SS15 wildlife watching: Visit to Noak Bridge Nature Reserve

Date: 12th July 2020

Time: from 8:30 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny, light wind, 13°C to 20°C

Does anyone else think that the weather in July so far has been typical of summer? No, me neither.

Once we get in to July and August, bird song and bird activity decreases greatly and us birders turn our attention to Odonata and Lepidoptera.

The problem has been that the cool and windy weather with some rain has not been conducive to dragonfly/damselfly and butterfly watching and photography.

Therefore a weather forecast that (at last) showed a warm, sunny and still morning meant my first visit to Noak Bridge Nature Reserve since 16th June 2020. The absence of visits for almost a month wasn’t solely due to the weather since I had also had another car rental from 20^th June 2020 enabling some post-lockdown trips away from SS15.

I had an excellent visit this morning, not least due to the amazing butterfly bonanza.

When I arrived on site, and after seeing a few of the common bird species, my first notable sighting was an Emperor Dragonfly. This dragonfly, with a length of 3 inches and a wingspan of over 4 inches, is the largest species in the UK. The bright blue and green colouration immediately caught my eye as it hung motionless on one of the hedgerows. However, it did not stay motionless and as I was poised to take a photo, it flew off strongly. This was my first record of Emperor Dragonfly for the site and I saw another flying up and down the main track at the far western end as I left the reserve.

I additionally saw a single female Ruddy Darter which again was my first record for the site. I saw another darter species but was unable to identify it as Ruddy Darter or Common Darter.

My first records of Emperor Dragonfly and Ruddy Darter took my dragonfly/damselfly list for the site to 9.

The third dragonfly species that I saw was Black-tailed Skimmer (a male and a female), my second record for the site after seeing the first on my last visit.

During this visit, I recorded 13 species of butterfly. Some were seen at various locations around the site but the “hotspot” was the bramble bushes on the left side of the track between the junction with the main track and Fox Pond. The 13 species that I saw were: Brimstone (1), Small Copper (1), Peacock (3), Red Admiral (1), Ringlet (10+), Gatekeeper (10+), Comma (c.10), Large Skipper (10+), Small Skipper (10+), Speckled Wood (1), Meadow Brown (c.10), Small White (c.10) and Large White (c.10).

These were my first records of Brimstone, Small Copper, Ringlet, Gatekeeper and Small Skipper for the site taking my butterfly list for the site to 16 species.

I saw 2 Common Lizards during my visit, both in the usual location basking along the southern stretch of the boardwalk at the eastern end of the reserve. The first was a juvenile which was probably less than 1.5 inches in length whilst the second was an adult but with half its tail missing.

After watching a vixen and 4 cubs on a regular basis at my other site around St. Nicholas Church since early May 2020, I finally saw my first Red Fox at Noak Bridge Nature Reserve, albeit only a tail and the rear end as it bolted for cover! They all count and this record increased my mammal list for the site to 2.

The other mammal which I see on the reserve fairly regularly is Grey Squirrel and I again saw a single individual today as it ran across the main track.

With regard to birds, it was predictably very quiet and the species list was relatively short.

However, I did hear at least one “screaming” Swift plus briefly calling Great Spotted Woodpecker and Green Woodpecker.

Singing Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs are part of the obvious bird soundtrack from mid-March in to June. I neither heard or saw any Blackcaps on this visit and I heard only 2 Chiffchaffs, the first giving its soft whistled contact call and the second managing to summon up just a single “chiff-chaff” phrase.

The most notable bird sighting was a group of 50+ gulls, a mix of Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, circling around over the A127 and the eastern section of the reserve, presumably feeding on the alates of the Common Black Ant …. it was a “flying ant day”.

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

Swift

Chiffchaff

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Robin

Wren

Blackbird

Green Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Jay

Woodpigeon