My Summer In Suffolk

So I have just completed my first paid (with actual money) job in the countryside industry as a Seasonal Ranger in Suffolk.  And what a great experience it was with so many tasks like making hay, counting butterflies, staining picnic benches, weaving willow domes, getting hyper active Beavers to rake up grass, launching recycled rockets across nature reserves, dissecting tudor poo, pond dipping with small people, pruning and strimming, and the less glamorous stuff like litter picking, emptying doggy-do bins, and spraying pesticide in my own face!  Good times.

Not your usual tool store especially with the laying out table and coffin behind the building!

My attractive maroon school uniform

Close encounters while weeding

Sound of summer - singing meadows

Poos from the Past - homemade archaeological game!

Small Skipper

Water Mint

Invasive Himalayan Balsam - with exploding seed heads!

Gatekeeper

The River Dove

Paralympic Flame Festival

Suffolk style vandalism to steal ice cream!

Earthstar fungi

Shaggy Inkcap

Church Meadow

Needham Lake

Naughty mink prints

Mink raft where we find the prints

Wild at art

Footbridge ecosystem

Nasty thorn-apple (Jimson weed) which is a hallucinogen

Autumn colours at Needham Lake

Elementary my dear Watson

Yes this is exactly what it looks like, a dead bird.  This is, was, in fact a Little Owl.  I found the recently deceased at work in Needham Lake and having my trusty litter picker to hand I was able to carry out a CSI-style post-mortem examination.  Well, I flipped him over a couple of times and took some pictures.  I also noticed that it was ringed (note the silver anklet).  This meant that this bird had been recorded and so I took note of the ring number and emailed the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology).  They soon got back to me to inform me that it had been rung in May this year at a local site and was around 2 years old.  Sounds young but apparently their typical lifespan is only 3 years.  The results of my post-mortem sadly did not uncover the cause of death but there were no obvious signs of struggle or abuse.  Poison perhaps?  I may have to call Jessica Fletcher on this one.

Hang in there!

Despite this appalling weather and all the doom and gloom being reported about how our British wildlife is suffering, a few creatures and flowers are still clinging on.  Undoubtedly things dont look as colourful, summery and full of life as they should at this time of year but if you look closely you can still find small pockets of splendour...

Common spotted orchid

Small tortoiseshell and Meadow brown (sharing, aah!)

Stinking iris

face full of buddleia

Pyramidal orchid

Red cardinals making whoopee

Emerald damselfly

So chin up, the little guys are battling through the monsoon, so can we!

Bella Italia and Keith's weeds

So I managed to escape the rain for a couple of days last week and visit the ol' aunt and uncle in rural central Italy. And naturally I had to explore the flora and fauna on their doorstep. I wasn't disappointed. Their large garden backs on to traditional hay meadows and you wake to the sound of corn buntings and swallows. And occasionally you wake to ritual offerings from the outdoor insect zapper. For example...

barbecued Garden Tiger moth

Other creatures in the garden that fortunately resisted the urge to fly toward the light included...

Lizard

White-legged damselfy (female)?

Common blue butterfly

The large amount of wildlife present in the garden can be attributed to the abundant resources available - fruit, seeds, insects, and wild flowers, or as Keith calls them, weeds!

I would have got more pictures but I was forced to put the camera down and drink prosecco, oh the hardship.

Why did the viper vipe her nose?

Cos the adder 'ad 'er hankerchief!

Considering I am not a big fan of snakes, I seem to spend a fair amount of time either looking for them or stumbling across them.  We did a reptile survey at Brenchley Wood and Cinderhill last week with the hope that we might find adders on site.  Sadly (for conservation, not so much for me) there weren't any but the site may not be dry enough for them.  We did record plenty of slow worms and a few grass snakes though so it wasn't a total loss.

Slow worm (legless lizard)

Today, we were at Kiln Wood Nature Reserve doing a bit of path cutting.  Whilst having a break from the heat, I was rummaging around the pond trying to get pictures of the damselflies and got startled by something in the water.  Fortunately it was not an anaconda, but instead a grass snake happily swimming along.  Once I had recovered from the mild shock, I remembered I had my camera in my hand and tried to get some photos.  Not brilliant, but you can just about make out Britain's longest snake...

I did also manage to get a picture of the Large red damselfly, but be warned, it is x-rated.

Other shots from today...

Red campion

Common Spotted-orchid avec spider

Speckled Wood

Our new neighbour

See if you can locate the world's smallest bird house in this picture...

This was a gift from Tom and Laura following its brutal rejection from their wedding favour shortlist and now makes an attractive little decoration for our balcony.  We were hoping to wake up one morning to find a blue tit's bum sticking out of it following a mis-judgement on potential nest sites.  Alas, we have resorted to accepting its mere ornamental status.

However, as I was munching my lunch today I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye, only to watch a small creature enter the teeny house.  Surely not I hear you cry.  But yes, this splendid little gimic has now become the nesting ground of what I can only assume is a solitary bee...

She is in and out of there pretty quick but I know it isnt a wasp (phew) and maybe it is a Red Mason Bee?