Tawny  Frogmouth nest-building

A possum investigates the camera

The birds'  breeding season has begun in south-east Australia and the Tawny Frogmouths have started to build their nests. I set the camera trap up at a nest last night and a short version of the results can be seen here on the this video link: Nest building .

The male bird was perched next to the nest when I set up the camera just after dusk, and he sat and watched me quietly with no sense of alarm. Then all was quiet until near midnight, when a Brush-tailed Possum came and sniffed at the camera. No birds came to the nest until six-o'-clock the nest morning, when the male brought in some fresh twigs or fronds and added them to the basic nest. And that was it for the night. Dawn was not far away.

Then at nine in the morning, An Australian Magpie came and investigated the nest, then jumped over to check out the camera.  A quiet but unexpected sequence of events. But Spring is here.

Northern wader habitat

A road meanders north through the extensive birch woodlands and mires

There are few human settlements or other intrusions to the landscape of the region in northern Norway where we go to study waders and the potential breeding grounds for these birds is vast. The forests and mires form a massive extensive mosaic of birch woodland and sedge-filled mires, with many open stretches of water in the form of tiny to wide lakes and formidable fast-flowing rivers.

A typical mire with open water in the centre surrounded by a floating carpet of mosses and sedges, and the whole encircled by willow/birch scrub and birch forest

Waders such as Wood Tringa glareola and Broad-billed Sandpipers Limicola falcinellus, Jack Snipe Lymnocryptes minimus, Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus and Reeve Philomachus pugnax nest in the mires, while species such as Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus, Spotted Redshank Tringa erythropus and Greenshank Tringa nebularia nest in the scrub and woodland.

Numerous other northern breeding birds live in the these habitats, mostly summer migrants which go there to breed, then return south to over-winter. One resident species is the Willow Ptarmigan Lagopus lagopus which nests in the forest understorey. These birds can live there throughout the winter because they feed on the leaf and flower buds of the birch and willow which protrude above the blanket of snow that covers all the ground all winter.

A hen Willow Ptarmigan sits on her nest in juniper scrub

The ptarmigan's eggs are cryptically coloured to conceal them while she leaves the nest, perhaps once a day, to feed.

Arctic waders

Adult Wood Sandpiper

Here are a few photographs of waders and their chicks which I was studying recently in northern Norway. Part of the work, which is organised by my brother Rab, involves finding and catching both adults and chicks to ring them in order to help discover such information as where they live in the non-breeding period, whether they return to nesting or natal sites, and how long they live.

A pair of wood sandpipers, ringed and ready for release

The most abundant wader species in the tundra mires is the Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola and the Broad-billed Sandpiper Limicola falcinellus is one the less common and seldom seen species. Most of the waders live in extensive mires, hidden by lush growth of sedges and other marsh plants.

An adult Broad-billed Sandpiper is measured -  the sexes are similar in plumage, but can be differentiated by size

Wader nests and chicks are notoriously difficult to find due their cryptic plumage and seclusive behaviour, arctic-breeding species are especially so. Wood and Broad-billed Sandpipers nest in the mires and it takes very specialized skills and a very very keen eye to find them.

A Broad-billed Sandpiper nest and chicks lie hidden in a mire

Broad-billed Sandpiper chicks in the nest

Four Wood Sandpiper chicks, a typical brood size

A single Wood sandpiper chick is extremely difficult to see when creeping through the sedge

Scotland 2013

Ben Loyal

Spring in Scotland seems a long time ago now as I have been looking through and cataloging the photographs from then, when I was in the Highlands studying birds and exploring the hills. Most of my time was spent in the far north-west in Sutherland where I was studying greenshank, golden eagles and ptarmigan.

I seem to recall that the weather was cold with a north wind blowing most of the time and lots of low cloud on the hills, with much late-lying snow. However, I reckon that there is always something to photograph in the Highlands, whatever the weather. It all adds atmosphere and reality to the images.

I have posted a short portfolio to my website, just follow the link on the right.

Cape Wrath sunset

Lichen article

Lecanora campestris grows on an old headstone

While I have been away in the field studying waders and eagles, I missed the publication of one of my articles on lichens in the May edition of the Leopard magazine. This is such a wide topic with thousands of species in the UK alone, so I focused on readily accessible species which people can find growing on gravestones.

Lichens can be difficult to identify, partly because some need to be keyed out to microscopic or chemical characteristics, but also because so few have common names. Scientific double nomenclature can put people off, and in the case of lichens seem overwhelming. I am a scientist, but I do not like aloofness, I like to share my knowledge and experiences of wildlife with people. And the more I share, the more I find I learn. Perhaps if more people were to become interested in lichens more of them would gain common names? Do not be afraid of scientific snobbery, get out there and enjoy the variety of colour and shapes which abound in the wild outdoors 

Xanthoria parietina grows on a gravestone where bird-droppings enrich the surface