Steve Fry – Secret Surrey

March 11, 2021March 11, 2021

The Right Side of Balance

All living species are looking for a similar situation in their everyday lives, including us humans, and that is the right balance. I know I personally have to find the right balance to be more productive each day and when I reflect on my days working on various nature reserves, I realise that the work under taken from the site’s management plans, were also seeking to create or recreate the right balance for the species living there.

This is where it starts to get rather interesting and the playing god tag, that many conservationists have been labelled by the non-understanding general public when controversial management takes place, will continue to remain controversial but as I always say with controversial ideas, find out the real facts before passing judgment.

I was reminded of one of the most controversial areas of conservation management recently by news stories in the general press. The stories have told of how two well know species are going to be controlled because of their negative affects upon the habitats they inhabit. The two species are the bright green Ring Necked Parakeets and the bold over familiar Grey Squirrels. Both species are introduced species with the Parakeets originating from India and were a commonly kept pet in this country in the 1950s and 70s from which the now widespread wild UK population originated from.

Grey Squirrels were brought to the UK in the 1890s and are native to North America. They were released at several sites around the country from where they started to spread but the main reason they have spread to so many places around the country is because of human introductions. This is, what I call Victoria vanity introductions, and this continued into the 1930s aiding the spread of the species.

They are a tenacious in their behaviour and adaptability and through my own observations I can understand why there has been a call to control their numbers and again from my own personal observations I can see why there has been a call to control numbers of Ring Necked Parakeets. I am also very aware of the ‘ love of all animals and birds ‘ runs very deep in some of rich comfortable countries around the world and the idea of killing them is an unthinkable thought. As always in our free-thinking world, it is very difficult to please everyone but let’s start at the beginning and look at why some experts are calling for control of these two obvious and some might say characterful species.

Now let’s look at the Ring Necked Parakeets first and as I like to form my opinions from my own observations, my birth place in Kent was not too far away from the established population in Thanet and after childhood holidays and early bird watching expeditions I had watched the noisy parakeets stripping buds off trees, raiding garden fruit trees and competing for nest sites with Stock Doves. Various studies have shown how the Parakeets are responsible for depriving a whole variety of native hole nesting species of potential nest sites. The parakeets are larger and more aggressive than our native woodpeckers, various tit species and Restarts. Several of these species are in long term decline for a whole variety of reasons and competing with Ring Necked Parakeets has increased their decline and added problems to survival prospects in the long term.

In recent years the population of Ring Necked Parakeets has exploded roosts of several thousand have been counted in some London parks and they are quickly spreading across the UK. I have noted their increase locally in recent years and there are regular flocks of 50 plus birds around Guildford these days.

This species has made enemies in the world of farming because of the damage they do to fruit trees and other trees species which has reduced the money made from these crops and its obvious why the cry to control them has come from various people in the farming community. In some parts of the South East of the UK they have begun to nest in buildings often causing significant damage in the process

All in all, they are a troublesome species and they have started to have some serious affect on the UKs wildlife species and in some parts of the country to human lives as well. As usual on the other side of the argument many people, particularly in urban and suburban areas, enjoy the presence of these bright, noisy and intelligent species and help their survival by providing garden feeding stations for them to gain vital strength from. A number of who have already made their fury obvious at the proposal of controlling them recently. At the moment we can only watch this space to see how this story progresses.

The spread of Grey Squirrels has been well documented and the threats to native Red Squirrels has also been studied very well and having been present in this country for 120 years, the results of the presence of Grey Squirrels is very obvious. The Greys are larger and more aggressive than native Reds and have out competed them in food and nesting sites. Studies have shown that where Grey Squirrels have occurred in existing Red Squirrel populations the Reds will die out in a short space of time and have also carried a virus known as squirrel pox which kills the Reds but the Greys recover from. They are a very serious threat to Red Squirrel survival and whilst I worked in Northern Ireland, I worked at several sites where Red Squirrels were present and were only surviving because Grey Squirrels were controlled/removed. As well as the obvious problem with our native wildlife, this species has also had a major impact on all of the bio diversity of habitats where they occur which has also started to include us humans, which sometimes make me feel like the natural world is saying to us humans ‘ I told you about upsetting the balance ‘.

One of my first conservation jobs was working at a field study centre on a working farm in the West of Kent. My first weeks of work were quite dramatic as they occurred just after the big storm of October 1987. The farm had quite large areas of native deciduous woodland. There were also a few pine plantations and most of these were flattened by the storm. Some of the old plantations were cleared and re planted with Oak and Cherry trees as part of the first wave of replanting deciduous trees as opposed to alien softwood species that had happened widely across the country after the second World War. I helped plant some of these new plantations and can remember thinking about how the area would look in 20 or 30 years time. I didn’t have to wait that long as by the first spring after planting all the emerging buds and shoots had been eaten by Grey Squirrels and another non-native species that was present on the farm and that was Sika Deer that had been introduced back in the 1970s. I actually witnessed the Squirrels on the tree tubes jumping from one to another and chewing the buds and shoots. This kind of behaviour make Grey Squirrels very unpopular and if you add to that, stripping of tree bark, killing nestling and adult songbirds, digging up gardens, stealing of bird food, disturbing & killing Dormice and moving into your loft for the winter you may be able to understand why conservationists have called for control of this controversial species.

As both of the species I have talked about so far are introductions from abroad; you can see the common link. This is a far too frequent situation that has occurred for a long time and on a large scale since the Victorian era in the UK and many of these alien species have had a very negative effect on the native species in similar ways to Grey Squirrels and Ring Necked Parakeets.

Another major problem that has occurred within the same timescale of most of these introduced species, is the loss of natural or more traditional habitats. These two facts are never going to be very helpful in increasing natural bio-diversity and will do the exactly the opposite as we can see from the losses we have seen in the last 3 centuries. Some of the statistics are truly frightening with the 97% loss, in the last 100 years, of wildflower grassland being a prime example of habitat loss. It’s no wonder our natural bio-diversity has been reduced by so much.

February 16, 2021

Any Real Change?

We begin 2021 in a worldwide turmoil that Covid 19 has bought upon us all and there is a long way to go before much of humanity can return to what is known as normal. In the fast-paced modern world that much of the nine billion humans were living in before the pandemic, I have found the slowing down of life very interesting and the way people have reacted and behaved as a result of this equally fascinating.

There were many articles last year, during the first lockdown, about how many people had discovered their local wildlife because it was quieter and people had more time to actually observe wildlife around them. It does seem reasonably obvious to me that this happened to some people and this is a good thing in general. I have spent much of my life trying to educate people about the importance of nature and the habitats that wildlife lives in. Many of the things that have had articles written in newspapers and magazines in the last year, are things that I, as a person who has watched wildlife for my whole life and worked in nature conservation for a number of years, has naturally done all my life and I did feel happy and encouraged that some people had made these ‘ new ‘ discoveries. Some of the articles that I read have, I fee, given somewhat of a false impression and made me think about some of my own observations of my fellow humans and left me as usual somewhat in the middle

When I read some of the articles about how some people had suddenly been able to hear birdsong and how some of our native wildlife has benefited from the much reduced human activity. This point alone is a very obvious and beneficial for our wildlife. It’s obvious because less, noise, pollution and disturbance will always help the wildlife that humanity has generally destroyed and marginalised for thousands of years. I will be fascinated to see the data on how our wildlife benefited from the quiet Spring of 2020. I, like many other conservationists, have always been aware that if wildlife and their habitats are given a chance to survive; they will do well, survive and hopefully prosper

From a personal perspective, I’m not totally convinced that there will be a new wave of conservationists emerging as a result of Covid 19 lockdowns. There are many factors that can encourage people to take an interest in ‘ wildlife ‘ and they include where you live, if you have children, time availability and individual passion. I’ve met plenty of people over the years who I can only describe as armchair conservationists and claim to be interested or care about wildlife because they watch David Attenborough programmes on TV but don’t go out to look for wildlife, belong to a conservation organisation, sign a petition or have done any type of conservation work in their lives and this recent claim that more people are becoming more interested in nature and wildlife may well be true for some people and without wanting to be totally negative, anybody that has become interested in wildlife and conservation during the last years lockdown can only be a good thing if it helps people’s sanity and creates more awareness of wildlife in general.

Some of the reasons I have doubted the sudden conversion of the general public has come from my own observations of the general public and friends who have told me of vast amounts litter left at various beauty spots they had visited. From my own observations, there was the usual teenage abuse from littering, vandalism and worrying livestock. Young people have had, like all of us, an unprecedented situation with the lockdowns and though their options were severely narrowed and it was almost inevitable that some problems would occur with the youth. It did depress me even more when I saw similar behaviour from alleged adults and I was amazed on more than one occasion when I witnessed littering by adults that was equally as bad as some of the teenager’s messy activities I had also seen over last summer.

In general, I feel there is still a considerable way to go before more people start taking natural history and the conservation of it, more seriously in their everyday lives. The people who have made these discoveries about nature in the past year should be encouraged and hopefully they in turn may help to get more people to take more of an interest in the environment in general. We can only wait and see what happens over the coming months and how the world reacts to dealing with Corona 19. Let’s hope people do take more interest in the environment and its wildlife whatever happens in the foreseeable future. We shall see

February 3, 2021February 3, 2021

Time for Thought

Having bumped in to a lovely couple earlier this week, who confessed that they read our musings, I promised that I would shrug off the writing malaise and once again start posting. Francis has also promised to pull a literary finger out!

Not only did Cathy and Tony inspire a return to the keyboard but they have sent me examples of their joint passion, photographing the natural world. The photos are great illustrations as to what you can find on your doorstep and just how beautiful small things can be. At this time of such anxiety and greyness we all need to find solace and refuge in the natural world. My thanks to them both for reminding me of that and for letting me share their photos!

Taken recently and very local to my home.

The wonder to me is twofold, Tony and Cathy are not professionals, the photos you will agree are just great, and just how gloriously intricate the natural world is.

Well, you may ask, now you’ve just been lazy and shared someone else’s photos what exactly have I been up to the last few months? I have been fortunate that certain aspects of my working life as a consultant have continued but simply moved online. Like many others the only relief from indoor routine is to walk most days, locally at present but up until the New Year a little further afield.

For those of you that know me well there will be no surprise that I returned regularly to Chobham Common but also continued to explore pastures new like the Hurtwood and further along the river Wey. Just being out in the natural world is life enhancing and it’s clear that most people “get it”.

Professionals, Doctors, therapists, politicians, Chris Packham, David Attenborough, the Royal Family…………. Everybody now has strong opinions about the countryside and how wonderful it is!

The irony to me is that at the very moment when everybody seems to be waking up and smelling green that very few people are left working in the countryside as guardians to ensure that increased numbers of visitors don’t damage the very thing that they purport to enjoy. Please don’t label me as a killjoy but with the reduction in funding and staffing levels for most organisations responsible for managing the countryside the situation and the air of neglect is becoming an increasing problem.

I accept that this is my personal view but there has to be a better way of organising countryside management in the south-east and in particular Surrey. It is a good and great thing that so many people are now enjoying the local countryside but there are consequences if there are not enough rangers, wardens, parks police whatever you wanna call them. Yes, if I’m feeling positive, I’m delighted that most people understand that they have a responsibility towards other people and the wildlife and habitats that they encounter on their walks. If however I wish to be more pragmatic and perhaps realistic then it is clear that there are many who are either ignorant of their responsibilities or choose to quietly ignore those responsibilities. It is this group of people who can be nudged are encouraged to behave responsibly in the countryside by the very presence of Rangers and the like. This also goes hand-in-hand with the fact that sites that are staffed are usually better managed and invite people to behave well. Simple things like litter free car parks and paths, regularly cleared dog poo bins, wet spots on tracks dealt with, well-maintained noticeboards way marking and a clear and concise means of getting help all encourage responsible and engaged visitors.

The absence or near absence of site staff across Surrey countryside also encourages those visitors who have no intention of accepting any responsibility for their actions. Illegal motorbikes, BBQs, fireworks, vandalism and a whole gamut of antisocial behaviour (at best) has increased. Sadly it also means that the worst of “normal” visitors know that they can ignore common sense with very little fear of retribution. I have witnessed mountain bike riders creating new routes on already degraded slopes, I have witnessed horseriders in areas where they simply know they shouldn’t be and I have witnessed illegal and potentially dangerous flying of drones in areas with lots of other visitors. Sadly I have also witnessed inexperienced or careless dog walkers taking great risks in areas where there are domesticated stock.

There is much however to celebrate. Children out walking with their parents and jumping in puddles kicking leaves and getting muddy. Increasing numbers of people aware of the wildlife that they share their world with which in turn has led to a huge growth in the sharing and enquiry of images and incidences witnessed by the curious of all levels of knowledge.

I have learnt that walking the same routes regularly has meant that you really begin to notice small changes additions and absences the reappearance of old friends.

It’s also possible to be constantly surprised at events in your own garden good surprises and sad realisations.

Shamefully I can confess that this is the first year that I have participated in the big RSPB bird watch! With three adults or staring out of the windows and a rather good track record for birds in the garden you would think we wouldn’t have many surprises or learn much. We assumed wrong! The brief appearance of one starling at the feeders reminded me that they have been largely absent from our garden for months I wonder why.

Further surprises included a flock of Redwing in our hedge a pair of Chaffinches at the feeders. The latter was an alarming reminder in that during the course of the last 25 years all the finches in my garden have become a rare treat and now only arrive as the odd pair when previously, shortly after moving in,I could attract flocks of hundreds of mixed finches onto the lawn which in turn cost me fortune in purchasing sacks of birdseed!

Amazingly, to me, I have also joined Facebook! Really for one purpose to join and read/participate in a group Save Surrey Countryside. If you are a social media user do have a look.

My thoughts over the past few months have really centred or coalesced round ideas that may encourage the powers that be to think again about how they manage the countryside and importantly, how they work together to deliver a much more sustainable, well stewarded environment for all us Surrey residents to enjoy responsibly. More on this topic to come.

Keep experiencing the natural world, just try and enjoy it responsibly!

December 7, 2020

Big Changes

Summer feels like it was a long time and as we enter the final month of this most chaotic of years, plans for the reserve have been kicked into action for a number of reasons. There are presently a number of tasks to perform that will keep me busy for most of the upcoming winter months. Throughout the year I had looked at the woodland behind the reserve and as you know I found out last year that the boundary line of the flat’s garden/reserve area extended into the woods and I had already removed a few Ash and Sycamore trees that were shading the garden area and the flats themselves. I had earmarked a few more trees to be felled when the leaves came down. Now in keeping with the chaos of the year, two major things happened.

Firstly, I ended up in hospital for a week and that kind of got in the way of some of my plans. Upon my release I was instructed to rest for up to 2 months! This was not part of my plan but was needed to be done and as I started to feel a bit stronger I did venture out and eyed up some of the trees to be felled. I realised that it would take quite a bit more time and strength before I could begin to deal with some of the larger trees. The slope of the woodland also made things a tad more difficult. Well sometimes your wishes can be met from unexpected sources and this turned out to be the case with regards to my plans for the said trees.

Secondly, in early November, I received a letter from the council informing me that the woodland behind the flats was to be thinned and reduced by 10 metres from the woodland edge My earmarked trees were in this 10-metre section and realising this potential effort saving proposal would save me a lot of time and energy. I decided to check the situation with the council tree officer who would be overseeing the job.

I often forget that I’m a member of the public when discussing environmental issues with ‘ official organisations ‘ to which the local council belong. I was also very aware that the proposed work was not being carried out for conservation reasons but according to the letter that all residents along the road received, the thinning was to stop the shading of the gardens and houses and to deter anti-social behaviour which presumably refers to the youngsters that were visiting the playing fields during the lockdown earlier in the year. The two things I was keen to find out was whether any of the felled trees would be taken away and if any of the felled tree stumps would be treated to stop them re- growing. The answers I got to both questions, as expected, was no!

From my wanderings in the woodland I had noted a lot of logs that had been left there from the previous time they thinned the woodland edge. The tree officer informed me that because of the terrain of the area, getting a chipper in would very difficult to get in and all the felled wood would be left to rot on the ground. Part of me agreed with him and I am very aware of the benefits of dead wood for a variety of invertebrate species which is in general a good thing but from my aforementioned wanderings I had noted a few contentious issues that were having an effect on the biodiversity of the general area.

As we know, all wildlife species have to fight to survive and in simplistic terms, some are better at fighting than others and during my wanderings I had noted that where the rotting timber was laying, 2 species had practically covered the whole of the woodland floor. The 2 species in question will be very familiar to most gardeners as Ivy and Brambles seem to be present in all the gardens I’ve ever worked in. They had managed to set seed in amongst the decaying timber and had spread out and covered the whole woodland floor and out competed any other wildflower seeds that may have been in the soil. The woodland itself is north facing and some of the more delicate species would find it hard going even without the competition from the Ivy and Brambles.

With the latest thinning work being finished, I have been left with a very untidy piece of woodland with piles of brash and logs in random places. I decided that if my vision of a small piece of woodland edge with some Hazel coppice was going to happen, as a result of the recent work, this was going to be the winter to try and make it happen.

Now the badgers can watch me watching them!

You may feel somewhat confused at my talk of killing things and chopping down trees and think that I’m not much of a conservationist and I seem to be doing more to harm to the wildlife than helping the local wildlife. There are very good reasons why some of the apparent outrageous action/ ideas will benefit the local wildlife.

Ever since I had moved to my flat I had looked at the woods and realised that they were, from a bio diversity perspective, somewhat lacking

The lack of biodiversity is a result of some of the points I have raised here and I realised that it will take some effort to establish a more varied habitat and an improved biodiversity.

I’m quite pleased with the potential habitat improvement possibilities that are on my own door step and am hoping to link up the habitats that I have created in the past two years. I have also realised that it will be a lot of work to carry out on my own and I may not be able to do all the work I would like to. Only time will tell on that and I have only just started to implement parts of the plan but everyday am seeing a lot of potential and the regular wildlife species that I have come to know, seem to be present and doing well. In the last week a Song Thrush has started singing in the woods, which pleases me as this once common songster is nationally declining. I’m planning potential nesting sites for them.

I will continue the tidying up of the area ,which has this week included a good bonfire, and let’s see how far I can get in the next few months.

September 28, 2020September 28, 2020

Closer to home

Today I am another year older and wondering on where life is now leading me. I’m not fearful or anxious for myself as I still find awe and inspiration in the small wonders that surround us but I am fearful of what children may miss in our sadly depleting world. An App or new smartphone feature is no replacement for that first encounter with something new in the natural world.

Life at Hempstead continues to inspire, surprise and amuse. Autumn has seen the biggest puffball grow to be joyfully consumed by my mate Clive and his 2 boys, Rowan and Finlay. Sliced and fried, I have to agree yummy but though tempted I couldn’t post the photos that showed the similarity of the base of the puffball to another kind of bottom!

I am not the only gardener to remark on the amazing fruit crop, apples, pears, sloes, damsons, blackberries which bodes well for wildlife food but if its a harbinger of a hard winter, God help us!

Fruit and flowers should mean butterflies and lots of other flying insects and yes I’ve had some surprises in the garden.

After living at Hempstead for 26 years I never expected to see a new butterfly species let alone a new species on a plant by our back door.

10 minutes later and an old favourite dropped in.

Unbelievable as it might seem we suffered our first frost of the season on the 1st September which I took to be another indication of how strange this year has become.

Sometimes fungi are directionally challenged…..

And sometimes runs to the dump have an accidental stowaway….

Happy Birthday me! And just for the beauty here’s a very late jewel

September 22, 2020September 22, 2020

Just another Autumn?

The strange and disturbing times seem to have become the new normal but I have accepted that rather than continually moan about life or get distressed about our impact on our natural world that instead I should concentrate on the areas where I might be able to make a difference. Actions like moderating how much I consume and considering where exactly does it come from.

Actions like trying to raise and promote local issues that we can all attempt to influence. For Francis and I those issues tend to centre on the countryside of Surrey and we would encourage you to look at, with a more considered eye, your garden, your street, your local countryside. Find out who owns what, who manages what and ask questions whilst offering time to help.

By all means revel in the wonder and joy that countryside and wildlife enriches us with but just maintain a level of heightened awareness about our impact and realise that very little of our environment can be “left alone to look after itself”.

For all the glory to be enjoyed with views to be enjoyed at Newlands Corner

Or St Martha’s

Try and be aware of the details, the last of the summers Chalkhill Blue Butterflies

Sheltering in the grass amidst dozens of people and dogs.

Harebells and Robins Pincushions, the former an increasingly rare beauty and the latter a wild rose plants response to the activity of a tiny wasp larva. Both amazing!

Try and remember that your actions impact not only on the wildlife but on other happy wanderers like yourself. In other words its back to behaving responsibly!

I have no idea what the cause of the rash of fires during the exceptionally hot bit of August but I do know from experience most are likely to be as a result of the carelessness or outright stupidity of a small number of people.

Barbecues or a casual disregard as to disposal of a cigarette butt can have devastating consequences. Does anybody actually need to be told not to light a disposable barbecue in the countryside? If you are not in a clearly marked bbq safe area then DON’T LIGHT THE BLOODY THINGS!

The major fire at Chobham Common was covered by the media not because of the damage to a National Nature Reserve but due to the risk of some rather nice housing. Yes, I do understand, but there had already been a big fire at Thursley National Nature Reserve and several other heathlands and a little coverage of these fires possibly relating to climate change and peoples ignorance of fire risk in the south east wouldn’t have hurt.

September 7, 2020

Watching and Observing

I’ve been a bit lazy and not written about the progression of my garden reserve for a while now and I suddenly thought that I needed to update you on what has been happening and the visiting wildlife that has been observed. As you will all know, this year has been like no other in our lifetimes and I have read many articles about the affect this has been having on our wildlife. After reading a number of interesting articles I realised that I was seeing some of the results of these situations that were occurring nationwide, in my own backyard. With all the extra time that kickdown has given me I have witnessed a number of amazing species and am seeing the benefits of the work that has already been carried out and as is the normal way, there have been a few surprises. So, let’s have a look at what’s been going on

As I previously mentioned I had started to extend the reserve by clearing and planting up the garden on the right-hand side of my area. After I had cleared the whole area and tried to remove problem species I planted up the area with various seeds in my collection. Looking at the area now has taught me a few important points. When I planted up the new area I had a couple of Wild Flower seed packets that had been given to me and these were sown along with seeds that I had collected last year. By mid-May I could see quite a few seedlings emerging and noticed that a few of these species were not familiar to me. As some of you may be aware, there has been quite a boom in the gardening world about trying to protect and encourage Bees and Butterflies into our gardens. This is one of the reasons I started the work on the gardens in the first place but have realised that many of the seeds advertised as Bee and Butterfly are garden plants that are certainly not native to South West Surrey. By early June there were a number of species in flower including Quickweed, an American species and a species of Mallow that were obvious garden varieties. My aim to keep the area native was not going to plan

I weighed up the pros and cons of this situation and decided to leave the alien species as they were quickly noted to be attracting regular visits from Garden and Red-Tailed Bumble bees and Holly Blue, Large and Small White butterflies, so they were playing an important part in helping the local insect population.

During the mid-summer over 30 flowering species were found in the garden and it has been interesting to see which species are doing well and how some species have spread to new areas and going back to the insects, I took particular notice of which flowers were the most popular with the local insect populations. It was a very interesting point to observe and I concluded a number of rather points after several weeks of observations. Firstly, every single flowering species in the area from the Creeping Jenny to the Hemp Agrimony attracted some kind of insect to feed or display on. This was one of the major aims of the project, so I was pleased and soon noticed the roles the flowers were having in the insect’s lives.

From the two most obvious insect groups that I observed and that’s Bees and Butteries, the favourite 5 flowering species were Black Knapweed, Foxglove, Lavender, Teasel and Wild Marjoram. From late May to early August when these species were in full bloom there was a constant presence of bees and butterflies and I recorded 8 different species feeding on the many flowering Black Knapweed plants that have managed to spread out from where I originally planted them. It’s interesting to note that Red Tailed Bumblebee are known to particularly fond of Black Knapweed as a food source and as a result of this there have been increased numbers present with up to 10 individuals present on a few days.

This was all very encouraging and part of the plan that I first envisaged and over the past few months of closer observations, I have witnessed a few interesting results of species presence in the area. The most obvious species, and I have fortunately observed them on roughly 20 – 25 occasions since lockdown and that is the Badger’s. Now Badgers can be quite a controversial species whenever they live near humans. When I first knew I had Badgers around me I was firstly thrilled as they are a species that I will never get bored of observing. I had also never seen urban badgers before and this has proved to provide me with many interesting sightings over past months.

When Badgers are hunting for food, very little will put them off their pursuits to get to the food they can smell. I have, as I previously mentioned, been putting some monkey nuts (Peanuts with shells) out in the evenings and I have watched the local badgers happily feeding away on them. When I first started planting the area up, a couple of years ago, with flowers and plants and had cleared the area I was well aware that the Badgers may well have a dig in the soil and earlier in the year I did see one digging for worms in the mud. This was a partial reason why I started to feed them the nuts to try and keep them away from sensitive newly planted areas. It was never going to be a full proof plan and I have observed a number of interesting points including the fact that they may eat the nuts I put out for them but they are always looking for other more natural foods and I have put the nuts in 3 different places in the garden and in-between each area they always wander all over the garden and are seen to catch and eat invertebrates and some nights they don’t eat all the nuts I put down. I did have a mad idea one day when out in the reserve and later that evening I carefully placed some monkey nuts in an area of rank vegetation that I was intending to clear and replant. I repeated this for a couple of weeks and noticed that the vegetation was being weakened and was starting to die back. The badgers had become part time gardeners for me and so far, the only thing they have done that wasn’t planned is made a couple of unofficial paths through the flower beds but it’s no problem really. So, no problems with them so far. These are the most human tolerant badgers that I have ever known and I’m still amazed when the neighbours have come out and put their rubbish in the bins and crashed the lids down and the badgers just sit there and carry on feeding.

Several times I’ve seen Badgers with Foxes and in all honesty, there seems to very little to say as all I have ever seen is them just ignoring each other with a badger eating peanuts and the Fox just walking around looking for food. It was noted that the Fox always kept a few yards away from the Badger and shows who is the top in the reserve.

These top predators seem to be doing well and this is a good indicator to the health of the general area. I have tried to show you in this piece that from the plants in the ground, to the insects that use them and all the way to the top predators the area I have been working on is starting to provide a useful, vital even, resource for the local wildlife. And the plans to improve the site are on-going with a few more plans coming into place.

One major thing is the installation of the pond. Which is currently four days old! It’s just settling in at the moment. We shall see what happens in the next few weeks as autumn starts to creep up on us. Meantime there is plenty to see and not always the most welcomed as I discovered when cleaning my balcony yesterday and disturbed a False Widow Spider. Nature is never boring !

July 20, 2020September 21, 2020

Many smiles

I confess, I can tend to get overly involved with the politics of the countryside but in my defence I never lose site of the joy that the natural world brings me.

We are not entitled to use the countryside as we want, our “rights” do not give us the right to abuse it.

The last few months have reinforced that I am a lucky, a fortunate, privileged man. I live surrounded by wildlife and have some special friends with whom I am privileged to share time with. There is so much pleasure in learning from people who know “stuff” and can communicate that knowledge, whether it’s my friend Adam, sharing his Richmond Park wilderness…

or his son Linden showing me the wildlife in his garden.

Incidentally, children can often be the best and most joyful teachers. The evident passion in Linden for all things natural, and his frankly humbling knowledge is truly inspirational. Children who catch the wildlife bug early are probably are greatest hope, if we can give them the time they richly deserve.

Sue and I have continued to walk locally often and the new discoveries just keep coming as do the unexpected connections.

More peace in the countryside has meant more visible wildlife.

We have encountered Roe deer in many places and yes , to my wife’s consternation, they have returned to the garden! Lily flowers and now anemonies have been neatly munched. The stag has rediscovered sour apples.

Walking local paths has revealed new pleasures

and striking connections

In a tiny glade next to housing or more predictably along the Wey navigation.

The river and navigation have proved a regular joy, always something new or surprising. Countless times we have walked near Triggs lock but the last 2 visits we have seen Kingfishers which is another bird that grabs everybody’s attention. We witnessed a heron fall in the river catching fish, having, we think, forgotten that he was on a raised bank! Didn’t let go of the fish but lost all elegance climbing back out.

And not only first Kingfisher along “our stretch” but this discrete surprise

Walking paths new to me across Stringers Common provided confirmation that wildlife will hold on in the tiniest of areas which at first glance look devoid of anything interesting. Next to housing and in urgent need of just a little management are a number of tiny glades.

In the midst of these are just enough of the right plants for some stunning butterflies.

I was truly gobsmacked to find…

Trouble is my mind then spins off in to all directions, how could you get locals involved? Could you persuade the Parish council to take some responsibility from Surrey County Council? Another challenge for another day.

Further encouragement to get out locally.

Spending much more time in the garden as summer arrived and the birds got quieter I much greater understood why. Many adult birds are beginning to moult but all birds old and young are concentrating on food. Hempstead’s garden has been alive with family groups, everything from tits, finches and sparrows on the feeders to young Blackcaps, Robins and Blackbirds pillaging the soft fruit. Young Jackdaws and Crows have entertained with a constant cackle nagging for more food, despite being clearly big enough to feed themselves. The lawn has also been the local health clinic, providing ants and sunshine for pest control.

The lawn and ants have also provided food for a couple of old favourites and a novel copy cat.

Green Woodpeckers are well known for feeding on ants and here they can spend hours hopping and using their powerful beak and amazing tongue.

I find them both beautiful and somehow a bit dumb looking. Maybe they just look like they have been banging their heads against the ground just a little too much.

Parent and young are in the garden as I write.

The copy cat is that a young Great Spotted woodpecker has also been feeding on the ants which was a new sight for me.

Apologies for the poor quality but the hops were fantastic!

The ordinary can also be beautiful, take a look at all the things you often ignore.

Colours and textures on a pigeon really can be stunning.

More to come soon but in the meantime just get out there!

July 14, 2020

There are Reasons

After you have visited any nature reserve and enjoyed the wildlife that live there, do you ever ask yourself why that particular species is present at that site and what are the reasons why it is to be found there? To understand the reasons, it helps to have some basic knowledge of what a species needs to survive and prosper. From this kind of knowledge, we humans can start to help the wildlife by providing things that it will need to prosper like food, breeding sites, protection from predators (security). Most nature reserves will have a management plan that will work to support a maximum bio-diversity within their given area of management. It’s a lot easier said than done but that is the general aim of them and I have seen the benefits of management plans carried out on reserves I have worked on and visited over the years.

I adopted this approach when I started work on my own reserve a couple of years ago and already decisions I made two years ago are starting to show some positive results.

When I began working on the site a couple of years ago I decided to try and establish a field edge type habitat that would border the scrubby woodland area. I had been given some bee and butterfly friendly seeds and as they grew my mind began to wonder about possible species to plant that may attract certain insect species. I thought about butterfly species that I knew were found in the local area and thought about plant and flower species that these species needed. After a few ideas, I chose a couple plant species to try and establish and by the end of the first summer I had sowed some Yorkshire Fog seeds and planted a mature Red Valerian. These two plants are very different but have an equally interesting benefit for the insect community

Red Valerian is a flower that familiar to many gardeners and particularly to people of south west England where it commonly grows in walls and railways sidings, in fact all over the place! It is a native of the Mediterranean and was introduced to the UK about 400 years ago and is now relatively common in the southern UK. It has long been noted that a wide variety of insects love it and it was joked when it was given to me that I may get a visit from a Hummingbird Hawkmoth. I secretly hoped that this would happen and contented myself by watching various bee species and the odd Red Admiral paying a visit to this source of rich nectar. Then my wish came true the other week when as I stepped out of my front door a Humming bird Hawkmoth flew in and fed for about 2 minutes on the Valerian and then rapidly flew off. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. I instantly thought of what had been said to me when I was given the plant and thankfully had been able to video the moth and was able to show it a few weeks later to the person who had given me the plant. They seemed quite impressed as well! This little action had paid off and this elegant species had paid me a visit and hopefully they may visit again in future years.

Now the other species I mentioned earlier is a grass species called Yorkshire Fog, which is quite a common species in native grassland areas and field borders. It is an elegant species that has a delicate feel and look to it with light greens and subtle pink flushes and sand coloured seed heads.

To a lot of people, grass is a weed and not much use for anything but to the naturalist eye glasses are an important part of the ecosystem they occur in. This is the reason I took a gamble and planted some Yorkshire Fog seeds as I am aware that the Small Skipper butterfly, which occurs locally to me, lay their eggs on Yorkshire Fog. I felt it was a long shot that they may turn up at my reserve due to the availability of sunlight which was limited but none less I planted some seeds and the following year they grew and flowered. This year I noted that it had spread to a few other locations and again thought about the Skipper butterflies. And then one morning when Steve had popped round, he suddenly said look at that skipper and there was a Small Skipper feeding on some Black Knapweed. To say I was delighted was an understatement. Since then I’ve had one other possible sighting and have a distinct feeling that they may colonise the sight next year.

These examples of plants I have put in my reserve show you some of possibilities that can be attained with some planning. When I started planning the area I obviously thought about wildlife I was hoping to attract to the area and up to now it seems to be working. I have been researching other plant species to plant in order to attract more life to the area and it certainly seems to have endless possibilities. I know I won’t be bored. Plants are a vital part of our world and without them there would be no life at all so if you have any space I suggest you plant some flowers and you never know what you may attract.

July 9, 2020

Access and Conservation, conflict or essential partners?

Unsurprisingly, the impact of Covid has led to lots of research and much media coverage continuing to show what for many is common sense; access to the countryside or at least open space is essential for the physical and mental well being of all us humans.

Yes, I do believe acknowledging and promoting the benefits of the countryside is a good thing but…………it’s just not as simple as that.

We live in a world which seems to feed anger, anxiety, stress, polarisation and this constant and all pervading sense of edginess. It seems we are all expected to have a view on absolutely everything and then defend that view even if we don’t know what we’re talking about and have clearly been shown to be wrong. And under NO circumstances should you apologise or acknowledge a mistake or admit fault.

I just don’t get it!

It is human to make mistakes, to misjudge, to jump to the wrong conclusion but it is essential that these mistakes are acknowledged, even quietly, in order that we can learn from them and move on. There is much truth in the old adage; you only learn from your mistakes. Trouble is we seem to have a decreasingly small communal memory to learn from.

Modern news and social media operates on volume (all meanings of the word!) and turnover and this encourages, almost forces, people to take a view on often incomplete, inaccurate or completely out of context, stuff. Stuff that is often irrelevant to most people or much more important than people realise.

What, you might ask, has all this got to do with Secret Surrey?

Francis and I share many values and may well disagree on a few but central to both our core beliefs are 2 ideas.

Acceptance, and no little joy, that we humans are part of a staggeringly beautiful and awesome world. This world is not there to serve us as some kind of resource larder and will continue to reject us if we continue to treat it as such.

Secondly, change for the better is most effective when it starts at a local level and then gains momentum. Recent events have clearly shown the positive power of the individual and local community projects to effect change.

Further discussions on green philosophies can be found elsewhere but will attempt to explain why I am so concerned for the Surrey countryside right now.

As more people had time and were encouraged to get out and exercise more and more people did just that with some clear differences in how they behaved.

Many people chose and continue to choose to use the outside as an outside gym, track and velodrome, no bad thing and clearly good for health but please don’t try and tell me that this is a clear indication that this group necessarily appreciate looking after the countryside and the wildlife that we share it with. I’m sure some do but using the countryside for exercise and leisure can lead to abuse. Don’t get me started about littering or the conflict caused between different “user” groups! Back to the bad old days of cyclists v dog walkers v walkers v joggers and the assertion of one individuals rights over another. Why do we seem to have a minority of blinkered individuals that assert what they see as their rights without accepting any responsibility for their actions or their impact on others, let alone on the countryside?

Why cannot the litter offender grasp the if you arrive in the countryside with “stuff” then take any remaining stuff back home with you? To litter in many places in Europe is simply unacceptable and doesn’t happen. I accept that there also some countries where litter and rubbish is a problem but that doesn’t excuse the supposed enlightened citizens of the UK.If something arrives with you when you enter the countryside either consume it or take it away with you. Its not rocket science, its the same stuff you arrived with just less!

Just at the moment in time that a lot of people are “rediscovering” the countryside where are the Rangers on the County Council Estate? Well, right now there are none!

Let me repeat that, THERE ARE NO RANGERS on the SCC estate. Some of the busiest countryside sites in the county have no site based staff to gently police the public and unsurprisingly a minority of idiots are now taking advantage. More idiots dropping litter, more anti social behaviour, more fly tipping, more wildfires due to idiots lighting barbecues in inappropriate places (will somebody please ban the use of disposable BBQ in the countryside?) and just more unreasonable, inconsiderate and rude behaviour.

Yes I know we are in the mist of a crisis with health and economic but for goodness sake can everybody just behave with a little more respect for the countryside and wildlife. And understand that looking after both costs money, even the basics, and that not having site based staff costs all of us much more, again in every sense, in the long run.