Avocets, Terns and Gulls at Rye Harbour

Once again the Avocets are the star of the show this week - I captured this video of two pairs of them fighting! Ironically their offspring seem to all be getting along fine, but I'm sure they'll learn from their parents soon enough!

Although the chicks do spend time on their own now, they're never far from their parents, and follow them closely some of the time:

I was fortunate to get a few pictures of one of the adults flying:

They weren't the only birds flying though, I also got this Little Egret (which doesn't look so little when it's in flight!):

and also some Sandwich Terns:

This Cormorant had other ideas, preferring to head downwards... Watch the video to see how long it dives underwater for! I now understand why they spend time sat around with their wings spread out to dry!

The Common Terns now have their chicks hatched:

I think the Sandwich Terns do too, but the shrubs on their island have grown up so much I can't see them any more! The Black Headed Gull offspring are now heading into the juvenile stage:

But this doesn't stop them annoying their parents by begging for food!

Some of them have hatched much later though, and are still tiny:

You can see the difference between them and their peers that are just a few weeks older here:

The adults meanwhile are continuing to model ideal gull behaviour for their offspring...

Finally, I got my first picture of a Linnet at Rye Harbour, though it's not as sharp as I would like...

and I also saw a Sparrow, with its beak stuffed full of food! :-)

Anyway that's all for now. I've been busy up at the woods too, fixing tracks now they've dried out, and processing seasoned wood into logs ready for winter. Doesn't make for exciting photos though!

Mike

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Springtime flowers and wildlife

At last, the wood anemones are in full bloom!
That picture's from our friend's wood on the other side of the wayleave. Here's one from ours, near the pond, where we coppiced just over a year ago - there's new flowers arrived - dandelions:
There's other promising developments too, like lots of thistles, seeded from the single thistle we had last year I assume.
And a mystery plant we haven't identified yet. We'll probably have to wait for it to flower, unless anyone knows it straight away?
The area we coppiced in 2007/8 is beginning to look green again:
although there were still plenty of dead leaves from the autumn to camouflage this Purple Thorn moth while it rested:
Butterflies were busy in the same part of our wood too, including several Peacocks:
There's other insects out as well now:
and with the insects come the birds that eat them, such as this Treecreeper:
and this Great Tit
A surprise in the wayleave was to see some Sparrows hiding in the brambles, as they're normally living nearer to people.
Back to insect-eaters, we saw this lizard near our camp as well. You'll see it's in the process of shedding its skin:

And finally, how are the trees getting on? Here's some Hazel:
Some Willow:
and some Birch:
Just inside our entrance we found a few self-seeded Birch that have been growing since we coppiced there. Very please to see this natural regeneration going on:
That's all for now. Hopefully we'll visit again this weekend as things are changing so fast in the wood right now!

Mike

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Easter camping trip

We bought a new tent last weekend! The old one sleeps 8, so takes so long to put up that it's not really worth it for one night, so we thought we should have a smaller one as well. As there was a bank holiday, it seemed like a good time to test it out in the woods:
We were blessed with beautiful weather, and it was nice to be up there to prepare some fuel and cook dinner:
There was a great sunset to photograph as we walked along the wayleave to see the work that's been going on in other parts of the wood over the winter.
Then it was back to the camp and time to build the fire up a bit:
As it was a clear night I tried taking a photo of the stars with my camera on a tripod, which worked OK:
but what turned out to be more interesting was the faintly lit clouds, which you couldn't see with the naked eye:
Or, seeing as it was a long exposure, the same view but using a torch to light up the trees:
With a clear sky, the night was cold, and we've decided we need better sleeping bags for this time of year! Still, it was great to wake up in the wood, and when I crawled out of the tent at 6:30am I saw a pair of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers in the oak above me. The light was pretty poor, but I just about managed to get a photo of one of them:
then it was time for a cooked breakfast, which always tastes better when cooked over wood, of course!
and also time to hang out the bedding to air. We were really glad we'd had our bivvy bags over the sleeping bags, it would have been much too cold to sleep otherwise.
We saw plenty of wildlife while we were up there, such as this Sparrow and Chaffinch at the top of Sweep Wood (they're not found deeper inside the wood):
and there are lots of insects out as well; we were pleased to see bees enjoying the wood anemones:
The buds on the trees were developing really well now, here's the Chestnut:
Hornbeam:
Hazel:
Ash (at the top of the tree):
At the top of a large hornbeam, the leaves were much further on:
as are Sycamore saplings:
and Hawthorn:
There's also some nice blossom on the "mystery" plum tree in Sweep Wood:
Down at ground level, things are beginning to grow again:
and the wood anemone blossom is spreading:
Brambles are pushing out new leaves:
and a gorse bush in the wayleave is in flower:
There are of course some unwanted plants, such as the dreaded rhododendron, which can take over entire woodlands if left unchecked:
So we dealt with a few of them with a chainsaw!
After that we dug the roots up too, and placed them where they could not re-root. There's still some more to do, which we hope to get to in the next few weeks.

Thanks all for now,
Mike

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