Hunts common community orchard

The wildflower meadow at hunts common looks great lots of oxeye daisies and yellow rattle. Yellow rattle is a really important plant in wildflower meadows as it is hemiparasitic getting its nutrients from grasses which restricts them and allows the wildflowers to grow.

Elvetham Heath village fete

Ranger Duke and apprentice ranger Will had a great time at the Elvetham Heath Village Fete at the weekend the virtual pond dipping game was really popular

Odiham Common Wildlife

Whilst on the common this morning  I spooked a Woodcock on the southern meadows near the cattle grid on the B3016.

Also the Ragged Robin is in flower so the Forester moths will be out very soon, fingers crossed, as long as we get a few warm, dry and not too blowy days.

Common spot orchids are starting to flower in the gas main ride at the southern end ot the common.

Nearly all the paths and rides on the common were mown last week and any trees blocking them removed.

Enjoy your walking and riding, the common will look its best over the next month or two.   Ranger Steve

Cattle at Hazeley

Very happy cows eating birch at Hazeley Heath :)

Great Spotted Woodpecker Nest

While out with the Brownies yesterday we found this Great Spotted woodpecker nest  the chicks are just about to fledge so they are sticking their heads out of the hole calling for food. You can tell the age and sex of a great spotted woodpecker by the colour on its head. Chicks just after they fledge the nest have a bright red head. Once they have done their postjuvenile moult females have an all black head and males have a black head with a red stripe at the back

Black headed gulls

This is a black headed gulls nest. Slightly more substantial, the nest is made out of reeds they usually have about 3 eggs. There are 17 black headed gull nests on the gravel island. We will hopefully go out and colour ring the chicks in the next couple of weeks. Using colour rings will allow us to easily identify them from a distance and we are more likely to get reports of where they have been so we can produce an awesome migration map. Black headed gulls spend a lot of time moving around Europe. It'll be interesting to see where the fleet pond gulls go!

Tern nests

We went out o. The boat yesterday to monitor the Black headed gull and common tern nests. Unfortunately during the high rainfall a couple of weeks ago their nests were washed out. They have now moved onto the gravel topped island which is slightly higher so less prone to getting flooded and the stones provide a great background for they're beautifully camouflaged eggs. This is a Common tern "nest" they make a scrape in the ground and lay their eggs on the gravel. There are 4 nests on the island. We will hopefully go back in a couple of weeks and colour ring the chicks