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 […]
In January 2018, our Natural Habitats Manager, Jonathan, wrote a brilliant spotlight blog about the woodland structure, focusing on the understory. In this blog, Jonathan discussed the background of St Nicks woodland and talked about our plans for improvement as we launched our exciting new project; St Nicks community woodland, funded by the Postcode Local […]
Highlights Woodpecker sightings increase.. chilly month keeps insect numbers down – where are all the butterflies?.. a strange season for herbaceous plants. Weather Temperatures on Wildwatch Wednesdays remained consistently below 10C, although it was sunny on the 13th and 20th. Birds Great Spotted Woodpeckers, usually an occasional visitor to St Nicks, were seen on […]
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 […]
The Wren – which has the intriguing scientific name of Troglodytes troglodytes – is a common bird at St Nicks, although it is heard more often than it is seen. The Wren is Britain’s third smallest breeding bird, after Goldcrest and Firecrest (sharing 1st= place). For such a small bird, just 9 – 10 cm […]
Weather: A warmer patch mid-month was sandwiched between a cooler start and end to the month. Fortunately, we managed to stay dry on all four of the Wildwatch walks! A fairly dry month, so the water level in both becks started to drop, exposing muddy banks. Observers: Once again, numbers on the walks were in […]
Weather: Cloudy at first, sunny intervals later. Light winds. 9 to 12C Observers: Carrie, Cliff, Ian, Kaye, Janetta It felt a little more Spring-like today, with more flowers emerging, and bird song strong and vibrant! We welcomed Cliff to our group today, and being knowledgeable about insects, especially hover flies, his input (and photos) were […]
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 […]