Wild Winkworth, 2015's swan song

And so we reach the end of 2015, as what is touted to be the warmest December on record draws to a close. The strongest El Niño event for many years has in part led to a rush of warm air from the south-west, bringing with it a series of Atlantic storms to our shores. This has meant lots of wind and rain but also exceptionally mild weather for the time of year, with temperatures in double figures for most of the month. On the 19th a high of 16 celsius was recorded here in Surrey. The mild winter isn't just affecting Britain though as unusually high temperatures have been recorded across much of northern Europe and North America, and even the North Pole where the temperature reach a balmy +1 celsius this week; over 20 degrees warmer than average for this time of year.

The consequence of all this spring-like weather in midwinter has been some exceptionally early flowering plants, and even some fresh leaves emerging on some of the trees already, but more on that later.

As usual though I'll start with a round-up of the bird life at Winkworth in the past couple of weeks.

There have been noticeably more gulls moving overhead recently, mostly Herring Gulls and mostly heading south-west first thing in the morning.

Herring Gulls

 In amongst the gulls a couple of Egyptian Geese also flew south-west over Rowe's Flashe Lake on Christmas Eve. 

Egyptian Geese were also recorded flying over on the 21st and the 27th. Other noteworthy flyovers recently have included Raven, with one west on the 27th and another south-west on the 31st, and single Red Kites east on the 23rd and 24th.

Whilst opening the boathouse on the 26th I heard a 'te-zek' call high overhead and just briefly caught a glimpse of a roughly Chaffinch-sized bird disappearing over the trees, heading south, before it called again: 'tchuu'. I can't say for certain but the only bird I can think of with a call that matches that is Lapland Bunting. The sacrificial game crop fields across the Thorncombe Valley do, I know, attract good numbers of Reed Buntings and Yellowhammers at this time of year, so who's to say this bird hadn't stopped off there before heading further south?

Down at Rowe's Flashe there have been noticeably more Tufted Ducks recently, with over thirty recorded on some days towards the end of the month. Volunteer Ann Jacobs captured this nice shot of some on the 28th. 

Meanwhile a Kingfisher continues to maintain a regular presence, as do the roosting Reed Buntings in the reedbed on the eastern side. There were at least three in there first thing on the 23rd

Pheasants are a familiar sight all around the arboretum, particularly so at this time of year when there's rather less vegetation for them to hide in. Volunteer Ann photographed this male in Badger's Bowl recently.

Moving on to woodland birds, and there have been plenty of Redwings, Siskins and Bullfinches around, as usual. On Christmas Eve I noted five Bullfinches along the Spring Walk, including one singing. There's also regularly been a singing Dunnock here in recent days.  

Single Bramblings were noted on the 17th when one flew east and the 26th when one briefly alighted in a tree near the car park before flying south-east.

There was a Firecrest calling in the vicinity of the boathouse on Christmas Eve while on Christmas Day I was told there was one calling along the footpath just on the south-western edge of the arboretum.

The local Buzzards and Sparrowhawks have started to display over the arboretum in recent days; another surefire sign that spring is getting nearer.

Male Sparrowhawk

Meanwhile, I noted the first drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker of the season by Rowe's Flashe early on the 31st.

Also on the 31st there was a Red Admiral on the wing, flying high around the treetops in The Bowl. The last butterfly of the year!

The more open landscape at this time of year provides more opportunities to catch a glimpse of our resident Roe Deer. I had a close encounter with this group on Sorbus Hill the other morning.

If you've visited Winkworth recently you won't have been able to miss the swathes of golden daffodils around the upper arboretum, but they are not the only floral signs of spring to be found, as the mild weather has induced many plants to flower weeks or, in some cases, months earlier than normal. Here's just a small selection of some I've noticed this past week or so:

Primrose (Primula vulgaris) - Usual flowering time: March-May

Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) - Usual flowering time: February-April

Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) - Usual flowering time: April-July

Common Vetch (Vicia sativa) - Usual flowering time: May-September

However the biggest surprise for me was during the Boxing Day walk when I noticed these newly-emerging leaves on a Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur) in Badger's Bowl. 

Previous El Niño winters have ended with a blast of cold weather in February and March. If this winter follows suit then much of our flora and fauna is in for a rather nasty shock!

Wild Winkworth, August 2015

There's something about the middle to end of August that I can never quite put my finger on but I absolutely love. The misty, dewy mornings, the golden sunlight, the subtle scent of ripening fruit - it all adds up to the unmistakeable and wholly wonderful feeling of early Autumn. I know Autumn is a dirty word to some people, bringing with it as it does images of endless grey and drizzly days, soggy leaves and the long winter to come, but I just love the change, the feeling of an endless cycle, things taking place in their natural order, season following season, unfettered by our daily goings-on. Winkworth is a great place to observe these changes, as each day brings new things to see as wildlife prepares for the season ahead and - whisper it - the leaves begin to turn. Yes, any of you who have visited the arboretum recently will have noticed there's already a fair few reds, golds and yellows beginning to pop up amongst the greens - particularly amongst some of the Acers. Liquidambars and those strikingly red Cercidiphyllum japonicums in Rowe's Flashe Meadow.

It's not just the leaves that are changing colour; there are also some brightly coloured berries ripening up around the arboretum. Look up on Sorbus Hill and you'll see the colourful sprays of the various Sorbus berries, while amongst the nettles and leafy undergrowth beneath the trees you may spot the bright red-orange spikes of Arum maculatum.

 I mentioned in my last blog post about the birds beginning to move and that has stepped up a pace in the past few weeks. The Swifts have now all but gone; I saw one locally on the 22nd but haven't seen one over the arboretum itself since the 10th. Swallows are now on the move too with some fairly steady southerly movements noted recently. There have also been some sizeable congregations of House Martins - on the 18th at least 40-50 were over Sorbus Hill. The large flocks of Chiffchaffs and other small birds around Rowe's Flashe Lake seem to be getting bigger every day and attracting all sorts of species into their ranks, including several Willow Warblers and the odd Garden Warbler and Whitethroat. On the morning of the 23rd I noted Firecrest, a singing Willow Warbler and several Marsh Tits flitting about in the trees by the boathouse. Talking about the boathouse, and moving away from birds for a moment, I got a bit of surprise when I opened the boathouse on the 2nd and checked the 'Plant of the moment' samples only to find this Old Lady moth on one of the Cotinus clippings!  

The predominant raptor species this month have been Sparrowhawk and Buzzard, both having evidently bred locally as there have been very vocal juveniles of both species in the arboretum recently. A family group of Sparrowhawks made their presence known in the Phillimore Wetlands for most of the middle of the month, while a family of Buzzards have been similarly vocal towards the southern end of Rowe's Flashe Lake. Some days it's seemed almost as if the two sets of juveniles have been playing a game of 'who can whine the loudest', the sound of their cries echoing around the arboretum. Early on the 12th there were eight Buzzards soaring over The Bowl - the highest number I have seen together here to date. While having my lunch on the 30th I caught a brief glimpse of what I judged to be a Goshawk flying north-east low over the upper arboretum. I alerted my friend Ed who I knew was birding on the other side of the valley from Winkworth at the time and he was able to locate the bird in question and confirm its identity. A first record for the arboretum as far as I can tell!

Five of the eight Buzzards soaring over The Bowl on the 12th

On Rowe's Flashe Lake it's been a rather quiet few weeks. On the 11th a female Mute Swan was present for a couple of hours before flying off north - amazingly only my second record here this year - while on the 18th a female Pochard made a brief appearance. By the middle of the month the remaining three Canada Goose youngsters had mysteriously disappeared, and the last I saw of the two adult birds was on the 19th. Kingfishers were seen on heard several times throughout the month, including a juvenile on the 19th. Grey Wagtails are a common enough sight around the lake and spillways but a congregation of six together on the 28th was an unusually high count - presumably the family group that recently vacated the wall of the boathouse. There are still a few Little Grebes and Mandarin Ducks to be seen as well.

Mute Swan on Rowe's Flashe Lake

Other bird highlights in August have included the return of Water Rails to Phillimore Wetlands, with one announcing its presence with its unmistakeable squealing on the 7th. I've heard it regularly since, and on the 13th there were certainly at least two calling in the Gunnera Swamp area. Flyovers have included Hobby (24th) and Raven (29th). Also on the 29th it was good to come across a Spotted Flycatcher flitting around the trees in the north-western corner of the arboretum, roughly between the overflow car park and the viewing platform; the first one I've seen here since the one that hung around for a while in June, so this is likely a bird stopping off on its way from its breeding area back to its wintering grounds in the tropics of Africa. It may not have come all that far though, as I have recently seen a couple of family groups along the neighbouring Thorncombe Street.

I unfortunately didn't have my camera handy to photograph the Flycatcher, so instead here's a juvenile Song Thrush I photographed on Sorbus Hill on the 11th.

On to butterflies now, and it's been rather quiet on that front just lately, partly due to the wet weather in the past week or so but also as some species are coming to the end of their flight season. There's still beeen a few around though, especially worthy of note is this Painted Lady I photographed sunning itself along the Spring Walk on the 22nd.

On the 17th we stumbled across this striking individual in our yard. It's a Buff-tip moth caterpillar. If you haven't ever seen a Buff-tip moth then look it up - they are amazingly camouflaged to look like a bit of broken twig!

With the damper weather recently there's been some cracking fungi popping up around the arboretum like this Chicken of the Woods along the Spring Walk.

There are also Parasol mushrooms in Rowe's Flashe Meadow...

 ...and this lovely Shaggy Inkcap halfway along the dam.

Whilst we were driving past the Winter Garden on the 14th fellow gardener Giles spotted this little Wood Mouse running around. I was amazed how close it let me get - I took this picture on my phone camera with very little zoom! I think it thought if it stayed still I wouldn't see it.

I unfortunately wasn't able to attend the bat walk on the 15th but I'm told it was well attended and several bats were seen and heard on the bat detectors, including Common and Soprano Pipistrelles, Noctule, and Daubentons, the latter seen skimming low over Rowe's Flashe Lake catching insects.

There have been loads of dragonflies around lately, with Southern Hawker and Brown Hawker being the most numerous and conspicuous, although I've also noted the odd Migrant Hawker darting around higher up in the tree canopy.

On the 28th, Grass Snakes and Slow-worms were seen basking on paths in the warm morning sunshine, although sadly neither was obliging enough to hang around for a photo!

Finally, to finish this rather eclectic blog post, a Tanner Beetle! This large beetle species - one of the largest found in the UK - is classified as nationally scarce, so needless to say I was rather surprised to stumble across this one while sweeping out the gardeners' workshop on the 30th. 

Tanner Beetle - what a beast!

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Wild Winkworth, late April

After what must rank as one of the driest Aprils in recent years, the combination of sunshine and some much-needed rain has led to plenty of scenes like this around the arboretum in the past few days - the richness of colour combined with the scents of the various emergent flowers making for an absolute feast for the senses.

Indeed, the change to south-westerly winds and damper conditions last weekend clearly brought with them a few migrant birds as was evident when I got down to Rowe's Flashe Lake on Saturday morning (25th) only to be greeted by the familiar sight of a Common Sandpiper flying about over the water with the Swallows before coming to rest on a buoy towards the southern end. Doubtless there have been several records of this species at Winkworth over the years but, as far as I can tell, this was the first documented record since 1987...

 Imagine my even greater surprise then when I walked past the lake again on the morning of the 30th and flushed FOUR Common Sandpipers from the north-west corner - surely a record count for the site? They then posed quite happily for several photos in the spring sunshine. A lovely sight.

Other new arrivals this past week have been the first Garden Warbler of the year, singing in the brambles towards the south-east corner of the lake on the 25th, and on the 26th a Sedge Warbler was singing in the small patch of reeds on the eastern side of the lake,  replaced on the 28th by a singing Reed Bunting which has remained all week. 

Also nice to discover down at Rowe's Flashe this past weekend was a Little Grebe constructing a nest on one of the buoys - the buoys, incidentally, are marking the areas where barley straw bales have been put in the lake to combat algae. 

Swallow numbers continue to increase, with at least ten zipping around over the water on the 26th although, aside from one House Martin on the 15th, I've yet to see any other hirundine species or Swifts here yet - I discovered the other day that Sand Martins used to nest in the banks of Rowe's Flashe. 

Amongst all this excitement there have also been increasingly regular visits from a couple of Greylag Geese, not all that common a sight here....

and the first Mallard ducklings of the year have emerged and are growing fast. There were twelve around as of the 28th. 

Thankfully they appear to have so far escaped the jaws of the local Grey Herons...

During sunnier spells the birdsong in the arboretum has been incredible. It was good to see and hear this handsome male Greenfinch singing away near Rowe's Flashe Lake on the morning of the 27th, especially as numbers of this species have fluctuated in recent years due to disease.

Talking of birdsong, this Sunday (3rd May) I'll be helping out at a dawn chorus walk at Winkworth. This walk is now fully booked but I will be leading another one at Uppark on the 11th, should any of you be interested in attending.

Back to Winkworth now, and another exciting development this past week was my discovery of a male Sparrowhawk adding material to a nest in the lower arboretum. He's been working on it for several days now and it's great to see him meticulously adding each twig one by one - fingers crossed he finds a mate and they go on to rear some chicks in a few weeks. 

Who's watching who?

The weather has been rather hit and miss for butterflies in the past few days, but during the warmer spells I have noted plenty of Orange-tips and Peacocks around, plus smaller numbers of Speckled Woods, Large Whites, Brimstones and this Comma, basking on a path in the meadow on the 22nd.

Less easy to spot was this well camouflaged Brindled Beauty moth...

And this hoverfly, Helophilus pendulus - 'The Footballer' (due to its stripy thorax) or 'Sun Fly' - was equally well hidden on the sandy soil. 

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Recent goings-on at Winkworth, April 2015

It's been a glorious couple of weeks at Winkworth, with some very warm days indeed for the time of year - the temperature peaking at 26 degrees celsius on the 15th.

The changes in the arboretum have been pronounced with the trees and wildlife springing into life. Where just a week or two ago there were bare branches, now there is a haze of green beginning to appear. Down at ground level too there is much fresh growth and colour to be seen, but more on that later...

Prunus Tai Haku, Great White Cherry (in The Bowl)

Birds-wise, the migration season is now fully underway at last with the arrival of the fine weather. The morning of 9th April saw a notable influx of the common woodland warblers, with at least fourteen Chiffchaffs and eight Blackcaps around the arboretum as well as the first Willow Warbler singing out on Sorbus Hill. By the 13th there were at least three WWs around the site. On the morning of the 10th I heard my first Cuckoo of the year singing just to the north of Bluebell Wood. This male has been seen and/or heard daily since, regularly commuting between the Winkworth area and the far side of the valley to the east. Hopefully his efforts will be rewarded and a female will arrive soon. Swallow numbers are increasing locally and are now a fairly frequent sight skimming over Rowe's Flashe Lake or chattering away overhead, while the first House Martin of the year was seen racing north on the 15th.

The warmer weather is good news for butterflies too, not to mention those of us that enjoy seeing them! In addition to numerous Peacocks, Brimstones and Small Tortoiseshells, the 14th saw the first Orange-tip, Speckled Wood and Small Copper of 2015 take to the wing in the arboretum - the latter the first record of the year for Surrey. There have been a couple of Small White sightings recently too, and the Winkworth butterfly list for this year currently stands at ten species.

Not a butterfly, although it had me fooled for a moment - this Orange Underwing moth was still a very nice sight basking in the sun on the newly resurfaced path past the Winter Garden on the morning of the 10th.

As I alluded to earlier, there are some wonderful displays of flowers to be seen around the arboretum now, not just from the magnificent Magnolias, Cherries and Acers, but also from many of our native wild flowers. Here are just a few of the many flowering at Winkworth recently...

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage (Chrysosplenium oppositifolium)

Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca)

Green Field-speedwell (Veronica agrestis)

Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris)

Common Dog-violet (Viola riviniana)

Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum)

Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum)

and, of course....

Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)

I love this time of year!

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