Finally back on track...

My Dad always says that 'the only predictable 

thing about nature is that it will be unpredictable'. 

And it's so true. For example, summer in 

December? What's going on there?

My apologies for the gap. It turns out life is at least as unpredictable as nature. Between poorly children, broken down cars, and heavier work loads than I had anticipated my outdoor time has been severely rationed, but now I have a little bit of catching up to do. 

Winter has well and truly arrived... not. We had a single fall of snow back in November which lasted all of a couple of days, but it has warmed up since then and stayed warm. The last couple of days has been well into double figures: 15 degrees Celsius in December! What is going on? But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

The single snow fall so far this winter as viewed from my 'office' window.

Having cut my last working trip to Riddy Wood short I was able to come down again earlier this week. I snuck in for a few hours on Tuesday afternoon to check things over and see where we were at. The first thing I saw when I arrived was a pair of Marsh Tits (Poecile palustris) flitting around the camp area - while we knew they were there and have seen them once or twice they are not a frequent sighting for us and always nice to see. Although from a distance the woods look like they are in the depths of winter - no leaves on the trees now - inside they look more like early spring. Bulbs are shooting - I suspect the Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), we don't have a lot of Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis); Primroses (Primula vulgaris) and Dogs Mercury (Mercurialis perrenis) are pushing through. Insects are everywhere! Thankfully not the biting ones, they would be less welcome visitors. But bees, ladybirds, beetles, a Saw fly, moths and on and on. In both temperature and invertebrate activity it seems like winter has been put on hold. The question is of course what will happen when the frosts, if we ever have a proper one, arrive. Certainly this flush of growth is doomed to be short lived if we do have a proper cold snap, and I can't imagine going all through winter without it getting any colder than this!

I stayed with family near to the woods that night: I had a meeting the next morning and didn't think arriving smelling of wood smoke and dirty would have been the best plan. I stopped off for a brief look around the RSPB Ouse Washes reserve to kill a bit of time before my meeting was due to start, rather than trying to get into the woods for an hour then getting out again. With the wet weather we've had recently the track into the woods is at best slippy and in danger of becoming impassable with too much use so I won't drive it more than once a visit (the day before I stopped short and walked in).

On arrival at the reserve an entry on the sightings board caught my eye: "Short Eared Owls: Everywhere"! Short Eared Owls (Asio flammeus) are on my bucket list and I've wanted to see one for ages. I've been reading reports that there have been a lot in the Fens recently and was hopeful I'd see one on my trip down. Typically I didn't see one, or the Cranes (Grus grus) which were also listed on the board, although I have seen the Cranes there before. Highlights from my sightings included a Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra), Whooper Swans (Cygnus cygnus), Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers (Dendrocopos major & Picus viridis), hundreds of Lapwings (Vanellus vanellus) and plenty of ducks including my favourite, Teal (Anas crecca). I know they are pretty common and small but I think they are up there among the prettiest ducks and its nice to have a favourite you can see regularly. 

For those who know the reserve you will remember how long it is: despite several visits I have never been to the extreme end of either side of the reserve. One side is a full 3 km from the access point which means a 6 km round trip trek and if I remember correctly a 3 km round trip in the other direction meaning 9 km of walking to visit all the hides. However there is plenty to see: I've seen Cranes, Kingfishers, Marsh Harriers, Egrets, loads of different duck and wader species as well as lots of farmland bird species from the surrounding land, and if that wasn't enough it is a part of one of the most important wetland sites in Europe for wintering water birds. Worth a visit I'd say. I'm pretty spoiled for choice in that my parents live in a village just a few hundred meters from the banks of the washes so when I'm there to visit I can be at the RSPB reserve in 5 mins or 15 mins the other direction is the WWT Welney reserve which is good too, although you have to pay to enter so I'm a far more regular visitor to the RSPB reserve. 

After my satisfying detour and a productive meeting I returned to the woods and worked there for the next two days. Almost continuously serenaded by bird song and working in a t-shirt it really did feel more like summer or late spring than a week before Christmas. Woodpeckers (Green & GS), Red Kites (Milvus milvus), Partridges, both French (Red-legged) (Alectoris rufa) and English (Grey) (Perdix perdix) and flocks of Long-tailed Tits (Aegithalos caudatus) all paid visits during my stay and I got a distant glimpse of the woodland managers nemesis - The Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Short-tailed (Field) Voles (Microtus agrestis) were scurrying around it seemed all over the place - I've not seen them before although I knew they were there; I'd found their tunnels. On this visit I saw three popping out from various holes and whizzing across the leaf litter to another hidden hole not far away. I also found a Tawny Owl (Strix aluco) pellet caught in a ragged tear left by a damaged branch. I dare say when I get around to teasing it apart I will find some voles bits and pieces in there. On the mammal front I also saw Hares (Lepus europeaus) and Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in the wood this visit, and various deer slots showed that at least one of the three resident deer species had been present recently.

Another Lesser Stag Beetle found among the dead wood stacked in the woods; we've found quite a few now.

Talking of Owls, my routine night time performance from the Tawny Owls was right on cue, it really wouldn't feel the same if I went a night there without hearing them. Moths followed my torchlight when ever I left the shelter to top up the wood burning stove, and while reading in bed a harvestman crawled up and over my book - lucky I'm not afraid of spiders or creepy crawlies isn't it? To make it feel even more like summer this morning, back at my parents for the weekend and helping to sort their winter wood supply by splitting some wood, a butterfly flew into the wood shed. I only got a split-second glance at it, but I think it was a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta). 

As many others, I will be away visiting family over the Christmas / New Year Period and my local pacth is likely to go unvisited for another few weeks yet, but I am lucky that both my parents and my parents-in-law both live on the doorstep of great reserves or areas of countryside allowing me to get out and about and see some interesting stuff. I've already described what my parents have on their doorstep. My in-laws live over on the Suffolk Coast, not far from Minsmere and a host of other coastal reserves which mean nature is very literally never far away when I am visiting family. I'll also be back in the woods for at least another few days before the end of the holidays, and while I'll be busy when I'm there I'm never to busy to enjoy the wildlife. 

Richard