Blue Tits in Uckfield

This morning, Kevin of Potter's Books arrived with some treasures - nature and local history books. As it was a grey morning and snow was falling I decided to look at one of my books - The Blue Tit by Martyn Stenning.

The Blue Tit - Martyn Stenning

It is a specialist book with all sorts of fascinating information about Blue Tits including research on Blue Tits breeding in The Woodland Trust's Lake Wood, Uckfield along with detailed results and analysis.  I haven't had time to do more than graze through it so far but it sent me spinning off into my own records and photos.  My photos aren't great but I was pleased to be able to capture these lively little birds at all.

Blue Tit posing prettily on our birdtable - 13 January 2013

I find Blue Tits very endearing. They pose prettily on our bird table, nest obligingly in the box on the back of the house and surely butter wouldn't melt in their innocent little beaks?

Maybe they're not so cute if you are a rival or a threat. Just before Christmas I was shocked to see two Blue Tits having a brawl in the feet of a hedge in Hempstead Lane.  Maybe they were fighting over a nesting site? Martyn's book tells us that "securing a cavity will be the male Blue Tit's first move to attract a mate" or maybe, at a time when food was scarce, they were competing over some tasty morsel. A couple of the country names listed in Mark Cocker's and Richard Mabey's Birds Britannica, "Billy biter" and "Tom bitethumb" reflect their feisty nature.

At our nest box - 27 Mary 2007

I've got so used to seeing Blue Tits nesting in bird boxes that it was a surprise when David, chairman  of the Uckfield Nature Reserves Supporters Group, pointed out parent birds going in and out of a crack in the trunk of a big old tree in Uckfield Town Council's West Park Local Nature Reserve. I simply hadn't thought about what Blue Tits did before man invented bird boxes! Now I find myself wondering if they are descendants of any of the birds that featured in Martyn's Lake Wood studies.

Fledgling with yellow gape round its beak - 27 May 2011

When a Blue Tit family is resident in the box on our wall, we never have to worry about caterpillars eating our plants because the parent birds are constantly scouring the garden for nice, soft prey to feed their chicks.  Those little mouths are sign-posted with a bright yellow gape as shown in the photo above.

I was astounded when I read, in Martyn's book that they hatch " ... more often very early in the morning ... so the hatchling can feed sufficiently to double its weight from roughly one gram to two grams during the first 24 hours out of the egg shell." I find it remarkable that they can grow so quickly but also that everything is so well synchronised with the hatching matching the time that there are caterpillars to feed on.

The Blue Tits that nest in our box always seem to fledge when I am away but in 2007 they left the nest on a Sunday and I seemed to spend most of the day watching them and shooing off the neighbours' cats.  On the 27 of April, fledglings started coming out of the nest just before 9:30am. I still remember the parent bird calling them across the garden from a tree.

Fledgling hiding in bonsai - 27 Mary 2007

• The first three got off quickly. These little bundles of fluff tumbled rather than flew from the box. They fluttered and ran across the garden until they reached a conifer. From there, I think they more-or-less parachuted to the Oak.
• Unfortunately the fourth fell in the pond. Although I got it out and put it on the bird table, the parent bird would have nothing further to do with it.
• The last two came out about 5 pm. They both fluttered to the ground and ran across the garden until they encountered an obstacle, which they would then climb to use as a launch pad for the next part of their journey.  It was fascinating to see them climb our wall with their surprisingly large feet.

Now, at the end of a snowy March, I'm hoping to see Blue Tits inspecting our box so the whole cycle can start again.

West Park Local Nature Reserve - Species

Just before Christmas, I wrote about the species that I have observed in the Hempstead Meadow Nature Reserve. Now it's West Park's turn.

Amphibians and Reptiles

I've not observed any amphibians or reptiles in West Park but plenty of people have seen frog spawn near the pond.  iRecord shows two records for Common Lizard in 2015.

Birds

Goldfinch - 9 April 2017

We (The Uckfield Nature Reserves Supporter's group) have gone on a number of bird walks, led by David. I have recorded the following species but we saw and heard more.

Common name	Species
Sparrowhawk	Accipiter nisus
Swift	Apus apus
Grey Heron	Ardea cinerea
Buzzard	Buteo buteo
Goldfinch	Carduelis carduelis
Blue Tit	Cyanistes caeruleus
Great Spotted Woodpecker	Dendrocopos major
Robin	Erithacus rubecula
Pied Wagtail	Motacilla alba subsp. yarrellii
Great Tit	Parus major
House Sparrow	Passer domesticus
Chiffchaff	Phylloscopus collybita
Magpie	Pica pica
Dunnock	Prunella modularis
Bullfinch	Pyrrhula pyrrhula
Goldcrest	Regulus regulus
Nuthatch	Sitta europaea
Wren	Troglodytes troglodytes
Blackbird	Turdus merula
Song Thrush	Turdus philomelos

On one of our walks last year, David pointed out Bluetits going in and out a hole in a tree. I am so used to seeing them in nest boxes, it is strange to see them using a natural nesting place.

Flowering Plants

Bluebells and Oak - 14 May 2017

There are many flowering plants in the reserve including many blossom trees such Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Wild Roses.  I've only recorded a handful and have taken beauties such as the Oak and Bluebells, shown in the photo above, for granted. Looking at iRecord, it is clear that a much more detailed survey was done in 2015 by Ben Rainbow, which yielded over a hundred species including those two.

Mystery tree - a pear? - 9 April 2017

During the 9 April 2017 walk, we found an intriguing blossom tree.  The flowers were familiar but too big for one of the trees we expect to find flowering in April.  Scouring our books didn't really help and it was only when I found a very similar tree in Leatherhead that I began to suspect that it might be an ornamental pear. I didn't find any pears in the Autumn but I may have missed them.

Fungi

Velvet Shank - 22 October 2017

Many of the fungi that I have recorded in West Park were observed by a group that did a fungi hunt on the 22nd of October 2018

Common name	Species
Jelly Ear	Auricularia auricula-judae
Clouded Funnel	Clitocybe nebularis
Shaggy Inkcap	Coprinus comatus
Blushing Bracket	Daedaleopsis confragosa
Velvet Shank	Flammulina velutipes var. velutipes
Clustered Bonnet	Mycena inclinata
Birch Polypore	Piptoporus betulinus
Common Earthball	Scleroderma citrinum
Turkeytail	Trametes versicolor
Candlesnuff Fungus	Xylaria hypoxylon

Insects

Peacock butterfly - 25 March 2017

West Park is home to all sorts of insects, from tiny beetles to showy butterflies and dragonflies.  I found several different types of insect feeding on the glorious Blackthorn blossom in March last year.

Honeybee nest entrance - 28 Jan 2017

One of my favourite finds was a natural Honeybee nest in one of the old trees.  On one of the Autumn walks, David pointed out a Hornet's nest. Fortunately these large, wasp-like creatures are much more laid-back than their smaller, waspy, cousins.

Common name	Species	Taxon group
Cream-spot Ladybird	Calvia quattuordecimguttata	insect - beetle (Coleoptera)
Harlequin Ladybird	Harmonia axyridis	insect - beetle (Coleoptera)
Peacock	Aglais io	insect - butterfly
Small Tortoiseshell	Aglais urticae	insect - butterfly
Orange-tip	Anthocharis cardamines	insect - butterfly
Brimstone	Gonepteryx rhamni	insect - butterfly
Small Copper	Lycaena phlaeas	insect - butterfly
Comma	Polygonia c-album	insect - butterfly
Red Admiral	Vanessa atalanta	insect - butterfly
Emperor Dragonfly	Anax imperator	insect - dragonfly (Odonata)
Honey Bee	Apis mellifera	insect - hymenopteran
Large Red-tailed Bumblebee	Bombus (Melanobombus) lapidarius	insect - hymenopteran
Early Bumblebee	Bombus (Pyrobombus) pratorum	insect - hymenopteran
Common Carder Bee	Bombus (Thoracobombus) pascuorum	insect - hymenopteran
Plain Gold	Micropterix calthella	insect - moth
Cinnabar	Tyria jacobaeae	insect - moth
Meadow Grasshopper	Chorthippus parallelus	insect - orthopteran
	Panorpa communis	insect - scorpion fly (Mecoptera)
St Marks Fly	Bibionidae	insect - true fly (Diptera)
Dark-edged Bee-fly	Bombylius major	insect - true fly (Diptera)

Mammals

The only mammals that I have seen are rabbits but there is clear evidence of the presence of larger creatures.

Spiders

Crab spider - 14 May 2017

With all those insects around, we are bound to find a few spiders. I am not very good at identifying them but was able to record this colourful crab spider.

This is a very brief round up of my own observations. There are many more out there including those from formal surveys and all the people who walk through  the reserve.

2017 - Adding New Species to my List

I like to record the wild plants and insects that I encounter using tools such as iRecord.  This year I recorded approximately 350 species of which nearly 100 were new to my lists.  This compares well with last year's 290 (with about 80 new).  This post is going to focus on the species that are new to my lists this year.  I have seen some of these before but this is the first time I've recorded them.

Some of the new entries are the result of me working in Leatherhead where I explored a new riverside habitat but many were much closer to home. Two species that I saw in both Leatherhead and Uckfield were the Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo) and Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens).

Female Beautiful Demoiselle - near Lime Tree Avenue - May

Uckfield's Banded Demoiselles were rather camera shy but I did get some photos of the Leatherhead ones. The two males below were part of a group (over 16) that roosted overnight in a clump of strappy leaves near the river. There must be similar roosts near the Uck. Has anyone seen one?

Male Banded Demoiselles - Leatherhead - June

My recorded year started with more humble species. I did the BSBI's New Year Plant Hunt, which meant that I needed to hunt out any wild or naturalised plant that was in flower. The plants that are most likely to be blooming are the hardy, versatile weeds that grow in supermarket car parks, industrial estates etc. A new one for me was Annual Mercury (Mercurialis annua).

Annual Mercury - Bellbrook Industrial Estate - January

This year, I paid a number of visits to Holy Cross churchyard to identify the plants there for the Sussex Botanical Recording Society churchyard survey.  While I was investigating the plants I found a number of species of both plants and insects that I had not encountered before.  The Girdled Mining bee (Andrena labiata) is "scarce" and relies on "unimproved" grassland - i.e. grassland that has not been fertilised etc. Our old churchyards often have this type of ancient grass.

Girdled Mining Bee - Holy Cross Churchyard - April 2017

Cockspur (Echinochloa crus-galli) - Holy Cross Churchyard - August 2017

In early June, I did a Bioblitz of our garden. This means finding as many different species of wild plants and animals as possible. I found over a dozen that were new to me including:

Cantharis livida - No-mow zone - June 

Rhopalus subrufus - Flower bed - June

Selimus vittatus with her egg case - Oak tree - June

One of the highlights of the year was joining the Uckfield Local Nature Reserves Supporters Group. We went on a number of bird song/bug walks and a fungi hunt. I also did a little exploring of my own.  I am fairly familiar with Hempstead Meadows Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and found a few new bugs and beasties including:

Devil's Coach Horse (Ocypus olens) - Hempstead Meadows LNR - August

Notostira elongata - Hempstead Meadows LNR - August

West Park LNR is less familiar and enjoyed exploring it with the group. In November, we went on a fungi hunt and found a good variety of fungi. Beware that I got in a bit of a muddle trying to identify them and it will be a while before they are verified. They included:

Blushing Bracket (Daedaleopsis confragosa) - West Park LNR - November

Witches' Butter (Exidia glandulosa) - West Park LNR - November

It's not all about surveys and special expeditions. I saw the Beautiful Demoiselle on the way to the town. Mum showed me this dear little 10-spot ladybird (Adalia decempunctata) that she found while gardening.

10-spot ladybird - Found in our own garden.

This Large Garden bumblebee (Bombus ruderatus) bumbled into a patch of garden I was sorting out, sending me scurrying into the house for my camera.

Large Garden Bumblebee - my gardening is constantly interrupted by bees!

In Uckfield, we are lucky that we have plenty of green spaces and paths that we can follow as we go about our daily lives. I've been amazed at just how many creatures and wildflowers I see by looking out while going about my day-to-day shopping trips etc. If you ever see a woman in a red beret peering into her phone, it could be me recording wildlife on the run.