Author Archives: Jen Bousfield

Time to celebrate 30 years of the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme: https://ptes.org/campaigns/dormice/surveying-and-monitoring-hazel-dormice/national-dormouse-monitoring-programme-ndmp/ Time to take a walk and go nut-hunting for hazel nuts opened by dormice. And please record them here: https://ptes.org/campaigns/dormice/surveying-and-monitoring-hazel-dormice/national-dormouse-database-ndd/ And time to consider and think about the fact that numbers of the hazel dormice have declined by 52% since 1995. We still have them […]

Irene sent photos (taken by Helen) of some they saw this week on private land near Trebullett. These are the female beetles which do not fly. It may be a good year for them as it has been for so many beetles.  

The website has changed slightly this year and it is hosted by Butterfly Conservation at: https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/about It’s an important survey for us to carry out because it demonstrates changes in numbers within butterfly species from year to year. Weather data is collected later to see if there is any correlation with ‘good’ years and ‘bad’ years. […]

No pictures but in our sheltered valley today, we had our first Humming-bird Hawk moth, plus Golden-ringed dragonfly; a Hawker perhaps Southern; Beautiful Demoiselles and quite a decent number of butterflies including: meadow Brown, Ringlet, Comma, Large White, Red Admiral, large Skippers and a Silver-washed Fritillary. And the Long-tailed Tits are back!

This is from Gill & Kate who took the photos. There were dozens of butterflies, including loads of Commas which Kate was photographing when Gill noticed a small grey thing flitting up under the oaks and wondered if this was a Purple Hairstreak. A little further on, Kate found this and knew it was different. […]

Sent in by Jenny Heskett, this is a new version of the code for the present situation. Download to view and save to print. Useful for local noticeboards.The Countryside Code

From Mary Atkinson, ‘Moths in July’ to download. Moths in July

In their garden, Rosie caught sight of what she first thought was a pink Magpie and I can see why. But I thought it was a Rosy Starling, the colours and pattern matched and they are reported from further west. BUT, as Simon pointed out with some more photos, the beak and legs don’t match […]

Cannot believe the numbers of fledgling birds around at the moment. Blackbirds from 2 or 3 broods; 8+ Blue Tits, Great Tits, Marsh & Coal Tits are back with their young, Bullfinch, Chaffinch and a Chiffchaff. One Song Thrush which looked huge but the prize for the most noise goes to the three young Siskins […]

Mary Atkinson’s notes for moths to look out for in June. One was a favourite of mine from childhood, convolvulous is the clue! Moths in June 2020