On Wednesday morning I woke up to grey skies and a rather brisk westerly breeze. Not ideal, but I was keen to resume my random visits to unvisited parts of my Circle. This one really did feel like the middle of nowhere. I parked on Rotherham Oak Lane and walked north towards the M42.
After a short while I came to a canal, and opted to follow the towpath. The cool weather had put paid to insect watching, and I resorted to trying to pluck little victories from the birds available. Treecreeper, and Pied Wagtail feeding young, a tree-trunk full of calling Great Spotted Woodpecker nestlings.
It was all a bit pedestrian, although a small Scots pine wood did hold my attention for a while.
Returning to the car I then struck out to the south. The footpath bordered Arnold Wood and then Chalcot Wood, which I discovered was being used by a private company as an adventure playground with archery, ropewalks, and other attractions for the intrepid. Fortunately there were enough Mistle Thrushes, Buzzards and other woodland birds to keep me interested.
At the end of the wood, shortly before I reached the M40 motorway, was a small pool. And on it I found my reward. A duck Mandarin with six ducklings swam into view.
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| Mandarin proved to be breeding |
The species is still quite a good find in Warwickshire, although there is a small local population. This is the first proof of breeding in the county since 2016.
The dull weather put paid to any hopes of finding noteworthy insects, which was a pity because I had recently received a new insect book for my birthday, and was itching to try it out.
At 600 pages it's quite a chunky tome, but it's still a generalist guide. To have every insect in Britain illustrated it would need to be about 6000 pages. Nevertheless it doesn't waste pages on too many moths and other groups which I already have covered, and looks likely to get plenty of use.
My only chance to put it to the test since I got it has been in the garden. It led me to Early Bumblebee, and Bramble Sawfly (actually photographed at Morton Bagot at the weekend), but couldn't help with a Bug sp which I suspect is an instar (immature stage) of something which would be more identifiable if it had been an adult.
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| Early Bumblebee |
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| Bramble Sawfly |
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| A Bug too far |
With a digital camera, the Internet, and a whole host of identification guides available there is plenty of opportunity to record the natural world, and maybe help to stop it disappearing.
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