Brown
Rats. Hopefully the brash will all be
cleared away by the workparty today…
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| Before... |
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| After... |
And so just to break the mould of recent weeks, I actually
woke up to a day off with clear blue skies and a thick frost and so by 8.30 was
up at the end of my road for a walk around just a small section of the
Ranscombe Loop. I had anticipated mud
and worn my wellies and it was a good move and the Blackthorn walking stick
that my Dad had made me was an essential piece of my of my kit today.
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| Hazel catkins |
As expected the woods were fairly quiet although I did
encounter a few new birds for the first time this year with Coal and Marsh Tits,
Nuthatches and Treecreepers and a few Siskins.
There were Meadow Pipits, Chaffinches, Linnets and a couple of Skylarks in
the field opposite Sam’s Clary bench and Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers
were seen.
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| Chaffinch |
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| Meadow Pipit |
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| Marsh Tit |
The frost lingered long enough to allow for some arty leaf images
and unlike at home I found several Bee orchid rosettes already poking through.
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| Great Mullein with the making of an Audrey II moment... |
Three Fallow Hinds slowly walked into the stands of Sweet
Chestnut and the White Hart was amongst them. They stopped to look at me and
then melted into the seemingly impenetrable ghostly silver trunks.
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| Invisible deer |
The only invert that I saw was actually a
very cool Harvestman but not one that I have ever seen before. It was sitting sunning on a trunk with its
legs (of varying stupid lengths) out parallel to the body. I believe it to be Dicranopalus ramosus. Just
look at those modified palps like Lobster claws! I found lots of Stigmella
aurella leafmines but very few Coptotriche marginea on the Brambles unlike last
winter.
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| Dicranopalus ramosus |
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| Dicranopalus ramosus |
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| Stigmella aurella |
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| Sam's Clary bench |
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| Both sides of Kitchen Field |
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| Jay |
I looped around towards Kitchen Field finding some nice
flowering and fruiting Butchers Broom on my way before wiggling through the
woods on a new trail past two huge Yew trees that I had never seen before and
then popping out as I hoped, by the Mausoleum.
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| Old Man's Beard |
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| Butchers Broom |
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| An old Yew - I think these are first I have seen here |
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| Robin |
There was now a keen breeze blowing from the north so I dropped back down
to the corner by Knights Farm before sloshing my way through on the flat to get
back to the car.
It was not an overly long walk but it as been months since I
have been out here and I just needed a fix to remind me of what I have been
missing.
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| The traditional Darnley Mausoleum image - a focal point of my walks |
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