Sunday 10 July 2011

coot watch

Glad to see the coot chick is still going strong, and is now almost as big as the adults (although still clearly a chick with its fluffy plumage). I now feel confident it is large enough to hold its own and not be picked off as something's breakfast. Although I had a moment of panic this morning when I could only see the adults... until I heard the now familiar peep peep (audible in some of this clip) and the chick came into view.

The one chick out of ten who made it!  The first five eggs all disappeared before hatching. I was delighted to see that the coots managed a second nestful of five, four of which hatched, one of which survives ... Here were the four who hatched out - not sure which our survivor is!

Sunday 3 July 2011

RSPB Coombes Valley

As a thank you to all the Birds Friendly Schools volunteers, the RSPB organised a trip to their reserve at Coombes Valley, near Leek, in Staffordshire.
A minicab picked up six of us from Stoke station and took us to the reserve, slowly climbing higher and higher until we had a glorious view of the Staffordshire hills. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and about 20 volunteers and their families met up to celebrate the success of the Birds Friendly Schools Project, run in the West Midlands by Anna Keen. Anna introduced us to her RSPB colleagues, some of whom were lucky enough to have a residential placement at the Coombes Valley reserve.

As soon as we arrived, we saw a nuthatch on the feeders, and two buzzards soaring overhead. Two pairs have been seen at the reserve and it is a good place for other raptors such as sparrowhawks. Goshawks and red kites have also been spotted.

Anna summarised the impact of the Birds Friendly Schools project, telling us we had reached 4000 children. This is really positive and I hope that the project can continue next year.


Guided walk
Two enthusiastic and friendly guides took half of us on a guided walk of the reserve. We looked out across the valley, as Laura told us how it been carved out by glacial floodwater, in the relatively short time of 200 years. The reserve is a great place to see pied flycatchers, wood warblers and redstarts - we weren't lucky enough this time, but there were plenty of birds in the wood singing, and we heard coal tits, jays, great tits, and a nuthatch.  The reserve is a mixture of oak woodland and meadows, and our walk took us down the hill to the main source of water, a stream, where a trout was spotted. There are also many varieties of plant, including common spotted orchid, which was by the stream side.

The reserve is home to a variety of insects, including bats, butterflies, and reptiles, weasels, otters, badgers, foxes, red deer, and grass snakes. There are an amazing 500 bird boxes around the site, including this one for barn owls, and some bat houses. There were some beautiful plants such as pink purslane and vetch.
Bug hunt
In the afternoon we were given the chance to try our hand at several outdoor activities - these things are definitely not just for children! Tina, a field studies teacher, took us to the meadow where we learnt how to hunt for bugs - it involved taking a sweep net and making several sweeping movements with it through the

long grass. When we had checked to make sure we hadn't trapped a wasp or bee, we could carefully look inside the net and discover which insects were in there. There were a lot of flies about, and we also saw some froghoppers, bugs that hop like a frog, and start life inside what is known as "cuckoo spit." Part of the woodland walk had a large area with the vegetation covered in these white bubbles, which Tina told us the froghopper nymphs produce and stay hidden inside, until they are ready to emerge as adults.


Pond dipping
We then moved on to pond dipping, which I really enjoyed. The reserve is a good place for damselflies and dragonflies and I saw several blue and red damselflies over the pond. It was great fun to scoop out some creatures with a net and to identify them from a chart, and I learnt that I had found a damselfly nymph, which you could identify from similar creatures by looking closely at its tail and head shapes.

Finally, a few of us followed Anna into the cool of the woodland and we got creative, with some clay. People who had been there before us had made some animals and faces out of clay on the trees, so I gave it a go and came up with a bug!

It was great to meet the other volunteers, and to find out how they had enjoyed the Birds Friendly Schools project as well. It is always affirming to meet with other people who care about wildlife in the same way and who appreciate what is around them, and how important it is to care for it.

If you are interested in visiting Coombes Valley, Hannah gave me a leaflet on several activities such as those we had been doing, which are coming up over the next few months, which are listed on the website. Who knows what you will see!