Some home patch exploring

Just a few minutes drive down the road from my house is a Wildlife Trust nature reserve and, shamefully, up until a few weeks ago, I had never been. It is only a small place, so I guess I'd always favoured the effort of going a little further to larger areas, but I'm glad I finally went. There was plenty to spot despite the small size, including a beautiful snake's head fritillary with some lovely purple flowers, and others such as cowslip beginning to bloom. Heading in to Spring, but still with few leaves on the trees it was easy to pick out lots of birds nests. There were many rooks around, and their high, messy nests, but also some much smaller and more delicate looking creations whose makers I was unsure of. There were lots of birds around though including goldfinch, robins, and great and blue tits. With a little dampness in the soil there was also plenty of evidence of animals which weren't actually seen, including Muntjac deer and badger footprints, as well as badger sett entrances which appeared to be active. A lovely short walk, well worth exploring the little places.

Snake's head fritillary

Cowslip

Frogs spawn

Rooks nests

Badger

Muntjac deer

A few days later I enjoyed the sunshine over the fields behind my house, with plenty to draw the eye. The blossom was bursting, the buzzards were flying, and the butterflies were dancing along the field margins. Though I have walked in these fields many times, to be able to escape out of my back door and so easily enjoy these little nature encounters will never get old.

Buzzard

Blackthorn blosson

Peacock butterfly

Two small tortoiseshells

Over the fields

Sunny spring day

I've fallen a little behind so there is another trip to Cumbria, a longer walk around home turf, and some seal spotting in Norfolk to come!

Wildlife firsts!

A few weeks ago I had need to drive up to Cumbria, and so decided to break the long journey with a walk around RSPB Leighton Moss Reserve. Though the weather was a little grey and damp, I enjoyed a quick wander to stretch my legs and managed a few wildlife firsts along the way! Stopping off in one of the hides I was quickly treated to lovely views of a male and female marsh harrier sweeping over the reed beds. Though I've previously had a very distant glimpse of a male, this was a much better encounter, and great to see the two close together. There were plenty of wading birds around, as well as a pair of great crested grebes just beginning their courtship display. One of them was apparently not quite in the mood for love yet, and scooted off before they got to the stage of presenting plants to each other!

Colourful pheasant

Spot the snipe

Continuing along the path towards another hide I came across a male pheasant. Nothing too exciting you might think, but often they are skittish and don't allow you to get to close. I slowed my walking and eventually stopped and this guy was happy to strut right up to my feet so I could appreciate what colourful birds the males really are. I reached the last hide and sat a while watching a few birds and waiting while some other visitors clattered off down the path. Once it was quieter again I turned back myself, and was enjoying the peace when a sound caught my ear and I froze... did I imagine that. I thought I must have done and took a few more steps before I heard it, and stopped, again. I definitely heard that, and once more to be sure. My first audio encounter with a bittern! I heard the soft booming of a male, four or five groups of four calls, before quiet descended again and left me standing stock still on my own in the middle of the path with a stupid grin on my face!

Starting to court

Not ready yet

I wandered off again and topped off that incredible moment with a beautiful view of a goldcrest flitting along in the hedge beside me. Then I headed down to the coastal hides to enjoy watching some elegant avocets feeding in the shallow pools, not expecting to improve the much beyond the bittern. But soon I spotted my first kingfisher, who obligingly perched and posed on a post right in front of the hide! All in all highly enjoyable day, and somewhere I would definitely return to for a longer visit.

Teal

Obliging kingfisher

Not long after this trip it was time to head off to another European Cetacean Society Conference, this year in Malta. Yet again a great conference allowing the chance for a snapshot of all the great marine mammal research going on at the moment, particularly in Europe but other places too. Alongside this is the fun of socialising with others working in the field and get a glimpse of a new country... and enjoy a little spring sunshine too.

Capital Valletta from Sliema

Spinola Bay by night

Mix of old and new in Spinola Bay

Evening waves in Valletta

Siege Bell memorial and Valletta Grand Harbour

Look out for more reports from the local home patch coming soon.

Late winter wanderings

At the end of February there was a bright but blustery day on which I went for a walk in the south of the island. The strong breeze made some lovely splashing waves on the rocky shore, though not quite as spectacular as the huge waves crashing into Peel the week before. The sun was out for a while, showing up the last of the snowdrops still hanging on, and the first of the daffodils coming through.

Last of the snowdrops

Wave splash

Catching the sun

Daffodils

At the beginning of March I had to leave the Isle of Man for a while, so back home in Northamptonshire, I again took advantage of another good weather day to take a walk around my local home patch to see what was about. I enjoyed a distant view of a red kite over the fields behind my house before following the lane down to the lake and catching a glimpse of a grey wagtail, as well as many robins singing loud and proud. Many were so caught up in song they didn't mind me getting quite close to take photos.

Grey wagtail

Red kite

Singing...

...still singing

More updates to come on a great day spent at Leighton Moss, and a trip to Malta for the European Cetacean Society Conference.

Wild winter

So, after a wet and windy January spent in the office finishing off my report, I then had to condense my work in to a 15 minute talk to be presented at the Forbes Conference. The conference was an excellent insight in to all the interesting marine work going on on the island, and a great opportunity to meet people in the field. It's wonderful that on such a small island there is so much brilliant marine research going on. It was also interesting to hear about the life of Douglas born Edward Forbes who, despite unfortunately now being best known for his mistaken azoic hypothesis, conducted some brilliant marine biological work. Many of his texts were accompanied by doodles of sea life, and he even wrote a song about dredging!

Conference poster

A drawing by Forbes

With all that over I have a little more time on my hands and am able to take advantage of some breaks in the wintry weather to explore a little more. One afternoon, shortly before sunset, I headed towards the north of the island to check out an impressive gathering of birds. A huge congregation of rooks and jackdaws could be seen filling the evening sky before settling down to roost for the night in one of the islands plantations. They were tricky to photograph in the fading light, and hard to do justice to the scale. But the sight, and sound, was a great spectacle.

Lots and lots of birds

I think it won't be too long until the leaves start to appear on the trees again, though On a drive around there were signs of spring to be seen. Plenty of snowdrops lining the verges, and even clumps of daffodils appearing, though no distinctive yellow yet. I'm fairly sure I spotted a merlin perched on top of a telephone pole, but with a car on my tail I couldn't slam the brakes on to stop and check, unfortunately.

Bare trees, for now

Daffodils on the way

The winter season still has a few shows to put on, with strong winds and high tides making for some spectacular waves. I claimed a spot looking on to Peel Castle and watched the spray crashing in. Despite the very cold wind, the backdrop of the castle provided some great context for the size of the waves splashing up the beach and over the wall.

A big splash obscures Peel Castle

A wave crashes up Fenella beach

Burns Night

Well, it's the 25th of January and that means Robert Burns and haggis to many people. Whilst Rabbie may now be most famous for his association with the 'great cheiftain o' the puddin-race!' and New Year's eve renditions of Auld Lang Syne he also included many references to the natural world in his work. Having started out as a farmer before he gained recognition as a poet, he clearly spent a lot of time outside and drew inspiration from observations of the world around him.

As it's most definitely still winter here on the Isle of Man, the first stanza of Winter: A Dirge has a certain resonance at the moment:

The wintry west extends his blast,

And hail and rain does blaw:

Or, the stormy north sends driving forth

The blinding sleet and snaw:

While tumbling brown, the burn comes down,

And roars frae bank to brae;

And bird and beast in covert rest,

And pass the heartless day.

Certainly a fairly bleak picture, but Burns clearly had quite a strong connection to nature, and used it to reflect on man's place in the world as seen in the second stanza from To a Mouse:

Turning up a mouse in her nest with the Plough Nov 1785

I'm truly sorry man's dominion

Has broken nature's social union,

An' justifies that ill opinion,

Which makes thee startle

At me, thy poor earth-born companion,

An' fellow-mortal!

A sentiment which is surely now more true than ever, those first two lines really capture the state of nature today... and written 230 years ago!

So, enjoy your haggis, neeps, and tatties tonight, and perhaps a wee dram too, and reflect that whoever and wherever you are you can draw inspiration from the natural world around you. Slàinte!

Rock 'n' Roll lifestyle

When you tell people you're a marine biologist studying cetaceans, you usually get a pretty positive response - 'That must be so cool!'

Well, yes, it is very cool, but the dark side of science rears its head in the cold winter months when you can't be out surveying. The dreaded data analysis! Now really, I love this aspect of my work almost as much as the field work. Getting down to the nitty-gritty of why the data was collected to begin with and what it tells you. But whilst interesting, it certainly isn't glamorous. It requires long hours on your own in front of the computer, and many, many cups of tea to get you through. The outside isn't too appealing today though, with gale force winds putting on a show, so sometimes it's nice to be confined to the desk.

Lots to do

So, for the next few weeks, this will be what I'm up to as I finish of the analysis of my C-POD project and report writing for People's Trust for Endangered Species. Then a few days after the report deadline I will be giving a talk at the Edward Forbes Bicentenary Marine Science and Conservation Conference about the results of my project.

So whilst beautiful sunny days, on flat calm seas, may be a distant memory there is still plenty to be getting on with during the winter months.

Surveying the seals

So, my old nemesis wind reared its ugly head throughout October and there was no opportunity to do any surveying. I did, however, have a trip to the Calf of Man to look forward to at the end of October. On the 29th I, along with two other volunteers, Emma and Steve, caught a boat from Port St Mary over to the small island off the South West coast of the Isle of Man.

Calf of Man

On arrival, previous seal volunteer Mike (who had been stuck there for an extra 10 days due to bad weather!) showed us around half of the island's sites before jumping on the boat and making his long overdue getaway! Emma, Steve, and I found our own way around to check out the remaining pupping sites and to the observatory which was to be our home for the next week.

Observatory

Beginning the following day we easily fell into a routine of breakfasting, arming ourselves with a thermos of tea, and heading out to one side of the island to do a pup count and conduct a three hour behavioural survey at one of the pup sites. Watching the fluffy pups and their protective mothers for three hours results in much 'aahing' at the cuteness and amusement at the sometimes unnecessary aggression of the feisty mothers. We would then return to the Observatory for lunch, before walking round to the other side of the island to complete the daily pup count.

Surveying at Grant's Harbour

Surveying at the Puddle

All the seal pups born on the Calf are named, with a different letter used each year. This year was 'N', and we were able to name six pups during our visit which was very cool, but tricky to come up with new N names when 47 have already been taken! We discovered four new pups on 31st October, known as Hop Tu Naa on the Isle of Man, so named one pup Naa in honour of the festival.

An 'almost finished' pup, Noosh

Brand new pup, Naa

Aggression between two protective mothers

Young pup suckling

The observatory is also home to the Calf warden, Nick, and an ornithological warden, Jodie. Jodie very kindly showed any interesting birds she caught for ringing each morning, which included a beautiful woodcock and the adorably tiny goldcrest, both of which were firsts for me. She also kindly let each of us ring a blackbird on our last morning, again something I have never done before, so a lovely bonus to the seal work.

Beautiful woodcock

Tiny, tiny goldcrest

Ringing the blackbird

Whilst walking around the island and sitting for hours surveying the seals, there was plenty of other wildlife to keep an eye out for, mostly avian but there was an abundance of rabbits too, as well as the Manx Loaghtan sheep. I was delighted to spot at least one female hen harrier every day, but am still yet to see a beautiful grey male. I also spotted ravens, kestrels, curlew, grey wagtails, rock pipits, and stone chat.

One of many, many rabbits

Raven

Spot the robin

Manx Loaghtan sheep

After a beautiful week on the Calf, I came back to a day that was finally calm enough to get a bit of surveying done. In an hour at Port St Mary I had a few sightings of harbour porpoises, including one group of three with a juvenile. After enjoying a long overdue cetacean sighting, it was time for a little bonfire celebration on Peel beach. My C-PODs are due to come out of the water next week, so I will be keeping an eye on the weather for an opportunity to get out on the boat and retrieve them.

Peel castle

Toffee apple by the bonfire

Grand finale!

Oooh!

Aaah!