Sand Martins and #scienceathome

The start of the summer holidays, so much anticipation and excitement about all the wonderful things that can be done and seen outside. Unfortunately, due to several reasons, we have not had that many opportunities to get out and about. Some of the reasoning has been good, eg BBQ with friends. Others have not e.g the dreaded Rain. However, we have used that to our advantage.

Jemima Doing Some #scienceathome Chemistry

Melting Wax Crayons Using a Hairdryer

On a rainy day we took combined inspiration from the pinterest website and another blogger, Kirsty Watson. Every day of the summer holiday she is writing a blog with a different science based activity. What an excellent way to get people engaging in science. She is one of the people running the Cheltenham Science Group who are working in the Cheltenham and Gloucestershire area inspiring people to develop a love for the STEM subjects. (http://www.cheltenhamsciencegroup.co.uk)

Melting WaX Caryons

Finished Masterpiece

We carried out a couple of ideas. First of all we melted some wax crayons using a hair dryer. This in turn sprayed the molten wax onto paper and made a picture. It was a lot of fun and very messy. It was amazing where we found wax once we had finished. The science of solids and liquids may be simple but it was a great way to think about them in your own home and to produce some art master pieces. The second activity was crystal making. Unfortunately, we have to wait a few weeks for the water to evaporate before we can see what we have produced. We then make some bath bombs but the idea of using them in the bath did not go down too well!!

Melted Wax Crayon Art

Sand Martin Chicks

We did get a bit of time outside between the rain and packing and other activities. So we took an opportunity for a quick walk along the river and through Cherry Orchard Nature Reserve. It was great to see large numbers of sand martins nesting at Diglas Basin. Each year there are large numbers of them nesting in this area, which I think it is great. We spent ages watching the parents bring food to the young chicks waiting at the entrance to their nest hole, which is a drainage pipe.

Feeding Time for Sand Martins

Traditionally you would expect sand martins to nest in sand banks along rivers and in sandy cliffs at the coast. Here they will excavate a burrow to use as their nest to raise their young. Due to being along rivers they can get flooded out after heavy rain so it can be a risky business. Sand Martins will reuse old burrows and will nest in artificial nesting holes. It is quite amazing that they are using these drainage holes in Worcester. But the height above the water level will ensure that they do not get flooded as they might in more typical nesting colonies along the river Severn where they are closer to the river level.

Grey Heron - River Severn Worcester

Six Spot Burnet

Walking further along the river we noticed a Great Crested Grebe along the river. Such a beautiful bird that for birders is a very common bird to see but unusual to see along the river severn in a built up area. It is just great to see such diversity in our towns and cities and really encouraging for people who are learning about wildlife to get the opportunity to see such a beautiful bird on their doorstep. It shows that getting out and taking notice of your surroundings can offer some surprise findings.

Great Crested Grebe - River Severn Worcester

Great Crested Grebe

Further onto the nature reserve our weather window did not last long and the rain returned. We did, however, get a couple of opportunities to take in some butterflies and wild flowers. The two species of wild flower that stood out were Common Ragwort which is a very common and much seen flower, but, provides a rich source of nectar for a multitude of invertebrates. The second was Evening Primrose with its large striking yellow flowers. This is a plant that has was introduced into the UK in the 1600's and is common on waste grounds and sand dunes. Here it was seen in a sandy part of the Nature reserve. We headed home before the rain and continued with our Holiday packing; we are off to France for a few weeks. Hopefully the weather will allow lots of wildlife encounters (Camargue here we come).

Common Ragwort

Common Evening Primrose

So, if its dry get out and see what your town or city has to offer in terms of wildlife this summer holiday. You may be lucky and come cross some unusual species.

If its wet check out #scienceathome  for some ideas @cheltscigrp.

Here Comes the Rain

 

Common Evening Primrose

Gatekeeper

Important Citizen Science

When we planned our weekend activities we realised that our initial idea of a big walk was not going to be possible. Instead we took inspiration from a youtube clip that we saw on the BBC Earth Facebook page by Sir David Attenborough. He spoke of the importance of citizen science and individuals going out and helping larger organisations collect data on wildlife. https://www.facebook.com/bbcearth/videos/1017274611639428/

We sat down and decided that we wanted to carry out not one but two different surveys on Saturday. My Daughter was very excited about them both and also about carrying out some very important ecological research.

The Big Butterfly Count

Cherry Orchard Nature Reserve - Worcester

The first survey was the Big Butterfly Count, which Sir David Attenborough also has been encouraging people to take part in. http://www.bigbutterflycount.org The other was the Bee Scene survey for Plantlife. http://www.wildaboutplants.org.uk/beescene/ To do both of these surveys we chose the local nature reserve in the centre of Worcester just a few hundred metres from our house. Saturday was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon, perfect for looking for wild flowers, bees and butterflies.

Bee Scene Survey

Ringlet

Cherry Orchard Nature Reserve is a real natural treasure and on Saturday it did not disappoint. As far as butterflies were concerned we spent our fifteen minutes sat in one of the open areas of unimproved grassland and counted a total of 8 species. There were lots of Large Skippers, Ringlets and Meadow Browns. The highlight for us was the Marbled White. It is such a stunning butterfly to see with the contrast between the white and black on its wings. It enjoys the nectar of clover, knapweed and thistles. Due to the high concentration of these plants I was not surprised to see a couple of the Marbled Whites.

Large Skipper

Large White

Marble Whites are like the vast majority of British butterfly's and are in decline. Reading reports and looking at statistics is very depressing. 60% of our butterflies are in decline and one in ten faces extinction in Britain completely. Yet here we were in a small nature reserve in the centre of Worcester surrounded by plenty of them. The key thing is habitat, the unimproved grassland of the nature reserve provides the variety and types of flowers they need to support them. Unfortunately, this is not the case in a lot of areas of our country. We are cutting grass verges instead of letting them flower, making more silage and less hay, we are selecting plans for the garden based solely on what they look like instead of what they can provide wildlife. As we change our agricultural practices and gardening habits we are not providing what the butterflies need.

Marbled White

Gatekeeper

The Bee Scene survey by PlantLife, which was aimed at getting children involved in wildlife, was a lot of fun. We had to survey the area to decide if it was “not good”, “good” or “very good” for Bees and flowers. We had to look at the types and colours of the different flowers and then see how many types of bees we could find. On Saturday there were 5 different species of bumble bee. And a very large number of wild flower. Our overall conclusion was that this area was very good.

Red-tailed Bumble Bee

Common Carder Bee

Indeed, we need to take a big lesson from areas like this. Here in the centre of Worcester there is a small nature reserve that is providing a wealth of habitats that support our species. It is providing an opportunity to reverse the decline in numbers of insects and other wildlife that we have seen in the last 50 years or so. We need more areas like this across out towns and cities and in the wider countryside we need to provide areas that are supportive to wildlife.

Unimproved Grassland

Agrimony

Another important thing that these areas do is they provide an opportunity for us to take note and engage with the wildlife. You can stroll around the area and see an abundance of all kinds of wildlife from bugs to flowers to birds and mammals. My daughter really enjoyed doing her little bit for science and having some interesting encounters with the bees and butterflies. It is only when we take our children out and let them enjoy these areas and take notice of nature will they learn to understand it and to love it. Then they will want to protect it in the future.

A Grasshopper Getting in on the Action

Large Skipper

Large Skipper on Red Clover

Common Vetch

Summer Evening's in the Garden

Due to a variety of reasons wildlife and the outdoors did not play a major roll in the weekend. However, that did not stop me from having a few interesting encounters at various stages. So, I took hold of what little time I had, which, resulted in the major part of the wildlife spotting taking place in the garden. The first opportunity was on Friday evening when we enjoyed a champagne cocktail sat outside on a warm evening. From a wildlife perspective this meant listening and watching the swifts. There was a total of 33 counted at one point in the evening. In addition to the swifts we spotted Collared Doves, House Sparrows, Mistle Thrushes, Blackbirds and of course the Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

Champino Cocktail in the Garden

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Worcester is fortunately home to around 250 breeding pairs of this gull of conservation concern. 40% of all Lesser Black-backed Gulls live in the UK and their numbers are in decline. However, their numbers are increasing in our cities and Worcester is one of them, this has really boosted their numbers. I find them fascinating birds and I was initially pleased when one decided to nest on the roof opposite us.

Lesser Black-backed Mother and Chick

Lesser Black-backed Gull Chick

However, not all Worcester residents are as happy about them as me. They can cause problems in the city. They make mess both by ripping apart bins and spreading rubbish around the High Street and the obvious bird poo situation. The other problems are the noise and the fear factor as they swoop low over peoples heads. There have even been some reports that they have taken food from peoples hands. In resent days it has been the noise issue that I can sympathise with as approximately 4 o'clock every morning we are woken up by the continual squawking. On balance, however, I would want them to stay.

Black tailed skimmer

Marbled White

I did get a short walk around Grimley on Saturday afternoon. It was a hot but pleasant afternoon. It was great watching the large numbers of Black-tailed Skimmers and the damselflies that darted across the causeways. The thing that stood out was something quite plane and simple: Knapweed. It is a common and, I think, over looked plant but has stunning colours. It was also proving to be an excellent pollinator. The most common visitor was the Meadow Brown butterfly but quite a few other insects were enjoying their lunch at the Knapweed table. Sometimes I just enjoy sitting back and marvelling at some of the more common species. It is not always about the rare and endangered species.

Knapweed and Meadow Brown

Common Blue and Red-eyed Damselfly

The weekend ended up back in my Garden on Sunday afternoon and I took a few photos of the insect life that I could spot. Rather disappointedly I discovered the larva of the Gooseberry sawfly doing it best with the Gooseberry bush. It was also nice to see two species of bee and a small collection of hover flies. The real disappointing species was the Green Bottle Fly. It was there for one reason only: to lay its eggs in the cat faeces. Yes unfortunately the neighbourhood cats use our garden as their toilet.

Gooseberry Sawfly

I think it is sometimes easy to overlook the wildlife potential that can be found in our gardens. Especially when our gardens are very small like mine. However, they can occasionally produce something interesting and intriguing, just have to keep looking. 

A Hoverfly

A hoverfly