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The uplifting power of cranes?
This was the amazing sunrise that greeted me as I walked by the nature reserve. A flight of Canada Geese completed the picture.
There was a roebuck snoozing in the North Pool field while out on the salt marsh several curlews, many shelducks, a number of teal, a pair of oystercatchers, a duo of gadwalls and a common sandpiper was the icing on the cake.
It was so worth getting up early!
It was a lovely afternoon for a wildlife count with plenty to see from swallows and martins to orange-tip and peacock butterflies. Plenty of birdsong too including the joyful song of a skylark drifting down from over the salt marsh.
Though this kestrel hunting across the reserve stole the show. His hour long search for food ended successfully and he flew off to the salt marsh with his prey.
The ponds on the edge of Portbury Wharf (Fennel Road side) are amphibian breeding ponds and hundreds of frogs and toads, plus some newts, have migrated there from the nearby housing estate during January-March to deposit spawn. Some of the toads were filmed by student, Yazz Ellis, for this film about migration.
This film was made by student Yazz Ellis with help from Portishead toads during this year’s migration.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we have.
With landing gear down these redshanks were among 60 that came to North Pool Island during our wildlife count yesterday.
It was another high tide covering the salt marsh and reaching almost to the top of the sea wall. So waders like redshanks had few safe places to hold up until the water receded.
The hedgerows were also full of life from wrens to green and gold finches and cuties like this long-tailed tit. With larger birds cropping up in unexpected places. This heron was in the rhyne next to the sea wall. So engrossed in hunting it was ignoring the walkers, runners, cyclists and dogs three metres away on the sea wall.
So much March blossom surrounding the North Pool Hide! Such a wonderful sight . . . a sign that spring has arrived perhaps?
Lesser Black Backed Gulls on North Pool. One minute they are quiet…the next minute…plus a Little Dear spotted at the back of South Pool.
The sun brought in some unusual visitors to the North Pool yesterday – 3 Gadwall. These beautifully elegant birds are " amber" on the RSPB conservation list and whilst not rare they are fairly scarce.
Some of our recent posts have shown roe deer bucks in velvet. The velvet is the soft hairy skin that covers and protects the new antlers while they grow. So here are a few more of our Portbury Wharf roe bucks in varying stages of velvet.
Only the male roe deer have antlers and each year, around November time, they lose their antlers. However, new ones soon start to grow and by December you can just see the little velvet nobs of new antlers showing.
The developing antlers are more visible in February and are almost fully grown by April. So in April and May the blood supply to the velvet dries up and falls off to reveal this year’s hardened antlers. Rubbing their antlers on trees and posts often helps to remove the velvet.
Avon Wildlife Trust local group is hosting a talk tomorrow night on Plants of North Somerset’s Special Habitats by Rupert Higgins
Friday 22nd February 2019 at 7.30pm at the Folk Hall, Portishead High Street.
Entry £2
There is a talk on 29th March onThe Wildlife of the Gordano Valley by Dr Bill Dixon. Same time, same place
Portbury Wharf’s Mammals
Portbury Wharf’s mammals include water voles and roe deer. We have others of course.
Foxes, badgers and a variety of smaller creatures such as field mice, voles and shrews are on the reserve. But here we are focusing on the increasingly rare water vole and the not so rare roe deer. In fact the roe deer, perhaps the most charming of our native deer, are quite numerous so you are actually more likely to see roe deer than foxes or badgers.
Water Vole
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Roe Deer
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Related posts featuring Portbury Wharf’s Mammals
Roe Deer Antlers
Roe deer antlers regrow each year Only the male roe deer have antlers. Each year, in late autumn they shed their antlers and grow new ones. It doesn’t take long, after casting off the old ones, before these… Read More
Keeping water voles safe
Keeping water voles safe at Portbury Wharf is very important. So the warden and his Portbury Wharf Nature Reserve Volunteers have been busy repairing the hurdles alongside the rhynes. You may have noticed them along Water Vole Lane,… Read More