March Winds and April Showers

"March winds and April showers

bring forth May flowers"

So says the old folk rhyme, and it's a couplet that has double meaning as I write this. March did indeed deliver some fairly ferocious winds, especially at the end of the Easter weekend, which sadly did a great deal of damage in the arboretum. Now we are halfway through April and enjoying our fair share of showers but also some beautiful warm sunshine and temperatures in the high teens celsius in recent days. April this year also brings with it new opportunity as I am leaving Winkworth and moving on to pastures new. It's been a great experience getting to know the arboretum and its wildlife these past couple of years, and I hope you've enjoyed reading my ramblings about the things I've seen when I've been out and about.

So, for the final time - from me at least - here's a round-up of what's been happening at Winkworth in the past few weeks...

Oak leaves emerging - Matt Phelps

In the three weeks since my previous blog post winter has well and truly given way to spring and everything is bursting in to life around the arboretum. Birdsong is increasing all the time, with more and more Chiffchaffs each day since late March, while the first Blackcaps and Willow Warblers were heard on 30th March and 4th April respectively - both exactly a year to the day since their arrivals in 2015. The winter visitors have more or less all departed now, with just the odd Brambling still around in the first week of April. My first Winkworth Swallows of the year were two flying purposefully north high above the gardeners' yard on 3rd April, while early on the 10th I heard my first Cuckoo of the year, giving its distinctive two note song just up the valley from the arboretum.

Blackcap - Ann Jacobs

Blue Tit - Ann Jacobs

Many of our resident birds are now busying themselves with nest building, like the Treecreepers which are again taking up residence in the wall of the boathouse as they did last year.

Down on Rowe's Flashe Lake we have already seen the first Mallard ducklings of the year - a clutch of a dozen appeared on 7th April.

Treecreeper on the boathouse wall - Ann Jacobs

Robin - Ann Jacobs

Nuthatch - Ann Jacobs

Mallard duckling - Ann Jacobs

Also of note on Rowe's Flashe recently have been occasional Pochard (there was a pair present on the 4th), up to half a dozen Little Grebes, the now fairly regular Bar-headed Goose, plus the rather odd-looking Canada/Greylag hybrid which appeared last week.

Canada x Greylag Goose - Matt Phelps

Little Grebe - Ann Jacobs

Butterflies are starting to be seen more regularly now, particularly in the warm sunshine this past week. I've noted Peacock, Brimstone and Comma at Winkworth recently, while I've seen Orange-tip, Holly Blue, Small Tortoiseshell and Speckled Wood elsewhere locally this week, so it's only a matter of time and good weather before they take to the wing in the arboretum too.

Anyway, back to the flowers I mentioned in my opening paragraph. In addition to the glorious displays of Magnolia, Camellia and Cherry, the resident wild flowers are beginning to put on a great show of their own. Here's a few that Ann Jacobs and I have photographed here recently.

Ramsons - Matt Phelps

Red Campion - Matt Phelps

Bluebells - Matt Phelps

Common Dog-violet - Matt Phelps

Wood Anemone - Ann Jacobs

Wood Sorrel - Ann Jacobs

Marsh Marigold - Ann Jacobs

And that's it from me! Thanks for reading, and do get over to Winkworth soon if you haven't visited recently or at all - it really does look particularly wonderful at this time of year.

Spring hues along the Spring Walk - Matt Phelps

Honey bee and cherry blossom - Ann Jacobs

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February at Winkworth: some recent photos

Less words and more photos is the theme of this blog post, as there's not been a massive amount of new wildlife sightings to report since my previous post.

Worth a mention though are the seven Red-legged Partridge which were in Rowe's Flashe Meadow early on the 10th Feb - the highest count I've seen at Winkworth to date. Then on the 13th I was lucky enough to witness two Stoats scurrying around the gardeners' bonfire and compost area, just up the slope from the viewing platform. They were in view for several minutes and it was wonderful to watch them running about and diving in and out of the various piles of logs and things. Just typical I didn't have my camera to hand at that moment!

Luckily, both I and volunteer Ann have had chance to get out in the arboretum with our cameras recently though, and here's a selection of photos from the past couple of weeks.

Singing Robin - Matt Phelps

Long-tailed Tit - Ann Jacobs

Song Thrush - Matt Phelps

Grey Heron - Ann Jacobs

Hazel catkins - Ann Jacobs

Cherry blossom - Ann Jacobs

Ribes sanguineum (flowering currant) - Matt Phelps

Daffodils - Matt Phelps

Willow catkin (presumed Salix laevigata) - Matt Phelps

Wild Winkworth, late January-early February

Another mixed two or three weeks on the weather front here. The day after I posted my previous blog post we had our first, and so far only, notable snowfall of the winter and the arboretum looked lovely and wintry for a few hours until it all turned to soggy mush by lunchtime. Indeed, that third week of January saw Rowe's Flashe Lake frozen over for several days, and the ducks looked rather unimpressed as they huddled patiently on the surface for the thaw. 

Frozen Rowe's Flashe

This Little Grebe managed to find the only area of unfrozen water
- right in front of the boathouse

As I write this now (6th Feb), however, there is a fierce south-westerly wind roaring through the trees in the upper arboretum and the temperature is a balmy 12 degrees celsius. These extremes of weather have done little to detract from the fact that this winter has so far been exceptionally mild and the frantic rush of plants growing and flowering weeks or even months ahead of schedule continues. In addition to the carpets of Daffodils, Snowdrops and Primroses around the place, this past week the senior gardener and I have discovered the first Magnolias and Azaleas beginning to bloom, and just this morning I found this little flower spike out on Sorbus Hill amongst the myriad green spikes pushing through the leaf litter. Any guesses?

Yes, incredibly, it's a Bluebell! In February!
Don't worry though - I'm sure the best displays are still several weeks away yet

On the bird front it was interesting to note a little flurry (pun intended!) of cold weather movement on the 'snow day' (17th Jan) with eight Bramblings and nine Crossbills flying south in the afternoon, while on the 20th there were two Bramblings briefly in a tree along the Spring Walk before they flew off north-east.  Gull movement has noticeably picked up recently too, with plenty of Common Gulls moving west most mornings, and on the 20th a Great Black-backed Gull few south-east around lunchtime - my only record to date of this species here.

Common Gulls circling over the Spring Walk

On 20th Jan and 6th Feb I heard a Water Rail calling in the Phillimore Wetland - this species seems to have been a bit more elusive this winter than last. On the morning of the 25th, while I was carrying out the morning site check, I was surprised to see a Tawny Owl fly out of a conifer near the carved throne seat and disappear into the trees near the boathouse. In fact, so seldom have I seen Tawny Owls flying in daylight it took me a moment to realise what I was looking at! Meanwhile, on the morning of 3rd February I stumbled across a couple of Red-legged Partridges scurrying into the brambles at the south end of Rowe's Flashe Meadow - my first record of this species here in 2016. 

Looking east across the Badger's Bowl to the Wintershall Estate beyond

The amount of bird song here is increasing almost daily now, particularly on fine sunny mornings (when we get them!) when it's possible to hear at least ten species singing on a short walk around the upper arboretum, including Chaffinch, Stock Dove, Great Tit, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Collared Dove and Coal Tit. Great Spotted Woodpeckers can now be heard drumming regularly too. On the bird of prey side of things, both Buzzard and Sparrowhawk have been a regular sight recently, the latter beginning to display overhead, again on fine days. On 1st February there were two Red Kites circling together over the lower arboretum first thing in the morning, the local Jackdaws doing their best to chase them off! Just after noon on the 6th a Peregrine flew south over the gardeners' work yard, looking like it was struggling somewhat as it battled straight into the strong wind. My first one here this year.

The local Roe Deer are still around - I stumbled across this group of five on Sorbus Hill first thing in the morning a couple of weeks ago. They really are so well camouflaged against the carpet of dried bracken.

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Wild Winkworth, early January 2016

Well, after my ramblings about the exceptionally mild weather in my previous blog post, things have turned altogether more wintry, haven't they? In fact, so far in 2016, the temperature has barely made it in to double figures here at Winkworth. Whilst this may come as a bit of a shock to some of the plants and animals that were tricked into thinking spring had arrived early, the good news is it has also turned drier in recent days and there's been plenty of beautiful crisp sunshine to enjoy.

Come and enjoy the arboretum while the sun lasts; it really is looking stunning at the moment.

Birds-wise, it's been a rather quiet start to the year so far with nothing massively out of the ordinary to report. Saying that, the year got off to a good start with a Raven circling and calling over Bluebell Wood on New Year's Day, when there was also a Marsh Tit calling along the Spring Walk.

On 7th January I heard a Brambling calling near the tearoom towards the end of the day. Also on the 7th it was nice to see a handsome drake Pochard back on Rowe's Flashe Lake. It was a little too distant for my camera to capture but luckily John Rowland was on hand and got some great photos.

Pochard

Off he goes!

The wintering Kingfisher is still around although I've only heard it a couple of times so far this month.

On the 6th I noted the first Water Rail of the year calling in the Phillimore Wetland.

Bullfinches remain numerous and I've heard one singing along the Spring Walk on sunny days recently, but Redwing, Fieldfare and Siskin numbers seem to have dropped off a little lately.

I've recorded four raptor species here this month, with Buzzard and Kestrel the most frequently seen hanging around in the trees, while Sparrowhawk and Red Kite are rather less common and often soaring overhead.

Despite the cold snap, the spring feelings amongst the bird life here continue to increase, with Chaffinch, Collared Dove, Treecreeper and Coal Tit amongst many species now starting to sing, while drumming Great Spotted Woodpeckers are becoming a more commonly heard sound with each day.

I mentioned last time about the bare trees and shrubs enabling better viewing of our resident Roe Deer and this has been proven in the last few days as I've had some very close encounters indeed while doing the morning site checks. There are often two or three hanging about on the slopes between the Owl Bench viewpoint and Sorbus Hill. They can a bit hard to spot against the background of dead bracken but if you are quiet and patient you may be lucky enough to get as close as this.



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!