Your weekly nature prompt (9 May 2025)
Spooky trees and rare finds at the local gravel pit.
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This week, Halloween trees and a weird warbler showed up on my walks – which is just as well, because an unusual visitor to my feeders nearly stole my attention from this newsletter altogether! I can hear the drawn-out churring call of greenfinches from every room in my house. Their frowny faces make them a bit of a distraction, but I am keen to record and share my first ever hybrid warbler.
Singing lessons
The usual sound of Chiffchaffs was punctuated by a strange song – similar, but all wrong at the same time. The tiny bird started trying to sing ‘chiff chaff, chiff chaff’ but tripped over its notes and catapulted into the descending song of the Willow Warbler.
It must be either a hybrid (Chiffchaff x Willow Warbler), or a ‘back cross’, where one parent is a hybrid. It may be one of the two birds pictured below, but with so many warblers around looking almost identical… who knows?!
If you hear a bush or tree bursting with song and stay still long enough, they often pop out onto an exposed branch just long enough for a quick snap. And if they don’t show themselves? Well, the daisies are out in force (and they are far more obliging).
On a hot day in particular, every flowerhead seems to host a different invertebrate: spiders, hoverflies, beetles, bees and more. It was cool and windy this week, so even capturing a picture of the flowers themselves as they swayed around was a challenge.
Oh deer
Deer are thriving at the moment, with muntjac and roe deer showing up on every walk no matter how busy the location. Presumably, there are fawns hiding in the undergrowth not far away. Despite spotting hundreds of adult deer in my lifetime, I’ve only seen one wild fawn.
Hissing parties
It’s also gosling season, so any river or lake-side walks may include a forced detour. The cropped grass on walkways is a favourite browsing spot, and the adults can become quite indignant at the idea of letting you pass.
The goslings make a cute peeping sound, which often catches my attention long enough for the adults to start up their hissing even from (I thought) a safe distance. You’ve got to admire their attitude as they hiss profanities at you even while eating an offering of grain straight from your hand.
Halloween in springtime
There was one final seasonal surprise for me on yesterday’s walk. As I wandered along the mixed hedgerows, one bush in particular stood out. I’ve seen this phenomenon in a few locations and they come back every year – I call them ‘halloween trees’. They are coated in webs. Every branch has a thick mat over it like a spooky decoration. And if you look closer… caterpillars. Thousands of them. These are all types of ermine moth caterpillar. Fussy eaters, each species has one ‘host’ plant that they love. Every other bush in the hedgerow is ignored.
There’s a rather beautiful spindle tree in another location that plays unwilling host to a huge number of these hungry caterpillars every year. It rushes to regrow its leaves in summer, but I suspect their voracious munching is the reason it’s quite stunted compared with its neighbours.
Through my lens
These photos – and those in the rest of this article – are all courtesy of a favourite local patch of mine, Broom Gravel Pits. It’s ‘just’ an old, flooded gravel pit, but it’s nestled between arable farmland, pasture and woodland. Almost anything can turn up here, from waders and ospreys to merlins and grasshopper warblers. It’s got reeds, deep water, muddy shallows, scrub – and it’s completely free. Parking is on the roadside and is limited, but it’s rarely busy.
The trees and shrubs are shelter for almost every species of warbler, and – despite being as far inland as you can get – there are nesting Oystercatchers alongside the Lapwings and Little Ringed Plovers. This location attracts a lot of unusual visitors (see photos below).
I will add a disclaimer: I regularly see 30 species here, up to around 50. But they are usually a wide variety of common birds. There are also no hides and only one bench, hence the long-distance photos that tested my camera to its limits. The delightful local species are what keeps me coming back each month. Everything else is a bonus.
Your turn
I’d love to hear about your encounters with nature, wherever you are in the world. What have you seen this week, while I pottering around at Broom?
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P.S. I’m also a freelance professional writer. I work with purpose-led organisations who are making the world a better place. If that’s you and you want to produce content, but don’t have time to do it yourself, get in touch!