I LOVE SPRING!

Spring is undoubtedly my favourite season, as it's the time of year which new life is formed all over the countryside. It is magical, but it also provides so many opportunities for wildlife photography…

I installed a camera bird box around 3 years ago into my garden, which has provided a nest site for two sets of Blue Tit pairs. However this is the first year a Great Tit has began to build a nest. The Great Tit has been roosting in the bird box every night since the 3rd of January, but has only started to bring in nesting material over the past few days. There is a plentiful supply of nesting material in the garden, predominantly available at my homemade nesting material dispensers.  I visited RSPB Carsington Waters with my family a few weekends ago, and captured this shot of a very confident Robin! It had been singing its heart out whilst we were having lunch.

Stiff hairs on the bees legs allow the pollen to collect and be transported from flower to flower. This is vital to ensure that plants, including our crops, can be fertilised and then go onto reproduce. Each flower contains both male and female reproductive parts, however self fertilisation is not as common as you would think. In the picture above, you can clearly see that the flower in the foreground contains much more pollen than the flower in the background. There are many different types of bee, ranging from a larger Garden Bumblebee which is typically 11-16mm in size, to the tiny Brassy mining bee which is only 5mm! Bees are declining all over the world…and fast. This is going to affect the largest ecosystem in the world…..the earth itself. Everything is going to be affected. Their decline is mainly due to the changes in agriculture, including the use of pesticides.

If you want to help, get out in the garden and make a bee hotel! You can achieve an effective bee hotel in many easy and cheap ways. Below: This is the bee hotel I made a few weeks ago. 

Every year my patch gets a brief visit from a group of bullfinches, including two males and one female. I'm not sure if they are the same three individuals but it is still amazing to have such exotic, colourful birds visiting my patch. They have never ventured down to my bird feeders but they do often hang around in the overhanging apple trees. If anyone knows any special ways of tempting the Bullfinches down, then let me know! 

As I said, I have got a camera bird box installed in my garden, but I have also got an exciting new bird box this year, which is homemade. A Blue Tit pair has been building their nest in this box which is very exciting. One of the pair has very distinct black markings on its face, possibly caused by loss of feathers, or something similar. This bird box has got a glass back, and is mounted on my shed. This lets me get incredibly close to the action. 

I have done may things to ensure I do not disturb the birds at all, here they are:

• I have a piece of one way acrylic which I fit over the glass when I'm not filming.
• I also have an opaque panel which I use to cover the nest for the majority of the day.
• I ensure the lights in the shed are turned off before I look at the nest.

So far, the birds have not seemed at all disturbed by my presence. However if anyone has any suggestions then let me know.

Above: Here is the Blue Tit (No. 1) bringing in nesting material.

Day One of building: Moss has started to be brought into the box. It is certainly a time consuming process!

Day 3: A good 1/3 of the box is now filled with moss. The pair have been working very hard! They are doing a great job.

Day 5: The moss is now being covered by materials such as fine straw and hair. I think some of the hair may have been taken from my nesting material dispenser!

Day 7/8: The nest is coming along leaps and bounds, with a final lining of feathers cushioning the nest.  The individual that seems to be doing most of the nest building is the bird with no markings on its face. The bird with the markings is seen less regularly.

Below is my predictions for egg laying, egg hatching and fledging (based on the last 3 years of nest monitoring on my patch, and using information from the internet.)

Predictions of the three primary nesting stages

I know not to get my hopes up, as several nests around the garden have been predated on by other animals on numerous occasions. However, I do hope that this pair (and their fledglings) keep away from danger!

Behind the Scenes

I started working towards this project quite a while back, probably around September last year. Firstly I removed the back of a £5 bird box from my local garden centre. I used a frame (obviously with the picture removed) to provide my 'viewing window' into the box. 

As you can see, the front of the box looks like any old bird box, and it therefore won't put off any potential resident birds! 

I then cut out a pretty big hole in the wall of our garden shed, looking out over a beautiful plum tree! I used a staple gun to secure the bird box into position. Since this photo, I have obviously done much more work on the box. This includes: covering up the huge gap above the frame, sealing the smaller gaps around the edge of the box, and providing two covers for the bird box (one being the one-way acrylic and the other being the opaque panel). 

It is a really magical experience to be so close to the birds. I am looking forward to the arrival of chicks...

Keep an eye on my blog, and my twitter (@StockwellBilly) for more update on this project!

Here is some footage of one of the pair entering the box, and doing some ruffling around!

Wonderful trip to the Natural History Museum!

I spent yesterday in London with my Mum and Brother, exploring the Natural History Museum and its exhibitions, including 'Corals of Life' and 'Sensational Butterflies'. 

Both were informative, but also captivating. I think that this is due to the live specimens on display, the butterflies and a mini, yet functioning coral reef made up of live individual corals and tropical fish. Although I disagree with keeping animals captive on larger scales, such as SeaWorld and zoos which are run for profit, these smaller scale displays are educational, but also catering to the animals needs. 

First the 'Coral Reefs: Secret Cities of the Sea' exhibition:

I really enjoyed reading about all the different types of coral which were on display around the exhibition. Reading the discoveries of Charles Darwin made me realise how much we've (humans) have learnt because of people like Darwin…but also how much left there is still to learn. There was a good balance between information on the corals themselves and other additional information, such as how they are now threatened by man (what isn't?) Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet, and if lost will affect countless of marine species. However, it will not only affect the wildlife. If we loose coral reefs, coastal natural disasters will increase in strength, and will affect human's living along the coast. 

The reason that they are becoming very threatened is due to the rise in sea level, restricting the light which the corals get. Other effectors included: more water pollution, rising sea temperatures which causes coral bleaching, and over-fishing which disrupts the food-chains within the coral ecosystems. 

5 things you can do to help coral reefs out a little:

1. Don't buy plants which have been protected from pesticides, as this can run-off into waterways and pollute the seas. Go Organic!
2. Support locally fish companies who fish in local waters. 
3. Recycle, recycle, recycle!
4. If you go diving amongst coral, never remove any of the coral, and never touch.
5. Educate others. Let them know what they can do, and why they should be doing it.

Who knew it….corals are animals! Well, most people probably knew it, except me. Unlike plants, corals do not make their own food. Corals are made up of thousands of tiny animals called polyps (a type of invertebrate). 

Then we visited the 'Sensational Butterflies' exhibition:

Like I said earlier, it was amazing to be so close with these live specimens. These butterflies are from all over the world, from almost every continent. The exhibition takes place in a very large marquee-type room, with a meandering trail to follow. The conditions were hot and humid, perfect for butterflies, and there was plenty of fruit around to feed the butterflies and to provide the visitorswith intimate views of the different species.

I can't say I'm a butterfly expert, because I'm not. But they really do fascinate me…particularly how quickly they can fly! They may look almost drunken when there crash landing on a flower in the garden, but they actually fly with great precision. I liked to get unclose shots of the different species, with a plain background so that there beauty wash't missed. 

All the species were so different, varying in size, shape, colour and pattern. Some were so delicate and had such detail on their wings that it almost looked like they had been painted. I liked the shot below as it is showing the huge visual contrast between the different species! The butterfly at the bottom had transparent wings! 

It was pretty hard to get unclose shots, as I only had my 55-250mm lens so that I was prepared if a parakeet flew by whilst walking round London! Even with a relatively long lens, I still managed to get some nice up lose shots of the details of the butterflies. I did have to stand quite far back to take the photos though...

 Finally, we visited the wildlife garden before going to a talk on the evolution of wildlife film-making at the Attenborough Lecture Theatre. In the wildlife garden there was a tree which had a small door on the exterior. When you looked inside, there was a colony of bees working away, behind a perspex panel (whew!) This gave me all sorts of ideas for my patch….you'll have to wait and see.

The photo above is the reflection of reeds and other vegetation in the wildlife gardens's pond. It really reminds me of Claude Monet's work, and even looks more like a painting than a picture. 

I would recommend the two exhibitions to anyone visiting London over the summer. They were both really interesting and reasonably prices. And remember, it's all going to a great cause.

Day out with Kate MacRae

This morning I got up and packed my bags, ready for a day out with Kate MacRae (also known as WildlifeKate) at her local patch in Lichfield.

 I have been following her wildlife blog for years now, so it was very strange to actually visit her patch and see all her projects in the making. It also surprised me how similar our gardens were, adjacent to fields and enclosed by a mature hedge. However, there are just a few more wires running down the side of her garden than in mine…leading to the various wildlife cameras she had positioned around her garden, in bird boxes and lots of other feeding stations.

She has a bird watching hide in the centre of the garden, which allows her to get incredibly close to the birds visiting the feeders. I managed to get a few nice shots, especially of long-tailed tits, which are definitely more transient in my garden than in hers! Our shed is a little run down now, but over the summer I may try and create my own little birdwatching hide! 

These are just a few examples of the unclose images you can get in a hide, without the birds even knowing your there! Blue tits are one of my favourite UK bird species, and I think they're often over-looked. I voted for them in the 'Britain's National Bird' competition. I often limit myself to taking photos of the birds on the feeders, however Kate gave me the idea of using natural forms, such as branches, for the birds to perch on, resulting in a more natural, realistic representation of the birds.

Long-tailed tits are such a interesting bird to photograph, as they have cheeky personalities and very unique colouring. There long tail makes them very easy to recognise from a distance, however the hide meant that they were so close we could probably touch them! Thats the great thing about glass, the suns reflection of the glass means that the birds outside probably see nothing but the reflection of trees, allowing you to get some amazing shots.

Kate also keeps hens on her patch. They have an enclosure with a roof at the end of her garden, hence why the lighting in the picture below is so dark. I still like it though!

Her patch made my mind explode with so many ideas for my own patch. Apparently there is a great deal on at Morrison's at the moment, where they're selling wildlife homes and bee hotels for really cheap. I will have to go and buy a few of them ready for the summer holidays! As you can probably see, I keep repeating 'summer' quite often, because I don't really have much time at the moment due to revision for GCSE's starting in May. I will therefore be giving my blog a break until they're over, which will only been a few months! But for the meantime, keep an eye on my Twitter as I'm sure I'll have time to make the occasional tweet….hopefully!

In the image below, you can see the wildlife flower turf just starting to grow. It is much more effective than planting regular wild flower seed, so I might have to invest in some at some point!

As I received a Bushnell trail camera for my birthday, and Kate is an avid user of these trail cams, she showed me how to set things up, using the colour playback screen which is only available on the current top model. I'm really looking forward to setting the camera up at school again. Hopefully this time I may actually capture some badger footage, fingers crossed! Overall, today was an amazing experience, and I hope to visit Kate again in the Summer holidays and maybe even visit Yew View.

Birthday Presents...

It was my birthday on Friday, and the majority of my presents were wildlife related, obviously!

 I received a fish tank, with a filter and some oxygenating plants. I also got a Bushnell trail camera which has a colour playback and setup screen. I sold my old ProStalk trail camera to the Biology Department at my school, and I will be helping them use it for there various wildlife related clubs. I got a tawny owl paper weight along with a matching notebook. I've already nearly filled it up with loads of ideas for my patch! 

I was most excited about using my new trail camera, but I was also looking forward to studying and monitoring fresh water species in my new tank.

Whilst checking everything in my wildlife garden I noticed a HUGE clump of frogspawn. I knew that frogs were around, but I had never had frogspawn in the pond before so I was really excited. I did quite a bit of research about the life cycle of frogs, working out how long till the frogspawn would become tadpoles…..and then frogs. 

Although Wikipedia is not always reliable, it is usually quite trustworthy and useful for things like this.

I decided to take this opportunity to study these creatures, so I moved a smaller clump into my new tank. I used rainwater to fill the tank, as this is more healthy for the wildlife. I then collected pond plants and some large boulders to fill the tank, creating a natural look habitat. I used a LED light instead of a normal filament bulb so that the light would not heat up the water, as I wanted the water temperature to represent natural conditions.

I'm actually very pleased with the outcome. I have been using my macro lens to do some unclose shots of the frogspawn and other wildlife which I transferred from my pond. After the frogs are developed I will be returning them back into the wildlife garden, where they will hopefully live their life in peace. 

I calculated that (although it may not look like it), there is roughly 290 individual eggs within the clump, using the volume equation. I then calculated that the lump takes up only 4% of the whole tank space, so there is plenty of room for other wildlife, such as snails, fish and insects.

I'm hoping to take a photo of the eggs everyday, watching them develop into the tadpoles which will soon be happily swimming round the tank. I have nutrient rich fish food, and specially made liquid which keeps the water clean and does not harm the wildlife. I also made sure to position the pump filter in the right position, giving a water flow around the tank, representing a stream or calm river.

Also, if anyone has any idea of what these snails are doing, let me know! My initial though is that they were mating, but I'm not sure….

As you can see, I can use the tank to get some really good up-close of the frogspawn, lets just hope the conditions are right for the tadpoles to develop. 

Attenborough Nature Reserve

On Thursday the 19th I met with wildlife photographer and film-maker Jack Perks at Attenborough Nature Reserve in Nottingham. 

We spent the day experimenting with my GoPro and using the various hides to photograph the local wildlife, including Kingfishers & Bitterns (we didn't have much luck with the Bitterns!) It was a great experience to spend the day with Jack, talking about our collective interest in nature. I managed to capture a few images that I was pleased with over the course of the day, and I even spotted a perched kingfisher along the river!

We used the first few hours working with the different species around the visitors centre, including Mallards, Canada Geese and Tufted Duck. The robins around the reserve have become very confident around humans, allowing us to hand feed them, but also get some unclose photos.

We spend the afternoon visiting the hides around the reserve. We watched Great Crested Grebes fishing, Canada Geese fighting and also saw 4 oyster catchers! I normally only see them in Cornwall!

I had never seen a kingfisher before, so it was really exciting when I spotted this one perched alongside the river! Jack taught me the call of a kingfisher so hopefully I'll be able to spot them again in the future! Overall, it was a really enjoyable day which I would recommend to anyone interested in nature or wildlife photography.

Garden Bird Comparisons - Rural & Sub-urban!

If you've been following my blog recently you will know that I took part in the Big Garden Bird Watch  on the weekend of the 24th of January, which is run by the RSPB. I collected all my data and made some graphs to compare the different species which visited over the hour duration. 

I wanted to take it one step further, so I collaborated with one of my friends who lives in a sub-urban environment. I got them to record their garden visitors over the same duration, at the same time in the day to ensure the fairest test possible. They also used the same types of bird feed as me, so as not to be biased towards a certain species. I then collected all the data from both locations (rural and sub-urban) and compared them using tables and graphs. What I found was very interesting…

As you would expect (or maybe you wouldn't) the rural setting (my garden) received a higher number of visitors over the hour, reaching 88 overall, with the sub-urban setting getting 50 visitors over the duration. This was what I expected, as rural environments generally have a higher population density of wildlife. The pie chart below clearly shows the difference between the number of visitors, comparing the two locations.

I did not want to stop there. I used excel to create a radial graph to display all of the collected data, revealing a very interesting thing. As you can see, the suburbs (represented by the red line) is very restricted within the 0-10 section, with most species barely making it out of the 5 zone. This is dramatically juxtaposed with the rural results (represented by the blue line), where there is a very clear spike with the Wood pigeon numbers and the Sparrow numbers. After a while considering why this was...

In a sub-urban setting, everything is relatively similar. The gardens are near identical, and their are rarely any major features (such as a river, reed bed or woodland). This restrictive habitat provides a useful habitat for wildlife, but it does not specifically focus on catering for a specific species (like a river caters for kingfishers, and a reed bed caters for bearded tits).

However, a rural setting is much more likely to provide a habitat for specific species. For example, there is a coniferous woodland near our house, hence why the wood pigeon population is so high. Our garden is also bordered with a mature hedgerow, providing a safe haven for sparrows, hence why the sparrow population is so high. 

The rural environment is therefore a lot more unreliable. If you do not know the specific landscape features (river, woodland, farmland) it is much harder to predict the species. However, the suburbs are more predictable, as they are all (relatively speaking) the same, providing a suitable environment for more scavenger type birds such as pigeons, magpies and jackdaws, along with the traditional garden birds.

Finally, I made a percentage graph. I personally think that these graphs display the information in the best way. It is quite hard to get your head round at first, but for example: Even though only 2 feral pigeons were seen, 100% of those two pigeons were seen in the suburbs. 

This graph shows that there are 4 species which were in the rural setting but not in the suburbs, and 4 that were seen in the suburbs but not in the rural setting. These therefore cancel each other out (in a sense). We are then left with 7 species common to both locations, and as you can see there is a very equal distribution between the two location on average. 

In conclusion, we can therefore state:

• Both locations have the same diversity of species.
• The rural setting is more suited to a specific species.
• The sub-urban setting has a more evenly distributed species population.