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Nature Notes June 2020

Sickleholme Nature Notes

June saw most of us back on the golf course again and the wildlife sightings increased accordingly. On the 9th of the month, Alan Card saw two Red Kites and there were further reports over the following few days, just to the east of the course and seen from the 9th fairway. When I saw them, there was interaction between the birds which suggests that they are paired, and subsequent news from a local farmer may allow us to locate the nest site. The species bred in the county for the first time ever in 2018 and now look set to colonise more widely, so let’s hope for many more sightings at Sickleholme. The photograph with this article shows how different the species is to our Buzzards.

A pair of Mallard looked settled on the pond, Siskin and Lesser Redpolls (both small finches) were regularly seen and heard as they headed in and out of the conifer trees, up to eight Swifts were often seen feeding (pairs regularly nest in the houses near the club entrance) and I attempted to count the number of warbler territories by listening for singing males. I will report further on that effort next month.

More wildflowers appeared and the sown patch behind the 12th green looked particularly attractive with the vivid blue of the tall Viper’s Bugloss plants. Lower down in the same patch are one of my favourites, the pink flowered Ragged Robin. Elsewhere, the greens staff had carefully mowed around a Common Spotted Orchid at the edge of the pond and one of our lady members pointed out the pure white flowers of Field Rose behind the 18th tee.

As we wait at the 1st tee, I wonder how many of us had ever noticed that the mature Beech tree that leans over our land has many branches that show variegated leaves. It took Chris Littlewood to point this out to me and, subject to a little more research, we concluded that it may have been planted long ago as a Variegated Beech and then reverted, in the main, to the traditional form over the years.

More butterfly species appeared in the form of Speckled Wood and many Meadow Brown; the latter always flying later than most other species. There were several reports of small bright yellow lepidoptera and those related to a day flying moth known as Yellow Shell (see photo). In the pond, Common Blue Damselflies appeared alongside the Large Red Damselflies first seen last month.

As ever, many thanks to all contributors and do keep sending in your sightings.

Bryan Barnacle  

Red Kite

Red Kite

Yellow Shell

Yellow Shell