Escape from reality

They say a change is as good as a rest so in June (still not getting faster at writing posts) I went for the first time on an adventure to the Peak District. Anyone who knows me will know that I am quite fond of living in the Black Country, but sometimes I need to retreat to a more rural landscape and escape the murmur of traffic that comes with living in an urban environment, as well as my monotonous routine of volunteering, endless application writing and interviews.  

First stop on route to where we were staying was Staffordshire Wildlife Trust reserve the Roaches.  I thought it might be a good start to my break because I remember watching a feature about the reserve on Midlands today a couple of years ago and was aware that peregrine falcons have been known to breed on the reserve, plus it was on my lists of places that I would like to go to but have never got round to it. It took several U-turns and recalculating satnav moments but we managed to get to the reserve, the views were spectacular, the holiday had begun. Not being familiar with the reserve we followed our feet and some signs and saw a kestrel hovering overhead. We wasn’t quite sure where the best place was on the reserve to catch a glimpse of the peregrines but as many birdwatchers will know if in doubt walk towards the crowd of people with scopes staring in the same direction, and you are bound to see something interesting even if it’s not what you was expecting to see. On this occasion I looked through a scope that had been set up by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and saw a couple of peregrine chicks in their nest, it was the first view I have ever had of peregrine chicks and would have been impossible for me to find them with my binoculars. I didn’t see the adult peregrine, countless times I have thought I have been looking at a Peregrine on a rocky ledge just to find out that I have been staring at a rock. We was limited on the amount of time that we could spend at the reserve because of needing to get to our accommodation but during our visit we managed to see a Kestrel hunting for its prey and we think we might have seen a Stonechat as well. I think I will definitely visit the reserve again it’s only a short-ish journey up the M6 and cross country from where I live and was a good retreat for a townie like me.   

The Roaches

 

Good things happen when you least expect it is something that I find myself thinking when I have seen some wildlife that I have never seen before and I haven’t got my binoculars with me or wasn’t even purposely looking out for birds etc. I was sitting having some dinner and looking out of the window of the cottage we were staying in when I saw a bird that I have never seen before. I clambered to get my binoculars and could only describe it as a mixture of a Robin and a Nuthatch (that’s what it looked like to me anyway) I thought it might have been a Redstart so I looked it up and it was. I have been to the Forest of Dean a couple of times because I know that they can be seen there but have never been lucky enough and all it took was for me to sit down, gaze out of a window and eat a veggie chilli. It is a fantastic bird with a bizarre black mask, it turned out that there was a pair of Redstarts nesting in the office on site, there was also a Great tit nesting in one of the outside buildings that made countless visits to the nest to feed its chicks.

Another bird that I have always wanted to see is a Dipper seeing this bird is another case of having to be in the right place at the right time. Fortunately luck was on my side and as I was walking along the River Dove I again saw a group of people staring in the same direction before seeing what they was looking at first. Walking towards them I saw a dot standing on a rock and then it dawned on me that they were looking at a Dipper,  my accent suddenly went even more black country than usual with excitement. I was expecting it to fly off before I had chance to have a proper look at it through my binoculars but it didn’t it stayed on the rock for quite a while. I was able to see the fine details that you can read about in the description in a bird identification book but seeing the bird in its natural habitat is completely different. It was two shades of brown with the characteristic white bib and a white eyelid, it was enough to rival seeing the Redstart and seeing a Peregrine flying around the valley where we was walking, it was definitely one of those bird watching moments that I will always remember.

Whilst in the Peak District we also went for a walk at Lathkill Dale National Nature Reserve, it was a lovely walk along a river and the weather was beautiful. Whilst walking I saw a Nuthatch, Treecreeper, a Clouded Magpie moth and Jacob’s Ladder which is a plant that is rare in the wild, whilst walking we saw a man who had purposely taken time out of his lunch break from work to take a photograph of the plant. I knew there were ‘twitchers’ in the birdwatching world but I didn’t realise there was an equivalent in the botany world. I think it is quite strange the lengths that people go to when they have a passion for something but wildlife has that effect on us doesn’t it?!

Clouded Magpie moth

 

Jacob's Ladder

I returned home from the Peak District feeling refreshed after doing some good walks and seeing some fantastic wildlife along the way, although I did have that post-holiday feeling of having to readjust back to reality. I might have been back at home but the unexpected wildlife moments continued as I spotted a Red Kite flying overhead at Sandwell Valley whilst I was watching Swallows and House Martins. A couple of days later whilst I was doing my BTO Garden Birdwatch my jaw nearly dropped into the kitchen sick when a Rose necked parakeet appeared on a cherry tree in the garden, I was drinking black coffee at the time but surely it wasn’t that strong?!. I know that there is a colony of Rose-necked parakeets at Sandwell Valley because I have seen them many times flying overhead when I’ve been volunteering at RSPB Sandwell Valley. I don’t live that far from Sandwell Valley but I never thought I would see one in my garden. My mom had never seen a Rose-necked parakeet so I thought it was good that she was able to get a close up look at the bird in her own garden, it was fascinating to watch and definitely brought a bit of colour into the garden. I also saw my first ever Yellow hammer (I think it was a Yellow hammer anyway) whilst boating along the Shropshire Union Canal, it was well worth standing on the back of the boat in the pouring rain to see it, but it would have been even better if I hadn’t have left my binoculars inside the boat. I think the morale of this blog post is to always have your binoculars with you AT ALL TIMES because you never know what wildlife you will see in both rural and urban places either way it is an escape from reality for me.

 

 

 

 

Volunteers week: Cup of tea with milk and two twigs

This week not only marks the start of a new month and summer (although it might not feel like it at the moment with the damp and windy weather, okay maybe it does feel like a normal British summer) it is also volunteers’ week. If you have ever been a volunteer yourself and/or worked with volunteers you will know that a week is not long enough to celebrate and be thankful for the contributions that volunteers make to an organisation but at least it is a way of volunteers getting the recognition that they deserve. I have done a variety of voluntary work such as volunteering at Birmingham nature centre, in a charity shop, my local biological record centre and as a hide guide but my most long-term volunteering has involved practical conservation work.

I first became a volunteer in 2009 when I was at university and joined the Birmingham University Conservation Volunteers (BUCV) it had never occurred to me beforehand to ever volunteer. I’m not the type of person to do something just to put it on my CV for me volunteering with BUCV was my opportunity to try something different, I had never done any practical conservation work before and it was a great escape from the dreaded assignments and revision that came with university life and more importantly helped to get me out of my hermit shell. One of the sites that I volunteered at with BUCV was RSPB Sandwell Valley I will always remember my first time volunteering at the reserve because the task involved helping to make a wigwam to provide a refuge for wildlife. I remember one of the RSPB volunteers asking me where I had travelled from and whether I had been to the reserve before, the reserve is only a couple of miles from where I live and I had to embarrassingly admit that I had never been to the reserve before. I always enjoyed volunteering at the RSPB reserve with BUCV because not only did I get to have a lie in on a Sunday before meeting the group, I also found that it was a tranquil place to get some fresh air and relax before being back in a lecture theatre on Monday morning.

Volunteering with BUCV at RSPB reserve

Since I enjoyed volunteering at the reserve I decided to become a volunteer with the RSPB. I started volunteering during the summer break from university. Anyone that has ever volunteered to do practical conservation work in the summer will know that one of the main tasks is removing Himalayan balsam. What is Himalayan balsam you might ask, well it is an invasive plant species because it rapidly colonises an area especially river banks, once you know what Himalayan balsam looks like you see it everywhere. I still have flashbacks to my time pulling Himalayan balsam the sound of the stems breaking, the sweet smell and if you pull it too late in the season the feeling of the seeds bursting into your face and because it grows in damp areas the 100s of mosquito bites that you acquire as a souvenir. Despite this though I continued to volunteer.  

Being a practical conservation volunteer also involves being out in all the elements the weather is only on occasions perfect goldilocks weather, not too cold or too hot, majority of the time it is at opposite ends of the meteorological spectrum, torrential rain or a sizzling heatwave. There is also the outdoorsy look that you develop such as twigs in your hair and mud on your face which you didn’t realise was there until you look in the mirror when you get home and if you are lucky you can wear stylish waders (depending on the task).

 

So you might be thinking well why do you do it then? I know I haven’t made it sound appealing with the weather and mosquitos bites but it’s the volunteer days in the pouring rain and those that have given me lovely t-shirt tans that have given me the most prominent memories of volunteering in conservation. Don’t get me wrong I do feel bonkers for doing it sometimes but in one volunteer day you get a better work out than you would in a gym and a free spa treatment as the mud mask that you end up wearing at the end of the day is free. Most importantly though it’s that feeling of making a difference to conserve wildlife and the camaraderie that develops between you and the volunteers that gives me a real buzz, not to mention the wildlife that you get to see whilst you are doing the task (sometimes it’s a nice excuse to take a breather) which is more valuable than just writing something on a piece of paper.

Peacock butterfly on a sunny volunteer day

Whilst doing my training placement with The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country I was fortunate  to be able to lead groups of volunteers doing conservation work, it was quite strange being the person doing the tools talk instead of the one having to listen to it, let’s be honest everybody loves a good tools talk don’t they?. I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with the volunteers because I was able to pass on some of the knowledge that I had gained through volunteering and my training, as well as sharing my love for wildlife. I learnt two things through being a volunteer myself and leading volunteers 1)  A tea and biscuit supply is essential, the consequences of volunteers with sharp tools and low caffeine levels are not worth thinking about 2) Never underestimate volunteers, because the work they do is brilliant!

I’ve probably been labelled a lot of stuff in my life but I will never regret being labelled a volunteer. So if you have ever considered being a volunteer then do it!

 

 

Time flies

It has been a year since I started writing my blog and although I haven’t updated the blog in a while with any recent posts my initial purpose for writing the blog hasn’t died out.

Since my last blog post I had been preoccupied training with the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country which involved carrying out practical conservation work at sites across Birmingham and the Black Country, so if you happened to see a girl frantically chucking green hay in your local greenspace last Summer then that could have been me helping to create a meadow!.

My initial aim was to blog about my experiences during my traineeship and attempt to write posts that wouldn’t bore people to death. What happened in reality was that I spent time removing hay that I had accidently thrown on myself whilst hay strewing in summer, tree felling happened in the winter and then there was the diary sheet writing (don’t ask). So by the time I sat down to write a post months had passed and I didn’t end up writing  anything - what can I say time flies when you are a budding conservationist!

Sadly my training placement came to an end in March (Do you see what I mean about taking a while to write a post) I gained a lot of skills during the year and met some wonderful people on volunteer days. I can’t look at a pine cone or pipe cleaner without having the urge to make some sort of craft item which even though I’m an adult I will still show my parents and await the proud parent moment. I think it is fair to say that I will have many lasting memories of my time with the Wildlife Trust.

I now find myself looking for my next adventure which I must admit I find a little daunting but I am trying to keep my glass half full or at least have a glass in the first place. The sound of birdsong, my first sighting of swallows, watching goldfinches (whose plumage remind me of clowns) squabble over the bird feeders and the emergence of wildflowers, are all things that are helping me through the feeling of panic and being lost as I stand at the crossroads in my life.

Spring is the season of new beginnings (blimey that sounds a bit cheesy doesn’t it?) so I thought it seems like the apt time to begin writing my blog again. As I sat in my garden writing this post a male Blackcap flew into the cherry tree not far from where I was sitting which was a very pleasant surprise then flew off again after he had seen me. Later it appeared again with another male. I had to look twice because I thought I was seeing double (I knew I shouldn’t have started drinking black coffee again). Other birds that have visited the garden recently include Starlings, Greenfinches, Great spotted woodpecker and a Goldcrest, as well as the usual suspects such as Robins and Blackbirds.  

On my afternoon walks around Swan Pool at Sandwell Valley I spotted a Great crested grebe chick sitting on one of the parents back which was lovely to see. As well as Cuckooflower and Cowslips in the grasslands and orange tip butterflies flying by. I’m trying to use these sightings as cues that I can reduce the number of layers that I wear (10+ not including the woolly hat) but I’m not entirely convinced at the moment. I have also been dusting the cobwebs off my woodland flora identification as like many other people I enjoy the sight of a carpet of bluebells in a woodland at this time of year, so a couple of weeks ago I re-visited Cuckoo’s Nook and the Dingle. Walking through the reserve I saw a pair of Goldcrest collecting nesting material, a nuthatch and Long-tailed tits as well as a variety of wildflowers including Greater Stitchwort, Wood Anemone and my favourite Wood Sorrel, woodland walks are truly amazing at this time of year.

 

Wood Sorrel

 

Greater Stitchwort

 

The last two Saturday evenings I have decided to ditch TV to enjoy the light evenings and go for a walk, on one of the evenings I went for a walk around Red House Park and just stood listening and recording the birdsong – it was amazing. On Saturday evening I went for a walk along the Tame Valley Canal it provided a different view of Birmingham and apart from the noise of traffic when walking under bridges it was relatively tranquil.

So although the weather is a bit mixed at the moment it is definitely worth getting out  and enjoying this time of year before the day length gets shorter again, I’m definitely going wild this summer are you?

There is something about Moths

It has been a while since I wrote my last post because I have had the wildlife bug more so than ever.  I have been busy out and about doing things on my training placement, going to Identification workshops, doing breeding bird surveys and exploring nature reserves on a weekend with some great wildlife sightings.  

 

At home House Sparrows have nested in the nest box that we put on the side of our house, a Great Spotted Woodpecker has been feeding with a juvenile on our log feeders and there has been a lot of juvenile Great Tits not really sure what they need to do after fledging from their nest. My mom also tells me that a male bullfinch has returned to the garden and I’ve also seen a Nuthatch to add to the excitement.  A hedgehog was also in our garden earlier in the week (I didn’t get to see it) which is really good news, my mom created a tiny hole in the fence to create a wildlife corridor (Can you tell who I’ve caught the wildlife bug off?) it might have used that to get into our garden.  

Elsewhere I saw a fox hunting rabbits at Sutton Park which was amazing, Swifts are frantically flying outside the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and Black Country office and there were lots of butterflies around Moseley Bog& Joys Wood nature reserve on a volunteer day in the week, including a Comma, Small Tortoiseshell and several Ringlets, there were also clusters of Peacock caterpillars on some stinging nettles.

Yellow Shell moth at Park Hall

On a recent Breeding Bird Survey at RSPB Sandwell valley we saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker and its juvenile chick which we think might have been the same Woodpecker that was nesting on the opposite side of the Tame River by the reserve. We also spotted a kingfisher but the most exciting thing that I have seen recently is an Elephant Hawkmoth.  I have always wanted to see an Elephant Hawkmoth and it didn’t fail to impress me seriously I was so shocked to see it I nearly choked on the toast I was eating. IT WAS AMAZING!. So if this photographic evidence can’t provide proof that there is wildlife in Birmingham and the Black Country then I don’t know what will. After seeing the Elephant Hawkmoth I have had a greater appreciation for moths because I’ve come to realise that moths are not just brown small things they are really great and colour to rival butterflies (plus they have cool names).

 

Elephant Hawkmoth at RSPB Sandwell Valley

 

A birding botanist?

The most important and perhaps shocking reason why I haven’t had time to write my post is because over the past few weeks I have felt the need to sit in a darkened room with a cup of tea trying to figure out how the unthinkable has happened because I Natalie Norton, Natalie the ‘birder’ has started to take an interest in plants *gasp*.  I have started dividing my time between looking up at the sky for birds to looking at the ground at plants. Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with plants, because let’s face it they are a crucial part of an ecosystem and they are rather dainty and we are spoilt for choice with the variety, but for me that is the problem there are just too many plants that look similar and I just find identifying plants a bit difficult. Yes they stay still when you are trying to identify them but I just feel like you need to learn a completely new language to get to grips with botany to the point where my brain just gives up. I am trying to persevere though I have slowly got to grips with some woodland flora and I even have my favourites, such as Wood Anemone, Yellow Pimpernel and my ultimate favourite Wood Sorrel, because the leaves remind me of clubs on a playing card so I can easily remember them. At the moment I am trying to conquer grassland species, I think my favourite is Lesser Stitchwort and my favourite grass is Timothy grass (yes that is right I just uttered the words I have a favourite grass). I guess the key to botany  is to take small steps at a time and the more I preserve it will eventually stick in my head and get easier and to not make it a chore because looking at anything in the natural world should never be a chore.  Like I said in my original post you don’t really need to know the names of things to appreciate them. A few weeks ago I went for a walk around Cuckoos Nook & the Dingle nature reserve in Walsall. It was fantastic to see a carpet of Ramsons (Wild garlic) although it did make me think of garlic bread which made me peckish and at the time Bluebells were also present.

I know that developing my knowledge of plants is important not only because I am looking to gain a career in wildlife conservation.  But it will be very useful when doing gardening for my grandparents to know which plants are weeds (although I was once told that weeds are just plants in the wrong place) and which plants my nan would not like to be pulled up when I’m gardening. I have had too many pale faced, sweaty, anxiety filled moments when my nan wonders why a cherished plant hasn’t emerged and flowered and asks whether it is still in the garden*gulps*. So am I ready to give up my binoculars for a hand lens? I’m not sure, I prefer a bit of variety so I think for now I will have to consider being a birding botanist. 



 

In Spring life is a bed of bluebells

 

I’m back for another instalment of my ramblings, since my last post I have been thinking of something to say I think I have settled upon the thought that there is both space for people and wildlife.

Bluebells in the woodland at Red House Park, Great Barr



Last week as part of my Training placement with The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and Black Country I visited Quinton allotments which is one of the Nature Improvement Area (NIA) projects that the B&BC Wildlife Trust has been involved with implementing. In a nutshell the NIA focuses on using a landscape- scale approach to nature conservation that aims to create, enhance and restore existing habitats while improving the linkage between such habitats via wildlife corridors. I haven’t explained it that well but please check out the B&BC Wildlife Trust Website to find out more.  Anyway, it was my visit to Quinton allotments that inspired this post because not only was I surprised by the size of the allotment and the valuable space it is for wildlife in an urban area. I was really overwhelmed by the community spirit that the Allotment holders had and their enthusiasm for making the allotments a space for wildlife – a place that can be used by both people and wildlife. During my visit I saw butterflies such as Peacock, Speckled Wood and several male Orange tips, as well as hearing singing/ calling Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Chaffinches and a Dunnock. I really enjoyed seeing how the allotment holders had utilised recycled materials such as using glass bottles for borders and my favourite was a disused toilet as a plant pot.

It seems that occasionally people find wildlife a bit of an inconvenience, for instance at the moment with the dawn chorus. I know some people don’t appreciate being woken up at stupid o clock in the morning but I personally find it useful it’s an alarm clock that you can’t switch off but it’s much better than the annoying ringtone that is my morning alarm. Whenever I hear a Wren singing I always think of the time when I was stuck in my bedroom revising from a forest of lecture notes about animal behaviour wishing that I was out in the field observing it for myself.

By seeing people at the allotments appreciating and co-existing with wildlife (apparently the Woodpigeons eat well from sown seed).  It made me think of how we can all do something to make space for wildlife for example in my garden my mom has put up many bird feeders, even a window feeder does the trick. We also made an ‘insect hotel’ it didn’t cost anything we used odd materials we already had and my mom did a good job at asking people if we could have stuff like plastic pipes and pallets out of their skips. I also tried to convince my dad to let me convert the garden shed into a bird hide needless to say I was unsuccessful.

I also monitor birds visiting my garden by doing The BTOs Garden Birdwatch. I was nervously waiting for birds to appear on Saturday morning my garden was empty, the feeders were bare.  Armed with my Binoculars and sipping my cup of tea I patiently waited for birds to arrive on the feeders. At one point the only thing I had to watch was a cat staring up at the feeders gulp!. In an hour I had x2 Greenfinches, 1 Woodpigeon, x2 Chaffinches, 1 Great Tit, x2 Dunnocks, 1 House Sparrow and 3 Robins. I wasn’t surprised by the small amount of birds that had visited within the hour compared to usual considering the time of year.  I have seen many signs of birds collecting nesting material probably the best example is the magpie that has been taking off with the bristles from our front door mat.

Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner?

 

 

Hopefully spiders will live here and not surprise me in my house

 

These ideas might not be ground-breaking and you have probably heard about them before but it’s only because they work in that they are beneficial to both people and wildlife.  In the case of the window feeder birds are getting fed and I am getting wildlife coming to me in the comfort of my own home, lazy wildlife watching what is wrong with that?. But I do feel that the value of wildlife and the natural environment is often under estimated.(Rant Alert)  These days it seems like everything has to have a price tag and sometimes it seems like wildlife is considered to cost too much, surely the benefit that our green-spaces and wildlife provide to our well-beings is priceless and worth appreciating?.  





It's a small little world when you are a ladybird

Before I attempt to start writing a blog I would like to say that it probably won’t be grammatically correct, my sentences will probably be too long (who needs to breath whilst reading anyway?), my photographs won’t be great (you might need to use a little imagination to work out what is in the photo) and I must confess that I am still trying to work out all this blogging technology stuff, I thought Twerking was something related to Twitter!.

I would be grateful if just one person spends a bit of their time reading my ramblings because (Cliché alert) all that matters to me is my message getting across. I want to get rid of the view that ‘There is no wildlife in Birmingham and the Black Country’ because Birmingham and the Black Country (B&BC) are truly wonderful places for seeing wildlife and I can prove it.


This weekend I went for a walk around RSPB Sandwell Valley reserve, it is not far from where I live and is part of the wider Sandwell Valley. I love Sandwell Valley. It is like my second home I am always surprised by the wildlife I see there. In the past I have seen a Great Spotted Woodpecker feeding chicks in its nest in a hole in a tree, a Skylark singing above grassland, juvenile Grey Herons in a Heronry, a Great Northern diver on Swan Pool and this weekend I managed to see a ladybird laying its eggs. I forgot to mention that the M5 goes straight through the middle of the Valley and you can see the BT tower in Birmingham from the RSPB reserve yet wildlife is plentiful here despite the urban landscape.  I can’t go a couple of weeks without a visit to Sandwell Valley and RSPB Sandwell Valley reserve yet five years ago I didn’t even realise that the RSPB reserve existed.

These are the ladybird eggs - they were better viewed close up

I am quite ashamed to admit that I have not always had an interest in birds and other wildlife. People who know me may be surprised by this because now I spend my weekend’s bird watching, I record the birds that visit my garden, volunteer with RSPB Sandwell Valley and recently became a trainee with the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country.

I wish that I could say that my interest in wildlife stemmed from my childhood if reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and loving listening to Mallard ducks pecking on the side of my grandparent’s narrow boat counts then it probably did but I was the child that always ran away screaming when I came across a spider (I have sort of got better with age).

At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter when you start getting into wildlife and believe me it does become an obsession. I know that it is not just me that is crazy about the wildlife in B&BC because there are a lot of committed wildlife enthusiasts and ‘birders’ around the midlands some that helped with my knowledge of birds and started my addiction.

 I can’t just go for a quick walk because when you realise the wildlife that is on your doorstep, in your Local Nature reserve or park you start to see everything and wonder what is was that you just saw out of the corner of your eye.  I sometimes find myself having to reassure my friend that I am listening to what they are saying but I am sure I have just heard a Buzzard calling. Oh and then there are the sleepless nights because I have seen something that I can’t identify and google can’t tell me what that brownish finch or was it sparrow shaped bird was or I can’t remember the name of the rare beetle that was on the TV (I remembered it was a Tansy Beetle Phew!).

I just want to share my love for wildlife and hope that I can help people find their place where they can get close to nature because being obsessed with wildlife is so enriching. There is always something to look forward to like the return of swallows and swifts in the Spring/Summer and the emergence of butterflies and dragonflies to flocks of red wing in Autumn/Winter. Plus you don’t need to be an expert and be able to put a common and/or Latin name to the wildlife you see it can just remain a white- yellowish plant, you see once you enter the natural world you will never want to come back.