Arctic Adventure - day 7

Ice and sea scape

Another day dawns and as it's Sunday we are allowed a lie in so it's a late wake up call - 8.00 am - and then a snack and tea to be followed between 10-12 by brunch.  This enables the staff to have a bit of a lighter day and also allows us to thoroughly enjoy the excitement of smashing through the ice floes and looking for seals and bears on the ice.

As always kittiwake follow in our wake picking off the small fish disturbed by our progress through the icebergs.

Breaking through the ice

After a snack and tea it was on with the layers yet again and out on the deck to look our for more polar bear - we had 7 under our belt already but everyone was excited at the prospect of the potential for more.   Within a few moments of arriving on deck several were spotted on ice at the foot of a distant glacier.   Our guides who had telescopes had counted 5, but only 3 were visible with binoculars and good eyesight.

The captain gradually our fascination continued as we spotted several harp and ringed seals also hauled out on the ice.   The more excitable amongst us were waiting for the bears to make a kill, but as we watched it became clear that the seal were well aware of the bears' presence and they rolled off the ice into the sea well before there was any risk of danger.

Polar bear watching

Brunched at 11.15 am, and as we ate the ship began a steady reverse away from the ice so that we could continue through the Hinlopenstretet towards the strait between the two islands of Barentoya and Edgeoya.

Sooo cute

However, the polar bears had other ideas and we hadn't travelled far before yet another male was found.   He was curious and as the captain moved us downwind of him and cut the engine, he struggled to work out exactly what he was dealing with.  The whole ship was amazingly quiet with no-one speaking and the only sound being that of camera shutters clicking away.   Videos were taken and everyone was in raptures as this amazing creature ambled about in front of us just a hundred yards away.   At one stage a tripod clanked against a rail and he scampered back, only to keep sniffing and tasting the air trying to work out what was in front of him.   This just makes you realise how vulnerable these creatures can be when they are curious.

Gradually he moved back towards us still sniffing and tasting, but after about 30 minutes he decided he was bored and started to move away.   He slowly clambered over the various icebergs in front of us, occasionally breaking off pieces of ice giving him wet paws.   Once firmly back on a large berg he rolled in the snow to dry his coat kicking his legs in the air and leaping from one snow pile to another.   Evenually he sat down on the edge of a berg and put his head down into the water watching for prey to pass by.   We left him to his deliberations.

Ice sculpture

We travelled on for about half an hour (just long enough for celebratory tea and doughnuts) then a further two bears were spotted - one a very long way off, but the other close enough for more good binocular views.   As the day progressed the weather improved and by 5.00 pm the clouds were clearing and blue sky highlighted the icebergs and water brilliantly.   The flat icebergs look like lilypads on a pond and where they are starting to melt into holes they are reminiscent of emmenthal or jarlsberg cheese.

Just what can I smell?

At one stage Hat Rescue was put into effect when someone's hat disappeared over the side onto an iceberg.   After several fishing attempts by a crew member with a very long hook the only want to retrieve it was to go down the ladder and step onto the ice, a very brave member of the crew did just that and the hat was soon reunited with its owner.   Luckily on this occasion were were travelling extremely slowly through the ice, the owner of a camera was not quite so lucky, and there is a lumix somewhere out there just waiting for a polar bear to take pictures of passing tourists for the cubs back in the den!

Later as the day wore on we passed an old kill, probably a seal, being picked over by glaucous and ivory gull.   The ribs remained - remarkably red against the white of the snow and ice.   At one stage the ivory gull had a piece of what looked like intestine and was thrashing it about on the snow.   Just the sort of show you need as you sit down for venison (or bambi) steak and banoffee pie.   However, once again the bears decided to play havoc with the catering as a further two appeared.   13 in one day!

Time for bed

At 10.00 pm the captain decided to give us a treat and stop the engines for the night (so no crunching through the ice fields or clanking of the engine) and it was decided that we would continue with another day on the boat tomorrow - hoping that we are successful in our circumnavigation - only time will tell.

Arctic Adventure - day 6

The good news was that we didn't get a wake up call at 4.45 am, the bad news is that we weren't rudely awoken as a previous kill had disappeared and there were no polar bears or arctic foxes in the area - the ship therefore sailed on.

Anchored in the fjord

We reverted to our usual routine, breakfast and then a trip in the zodiacs for a rather laborious uphill trek to see mountainous glacial landscapes.   It was actually fascinating, amazing and sobering in its grandeur, but more of that later.

As we climbed up the hillside, once again we were walking in several inches depth of boggy tundra - each time one foot went down the other rose with the pressure - when we were on terra firma it was scree and loose rocks.   All this completed in wellington boots!

Ptarmigan

Nearing the top of the first summit with the main group ahead of us, a call from behind drew my attention to movement next to me and as I slowly turned and reached for the binoculars a ptarmigan was feeding between the rocks on the hillside just a few yards away from me.   Most of us were spellbound by finding this male so close to the group, the white plumage and the red marking on the face were brilliant and we just wanted to stand and watch.   Our interest drew the attention of the rest of the group and we then had to warn them not to backtrack too quickly so they didn't scare him off.   Luckily there were a few experienced birders in the group and they realised what our hand-signals meant and everyone who wanted to, got good views.  

Soggy Tundra

This was a long but very productive walk where lots of flowers were seen and the huge landscape made for great photography and as we looked back to The Antarctic Dream it was dwarfed by the mountains and glaciers all around.

When we finally got to the top of the hillside we were climbing we had views of the fjord beind us and of a retreating glacier with terminal moraine behind us.   As we all appreciated the landscape and watched with binoculars and took photographs our guides called us together.  

On top of the World

They asked us to sit for five minutes in perfect silence and just look, hear, taste and smell the environment.   Whilst at first there were a few askance looks, everyone took part and the longer we sat the more we heard.   The whistle of the breeze against the land, and the distant running of the meltwater far in the valley.  

Soon, it was time to break the silence and make our way back to the ship for our lunch.   As we dined we sailed back to the fjord entrance so that we could visit a Brunnich's Guillemot colony - where there are said to be 100,000 pairs - lucky the person who had to count them all!

Brunnich's Guillemot Colony

So, our afternoon was spent in zodiacs cruising along at the base of their colony set high up on the cliffs, we spent over two hours enjoying these superb little birds as they protected their territory on the ledges and flew back and forth for feeding and washing in the sea around us.   They showed absolutely no fear of  us and at one stage as I photographed the birds in the sea around our boat one actually came up to the camera and pecked at it.   Absolutely fantastic!   I took far too many photographs, but it was hard to resist trying to capture these great sights.

Nosey!

As we watched we realised that the kittiwakes had taken over the higher parts of the cliffs, there were also odd glaucous gulls watching for an possible weaknesses to exploit.   We did see a gull eating a dead guilliemot by pecking at the abdomen as it floated on the sea.  

Finally, we had to drag ourselves away - even the non-birdwatchers in our boat were amazed at the size of the colony and enjoyed the activity and sounds of such a large colony.  

Back on board and there was just time for tea and biscuits before dinner - then it was (hopefully) off to see some walrus.  As we prepared for dinner several seals were spotted lying on icebergs, seemingly unmoved by our presence.



The one plant I found on the Polar Desert



As we dined the ship carried on down the strait towards our next stop and by the time dinner was finished we had dropped anchor and it was time to put on the thermal layers again and climb down into the zodiacs for another shore trip.   This time we were to split into two groups.   The first would go for a walk in an polar desert and the second would go to see the walrus, then the groups would swap around.  This way the disturbance of walrus was kept to a minimum and the regulations for watching them were maintained with regard to noise and distance.   It was agreed that if anyone wanted to spend further time watching there would be a late departure by agreement.

Jostling and grumbling

We were in the second group and went to see the walrus first.   We had a briefing on the beach so that everyone was absolutely sure of what we had to do before we moved towards the animals.   Basically move slowly forward as one group until our two armed guides indicated that we had reached the point where we should fan out slowly.   We were reminded to keep quite and if we wanted to move away to quietly move behind the group and await further instructions.   At no time were we to move away from the safety of the group and more importantly the armed guides.   If disturbed or frightened the walrus would simply move off into the sea and that would be the end of our viewing session.   So off we set.  

They're soooo cute

We moved forward towards two large groups of males who had hauled out onto the beach.  This is a well known site for them and they were happily piled up in a huge heap with their flippers around each other, lying top to tail, some even across or on top of each other and with tusks digging into each others bellies.  They pack together closely to keep warm and move around so that the outer ones eventually end up in the middle and then gradually move back to the edge again when they get overheated.   Every so often one would move and dig a neighbour in the belly with its tusk, the disturbed walrus would then have a dig at another walrus and so on - after a few minutes of wrestling and grumbling they would all settle back down to their grunting, groaning, burping and farting, jostling and squabbling, all completely oblivious of the fact that 40-odd homo-sapiens were watching from a few hundred yards away.   Their whiskers were magnificent and their cute faces were enhanced by their open nostrils which accentuated the shape of their heads.   Despite their lumbering size they were enigmatic and totally cute and if you haven't guessed already, they were one of my surprise highlights of the trip - I want to be a walrus!

A heap of walrus

We estimated that there were around 80 in one heap and 30 in the second.   The males feed and loaf in this area whilst the females and calves use a more easterly area of Nordaustlandet.   After about 2 minutes it was time for the groups to swap over and we moved away to the desert area.  This was an area created by uplifted glacial beaches.   There is no rain in this area and therefore very few plants.   After viewing the tip of the world's third largest ice cap (that on Nordaustlandet only beaten by the Antarctic and Arctic ice caps) we were offered the chance to view the walrus for one last time before we had to go back to the ship.  Standing by the ice cap was cold and although it was tempting to go straight back, I couldn't resist one last look at my new found favourites, so it was back to the beach for another 15 minute session of bliss. . . . .

What more can I say, it was love at first sight.

Arctic Adventure - Day 5

We were supposed to be heading for an area to do a zodiac landing, but the weather conditions were foggy, overcast and not deemed safe for a landing so we continued for the most northerly area of our trip - the seven islands area.  The plan is to try to go to the first area planned later on today and we have been told to prepare for a late night tonight and a very early morning tomorrow - deep joy, can't wait!

The Ice Field

To help us on our way two more polar bears were spotted on the ice - a much more enigmatic place to see them than on land as yesterday.   The captain was skilled in his job and managed to get the ship to gradually drift towards these fantastic creatures and gave us all great views, photo and video potential, and some breathtaking moments.   During lunch two ringed seals were found and a harp seal spotted.

This area had far more icebergs and and ship was being slowed down by having to weave in between the larger ones - the captain however seemed far happier when we were thrashing our way through the middle of them.   At times the ship rose high out of the water before the weight of it finally cracked the iceberg into many pieces.   As the bergs broke fish were released from their hiding place - much to the delight of the kittiwake and fulmar following the ship, and we were mesmerised by the movement and breaking of these amazing natural creations.   Hours were spent on the bow just enjoying the whole process take place as we progressed through the frozen sea.

Iceberg


It was announced that the place we had intended to stop at this morning for walrus had already been visited by another ship and no walrus appeared there as the ice was still packed solid and they would therefore not come out onto land where there was so much ice.   They much prefer the land or sea when the ice has melted away from the coastal areas.

blue morph fulmar

We therefore spent the day bashing through the icebergs and watching the birds.   Reading was impossible as the views from the windows was too amazing to miss.

After dinner we were to go off on the zodiacs for an evening expedition looking for walrus we were warned to wear both cold and wet weather gear as the sea was a little rough and the return journey would probably be a little rough.   Being in the leading zodiac, we were lucky to spot the first walrus in the sea by the land, they had a good look at us, decided they didn't really like what they saw, then swam off at speed.   As we were getting over the excitement of that viewing, the boat behind had 5 grey phalaropes on the sea, again we were lucky to spot them before they flew off.



Walrus skull

 On the land our first interest was a walrus skull, an amazing thing with one tusk and the teeth visible.  After ensuring that the zodiacs were safely tied up onto huge pieces of driftwood and rocks, we moved along the beach and made our way to a small inlet where sabine's gulls were known to nest.   We were lucky again and spotted a pair of these pretty gulls and were able to watch them for some time.   As our attention was taken by the gulls a purple sandpiper came to within 10 feet of us totally at ease with our presence.   The journey back was definitely defined as "lumpy" and we were bounced about for about 45 minutes - absolutely well worth it all though.

Back on board a warming cup of tea was required before the reality of a possible 4.45am wake up call drove us to our cabins about 11.30 pm!

Arctic Adventure - Day 4

The weather was expected to be about 5 degrees today, so we were all contemplating plenty of layers of clothing as we took breakfast and watched the "bergy-bits" (the official name for small icebergs) floating past us.

Breakfast was interrupted by the shout of  "polar bear" by an eagle-eyed John and our first view of this charismatic creature was made.   He had spotted a mother and two cubs on a nearby island, as the boat slowed down in preparation for our anchoring for the morning, two more bears were spotted by Phil.

Zodiacs are Go!

We were called to a briefing about our morning's excursion and were advised that our plans were being changed (typical of an expedition-type cruise) as the governor of the area had taken the spot we were planning to anchor in.   It had therefore been decided to do a zodiac cruise in the area where the polar bears had been seen and try to get a closer look.   This was also a good spot for grey phalarope.



Mum and two cubs

 The ship returned to the Andoyane Islands a group of low lying islands where we had seen the mother and cubs initially, and the zodiacs were launched amid much excitement.   We had soon caught up with the trio and we spent a long time just enjoying their behaviour as they moved along the island looking for bird eggs and other food potential.   The arctic terns were mobbing the mother who totally ignored them and continued in her quest for food for the cubs.

As we sailed along the islands we saw great skua, eider and king eider using the sea around the land for food and shelter, and a red-throated diver in one of the bays.

As we returned to the ship the rain and sleet started and with low cloud adding to the gloom we returned for a well deserved lunch.



Section of the Monaco Glacier

 During lunch the captain moved the ship further up the fjord and we passed several colonies of kittiwake, fulmar, little auk and black guillemot highlighted on the cliffs by the green lichen and plant growth encouraged by their guano - the rest of the rocks being completely barren.   We stopped at the head of the fjord in front of the monaco glacier - an amazing hunk of glacial geography which took me back to my A level days.  In front of the glacier we also spotted 3 ivory gull flying amongst the glaucous gull and kittiwake.   These beautiful rather delicate gulls are more like doves, it is hard to imagine how they survive in such a harsh environment alongside their rather larger counterparts.  

As we watched in wonder a huge iceberg broke off the main glacier and started to float off down the fjord passed the ship.   Cloud quickly closed in and it started to rain, so it was time to take refuge in the lounge with a nice cup of tea.   The ship turned round and we retraced our journey back down towards the open sea.   On the way we collected some fuel which had been left by a BBC crew when they were filming arctic fox and polar bears for a natural history series.   As we moved towards the sea we spotted a Vega Expeditions vessel - the first one we had seen since leaving Longyearbyen.   On the shore, rather incongruously we noted a small hut with a picnic table on the moraine scree at the base of another nearby glacier.

We continued to cruise for the rest of the afternoon, and then headed off for Moffen Island north of Spitsbergen itself, and a good spot for walrus, as they have a beaching area there.   Unfortunately the walrus had decided on a different resting place on this particular day, the captain however, was keen that we should have something to celebrate (on top of our first polar bears) and continued for the 80 degree north latitude.

After dinner we were all called to don our cold weather gear and meet on deck to toast our northern progress with a shot of vodka - said to be a Norwegian window cleaning fluid!  As we crossed the line the ships bell pealed and we all cheered.   Now it could be the vodka or just pure skill but within minutes of knocking back the shot Phil spotted 6 or 7 walrus in the water, then as we were all watching them a more gregarious chap was spotted close in to the hull of the boat.   As we moved along the site of Moffen Island we spotted more on a beach and telescoped views were possible for most folk - some had already given in to the cold or tiredness by this time.

Timed Out!

Timed tetrad visits for the BTO 2007-11 Atlas finish on Sunday, and I have completed my last two sites.   Thanks to Malcolm and Sally for their help and encouragement in this.   Two sites in a day is never easy, but we had little choice with other commitments and once you get out there it's always interesting.    So after two one hour surveys at Trossley Country Park and surrounds it was over to New Ash Green for the same. 

Trossley

It has been fascinating to see how patterns change with the seasons, and although the old favourites are always present there have been a few surprises, mainly the number of birds of prey with buzzard seen in each of the four visits and great views over both sites, with several birds overhead and breeding sparrowhawk near New Ash Green yesterday.   The most numerous bird on every occasion in both sites has been wood pigeon.

The best visits were (unsurprisingly) the April/May surveys where there was great evidence of breeding birds, with good views of blackcap, green woodpecker, goldcrest, blue and great tits, wren, whitethroat and treecreeper at Trossley and kestrel, long-tailed tit, chiffchaff, whitethroat, goldfinch and garden warbler at New Ash Green.  The birds were vocal and visible with lots of breeding activity to see.  

Our stars for nesting birds has to go to the great spotted woodpecker family near New Ash Green though, the adults were busily food collecting and once we had settled quietly with a view of their nesting hole they gave us a great show of their parental devotion, lots of contact calls, flying back and forth with full beaks to feed the young.   You could hear the chicks calling from the nest as they kept in constant contact with the parent birds.   "Timed" tetrad visit didn't quite fit the bill on this one and we did stop the clock for a while so that we could just soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the moment . . . .

One of the reasons why the surveys are so enjoyable and why I'll miss doing them . . . . . . still there's always the weekly garden watch, the roving reports, etc, etc. . .  just going to clean my bins!

Arctic Adventures - Day 3

So, having got over the journey, today was the beginning of the real adventure. Our first sighting was of a harp seal before breakfast and keen and eager as we were for food, the seal won hands down and all excited travellers took to the decks with our binoculars and cameras (not to mention several layers of clothes as the temperature was only about 6 degrees).

Landing

After breakfast and a briefing from the expedition leader we were off to put on the thermal and waterproof layers for our first zodiac trip to land.   The aim was in Kongsfjorden and a walk at Bloustrandhalvoya taking us over tundra and boggy land where walking uphill through treacle would have almost been easier.   At least we didn't feel the cold as we used our breakfast calories to scale the dizzy heights.  

The priority for me was (as always) avian, however the specialist plants and flowers were a great draw, and when you have an expert botanist around like Jenny it makes it all the more enjoyable.

Red-throated Diver on the nest

Back to feathers, however, and we saw arctic skua, two pairs of red-throated diver one on a nest which was on an island in the middle of a small glacial lake.   Two pairs of barnacle geese one with two young and the other with three.   On a further lake we saw long-tailed duck, a male and two females, as we watched them from a distance the male started to display, a great sight.

Jenny spent much time and patience explaining the plants to us all, with purple saxifrage, pale whitlow grass, hairy lousewort and drooping saxifrage being the ones I can remember. 

Our guide Philippe explained how the 'Old Red' stone conglomerate which stretches from as far away as Greenland all through Spitsbergen and was brought by the last ice age.

Reindeer

As we walked 6 reindeer were spotted, one with spectacular antlers and the women were both amazed and envious of their eyelashes!
We ended up by a settlement made by prospectors looking for marble mining potential, unfortunately as soon as the rock is moved south it dries up and crumbles.   After we had watched very protective long-tailed skua near their nest it was back to the zodiac and on to the ship for lunch.

As we dined in style the Captain sailed to another location where we hoped to be able to walk on a glacier, however another boat as moored up where we needed to be so we moved further on to Krossfjorden and a place called Tynerebukta.
Here we had our second zodiac trip and saw reindeer remains - this prompted a discussion about arctic foxes where the dominant foxes live near the coast and feed on seabird colonies, ducks, goslings and even adult geese when in eclipse.   The inland (less dominant foxes) live a harder life without these ample food sources and they have to scavenge on dead and weak reindeer.   As polar bears rarely kill a reindeer they have no real predators, their main sources of death are starvation or fighting other males for territory.

As we walked we saw an unnamed bronze coloured funghi and more reindeer with young about a month old. 

Common eider and king eider were spotted together which gave us a great opportunity to compare the females which when apart seem almost impossible.   When they are together however, the king either female looks smaller, with a slightly smaller head and a more golden brown plumage than the common.   We also saw common eider with over a creche of over 20 ducklings.

Reindeer Antlers in a tangle

As we walked we also saw puffin, little auk, fulmar, kittiwake and brunnich's gulliemot.   Two bearded seals were spotted on bergy-bits, and two pairs of reindeer antlers had also been washed ashore tangled in some thick rope.

At dinner we had a long discussion about bird ringing, and also discussed sub-species and different colour morphs - needless to say I didn't stay up late!

Arctic Adventures - Day 2

Longyearbyen Airport

As we were staying at the hotel next door to the airport we were able to go and check-in then return for a leisurely breakfast before we left the hotel, and began the really exciting part of the trip - into the Arctic Circle.   The flight goes from Oslo to Tromso where you have to get off the 'plane and go through immigration, then back on the same 'plane (in the same seat!) to fly to Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen.
Despite the fact that they do this every day, the flight crew were very keen for us to know exactly when we flew over Heligoland (where the heligoland traps were first devised and so named) at 10.45 am, and even more exciting, when we passed into the Arctic Circle at 10.58 am. 
We had ensured that extra layers were available to put on when we landed as we had several hours free to wander around the town where the air temperature was around 6 degrees with a wind chill.   As we walked around the town we took photos of the scenery and watched snow bunting in their summer plumage, there were also Svalbard poppy and several saxifrages. 
Lots of little auks, blue morph fulmar, puffin, black guillemot, and brunnich's guillemot were flying along the harbour.  Purple sandpiper were feeding along the water's edge.

Snow Bunting

Down near the husky kennels a pair of arctic skuas had nested and had two young.   Arctic tern were annoyed by them and mobbing as the skuas flew too near to the terns nest.    The young skua were squabbling and trying to grab each other by the neck - typical skuas - but no parental control!  
There was some talk of an ivory gull, and as one of our fellow travellers was perched on the edge of the beach with a rather long camera lens we decided to investigate.   Good instinct as Roger was photographing the ivory gull, and some rather passable pictures were taken. 
Longyearbyen is a typical outpost-town, with four months of total daylight and 6 months of dark it's not suprising that it has it's own special character, the locals need to be admired for their stoic ability to put up with such a remote setting on a permanent basis.   It was soon time for us to board our home for the next 9 nights - the Antarctic Dream - this vessel is one down from an ice breaker and spends our summers in the Arctic and our winters in the Antarctic.   The sailing crew are Chilean, and the hotel side of the team are from New Zealand, Philippines and the UK, an eclectic mix.   So at 4.00 pm we wandered along the harbourside past skidoo parks (car parks for the rest of us) the church and the old coal mining company to start our cruise.

The Antarctic Dream

Once everyone had joined the ship, and we had been shown our cabins the next challenge was to find our way back to the lounge area for our safety briefing.   This involved the sounding of the muster station alarm, dashing back to our cabin to put the life jacket on then back upstairs again to the muster station and a roll call.   We also had to work out if our cabin was on port or starboard, and then which lifeboat we would go to.   We were assured that they wouldn't leave us behind if we did need to abandon ship and joined the wrong queue.   Let's hope we don't have to test them out!
After dinner most of us drifted back out on deck, with a few warm layers on.   We just couldn't resist watching the passing land- and sea-scape.   We stayed out until 10.00 pm, when a shower and bed called us.  The boat rolled around and the engine was noisy

Ivory Gull

but we went to bed tired but happy to be on the cruise at last.

Arctic Adventures - Day 1

See you were all missing me and where have I been?   On top of the world!   Literally. . . .
Due to some very good connections I was given the chance of a short-notice expedition to the Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen.  Just what is a person to do when something as exciting as that falls in their lap - no option but to go obviously, and what a brilliant decision that was.

Norwegian Ringlet

However, first we had to get there, and the trip began with a SAS flight from Heathrow to Oslo on Monday afternoon.   Relieved that we had arrived with our luggage intact there was time for a short walk around the hotel, which was next to the airport, for some birds and flowers.   My first bird was a hooded crow from the aeroplane, and I soon added house martin, jackdaw, white wagtail, crossbill, siskin, magpie and the alltime favourite, feral pigeon.   I also saw a ringlet and a micro moth, possibly one of the veneers or agriphila?

White Mallow

As prices in the hotel restaurant ran at about £50 for a main course and pizza was about £25, we decided to dine in style in the cafe at the airport - coke was £6.50, but the brie, bacon and cranberry was gorgeous.   Tiredness is always an odd sensation when you have 24 hour daylight, and luckily there were black-out curtains.   Sleep was patchy as excitement over the next day's journey stopped my brain from switching off.

Butterflies and Dragonflies

What a superb day on the North Kent Marshes!   I attended a walk arranged on the RSPB reserve at Northward Hill, and led by Malcolm and Roger.   The purpose to find butterflies and damselflies.



Shaded broad-bar moth

 We saw 12 species of butterfly: large white, small white, marbled white, small skipper, ringlet, gatekeeper, green-veined white, red admiral, meadow brown, small heath and the most exciting sightings of the day were purple hairstreak and white letter hairstreak.   Roger demonstrated the lemon-scented pheremone of the green-veined white male, which was fascinating to experience.

We also identified two species of moth (although there were in fact quite a few day-flying moths that we did not concentrate on),shaded broad-bar scotopteryx chenopodiata and cinnabar tyria jacobaeae.   We also saw many caterpillars of the cinnabar on ragwort.

Purple Hairstreak

This afternoon we moved to Cliffe Pools, RSPB reserve trying to find the reported Lestes barbarus - southern emerald damselfly or migrant spreadwing (spreadwing due to the way it holds its wings).   The track leading to the side of the reserve we were interested in is rutted and much comment was made about the lack of use of the accelerator!  However after a long and tedious journey we finally reached the area of interest.   There were five gents scouring the ditches on the side of the fields, and before too long we had caught up with a successful group.   They believed they were looking at a female.   In fact after referring to the book, and after we had managed to get one in a tube for closer examination, we realised they had a male and we also found a female for comparison.

As we watched we also found scarce emerald damselfly lestes dryas and the more we looked the more blue-tailed damselflies we saw, including one of the 'heterochrome' form.

White letter hairstreak

More photos from today appear on my flickr account (see above).

Thanks to Malcolm and Roger for leading a great walk and for identifying so many species for us, many of them a first for me.

Race for Life

Just got back from the 10K Race for Life in Maidstone.   A few bottle-necks along the way but Heather and I managed it in 1hr 18 mins, not too bad, and it leaves scope for improvement next year!    [can't believe I actually put that]

Anyway, although I obviously did not have my binoculars with me as I ran, I did keep a list:
Mute swan, greylag, canada geese, crow, jackdaw, chiffchaff, blackcap, black-headed gull.

A big 'Thank you' to all those who supported us - it certainly spurs you on to know that so many people have put their faith in us.

Off for a lie down now.

Rainham Marshes RSPB Reserve

As I was due to return from my friends in Essex today, my friends kindly arranged to go for a walk at Rainham Marshes today, which saved me having to charge through the early morning rush-hour at the QEII Bridge.
We met at 10.00 am and headed straight for the spot where grasshopper warbler had been reported. Irene had been lucky enough to see this bird when the group visited earlier this year, so we were relying on her to help in our quest. However we didn't need to go far down the path just outside the reserve before we could hear the distinctive "reeling" of this lovely little bird. Just to hear it was great but then it really thrilled us with good views too. Even though the wind was blowing the bush around violently the bird continued to sit up singing away and showing off for all he was worth. We watched and listened, delighted that our ears were still catching the high pitch, and eventually had to drag ourselves away but not before we had a good but rather speedy view of a sparrowhawk hunting low over the fields.
There had been reports of yellow-legged gull and with hundreds of gulls on the river, the reserve and over the nearby fields and landfill site it really was asking the impossible to track an individual bird down, we did see black-headed, herring and lesser-black-backed gull. Eventually we contented ourselves with the wildlife we could identify, and enjoyed peacock, red admiral, essex skipper and small skipper, along with occasional dragonflies and damselflies (not quite as numerous as they had been at Old Hall yesterday). We saw family groups of coot, great crested and little grebe, young blue tits, greenfinches, goldfinch, house sparrow and adult blackbird and reed warbler carrying food. A kestrel hovered near the railway line, patrolling his patch diligently.

Lizard

Marsh frogs were calling, a lizard was sunning itself on one of the wooden bridges and we saw several feeding stations and latrines for water vole (although the animal itself eluded us today). A rather large thistle was later identified by the staff as a cotton thistle. We noted chicory, purple loosestrife, ladies bedstraw, several pea and vetch varieties amongst others.
A new hide has been opened recently, and although it currently has no real view, hopefully the plans to landscape the area and instal a further scrape will provide excellent viewing opportunities in the future.
Time marched on and the call of the cafe proved too much, tea and cake needed to be sampled before we embarked on the journey back to Kent in the evening rush hour.
Another great day out, well worth the £3 toll money . . . and a free hearing test thrown in what more could you ask for!
n.b. this post is also available on the Gravesend RSPB Group Website

Old Hall Marshes RSPB Reserve



Old Hall Marshes

Several times a year I visit friends in Essex and on one of the days Ken and I usually choose a new birding site to explore.   Today's excursion was to Old Hall Marshes RSPB Reserve near Maldon.Before your visit you need to apply for a Visitor's or parking permit, so visitor numbers are strictly controlled with the car park only taking a few cars.   The site is coastal/tidal marsh similar to the North Kent Marsh reserves which are a little nearer to home.   On one side there is the picturesque sight of Bradwell Power Station and on the other tidal salt marshes, inlets and scrapes with cattle grazing.   This is not a site for those expecting a cafe and shopping experience, nor indeed for those requiring more than a "bush stop".  However in the style of an old-fashioned "bird reserve" it totally fits the bill.    The farm buildings house the RSPB offices and the staff are knowledgeable and welcoming, providing us with a map showing both the trail walks and also the sector divisions so that any interesting sightings can be reported in the correct area of the reserve.
Armed with this information, we were off on the 6.3 mile walk (there is also a shorter 3.5 mile circuit).   Our first obliging avian sighting was a delightful sedge warbler which gave us great views, if a little too camera-shy for Ken's liking.   After several attempts to capture the moment we gave up and left him to his singing.   Several butterflies were seen including large nummbers of skipper (still to be identified as I write), small heath, peacock, meadow brown, and a "blue" which we will have to put down to experience.   There were also huge numbers of dragonflies and damselflies, the easiest id was the emperor, after that it was a constant queue of female ruddy darters - probably over 100 seen throughout the day.   

Skipper


Kestrel, Wood pigeon, chaffinch and cormorant were soon added to our list, then the first of at least 3 marsh harriers appeared.  There have been up to 5 juveniles on the reserve this year apparently.   First we saw a couple of females, then a striking male joined them, flying towards one of the females and doing a mock "food exchange"- this happened several times during the day.   A family of whitethroat delighted us with their flying antics for several minutes before tiring of the attention and moving away.   Reed buntings were also in abundance with several family groups seen as we continued our circuit.    On the first scrape we saw black-headed guil, mute swan, lapwing, black-tailed godwit, canada geese, greylag, a loan ruff, pochard, redshank and great crested grebe.
On the sea-ward side huge numbers of shelduck were gathering against the rising tide - there must have been at least 60 of them.   Several curlew were also moving between the rills in the inlets.   Skylark were singing away as we stopped on the leeward side of the sea wall for a well-earned lunch.
Just over half-way round there is a sign "to the viewpoints" which we took.   (N.B.You should be aware that if you take this option you will need to return to the main track to continue the walk as it is a dead-end - we learned our lesson the hard way!)   However our reward for all that extra walking was common tern, spoonbill, little egret, little grebe, spotted redshank in full summer plumage, and reed warbler.


Spider Nest in Grass Seed

Probably three-quarters of the way round and to boost our flagging spirits (well it was a hot day) bearded tits were heard "pinging" in a small patch of reeds, first one, then two, and finally three were spotted.   One was a superb male who felt quite justified in showing himself off to best advantage just below the grass seed heads where it was impossible to photograph him.   The cheeky devil flew several times, and always remained stationary in just the wrong spot for a photographer.   After enjoying their antics for a while we moved on as our journey home and a cup of tea called us ever-onwards.
On the final half mile swallow and house martin were swooping overhead and a common sandpiper flew low over our heads, calling as it went.