Wildlife in Abbeywood

Disgruntled noticed last night how much wildlife there was in the lake outside of the MOD Abbeywood complex. On the water itself was a flock of over 20 Canada geese, and a cormorant was drying itself out on a post in the middle of the water, shortly before flying to the top of the supporting pillars of the foot bridge to do the same thing. Swans also nested in the area earlier in the year. None of them seemed to care much about the volume of passing traffic.

Caterpillars, Spiders and Little Grebes.

On Saturday, Disgruntled was in his garden when he noticed the following in a Kilmarnock willow:-



Unnoticed at the time until the photo was uploaded to a computer was his mate in the branch behind, but they are doing a good job at munching the leaves of the tree. They were around 5 cm long, but are currently unidentified. If anyone can name them, please get in contact.



In the same tree, a little bit above the caterpillars and between two small branches, was this Garden spider, Araneus diadematus, sat in the middle of its web and attending to what looks like dinner. The web is quite large and quite impressive, and these spiders are quite common. They will become easier to spot as the autumn draws in, and the morning dew collects on their webs, making them easier to see.




Last night Disgruntled wandered to the Three Brooks lake and was pleased to see that the resident Little grebe (or Dabchick) and successfully raised a brood of two. Both chicks were out and about, foraging for themselves and being fed by a parent. In this picture, the chick has just received a small fish from the mother and is busy shaking it about.



In this image, the chick is trying to deal with a fish which it has caught itself. The concentric rings in the water highlight where the chick has surfaced after diving.



The second chick.

Hedgehogs

Hedgehogs can be elusive creatures, and often not seen, at least alive. But they are quite common around Bradley Stoke, and often visit gardens. If you look closely you might see the signs.

Occasionally you might come across a crunched up snail shell, which might be evidence of a hedgehog having a snack. Much more common though is hedgehog pooh. It is relatively easy to recognise - it is usually black in colour, and can range in size from small pellets 1-2cm long and 0.5cm wide, up to bigger efforts which look like they might have come from a cat, apart from the fact that cat poohs are usually a different colour. It looks as though the hedgehogs have been having a party in my back garden some time on Monday night/Tuesday morning, as there were multiple droppings across my back lawn.

If you want to feed hedgehogs, don't put out milk and bread (it swells in their stomachs). Instead, put out cat food, wet or dry, and a small bowl of water. Place it somewhere which you can observe from inside the house, and periodically check it. Most likely the hedgehogs won't appear until after dark, but they will sometimes appear earlier. If you put out food regularly then you can often establish a routine with the hedgehogs, as they will check each day whether there is food there for them or not. Disgruntled was particularly charmed a couple of years ago when a family of five used to turn up every day. If you look closely each hedgehog has its individual markings and features, so every hedgehog was given its own name. Disgruntled also recommends that if you have the space you build a hedgehog house so that they have somewhere to hibernate through the winter. Disgruntled did this, and for at least one winter a hedgehog was in residence. Note that although they hibernate, they do not necessarily sleep through the entire winter, and may make appearances when the weather is warmer for the odd snack. All the better for keeping the slug and snail populations down in your garden.

Toyota Prius Redux

You might have seen the adverts for the "next Toyota Prius", so Disgruntled tried to find out some information about this new model, so that he could compare it as he did before here. From the Toyota website, we find that the fuel efficiency of the next Prius is 72.4 mpg on the combined cycle, an improvement from the previous 65.7 mpg, but still lower than the VW Polo Bluemotion at 74.3 mpg. It also says that the CO2 emissions are "as low as" and "from" 89g/km, but doesn't say under what conditions - one assumes that this is under the best conditions possible, as if it uses more fuel than the VW, then the emissions are most likely to be higher. But I could be wrong here - Toyota need to clarify exactly what they mean. I still stand by my earlier conclusion - buy the VW, it is more fuel efficient and far cheaper.

Doves and Pigeons

Noted in the garden on Friday was this Stock Dove. Very similar to a woodpigeon, but a bit more fat in the body and with a thinner beak. It generally hangs around with woodpigeons to make it that bit more difficult to notice, although the lack of pink colouring on the chest, and the missing white band on the nape of the neck make it easier to distinguish.


The woodpigeon's have worked out that if there is a lack of seed in their tray, then the fat balls can be eaten if the stretch far enough out to reach them.

Pyrausta aurata

Visiting my garden this week was this tiny moth, Pyrausta aurata, which is only 1.5 cm wide. P.aurata is a moth which flies during the day and night, and has two generations a year, one from May to June, and one from July to August (see www.ukmoths.org.uk). Larvae of the moth feed on mints, including spearmint (on which the moth is pictured above), Apple Mint, Marjoram and Catmint.

Rabbit Roundabout

The Rabbit Roundabout, officially the Great Stoke Roundabout on the Winterbourne Road, has rabbits back on it at last - I sighted one this morning at around 9:15 am. They used to be easy to spot, with at times up to 14 individuals out eating on the grass. However, following some council work on the roundabout earlier in the year, when all the grass and bushes were cut back, they seemed to disappear. As rabbits, well, breed like rabbits, perhaps they might recolonise it quite quickly and provide us with something enjoyable to look at on our way home in the evening.