Nature – Page 11 – Enviro-Mentalist

Springing out this week.

OK, so the weather is warmer, the hint of Blackthorn flower to be glimpsed last week has erupted into a frothy, white mass and the Chiffchaffs can be heard regularly – Spring is definitely here. So, what else has been happening out and about this week?

To start with, in my garden the Clematis Armandii is flowering away on the bottom fence, and, every now and again giving a hint of scent. The Primroses and Hellebores are still looking great, and, the Pulmonaria is in full flower and attracting bumblebees. The early tulips have now gone over, but the others are starting to show flower buds.Trees are now starting to show hints of lime green colour, such as this Maple / Sycamore that I pass on my way to work.

There are more flowers out for the aforementioned bumblebees, and, ergo, more bumblebees; mainly queens foraging before setting up home – such as this one that I took a picture of whilst it was a little dazed having for some reason flown into a lampost! On the flower front, the Celandines are particularly noticeable on sunny roadsides, as is the purple flower ground ivy. There are also some wild violets flowering in places.

There are also more butterflies about, initially I had only seen Brimstones, but today I saw my first Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock butterflies. I think it will not be long before the Speckled Woods are roaming up and down the old Railway Track.

On a distinctly Wintery note though, I had a Redpoll in the garden this week for the first time ever. This is a bird I associate with Winter, and one that I have only seen in the Country Park before now (and then only once). Very strange, it must have been passing through. I have no idea whether it is a Lesser Redpoll or a Mealy Redpoll, however, I don’t care either.

Appearing this week in your area

I thought that Spring had sprung a few weeks ago when the sun seemed to be warmer and there seemed to be some flowers, such as the Winter Aconites appearing. I guess I should have taken a hint from their name, and realised that it was, in fact, still Winter. The weather this week has been pretty wet and pretty changeable, and I think that some of the signs of Spring are perhaps a little later this year – or maybe it just feels that way.

My first definite sound of Spring is usually the sound of the chiffchaff. I went to the Country Park last Sunday and heard two of them calling away, and left with a big grin on my face. I had been expecting to hear them on the old railway track on my way to work this week, but it has been strangely silent (in terms of chiffchaffs). However, I did hear one on the way back from town yesterday so, all is right with the world. Looking back 12 months, it wasn’t until the end of March last year that I first heard them, so maybe things are not out of sync after all. Other birds are also singing away, most noticeably the wrens. These tiny birds manage to make quite a lot of noise, and, at this time of year are sitting more conspicuously on bare tree branches, advertising their presence. There were concerns that the cold winter may have dramatically reduced their numbers, but there seemed to be quite a number singing yesterday.

Although I saw my first butterfly over a week ago, I haven’t seen any since. However, there are quite a number of bumblebees out foraging and the occasional honey bee (quite a few were frequenting the anenome blanda at Ryton last week). At first glance it would appear that there is not much about for them at the moment, so it is probably just as well the numbers are small. I haven’t seen any celandines in flower as yet (although I spotted a few on a sunny bank that looked as though they were tempted) and the blackthorn seems late – the first flowers are out in the hedgerows on the sunny sides of the street, but the old railway track is a bit bereft. However, there are quite a few flowers in the gardens for them – my hellebores are now flowering well, there are lots of daffodils about as well as the aforementioned anenomes, and there are still some flowering heather in a few places.

I also noticed that the germander speedwell (treated as a weed by many gardeners) is now starting to flower. I quite like the pretty blue flowers which remind me of the Summer sky, which is a blessing when it is actually covered in black cloud! This is quite a common plant in the wild and in gardens, and provides an early source of nectar for some solitary bees. It was also apparently used in herbal medicines at one time to treat coughs and catarrh.

Has Spring started to make an appearance where you are?

Winter Colour

Despite all of the snow and frost of recent weeks there are still some flowers attempting to bloom. One of the easiest to spot is the small but bright yellow, perennial Winter Aconite (Eranthis Hyemalis) which can be found flowering away in January and February in the UK. These are hardy plants (members of the buttercup family) that grow close to the ground in shady woodland, and, as you can see from the picture below are quite able to survive frost and snow.

The leaves only show fully once the flowers have died, the leaves themselves dying off when the forest canopy shades the plants out.

Although the plant looks pretty and as though it wouldn’t harm a fly, beware, as all parts are poisonous. According to Wikipedia, Medea attempted to poison Theseus by putting aconite in his wine. Despite (or maybe because of) this, Winter Aconites are commonly sold in garden centres as an easy way to add a bit of Winter colour to an otherwise drab and dormant garden.

Big Garden Birdwatch

So, it was the time of year when all garden birds traditionally do a bunk to the hedgerows and rooftops so that they cannot be counted in the RSPB’s big garden birdwatch statistics. Well, that is often the way that it feels. Still, every year I sit by the window for an hour and try to count all of my little feathered friends.

There seems to have been extra publicity this year due to the concern that the recent cold weather may have done for half of the little birds that we would commonly find in the garden. Is it the case – we will have to wait and see, but, for once, my garden was brimming with life – I struggled to keep up as birds flitted from one side to the other. It appears that my tactic of early morning (9am) nature watching, when it was still cold, paid off.

I managed to see a total of 13 different species this year, more than the 10 that @naturesvoice for the RSPB tweeted. The count started with the ever reliable pair of blue tits, so it should because I think one of them roosts in the pipe from the boiler. They were sooned joined by blackbirds (I counted 5 at one point – not bad for a garden that is only 20’x30′) and chaffinches. The male chaffinches are certainly starting to get some more colour as we move towards Spring, but they are still hard to keep track of as they zoom from one side of the garden to the other, one minute on a feeder, the next foraging around in the undergrowth.

I was particularly pleased that the bullfinches turned up within the allotted hour – they tie with long-tailed tits as my favourite bird – they have been visiting the garden all Winter. I was worried that they would not show today, but, 3 turned up and stayed for a while. (Looking on Twitter it appears that these lovely birds are becoming more common in gardens and, indeed, have recently been removed from the BTO’s Red List). I was also particularly pleased when I saw some sparrows in the garden. I am sure that you have all read the reports about the disappearance of house sparrows, and I definitely haven’t seen very many since the Summer, but, I got a maximum of four, including a couple that turned up just before the end of the hour and stared pitifully at the saucer of frozen water (don’t worry, we went out with fresh water just after the hour).

The best surprise of the hour came from the song thrushes though. Before the Winter we had only rarely seen one young song thrush in the garden in the entire 10+ years that we have lived here, although we can usually hear them singing from the old railway track. However, this Winter one has started putting in an appearance, although he (or she) is usually chased away by a very territorial blackbird (as if there is any other type). But today I was delighted to see two song thrushes in my garden at the same time – partly because they are another bird not doing well, and partly because I am a keen organic gardener and they will certainly help my war against snails.

The total species count as mentioned before was 13 and consisted of blue tit, great tit, greenfinch, bullfinch, chaffinch, robin, dunncock, blackbird, song thrush, starling, house sparrow, wood pigeon, collared dove.

The only regular that did not put in an appearance was the goldfinch. Throughout the year we have up to 8 of these noisy, colourful characters in the garden, but, it appears that they are not very fond of the cold. Throughout the 2 weeks of snow they did not put in any appearance as far as we can tell, but reappeared once the snow had gone. Similarly, they appeared later on today, once the air had warmed up a little. I am not sure where they go, but they are still welcome when they come back.

Winter bird watching.

As you are no doubt aware Winter can be a great time for birdwatching. Not only do you get the Winter visitors such as Redwings and Fieldfares, but the numbers of our ‘native birds’ are swollen by imports from the rest of Europe – coming for our supposedly milder climate – I guess they have had a bit of a surprise this year, but it is still probably warmer than back home. In addition, they have fewer places to hide, unless they can find some evergreens.

Unfortunately I have found a couple of downsides to birdwatching in Winter – the weather is colder and, it is dark when I go to work and when I come home so ornithological opportunities are somewhat limited. However, I have noticed a large influx of redwings and fieldfares onto the industrial estate in the last week – they have found the sea buckthorn berries that I walk past each morning – yesterday I saw about 20 fieldfares on my way into work, not a good view in the morning gloom, but, good enough.

An added bonus for me, if not the birds this week is that a grey wagtail was tempted into the warmth of the warehouse (joining the wren and robin already there) affording rather nice views, I think it has been coaxed outside now though.

Of course, come the weekend and the opportunities for staring into the snow covered garden increase – this morning was particularly good – well, once I had replenished the feeders. As well as the usual suspects (i.e. blue tit, robin, chaffinch etc) I also spotted a total of 6 bullfinches – a record for my garden – three of each flavour and all there at the same time. We had seen three last weekend, one pair and a lone male which was tolerated by the other two. We had therefore assumed that it was one of the three chicks that had been about in the garden last summer, but to see 6 at the same time was sadly quite exciting after all, this is a bird that has just made it off the BTOs red list of conservation concern. These handsome little birds that spend their time in pairs and make a sound like a squeeky bicycle pump tie with long-tailed tits as my favourite birds. (They are edging into the lead at the moment as they are regulars in the garden so they earn extra points on the lovely birds register.)

None of these would be about if there were no food for them, so please make sure you feed the birds in winter, particularly when it is cold and the ground is covered and frozen – the ones in my garden are particularly fond of sunflower hearts.

Winter Visitors

Not long ago Winter visitors seen in gardens were usually siskins, bramblings, redwings or fieldfares. However, over the last few years there have been more sightings of warblers during the Winter months. One of the more commonly spotted birds is a blackcap and, the reason that I am writing this post today is because, not only did I spot one in my garden, but, I also managed to take a photo of her.

It is thought (in common with many of the birds seen in the garden in Winter) that these are birds from Germany and Austria and that the British penchant for garden bird feeders has allowed them to travel a shorter distance and stop in the UK rather than flying to Spain.

I have even seen a recent blog post which claims that the migrants with the shorter trip are evolving into a different sub species as they all arrive back in Germany about 10 days before those wintering in Spain and therefore tend to breed together. Those flying longer distances to Spain have more pointed wings suitable for longer distance flying and rounder bills for eating olives when they get there.

Whatever the reasons for them staying, I am still excited if I spot one in the Winter (or any time of year for that matter).

Good news from UK wildlife

Amidst all of the doom and gloom it is refreshing to share some good news stories about UK wildlife that you may have missed over the last couple of days.

First of all it was fantastic to hear more news of the reintroduced Scottish Beavers. One of the three family units released earlier in the year (and previously reported on this site) has constructed a 5 x 2 x 7 metre lodge, hopefully a sign that they have settled into their new home. Although the reintroduction programme was the subject of intense lobbying by ecologists there is still some resistance to the idea from landowners and from some who think that the escalating price tag (currently at around £1.85 million) could be better spent elsewhere.

Also in the news today, a new survey organised by British Waterways has shown better than anticipated numbers of the under threat native Water Vole. Numbers of this little mammal (the basis of Ratty in Wind in the Willows) have dropped by an estimated 90% in 20 years, caused by pollution and attack from the non-native Mink. The survey asked people to submit sightings of any wildlife they saw along the network of canals and waterways. Use of the internet to submit sightings prompted a growth in responses from 6000 to 42000; this partly explains the higher numbers of water vole sightings (only 89, but how easy are they to spot?). Top of the list, as expected, was Mallard, followed by Canada Goose and Mute Swan.

The final story that caught my eye was the early arrival of a Bittern at the London Wetland Centre, the “early” possibly due to favourable winds helping it over from the continent. What impressed me had nothing to do with the timing of the arrival, but just the fact that there is the possibility of seeing (or at least hearing) one of these rare birds in London of all places. Surely this has to be good news for wildlife conservation, a bird as rare as a bittern in the UK, can overwinter close to the centre of London!

An afternoon at the Country Park

Sometimes it is hard to know what to do during a holiday in autumn, the weather is changeable, one minute the sun is shining, the next black clouds loom. The solution for me is to take my scope to the country park. With the lack of rain in September I was hoping the water level would have dropped and that there may be some waders about.

As you can see from the poor picture above (sorry about the quality, but impromptu digiscoping with my Canon Ixus was never going to produce stunning results) amongst the Lapwing and Coot there was a flock of Golden Plover. I saw these for the first time last year. There really is something special about a flock of these little yellow coloured waders, especially when the sun glints off their winter plumage. I spent some time watching them, scuttling about, dodging in between the gulls and ducks. Then, suddenly, they were gone.

I wandered further round, the usual suspects were all present – Pochard bobbing about, the sun highlighting their chestnut-coloured heads, Shoveler Ducks sifting the water, Tufted Duck diving, Coot, Cormorant gathering along the edges of the water and cramming together on the now vacated tern rafts. I could hear the little birds in the hedgerows, Long-tailed Tits burbling, Wrens and Robins with their alarm calls and Blackbirds swooping between berry-laden trees. Time to head back home.

But then, the sun came back out, a quick check through my binoculars showed the plovers had returned – time to set the scope up again; I may have missed something last time. Indeed I had, a couple of snipe were probing the mud (not too far away, I got a fantastic view through the scope), amongst the Wigeon (did I mention those?) there was a Shelduck – how did I miss a big white duck! I had never seen one before at the Country Park, in fact, I think the last time I saw one was during a visit to Martin Mere when I was much, much younger.

Then I looked again, there were other ducks there too, Gadwall, an understated and pretty duck and, there was the back end of another, different duck peaking out from behind a cormorant – not sure what it was. I moved the scope – better view, it was still asleep – wake up I thought – then another duck wandered into it and it looked up briefly – I thought I recognised it – it was a Pintail, I was sure of it – a new lifetime first for me. Then its head was down again – arse! Literally, all I could see was its bottom. Then, suddenly, the Cormorants were off, followed by the Wigeon, the Lapwing and the Plovers, and, the Pintail. I looked for it again, but couldn’t find it. Time for home before it rained – a Friday afternoon doesn’t get much better than this.

Eagle Owls – Good Press / Bad Press

Eagle Owls (Bubo Bubo) are certainly impressive creatures, their six foot wingspan making them the largest owl in the world. They breed in many parts of mainland Europe and have reared young in the UK with intermittent success.

The latest copy of British Wildlife magazine popped through my letterbox yesterday with a feature article about these owls and a debate about the consequences of reintroduction. This is where a problem lies, these are not birds that have naturally bred here for more than 2000 years, if, they ever did. Why then, would anyone want to reintroduce them? It is not the same as reintroducing cranes or beavers, creatures that were native and doing very well until we killed them all for food or hats or other such essentials. These are birds that have never played a part in the food chain in the UK.

So, is there a problem with introducing them and how have they got here in the first place? To answer the second question first, the pairs breeding in the UK are thought to be escapees from captivity (one female has successfully reared 23 chicks in Yorkshire). According to the magazine article, there are over 3000 Eagle Owls in captivity in the UK, but they don’t need to be registered with at least 80, but probably many more, that are unaccounted for. To me, that is quite worrying, these are a top predator, and we don’t know how many there are or where they are. Equally worrying is the speculation that the breeding pairs may have been purposefully released in order to establish a wild population in the UK, however well-intentioned, there are too many unknowns in such a course of action.

The problem with having them loose in the countryside is that although they have a varied diet and tend to live mainly on rabbits, with which I am sure most people would agree we are amply supplied, they also predate other birds of prey and have prevented successful nesting of native birds such as peregrines and the rather rare (and recently showcased on Springwatch) Goshawk. The Eagle Owl also needs quite a large territory, I am not sure how many of those are available in the overcrowded UK, probably not enough to support a viable population, is it fair to release birds that don’t have much chance of surviving for more than a generation or two?

Then there is the press to contend with. No matter how you feel about such things, headlines such as the Telegraph’s 2008 “Eagle Owl terrorising village’s pets and children” does not do any good at all and may lead to someone going out with a gun and shooting the poor bird. (For the record the bird was an escapee, with jesses still attached, which was probably used to being around people, and as far as I can tell had not gone near anyone’s pets but had tried to land on a small child.)

But, is the debate a little late? If the birds have been successfully breeding in several areas of the UK for the last couple of decades, the latest being in the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire where they have successfully reared chicks for the last couple of years, are they already here and likely to stay? Whilst I don’t want to see the release of flora and fauna that have never been native, I would hate to see them hunted down just because of a perceived threat. I would like to see more responsibility from the people that own these creatures in captivity and a little thought to go into their actions and their likely consequences.

Are all the white butterflies in my garden evil?

The short-ish answer is, if cabbage white butterflies are evil, then yes. OK, there are wood whites, and marbled whites, but I bet the ones that you have been looking at are either small white or large white butterflies.

What’s the difference I hear you ask – well, one is larger than the other! Other than that, the large white has broader wings which does make them easier to identify if you see them at rest (which is not very often as they range around looking for a mate). Other than that there are a couple of differences that will help identify them and I have provided some photos to help.

Large whites have black tips on their wings, the females have two black spots, the males do not have any. Small white man butterflies have one spot on their forewing, the lady butterflies again have two. The small white wingtips are also dark, but as far as I can tell are much lighter than their larger friends. A word of caution on this last point however, there are two broods of white butterfly each year and the markings on the July / August batch tend to be darker than those of the earlier brood – probably a bit like a sun tan. Oh yes, and, when the wings are closed, even the male large white appears to have spots.

In terms of their cabbage-destroying propensities, then they have different modes of attack. Large white butterflies lay their eggs on the outer leaves of plants of the cabbage family, and their conspicous caterpillars appear in large numbers munching all the leaves in sight. The small whites are more devious – they lay their eggs in smaller numbers in the heart of the cabbage where a single caterpillar will munch away the innards making them much more difficult to deal with.

There used to be a lot more of the whites in the UK, but a combination of pesticides and a virus drastically reduced their numbers (mmm… sounds familiar). Many of the whites seen in our gardens will have come over from the continent.

OK, I am not a farmer or allotmenteer, but I have had some brassicas attacked by caterpillars, but I think you have to agree that the world would be a sorry place if the pretty white butterflies were not perpetually on the move around our gardens. I will make sure I have some verbena and buddleia for them in my garden, I will even contemplate a brassica or two for their caterpillars.