Late Summer Sightings

We're into meteorological Autumn now- temperatures are beginning to dip and winter migrants are on their way.

It may be Autumn but there are still butterflies around. This week I've seen several species including numerous large whites. There seems to be more around now than there have been all summer.

I also managed to find a lovely moth recently in the most unlikely of places, a fenced alleyway. 

This is a willow beauty which is a night flying moth though the literature says that they can often be seen during the day on tree trunks. I suppose to a moth there's not much difference between a wooden fence and a tree trunk. 

It was still relatively quiet at Lymington-Keyhaven marshes when I visited last week but I did get a reasonable photo of a ringed plover. 

Many more of these birds will likely arrive in the coming weeks and months but this one probably stays in the UK all year round. These birds nest on open grounds on beaches so are obviously vulnerable to predators. They have a neat trick though. If a predator approaches the nest the adult will walk away from the nest, call to attract attention and feign a broken wing. When the predator heads towards it and therefore away from the nest the plover flies off.

I saw something I haven't seen before this week, a little egret sat on a nest.

OK, I have a confession to make: this is actually a captive bird in a walk through aviary at Marwell Zoo! It was still interesting to see nonetheless though a little odd to see such a familiar bird hanging out with ibis' and other exotic birds. 

Whilst at the zoo I did notice lots of wild house sparrows in the various animal enclosures. These were in with the meerkats. 

This shows how resourceful these birds are. The enclosures are actually ideal places for small birds as they are accessible and free from predators- as you know meerkats usually place an individual on sentry duty but at Marwell they don't feel the need to do this most of the time.

Marwell Zoo is near Winchester and somewhere I've been visiting all my life. Unlike some zoos it has large enclosures for it's animals and does fantastic work in education and breeding, both in the UK and in locations where some of it's animals come from. I recommend it if you're in the area. Here's a couple of meerkat photos I took on my visit:

Moving on, I've seen the Avon roe deer a few times this week. 

I recently learnt that roe deer became extinct in England during the 18th century. The Breeding Bird Survey (which also monitors mammals) has found the numbers of roe deer have increased by 64% since 1995. That's across the whole of the UK but in the South of England numbers haven't changed much since 2005. 

Managing deer populations is tricky. Too many deer mean land is overgrazed and in woodland this can cause a loss of habitat for birds and other animals. With no large predators to reduce numbers it's up to humans to try and manage numbers. 

The Avon kestrel has been regularly seen over the summer but they are a very tricky species to get good photos of. I did catch it taking a rare break from hovering as it rested in a small tree though even then it's not very clear.

It's likely this individual is still hunting from it's perch here- it's obviously requires much less energy than hovering. They can locate prey from a remarkable distance and are able to see and catch a beetle fifty metres from their perches!

That's all for today but hopefully I'll now slip back into the regular routine of new posts every Saturday. See you next week!