Please feel free to record any of your interesting sightings from visits to the Trap Grounds below.
Header photograph credit Nicola Devine
933 entries.
Twenty minutes in the TG: Noon today, misty, moist, cold around 6-7 degrees: 1 x f adult swan on lake , then 3 x cygnets appeared from reedbed & proceeded to do flapping / flying practice around the lake; 1 x jay, 1 x wren, 1 x moorhen, 1 x Robin, 2 or 3 x blackbird (m & f), 3 x magpies, several wood pigeons, roosting in trees, 1 x greater spotted woodpecker on tree by central reedbed; 2 x great-tits, 1 x bluetit, one loud rich 'juicy' call from centre of reedbed – sounded very much like a Cetti's warbler. But it didn't call again, so hard to tell. But one species is noticeable by its absence over the last several (five to six-plus) months: I have neither seen nor heard any songthrushes, neither in the Trap Grounds nor in Hayfield Rd garden by canal opposite TG. This is the first year since 2009 that I have not seen and heard songthrushes. Worrying. But last week I followed a diving, fishing cormorant as it progressed northwards up the canal from next to the TG. The rivers were very brown and high and fast-flowing last week – so maybe easier fishing in the canal?
Oxford University student Alessandro Nota has reported finding 17 species of snail in the Trap Grounds, including three which have hitherto been unrecorded here: Ashfordia granulata, Clausilia bidentata, and Merdigera obscura.
Today (4 November 2024) Phil Barnett reported seeing a bullfinch and a kingfisher .... hearing a water rail and a Cetti's Warbler ... and seeing 7 snipe and 30 golden plover flying overhead.
Phil Barnett heard two Water Rails calling from the reedbed today. And another Cetti's Warbler.
greater spotted woodpecker high up in a willow, pecking the bark; chiff-chaff calling over the reedbed; a substantial squirrel drey by dragonfly pond. grey squirrel. moorhen perched in a willow above the middle pond. and some great new fungi have appeared recently. blackbird alarm calls.
... and also heard and saw a chiffchaff – they're still calling!
Today – Heard: cettis warbler call several times and a kingfisher call. Saw and heard a greater spotted woodpecker; saw a muntjac doe in the reeds on the island; saw several wrens, a goldcrest and various tits – long tailed, great and blue, a grey heron and a jay.
Heard a Raven from the boardwalk (12 October), and saw and heard a Cetti's Warbler on four successive days this month.
I saw a Two-Banded Wasp hoverfly on the Trap Grounds on 14 July. Apparently it has never before been recorded on the site.
An evening stroll. Saw a treecreeper and a heron, and a morehen sitting on a nest. The Merlin app picked up a goldcrest a few times. And there was a (very friendly) cat by the dragonfly pond…
BAT SURVEY led by Suzanne Dalton this evening, on the night of the Summer Solstice. In the Trap Grounds we identified Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle, and Noctule bats (no surprises), but also a Barbastelle -- a species never before recorded here, and classified as Vulnerable in Europe. And we identified Daubenton bats along the canal, particularly under the Frenchay Road bridge.
Downy Emerald, Hairy Dragonfly and Four-spotted Chaser on the main pond this afternoon. Also modest numbers of Azure, Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies. A couple of Reed Warblers in amongst the reeds
Sighted a water vole today around 11.45pm, my first ever! I was walking on the boardwalk near the point where it joins to the path from the canal. It was in the water there, on the opposite bank, swimming a bit and then walking along. Small ears and tail about a third of its body, and dark.
Also a goldcrest, woodpecker, blue butterfly and baby slowworm
Greater Spotted Woodpecker nestlings calling incessantly from their nest hole in a Willow in the Wet Woodland. Can be heard, but not seen from the north end of the Boardwalk looking across Mill Stream. Quite a racket! Lovely to see the parent birds coming to feed them.
Saw a Kingfisher zooming along the stream, from south to north. In past years Kingfishers have nested at the far south end of the stream, so maybe this one has returned to its former home.
A couple of Reed Warblers singing in the Reed Bed
6th April 2024 - Female Vestal Cuckoo Bee (Bombus vestalis) in the wild flower meadow. Also known as Southern Cuckoo Bee. Not rare, but interesting to see. Beautiful bee with some nasty habits. Social parasite of Buff-tailed Bumblebees, which nest in the Trap Grounds. The female Vestal Cuckoo Bumblebee enters a host nest, kills the queen Buff-tail, and then lays her own eggs. The Buff-tail workers don't notice the take over and rear the Cuckoo Bee eggs regardless...
A kingfisher flying up and down the mill stream, and then my binoculars focussed in on a healthy looking water vole in the reed bed, sitting up and chomping on something. I was on the other side of the bank, just beyond the dragonfly pond. My first sighting of a water vole; very exciting.
Scarlet elfcups - lots of them! Kingfisher fishing in Swan Pond, jay, treecreeper on a willow by the stream, big crow cawing & overseeing everything, 3 adolescent cygnets, almost white now, eating the floating duckweed. Songthrush calling. Lots of flitting calling small birds inc long tailed tits, great tits (‘teacher! teacher!’) All in last three days.
A redwing and some scarlet elfcups.