I have heard it said countless times just how lucky we are to live in this particular spot in Devon. The scenery is marvellous and the wildlife generally abundant. One of my most treasured moments, particularly at this time of the year, is when I walk down the garden after dark to check the moth trap before retiring to my bed. For several nights now I have listened to at least four tawny owls calling, all at very close quarters and what a great wildlife experience that is. These owls have clearly had a good breeding year.
Nick Millman who manages the Poffit Lane Rewilding Project recently told me that he had erected several owl boxes and that barn owls have successful reared broods in 3 of them this summer. With such an incredible concentration of new birds I am really looking forwards to seeing them hunting around the meadows later this year when the nights draw in.
Despite the lack of insects many bird species have had a good breeding season and I feel it appropriate to mention in particular spotted flycatchers, great spotted woodpeckers, collared doves, goldcrests and common redstarts but there are also many others which I have not mentioned.
In many parts of the country house sparrows are in serious decline but this is not so here in our own part of glorious Devon. They too have obviously had an excellent breeding year as marauding mobs of thirty or more have been visiting the bird baths and ponds in the garden.
On the mothing front this has turned out to be a year of two parts. You already know about the collapse in numbers in the spring and early to mid-summer but I can now confidently report that the late summer species have been turning out in very large numbers. Just why those early species suffered so badly doubtless due to the weather conditions but the later emerging species have been largely unaffected is a puzzle yet to be resolved.
