The end of another academic year... and Spring sightings!

I'm back!

It's been a long, hard slog this year but I'm delighted to say my 2nd year is behind me - bar the small matter of the results.  I think it is fair to say that we all noticed the upwards shift in academia between the first and second years.  Modules completed this year included: Biological Surveying, Principles of Habitat Management; Landscape Ecology and Assessment, and; the utterly dire Academic and Professional Development.  Highlights of the year included small mammal trapping, use of GIS software, field trips and landscape ecology lectures.

In terms of crazy weather - we've had an exceptionally dry and warm March, followed by an exceptionally wet April and now we're into May - currently the sun is shining bright and an Orange-tip butterfly has just flown past my window but who knows what the remainder of the month will hold!

Following submission of the last of my assignments I took a wander round Norsey Woods to see the Bluebells before they disappeared.  It was a lovely day although it was very muddy underfoot.  Lots of lovely wild flowers to be seen and a very handsome Buff-tailed Bumblebee (below).



Buff-tailed Bumblebee



Forget-Me-Not

Green Alkanet

Yellow Archangel

Greater Stitchwort

Red Campion

Bluebell

In addition to these there were numerous birds singing in the trees including Blackcap and Chiffchaff - both of which I was delighted to be able to spot in amongst the foliage!

Last week saw the arrival of our garden fledglings: House Sparrow, Starling, Wood Pigeon and Collared Dove.  The picture below shows one of the Starlings attempting to feed itself.  It was quite comical to watch as it struggled with when to open and close its beak.  Most of the food ended up out of the tray.  One of the adult Starlings spent a lot of time singing the most melodious song and looked very much like a bird of paradise with his head raised and his throat warbling.

And finally, my very first 'Wildlife Diary' has been published in the May issue of the Essex Field Club newsletter.  It was a very exciting day when it dropped through my letterbox yesterday.  A big hello and welcome to any EFC readers that make it through to my blog!

Don't forget you can follow my ecological wonderings (and other stuff) on Twitter using the link to the right - or tweet me @NicolaShearer - very original, I know!

Going cuckoo

It's official, the stress of my assignments is pushing me over the edge into cloud cuckoo land.  So much so that this morning whilst I was out, in the rain, trying to take photographs for an assignment I thought I heard a cuckoo.  It was very faint but then I heard it again.  And again.  I didn't hear one last year so I am delighted to hear one this year.

Anyway, please bear with me readers.  My tales are a bit slim on the ground just now - but soon this semester will be done and dusted and I can get back out and about.  Hopefully, by then the rain will have let up a little.

* * * NEWS * * *

** Finally have a (broad) topic for my dissertation! ** Undertook small mammal trapping and saw my first vole! ** Two assignments down... 4 big ones to go. ** Great Crested Newt bottle traps created ** Hanningfield Living Landscape sections drafted ** Chelmsford becomes a city! ** College prize draw win **

As you can see - I've been busy.  So has the Queen.  Let's start with that shall we?  Chelmsford has become the first city in Essex.  I had no idea that we had no other cities - read what the BBC had to say about it here.  Well done Chelmsford.  I hope Lizzy had a lovely time when she went to do her recce.

Onto far more important news.  After much deliberation I have finally settled on a topic for my dissertation and yes, I have gone full-circle and am doing a study of c.4 generalist butterfly species in an arable landscape and the affects that climate change and microclimate and land-use change has on them in terms of their plasticity.  All with a view to predicting what these changes (climatic and land-use) might mean for other generalist and specialist species over the coming decades.  Or something like that!  I am very excited about it.  There's still a lot to do in terms of the scope of the research but it is still early days.  It will be a lot of hard work but I can't wait to get started.

First though, 4 chunky assignments to get through - habitat management essay; landscape character assessment; biological surveying report and the research proposal for the aforementioned butterfly project.

As part of our couse we did some small mammal trapping last week. We set several Longworth traps along a boundary hedge in an arable setting. We only found two species Wood Mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) and Bank Vole (Myodes glareolus) but it was useful to get practice of constructing the traps, filling them, placing them in suitable positions, and then checking them. We also got practice of handling them and sexing them. Having owned a pair of dwarf hamsters fairly recently I wasn't too worried about handling them. However, these little critters are tiny and wriggly! It was a great experience though. Pictures following below:

Bank vole

Congratulations! It's a girl!

Wood Mouse

It has been quite a hands-on month at college.  A small group of us, trying to get our Great Crested Newt licence this year, set about creating bottle traps.  It was a lovely hour of arts and crafts as we cut up plastic bottles and then reassembled them "kebab-style" on a garden cane.  We put them out overnight at the edge of the college reservoir.  It was a bit early/cold and so they remained empty in the morning when they were checked.

The sections Michelle and I were writing for the Hanningfield Living Landscape vision document have been done and submitted.  We attended an indicator team meeting this week and it all seems to be progressing on time.  The draft document is due for internal review next week and then we'll take it from there.  Despite our section being completed it is good experience for us to stay involved to see how it all gets put together.  Hopefully we will be able to get involved in the summer in planning the projects that arise from the vision document.

And finally (no, I'm not one of the Two Ronnies) my name was drawn out of a hat as the winner of the college library survey prize draw.  Book token prize.  Niiice.

I think that is it for now.  Back to the essay writing.

I love Twitter

Chris Packham replied to one of my tweets.  See for yourself.  Speechless, I was.

Nuclear Nature

At the mouth of the River Blackwater at the northern tip of the Dengie Peninsula in Essex lies the defuelled Bradwell Nuclear Power Station.  It operated for about 40 years but was decommissioned 10 years ago.  Some months ago I pulled a wildlife walk guide from a magazine and stuck it on my shelf thinking 'I'll do that walk sometime'.  Well, Sunday was the day.  We drove up to Bradwell-on-Sea which is a beautiful little village, with some ridiculously friendly residents, and parked the car in the designated car park near the chapel of St. Peter-on-the-Wall.  This restored chapel dates back to 654 (http://www.bradwellchapel.org/) and it is a lovely little place - always open as well so you can go inside for a look around and to get out of the wind off the North Sea!

St. Peter's-on-the-Wall

The circular walk takes you right round the sea wall of the peninsula and permits great views of a range of song birds near the bird observatory (run by Essex Birdwatching Society) and the chapel and then waders and wildfowl on the saltmarsh and fields.  As we were walking round we saw a huge flock of birds flying in over the sea wall.  they just seemed to grow and grow in number and then landed in an arable field to feed and rest.  They were Brent Geese and there were thousands of them.



Brent Geese



We saw lots of other species of bird but the highlight for me was spotting a common seal just offshore who was looking as us just as intently as we were looking at it.  We also saw a couple of hare in the fields on the walk back to the car park.

The species list for the day: Wren; Chaffinch; Skylark; Bombus spp.; Magpie; Reed Bunting; Great Tit; Blue Tit; Greenfinch; Shelduck; Knot; Brent Goose; Oystercatcher; Little Egret; Redshank; Common Seal; Black-headed Gull; Great Spotted Woodpecker; Green Woodpecker; Mallard; House Sparrow; Rook; Wood Pigeon; Carrion Crow; Robin, Blackbird; Rabbit; Fieldfare; Pheasant; Hare and Moorhen.

Bradwell Power Station

It was a lovely sunny day and a very long walk.  With all the stopping and starting it took us about 4 and a half hours to walk round but I would definitely recommend it.  It was great to be by the sea and seeing the sun setting was really beautiful.

Sunset over the River Blackwater

Busy busy busy...

It's been an incredibly busy month or so and my poor blog has suffered.  January saw me take the reigns of the Essex Field Club's "A Wildlife Diary" in their newsletter.  First article to appear in April. 

My statistics exam has been and gone - I passed!

I had a wonderful trip down to Dorset with EuCAN again where we (Amy and I) spent a great weekend in Beech Cottage hanging out at the Kingcombe Centre with Nigel, Kathy, Sarah et al.  We did some winter twig ID and looed at bryophytes, learnt about traditional hay making in Transylvania, enjoyed a barn dance (with cider and wine), lots of fabulous food and cake, and then spent Sunday morning clearing gorse and hawthorn on a Butterfly Conservation site at Lankham Bottom.

I've been out and about at Langdon again and this weekend we had a work party from Butterfly Conservation join us to continue in our pursuit of the perfect habitat for the Grizzled Skipper.  Not sure whether they are going to "move in" but we can hope.

The deadline is looming for the Hanningfield Living Landscape information to be written and submitted for review, so once this current assignment is completed that is next on the list.

Oh, and we had 15cm of snow in Basildon at the start of the month.  Great fun!!

Gloucester Park, Basildon

Cormorant drying off

Mute Swan

Dissertation topic...

In the next few weeks I really need to decide on a broad topic for my dissertation.  I'm due to present some ideas about it to a panel at college sometime in February and then my completed research proposal has to be submitted by the beginning of May, ready to commence the real work from then until Spring 2013....

Slight problem: I haven't got a clue what to choose!  So I'm calling for as many suggestions as possible whether it be mammals, birds, butterflies, bats, plants, trees, habitats, landscape ecology.... I just need rough ideas to see what ones might enable me to produce a compelling dissertation!

Answers on a postcard please.... :-)