Wildlife at St Nicks has been flourishing this spring. Wildwatch volunteers would normally be meeting every week to record – and enjoy – this. Alas, this is impossible right now. However, several Wildwatchers have been able to visit individually and share their sightings with us all. And of course staff members continue to do essential […]
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 The year’s butterfly showing continued to disappoint, but lots of bugs and hoverflies brighten up Wildwatch mornings… Unusual bird visitors included a Common Snipe and Water Rail… Two new plant gall records. Weather Wildwatch days in September were disappointingly overcast and often windy, but brightened up for October which gave us a number […]
Highlights The flowers that bloom in the spring (tra-la!).. the year’s first butterflies appear, and the Harlequinade begins.. mewing in the air and creeping in the garden! Weather Temperatures started to creep up during the month, starting with a cool 4C on the 1st and reaching 11C later on subsequent Wildwatch Wednesdays. There were some […]
Highlights Winter & summer birds overlap; striking autumn colours; shieldbugs still bugging, but butterflies have flown Weather Temperatures were generally in the low teens. The 14th was the only Wednesday with any sunshine, whilst on the 28th, heavy rain curtailed the Wildwatch activity after about an hour. Otherwise, conditions were dry, if a little soggy […]
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 […]
Weather: Cloudy at first, then sunny. Little wind. 5C to 11C Observers: Eithne, Ian, Kaye, Kaj, Linda Last week, our blog headline was “Has Spring Been Cancelled?”. What a change this week! It felt pleasantly warm, especially when the sun was shining. And there were signs of Spring everywhere. This resulted in several “firsts” for […]
Weather: Sunny at first, then sunny intervals. 3 to 5 C. Light NE wind. Feeling cool! Observers: Eithne, Ian, Kaye, Jo, John, Roger At last – a sunny day! But still cold, and still little sign of Spring. It’s as if everything has been put on hold, waiting for a few warm days for all the […]
Weather: Cloudy, light, cool SW breeze, 2 – 5 C Observers: Carrie, Hannah, Ian, John, Katie, Kaj, Kaye, Steve The arrival of John and Katie, two new members of Wildwatch, swelled our numbers to eight observers. We decided, therefore to split into two groups. Carrie, Ian, John and Katie went anti-clockwise round the reserve, with the […]
Weather: Sunny intervals, short blustery showers, fresh to strong N wind, 8C (felt colder in wind) Observers: Doug, Ian, Janetta, Jim, Kaye, Kaj, Steve, Tim A good turn-out of eight people today, with Doug and Jim coming along for the first time. The recently-melted snow had swollen the two becks, with Tang Hall Beck being particularly full. […]