The Survey for 29th July 2022 marked the welcome end to a month with an unprecedented heatwave. A summary of the whole of July will follow.
Friday 29th July started with bright conditions, high cloud, a slight breeze and very dry but with the short grass still green. Fruits on the trees were doing well but not yet ripe. Occasional walkers were making slow progress as if exhausted still, as with the river, flowing but slowly, audible. Some large but delicate Hazel leaves had turned yellow and started to fall, not through lack of water but as a result of direct heat from the sun. Small birds were flying from the sun into the shady side of the river, having rapidly warmed up after a cooler night. Good numbers of birds were present but very few were singing. They perched above some bitten and over-ripe fruits, ignored for the present. Goldfinches were the only birds to be heard. Oaks held huge numbers of acorns, many still green, different trees holding different loads, branches and twigs moving very slightly in the gentle breeze. Woodpigeons were active in selecting nest-sites all along the coolest banks, this year choosing low, damp, shady sites as most birds and animals will do during excessively hot summers. Brambles were sending their new shoots low along the ground, providing shade and shelter for their own roots and for other plants too. Earlier all bramble shoots and nettles grew fast and vertical, twice their usual height.
Blackberries at various stages of ripening after the first rapid
growth.
The earlier Heatwave had sent birds under cover, and the abundance of easily accessible food meant there was no need for them to fly constantly from branch to branch or tree to tree during the heat of the day.
Thirty-five Woodpigeons were the most active flapping around inside hedges and Ivies, dropping down to the river to bathe and drink occasionally. They keep cool by not moving much, occasionally wing-stretching. Blue ts (31) in Hazels, Oaks and Blackthorn and Great ts (8) were the most active birds, with the latter mostly hidden in the undergrowth today. Four Long-tailed ts, all juveniles were sitting together in the Willows over the river, their tails now fully grown and close by three Chiffchaffs were calling contact calls with two more flying across the Willows (total 5). House Sparrows (86) were as usual the most numerous, picking at various berries and seeds along the hedges.. The most vocal birds today were Goldfinches (27) very bright, with juveniles. Theirs will be a bounteous autumn with plenty of excellent foraging on Dock and other seeds. It's already apparent. Wrens were quite scarce, only 8 seen and 4 of them calling, keeping very close to the river. There were 4 Dunnock on the shady path, a usual number and usual place, but one near the new pond. Further along the shady river one Blackcap was seen in Willows and one Grey Wagtail very low-flying over the water under steep banks.
No Song thrushes were seen and only four Blackbirds, all within very close proximity to dense undergrowth. A gentle morse code tapping gave away the presence of a Nuthatch in an old Oak whilst a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker and an adult called to each other from an Ash (2).
Carrion Crows were very visibly moulting now, one flying over my head with missing middle feathers from the tail. (total crows 4). Several juvenile Magpies ( 7) were heard nearby whilst a single Jay was seen flying into a tall hedge. Further along between two ponds a Green Woodpecker was calling loudly. It was an area with several ant's nests in the dry cracked border.
Finally just two Robins were seen, one singing. They are usually one of the most numerous birds to be heard and seen but fall silent and remain hidden whilst moulting.
Now for the Butterflies and Dragonflies:
It was notable that there were now quite a few clumps of Fleabane all freshly flowering as the previous clumps, flowering during the Heatwave seemed to have not withstood the heat and been singed and
dried out. ie the yellow flowers had black petals, not seeds.
Butterflies:
Large White, Comma, Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper, Small White, Meadow Brown, Holly Blue, Brimstone, Common Blue butterflies on Fleabane, Peacock, also on Fleabane.
Dragonflies:
Banded Demoiselle Damselfly, Large Red Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Common Darter Dragonfly
Many bees, grasshoppers, crickets in the dry long grasses which were thick, tangled and going to seed.
Note there were NO areas of bare, dry cracked earth. As soon as it rained the grasses grew up with green shoots.
(Next posts will be some observations over the whole of the HEATWAVE month of JULY 2022
then the surveys for August and September 2022
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