SS15 wildlife watching: Visit to Noak Bridge Nature Reserve

Thursday 16 April 2020

Visit to Noak Bridge Nature Reserve - 16th April 2020

Date: 16th April 2020

Time: from 11:45 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 16°C to 18°C

My visit to Noak Bridge Nature Reserve today started later in the day for 2 reasons.

Firstly, I wanted to drop off my Noak Bridge Nature Reserve Society membership application form and subscription to Tony. I deduced that calling on him yesterday at 7:00 a.m. when I went over to Noak Bridge Nature Reserve would have been slightly anti-social 😀.

Secondly, the forecast higher temperatures from mid-morning offered me another opportunity of seeing Common Lizard plus any other reptiles and butterflies.

As I walked round to Tony’s house, I heard a singing male Blackcap.

At Noak Bridge Nature Reserve, I was extremely successful in seeing and photographing Common Lizard!

All sightings were on the southern stretch of the boardwalk at the eastern end of the reserve between the seat and the “passing place”.

The first individual that I saw on the boardwalk was missing half its tail. It has evidently already had a “near miss” this spring! I continued walking around the boardwalk circuit and returned to where I had seen this first individual. There were a further 2 Common Lizards on either side of the boardwalk just beyond the seat and another 2 on either side of the boardwalk in the area immediately around the “passing place”.

Therefore, there are at least 5 Common Lizards in this one small area of the reserve. If you walk very slowly and quietly along the boardwalk, the Common Lizards can be very easy to see basking in the sun and they can be approached quite closely although a macro lens on my camera obviously makes photography a little easier. If they do scuttle away, they usually reappear in the same position a few minutes later.

I was also successful with butterfly sightings and saw Orange Tip (at least 10 males), Large White (at least 5) and Peacock (1). In addition, I added a further 3 species to my site list: Comma (1), Speckled Wood (1) and Small White (2).

I actually first saw the Speckled Wood in the area just outside the reserve as I was leaving but it did fly back in to the reserve so it counts as a site record 😀.

I managed to photograph 2 Orange Tips, a Large White and the Peacock.

Birds were less conspicuous and vocal than during my early morning visit yesterday but nonetheless I saw 3 singing male Blackcaps and heard 4 others but I only heard 2 singing Chiffchaffs.

There was 1 Moorhen on the reedy pond at the east end of the boardwalk and I also saw 3 Mallards flying around the reserve although I did not see them settle on any of the ponds.

I also heard both Green Woodpecker and Great Spotted Woodpecker calling.

Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):

Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Robin
Wren
Dunnock
House Sparrow
Blackbird
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Jay
Mallard
Moorhen

Orange Tip
Peacock
Speckled Wood
Comma
Large White
Small White
Common Lizard

Here are some photos from my visit: