Tuesday 19 April 2016

April 19th Mousehold Heath

Comma
I am back at Mousehold with Will for another survey. This time we are counting butterflies on a transect on the other half of the site. It is still early days with this kind of survey as is often the case for April. The month is only starting to warm up after several days of rain and thick overcast clouds, it is no wonder that I am seeing very few butterflies so far. Today, it was sunny with the odd cloud cover, but we did manage to find a total of 6 butterflies; 4 peacocks, 1 comma and 1 small tortoiseshell. As these surveys continue from now until the end of September, I am hoping for a record year for Mousehold's butterflies. Fingers crossed!

Peacock
Tadpoles!
At Vinegar Pond, thousands of tadpoles have hatched and cover the edges of the pond as a thick black mass. I don't think I have ever seen so many tadpoles at this pond before. With so many together, I could even hear them squirming around sounding similar to popping corn. It was a very strange noise indeed! We also heard a green woodpecker yaffling closeby, a bird I haven't seen here for a few years.

So many tadpoles!


Green Alkanet


Woodpigeon






Chiffchaff

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