Gardening for Wildlife

Having been absent from the blog for a month now due to a hectic schedule, a quick update as I'm still hectic, but with work I went to see a very interesting trial at RHS Wisley last week. This went out as an item on Radio 4's Saving Species, but Helen Bostock of the RHS has just updated her blog. I thought you wildlife gardeners out there may be interested in this.

Plants for Bugs blog

More soon, I hope, after a mad dash to the Farnes, Wearside, Cornwall and then back to Yorkshire before the end of June..... keeps me off the streets I suppose :-)

Its a date with Dolomedes fimbriatus

Yesterday I had a hot date with a rare and exotic female, no not Catherine Duchess of Cambridge, but the beautiful raft spider, Dolomedes fimbriatus.

We travelled up to the Shropshire Mosses and Meres to see this beauty. There are two raft spiders in the UK, the very rare Fen Raft Spider, Dolomedes plantarius which is only found at a handful of sites in East Anglia and the South East and the widespread but very localised in distribution raft spider. Bizarrely the rarer of these two is quite well studied, however the ecology of fimbriatus is hardly understood at all. And they're not easy to find either in boggy landscapes, unless that is the big females are on water. And when I say big, I mean big.... they'd give the canny lasses in Newcassel on a Friday night a run for their money. Yep that big.

But before I allow you to see this big lady, let's have a crafty peek at the weedy, pale wimpish male raft spider above. There were quite a few scuttling about in their meek lily livered way, but even these had a style of their own, so well camouflaged too. But then we found a female, well camouflaged too but absolutely stunning.........

These are just stunning arachnids. And yes the female is huge, the biggest spider in Europe. The one below was about 7-8cm long from leg tip to opposite leg tip, the body about 3cm.

These photographs don't do this spider justice as the body was like chocolate brown velvet with a lemon curd go-faster stripe down each lateral side. As hunting spiders they spend a lot of time waiting for prey on water, using water tension to support their weight. However they are attached to a piece of vegetation using their hind legs and a tiny thread of silk.

One curious piece of this species ecology is that if a male approaches to breed and she thinks, nahh far too weedy, she just eats him. Not after mating as many spiders do, but before mating. Now that does have a slight ecological problem in that if the last female was on the planet, would she eat all the males and become extinct?

I'm glad we found some spiders as with this very dry spring we're currently experiencing the Moss we were visiting was almost dry. The two females we found were actually in puddles around an ancient tree stump, this was the only open water we found. We need rain, and lots of it soon.

If you want to find out more about these fascinating beasties, I'd recomment the Dolomedes website http://www.dolomedes.org.uk/

Seawatching at Severn Beach

Yesterday evening after work I headed over to Severn Beach in South Gloucestershire following a call at lunchtime by Bristol naturalist Ed Drewitt that the evening before hundreds of terns, godwits and other waders had flooded the sky en-route to their breeding grounds further north.

We had all been reading for the last few days amazing reports of 1500 'commic' terns, 4-500 godwit flocks, whimbrel, dunlin and even 40 dotterel in summer plumage passing through. In recent days strong easterly winds had blown many migrants westwards, rather than following their usual route along the English Channel. This spring has been a fantastic time for sea watching up the River Severn. So after work, I joined Ed and another colleague and we sat down in the shingle awaiting the arrival of high tide, and the birds of course, while admiring the charming view of the massive Avonmouth industrial complex a few miles down the coast. Lovely. But the birds don't mind.

Soon the rising tide pushed up a smallish flock of bar tailed godwits who began feeding just in front of where we sat, joined by a lone knot (centre of picture). I've never seen these birds in summer plumage and they were stunning with their brick red bellies. What is amazing is that only 3 days or so these godwits would have been feeding in West Africa and in a few more days will be in the Arctic tundra. Bird migration is amazing.

We then had some whimbrel who warbled their wonderful flutey call as they restlessly skipped about in the rising water, followed by 12 black headed gulls on migration, quite a few swallows and house martins flying through, a sanderling, a couple of ringed plover and a few dunlin in their fantastic summer plumage with golden top and black bib belly.

But sadly nothing like the numbers Ed had experienced the evening before where the Severn Bridge, a well know barrier to bird migration had stopped 500 terns in their tracks and they then wheeled round to gain height right over Ed's head. We did however really enjoy the 2 hours out there on a glorious spring evening, such a nice thing to do after work, and we did have the godwits above fly low over our head calling.

And so as the sun set, the temperature dropped quickly. It was therefore time to go home from this wild feeling place, just on the outskirts of Bristol, and have a cup of tea.

I'll finish though with one amusing thought. As we sat there Ed's phone rang, another birder he knew was a mile or so down the coast and sending reports. Ed's phone rang a second time, another group of birders further north reporting sightings. Through binoculars we could see most of these birders from our vantage point, which added to the excitement having these updates from north and south of us. Mobile phone reports of those wild birds being very mobile themselves on migration.

Broad Bodied Chaser

I spent yesterday catching up on gardening and housework duties, and was very happy to see this female broad bodied chaser resting herself on the willows at the back of the border.

These may be one of the most abundant dragonflies in Europe, but they're still wonderful. And emerging in April is quite early.

A holly blue butterfly also entertained for a while as did a willow warbler. Above my head swallows and house martins prospected for nesting sites. Not a bad wildlife tally, just working and relaxing at home.

Are you a guest at the Royal Wedding?

Here's something it might be fun to pass around the blogging world..... In honour of the big wedding on Friday, use your royal wedding guest name.

Start with either Lord or Lady.

Your first name is one of your grandparents' names.

Your surname is the name of your first pet, double-barreled with the name of the street you grew up on.

Best Regards, Lord Claus Avril-Dipe Lane (gosh!!)

I wonder if I'll get any comments allowing me to know who the wedding guests are going to be from the blogging community? :-)

2 Easter bluebell woods and a walk to the church

What a fabulous Easter weekend. I only had Saturday and Sunday off as the wheels of industry continue to turn in the working world I inhabit. But two days is more than long enough to demolish an Easter egg or two.

Time allowed over the weekend, apart from eating Easter eggs, gardening and sleeping, to visit 2 bluebell woods in Wiltshire. The first was a private woodland I actually stumbled across near Ramsbury in the East of the county on Good Friday. Driving along a single track road, I literally stopped in my tracks as a flash of blue emanated from the trees. It is so much more thrilling to find something unexpected as I drove around the lanes.

This woodland was a mix of coppiced hazel, ash and other native species and riddled with badger setts so I will not give the exact location away. The woods themselves were about 2 miles long but only a few hundred meters wide as they skirted the ridge of the hill. Just stunning seeing the bluebells in the evening sunshine.

Then on Saturday evening Julie and I went to West Woods just outside Marlborough. Actually we had a little bit of a drive out as it had been such a hot afternoon, pootling about the glorious Wiltshire countryside in the cooler evening was a treat. Given I had seen the wonderful bluebell wood above the day before, I had mixed feelings when Julie suggested we go to West Woods as I'm often disappointed going to well known wildlife spots, in my experience they never quite live up to expectations.

On Saturday evening I was proved absolutely wrong with that thought. These beech woods not 4 miles from Marlborough has a dozen or more cars parked in the carpark. I thought, humm, there'll be a few bluebells and an awful lot people. But no, so vast were the woods that even though there were a lot of people there, it felt like we were alone.

And they were stunning. I've visited a lot of bluebell woods over my time but I have to say this is by far the best one I have visited in 30 years of wildlife watching. It was hard to know what to photograph, where or how, given that there was just a sea of blue, as all the bluebells were in perfect condition all at the same time.

One nice find by Julie was this dor beetle geotrupes stercorarius scuttling along the path. These are fun little beetles who do good work hovering up all that manure left by other animals. I never used to be interested in insect or creepy crawlies until recent years and now the more I found out about their fascinating life cycles and adaptions to their environment, the more I'm fascinated by them. Just wish I knew more about them.

So lets head back into the sunlit West Woods, one more time....

....but not before this most peculiar bit of wildlife spotting, a holly in full berry mode. Now what I want to know is why is it in berry in late April? The berries were fresh too, not dried and remnants from the winter, they looked very fresh indeed.

Just so atmospheric

On the way back home I took Julie to see the woods I'd visited on Good Friday. I'm glad we went that way as we stumbled across 3 red kites. In fact in one small area of Ramsbury, as we stood next to the car, we saw 3 the kites, 1 buzzard, 2 muntjac, a brown hare, 3 grey partridge and a magpie. Can't be bad.

And neither was the sunset...!!

Earlier on Saturday I'd popped over to Ham Hill near the Hampshire border to see if any Duke of Burgundy butterflies were about.

The reserve has changed dramatically since I last visited a few weeks ago. Partly I guess because of the hot dry weather recently but it was alive with insects. Masses upon masses of St Mark's flies, and many brimstone and orange tip butterflies. Sadly no Duke of Burgundy butterflies this visit. But a lovely Dark-bordered Bee-fly, Bombylius major, diverted my attention for a while.

This tiny linear reserve is well known for its wild flowers, with this germander speedwell Veronica chamaedrys showing well against the cow slips.

As was this newly emerging common twayblade, Listera ovata below.

...and the masses of willow down blowing in the hot breeze. Was this really only April 23rd? Felt a lot more like July up there on the chalk downland.

Finally for this posting, yesterday evening when it became cooler, Julie and I had a gentle stroll up to the village church in East Grafton. It was a super evening and lovely to be out for just half an hour as the shadows lenghtened.

Inside the church was an Easter garden made on the Saturday by the village children. I thought this was absolutely charming.

And so Easter Sunday drew a-close and we wandered back round the village green to take in the air, the many thatched cottages and then home for a well earned shandy while watching Julie's favourite film, Seabiscuit.

I know where I'll be on May 7th!!!!!

Home Pleasures

I spend a lot of my working time visiting fantastic locations across the UK to see rare and fascinating wildlife, but this last couple of days as I've been working flat out and not getting home until 8pm. To relax therefore, in the evening, and morning for that matter, I've just been relaxing at home. And in doing so, appreciating the wildlife my garden has to offer. It may not be exotic, but we often overlook the common place and after all these are "my" birds.

I'm fortunate in that my house backs onto farmland which then becomes the North Somerset Levels before falling into the sea at Sand Bay on the Bristol Channel. From the spare bedroom window, where this view was taken, I can see the Black Mountains in Wales on a good day, but often foxes padding about the field.

But ever since moving here 2 years ago, I've loved the fact the house is actually a home to a myriad of birds. Although it is a modern house, in the eves as I write this posting there are at least 3 starling nests. How do I know this, well apart from seeing half eggshells on the path, or watching the adults zooming in and out, I can hear the chicks chirruping. In fact if I gently tap my bedroom ceiling off they start clammering for food. Don't try this at home, as the chicks use up energy chirruping so if the adults aren't feeding they'll not replace that effort.

Soon the house martins will be back. I have 2 old nests at the moment on the front of the house. Last year 3 broods fledged which was fabulous, if not a little messy on my window sills.

Back to the present then. Last night I sat outside for an hour as the night faded. Joining me was the resident collared dove who is becoming more sociable. There is a nest in the conifer just outside the garden, hopefully then there will be a family of dove-ttes in the garden soon.

Around the small pond a female blackbird hunted for titbits and all around the large number of sparrows here squabbled and chirruped. What is lovely of course is that just sitting and observing the familiar wildlife in the garden for an hour, makes me realise that I don't spend enough time these days just sitting, observing. Good field biologists will tell you, the only way to really understand and observe wildlife is to spend hours and hours just quietly watching behaviour. And by sitting quietly, wildlife always comes to you, there really is no need to go and find the wildlife in any situation, just sit still for a while and they'll all come closer.

An example of this is that yesterday morning I stood at the kitchen window for 20 minutes (while washing up) watching a blue tit pulling moss from the lawn, presumably to line the nest. Frustratingly although it returned 9 times to collect moss, each time I tried to take a photograph, it flew off. The resident sparrows were of course more obliging.

In the same area recently I watched a wren systematically picking off insects from the two climbing roses I have, fascinating to watch as it went up and down every branch. And this is what is fascinating about watching wildlife at home in the garden. We all think, oh yes there's a lot of birds in the garden, but how many of us actually watch what they're doing, how often, why and when? I know you bloggers will, but the general public probably miss a lot of free entertainment by not taking time to observe for prolonged periods.

Such as this morning. I made a cup of tea and sat for 30 minutes watching what was in or flying over my garden. House sparrows were in evidence of course (I always scan every bird looking for tree sparrows, which while very rare in this area are nonetheless here in single numbers - I'm still waiting, ever hopefull). Blackbird and starling, collared dove too. But then I noticed beyond the garden line with the aid of binoculars, herring gull, magpie, rook, carrion crow, buzzard, 3 goldfinch, a green finch and finally a swallow, first I've seen here this year

So this weekend, maybe instead of joining the massed crowds heading to the sea or spending a lot of money at an event, why not stay at home, unpack a deck chair, sit in the garden and just quietly watch, observe and see what is actually happening "at home". I know I will with my binoculars and camera close by.

Just a final notice as I know some of you like to listen. On Sunday 1st May my next radio programme will be airing, Living World on the birds of Islay, on the 8th is a programme about the daffodils of Dymock produced by a colleague, then 2 more from me, on the 15th will be oil beetles and the 22nd May, raft spider. This latter one I'm off to record on Wednesday in Shropshire, here's hoping the weather remains warm and settled. I can't wait.

HAPPY EASTER!