Nature – Page 6 – Enviro-Mentalist

Spoilt for choice

So continuing my developing desire to learn more about the wildlife, more particularly at the moment, the birds on my local patch I made an effort to go out with my ‘scope again this weekend – despite the dire weather forecast. I had to go on the Saturday as we had agreed to help out with the countryside day on the Sunday, so off we set with telescope and tripod with the sun in the sky, and dark grey clouds massing in the distance.

Sure enough, by the time we had made it to the spot where I set up my tripod to watch the terns the distance to the aforementioned black clouds didn’t seem that big anymore (stopping for an ice cream was probably an error). I had just enough time to notice that the terns were still there in numbers when we had to hunker down and wait out the pouring rain and fierce gusts of wind. However, throughout it all the terns were still flying, but they have now been joined by dozens of swifts (as well as house martins, but swallows, not so sure).

Once the wind and rain had disappeared it was time to check out my terns and gulls. Gulls were pretty much the same as last time – herring and lesser blackbacks at the far end and one or two black headed around. I didn’t notice the common gulls, but then I was fairly distracted. I checked the tern rafts – lots of birds around, but unfortunately most of the rafts were under water – I do hope that they hadn’t laid any eggs yet. Unsurprisingly the big new tern raft (at least I assume that’s what it is) that rides high in the water was suddenly much more popular. In the past there were only one or two terns sitting on it, this time though I counted eight around the top and there were at least two sitting in the raft – these are the ones I saw when a neighbour tried to land too close to them!

I watched the graceful terns patrolling around, tried to follow them in my ‘scope (there’s a reason they are also known as sea swallows) but wherever I looked I would see a dark shape zoom past. The swifts are back! I love sitting on the dam whilst they zoom up and over then zoom back down to fly just above the surface of the water. Where terns appear graceful and serene (until they open their beaks at least) the swifts are manic, always in a hurry, careening this way and that across the water, or screaming high above, their unmistakable scythe shaped wings so dark against a blue sky.

From now until August I’m going to be spoilt for choice – terns or swifts – which to watch?

Two weeks with a telescope.

Following my Easter Monday success I started visiting the country park more regularly with my spotting scope – aided by having a week off work. I started looking at the gulls and trying to see if there was much to be seen as it where. I didn’t expect to see much, after all, the black terns had disappeared and the little gull was nowhere to be seen, but then watching on your local patch is about appreciating what’s there all the time.

In the following two weeks I made another four trips to watch the birds. First of all I noticed that the different gulls tend to stick with birds of their own kind (not that different to people maybe). Closest to the shore and therefore people, were the black headed gulls. These are usually the largest in number and are the ones that come to the wooden pier by the visitor centre to feed on the bread thrown to the ducks.

Across the other side of the water there were a couple of flocks of larger gulls – lesser black backed and herring gulls. These were mixed but contained more of the lesser black backed – I’m not sure of the reason for this, maybe it is a sign of the decline of the herring gull which is being reported across the UK.

Then, somewhere in between there were the common gulls, although most of these appeared to be younger gulls, lacking the clean, ‘pretty’ look of the adults (they have been described as having a gentle appearance – which is true if you get a good look at them).

I noted that there were still a lot of younger looking gulls of all four species and wondered when they moult into full adult plumage – even though it was spring, do these still count as first winter adults? I noticed that the young birds all seemed to have a dark band across the edge of their tail, whereas the adults were pure white. I thought at first that this was just for the common gulls, but noticed it for the others too.

The black-headed gulls spent a lot of time sitting on the tern rafts and seemed to be tolerated by the terns there, as was the occasional common gull that ventured there. However, there was a communal effort to evict a lesser black backed gull that tried to land – when do common terns start to sit on eggs I wondered? For that matter, where do these gulls nest and breed. I have seen large flocks around various industrial estates, but wasn’t aware of any nesting sites particularly.

I had a partial answer to that by my visit on 2nd May – there were hardly any black headed gulls about at all – they had all gone. I assume they had flown off to their breeding sites wherever they are. The situation was still the same on the 4th May, but the common gulls were all but gone as well. I was left with the large gulls and about two dozen common terns. The latter look as though they are settling down on the tern rafts and it suddenly occurred to me that although I have seen them here for years, I have no idea if they have successfully bred or not. I need to know the answer to this and so now have a perfect excuse to spend two or three months with my telescope, not just a couple of weeks.

PS – my latest check of Brandon Marsh shows only a few common terns there – therefore I maintain my earlier assertion that the grass is not greener in other nature reserves.

In amongst a flock of seagulls…

No, I don’t mean the 80s pop band (they were around in the 80s weren’t they), but the black headed gulls bobbing about on the water at Daventry Country Park.

In my last post I waffled about my discovery of a totally new species for me – the black tern. Well, that wasn’t the only new species that I spotted that day when out with my scope. As I mentioned the black terns seemed to be quicker than the common terns over the water, and I had a bit of trouble following them in my scope. This was made a little more difficult by the fact that I get easily distracted and, on this occasion it was probably a good thing. Bobbing about on the water, seemingly quite happy amongst the bigger gulls, was a black headed gull. Unlike the gulls named black headed gulls (BH gulls), this one did actually have a black head, rather than chocolate brown. I was sadly very excited. Not only because here was the second new species in a day, but because I actually noticed it and decided it was different. Notebook time again (it’s becoming a bit of a habit) and I really wish I could draw, but I can’t so I scribbled instead.

I noted that the bird was smaller, as I mentioned above, that it had a black head that came all the way down its neck (that is what I was trying to get at in the picture) and that it didn’t have a white ring around its eye – I somehow knew that this was important (probably due to the huge number of bird books I had read over the years). The bill also looked neater than that of the BH gulls all around it and it seemed to have a pinky tinge to its breast feathers.

I’ll not bore you with the details, but this was a Little Gull, larus minutus, unlike the BH gull, appropriately named as it is the smallest gull, and is described as more delicate than the BH gull with which it bears some similarities. So, one trip with a telescope to the country park and two new birds to add to my lifetime list (if I kept such a thing).

The appearance of a small, dark stranger.

It all started with a tweet on Easter Sunday. Apparently there were 24 arctic terns spotted at Daventry Country Park. I wasn’t convinced, but thought I should maybe pop over and see if I could tell the difference between an arctic and common tern. By the way, I’m not a twitcher, but if there is a chance to see a new bird at the local country park? Well, I’d be a fool not to, especially on a bank holiday weekend. Besides, this means that if nothing else, the common terns were back – if you’ve never seen a common tern close up, gracefully patrolling the shallower water, then you’ve missed out.

However, not willing to admit that I wanted to see if I could see arctic terns that possibly didn’t exist some subterfuge was in order and I suggested a walk but only a quick trip into the country park with my small binoculars to see if the terns had come back. This worked and we happily sat for ten minutes or so watching the aforementioned common terns wheeling about. There were other gulls there too, but I was only interested in the terns. However, something else caught my eye, some of the terns seemed darker, but it could just have been a trick of the light – after all, there was some sun despite it being a bank holiday, and I did only have my little 8 x 24 bins with me.

I thought about them during the rest of our walk, wondered if perhaps they were younger terns or if I was just seeing things. More information was needed, so I went back later in the afternoon (trying to reduce my exposure to the many families and their dogs off leads that were bound to be there) armed with my telescope and a notebook.

I was right, they were definitely darker, they moved a lot faster too and never stopped. There were no arctic terns there, but there were a couple of dozen common terns. These had the good grace to stop once in a while on the tern rafts so I could get a good look at them. (Arctic terns apparently look like common terns but have no black on their beaks in summer and have longer tail streamers). The dark strangers didn’t, so I had to resort to note taking, a habit that I need to get into. (As I read on a completely different subject, about fungi as it happens, you should describe something first, then try and identify it, rather than trying to do it the other way round and therefore potentially miss some important features.)

Anyway, this is what I noted down;

darker wings than the common tern, darker below than above.
seemed slightly smaller than the common tern
white rump and greyish tail
lightish under the wing and the grey wings had white edges in flight
seemed to be faster than a common tern

Once back home it was time to hit my myriad of books. There was only one conclusion, I had spotted some black terns, something I didn’t even know existed until Easter Monday.

According to the RSPB handbook of British Birds it is ‘smaller than the common tern’. The Collins Bird Guide gives this description: ‘typical marsh tern. In summer body black, under tail white; slate grey upper wing and tail, underwing entirely silver-grey; bill and legs dark red’ (although on this point the RSPB disagree and claim it has a black bill and it definitely looked black to me). It is a ‘light airy bird that flies with great agility’. This sounds exactly like the birds I had been watching. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo, but there are plenty on the web if you want to see this pretty bird.

It is apparently a common passage bird through the UK (which means that you might see it in spring and autumn on its way to somewhere else) and has made a few unsuccessful attempts at breeding in the UK. I was a little unsure as to whether I had really seen some of these until I noticed someone tweeting that there were some at Summer Leys nature reserve over the other side of Northamptonshire – I guess I was right after all and these were probably the same birds.

Not all yellow flowers are dandelions.

If you look around for the next six months you will see a lot of flowers – but how many do you actually recognise, how many do you stop to look at in more detail.

Take Coltsfoot for example. Until today I didn’t know what it was, I had heard the name, but wouldn’t recognise it at all. It caught my eye because although it looked like a dandelion it was standing proud of the waste ground in groups.

Apart from looking beautiful with such an interesting stem coltsfoot are recognisable in spring by their lack of leaves. These appear after the flowers have died back and give the flower their name – apparently looking like a horse’s footprint, but not exactly convincing. These leaves can grow up to 1.5m tall – that’s nearly as big as me! However, the latin name Tussilago farfara is derived from its traditional medicinal as a cough medicine – tussis meaning cough and ago to act upon. It has also been used for skin treatments, gout, rheumatism, colds and viral infections. More recently though there are concerns about potential liver damage that could result from its use. This is due to the pyrrolizidine alkaloids that are found in coltsfoot along with other members of the daisy family such as ragwort. It is these chemicals that attract the caterpillar of the cinnabar moth to ragwort in such numbers as they use these poisons as a deterrent against predators. However, the levels in coltsfoot are much lower than those in ragwort.

As it appears so early in the year (they flower as early as January and last through into March) it provides an important food source for many insects including honey bees as well as this little beetle.

There’s a lot to be said for staying local.

Whilst the idea of staying local has many opportunities of expression in the world of sustainability, I am talking about nature watching. I have a fondness for the Brandon Marsh nature reserve near Coventry and sometimes go over there for a treat – especially when it is my birthday. I think the fondness stems from my first sighting of a hobby there which chased dragonflies across the front of the Carlton Hide. So, as I had some days off work I decided to pop over there, telescope at the ready for a bit of birdwatching.

Whilst in the past I have seen a little egret there and last year got great views of cuckoos, if I am honest, every time I’m asked ‘how was it?’ I always haverot answer ‘it was very quiet’. When I look at the sightings page I see other people have spotted bitterns, redpoll, water rails – I don’t expect to see them myself (although the bittern is something I would dearly love to see). So, I wonder why I go. I think it is partly for the hot chocolate and cake – an additional treat that I allow myself from the tea rooms there.

I think I might have been too early in the year, but I have to say it was quiet there on my recent visit. I did see oystercatchers, but other than that, there were goldeneye, gadwall, shoveller ducks, nuthatches and the usual gulls, crows and a chiff chaff. Not bad, but with the exception of the oystercatcher I can regularly see all of the others at Daventry Country Park. (I’ve also seen hobbies chasing birds and a little egret there as well) I did see some bees that I wouldn’t see in Daventry, but that was about all. And, as for the hot chocolate and cake – the usual array of homemade cakes wasn’t on display and the price had gone up.

I think I’ll stick to birding in Daventry in future – and maybe take my camera along to look for insects instead next time I’m tempted to Brandon Marsh – they also are home to some fantastic demoiselles!

Clarke’s mining bee

I went to Brandon Marsh recently to see if I could see anything different bird-wise and so, armed with telescope, sound recording gear and small digital camera off I went. Birding was pretty much a wipe out unfortunately (see additional post), but as I didn’t have my macro lens with me I was bound to see something I wanted to photograph.

I noticed my first small bees of the season (buff-tailed bumble bee and honey bee notwithstanding) – there were quite a few buzzing about and they seemed to be nesting in small holes in the ground – therefore they must be mining bees. In fact, one nest site was on a path to a hide and I was worried I might stand on some. I have seen a couple of mining bees before (ashy and tawny) and despite the fact that these were red in colour they were neither of the above.

It looked at first as though there might be two different types as there were some that were much paler in colour, but they did seem to be sharing the same nesting sites and holes, and I therefore concluded that they must be males to the red coloured females. Sexual dimorphism (where there are visible differences between the males and females) seems to occur quite often in bees.

Unfortunately I got the ID wrong on these, but was corrected by a lovely iSpot member. These are the male and female Clarke’s Mining Bee (Adrena Clarkella). According to the BWARS site they are often the first solitary bee out in the spring – sometimes as early as February and continue flying until May. They like pollen from Willow – hence the large number around Brandon Marsh I assume. They built their nests on a sandy slope – presumably to catch the sun. The bees seem fairly tame – so I think that next time my macro lens will come with me to try and get some better shots. Now that I’ve seen it once I hope I’ll be able to recognise it the next time.

Is it going to be a good butterfly summer?

That apparently depends on the butterflies. There has been some dialogue on Twitter that has revolved around an old belief that if the first butterfly seen in a year is yellow, then it will be a good summer, if it is white it will be a quiet summer and if it is brown or orange it will be a terrible summer.

I am not sure where this piece of wisdom has come from. There are four butterflies that overwinter as adults; Brimstones, Commas, Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks. Therefore if you should see Brimstones first then the summer will be good, see one of the others and we are doomed to a watery summer, see a white butterfly and, I can only assume they mean an Orange Tip as they are the first white-coloured butterflies that are about, then it will be quiet.

I wondered if the reason for this was that Brimstones tend to overwinter outside and therefore if they are in a place that catches the sun then the air will warm up around them (they often shelter under dark coloured ivy) and they might be tempted outside if it is a particularly warm sunny day. However, the Small Tort and Peacocks tend to overwinter in old buildings and sheds and are therefore less likely to experience sudden changes in temperatures and probably wouldn’t notice an occasional sunny day. However, this doesn’t take into account the fact that Commas also spend the winter in the undergrowth so they should be out with the Brimstones. Maybe Commas need the weather to be a bit warmer, or maybe they are much less noticeable than a bright yellow butterfly catching the sun as it flits past so they tend to be overlooked. If the Orange Tips are out first then it must be April and hasn’t been particularly warm or cold so far and possibly a bit damp as they tend to spend the winter as pupae and then emerge to patrol damp verges and ditches to look for a mate.

Unfortunately I haven’t been keeping track of which butterfly I have been noticing first for the last few years – in Northamptonshire the Peacock has beaten the Brimstone for the last couple of years, but I wonder if that is because some have been overwintering in heated buildings and have come out in January. For those that are interested my first butterfly this year was a Brimstone seen on 7th March, with Peacocks and Small Torts turning up a couple of days later along with a lot more Brimstones. So, maybe it will be a Butterfly Summer after all (fingers crossed).

In my pond

Unfortunately my pond is in a north facing garden, so whilst everyone else is getting excited about frog spawn, I have to wait a few months until the fully grown frogs come to take advantage of my cool and shady pool. However, all is not lost because I have discovered that there are other things lurking beneath just waiting for me to find them.

I have recently acquired a microscope and am trying to find my way round it. Whilst other people could look at a slide and tell you all about the cell structure, or the type of creature that they have found I am currently satisfied to know the names of a few parts of a plant or to be able to focus the microscope without smashing the lens into the slide! In the near future I do hope to learn how to prepare sections of plant so I can prepare my own slides – but one step at a time.

After looking through some slides that I borrowed and, quite frankly, being not much wiser than I was I decided to grab some pond water and see if there was anything for me to find. I was quite excited to find some form of life wriggling around in the bit of water that I popped on the slide – although this was tempered by the fact that I worried I was slowly cooking the poor beastie. However, it fared better than the other little chap I found which I think I squished when the cover slip went on, although he did continue to twitch disconcertingly for quite a while.

Putting the guilt aside that I felt from this exercise I was pleased to get some OK photos out of the two little chaps, whatever they were.

Quick update – the chap or chaps at the bottom is a daphnia – I found it in an old biology book that I have.

What’s not to lichen?

I know almost nothing about lichens. In fact, up until a couple of months ago I actually knew nothing about them. So, I have been set the task of finding out as much as I can by the end of this year. I still haven’t worked out how I will do that, but I am on the case.

I now know that lichens are composed of a fungus (mycobiont) and an algae or cyanobacteria (photobiont) that exist in a symbiotic relationship. The jury is out as to whether the algae gains anything from the relationship whilst the fungus most definitely gets nutrients thanks to photosynthesis by the algae. However, the algae might gain a degree of protection from high light levels and periods of drought thanks to this partnership.

One of the commonest and most easily recognisable lichens in xanthoria parietina or the maritime sunburst lichen. This is a beautiful orange-yellow lichen with obvious fruiting bodies. It is the one that can often be seen in winter making the trees look as though they have yellow branches. As well as growing on trees it is also sometimes found on stone. It is also often seen on rooftops where the lichen gains nutrients from bird droppings. Lichens are well studied as indicators of pollution, some being more tolerant than others. The reason that there is so much of this sunburst lichen about, is that it is noted to be very pollution tolerant.

Lichens employ a couple of methods (some lichens employ both) to spread and reproduce. Xanthoria parietina uses just one of these methods, producing fruiting bodies as per other fungi which then release spores that are dispersed to establish new colonies if they can find a suitable algae. These fruiting bodies are obvious even to the naked eye.

At one time this lichen was used to treat jaundice because of its colour, but nowadays, in common with many other lichen, it is being investigated for other medicinal properties; in this case for its antiviral activity.