With fresh vegetation, invertebrates and herptiles thin on
the ground at the moment, I decided to take a closer look at some of our more
common woodland dwelling birds in this entry. The February lull is a fantastic
time to look at birds like the nuthatch. This species goes from occurring in
moderately good populations in the northern half of the Yeti recording area to
being an extremely rare species in the southern half. This in some ways is
relatively reflective of the species British distribution, with open areas such
as arable farmland avoided. Nuthatch are quite highly dependent of trees and
rarely venture vary far from tree cover, with occasional passage along mature
hedgerows with trees, through open habitats. It is therefore not that difficult
for areas to be cut-off, even when in quite a local context. The nuthatch has a
preference for oak woodland in Britain and to a lesser extent beech and sweet
chestnut.
Nuthatch spend a great deal of time investigating cracks and crevices on trunks and branches
Nuthatch are without doubt the stars of the show in woodland
at this time of year, but they are often recorded with a supporting cast of
blue tits, great tits, coal tits, long tailed tits, marsh tits and willow tits.
I managed to capture a few of the following today as part of a wider tit flock.
Marsh and willow perhaps will get their own post later on.
Coal Tit
I managed to add small tortoiseshell (no photos
unfortunately) to the YETI list, which
appeared to have emerged early due to the recent sunshine. Direct sunlight on
south facing hibernacula can cause problems if the butterfly did not select a
stable roost site, as seems the case with this one. It was looking a little
worse for wear and may struggle to stay alive long enough for spring flowers to
bloom. I also managed to add ivy-leaved water crowfoot to the list, growing in
surface water run-off in a heavily cattle poached field edge.
Ivy-leaved Water Crowfoot
Robin, a striking species which deserves its photo in the YETI hall of fame.
Likewise male black birds are also striking but often overlooked birds.
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