Kelling Heath's environmental blog page

Enjoy the latest wildlife sightings and other natural events through the eyes of Kelling Heath's team of wildlife specialists.

Jerry Kinsley
Jerry has been involved in conservation and environmental education for over 25 years and is currently employed part time as a lecturer in ecology and conservation at Easton College. When not lecturing wildlife surveys and photography take up the rest of Jerry’s week.
Previous jobs have included work at local nature reserves and estates and further afield on the Isles of Rum and St. Kilda.
Born in North Norfolk in a farming family Jerry loves to travel to distant shores in pursuit of wildlife but is always drawn back to the beauty of the North Norfolk coast.
Jerry Kinsley has been leading bat and other wildlife walks at Kelling for the past two years and is currently undertaking a baseline survey of wildlife found at Kelling. In the monthly blog Jerry talks about the arrival of summer migrants and the starting of the flowering season.

July 2010 The hot and sunny weather at the end of June and beginning of July has been a challenging time for our wildlife but has been a pleasure for wildlife watchers at Kelling.Thus far all the bat walks have encountered lots of bats with the still, warm evenings combined with plenty of flying insects creating ideal conditions for bat watching. In contrast to last year most bats have been seen in the vicinity of the Conservation pond.

Visitors have reported excellent views of nightjars on the nightjar walks and stonechats and Dartford warblers have been seen on the Heath. It is really good news that the Dartford warblers survived the winter as they are a resident warbler that is very vulnerable to harsh winter weather. Butterfly numbers are really good with lots of meadow browns and gatekeepers and clouds of ringlets, particularly in the wildflower meadow. I recorded my first white admiral butterflies of the season during the first week of July. These spectacular black and white butterflies are my favourite and are a species that has increased its range in contrast to most butterfly species. The caterpillars feed on honeysuckle and the adults tend to be seen feeding on blackberry flowers. Both of these plant species are prolific in the woodlands at Kelling and with a number of open sunny areas present, this creates ideal conditions for this species.

Interesting plants to spot in July are the Sanicle, subtle but elegant woodland plant and Hay rattle in the wild flower meadow. Hay rattle sometimes called yellow rattle gets its name from the noise of the seeds in the seedcases and most of this plant is now at the seeding stage due to the long hot dry spell. The plant is partly parasitic on grasses and where it grows it checks the growth of grass allowing other wildflowers to flourish.

The warm, sunny weather has been excellent for dragonfly and damselfly watching at the Conservation pond and up to 10 species have been seen in the pond vicinity. Emperor, Southern Hawker and Broad bodied chaser dragonflies and Large red, Azure and small red-eyed damselflies.

May/June 2010 The dry, warm weather for much of May brought forward a lot of wildlife but still the general consensus seems to be that most flowering plants are flowering about two weeks later than in recent years. For me the flower of the month at Kelling was a very understated little plant called Moschatel  or Town  Hall Clock so called because the flower heads face in all directions. Although not a colourful, striking flower it merits a close look.    
     
First impressions are that many birds have thus far had a good breeding season with some good clutches of chicks fledging successfully. It was particularly pleasing to see a family group of long tailed tits, two adults with 6 youngsters have recently left the nest, and this is a species of  bird that was hit badly by the severe weather last winter.
The end of May saw my first bat walk of the year on what was probably the worst day weather wise of the month ,with strong winds and some rain . Still even on this occasion we were able to locate a few pipistrelle bats in sheltered areas. The second bat walk during the half term holiday was a glorious evening with lots of bats,roding woodcock and nightjars bringing the evening to a close.

The roding  woodcock caused a lot of interest among younger members of the group as they seem like a combination of frog,  bat and nocturnal bird. The bird flew several circuits round us on the walk ,giving its strange call which sounds almost froglike following by a high ‘twisich ‘ sound. At this time the females are for more secretive as they alone undertake incubation of the eggs.

Butterflies are appearing in good numbers and may well have been helped by the proper winter! Holly blues, Orange tips, Peacocks and Speckled woods were very active when the sun was shining.

Finally June is the month when the wildflower meadow really starts to come into its own and is a really good spot to see lots of bees foraging as well as butterflies and dayflying moths such as silver Y'.s

April 2010 The Easter Holidays have been dry and generally warm with a number of very warm days but chilly nights. Initially it looked as if the wildlife season would be very late after the long cold winter but the recent weather seems to have fast-forwarded every thing into spring.

The most obvious flowers in the woodlands are Wood Sorrel, Lesser Celandine and Dog violets with a good show of Primroses along the railway embankments. Wood sorrel has clover shaped foliage which folds up in late afternoon; the solitary flowers emerge direct from the creeping roots and have white petals with violet veins. Lesser celandine flowers light up the undergrowth with their glossy golden sheen and although Dog violets lack the delicious scent of Sweet violets their presence never fails to lift the spirits after the end of the winter gloom.A few bluebells are starting to come into flower but it will be a couple of weeks before they are at their peak. The cold winter will have suited bluebells so it promises to be a spectacular flowering this spring.

In the bird world the newly arrived migrants such as Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow warbler are singing well and on April 17th I heard my first Cuckoo at Kelling which is the earliest I have heard this harbinger of spring for a number of years. Cuckoos have dramatically declined in numbers nationally so this may unfortunately be one of the last years we get to hear their familiar call. They share the same claim as the Chiffchaff in that they are among a few birds that are named after their song.

The warm weather has suited butterflies and species that have overwintered as adults have been plentiful especially, Peacock, Small tortoiseshell and Commas. On April 18th I saw my first newly emerged Orange tip and I am hoping that butterflies will have another good season this year after disastrous seasons in 2007 and 2008.

Last year was good for many species and the cold winter will have done them no harm so hopefully the promising start will continue. Pipistrelle bats have been out foraging and I am looking forward to leading bat walks once again from June onwards.  

Peter Walton
Peter has been leading wildlife walks at Kelling Heath for over ten years and is well qualified to write about the species he has seen during his visits.

April 2009 In this months blog Peter Walton talks about the large number of moths seen at Kelling including the Purple Thorn. Butterflies are beginning to show with several species on parade including Brimstones and Commas whilst a number of warblers are visiting the park the Willow Warbler amongst them.

Peter also talks about BBC Springwatch which has been filming at Kelling Heath in readiness for the next series live from Pensthorpe

There was welcome fine and mild weather over the Easter holidays and this was certainly a boon for our Kelling Heath moth events. In fact we recorded 17 different species of ‘macros' on Good Friday including a gorgeous Purple Thorn to go with the smart first generation Early Thorns which have recently been appearing. Immaculate Red-green Carpets just emerged from hibernation, an early Nut-tree Tussock on my favourite illuminated wall, Oak Beauty, Early Tooth-striped, the Engrailled,... The list goes on. I can't deny the enjoyment it gives me to call out these indulgent Victorian names, which fortunately remain unchanged two centuries on.

This was the first week when butterflies really started to perform, Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells, Brimstones and Commas all taking to the wing after their extended siestas.

Three species of warblers were singing heartily for us on our dawn chorus walks, Blackcaps the loudest, Chiffchaffs the most persistent, plus newly arrived Willow Warblers adding their lilting refrains. Spring had sprung! A scarce Firecrest in a new location took up the baton after last year's surprise cluster of summer residents. These are miniature gems of birds and easy to overlook, especially as the foliage thickens. A keen ear is required to separate the ‘stuck on one note' song from that of the cascading Goldcrest.

By the end of April, twittering Linnets and vivid Yellowhammers were moving back on to their seasonal nesting territories around the heath. There was still the occasional chip chip chipping of a roaming flock of about 16 Crossbills, usually in rapid transit from A to B. Perhaps most exciting of all, however, were the Redpolls, especially since they tended to arrive out of the sky in a bumper group of 30 or 40 individuals. This charming and busy little finch has become scarce in recent years. In amongst the party were brick red, vocal males and even the odd silvery ‘Mealy' form, which normally resides further north.

In fact, BBC Springwatch caught some of the Kelling Heath wildlife on film, when presenter, Martin, joined me out walking in the bright sunshine to talk about Adders (now breeding and elusive) and in the early morning to listen to the birds. Watch out for clips of us in action during the series and then in the wildlife holidays ‘special' to be broadcast on Tuesday 16 June.

On a broader front, I am really busy running Adult Education courses countywide at this time of year at dawn, dusk and all times in between. Apologies therefore for my well overdue  blog entry and watch out for the next one in a couple of weeks or so. Roll on those summer Nightjars!!

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