Bluebell Heaven

I visited Foal Hurst Wood to see the bluebells this morning. I could wax lyrical about the sight of so many bluebells in full bloom, the sweet scent drifting across the woodland or the buzz of bumble bees visiting the flowers, but I will just post this picture and say that this is just one small patch of bluebells and there are many, many more equally beautiful displays to be seen throughout the wood.

We are so lucky to have this on our doorstep. Long may it remain so.

P.S. A bumblebee's view of a bluebell :-).

Sunrise & Dawn Chorus

Sunday 17^th April : 4.50 a.m. and its cold -minus 2c - and as the darkness lightens I can still see a few stars in the clear sky above Foal Hurst Wood. I am waiting for the first bird to begin the woodland serenade, celebrating the beginning of another day; the dawn chorus.

The previous evening I was thrilled to see a buzzard lift itself from a branch in a nearby ash tree and fly into the sky above the wildflower meadow and drift lazily westwards over the allotments, heading towards the new Orchard Meadow area of the nature reserve. I made a mental note to search the treetops later this week to look for a possible nest.

Back to the cold, which is starting to creep into me, I hope this early rise is worth the discomfort. I hop from foot to foot to warm myself.

Blackbird singing (Zingende Merel)

4.56 a.m. & the light in the eastern skyline is filling and on queue a blackbird releases a few notes, soft and gentle, respecting the early hour. A second blackbird responds and together they serenade each other (& me), marking the end of the night and the approaching sun to lighten the woodland, although the sun’s eventual rise above the horizon will be about an hour away. Last to go to bed and first to rise the blackbirds melodies seem to be the right way to start the day, easy listening.

4.57 a.m. and to my left a collard dove joins the chorus with a gentle cooing, followed swiftly by a robin to my right and 50 metres in front on me, a song thrush, one of the mornings solo artists, begins his polished performance. Vocally strong and confident, he is a star and he knows it !

More birds join in and by 5.10 a.m. the dawn chorus is in full swing, diverting thoughts of my cold feet. A wren shouts is notes to the world, such a powerful performance from such a small bird. A blue tit's gentle ‘tsi tsi’ sound comes from a lower branch and then a crow loudly ‘caws’ from high in the canopy, not so gentle on the spirit !

5.30 a.m. and the performance has been going now for thirty five minutes, with new members of the orchestra joining in. Wood pigeon, great tit, blackcap and then a chiff chaff, the last two birds migrants from lands of southern latitudes, who arrived in the third week of March, although increasingly with mild winters blackcaps are overwintering in the UK more frequently now.

5.45 a.m. and a green woodpecker ‘laughs’ from the adjacent orchard. Although the dawn chorus is full and joyful  & has built to a crescendo, I pick out the gentle tinkling of a goldcrest close by; the merest tap on a triangle, among the full orchestral performance.

5.59 a.m. and the sun shows itself above the horizon. Shafts of light filter through the branches and my shadow casts is cast upon the oak tree behind me, whilst other trees bathe in the morning sun. 

I walk to the edge of the orchard, adjacent to the eastern edge of the wood and watch the sun rise further into the sky. 

Just to emphasis the cold, the grass in the orchard is crisp and white, covered with a sharp frost. I can’t recall many frosts this winter / early spring, so it’s a treat, a cold treat, to see it now, glistening in the sun.

6. 15 a.m and for the last 15 minutes I have just taken in the full majesty of the rising sun, against the background of the music of hundreds birds singing their hearts out. 

I pass through the gate to the wood and return to the wildflower meadow, where I stood the previous night, admiring the buzzard as it took off and glided across the sky. More frost.

6.30am : What a joy it has been to hear the dawn chorus and see the sun rise, something to treasure and to share. I could have listed every bird I heard, but then this would just a list, rather than a reflection of the day. Perhaps by reading this short piece more people will want to rise early, one spring morning and see the day begin, in a way that our ancestors have enjoyed for millennia. Try it, it will give you a new perspective on life.

The Dawn chorus 

by Angela Wybrow 

(on http://www.poemhunter.com ) 

Dawn is the time when darkness becomes light;
A time when darkness disappears from sight.
The ashen veil slowly fades away,
To reveal another brand new day.

Up in the trees, the little birds awake,
And a pretty chorus, they now do make.
There is no other music on earth, quite as sweet,
As their cheerful chorus of twitters and tweets.

To the birds' pretty chorus, I lend an ear,
And am filled inside with joy and cheer.
The little birds are so jolly when they sing;
I wonder if they know of the joy they bring?

It is a treat to hear the birds trilling in the trees;
The sound is carried to my ears, upon the breeze.
Their symphony is carried aloft to where I lay;
Such sweet music, no instrument can ever play.

I do not often wake that early in the morn;
To witness another new day being born.
It is a magical time of the day, I think,
But, I am often still having forty winks.

So, for me, to hear their music is very rare,
But, I consider it beautiful, beyond compare.
Maybe, I should make a date, and set my alarm,
So as, more often, by their songs, I am charmed. 

Birds of prey sightings in Paddock Wood

For many years the only birds of prey you were likely to see above the skies of Paddock Wood were kestrels and sparrowhawks, but in the last five years buzzards (Buteo buteo) have increasingly been seen in the spring time, gliding on the thermals above the town. Often it is the sound of gulls (more associated with trips to the seaside) which are the first giveaway that there is a buzzard in the sky. For gulls, along with crows and sometimes magpies, appear to take great delight in mobbing the soaring buzzards.

Buzzards soaring in the sky (www.britishbirds.co.uk).

Over the last 25 years buzzards numbers have risen steadily across the whole of the UK, but it has only been in the last 10 years that they have been regularly seen in Kent, but now they are a feature of the Paddock Wood skies, particularly in March & April.  I think they must also be breeding fairly locally, for during the last two summers, juvenile buzzards have been seen resting on trees in Foal Hurst Wood. Maybe this year I will find a nest in one of the woodland trees?

Red Kite, with forked tail (Milton Keynes Natural History Society).

The second bird of prey to return to our skies is the Red Kite (Milvus milvus), but sightings are currently rare. During the winter of 2014-15 a red kite was seen fairly frequently in the Brenchley area. In April 2015 I saw this bird on two occasions sweep past the Old Churchyard & fly over the Waitrose supermarket and then gliding in the skies above the Allington Road area of the town for some time. I have not seen a red kite so far this year, but again like buzzards they are on the increase across the UK and I think it is only a matter of time before they are seen regularly in the Paddock Wood area. They are fairly easy to identify in the sky, just look for the heavily forked tail.

I wrote about Kestrels in a post on 20^th February, but suffice to say that hunting areas around the town for this charming, but far smaller bird of prey, are likely to reduce once the planned new housing is built.

Sparrowhawk picnic ! (Wikipedia)

Lastly, the Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus), which has been a regular feature of our back gardens since the 1980’s. As my post on 31^st January showed if you put out bird food then increasing numbers of small and medium sized birds will flock to the feast you have provided. Theses birds often chatter and chirp as they are feeding and every once in a while they go deadly silent. Two seconds later a sparrowhawk will swoop through the garden at an astonishing speed and garb an unsuspecting bird in its talons and carry it away to feed upon, either from a favoured plucking post, or if the bird is too large (like a pigeon) on your lawn. Sparrowhawks regularly patrol a patch of gardens so don’t be surprised to see them, particularly in cold winters, as the smaller birds move into our gardens to find food.

Last September I found a juvenile sparrowhawk dead on my patio. It had a broken neck and I can only assume it swopped and flew into one of the conservatory windows, which appeared to have a bird imprint dusted on the glass.

Dead juvenile sparrowhawk....

... with amazingly sharp talons.

I guess that given that all the proposed housing schemes are planned to be built upon agricultural land, which as I have written in earlier posts has a more restricted bird population in places, many of the new gardens will attract increasing numbers of birds to feed on the food provided by the new householders. So expect a few more sparrowhawks to arrive as well !

Whetsted Wood in Early Spring

On a sunny Sunday morning on 10^th April I paid a springtime visit to Whetsted Wood, to view the early spring flowers.

The cold wind, which first appeared in late February ,was playing out its last throws on Sunday and slowly the strength of the sun has started to warm the woodland floor. The half of the wood nearest to the Tudeley Brook was covered in wood anemones & bluebells, both in flower, although the bluebells were a bit early to be honest. I also found a few patches of wild garlic (ramsomes) plants, but they were not in flower.  The western half of the wood has a less open aspect with the trees blocking out the light and so had little in the way of ground flora on show. The paths were also wet and muddy.

The Tudeley brook had a steady flow and signs of the winter floods in December could still be seen. 

The south east facing edge of the wood, which follows the course of the brook was bathed in sunshine and being the warmest part of the wood had many more flowers in bloom than other parts of the wood. Insects, such as bumble bees were easy to find and birdsong could readily be heard in this area (great tit, chiff chaff, black cap, song thrush , blackbird). The rest of the wood was remarkably lacking in birdsong and general bird activity.

Evidence of human activity was however easy to see with camp fires, drinks cans , painted trees, an old shelter spotted. 

Whetsted Wood shows little sign of management and is visited frequently by people from the local estates and whilst superficially a woodland seems to lack the biodiversity which is more evident in Foal Hurst Wood.  The most picturesque & wildlife rich part of the woodland appears to be  near to the Tudely Brook. Perhaps as spring flows into summer I will find more wildlife interest in the wood, time will tell.

Paddock Wood's Wildlife 'Treasure Island'.

The Old Churchyard Oasis

The old Churchyard and its primroses.

With a few days of warmth what better place to visit in Paddock Wood than…. the Old Churchyard ! There is a wonderful display of primroses (Primula vulgaris) to see at this time of the year, but my main interest was to see if the Slow worms  (Anguis fragilis) had survived the winter in good numbers.

The plaque on the old church wall.

For just over 60 years St Andrews Church stood here, until its downfall in November 1940, when a stray bomb jettisoned by a Luftwaffe pilot hit the church. St Andrews Church was rebuilt along Maidstone Road in 1955, but the churchyard remains and has become a home for a large population of slow worms. I suspect that historically the slow worms originated from the railway land, but as new houses were built they became cut off and now live in an island home in a sea of development. The old churchyard is now managed with nature in mind and if you know where to look you can find slow worms in this wildlife oasis.

So, after the excitement of the rookery this morning, in the late afternoon I popped down to the old Churchyard to see what I could find. Twelve months ago, on the 3^rd April 2015, I found 12 slow worms, but with warmer weather  today  (15c & overcast) my luck was in and I saw 69 animals; 29 of which were neonates i.e. young born last September.

A good selection of adult and young slow worms, seen today.

The slow worm population in the Old Churchyard is highly exceptional and I would not be surprised if the total population is in excess of 750 individual animals. It’s one of the town's wildlife hot spots and people are staggered when I tell them the number of animals likely to live in the churchyard. It must however be remembered that when ‘trapped’ in isolated sites, slow worm numbers can increase substantially. They have nowhere else to go and so provided food and shelter is available the population can sometimes grow exponentially.

Young & old close up.

Because of the importance of the site last year I wrote a management advice sheet for the PWTC estate staff, so that the Old Churchyard could be manged with greater emphasis on maintaining good conditions for the slow worm population. It should be remembered that the animals are legally protected against being killed or injured and so work must be carried out in a sensitive manner and at times of the year to ensure it is safe for the slow worms and yet still allow people to visit the gravesides of their relatives and loved ones.

One of the older gravestones.

I started this blog to emphasize the importance of understanding what wildlife we have in the town and without doubt this very small site is one of the town’s wildlife treasures, which the vast majority of people who pass it by, often on daily basis, never even realize they have on their doorstep :-).

A tangled mass of wildlife treasure unearthed.

Rookabilly Robberies

On Sunday 3^rd April, the Paddock Wood half marathon was in full swing and with many of the local roads closed for the race,  I walked the mile or so from my house to the entrance to Mascalls Academy…to watch the rooks  !!!

Adult Rook (Corvus frugilegus) out on a limb !

These gregarious corvids are well known for nesting together, high in the tree tops and for a few years now the main rookery in the town has been situated either side of the Maidstone Road (B2160) close to the entrances to Mascalls Academy & Mascalls Pound Farm. If I am honest it is about 200 metres outside my self-imposed recording area, but I felt it was worth writing about.

A small part of one of the rookeries.

The rookery is spread over three groups of trees in this area and currently consists of 54 nests, of which I calculate about half appear to be occupied at present. Many of the adult birds have paired up and were busy building their precarious stacks in the sky.

Now that's a big pile of sticks !

Beside the entrance to Mascalls Pound Farm

Between Mascalls Pound Farm 

& Lymons Farm House

In the school grounds.

There was lots of noise and much thieving of sticks from each other’s nests, resulting in sticks moving from nest to nest, in an effort  for each rook to try & create the greatest ‘must have’ home.. Fights sometimes broke out as different birds fought for the choicest sticks, but often a bird would wait until a couple had vacated their bijou property and then nip in and snatch a few sticks for its own nest. All great fun to watch.

"Its our home !"

I saw little sign of mating, nor egg laying, at present, but I am sure this will follow soon. Indeed there seemed to be a lot of hanging about with one of the pair trying to look macho (the male maybe) , whilst the other bird (possibly the female) got on with constructing the nest. 

On sentry duty.

In one patch of trees there was much squawking & flurry of wings as neighbour fought with the neighbour over territorial rights and infringement of invisible boundaries.

Voicing his right to stay !

In places the road surface below the rookery area has become splattered with bird poo . After a few more weeks It should be eligible for entry into the Turner prize for modern art. If an unmade bed can win I don’t see why a rookery toilet can’t be a contender for this years prize !

There is another rookery about 1Km away further south on the B2160, near the edge of Matfield and it may be that over the years the rooks swap between the different nesting sites. About 15 years ago there also used to be a small rookery on the north west corner of Foal Hurst Wood, but it is no more. I always thought that rookeries were occupied for decades, but perhaps they do also move around over time. 

Anyway in 2016 the biggest rookery in the town can be found beside the main secondary school in the town and it is arguable which may prove to be a greater seat of learning !

Scanning the horizon for a mate maybe.

Church Farm – The professionals view

In early March this year a further batch of ecology reports were submitted to the council, by professional ecological consultants, in relation to the proposed development at Church farm. These were updates on previous year’s ecological reports and covered survey work undertaken in 2015 for dormice, bats and reptile species. Most of the survey work took place in August and September 2015. August was a very cool and wet month, but the weather perked up a bit in September.

Dormouse

The most amazing find, as far as I can see, is that a single dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) was found at the southern end of the development area in the old orchard, not far from Church Road and bordering Moat Platt. 

Adult hazel dormouse...found asleep ;-) 

(On one of my own surveys in nearby Foal Hurst Wood).

Granted that the surveyors only actually surveyed the site on two occasions, 23^rd September & 6^th October 2015, but it was on the 6^th October that a single dormouse was found in one of the nest tubes, which had been in place since 30^th July 2015. No other signs of dormice where found during 2015, nor during an earlier survey in 2012.

Rather disappointingly the age and sex of the dormice is not mentioned in the report, but I would not be surprised if it was a youngster, born in the summer and was now dispersing to find a new home territory, which often happens in the autumn.

So, against all my earlier predictions, one dormice has been seen at the edge of this development and begs the questions as to where it came from, as the area does not seem to offer promising dormice habitat. 

The blue dot indicates where the dormouse was found, in October 2015.

Historically the land has been intensively farmed since before the first aerial photograph in 1940. I can only assume that there is a very low density of dormice in the hedgerows, with perhaps the hedgerows links to the railway land hinting at a clue to possible higher numbers of dormice along this railway wildlife corridor. Over the last 10 – 15 years the scrubbing over of the old orchard and tree growth in the Moat Platt may just be enough for a few dormice to survive, but without further surveys we will never know.

Bats

Surveys again took place over August and September and included both manned and automated surveys. Automated surveys are where bat recording machines are left in situ to record passing bats, whereas on manned survey nights trained surveyors are actively looking and listening for bats. In addition trees were searched for possible bat roosts, or roosting potential.

The results were less surprising; in that most bat foraging took place around the edge of the site, along the hedgerows, but also around the larger hybrid black poplar trees, near to the small pond. These trees are due to be felled if planning permission is granted for the development to take place.

Map of bat sightings and foraging areas.

Species recorded were mainly Common (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) and Soprano pipistrelles (Pipistrellus pygmaeus), although a single Noctule (Nyctalus noctula) and Serotine (Eptesicus serotinus) bat were also noted near the railway line and Daubenton (Myotis daubentonii) bats were seen around the small pond area.

Common Pipistrelle in flight.

No bat roosts were found on the site.

Reptiles

Surveys again took place in August and September, at a time when young reptiles were being born. Although numbers of Viviparous Lizard (Zootoca vivipara)& Slow Worm (Anguis fragilis), found during the survey period were lower than in 2012, populations of both animals remain classified as ‘exceptional’ i.e. greater  than 20 adult animals were found on or under refugia objects (0.5m x 0.5m squares of roofing felt) placed at a density of 10 squares per hectare.

Example of maleViviparous Lizards, 

seen in the nature reserve where I work.

                                       Male & Female Slow Worms seen in Paddock Wood.

The animals were found in roughly the same areas on the site as in 2012, as shown below. These correlate with the suitable habitat around the edges and near the old farmhouse i.e. rough grassland and scrub.

Reptile sightings in 2015.

No grass snakes were encountered in 2015 and only one (a juvenile) was seen in 2012.

Prior to 2010, when a large area of rough grassland and scrub was brought back into agricultural production, I suspect that even higher numbers of lizards and slow worms were to be found on the site. As mentioned in an earlier post the source of all these animals is likely to have been the adjacent railway land, which provides highly suitable reptile habitat and also acts as a wildlife corridor for reptile and other species.

Currently the developers plans are to move the lizards and slow worms to a south eastern section of the site, designated to become a country park. This may not actually happen, as there is much debate as to the placement of proposed attenuation ponds, should the development be allowed to be built. In addition it remains debatable as to whether viable lizard and slow worms populations will survive in the long term in the proposed country park area, as any management of the country park is likely to be less suited to lizards and slow worms, but we will have to see how matters turn out.

On the positive side any attenuation ponds are very likely to attract large numbers of amphibians, frogs, newts and toads etc, providing food for grass snakes, which may well result in an increased grass snake population in the area.

Summary

At present flooding concerns related to the area, make it uncertain as to whether planning permission will be granted for the Church farm development. In addition there is also a large groundswell of public opinion against developing this site, in view of the flooding worries.

However the professional surveys undertaken last year, in relation to a few protected species, confirm that wildlife interest on the land is mainly to be found around the edge of the Church Farm site. The information about bats and reptile species is in line with previous surveys and local knowledge, but the new information relating to the single dormouse found, begs more questions as to how widespread dormice are in the Paddock wood area.

If planning permission is granted then I expect more ecological surveys will be carried out before building work begins. These may just confirm what is already know, but maybe new information may be discovered on the wildlife currently living on, or adjacent to, the site. Time will tell.