Nature Notes

Birds. I decided at the start that I would make a note of bird species observed on the ride. Frankly, the result was rather a disappointment. But then we never stopped to look for nature (except for half an hour at Sandy, the headquarters of the RSPB, where we didn't record anything of note).  Many birds were not singing or calling at this time of year. Among the exceptions were robins (singing everywhere), wren, curlew, tawny owl (heard once each), wood pigeons, nuthatches, swallows and martins.  Some surprises. Birds missing from the list, especially song thrush. And the number of times we encountered nuthatches (often heard, never seen), goldfinches, buzzards and ravens. We only saw one kestrel and no sparrow hawk, surely unthinkable a few years ago. Far and away the most common bird was the wood pigeon. They were absolutely everywhere. Under the eaves of one Hastoe home in Devon was an active House Martin's nest, perhaps a third brood. The tenants had been good enough to encourage (or not discourage) the birds. Swallows and martins were gathering in sizeable parties, especially in the west country, but towards the end of our ride the numbers were much reduced - they had departed, going south. when we got home, we found swallows still going in and out of the garage to their nest.
Here's the rather dull list - 51 species. I expected many more.

• Blackbird
• Blackheaded Gull (many)
• Black Swan (in a hotel garden)
• Bluetit
• Bullfinch (encouragingly, several sightings)
• Buzzard (lots)
• Canada Goose
• Carrion Crow
• Chaffinch
• Chiffchaff (identified only from the call, so somewhat doubtful - no song)
• Coal tit (only on arrival home!)
• Collared Dove
• Common Gull
• Coot
• Cormorant
• Curlew (heard, once)
• Dunnock (only on arrival at Knowlands)
• Feral Pigeon
• Goldfinch
• Great Spotted Woodpecker
• Great Tit
• Greylag Goose
• Green Woodpecker
• Heron
• Herring Gull
• House Martin
• Jackdaw
• Jay
• Kestrel (one only)
• Linnet
• Little Egret (one, on the Exe estuary)
• Long-tailed Tit
• Magpie
• Mallard
• Meadow Pipit
• Moorhen
• Mute Swan
• Nuthatch
• Pheasant
• Raven
• Red Kite
• Red-legged Partridge
• Ring-necked Parakeet
• Robin
• Rook
• Song Thrush (one freshly killed on the road was the only one we saw)
• Starling
• Swallow
• Tawny Owl
• Woodpigeon
• Wren

Butterflies. For the first two weeks we saw a great number of butterflies - mostly whites - but not a great variety and nothing of special note. Again I had expected more. I glimpsed one rather copper-coloured butterfly that i could not identify - perhaps a Small Copper or Wall Brown. Here's a list of those we saw and recognised:

• Clouded Yellow (twice)
• Green-veined White
• Common Blue
• Large White
• Meadow Brown
• Peacock
• Small Tortoiseshell
• Small White
• Speckled Wood (in great numbers in the West Country especially)

Wild mammals seen:

• Badger*
• Bat (species unknown)
• Fallow Deer
• Fox
• Grey Squirrel
• Hare*
• Hedgehog
• Mouse (species unknown)
• Rabbit
• Rat
• Roe Deer*

(* = only dead on road)