New life sprung forth this March at St Nicks – as always. Despite inevitable difficulties, the Wildwatch team was still able to enjoy some great wildlife sightings. Wildwatch groups met as usual on the Wednesday mornings of the 4th and 11th of March – seventeen of us on the latter date. (What a long time ago this […]
Highlights Over-wintering summer visitor? .. skulking rail still present.. blank on Shieldbugs..return of Water Vole.. Lemon Disco! Weather Not surprisingly, temperatures fell throughout the month. 12C was recorded on 7th December, falling to 2C on the 28th, the latter day being bright, sunny and “nithering”! Birds The long-staying Water Rail was seen on all four […]
Highlights A secretive bird… even more secretive mammals… Halloween beetles (and bats!)… a new gall for the reserve Commentary For various reasons, we were not able to complete a Wildwatch blog report for October, so this is a combined October / November report. We’ve been looking out for visiting winter birds, and had a few […]
Highlights First summer bird visitor returns.. insects slow to awake in cold month but first hoverflies of the year seen, then a butterfly.. trees in flower! Weather Temperatures stayed around 7C on all four Wildwatch Wednesdays, but managed to creep up to 10C later on the 25th. Most days were sunny, or had sunny intervals, and […]
Highlights Snowdrops everywhere.. Water skulker and Tree “mouse” return.. a February shieldbug first, and a semaphoring fly! Weather Snow showers greeted us on the 4th, with a chilly 1C. But during the month, temperatures slowly rose and we had bright days on the 18th and 25th. Birds Last month’s statement that the December Water Rail […]
Ground level at St Nicks reserve offers a sheltered home for many creatures, particularly in the leaf litter or under stones, bricks and decaying logs. Over the past year the Wildwatch group has spent a little time exploring this hidden world, whose inhabitants include worms, slugs, snails, woodlice, centipedes, millipedes, spiders, ground beetles and various […]
Highlights A secretive dweller in the Pond – and CCTV catches a “first” for St Nicks! Weather A dull and drizzly start to the first Wildwatch of the year, but it got colder and clearer later in the month. There was a scattering of snow on the 14th. Birds We searched unsuccessfully for the Water […]
Highlights: Prolific fungi, fox & cubs (!), scarce visitor to the Environment Centre plus a new pair of birds, and lots of little creatures skulking under logs and stones. Weather: Temperatures ranged from a minimum of 7C to a max of 11C. Mainly cloudy on Wildwatch Wednesdays, but a sunny day on the 5th and rain […]
Weather: in a wet and relatively mild month, Wednesday mornings were mainly cold and dry, though very muddy. Water in the becks was high early in the month, but kept below flood level. Observers: numbers have remained high, sometimes running to three groups. Birds: the previous month’s high bird counts continued, with a maximum […]