Week 37: Migrant Stonechat & Sibling King

Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) (video grab)

Over the last week, it has been raining Stonechats…sort of! Dainty, orangey-brown puffs of down have been turning up in unusually high numbers, sitting pretty on prominent perches and showing themselves off to all and sundry...if you’re lucky. Ordinarily, a handful on Ivinghoe Beacon constitutes a good year. Last week, 19 were reported in one day! Dan of Hemel Birding found at least 3 at Water End, near Great Gaddesden last week. And, if ever there was a chance for one to turn up on Box Moor Trust land it was now, following what has obviously been an extraordinarily good breeding season. They are a resident species in the south and west of the UK but only really present in Hertfordshire during passage migration, with a few birds over-wintering. Their name, I guess, stems from their call, which starts with a whistle and ends with what sounds like two stones being bashed together.


Wednesday morning was my first opportunity this week to get out around Box Moor and I headed for Roughdown Common. I scoured all the obvious places a Stonechat might hang out and some not so obvious ones, just in case. I walked the moors, from Station Road to Two Waters Road, scanning the fence lines for bundles of feathers propelling themselves up into the air (or down onto the grass) to catch insects. No sign. However, I did come across a good dozen Common Darter dragonflies (Sympetrum striolatum), including a mating pair, on the river Bulbourne in exactly the same area that the damselflies had frequented in June. There is obviously something about the habitat in this location which is just right for damsels and dragons.

Wending my way back upriver, to the area which the Kingfishers favour (just downstream from the footbridge and weir between Harding’s Moor and Bulbourne Meadow), I got lucky. A Kingfisher was perched on a branch, attention firmly on the water. I inched my way nearer, trying to keep myself hidden, eventually getting as close as the cover would allow. I had about 90 precious seconds with the bird before we were disturbed by walkers and the encounter evaporated. But, more on that to follow.

Back to the Stonechat search. Thursday afternoon, off I went to Westbrook Hay. Dellfield had been transformed by the hay cut and, having photographed the Oak, I thought I’d just check Bovingdon Reach meadow for Stonechats or other migrants. It’s not difficult to imagine my delight when, up ahead of me, I saw a little bird fly up into the air and come back down to land on the top of a bush. It was unmistakably a Stonechat, enjoying the flies and insects accompanying the sheep, grazing the meadow. It was favouring the small “island” of vegetation on the south-east side, near Hay Wood. The next hour and half were spent watching and filming the immature male (fledged this year) as he fed on Hawthorn berries and tasty morsels plucked from flight and, on a couple of occasions, looked as though he was about to explode (you'll see what I mean if you watch the clip…). [The HD version is available on Vimeo: just click the HD button, bottom right corner, and follow the link]




Ok, returning to the Kingfisher story. The bird I saw on Wednesday was obviously a male but it wasn’t until I got home and went through the photographs that I was able to put the bird in context. It is in fact another immature bird (white tip to the bill and dark tops to the feet/legs) and is likely the sibling of the immature female I saw last week. He has a slightly deformed/damaged lower mandible, which will make him easy to identify in the near future. It really is fantastic news that the resident adult pair managed to successfully raise at least 2 fledglings this year.

Below are a series of shots of the young male as he preened. Heavy crops and backlit but I thought them worth sharing. I watched the bird dive into the water; emerge; settle, and then set about sorting out his feathers. Wonderful stuff.

This week's Oak photograph and Dellfield after the hay cut

Finally, the mothing team have trapped on Trust land a few times in recent weeks. You can read Ben’s latest reports and enjoy their best finds here and here.

Week 24: A Novel Use of Nettles & Family Wagtail

The first week of July and yet, applying my mind is like trying to rouse a tiny dormouse, snuggled up in a downy nest, seeing out the winter. That is to say, the creative juices have run dry. I’m adopting the less is more approach when it comes to words and will perhaps rethink things from week 26 onwards. By that point, the project will have been going for 6 months and might be worth tweaking/reworking/abandoning. Who knows.

Ok, first up, it’s a female Banded Demoiselle.

This one was fluttering around the common nettles by the river, east of Station Road on Harding's Moor. At one point it looked as though it was ovipositing some 15 metres from the river (pardon?!). That had me scratching my head until someone suggested that perhaps the Demoiselle was using the bristles on the nettle leaf to clean itself. That made perfect sense, especially when I noticed that apart from the mating claspers (cerci) and ovipositing appendages (stylus), the damselfly had a foreign object hanging from its rear end (nice!)!

After the Broad-bodied Chasers, I’ve seen an additional 3 species of dragonfly this week on Trust land. A few Emperors (river Bulbourne, Gadespring cress beds and Preston Hill pond), a Southern Hawker around Fishery Moor and a Common Darter (photographed, left) at the Preston Hill pond.

Most noticeable this week, though, has been the number and variety of butterflies out and about. Marbled Whites, Commas, Small Tortoiseshell, Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Red Admiral and Small Whites to name but a few. Add to that, Small and Large Skippers out in good numbers now. I have attempted a Skipper ID comparison (below) from photographs taken at the Brickworks this week.

Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris) (left); Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) (right)

3 Key Differences

1. Size (wingspan): Small Skipper 27-34mm; Large Skipper (male) 29-34mm, (female) 31-36mm. Their wingspans overlap but the Small Skipper is noticeably smaller in the field.
2. Shading on the wing: Large Skipper - dark shading/patterning on forewing
3. Antennae: Small Skipper - orange/brown rounded tips; Large Skipper - hooked tips. I’ve not found an Essex Skipper (yet) so don’t have to worry about that!

Up on Further Roughdown, I came across a pair of mating Ringlets (Aphantopus hyperantus). Their larval foodplants are grasses [Cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata), Common Couch (Elytrigia repens), False Brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum), Meadow-grasses (various) (Poa spp.) and Tufted Hair-grass (Deschampsia cespitosa)].

And, near Old Fishery Lane, a Gatekeeper butterfly (Pyronia tithonus) was warming itself, perched on nettles. This is another species that relies on grasses as larval foodplants [Bents (various) (Agrostis spp.), Fescues (various) (Festuca spp.) and Meadow-grasses (various) (Poa spp.). Common Couch (Elytrigia repens)].

Early on in the week, Monday, I think it was, I was walking across Station Moor when I suddenly heard the distressed calls of a Grey Wagtail. I looked up to see a Sparrowhawk lazily flying south, carrying something in its talons. The diminutive Grey Wagtail was in hot pursuit as if its yellow go-faster-stripes were sufficient protection against such a predator. I did wonder if the Sparrowhawk had made off with a young Grey Wagtail. Anyway, on Thursday, I was able to get back to the area and was pleased to discover that, whatever had been going on with the Sparrowhawk, it had not prevented the Grey Wagtail pair from successfully fledging at least 2 youngsters this week by the Fishery Road canal bridge. I’ve put together some video footage of the parents and one of the fledglings. It was a task and a half to capture significant moments when the wind wasn’t gusting and making the footage unusable. Some clips are a little ropey (to put it mildly!) but hopefully that doesn’t detract too much from enjoying the events.



Finally, this week's Oak photograph.