Well, for the first time in my blog's history I shall start with some good news. I can actually report something positive happening in the world of nature, because despite rainforests burning, and permafrosts thawing out, on my local patch things are looking a bit more rosy.
Lets start with the BUZZARDS. They are common on the local patch with birds resident in the area, particularly in the wooded part of the Suffolk Punch Field, but I have had no proof of the birds successfully nesting. However this year they seemed to have raised two young.
In July I was lucky to spot the birds fledging, the young birds were perched on top of a tree whilst the adults were trying to entice them into flying away. They were present for several days before finally leaving the area.
BUZZARDS are what are called an APEX PREDATOR, that is an animal that's at the top of the food chain and so if they are able to produce young there must be enough prey to feed them. BUZZARDS are oppurtunists, they often fly over motorways looking for roadkill, or a ploughed field looking for worms, they will eat anything, and therefore the landscape has to be diverse enough for them to breed in. Their spread throughout the UK is one of conservation success stories.
The second success stories involves the First Field, which has been left fallow for a couple of years. This year there was a fantastic blooming of PYRAMID ORCHIDS with over a hundred spikes appearing in this area. The spikes are the flowers, which like a lot of orchid species appears as a long tube, which can be quite beautiful, and they are seen as the crown jewels of the plant world.
OYRAMID ORCHID
This is a great record for an area that's not particularly good for flowers, there are a lot of sprayed agricultural land, and not much permanent grassland. Where I used to live in Buckinghamshire PYRAMID ORCHDS only grew on downland areas, habitats that were too steep to be ploughed so I thought the plant only grew on unimproved chalky soil. However I was wrong. I now know they are a pioneer species that will grow anywhere, from sandy soil around Barham Pits, to more neutral places like the Local Patch. When given a chance, wildlife is not as restricted to habitats as we think, nature can easily move through a landscape that has a varied amount of habitat.
This Summer has been a bit of a washout, with some heavy rain and a lot of cloud cover, producing very little sunny days. As always late summer can be pretty birdless. A couple of YELLOWHAMMERS sang late into July as they usually do, for no reason really except for the joy of singing. However there was little else around
Several pairs of SWALLOWS nest in the barns around Rise Hall. They feed on insects round the reservoir and passage birds can be seen here and the Suffolk Punch Field, which not having be ploughed is full of insects. This year for some reason there has been no REDPOLL CATTLE on the Suffolk Punch Field, they are usually put out on this field for the summer. This field is permanent pasture with scattered bushes and a wooded area.
There is a small flock of GREYLAG GEESE resident around the pond
On the 11 July I got a first for the patch in the form of a GRASS SNAKE, which slithered across the road in front of me. This just shows that nature moves through a landscape and species are not just restricted to self enclosed habitats, but are part of a more dynamic whole.
The odd POPPY flower appears on the Patch, but there hasn't been a good display for four years
Its hard to stay positive with what is happening with the environment at the moment. It seems we are helpless whilst people burn the Amazon down purely for monetary reasons. I really don't know what to do, sitting at my laptop in Ipswich, whilst mad men destroy the world, because you would have to be mad to destroy something that is so important for life on this world, like oxygen.
But look, look for something positive, even if it is something small, and just realise if we do something together we could potentially save the world. We can only do it if we all act together, because nature is a part of us, not something that is separate, something to destroy. Do something, do it now, because this is really looking like our last chance.
As always, happy birding.
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