What’s on your wildlife bucket list?
ERIN MCDAID, of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, says you don’t have to travel far to see some true wonders of nature.
MANY wildlife watchers, whether life-long naturalists or people with a more recently found passion for nature will have something approaching a “bucket list” of UK species they would ideally like to see or even photograph.
While there is absolutely no harm in aspiring to see wild otters or to enjoy a whale and dolphin-watching trip at a favourite spot off the UK coast, it is worth remembering that there are some wonderful and surprisingly accessible wildlife spectacles that most of us can enjoy pretty much on our own doorstep.
In the last few years, starling murmurations have become increasingly popular, with interest sparked by coverage on programmes such as Springwatch and as a result of people sharing spectacular photos and videos on social media.
As a result, we are regularly asked for updates as to when the starlings will gather at our better known reserves – but very few people ask about the amazing spectacle of corvid roosts – a wonder in themselves.
At this time of year corvids, such as jackdaws, rooks and crows can be seen gathering in spectacular numbers at roost sites all across the county.
Most will be juvenile and other non-breeding birds. As well as providing safety in numbers, their gatherings, like starling murmurations, are thought to provide opportunities for birds to exchange information about feeding sites.
Anyone who has stood waiting for the starlings to “perform” at Attenborough Nature Reserve will have experienced the raucous gathering of thousands of jackdaws, rooks and crows as dusk falls.
Other Wildlife Trust sites where you can experience this winter wonder include Besthorpe, alongside the Trent north of Newark, Skylarks at Holme Pierrepoint and our largest site, Idle Valley Nature Reserve near Retford.
Many of our woodland sites also have roosts – especially those near open farmland and grassland with good invertebrate populations.
The experience of watching and listening to the birds come into roost from the open fields surrounding our Besthorpe Reserve is wonderful.it almost feels that the birds are descending all around you.
Numbers tend to peak around Christmas but can remain high until birds return to their breeding areas around February – so this is one wildlife spectacle to have on your list for early 2022.
Sunny days as early as January could bring the prospect of a glimpse of brimstone butterflies on reserves with good areas of scrub and woodland habitat and as winter draws to a close we can all look forward to the early signs of spring such as tiny pink flowers on coppiced hazel at reserves such as Treswell Wood near Retford, Ploughman Wood near Lowdham and the Dyscarr Wood north of Worksop.
In common with many other woodland sites these reserves offer a good chance of spotting the wonderful carpet of white provided by wood anemones or the dash of yellow from early primroses.