Jason's Wildlife Blog: NESTBOX WEEK

This past week has been one of our favourite weeks of the year, our annual Nestbox Week. We've been running this event for over ten years, always in the February half term, and over time it's grown to become by far one of the most popular events we run at the lighthouse. It's always really well attended, and this year was no exception, albeit with a slight variation to our usual routine! After successfully running the event at the lighthouse, this year we decided to give it a try and have a day at our newest property, Crook Hall. As we've never ran any events at Crook before we had absolutely no way of gauging whether there would be any interest at all, so we went in kind of blind. Fot this reason, we took 100 boxes with us just incase we had a huge turnout and didn't want to run the risk of running out. We needn't have worried 😀. As I arrived at Crook, the sun was shining and the temperature was mild so the decision was made to have the event outdoors. I began to set the tables up and lay the timber out (with the help of the lovely Vicki) and everything was looking good. And then the bombshell came. My sidekick, my partner in crime, my other 'other half', big John Brown was not going to make it in. Oh cack. There had been a genuine honest mix up with travel arrangements which meant John was stranded in Sunderland and not in Durham by my side. Did I panic though? I mean, a little bit, yeah. What was I going to do if the turnout was huge? I had a similar day at Souter last year and it wasn't a pleasurable experience to say the least. Thankfully though, the day went really well. We had a nice steady stream of visitors which meant the day was quite manageable. Numbers wise, we made 22 boxes, not a huge figure but a very nice start and a good introduction to a new audience. I have absolutely no doubt that things will quickly grow at Crook and visitor participation will continue to increase as word gets around about what we offer. I've got a few more wildlife events planned for the site this year which will see interest grow and one day, maybe we'll be as established there as we are at Souter. Speaking of which, our other two nestbox days were back at the lighthouse. And thankfully I had John back beside me as both days were absolutely heaving! In the two days we made just under 130 boxes, a massive difference to the event at Crook and a vastly more intense experience. It's no exaggeration to say the days are really exhausting, not just physically but most definitely mentally as well but it's still really really good fun. And the real bonus was, other than a huge blister on my thumb I actually got through the week relatively unscathed! For me that's a miracle.

How it began

How we hope it ends!

The other highlight of the week saw the Ranger team visit Hamsterley Forest to attend a course on Deer and Grey Squirrel monitoring and management techniques. It was a really interesting day, half in the class and half in the field, but obviously the latter bit was the best. It was interesting to learn what to look for to indicate if there are deer on your property, and which signs relate to the different species etc etc but to be honest, the real highlight was just being out and about wandering in the forest. It's a gorgeous place, and somewhere I don't go to nearly enough, so the whole day was just an absolute pleasure.

The Willow Tit Project with our friends at WWT Washington is still going strong. After five weeks at the small feeding station we've now relocated to two new sites. We want to cover as much of the property as possible and don't want to stay in one place for too long, so changing sites is necessary to collect as much data as possible. And the great news is the change of location worked immediately! The third Willow Tit of the project was caught at the site next to the amphibian ponds within the first hour of the day, and given the colours red over blue. Even better is there is another unringed bird hanging around with this one so that means there's at least two pairs. Hopefully we'll catch the unringed bird in the coming weeks!

Willow Tit number 3

One more thing of note was I managed to grab a look around the Coastal Conservation Centre while I was at Souter. Its definitely moving along at pace now and has changed significantly since my last visit. The main structure is looking great, especially as the windows are now in place, and from inside the building there is a cracking view of the lighthouse. Despite the delays the contractors are pretty confident that they'll be finished closer to the original date than they feared a couple of weeks. Either way it'll look fab when it's all done.

WORKPLACE WILDLIFE CHALLENGE

As expected, the many indoor sessions I've had in the last fortnight has meant very little opportunity to boost my total up. Despite this though, I've had two more firsts of the year - the first Butterfly of the year and the first Moth of the year (in fact, the first three!)! And I haven't even had the moth trap on yet so this was a nice surprise.

078. Song Thrush - Turdus philomelos

079. Red Thorax Ground Beetle - Calathus melanocephalus

080. Micro Moth - Agonopterix heracliana ag

081. Micro Moth - Agonopterix arenella

082. Light Brown Apple moth - Epiphyas postvittana

083. Peacock butterfly - Aglais io

084. Nursery Web spider - Pisaura mirabilis