Beau the Barn owl visits Combe

Last night the Local ladies group opened its meeting at the village hall too all (men as well!) and welcomed Chris Sperring MBE and Beau the Barn owl for a presentation about the current owl situation in the country and the Somerset Barn owl project in particular.

It proved to be a fascinating and informative evening, starting with information, about how Barn owls have struggled with the weather over the last couple of years. First the wet spring and summer last year caused the vole population ( favourite owl food) to plummet as the fields, especially on the Somerset Levels were flooded. Then the snow, followed by cold winds made hunting for food very difficult. This resulted in very few successful breeding attempts and so by this summer the numbers of Barn owl locally had fallen by an estimated 75%.

Chris however explained that his recent surveys were indicating that vole numbers were increasing again and he was hopeful that the owls may have had success with their attempts at late broods this year. If that was the case he was also hopeful that numbers would increase again quite quickly.

The Somerset Owl project is a joint effort between the Hawk and Owl Trust and the Somerset Wildlife Trust and is well on the way to achieving its aim to put a Barn owl box in all 335 parishes in the county by November 2014. At the same time, Chris is visiting local farmers and landowners and encouraging them to leave field margins or corners of land uncut to help the vole populations and thereby provide food for the owls. Indeed, everyone can help by leaving areas in their own gardens where the grass can grow longer and thereby increase biodiversity as invertebrates etc can survive.

Al in all an enjoyable evening and whilst the star of the evening was obviously Beau, Chris's talk was very much appreciated!

Wildlife and sights you won't find in Combe!

As mentioned in my last post we have recently returned from Brazil and I thought I would share some of our most exciting sightings which we were privileged to see.

We spent some time in the Chapada  dos Guimarães National Park in central Brazil before travelling 250 km down the Transpantaneira " road into the heart of the Pantenal where we spent a week exploring the rivers and marshlands in search of Jaguar. For the last few days the trip we flew south to the Brazilian / Argentina border and visited the spectacular Iguassu Falls.
In all we saw 21 species of mammal ( including 6 separate sightings of Jaguar) and over 280 species of birds and between Steve and I we took nearly 10k photos! As you can imagine it will take some time to edit these, but here are a few of my favourites, from the colourful to the curious and the spectacular to the stunning! It was difficult to do justice to the sheer variety and the Falls in particular have to be heard as well as seen to appreciate the tremendous power of the water pouring over the cliff tops. We returned filled with many so many wonderful memories. Enjoy!

 

Signs of Summer coming to an end?

Arriving back at the beginning of September after two weeks travelling in Brazil / Argentina (further post to follow) it was lovely to see the green fields, despite the continued dry weather whilst we were away. It was also great to lots of young swallows and house martins skimming over the fields catching insects as they build up their strength before their long journeys south for the winter.
It seems the late broods have done well as I hoped they would when mentioning them in my previous post.The young swallows are easier to identify as they have far shorter tail streamers than the adults and it seems the breeding season was a success as there are far more young of both species in the air than I can recall this time last year.
I always feel sad as, during September, they line up in increasing numbers on the overhead wires which heralds their departure, usually at the end of the month, when they just seem to disappear all at once as if something has fired a starting gun!
Let's hope they all return safely to us again next year. 

Speckled wood

  Another welcome sight this month, even if it might signify that summer is coming to an end, has been the different species of butterfly which are about, including Speckled wood, above and Small copper, below, both seen in SSW. (Apologies for the poor photos but I only had my mobile phone with me and creeping up on these two without a zoom lens proved a challenge!)

Small copper



Dragonflies and Butterflies

Towards the end of July we had a trip over to Ham Wall Reserve on the Levels and were pleased to see plenty of dragonflies, including this beautiful Ruddy darter

Ruddy darter

and this huge Southern Hawker below, lovely to see in their own right but also a useful food source for birds such as Hobby, which spend the summer here before returning to Africa for the winter.

Southern hawker

 

There have also been a number of Painted ladies about, a species which migrates to Britain from its breeding grounds further south and no doubt, attracted this year by our warmer than usual summer!

Painted lady



 

It seems strange to be thinking of winter but already the Swifts have departed and the sounds of them screaming through the sky above the village won't be heard till May next year. I am ashamed to say that I failed to note their actual departure date but it seemed earlier than usual around the first week of August. What has been great to witness in the last few days though are the huge numbers of House martins flying over the village in pursuit of insects. I think they must have had a good breeding season as there seemed to be very few of them in the early part of summer, so the high numbers now must have been boosted by young birds that have fledged and taken to the wing with gusto. Their twittering calls when they soar overhead are a delight and hopefully they will remain for a few weeks yet. Swallows do not seem so abundant but perhaps they will succeed with late broods and more will line up on the wires before they too depart for their African winter.

 

As usual for August there seem to be few other birds about in the garden as the young moult into adult feathers and keep out of the way of any predators by tucking themselves into the hedgerows and undergrowth. I have seen a Jay in the garden though and heard the "yaffling" sound of a Green woodpecker calling nearby.

One other sight worth recording has been a pair of Sparrowhawks, with what I believe must be young calling out to attract their parents and being mobbed by the local Jackdaw gang across the valley from our house. Perhaps they nested in the Poplar trees on the hillside?

 

July update

Another month has almost passed  since my last post because technology has been beating me with lots of problems uploading pictures to my blog. I have finally discovered that the browser I have been using for sometime (Google Chrome) is the culprit and  so I have reverted to Internet Explorer again, which seems to have solved the problem for now!

Early in the month I was delighted to see a spotted flycatcher on the wires opposite our house near the old rectory in Stantway. It appeared on a couple of evenings and then I didn't see it again but a few days later, whilst walking along Scrapton Lane, I saw another perched on the wires there. I think the latter was a young bird as on close inspection of the photos below you can see fluffy feathers on the breast which could be the remains of the downy fledging feathers. It is good to know they have bred in the area as numbers of this species has declined rapidly in recent years

Spotted flycatcher



Spotted flycatcher

The SSW has been looking lovely this month with a wonderful show of poppies intermingled with corn marigold, corncockle and ox eye daisies amongst others.

 

 

Many flowers have been late flowering this year, such as the pyramidal orchid. This is usually to be seen in June but this year it was mid July before any were spotted in the few places around the parish where I usually look for them and numbers were down on previous years.

Pyramidal orchid

The hot weather we have been having has resulted in more butterflies and moths taking to the air though and I have had fun trying to identify some species. Some, like this Comma butterfly, were relatively easy as there are only 59 species generally found in the UK

Comma butterfly

However, with over 870 larger moths, the task is more difficult. I think the moth below, which alighted on our garden table, might be a Snout moth

but I can't identify this one which settled in our conservatory, so any ideas would be gratefully received!

 
Thanks for your suggestions, I now know this is a Silver Y moth

Where did June go?

I can't believe it is already two weeks into July, we have been back from Finland for well over a month and "blazing June" is over! It was an odd month with near constant winds and for me, a week of travelling to and fro to Musgrove Hospital to see mum, who was admitted suddenly on a Friday morning mid month. ( she is back home now and enjoying the warmth of the sunshine).
Even so, we had some good days out and the wildlife seemed to flourish in the dry weather, (especially the weeds in the garden!)

Butterflies, like Peacocks, began to emerge early in June and take advantage of the later than usual flowers, such as Bluebells, but numbers have been low even with the warmer weather.
We had a day trip to Durleston Country Park near Swanage in late June, an area with a very different geology to Combe which results in different flowers and as a result attracts different butterflies, such as this beautiful Common blue.

Common blue

Also these Adonis blue, and Wall butterflies, none of which I have ever seen in Combe.

Adonis Blue 

Wall butterfly

Unusual plants on the cliff top included wild carrot,Centaury and further up the slope a superb bee orchid!

Bee Orchid

Birds seemed to have had a good breeding season locally, with many having more than one brood so have been in constant search for food to feed their young. The ones lucky enough to find the mealworms we put out in mum's garden grabbed all they could, as you can see from this blackbird!

Posted with Blogsy

Report from the Arctic Circle!

We have recently returned from spending two weeks wildlife watching in Finland and Norway, including  a few days in Lapland, which is in the Arctic Circle, where, though Santa Claus was not spotted, lots of reindeer were! There was still plenty of ice and snow around and they were very adept at splaying their large feet whilst crossing the frozen lakes.

Reindeer on the ice

It is interesting to note that the reindeer roaming free are actually nearly all domesticated and owned by someone, just like the ponies on Dartmoor. They are an important source of income for local people and twice a year they are rounded up and many are sent to market as a major meat  source. 
It is a harsh landscape and many of the lakes were still frozen when we arrived in mid May.
The resulting scenery was beautiful but temperatures were often around freezing and required a number of layers to combat the chill factor.

Frozen lakes just beginning to thaw

The vegetation was mainly coniferous forests, with birch and aspen to the south and there were only 3  wild flowers species seen in the two weeks we were there,  something that was a great contrast with the colourful verges we welcomed on our return to the UK. 

Coltsfoot

We were however lucky to see some fantastic wildlife sights, including five different species of  Owls, 

Tengmalm's Owl

Pygmy Owl

and an extraordinary sight of a gull catching and flying off with a Razorbill dangling from its beak! (The poor bird actually escaped and lived to tell the tale).

Gull with Razorbill in its grip!

We had very close views of a "crazy" Capercaillie which tried to attack us as we stood by our minibus whilst admiring it. Our guide had to brandish a conifer branch to stop it drawing blood!

Crazy Capercaillie

Probably the most beautiful bird we were lucky to see though was the Bluethroat which entertained us with its song whilst perched out in the open, which it only really does in the breeding season. What a privilege!                                                                                        

Bluethroat

So, all in all, a great holiday with lots of memories and too many photos to share in this blog, but hopefully this provides a taste of the things you might expect on a trip to the Arctic Circle in the spring.                                                                                                                                  

Amazingly when we left Finland it was 21C and when we returned to London it was only 7C so, whilst it was cold at times, it was warmer than any of us expected and the lakes had nearly all melted by the end of the holiday.

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