Nature – Page 9 – Enviro-Mentalist

A surprise at the country park

We went for a walk in the snow today, partly to get some exercise and to enjoy the fresh air, partly to look for snowy photo opportunities.

I hadn’t planned to go to the country park, I figured that it would probably be fairly frozen and possibly filled with dogs – which if you are not a dog owner does not make for a relaxing stroll. However, after wandering along the old railway track and deciding we didn’t want to go into town we headed left for the country park.

We were a little surprised to see that all of the small streams that run into the country park appeared to be ice free, even at the edges and debated as to the reason for this.

We walked through the woodland on the west of the reservoir for a change heading for the entrance. There were a lot of small birds about, wrens, robins, blue tits etc, but nothing unusual.

We had just about made it to the entrance when I saw a water rail. Although I realise it is probably a sad thing to admit to, I have to admit that I was very excited. You see, I have seen reports of good sightings at Brandon Marsh, I have even been there on the days when the alleged sightings have been made, but I have never seen one. Now, here I was, about a metre away and with a camera fitted with my best low light lens. Such opportunities only come round once in a lifetime! Whilst these are not uncommon birds, they are quite secretive and I would never have expected to see one so close to the busiest part of the country park.

The cold weather had obviously made it decide that it could stop being secretive or it could be dead and that wandering into the more populated parts of the country park would have to be done. In fact it seemed so intent on looking for food that a bright pink small child wandering past noisily didn’t deter it from its wading. It was only the barking of a dog that made it run away but not before I had taken some reasonable pictures.

What a fantastic day – a nice walk in the park, a new birding first and some good photos – perfect. Bring on the waxwings!

Where Costa Rica goes can we follow?

I noted a news item in a magazine this week that was highlighting the environmental credentials of Costa Rica – not a country that particularly springs to mind when thinking of environmental achievements. They have been awarded the 2010 Future Policy Award in recognition of their Biodiversity Law ‘as a milestone of excellence in meeting the goals of the UN convention on Biological Diversity’.

It would appear that Costa Rica, which is rich in flora and fauna, has developed policies designed to safeguard these habitats recognising their importance as an ecosystem and for bringing in ecotourism revenue (a topic I am not overly comfortable with). The part of the policy that particularly got my attention was that at a time when it is rumoured that the UK coalition ‘greenest’ government is contemplating selling large tracts of forest and national parks, the Costa Rican government is channeling revenue from fuel tax, energy fees and car stamp duty to pay for the management of nature reserves and environmental services.

The immediate question is, if Costa Rica, a so-called developing country, can take such a stance to protect its habitats, why, when we are so wealthy, can we not afford to do the same? Why do we not value what we have, whilst pointing the finger at developing countries for destroying their habitat.

Shaggy Ink Cap

One of the many things that I find mysterious in life is how anybody becomes an expert at identifying Fungi (and flies for that matter). I have been on a fungi foraging / identification course and came back none the wiser. I think this is in part because there are so many little brown jobs (bit like bird watching I suppose), some of which are even called ‘deceivers’ because they look like some other type of mystery mushroom. However, there are some mushrooms that even a lazy idiot like me can identify, fly agaric is one, and shaggy ink caps (coprinus comatus) are another.

Fly agaric is the fairy tale red toadstool with white bits on the top and is to be avoided at all costs as it is pretty toxic. Shaggy ink cap on the other hand is edible, but this is only recommended if picked when young and eaten almost straight away. You have probably all noticed shaggy ink caps at some point, but just passed them by – when young they look a bit uninteresting, just white, cylindrical mushrooms covered with scales. However, as they mature they start to change colour, and look much prettier. Unfortunately for the fungus this is because as it degrades, which it can do in the space of a day, its gills start to change colour and secrete a blank ink as it autodigests itself. Despite the cold weather there are still a few about, such as the one I took a picture of (which also left my fingers a little blackened as I moved some of the grass out of the way to get a better shot).

Pickers beware though, there is also a common ink cap which is more fawn in colour than white with which the shaggy ink cap could be confused – if eaten within a few hours of consuming alcohol then nausea and vomiting will occur. Best be on the safe side and leave the foraging to the experts and fungi in the wild for photographers and nature spotters to enjoy.

The sun still shines occasionally

OK, it is probably my fault that the weather has been rubbish for the last two weeks – after all I have been on holiday. Today, though, I was determined to go out with my camera. So, I did, I went off to photograph some flowers. Fortunately, wherever there are flowers there is usually some wildlife to be found.

As we head towards the end of September we begin to find contrasts. The leaves are turning, and, in this wind and rain, dropping from some trees, but there are still butterflies to be found here and there (although my garden has hardly been full of them this Summer – only one Painted Lady and one Red Admiral, with some whites, peacocks and tortoiseshells dropping in). I found quite a few at Ryton gardens today like this Small Tortoishell enjoying the sedum.

The queen bumblebees are out foraging for food before they hibernate for the Winter – the queens are the only ones that are left for Winter, the rest die off, and the queen waits for Spring before laying eggs. Please leave places for them to hibernate, a messy, undisturbed corner in the garden – after all, who will see it during the Winter?

At Brandon Marsh I also saw some dragonflies zipping about, chasing insects, and each other – very aggressive, but oh, so beautiful to watch. But I am also seeing quite a lot of fungi about, something I usually associate with full-on autumn (probably incorrectly), like the pretty, but toxic, Fly Agaric that I found.

Beautiful September

Today was the first day of September, and, what a beautiful day it was too. I love this time of year. A clear night meant a chilly morning, but that just meant that everything was covered in dew, and therefore there were photo opportunities abounding for anyone with a camera to hand such as this poor little ladybird precariously balanced. I also found quite a few mushrooms looking a little soggy and cold amongst the grass. The birds are still about, house martins were chirping and wheeling about the sky fattening up for their long, arduous flight south, whilst the young finches of all varieties were squabbling in the garden (I have just put a smaller bird feeder out, so there is less room to perch!).

However, once lunchtime came the sun was out, the sky was blue and the crickets were buzzing – the fields sounded like they were electrified. This is a photo of a grasshopper that I saw, but there were definitely crickets about – I saw them and heard them, but didn’t manage to get a good photo. Also about this afternoon were butterflies, hoverflies, damselflies, other flies…. I spent five minutes watching a dragonfly (I know not what type) hunting insects in the sunlight – fantastic.

Although the berries are now colouring on the shrubs and trees, and many of the bright, Summer flowers have gone to seed, there are still some out there to brighten up the roadsides.

Climate Change Scepticism

I was struck at work this week at the mountain still to be climbed with regard to energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions. For some reason the conversation came round to company cars and tax, and the comment that there are two hybrid cars in the Company – the belief was that there is a good chance that they were bought purely for tax reasons. There then came the comment that the emissions from a Prius included a high degree of smugness. This was followed by a general level of guffawing from the self-proclaimed climate change sceptics in the room. In fact, they seemed rather smug about the fact that they were sceptical about climate change.

I tried to point out that climate change is not necessarily the issue, that wastefulness, loss of resources and biodiversity is the issue – particularly for those in the room with young children. The answer was that they would be able to watch the now extinct butterflies on a lovely big flat screen television. Apart from thinking that was a pretty pathetic and blinkered response (not to mention that televisions require resources to make and run), I started to imagine a world where the only interaction we had with nature was through videos of long dead species and then I shuddered.

The real problem is that in addition to the lack of appreciation of the effect we are having on our environment, I am not sure we have it in our power to change these attitudes.

Finally the butterflies have arrived…

…well, some of them have. With the much talked about decline in pollinator numbers I have been getting concerned about the dearth of butterflies recently. I had hoped that with the warm sunshine we had in June that there would be a bumper year this year – sadly I was sooo wrong.

However, it is now buddleia flowering time and my hopes are starting to rise again. Earlier in the week there were a few white butterflies about, and I got excited when I saw my first Peacock of the summer. Today, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and I should have been doing some coursework, but, the sun was shining etc. I managed to count up to 10 peacock butterflies at the same time – there may have been more, but I can only see part of the shrub. I also saw four whites over the back garden, a small tortoiseshell in the front and back (although it could be the same one), a gatekeeper and, for the first time in the garden this year, I a saw a comma butterfly – see the picture on the left – so called because of the white, comma-shaped mark on the underside of its wing. As yet, no Red Admirals or Painted Ladies, but we are only just starting the second week of August and the admirals tend to hang about until October / November.

Peacock butterfly picture below is just because it is such a gorgeous creature that I had to include it!

Bumblebee Identification

I joined the Bumblebee Conservation Trust last year following a Summer trying to photograph them which made me realise how interesting and different they all were. Couple that with all of the coverage regarding the plight of the honeybee which also extends, although for different reasons, to other pollinators, and I decided that it was time I discovered more about the bees in my garden.

Fast forward a year and with my new found interest in invertebrates I started to discover there were more bees about than I had realised, including my favourite, the red-tailed bumblebee, and others such as the wonderfully named hairy footed flower bee. Despite many attempts and lots of photos, I still felt at a loss when it came to positively identifying them. When I saw an advert for a bumblebee identification session at Leicester University on a Sunday afternoon then I signed up straight away.

I arrived early and thought I would go and try and find some bees to photograph – as you would (and, amazingly, got some photos I was really pleased with). They had some lavender beds in their herb garden which we literally buzzing as well as some other plant such as echinops which also seemed pretty popular.

Anyway, back to the course. It was run by a lovely lady called Maggie, who is obviously obsessed by bees. She went through the lifecycle of bees, some of the differences between them and included a list of plants that she had created and which she had subsequently grouped according to how many species of bee visited them. I came away realising that I had to be a little more choosy about the plants that I am putting in the garden and with some ideas for research that I could also undertake. First, however, I need to be able to identify them.

I was hoping to come away from a couple of hours amongst the flowers with the ability to recognise the common bumbles, the big six. But, there are queens, workers and males – so the big six became 18, and then there are the cuckoo bumble bees – another 4 types with males and females so we are now at 26! Suddenly it was not as easy as I had hoped. (Cuckoo bumbles don’t need workers as they parasitise the nests of particular bumbles so use their workers to care for their offspring.) Then, as the bees get older, just like us they fade and get greyer, well, paler – so then all the descriptions seem to go out of the window!

Did I come away knowing many of the 26? Well, we did find four of the big six – but they are mainly males and workers at this time of year, the queens are in the nests. So, I can recognise a carder bee (a little fluffy, ginger bee), and the red-tailed bumble bee, I will also have a go at the buff and white tailed bees (the male white-tailed bumble bees are particularly lovely – see photo above), but we didn’t see the early or garden bumblebees, so I will carry on looking. However, we did find three or four species of cuckoo bee, which I may have seen before and just not realised what they were (such as the one in the photo on the right)! So, although I am not fully convinced that I can get the big six yet, I have now a better idea, and think I can have a go at finding cuckoo bees. I will also be planning some winter research and some more bee-friendly plants for next year.

Nature Notes for a hot Summer

I haven’t put any observations up in the last few weeks. There is no particular reason for this, at least it is not due to a lack of nature. Despite the hot, sunny weather and lack of rain for the last month, there is still a lot of wildlife out there, although there are reminders that autumn is not far away.

Unlike the plants in my garden, a lot of the wildflowers still seem to be surviving, although, as expected these are mainly the perennials. A lot of the grasses are now looking as though they are living in Texas, not in Daventry, and the usually green and pleasant land is turning distinctly straw-coloured. The flowers that seem to be doing well at the moment are the yellow ragwort, purple thistles, and the statuesque Rosebay Willowherb. This is a plant that has spread rapidly since the introduction of the railways and is present on almost all railway embankments that I have seen, along with motorway verges. It is also called fireweed due to its colonisation of areas destroyed by fire. In the autumn you will see thousands of the seeds carried on the wind, helping it to spread. However, in spite of its encroaching nature, I think that, close-up it is a remarkably pretty flower, and, as a wildflower, is a food source for many insects. The plant also has culinary uses, its roots have been used in stews and it leaves in salads, being valued as a source of Vitamins A and C.

My favourite rose is now reaching the end of its flowering period, and round, fat rose hips are starting to appear on rosa rugosa, reminding me that autumn is not too far away. These are also a good source of Vitamin C as are most rosehips, and are often collected to make rosehip syrup.

For the last month I have been wondering what has happened to all of the butterflies, there don’t seem to be many at all. I am eagerly awaiting the flowering of the buddleia to see if this will bring them out. However, I have seen a large number of dark, restless butterflies, flitting along the grasses in the Country Park and the hedgerows in the industrial estate. These are ringlet butterflies, and they are not always co-operative when trying to take photos! Their favourite nectar sources are bramble and privet flowers, which explains their appearance at this time of year when the hedgerows are full of these flowers (the smell of the privet is lovely at the beginning of the July).

The bees have all been busy in the garden, although I think they are lamenting the passage of the sage flowers. Our verbena bonariensis is not as prolific this year, and, as I noted earlier, the buddleia is not yet out, so they are having to content themselves with thyme and oregano as well as the last of the honeysuckle. Red tailed bumblebees (which happen to be my favourite) are in the garden each day, along with others that I think are buff-tailed and garden bumblebees, but I am still working on my identification skills.

This time of year also sees the skies starting to fill with house martins and swifts. The family groups feeding in the long evenings, but again, they will soon be gone. In the garden we have had several goldfinch chicks, and incredibly noisy they are too! They sound a little like a computer game, chirping and whirring.

The garden is remaining remarkably resilient in the dry, parched weather (I rarely water anything in the garden, it can fend for itself), but the pond is getting incredibly low. We have discovered that we have at least one frog in the garden, and I am now happy in the knowledge that the pond is home to more than just and abundance of water snails. I assume that the frogs and toad spend a lot of their time in the vegetation around the garden.

Hunting Damselflies

Normally when I visit Brandon Marsh nature reserve I take my ‘scope and go looking for birds. However, in the Summer this path usually leads to disappointment, so yesterday I decided to go armed with my macro lens and go looking for insects, particularly damselflies.

I did get a good shot of damselflies a couple of weeks ago with my compact camera whilst on a lunchtime stroll, but I hoped to be able to get something a little better when armed with my ‘proper’ camera. In some ways I was disappointed, the damselflies were ever so jumpy, as soon as you moved they were off. Also, there were areas which looked perfect for other insects, but they were just not there, all those obliging umbellifers at the side of the path, and they were empty (I found the same problems at the Country Park this afternoon).

However, I did achieve what had become an unconscious ambition. For the last year or two, mainly as a result of my macro photography I have developed an interest in insects. The increase in the size of our pond has added damselflies and dragonflies to the list that was previously populated by butterflies and bees. As a result, and, through viewing various nature programs, I have always wanted to see a demoiselle, a type of damselfly. Particularly, a Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx Splendens). You may be wondering what I am talking about, but these are particularly beautiful damselflies, that flutter like butterflies and sparkle in shades of green and blue. They are truly beautiful (in fact there is a Beautiful Demoiselle, but I think the Banded is prettier). I never thought that I would see one, but they are apparently present at Brandon Marsh.

To cut a long story short, I got a brilliant birthday present, and had been at Brandon just long enough to drink a hot chocolate and wander a few hundred yards onto the reserve before one tantalisingly zipped past – I got just enough of a glimpse to realise what I had missed. Then, no more, but some beautiful emerald coloured damselflies which did not seem to want to stay still – it was going to be one of those days.

On my way back from the furthest of the hides I decided to risk going the long route back through an area which is usually too boggy to try – and, despite all the dry, hot weather, it was still muddy in places. My walk was rewarded, Banded Demoiselles were there in numbers. They were also pretty nervous and any movement or the slightest breeze sent them fluttering up. Getting a photo was difficult, and I apologise for the poor quality, but I think you will agree that these are lovely insects (unless you are my mother, who doesn’t like any form of nature apart from blue tits, robins and some butterflies). I have since discovered that the green damselfly is in fact the female Banded Demoiselle.