Paxton Pits Spring Walk

Yesterday morning was our monthly public nature walk at Paxton Pits, led by Mike who pointed out lots of  signs that the wildlife is waking up from the winter dormancy and making plans to reproduce whether plants or animals. The blue tits were busy in various areas collecting moss for their nest accompanied in one area by siskins. The latter may be winter visitors though there is a good breeding population in the uk (lowest in the East of England but showing a 44% increase since 2013). Lots of Chiffchaffs voicing their claims on good nesting areas with their calls. The insects are definitely getting active with the Tapered Dronefly, Early Colletes bee, the parasitic Bee Fly and Peacock Butterfly on the wing. Lots of signs of nest building, courtship and territory aggression among the birds and the Muntjac are much bolder when they need to build up body mass for breeding and territorial disputes.

 

Paxton Wildlife Survey (Gully area)

I have now sorted my photos from the second wildlife survey of 2025 at Paxton on Saturday (I missed the first one of the season as not recovered sufficiently from my op then).  A car lift to and from the Gully area allowed me to concentrate efforts on recording the various insect life etc in the presently flooded Gully and on the edge of Gully Wood from Redlands side (each site gets surveyed every two years). The cold and dull conditions very much affected the wildlife but I did get a fair number of different species - flies, especially midges predominated and are difficult to ID from photos. These are the record sheets plus one rather dapper fly as the 'hero image'

Destruction of Local Wildlife Habitats

It took me several days before I could do my 'daily' walk around the footpath in Toft that goes along the Mill Lane Drift down the side of the allotments and back along the stream into Toft Wood as I had heard the large machinery at work earlier and feared for the worst. 

We no longer have a stream - just a V-shaped deep drainage ditch and the Badgers and hedgerow birds (including Whitethroats, Dunnocks, Wrens and Blackbirds) have lost a valuable breeding habitat.