Mud, murk & mystery solved

Sparkling oak leaf at the Brickworks

Bovingdon (BMT): The weekend doesn’t seem to have incorporated a great deal of daylight. Darkness, yes. Drizzle, yes. Rain, yes. And, at the Brickworks, mud. Lots and lots of mud. I also have a sore throat, which of course adds to the general sense of gloom. However, in spite of all that, I thoroughly enjoyed my muddy wander this morning.

Views in the murk and mud at Bovingdon Brickworks this morning

As I walked through the mudow (that’s mud/meadow) (top left "view"), a Song Thrush was singing in the trees to my right. A crystal clear, full-bodied melody of flutes and whistles, projected far and wide. It was better than sunshine. Up ahead of me, I spotted another 5 Song Thrushes together in a bush and, behind me, 2 more. There were at least 10 around the site. A flock of 40+ Goldfinches were feeding on thistle seeds, along with Chaffinches and a mix of Tits. Last week, I’d counted at least 20 Blackbirds within the scrub and, easily, 5 Green Woodpeckers. 3 Jays gave me glimpses of white rumps and a couple of Fieldfare swapped one tree for another. Towards the end of my squelching, I chanced upon a Robin quietly singing his pretty sub-song. It was as though he was testing the air to see if anyone was listening. Delicate yet sure and another ray of sunshine.

The main reason for my visit today was to retrieve the trail camera, which had been out overnight. I modified the set up slightly by a) moving the camera much closer to the burrow entrance and b) reducing the glare of the red LEDs with some sheer red fabric taped over the top. As before, I aimed the lens into the distance, again to reduce glare, and I put out a few peanuts and sunflower hearts to entice little creatures to do more than dash, dart and streak across screen. The results weren’t bad.

I’ve put together 60 seconds worth from the 120+, 14 second clips that were captured. All occurred between 21:00 and 00:00 yesterday.



So, the mystery homemaker is definitely a mouse and we have at least 2 living in this burrow. They’re likely Wood Mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) but I think only daytime footage would clinch it (fur colour). I confess, I had hoped for Bank Voles but, even so, it’s been useful to get some experience with the trail camera and learn more about the habits of Wood Mice.

A Wood Mouse went a wandering...

Monday morning, I braved the world beyond Hemel/Bovingdon and headed north to the Wallington Road, near Baldock. It was a Montagu’s Harrier I was after, which had been reported regularly over the weekend, “sitting in a bush”. Easy-peasy, I thought. Big bird, in a bush, can’t be too difficult. Of course, when I arrived mid-morning, it was nowhere to be seen and there were at least 10 others waiting for its reappearance. An hour in the company of singing Corn Buntings and Skylarks, and finally someone spotted the returning Harrier. It was way off to the east and difficult to make out through the heat haze but it eventually looped round to the south, coming to within about 400 metres, before flying out of sight, west. The overall impression was one of a slender, agile, easy flyer. It didn’t have the bulk of the more common Marsh Harrier. LGRE suggested it was a first-summer male although others have reported it as a female. This was the first I’ve seen so gender was fairly irrelevant. It was a Montagu’s Harrier - that’s all that mattered - the rarest breeding bird of prey in the UK, with just 7 successful nests in 2014!

Bovingdon (BMT): Yesterday morning, it was back to safaris at the Brickworks. I thought I might photograph the Common Centaury (Centaurium erythraea) or perhaps the Yellow-wort (Blackstonia perfoliata) but by about midday I was decidedly uninspired. I could see a belt of swollen black clouds heading my way and had all but given up. Suddenly, I stopped. Tiny, liquid, dark eyes were twinkling by the path. My first thought was, “oh no, not another dead mammal!”....until it dawned on me that this frozen, furry fellow was in fact living and breathing and caught in the startle response. Slowly, slowly it thawed. Trust grew and, realising I was no threat, it carried on nibbling its way through dried flower heads.

Finding dead, tiny mammals is one thing. Finding them alive and picking flowers is another. Total joy! I didn’t have my tripod with me but shot some video footage hand-held. The dark clouds, with their drenching rain, arrived mid-way through and I took shelter under an obliging oak. The little Wood Mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) seemed quite unperturbed and scuttled along the path after me, before also taking cover. A second little mouse had come out and scurried about and I did wonder if these two were youngsters exploring. Whatever their age, they transformed the moment of gathering gloom (quite literally) into one filled with wonder and delight.

P.S The out-of-focus sections are entirely deliberate*

Common Centaury

Longhorn Beetle (Rutpela maculate), 20mm long

*not