June on Dartmoor
Given that I’ve been unable to update this while I’ve been up on the moor (and I have a lot of catching up to do) I thought it would be somewhat fraudulent of me to give you a blow by blow commentary of my time. Besides, the early days on the job (with the RSPB) were mostly spent working nights, so I didn’t have the opportunity to capture too many images. I was part of a team monitoring and protecting a pair of red backed shrike. Further details and information on how the project fared will be released by the RSPB in due course, at which point I’ll link to it from here.
As I say, a large part of my time was spent patrolling the moor at night, on the lookout for anyone who might want to disturb the birds. This provided me with a fantastic insight into what it must be like to be a security guard. At least I was outside – so I had the opportunity to learn the night time habits of foxes, rutting roe deer and nightjars, as well as allowing me to experience a fabulous dawn chorus from the song thrushes, blackbirds, whitethroats, wrens, cuckoos, skylarks, to name but a few.
I met a large number of local birders through the project, some of which gave up their time to come out and help keep a round the clock watch on the birds – more about them later. Perry from RSPB West Sedgemoor, and the three current residential volunteers from RSPB Aylesbeare, Damian, Rob and Tom, also came out to help out with the shifts. Nice one chaps.
Highlights from June were…
seeing my first red backed shrike; seeing and hearing the nightjars; trying to work out what that crazy barking is at 3 in the morning (a roe buck); learning to sleep in hour long bursts and at any given opportunity (maybe learning isn’t the right word); seeing a pair of cuckoos getting frisky with each other; and, not having a mobile signal. One other notable moment, whilst I had a stomach bug at the end of the month, I was on patrol and managed to keep myself from sicking up over someone who stopped me for conversation for maybe 20 minutes while I stood there, not talking, and thinking, ‘must hold it in, must hold it in…’. How he couldn’t see this in my facial expression I’ll never know. Thankfully I managed to hold my food down for the duration of the bug, and continue eating at least one decent meal a day.
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- This is a mottled grasshopper (Myrmeleotettix maculatus). I can tell by the thickening tips and unicolourous nature of the antenna.
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- This is the longhorn beetle Rhagium bifasciatum on its favoured ‘gas bottle’ habitat
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- Chimney sweeper moth (Odezia atrata)
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- Adalia decempunctata. A melanic 10 spot ladybird. It’s quite small.
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- Maidenhair spleenwort, get in! I can’t remember seeing any of this since I found out what it’s name was. I’ve always wanted to tell someone that this is maidenhair spleenwort.
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- Small copper (Lycaena phlaeus)
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- This is likely to be a wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus)
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- At least two whitethroat fledglings and possibly another lurking on a lower branch
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- Unlike Cornwall the creatures of Dartmoor (including this young wheatear) had to deal with plenty of rain after I arrived
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- I wouldn’t know where to begin to id this. Is it the black haired mustard fly (Sinapisium crinisnigris)?
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- Mummy siskin on her brood
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- The photo is good (even if I do say so myself), but the moment was even better
Weston Super Mare
Every year I meet up with a bunch of my university friends in a UK seaside ‘resort’ and we party like its 1999. Well, we used to (especially in 1999). These days we have a few drinks, dance, eat and wonder how long it’ll be before more kids than adults turn up. This year we re-visited our 1997(?) venue of Weston Super Mare. The last time we were here I was able to drink, heavily, there were (I’m pretty sure) no kids, JD slept on the lawn of the hotel with a dog, and I jumped off the sea wall and landed on a concrete ramp, forcing beach patrol to come out and check up on me. Thankfully I was diagnosed as having no broken bones by Mike, a dentist.
This time the evening passed smoothly, I was introduced to baby Saffiyah, I ended up in Dave’s winning Sunday crazy golf matchplay team and I headed back to Dartmoor happy to have experienced some sunshine and laughter.
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- Has the beach wall changed in recent years – I seem to remember it being bigger
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- The crowds jostle for a view of the Godinson cup
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- High tension on the golf course
Severe lack of good form
Hello. Yes, those of you who follow my outdoor antics (all 5, yes, it’s going up – it’s possible to subscribe to emails via the link on the right (Mum!). An email will only be sent when I post something i.e. not that often, and then in bursts…) will know that I’m not very good at blogging in real time. My entries tend to get added to the site in a retrospective fashion. Alas, such is the nature of the beast. If I’m going to spend all my time working outdoors, in remote locations, then I can hardly expect to have access to the world wide web on a daily basis.
Tomorrow I start a new assignment on the lovely Dartmoor. I will, once again, be out of reach of modern digital communications for much of the time. I’m looking forward to it, it’s something of a fillip to be able to see people whilst communicating with them, rather than spending time trying to work out how to insert sarcasm into text.
Anyway, I’ve not finished adding all my Cornwall entries, even though I’ve been staying in a house (!) for a few days, which I’m pretty disappointed about. I’ll do it when I get a chance. The latest news of the lovely Whitebrown and Brownblue, is that they have three beautiful boys, who are, apparently, thinking very hard about leaving the nest. News will be posted here when it happens.
I could be away on Dartmoor for up to eight weeks, during which time blogging will fall to the bottom of the list of priorities. But, there’s so much to look forward to. I am going to stay at RSPB Abernethy over the winter, and I’ve a couple of TFL weeks lined up this Autumn. I have more photos from Cornwall to add, and will, no doubt, see some good stuff on Dartmoor. In the mean time you could read the ramblings of the fabulous Rob Pedley, or the really delightful Heather and Stuart, on their way to New Zealand.
Any comments always welcome, especially where I’ve not been able to, or have miss-identified something.
Life since the office 
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