WILDLIFE DIARY AND NEWS FOR DEC 22 - 28 (WEEK 52 OF 2014) Sun 28 December Water Vole feeding in Havant and 48 Avocets at Farlington Marshes This afternoon I cycled to the road entrance to Farlington Marshes at the Eastern Road roundabout from which I had a good view of what I counted as at least 42 Avocets in the rising water near the Eastern Road bridge and as I watched they took off and flew to a small islet near by. Back at home the HOS website had a report from Peter Gammage of 48 there today and I reckon that is the number I saw. On the way home I watched a Buzzard being chased by Crows just west of the road bridge over the A27 at the east end of Harts Farm Way and when I got back into Havant I decided it was not worth going out of my way to look for Water Voles in the Havant Town Millpond so Idid not look from the usual spot by the 'wavy white railings' but went straight into the path leading to South Street along the south of the pond - luckily I stopped long enough to scan the 'burrows' with my binoculars and so spotted one Vole feeding on the bank immediately below the railings. Two things which puzzled me yesterday now have probable answers. The first was concerning the statements that Peregrine Falcons regularly hunt by night as well as by day, a fact that was confirmed by an observation on the Devon Birding website of one seen hunting in the streetlights of a Devon roundabout near Exeter (place named as Metcombe) at 9:20 pm on Dec 26. This recalled another observation from some years ago of Black-headed Gulls 'paddling' the grass of a Southampton area roundabout to bring up worms (which think the paddling noise is caused by rain falling and brings them to the surface for a drink or a bath??). Thinking of the gulls reminded me that the majority of Peregrines prey on coastal species whose behaviour is governed more by the tides than by the sun, so if their prey is likely to be found at certain stages of the tides which occur as often by night as by day the Peregrines must get used to hunting at night as well as by day. The second puzzle concerned a report on John Goodspeed's website of a Speckled Wood butterfly having been seen on Christmas Day flying around Yoells Copse in the Lovedean/Horndean area. I am pretty sure this observation was not mistaken identity but all the sources of information about this butterfly agree that it should not be seen after the end of October. Today, however, I came across a Wikipedia page which gives a likely answer - it says that the species has two methods of surviving the winter - one is as a half grown caterpillar which goes in a form of hibernation and resumes feeding in the spring but the other method is by over-wintering as a pupa. A pupa of course is all ready to go (when the reforming of its caterpillar body into a butterfly is complete) when the temperature tells it spring is here. I guess this butterfly came from a pupa which had been subject to more than usual warming over the past month or so). Sat 27 December (Link to previous day’s entry) A Peregrine fails to make a kill on the Langstone shore This morning I walked to Nore Barn along the shore from Langstone and came back across the Warblington Farm fields. The first highspot was when I emerged from Wade Lane onto the Langstone shore at the moment when hundreds of Brent decided to fly from the fields to the vast area of mud exposed at low tide and a Peregrine decided to try to catch its breakfast from among the smaller waders lining the distant water's edge so my arrival coincided with a most impressive sky-full of birds - the Brent made several long lines, each of several hundred geese, as they descended onto the mud apparently unperturbed by the Peregrine; centre-stage was a large, compact flock of what I think were Knot (they looked too large for Dunlin) which were flying at top speed in ever changing directions; and everywhere I looked there were other birds (Grey Plover, Curlew, Teal, Shelduck, etc) making more direct flights to leave the area before the Peregrine turned its attention to them. By following the flock of Knot I soon located the Peregrine and before long it seemed to abandon the attempt to make a kill and gradually rose higher and higher in the sky before disappearing in the direction of Thorney Island. Very soon the sky and the greater part of the mud became birdless except for the large carpet of Brent which, before I had reached the Warblington Castle stream outflow, had decided to return to the fields. When I got back home I tried to find an answer to the question of whether the Brent are frightened by the presence of a Peregrine. It is clear that the majority of their prey are smaller birds but one website said that Peregrines will take 'small geese' and another described how Peregrines nesting on a Church in Exeter are thought to have killed 15 Buzzards, not for food but because they did not like the Buzzards invading their Peregrine nest territory (there is some doubt if the Peregrines were responsible for all 15 Buzzards found dead in the area but there are video clips showing Peregrines attacking Buzzards and easily out manoeuvering the bigger birds). While searching for evidence of their prey species I also learnt that Peregrines operate by night as well as by day and take many migrants which fly over by night. Another question prompted by the sight of the Brent feeding on farm fields concerned the attempts by farmers to deter the geese. I clearly remember fields being defended by large numbers of gas guns which would go off at timed intervals in the hope of deterring the geese (and/or pigeon flocks) but these guns seem to have vanished from the fields in recent years. To return to my walk I saw little along the shore but as the tide rose and I reached the Nore Barn area I found the Wigeon which had been missing from the open shore and among them, in the outflow of the Nore Barn stream, was at least one pair of Pintail. In the stream itself the Spotted Redshank was looking slightly puzzled by the presence of two Black-tailed Godwits which had left the main flock out on the nearby mud and were exploring up the stream. One thing that I did notice all along the shore from Langstone now that most of the drifts of up-rooted weed have dispersed was that a substantial crop of what I believe to be Common Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is growing right up to the high tide mark and I am wondering if this marks a natural recovery of this important marine plant from its decline back in the 1930s. For more about Eelgrass see http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife/habitats/seagrass (and forgive the Trusts for their mis-spelling of Wigeon as Widgeon!) Just one interesting sighting on the way home. Approaching the Old Rectory at Warblington a Buzzard took off from the trees east of the Rectory, reminding me that it is some time since I saw one in this area Fri 26 December (Link to previous day’s entry) Marsh Marigolds flowering on the South Moors with a Green Sandpiper flying over A frosty but almost windless morning gave me a good opportunity to walk off Christmas excesses and the walk turned out to be rewarding with both birds and flowers but before describing that I must mention much shorter walk in yesterday's sunshine. The destination then was the Havant Cemetery where I found a new fungus for the site - White Coral (Clavulinopsis cristata), a tiny little 'earth tongue' less than 5 cm tall but showing less than half its height as it came up through thick moss. To see what this species looks like go to http://www.mushroomexpert.com/images/nadon/nadon_clavulina_cristata_03.jpg. Very little else to be seen and notable by their absence were the mass of bright Holly berries showing how hungry the avian continental migrants have become. The sunshine not only rekindled Wood Pigeon song but I also saw a Collared Dove making its display flight. This morning I set off to walk down the Langbrook Stream path to the South Moors where I made my way across the waterlogged ground to the small pond near the SSE offices where I hoped to put up some Snipe. No luck with the birds but I was very pleased to find two fresh flowers on the Marsh Marigolds which had started to flower on Dec 3. A rapid movement in the vicinity of the flowers was hopefully a baby Frog showing that these once very common creatures are not yet totally extinct here. While in this area I disturbed a Kestrel from its perch and then heard and saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker fly over. While on the Moors I heard both Great Tit and Song Thrush song and put up a Grey Wagtail from the ground. Another flower in this area was Butcher's Broom. Next stop was the Budds Farm pools where my first impression was that all the waterfowl had left until I saw the mass of Teal and gulls on the circular filtration pools within the sewage works.