Aylesbeare Common 9th July

Aylesbeare Common 9th July

The star of the show for me was the Tree Pipit. There were several of them, and one was going up in the air, singing away, and then parachuting down to a perch. It is typical behaviour, and I have never seen it so clearly before. They are slightly bigger than a Meadow Pipit, and have pinker legs, but otherwise they are very similar. The main difference is in behaviour, as the Tree Pipit is a solitary bird, no usually found in flocks, like the Meadow Pipit.

I have been there several times before, and as we went down to the pond I thought I wonder if it will be there, in the big tree, singing; and sure enough it was; it, being a very vocal Yellowhammer. It must be its favourite perch. There is another one near the top of the reserve, and it was there, but it was not nearly so noisy. Also by the pond was a small flock, of what my children used to call flying tadpole, namely Long-tailed Tit. I do like watching their acrobatics, and the are quite friendly, and do not fly away at the sight of a human.

We only saw one Kestrel hovering overhear, and a trio of Buzzards soaring high in the sky, calling to each other. They do give one a feeling of freedom and space. As we were leaving the reserve finally we found a Hobby, quite a way away flying fast, as they do. It was nice to watch it, though it obviously was not stopping for a snack.

I nearly forgot to say the one of the reasons for going to Aylesbeare is to see a Dartford Warbler. There are about 22 pairs there now, the numbers are increasing. We must have seen about 5 pairs, and, for once, they were quite easy to watch flitting over the top of the gorse and nesting in the lower branches of the scrub. There were singles, pairs, and small family groups.

We saw quite a lot of dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies. Ray spent some time photographing them, so perhaps he will give us a talk on them, as he certainly knows a lot about them. We got good sightings of Green Hairstreaks, and Silver-washed Fritillaries, but generally it would seem that the numbers are down.

Ann Crawford

Charles, the assistant warden who guided our walk that morning, took some of the braver amongst us to look for reptiles. On one sunny slope, some sheets of corrugated iron had been left for reptiles to bask underneath. Since it was quite a hot morning, we had thought that the reptiles might already have warmed up and moved elsewhere, but luckily we found two female Adders next to, and underneath, one of the sheets.

Richard Swinbank

Number of species seen: 20

Birds seen, in BOU order or alphabetic order

BOU order

Buzzard

Kestrel

Hobby

Herring Gull

Wood Pigeon

Tree Pipit

Meadow Pipit

Stonechat

Blackcap

Dartford Warbler

Chiffchaff

Willow Warbler

Long-tailed Tit

Great Tit

Carrion Crow

Goldfinch

Linnet

Redpoll

Crossbill

Yellowhammer

Alphabetic order

Blackcap