Knepp revisited

For some years now, rewilding has been one of the hot topics in the UK environmental debate. Sometimes controversial, the attempts of different landowners to regenerate their land back to a state of "wildness" has had varying degrees of success. One of the earliest and unarguably most well known is at Knepp estate in Sussex. This large site has become iconic for two star species - the (re)introduced white storks and purple emperor butterflies. The land is "managed" by a selection  of wild pigs and cattle and has a very high biodiversity with turtle doves and nightingales thriving as well as many insects and butterflies. We have been many time before, mostly at this time of year to coincide with peak purple emperor season. This time we were meeting up with two friends who lived locally.

I will start with the storks. From 2016 a number of storks, initially not free-flying, were introduced into the estate. Gradually the storks were allowed to roam free and a nesting colony has now established on the grounds. Together with further introductions of young birds they are an important and sometimes wide-ranging flock.

We arrived about 9 on a vey hot and cloudless day. Within seconds we saw our first storks as a pair have decided to nest right by the car park!!!

You can see thew two youngsters begging for food from their parent. A bit later one of them came in with what we think was a frog which caused chaos as the youngsters squabbled for it!

Elsewhere on the reserve there were a number of stork families nesting in the trees or flying around. You could often hear them before seeing them as the clack their beaks together very loudly causing response from neighbours! The ones flying around came quite close over your heads including the juveniles, with darker bills, who seemed to be practicing their take-off and landings.

The families in the trees around the nests were a bit quieter perhaps as it was now getting quite hot. They certainly look very exotic for the British countryside. In mainland Europe they are often seen in cities nesting on chimneys and are habituated to people. These ones seemed very relaxed.

Away from the storks, the most sought after sightings are of the purple emperor butterflies. We found one oak tree, known as a feeder tree, where a run of sap was forming on the bark about 30 feet up. This was a magnet for the butterflies coming in to feed on it and then resting on the branches around it. 

There are 3 on the tree here lapping up the sweet, sugary sap. The ones in the tree were often very high up but did occasionally come low enough to get some record shots.

There are lots of other butterflies around including this rather distant purple hairstreak,

marbled whites,

large skippers,

and silver-washed fritillaries.

We never found the pigs or cows which roam wild at Knepp but some of the resident fallow deer did cross our path.

Despite the very hot day it was a marvellous walk around the estate and comes highly recommended. 

 

Only a few years ago......

 As I think I've said before, I'm not really going for a year list. Before today I had only just got over 200 for the year, a good number but way behind where I would normally be. Still, with a day free and a bit of half-decent weather forecast I thought I ought to go out and do a bit of birding. 

I had two main and a couple of supplementary targets. The two main ones are birds which are either breeding or thought to be breeding in the UK. Only a few years ago they were both very rare birds to even see but with the warming climate they are now regular visitors and starting to become regular breeders. The first was the returning colony of bee-eaters at Trimingham in Norfolk. I went to see them last year as well when they successfully raised young. This year a large flock returned to the same quarry but only three have remained to commence breeding. They've been around for a few weeks and the RSPB have set up their viewing area as per last year. It is near to the coast in south Norfolk so a decent drive but I still managed to get there before 8. I was first on site apart from the RSPB person who  collected my £5 and told me the birds had not been seen yet. Apparently it was two males and a female but unfortunately their first nest had been predated by a stoat. They were however trying again!

The site is ideal  - an old quarry with nice sandy banks and a viewing area at the top which means you don't disturb the birds as you are a reasonable distance back.

After a reviving coffee and marmalade roll I set up by the quarry edge. It took 20 minutes before I heard the trilling call of the birds from below me.. The weather was horrid - cold, blowy, slightly damp and I'm sure the birds were commenting on the advisability of not being in the south of France! It took another 10 minutes before I finally got to see them perched on the wires to the left of the quarry catching their breakfast. 

The horrible dull day doesn't set off their exotic colours. Often they seemed to be huddling together on the wires to keep warm, much to the amusement of the local pigeons!!!

They were mainly quite distant but occasionally did come a bit closer whilst they were chasing insects around. These seemed in plentiful supply as right next door was a pig farm!!!!

These are pretty heavy crops but at least you can make out the markings on them. With no sign of the weather improving I called it a day as the car park was starting to fill up with other eager birders. 

My next stop was not too far away, Swanton Novers, for the honey buzzards. I spent almost two hours with other birders watching the skies. We had a few common buzzards, a distant goshawk and two or three probable honey buzzards a long way off. Not good enough views for a life-tick but probably good enough for a year tick! Just after midday I called it off and headed for my final stop, another bird which is seemingly colonising the country. This is black-crowned night-heron, another of the family to take a liking to our country along with little, great white and cattle egret, purple heron and little bitterns. This year there are about 20 birds here and 4 had taken up residence at RSPB Ouse Washes. The group were initially thought to be breeding but it seems now that only one male may be hanging around so who knows? 

The route took me out into the middle of the fens and at the end of a very bumpy track there was only a short walk to Welches dam where the bird has been showing. Two other birders were already on the designated bridge and confirmed the bird was still there but was currently out of sight behind a log having been spooked by a heron.

Fortunately I didn't have to wait long before it reappeared, coming back into view to restart its fishing.

The set-up was quite good for it, with a series of low logs and fallen branches which it moved between in its attempts to have lunch.

If it did catch anything it was only tiddlers which it knocked back quickly. The fishing must be good though as it has been loyal to this area for some time now. 

Finally it seemed to give up and pottered off into the nearby wood presumably for a bit of a rest. I decided this was my cue for starting the drive back. A good day with two cracking stops for our new colonists. Takes me to 204 for the year but with late summer and Autumn on their way hopefully a few lifers might start to become available!!