Doorstep Discoveries

Today I thought I'd focus on wildlife which is right on my doorstep. Almost everything I talk about in this post was seen within about a mile of my house. I am lucky that although I live in a suburban estate there's only a very short distance between me and the local farmland and fishing lake.

On a small area of said farmland I have found a kestrel. I've seen what I assume is the same individual, a male, on three separate occasions. It seems to hunt on the fields and sits on the trees and telephone poles surveying its land.

It's proved a tricky bird to photograph as it perches a long way from the path and is so quick in the air. I did get close to it once when it perched on the roof of a house but frustratingly it was facing the wrong way!

Another bird of prey I've also seen lately is this buzzard.

Initially I wondered if it might actually be a honey buzzard given how pale it's breast is. It's very late in the year to see a honey buzzard though and it seems that buzzard colouring varies dramatically and can actually be really pale.

The local farmland is over-run with corvids at the moment. There are groups of noisy magpies and loads of rooks, jackdaws and crows. The crows often gather in huge numbers and swarm when something disturbs them.

I've noticed a few migrating birds finding the local fishing lake lately. It's not a great lake for wildlife really and is obviously managed for fish rather than wildlife. I imagine having lots of pike is not good if you're a bird trying to breed. You can usually see mallards, canada geese, black-headed gulls and in the summer great crested grebe. I spotted a tufted duck on the lake last week which was unusual and on occasion there's been the odd cormorant roosting on the shoreside trees.

Here's a few photos of some more common birds I've seen in the area.

Mute Swans

Black-Headed Gull

Robin

Blackbird- he's been gorging on berries so much his beak is dark

I've continued to see the group of roe deer by the Avon. The stag was still around today, though with only one doe but they were a fair way from the path. Much closer to the path but on the other side to it and the river were four does. They took a good look at me and decided I was bad news so ran off into the long grass.

Finally, this is one of the many local rabbits. It's possible it has myxomatosis as it's eye looks sore. Either that or he's just sleepy.

The White Hart

Yesterday I was extremely lucky to see something very unusual, a white red deer stag, or 'white hart' as they are sometimes known. Sadly I didn't manage to capture a clear photo of it but you can get some idea of the magnificence of the animal.

This was over at Blashford Lakes, on part of the reserve closest to the New Forest. It looked like this stag had developed quite a harem as I saw a white hind on the path and plenty of does hiding amongst the tree- I saw at least ten and there may well have been more nearby.

The colour comes from a rare genetic pattern called leucism which causes a reduction in the pigment in the deer's skin and fur. There is a long history of white stags in the Ringwood area. There's a pub in the marketplace called The Original White Hart, supposedly the first pub to take that name and named after King Henry VII caught a white hart nearby. It's unclear how true the story is but it certainly gives credence to the idea that there white harts near Ringwood around the turn of the 16th century.

In other deer news, I've seen the trio of roe deer near the Avon a few times over the last few weeks. The stag and two does have stayed in pretty much the same area although they have crossed the river since last week, something which might well have been quite a challenge for these smaller deer.

This photo gives some idea of the obstacle these deer had to cross.

Last week I shared another fantastic white creature at Blashford Lakes, Walter the great white egret. He can still be seen around the reserve and yesterday I saw him perched on a tree.

As ever, Blashford proved to be a wealth of interesting birds. This individual was quite a way from the hide but I was pleased to spot it as my first widgeon of the year.

Much closer to a hide was this rock pippit, looking in fantastic condition.

I have seen lots of kingfishers at Blashford this year and all over the reserve. This one was on the small silt pond.

Thanks to a rare day off and the clocks going back I was able to be in the reserve towards the end of the day which meant to I could see the beginning of the enormous roosts that come at this time of year. Here's are the gulls on Ibsley Water:

More were arriving by the second as I sat and watched. Over on the trees around Ivy Lake there's a fairly sizeable cormorant roost.

There was also plenty of opportunity to get close to some more common birds.

I had one more unusual sighting this week. On Tuesday, the 8th November, I saw a red admiral fly past. It was a large one and had to be to be able to survive the colder temperatures- it was -3° C the night before. I can only guess that it had sheltered on or even inside a nearby building. I think December will be the only month of 2016 when I haven't seen a butterfly!

Fungi Finds

After a hideous fungus was elected president of the United States today I decided it would be a good time to do a special post on various fungi I've seen lately.

First up, here's the most familiar looking fungus of them all, a fly agaric.

As the red colour suggests it wouldn't be very pleasant to eat. It would be unlikely to kill you but could give you severe stomach cramps and is hallucinogenic.

Here's my favourite recent fungi finds because of how impressive it looks. These are common puffballs.

These are young fungi- puffballs start off this shiny white and gradually become a brown colour over time. They have distinctive apical pores, the holes on the top which are where they 'puff' out their spores, hence the name.

This one is a poorer picture but that's often the nature of fungi. I like how they grow in quiet, dark and damp places where most people wouldn't even notice them. Now I've got into looking at fungi I've started to get used to the sort of places they are likely to be growing in. This is a shaggy parasol (Chlorophyllum rhacodes).

This edible fungus was reclassified in 2003. Given it's similar appearance it was thought to be related to the Parasol but thanks to DNA Analysis it was moved to a completely different genus, Chlorophyllum.

This next one is a bracket fungus, a member of the Coriolaceae family. I suspect it's a Red-belted bracket but I'm not confident on that identification.

Brackets grow on trees rather than sprout out of the ground and their spores develop underneath. I found this in a small local memorial park on a dead tree which goes to show you can find fungi anywhere.

A slightly more confident ID, although only slightly, are these little fungi in amongst leaf litter which I have concluded are probably milky bonnets. We tend to think of fungi as fairly sizeable but actually the majority are tiny- you can see how small these ones are compared to the oak leaves.

Another intriguing thing about fungi is that they are so hard to identify. I just bought an excellent book (Collins Complete Guide to British Mushrooms & Toadstools) which is fantastic but even with that I have still seen plenty that I can't identify. What on Earth are these?

I shall conclude today with a few favorite fungi that I've shared here before.

This is the fantastic sulphur tuft which appeared in the garden. It doesn't look as great as this now as it has blackened significantly.

This is a Shaggy Inkcap, a stunning fungus which I found right next to the path at Blashford Lakes.

Here's a really vivid coloured bracket fungus, a beefsteak fungus. It's called that because it looks like beef and is sometimes used as a beef substitute.

And finally my favourite fungus I've seen so far, the brilliantly named chicken of the woods.

Walter White

I just have to open today with what my well be my bird of the year, a Great White Egret!

Now usually I can't tell you too much about an individual bird but this one has a full history. He's affectionately known as Walter White, after the character from Breaking Bad. I saw him over at Blashford Lakes where he has been a Winter visitor every year since 2003. He was ringed as a chick in a nest in Lac de Grand-Lieu near Nantes in France that year. This makes him 13 which is a ripe old age for a great white egret but he is still looking magnificent.

I've found myself at Blashford Lakes more and more often recently. It's a fantastic nature reserve and at this time of year there is always something to see. Here's a grey heron which was perched only a little way in front of one of the hides.

Although the Woodland Hide is perhaps less exciting at this time of year you sometimes get lucky and see some more unusual visitors. This nuthatch was feeding on and off for the whole time I was in the hide on my last visit.

I was also lucky to see a jay on one of the feeders. Jays are one of the birds which I have personally noticed the decline of. They were a relatively common bird a few years ago but now you hardly ever see them which is a shame as they are the most beautiful corvid we have.

It's a big time of year for deer as the males are rutting, fighting off competitors in order to breed with the females. My experience of this is limited but I did see a few roe deer by the Avon recently. I suspect this is a young stag with a small harem, separate from the main harem which is likely to be held by a larger, older stag. There's also the possibility that the stag and the two hinds are very young and therefore not concerned about breeding yet. You can see the relatively large antler for a roe deer and the real strength in the stag's muscles.

A couple of birds I somehow haven't yet mentioned here now. On my visit to Stanpit in Christchurch last week I saw plenty of oystercatchers feeding on the shoreline.

Not too far away from here, on a small stream passing through woodland, was this Grey Wagtail.

I actually see a grey wagtail quite regularly at a stream on the entrance to Blashford Lakes. I've never been able to capture that one clearly though because it flutters away as soon as I spot it and because they like covered streams it's so dark it's hard to get a photo from any distance.

I've seen some fantastic spider webs covered in the morning dew recently- it really makes you appreciate their intricacy when you can see them this clearly.

Here's what I suspect might well be my last butterfly sighting of the year, a red admiral. This was on the 30th October but I haven't seen any this week and we had our first frost on Wednesday night so it now seems unlikely, though not impossible, that I'll see any in November.

Finally, here's a red slug.

You can clearly see a large hole in the side of this individual. At first I thought it was damage caused by a predator but after some research I discovered it is actually it's pneumostome. It's a breathing pore which air goes through and into the slug's single lung, a mantle cavity. I like to think of it as the slug equivalent of blow hole in a whale. It's an interesting piece of biology which I had no idea about until I saw this slug!