Nature around Watlington
This is what you get when you feed birds. A flock of collared doves.
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Photo taken in my garden. Female sparrowhawk overlooking a bird feeder. Behind is a great tit keeping very quiet.
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Greater spotted woodpecker Clever vole living under bird feeder,
Sculthorpe Moor Hawk and Owl trust
Sculthorpe Moor Hawk and Owl trust
Nature Notes in May with Chris Dyson
One of the nature highlights since the last ‘Gossip’ was delivered is that a Red Kite appears to have taken up residence within the village boundaries. I have observed it on a number of occasions in a number of locations within the village area. It is a large bird and can be distinguished from the resident Buzzards by its distinctive forked tail and its wings are not as rounded as the Buzzards. The Red Kite is another bird that was persecuted to extinction in this country in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1990 they were reintroduced by bringing 13 birds from Spain. They have been very successful and are now not an uncommon site.
Some of the summer migrants are back with us although the Swallows were over a week later than I usually see them. I think this was probably due to the cold north easterly winds that we had in late April. I heard my first Chiff Chaff of the year on 29th March in Paige Close. I am looking forward to the return of the Swifts at the beginning of May. A hen Blackbird was busy nest building on the 4th March and a Robin on the 9th March. Whilst on the 8th April whilst sitting in my car in the QEII hospital car park I watched a pair of Mistle Thrush busy building a nest in an Oak Tree. We have Great Tits nesting in one of our nest boxes and Blue Tits in another so spring is definitely here. On the 25th April a family of young Blackbirds about two days after leaving their nest were being fed by their parents near the railway station.
I have already observed Peacock, Tortoiseshell and Orange Tip butterflies on the wing. Also there have been a good number of Bumble Bees buzzing about. Ladybirds have also been observed in large numbers so whether we are due for an eruption of millions in the summer remains to be seen. Also very active on the sunny days in late April were Mining Bees busy excavating their nest burrows. They leave what look like miniature volcanoes in certain parts of our garden. Although there are several bees making their nest close together they are in fact solitary bees. Each female is working independently and once she has excavated her nest she puts pollen and nectar in each of the five or six cells and lays an egg in each cell. Once she has done this she has no more interest in her nest and the larvae will complete their transformation underground. Then they will emerge as adult bees the following spring and start their life cycle all over again.
The mining bees are parasitized by Oil Beetles which have quite a complicated life cycle. I saw the first Oil Beetle of the year on the 28th February and a mating pair on 22nd March. They are large black beetles and are somewhat clumsy. They will start to climb a flower stem or even a wall and then fall off and will repeat this a number of times. They are called Oil Beetles because if they are disturbed they secrete an oil like substance which is in fact their blood. This causes blisters and painful swelling and gives this group of beetles their other name which is Blister Beetles.
In spring the female Oil Beetle lays a number of batches of several thousand eggs in the soil. These eggs soon hatch into louse like insects which crawl to the top of spring flowers. Here they wait for the right solitary Mining Bee to come to collect pollen and nectar from the flower. If this happens then the larvae which have strong claws attaches itself to the Bee. When the Bee returns to its nest with the food store for its young the Oil Beetle larvae detaches itself from the Bee. It then proceeds to eat the bee’s egg and lives on the bee’s food store whilst going through a number of changes before emerging the following spring as an adult beetle. This life cycle all depends on the right solitary bee coming to the flower. If this does not happen then the Oil Beetle larvae dies.
I hope you have all enjoyed seeing all the different blossoms around the village. The Magnolias were spectacular but they did not last long due I think to the very dry spell of weather and repeated frosts when they flowered. The Winter Cherries were very pretty with their delicate flowers. Whilst the Blackthorn in the hedgerows just seemed to go on flowering for weeks. Then in late April the Cherry trees with their gorgeous pink flowers against the clear blue sky were an absolute delight.
One of the nature highlights since the last ‘Gossip’ was delivered is that a Red Kite appears to have taken up residence within the village boundaries. I have observed it on a number of occasions in a number of locations within the village area. It is a large bird and can be distinguished from the resident Buzzards by its distinctive forked tail and its wings are not as rounded as the Buzzards. The Red Kite is another bird that was persecuted to extinction in this country in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1990 they were reintroduced by bringing 13 birds from Spain. They have been very successful and are now not an uncommon site.
Some of the summer migrants are back with us although the Swallows were over a week later than I usually see them. I think this was probably due to the cold north easterly winds that we had in late April. I heard my first Chiff Chaff of the year on 29th March in Paige Close. I am looking forward to the return of the Swifts at the beginning of May. A hen Blackbird was busy nest building on the 4th March and a Robin on the 9th March. Whilst on the 8th April whilst sitting in my car in the QEII hospital car park I watched a pair of Mistle Thrush busy building a nest in an Oak Tree. We have Great Tits nesting in one of our nest boxes and Blue Tits in another so spring is definitely here. On the 25th April a family of young Blackbirds about two days after leaving their nest were being fed by their parents near the railway station.
I have already observed Peacock, Tortoiseshell and Orange Tip butterflies on the wing. Also there have been a good number of Bumble Bees buzzing about. Ladybirds have also been observed in large numbers so whether we are due for an eruption of millions in the summer remains to be seen. Also very active on the sunny days in late April were Mining Bees busy excavating their nest burrows. They leave what look like miniature volcanoes in certain parts of our garden. Although there are several bees making their nest close together they are in fact solitary bees. Each female is working independently and once she has excavated her nest she puts pollen and nectar in each of the five or six cells and lays an egg in each cell. Once she has done this she has no more interest in her nest and the larvae will complete their transformation underground. Then they will emerge as adult bees the following spring and start their life cycle all over again.
The mining bees are parasitized by Oil Beetles which have quite a complicated life cycle. I saw the first Oil Beetle of the year on the 28th February and a mating pair on 22nd March. They are large black beetles and are somewhat clumsy. They will start to climb a flower stem or even a wall and then fall off and will repeat this a number of times. They are called Oil Beetles because if they are disturbed they secrete an oil like substance which is in fact their blood. This causes blisters and painful swelling and gives this group of beetles their other name which is Blister Beetles.
In spring the female Oil Beetle lays a number of batches of several thousand eggs in the soil. These eggs soon hatch into louse like insects which crawl to the top of spring flowers. Here they wait for the right solitary Mining Bee to come to collect pollen and nectar from the flower. If this happens then the larvae which have strong claws attaches itself to the Bee. When the Bee returns to its nest with the food store for its young the Oil Beetle larvae detaches itself from the Bee. It then proceeds to eat the bee’s egg and lives on the bee’s food store whilst going through a number of changes before emerging the following spring as an adult beetle. This life cycle all depends on the right solitary bee coming to the flower. If this does not happen then the Oil Beetle larvae dies.
I hope you have all enjoyed seeing all the different blossoms around the village. The Magnolias were spectacular but they did not last long due I think to the very dry spell of weather and repeated frosts when they flowered. The Winter Cherries were very pretty with their delicate flowers. Whilst the Blackthorn in the hedgerows just seemed to go on flowering for weeks. Then in late April the Cherry trees with their gorgeous pink flowers against the clear blue sky were an absolute delight.