Catching up on Eight Busy Months!

Late summer and autumn last year were so busy I had little time to look at my photographs let alone post them on my blog.  So it's time for an upgrade and a catch-up on nature around Houghton Regis.  The Woodside title is no longer applicable hence the new title.  The new picture is of the by-way along the northern boundary, part of which is an ancient track known as Theedway.  I hope you enjoy what you see and hear!

Little Egret on the Woodside Link pond

Enjoying the plentiful food

Little grebe on the right inspecting a female mallard

There were two little grebes and one swam right up to me, a delightful bird also called a dabchick

The fields were full of colourful wild flowers and grasses, perfect habitat for dragonflies and damselflies

Black-tailed skimmer

Damselfly resting with wings along its body

Showy Ox-eye daisies

The chalk meadow in late summer

Painted lady butterfly

Curious fungus

The marl lake in the Chalk Pit much depleted while on the northern rim the chalkhill blues flutter around a bit of pooh

The Wildlife Trust on a water vole survey but only signs of water shrew or bank vole were found (left)

Thorn Road showing Bury Spinney on the left and Oakwell Park on the right.  I was looking for chewed hazelnuts hoping to find evidence of hazel dormice who used to live in this area.  I found plenty chewed by mice, voles and squirrels but not dormice.  I wasn't really expecting to in view of the disturbance to their habitat.

View of Regent's Place from Bidwell West

Builders have hung up their hats and planted flowers in them outside the site of the second warehouse on Thorn Road

Lapwings and gulls taking advantage of the temporary shallow scrape on the site

Golden reed bed in the Chalk Pit

The marl lake restored

Reflecting on these pictures, there is so much to look forward to next summer.  Even though the climate is changing, the cycle of the seasons means we can expect to see frogspawn in March, warblers in April and swifts in May, that is the wonder of nature which I find restorative and full of hope.  I thought the marl lake had gone for ever but when conditions were right it filled up again (like the scientists said it would). Listening to the water trickling into it instead of down the plughole was a tremendous relief and seeing these green-blue colours in its depth made me think what a mysterious and beautiful world we live in.

The Chalkpit in Bloom and What to Expect next Month

Wild Thyme

Common Spotted Orchid, and (below) pictures showing the spotted leaves which give it its name

 

Valerian (a non-native but good for insects)

Yellow-wort, soon to be out.  Note how the leaves join around the stem

Pyramidal Orchids

Common Centaury (the pink thing)

Milkwort



Birdsfoot trefoil, an important food plant for butterflies

Hedge Bedstraw




Squinancywort

What to Expect in July and August

This is a Carline Thistle now...

...and in a few weeks' time it will be covered in Chalkhill Blue butterflies like these below taken in early August 2016.

Greater Knapweed (below) another important food plant



The Chiltern Gentian

There is much more to see, this is only a selection of those I have photographed on the north side of the chalk pit and identified.  
Enjoy the show as it unfolds throughout the summer! 
Tread carefully as you go. 

 

 

Woodside Link revisited

In February 2018 I was discouraged by the mess around the Woodside Link as I reported in the post 'News Catch-up 2017-2018', but this year it's very different.  The rubbish is being cleaned up much quicker and travellers have been prevented, mostly, from parking up along the road and cycle tracks.  Now that contractors are on the HRN1 site, there is oversight and better monitoring of illegal activity.  As a result, nature is flourishing in the fields, in the stream and ponds and in the air.  I'm enjoying it while it lasts.  Work is starting at the northern end of the site so some of my favourite spots are happily undisturbed. 

The evening sun picks out red campion, ox-eye daisies and hawkweed on the spur for yet another bridge over Houghton Brook, with the grove of hybrid black poplars behind. 

I am taking a greater interest in insects, even though I can't identify most of them.  They play an essential role in food production, and come in all colours, shapes and sizes. 

 

This deer slot is in the borrow pit wildlife area that is no longer flooded since it was drained into the stream.  It is interesting to follow tracks to see what visits at night. 

 

 

Ox-eye daisies glow in the half-light on the chalk meadow.

Cornflowers add blue to the colour palette.

 

 

A pair of tufted duck have joined swans, mallards and moorhens on the pond.  I still miss the little ringed plover and grey wagtails which I used to see regularly.  I want to see an increase in number of species, but at present they seem to be coming and going rather than staying. 

 

However, underwater in the stream, biodiversity is improving with my first sighting of a mayfly nymph during our water quality monitoring last week and pond skaters.  We also saw lots and lots of sticklebacks and snails (below), and watch out for the golden beetle that is disturbed by the snail as it moves. 

 

 

 

'High in the Blue Above Swifts Whirl and Call'

Photo Ben Andrew/rspb-images.com

The arrival of swifts in Parkside each year has always filled me with excitement and joy, as they are lovely to watch 'high in the blue above' as well as to hear them screaming in parties of two or more around the rooftops, a sign of breeding and nesting.  I've never yet worked out where they are nesting though and that is my goal this year. 

My title comes from the 'Ducks' Ditty' in Kenneth Grahame's much-loved tale of 'The Wind in The Willows', which is currently being used to advertise the Wildlife Trusts' aims to encourage more people to play their part in nature's recovery. 

Published on Mar 27, 2019, the trailer shows Badger, Toad, Mole and Ratty in serious trouble when they return to the Willows! Join in to play your part in nature’s recovery: wildlifetrusts.org/wilder-future

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZYcoeqzxVI

There is something we can all do about swifts.  I am watching the skies above Houghton Regis for their familiar outline against the sky, and listening out for their familiar screaming parties around the rooftops.  Watch this You-tube video for correct identification:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl1PnyPqVG0

You can do the same and report your sighting of screaming parties and, if you are lucky, nest sights in holes in roofs, on the BCN Wildlife Trust's special survey website:

https://www.wildlifebcn.org/blog/josh-hellon/help-our-swifts-join-2019-survey

or on the RSPB survey https://swiftsurvey.org/Rspb/Home/Index

If you have a swift nesting box on your house, the Wildlife Trust would like to know.  Or just let me know via the contact button or on facebook if you have heard or seen swifts in your area of Houghton Regis and I will come to your street to record them.

Swift numbers are declining but we have them here and can do something to help them increase in numbers again.  Why not have a go at spotting them, and listen out for them screaming around the rooftops.

May - a walk along Ouzel Brook

Yesterday I took a lovely walk along Ouzel Brook where I found new bridges, gates and marker posts installed, and I do recommend it to my readers for this weekend.  Accessible from Chiltern Way alongside Bedford Road, or from the Tithe Farm bridleway 22, I was walking through fields of lush grass and flowers, and it was very beautiful and almost peaceful.

Starting from the bottom of Grove Farm bridge, this first gate leads into a meadow which must have been a field of gold when the dandelions were all out -  I should have come earlier!

You can't miss the way with these marker posts.  This is footpath 13.

There is no livestock in these fields at present, but there often is, so please keep dogs on a lead as indicated on the signs below.

The new bridges and kissing gates are a great improvement on the old rickety stiles.



I turned back along footpath 14 towards the Grove Farm bridge again.

I saw a jay in this field and heard chaffinches, chiff-chaffs and a green woodpecker calling. 

The path runs along the side of the field, and there are some beautiful flowering and fruiting trees which attract the birds here.

Grove Farm bridge where I started from, left takes you back to the first kissing gate, straight ahead leads over the bridge and to Bridleway 44.

The blue signs are bridleways and yellow footpaths.

This is where the scenery changes dramatically as the thick brush has been cleared south of the stream for HRN1, letting in a lot of light and reducing shelter for wildlife. 

This used to be very dense thicket.  The yellow tipped stake beyond is NOT a way marker!  It's part of the building works.

The bridleway runs very close to the works here.  One can only hope they plant some more trees to replace the scrub they cleared.

Work in progress...

From the top of the footbridge one can see the foundations of the main street being laid. 

View of AMP1 from the top of the hill on the by-way which, thankfully, hasn't changed a bit.

At this point it poured down with rain so I made a hasty retreat to my car.

 

I hope you enjoy the holiday weekend, whatever the weather, and the signs and sounds of spring in the remaining green areas of Houghton Regis. 

 

PLEASE DON'T DROP LITTER - TAKE IT HOME WITH YOU!

 

THANK YOU