Painted Lady and Sunshine

One delight was from the odd days sunshine we have had recently was this painted Lady butterfly, which was making the most of the sun at Threave on the estate walk last week.

Osprey Update 25/9/2012

Our Osprey chicks are still showing well from the public viewing platform, but increasingly spending more time further away from the nest gaining strength in preparation for their migration. Our male black 80 was around over the weekend and seen bringing in a fish.

The good news we have an identity for our female Blue XC, Many Thanks go to Emyr Evans. We are awaiting more details on her and I will pass this information on as we receive it, yet another piece in the Threave Osprey story .......

Pastures New:

Hi everyone. My name is Paul and I have been the seasonal ranger with the Dumfries & Galloway countryside team since April this year and have been responsible for creating and updating this blog. 

Having thoroughly enjoyed my time here working with such a great team, in such wonderful countryside, with such wonderful species and encountering all the very friendly visitors, I am off to pastures new. I have been lucky to have been offered a position working for the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire. 

So I just wanted to say goodbye and thank you to all who have followed the blog over the past few months and hope that you have enjoyed the few nuggets of info that I have offered up. The blog will be continuing with the help of Ranger Judy, Ranger Dave and Ranger Karl.

All the best.

Osprey Update 13/09:

The female has now departed on her long journey south to Africa. The Male and the 2 chicks are still regularly seen at the nest. The male is usually the last to leave on his migration after the young have left.

Building Bridges:

The ranger team, with the help of our volunteer Barry, have been busy constructing and installing a new bridge for the circular walk around the reserve on the Threave Estate. 

 All the timber used was reclaimed or from off cuts.

The old bridge was not in a good condition and was starting to rot.

During the removal of the old bridge we were easy pickings for the mosquitoes from the ditch. Luckily the water levels were reasonably low on the day that we were working so we didn't get too muddy.

The new bridge had to be firmly anchored to the ground so that it would not float off during the times when the meadow floods.

Our first visitors were Fiona & Neil Bonser from Newark, Nottinghamshire. They ceremonially cut the ribbon (hazard tape) and took the first official crossing of the bridge. I think their happy smiles are evidence of a well made bridge.

The new handrail is also very useful to rest against after a hard days bridge building.

Osprey Update 06/09:

As of the 30/08/12 both chicks had fledged the nest. The second chick was a little less confident initially and could at times be seen calling to asking to be fed by the larger of the chicks rather than feed itself when the adults brought fish back. It was also seen more regularly at the nest. All four birds have been seen at the nest over the last few days although they are sitting at the nest less regularly and can often be seen in nearby trees.

Osprey Update 29/08:

A CHICK HAS FLEDGED!

On Saturday 25th August one of the chicks was seen to leave the nest on what we believe to be his maiden flight. Since then there have been a number of sightings of one of the chicks flying around the area close to the nest. The second chick has not been seen as yet but must be ready any day now.

Unfortunately the path to the Osprey Platform has been inaccessible due to flooding, so we haven't been able to get any really good views of the birds over the past 2 days to see if the second chick has flown.

The camera which was placed on the nest will be removed once the birds have gone so as not to disturb them. Once we get the camera back we can hopefully fill in a few gaps in the females background and get some interesting shots of the ospreys behaviour at the nest over the past few weeks.

Grayling Butterfly:

Ranger Judy got this nice photo of a grayling butterfly at our Rockcliffe reserve.

The colouring and pattern on the wings provide the grayling with perfect camouflage when resting on bare ground, tree trunks and rocks. They are most commonly seen around the coast but numbers are declining especially at inland sites. It prefers drier areas such as dunes, cliffs, heaths, old quarries and earthworks, with plenty of bare ground and sparse vegetation.

Sightings at Threave:

Here are just a few of the recent sightings recorded on the Threave nature reserve over the past 2 weeks:

Raven

kingfisher

Bullfinch feeding young

Elephant hawk moth caterpillar

Female marsh harrier

Redstart

Peregrine Falcon

Otters

Roe deer

Female hen harrier

Spotted flycatcher

Snipe

Lapwing

Greater spotted woodpecker

Barn owl

White throat

A flock of gold finch

Brown hare

Redpoll

A flock of greylag geese

Osprey Update 23/08:

The osprey chicks are starting to look stronger and can regularly be seen stretching their wings and flexing their flight muscles. They should be fledging over the next few days so keep your eyes peeled for young ospreys around the nest.

Thank You:

The team would like to thank all those volunteers from the Glasgow Conservation Volunteers Group for the work that they put in on the 11th & 12th August at our Rockcliffe reserve. The group helped out with our braken management and we got lots of work done. We would also like to thank the weather for staying nice over the 2 days.

A Gem of a moth:

This fine specimen was found down on our Rockcliffe reserve. The large emerald moth has a distribution across most parts of the UK and is often found in gardens (as this one was), woodlands and heaths.

Osprey Update 09/08:

The story so far - 

So just a quick recap for everyone to get you up to speed with what's happened so far this year.  Our male osprey (Darvic ring Black80) arrived back on the 28th March. The female bird did not arrive back until the 11th May and was in fact a different bird to previous years. We were able to tell by the fact that the new female bird was ringed whereas the previous female was not ringed. The new female could be seen to have a blue Darvic ring on her leg but unfortunately we have not had a good enough view through a powerful scope to identify her yet. The arrival of the female on the 11th May was rather late as pretty much all of the other UK birds had arrived at their nests by mid April at the latest. 

The birds showed signs that eggs had been laid around the 30/31 May. We believe the chicks hatched on the 5th July. Again these dates are very late as a result of the late return of the female. It is believed that these are the latest chicks to hatch in 2012. The week beginning the 16th July we had confirmation that there were two chicks in the nest and over the weeks since we have had more and more regular sightings of the chicks as they were being fed and as they were starting to grow and stretch their wings.

Osprey Chick Ringing - 

On the evening of Tuesday 7th August we successfully ringed our two osprey chicks. The process involved climbing the tree in which the nest platform had been constructed.

The two chicks were then lowered to the ground where they could be ringed and weighed. The details are as follows:

Chick 1: 

Darvic Ring - Blue/White CU3

BTO Ring - 1408278

Weight - 1.673 kg

Chick 2:

Darvic Ring - Blue/White CU4

BTO Ring - 1408279

Weight - 1.474 kg

We believe that both birds are males.

Whilst the chicks were on the ground a camera was installed close to the nest to hopefully get some pictures of the females ring. This would enable us to find out her history and where she is from. If we don't get a clear shot of it then hopefully we will get some interesting shots of some of the chicks.
During the ringing both the male and female birds were seen to be keeping a good eye on the nest and by the time our volunteers got to the platform the next morning things looked pretty much back to normal. 

The chicks will hopefully fledge the nest around the 27th August. 

Moth Trapping:

We recently undertook some moth trapping down at Kelton Mains on the Threave Reserve. Moth trapping is a useful way to study the diversity of moths in an area using non-lethal light traps. We also set the trap at our Rockcliffe reserve a week before. At Rockcliffe we managed to identify a total of 22 species.

At Threave we clocked up a rather small total of just 12 different species.
They were:
Antler
Burnished brass
Common footman
Common wainscot
Dark arches
Garden tiger
Large yellow underwing
Plain golden Y
Rosy rustic
Scalloped oak
Single dotted wave
Twin spot carpet

We believe a number of factors led to the low diversity of moths. The night we set the trap was very clear meaning that it was rather cool. Cool temperatures often lead to low moth activity. We were also competing with another light source as there was a full moon. The trap was also set close to the buildings at Kelton Mains where there is not much in the way of vegetation. Hopefully we will be setting the trap again on a warmer cloudier night in an area of the reserve which has a richer and more diverse vegetation cover.

Burnished Brass 

Rosy Rustic (above)  Common Footman (below)

Garden Tiger

Swallows Enjoy Dramatic Sunset:

This small group of swallows can just be seen catching their last few flies before bed.