MysterySpider

It's becoming a terrible habit, but I have another critter that I haven't been able to identify with twenty minutes of web searching. I've pored over pages full of pictures of UK spiders and Googled "UK spider massive palps" and similar things, but to no avail!

Best current guess is a Lace webbed spider or similar, though I can't find any pictures on which the abdomen looks the same. Still maybe that's just natural variation. I blogged about one of its garden dwelling cousins previously, but this new unidentified specimen was on my study wall. The body was about 10mm long, 20mm including legs (for once I actually held a ruler up to it for a fairly accurate measure).

One thing I did discover in my fruitless research is that the four little spots/indentations on the abdomen are anchor points for internal muscles, there being no skeleton to fulfil that role.

OysterCatchersInFlight

A pair of fairly unmistakable Oyster catchers in flight above the slightly alien landscape of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Not dissimilar to the nearby Dungeness RSPB Reserve it's a barren area of shingle and watery pits harbouring a lot of bird life.

ShovelerFlying

Caught in flight, a pair of male Shoveler. Just needs one more for the wall set! The most obvious feature is the massive spade-like bill, even from a fleeting glimpse in motion. Note by the way the spelling, with just a single l, the temptation often being to add another.

In briefly researching the breed for this post I was momentarily confused by references to a "Northern Shoveler", for instance on Wikipedia, but this is just another name for the same duck.

BluebellsAshridge

The BBC reports that the long cold winter has held up the flowering of bluebells by several weeks. Now displays are expected around mid-May rather than through April as we're been used to. They may also be shorter burst of colour and more patchy, which is a shame for those that look forward to a spring walk through woods carpeted with bluebells.

The picture above was taken on the Ashridge Estate in the Chiltern hills, on 29th April 2007. Hopefully similar views will be available for 2010.

EasterBunnyWabbit

Turns out bunnies aren't really made of chocolate. In fact if you wolfed it down you might get a hare in the throat. You gannet.

03. April 2010 · 2 comments · Categories: Birds

LinnetOrTwite

I spied this streaky brown bird on the ground at the RSPB's reserve at Dungeness, but I can't quite convince myself of what it is. Front runner is a female or juvenile Linnet (not the red-marked male) but it could be a Twite, or maybe something else entirely? I've endlessly studied pictures, videos and descriptions of the two prime contenders and it doesn't quite look like either: for instance having the wrong colour legs, lacking white wing markings, wrong colour bill, more accentuated facial patterns etc.

Will somebody who's familiar with the birds of the region please put me out of my misery?

Update: some Twitterers have suggested that it's a female Reed bunting, and I think they're absolutely right. Quite why I didn't think of that I have no idea, seeing as we saw plenty of the more obvious males. Here's an example of the male, and though it's from a different angle you can see it's very similar apart from the black and white head. This one also appears to be ringed.

ReedBuntingMale

FishShoal

The BBC reports that the UK government has created a new marine reserve twice the size of the UK itself around the Chagos Islands. These 60 or so islands are out in the Indian Ocean, forming part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, and contain the Diego Garcia US air base.

The reserve comprises 545,000 square kilometres of ocean, atolls and reefs, which apparently doubles the global coverage of the world's oceans under protection. That's either a highly impressive move by the government, or a disappointing indictment of just how little protection the oceans receive globally. Both perhaps.

It's also nice to report on a tropical paradise but still come under the banner of UK Nature, especially when Spring has turned cold and wet here!