The Jelly Chronicles, Part 2.

My quest to identify the mysterious jelly-like material I found at the farm recently (see last Blog entry) has led me into some very interesting territory. A correspondent on the Natural History Museum's identification forum, who goes by the user i.d. bombusleucorum, reckons that it looks suspiciously like the expanded crystal gel found in nappies. They are super absorbent sodium polyacrylate crystals which hold several hundred times their own weight in water and when fully saturated turn to a gooey gel. It's the same stuff sold in garden centres to add to compost to hold water. I suppose it's possible that a gull scavenging on a tip has managed to get a soiled nappy tangled in its feet and then kindly discarded it on the reserve, but I think this is unlikely, especially as there isn't a tip within miles of us.

Then we have the possibility that it's "Star Jelly", which according to folklore is believed to be deposited during meteor showers and has been widely reported since the 14th Century. More information on this can be found here.

At the moment I'm leaning towards agreeing with the 18th Century Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant, who was of the opinion that it is something vomited by animals or birds. That something is semi-digested frog- or toad-spawn. There has been masses of frog-spawn all over the farm lately. Today I even found a great clump of it on top of a fencepost. If this was not dumped by a bird, then we have some exceptionally agile frogs!

Lots of duck on site today, 104 of them to be precise: 51 Wigeon, 23 Teal, 13 each of Shoveler and Mallard and four Gadwall. I also saw the first Mediterranean Gull I have ever seen on the reserve, a nice adult, and a good flock of Fieldfares numbering around 200 birds. And the sun was out :-)

Anyone for jelly?

We've seen plenty of birds on the reserve these first few days of the new year. There are still around 250 Golden Plovers, with 50 or so Lapwings, 10 Dunlin and 50 Snipe out on the pasture. On Ruan Pool, there have been 24 Wigeon, 11 Shoveler, 9 Teal and 2 Gadwall. There are many more duck in the area, unfortunately attracted on to pools on nearby land by shooters putting out corn.

Whilst we were checking Ruan yesterday, we heard a loud splash. Looking round we saw a large female Peregrine zooming away across the pool and ripples of water on the surface. It must have been at least 10 seconds before a drake Teal bobbed to the surface, looking somewhat stunned but no doubt relieved at his very lucky escape.

There is masses of frog-spawn, in even the smallest puddles, all over the farm.

On the heathland near the pool I found this stuff on the grass (thanks to Dougy for the photos), which I think may be a species of jelly fungus. The largest pieces were about two inches long. It was odourless. According to Wikipedia:

"A number of the jelly fungi can be eaten raw; poisonous jelly fungi are rare. However, many species have an unpalatable texture or taste, which is described as similar to that of soil. However, some species, Tremella fuciformis for example, are not only edible but prized for use in soup and vegetable dishes."

I'm still trying to find out exactly what it is, but if anyone has any ideas (or would like to volunteer to taste it!) please let me know.

First sign of Spring!

The farm has played host to a good number of birds during the recent severe weather. I've counted up to 260 Golden Plover feeding on the pastures. They especially favour the fields below the windmill, where the sloping ground thaws a little more quickly. Thirty or so Lapwings and a few Dunlin are around, with at least 55 Snipe also feeding out in the open amongst the plovers.

Over 100 thrushes have arrived over the last few days. Most numerous are Redwings (50+), followed by Blackbirds and Song Thrushes, with a few Fieldfares too.

All the pools are frozen over so there are no wildfowl. There's no doubt that some birds are struggling to survive now. As I walked along this morning, a Wren was fluttering weakly amongst the rushes in front of me instead of powering into cover as one would expect.

BUT......the first frog-spawn of the Spring was found this week!!!

From Potrero to Zero

My first visit to the farm today for a month. I returned from the Pacific coast of Costa Rica on Friday and am still trying to adjust to a temperature drop of 50F+! I was still wearing my glasses with the photo-chromatic lenses, hardly ideal for birding in sunlight. The brand-name is Reactions, but I think Over-reactions would be more appropriate.

I see that a couple of new species have been added to the reserve bird-list in my absence: Common Gull (long overdue) and Mediterranean Gull (which we expected sooner or later). The total is now 157. Today all the pools were frozen, which doesn't happen too often on the Lizard. A flock of 140 Golden Plover were feeding out on the pasture but there wasn't much else around. It's a real shame that we have no crops to feed the finches this winter, especially if we're in for a hard time. Our usual arable contractor having retired, we were let down by another farmer who failed to keep his promises.
In the absence of any new photos from the farm, I'm posting a few I took in warmer climes!

Scrape and polish

When we acquired the farm over eight years ago, the only water-body was Ruan Pool, which in those days was only a fraction of its original size due to steadily invading vegetation. We decided to create a small scrape to attract a few wildfowl and waders. It was dug in late 2002 in a boggy area at the bottom of a very gentle slope at the edge of the pasture.

To prove that you can create something from nothing, it regularly attracted duck during the winter (six species) and, if water levels were suitable, a nice variety of spring and autumn waders. The Cornwall Wildlife Trust reserves team built a rather imposing tower-hide to overlook it. Highlights have included Little Egret, Pink-footed Geese, Garganey, Little Ringed Plover, Black-tailed Godwit, Little Stint, Pectoral Sandpiper, Jack Snipe, Water Pipit and, best of all, a Citrine Wagtail, which was present for 35 minutes on the morning of 16th May 2004 (marvel at the quality of my video clip). Reed, Sedge and Grasshopper Warblers and Reed Buntings breed in the phragmites. I've also seen Marsh, Hen and Montagu's Harriers hunting over it - and a very possible Pallid!

Of course, nothing lasts for ever and over the last two or three years nature has been steadily working to return the land to its former condition. Recent visitors carefully entering the hide have probably been quite perplexed (and disappointed) to find themselves looking at a lot of rush and reedmace, very little water, and no birds. Hence this week our expert contractor Andy Tylor has been on site and......we have a scrape again!