Francis’s thoughts – 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

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 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 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.

June 18, 2020

The Nightshift

I can remember the first time I saw moths in close up and remember being amazed at the variety of sizes, shapes, colours and a whole collection of subtle shades and delicate markings that adorned their bodies. Fascinated that some of their English names are what I can only call funny particularly in my 14-year-old mind.

I was instantly fascinated by this amazing group of insects and coincidentally returned to work at the site where I had first witnessed them a few years later and my interest grew stronger as I regularly dealt with the contents of a moth trap.

You’ve all probably heard how moths are described as dull and boring looking and how quite a number of people are actually scared of moths. From what I can make out about human nature this fear is more about the fear of the dark than it is about fear of a small nocturnal flying insect. Yes, moths will bump into your head and face when you light up your mobile but they will not hurt you in the slightest. I’ve seen too many moths get needlessly killed by over nervous humans.

Moths and their relatives butterflies are good indicators of the health of an area and like their more familiar cousins, moth numbers have been falling in the last 50 years due to loss of habitat and the intensification of modern agriculture, an unfortunately familiar story. There have been however some additions to the UK list with the warming of our climate, that has encouraged European species to colonise. A few species have also reached our shores by arriving in food and plant products and managed to colonise and establish themselves which can cause a few issues.

The total number of species in the UK is roughly about 2,500. Of these about 1600 are micro and pyralid moths. These are generally very small, often with very well marked patterns on their bodies and wings. Many of them don’t have English names and some are so difficult to identify that the only way to truly identify them is by dissecting their genitalia. Not something I have ever done myself but it shows the intricate nature of this group.

I personally have only started to look at this group of smaller moths in recent times and am realising, again, just how much more there is to learn.
The larger moths are known as macro moths and there are about 860 here in the UK and these will be the type of moths that people are more familiar with as many have distinctive patterns and colours. These patterns fade as the moth gets older and sometimes they are so abraded they are impossible to identify. Adult moths don’t live much more than a week as after they emerge from the cocoon they dry off and, immediately, there sole aim is to reproduce with maybe some feeding as well!

The nocturnal nature of most moths is one their intriguing habits and some species, that fly later in the year, even have what can only described as a fur coat to protect them from cold nights
Not all moths are nocturnal and some day flying moths are very striking like the common Cinnabar and the impressive Hummingbird Hawkmoth which as its name suggests, does resemble a hummingbird feeding and I was truly delighted when one paid a two-minute visit to my reserve a couple of weeks back and fed quickly on the Red Valerian that I had planted to try and attract them to the area. Sometimes plans do come together!

The people who do not like moths may not be aware of the vital role they play in habitats where they occur. Like many insects that feed on nectar, moths provide a valuable service of pollinating the plants that they feed on. As most species are nocturnal, this service is all carried out in the darkness and not realized by most humans. They are also a vital part of food chains and many moth caterpillars are taken by birds and a good example of this is one of the micro moths called Green Oak Tortrix. The caterpillars of this species are eaten by many small birds in an oak woodland habitat and it has been calculated that many of these bird species rely on these caterpillars to raise their young. If you have ever seen a Blue Tit in spring at a nest box, you may notice the little green caterpillars are often the most numerous food item. This shows the vital role that moths play in the ecosystems around us.
Being nocturnal moths are not easy to observe and apart from disturbing them from vegetation you don’t get to see them often unless of course you happen to have a moth trap.

These traps have ultra violet bulbs that attract the moth in and they rest on egg boxes inside the trap, which you can then look the next morning when most moths are less active and then release them later in the day. It is one of the great mysteries of nature why moths are attracted to any light, including ultra violet light. Still to this day there has been no scientific explanation to this behaviour and I think this adds to moths almost mythical status.

Next time you see a moth it’s probably worth having a closer look as you never know what you may find and you could be pleasantly surprised at what you see. As always nature can surprise you sometimes.

April 30, 2020

Ah, You Noticed!

During these unprecedented times I have noticed a number of unusual activities in our relationships with the natural world. One of the things I have constantly observed is how many people are actually talking about nature and the natural world. Some of the reasons of why this happening are fairly obvious; the fact that people have not got the options that they usually have has actually made many people walk in countryside, a place that many of them have rarely been and possibly never been before. In news articles there has been many references to fact that UK people are noticing birdsong more which is down to fact of less noise from traffic and airplanes whose use has been greatly reduced in the last few weeks. The other morning at dawn I was awake and as I sat and listened to the birds of the dawn chorus, there was very little of the background noise that normally occurs.

The decrease in general noise has been very noticeable to me and I quickly realised that the majority of people who were making comments about bird song were possibly hearing them for the first time or more probably had only noticed them because of the decrease in noise. This point itself is part of a current world situation and if we look at some of the stories from around the world in the past few weeks there are many examples of how lack of human activity/disturbance has benefitted the natural world and the species that live in the world’s habitats and ecosystems. There are already countless examples of how the wildlife of the world has taken advantage of this current ‘ quiet ‘ time and the examples range from the Welsh Goats leaving their natural hill habitats and coming into the villages to forage to Thailand where because of the lack of tourists , large numbers of sharks have been observed for the first time and many years and there has also been Leatherback Turtles egg laying on beaches for the first time in 6 years. To me one of the most amazing examples that has occurred is that the Himalayas have become visible in parts of Northern India for the first in over 30 years because of the massive drop in air pollution over the last few weeks.

These examples raise a number of points. The first is something obvious to me and something that conservationists have been saying for years, and that is that if you give nature some space and quiet, species will recolonise. It also shows how quickly nature will seize an opportunity and benefit from it. For instance, on a more local level, the Jackdaws in Cranleigh have taken over the church and are building nests in locations that they would normally not be able to nest in.
During this unprecedented time there have been many changes in human and animal behaviour and now as I hear the news each day and I listen to various world leaders talk about getting their countries’ economies moving again I wonder if there will be any fundamental changes in the way humanity lead their everyday lives that will have a positive effect on our troubled planet. The signs from various of the world’s leaders does not look particularly promising and the same old boom and bust capitalist rational will continue to be the driving force in America, Brazil, China and most European counties. This has already been tried for many years and the environment and its wildlife has paid the heaviest price for this, as have the millions of people around the world who are still living in poverty. In amongst the various politicians proposed visions of life after the virus, there has been a number of scientists and conservationists raising the potential that we could start to make changes now particularly in light of the situation that most of the world is currently experiencing that will beneficial to our planet, its wildlife and its people. Could the collapse in oil prices prompt a move towards electric cars or the ending of various aircraft companies? Many of which are now requesting help from governments right now. Billionaires asking for government help is too ironic for me!

There are many unanswered questions at this time but there are some positives as I said and I feel the recent connection that everyday people seem to have made with the natural world is a very good thing and as I worked on my reserve the other day I heard a little girl and her dad walking through the woods nearby and suddenly the little girl exclaimed ” it’s really smelly here ” to which her father, who seemed to know a bit, explained that the smell was Ramsons or Wild Garlic and you could just hear her amazement.

In this moment I realised that there is always hope for the future whatever happens after this current crisis we are all currently experiencing.

April 8, 2020April 10, 2020

Good from Bad

Well here we are all then, in an unprecedented situation for humanity. And like Steve said I’m not going to enter this hotbed of controversy here other than hoping that all who read this are safe and well, take good care of yourselves and each other. So, we all have had restrictions put on us that have restricted our movements and as you have probably gathered from some of my previous articles; I am a man who likes to get out and about.

With this situation in place and living in crowded Surrey I have found myself in my reserve a lot of the time in the last 3 weeks. In all honesty, I have needed a lot of time out there in order to regain some kind of control, as helped by the incredibly mild winter, certain familiar species had run rampant through many of the planted-up areas. To the gardeners amongst you will know about the ‘ familiar ‘ species I am referring to and over the winter I had noticed how many plant species had not died off or wilted due to the mild conditions and when I finally got there to deal with it I instantly realised that this was going to be a big task and regretted for not starting to deal with issue a bit earlier. After 3 weeks of doing a minimum of half an hour daily weeding I have just about ‘ cleaned ‘ the flower beds and there are two very large piles of Creeping Buttercups, Broad Leaved Dock and Pendulous Sedge that I have dug, pulled and scraped out of the ground in order to try and redress the balance. I have already previously mentioned that I was aware that this kind of situation could occur in my new reserve and, given the habitats surrounding the area and the tenacity of the problem species I have been dealing with, is never to be underestimated.

After I had removed as much as I could I started to think of ways to try and slow down this invasion and stop it happening every year. I realised my best chance to abate the weeds was to plant another strong growing species to try establish themselves before the problem species take over again
I had a little look into the woods just behind the reserve area to see which plants were growing on the woodland floor with the thought of finding a suitable species to plant on the edge of my area to try and stop the deluge of Ranuculus. Before you start thinking that I was stealing plants and going against all the things we are taught about picking wildflowers, I will say that the 20 plants I did end up digging out were A) very common. B) in an area where they were often trodden on by the many members of the public who use the woods and C) planting them 50 metres from where I dug them up was actually helping to extend their range in the area. The plants were Ramsons, wild garlic, and there are several large patches in the woods and when they are in flower they give that pleasant garlic odour and beautiful white flowers that will attract a few insects. Ramsons can form quite dense carpets on woodland floors which is I’m hoping is what my transplants will be doing on the edge on my reserve. As I’m becoming more aware of the power of the invasive weeds I felt that the Ramsons would need some time to get established and as we enter the start of the growing season, I knew all the invasive species would start growing all over again, particularly in the newly weeded areas where I had planted the Ramsons. I had a good think about other plant species that could compete with the problem species and one potential species was found accidentally whilst I looked through my collection of seeds (which was itself quite strange as the they were only wildflower seeds I had) Red Campion which seemed a good species to join in the battle. Their reddish pink flowers are in flower from April to July and are also quite shade tolerant which is good as where I was planting was going to be partially shaded. A common species in hedgerows and woodland and, like Ramsons, can form quite dense areas. I sowed some of the seeds directly into the ground in between the Ramson transplants and I also sowed some into pot that I took indoor to try and give them a bit of a head start.

After 2 weeks there are already signs of life in the potted seeds.
I also added one more species to help stop the invasion, Wild Strawberry, which again is a species that can grow rapidly and form dense covering. I was given a single plant last year which I planted in midsummer and by the end of the summer had already flowered and fruited and spread. I have only planted a couple of plants and will see how they get on in the battle. Some of you may be well aware that the species that I have planted in order to try and dissuade invasive species can themselves be quite invasive and I have cleared them in several gardens I have worked in the past. I was well aware of this myself before I planted them and knew that I could be pulling them out in a few years if they got established over the course of this year. In their defence they all produce flowers that are vital nectar sources for potential visiting insects and will offer a visually beautiful show of colours hopefully.

We can only wait and see what happens in the forthcoming weeks as spring progresses. And as I’ve quite a bit more to do!

As I have spent a lot of time out in the area I had cleared and planted up over the last couple of years I started to look at the gardens next to my plot which were all totally overgrown and in a state of poor condition. With a lot more time on my hands I took the decision to try and clear and dig over the ground to prepare the ground ready to replant and further extend the area of the ‘reserve ‘. On one side I began to dig over the earth removing the sods of earth as I went along. This area had once been garden but had not been touched for at least 6 years and most of the area was covered with grass and various other weeds. So far I have managed to dig over about a third of the area and still have a fair amount of digging and weeding to do before I plant up the new space. On the other side of the garden, the other overgrown area was a bit more of a challenge as there were a few major issues. Bramble invasion I could deal with and happily hacked back the sections where they had invaded. I then began to cut the rank grass down and soon discovered that the grass had grown through matting that had been laid years ago in order to prevent weeds growing! This was going to be a massive job and one that I have yet to start, ah well, I’ve got some time.

With all this activity was there actually any wildlife using the area?
It is massively reassuring when I see the local life in the area I have created and with a bit more time on my hands I have felt very rewarded to observe some things that have been seen. I began to put out some monkey nuts in the evening and the locals Badgers soon made an appearance and have seen them a few nights. I can hear, when my window is open, the cracking of the nutshells and know that they are about or so I thought for the other night I heard the shell cracking and took a look out the window and saw a big dog Fox waltzing around and occasionally cracking a nutshell. Due to a change in lighting at the flats where I live the reserve area is now much darker than it used to be and observations are a little bit harder to make.

During the day time there has been a lot of Bumblebee activity with at least 3 different species observed, Buff Tailed, White Tailed and Early. I’ve seen a White-Tailed Queen investigating the walls at the bottom of garden looking for potential nest sites. Often in the mornings I’m seeing many bird species feeding around the area where the night shift has fed including Wood Pigeon, Magpie, Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock and for the last week a Song Thrush has been regularly seen. Bullfinches have been fairly regular and the male’s mournful song has been heard on a few days. Summer migrants have started to arrive and there was a Blackcap up in the woods along with a Chiffchaff.

As nature bursts into life , we shall see what this strange years brings.

March 30, 2020

The Mighty Miniature

There are some species of wildlife that totally fascinate me and whenever I do see them I generally get a feeling of elation about the wonders of the natural world. All very flowery I know but the fact of the matter is that it’s just true! Some species are not that easy to observe due to their habits and sometimes there habitats as well. A couple of weeks ago I was reminded of this situation when, by chance, I turned my head in the right direction to observe a Weasel run across the footpath a few yards in front of me. I stood there for a few moments and made a squeaking noise and a moment later there for a few seconds, was the head of a Weasel checking me out. It seemed to realise that I wasn’t something she could eat and was gone. This was quite a typical sighting in my experience and when I say she, I wasn’t trying to over romanticise or personify the individual as it was only about 6 or 7 inches long and I know male Weasels are a little larger so I presumed my sighting to be a female.

As with many species today, Weasels are a species that has a large worldwide range and within this range there are differences in body size, colour and habitats. A few people in the scientific community are claiming that there are actually up to four different species across the world. I’m no expert in animal genetics but there does seem to be some good evidence for these claims that may lead to a new species being created in the future. We shall see what happens in the future on this subject.

No matter what genetic decisions are made, the Weasel remains the smallest predatory mammal across much of its range and when you find out about the diet of Weasels it is amazing to see that the size of some prey items is much bigger and heavier than the relentless hunter. Weasels generally eat small mammal such as voles and mice and are small enough to pursue them in their runs and burrows. I once observed a Weasel enter a log pile and emerge 30 seconds later with a lifeless Wood Mouse in its mouth. The usual killing method is a bite to the neck or throat and a friend of mine and I once observed a Weasel run across a bank by a woodland path into a small patch of brambles where a high-pitched scream was emitted from the bramble patch where upon investigation we found a half-grown rabbit with what can only be described as a hole on top of its head. It looked brutal and certainly was for the rabbit. A couple of years ago a photo emerged of a Weasel on the back of a Green Woodpecker that was in flight. Weasels don’t like to give up easily when they are hunting often putting themselves in danger in the process.

Weasels are the smallest members of the Mustelid family which includes Badgers, Otters, Pine Martin, Pole cats and the similarly coloured Stoat. Stoats are differentiated by their larger size and longer tail with a distinctive black tail tip. In colouration terms Weasels are a reddish/ brown on the upper half of their body with a whiteish colouration on the underparts. Their bodies are long and quite sleek in appearance as is typical of a number of species in this family of animals This body is supported by 4 short legs with the back pair being quite muscular. Their bodies are designed to hunt and although small mammal form the basis of their diet they will climb trees and raid birds’ nests of eggs and young. I used to work at a Fields study centre where we had 30 or so nest boxes in a part of the woods and monitored their numbers each year and I recall one year 4 nest boxes in a row had been predated by Weasels and we knew that they were the only predators small enough to get into the nest boxed without damaging the entrance holes. The insides of the nest boxes were trashed and there was occasional piece of egg shell left l. All youngsters were moved from the boxes and I’m guessing that the Weasel would have had to climb the tree serval times in order to retrieve all , 13 in one nest box, youngsters within. As you will becoming aware by now Weasels are very driven little predators. Their family life shows that as well.

My use of the term ‘ family life ‘ is not really a suitable phrase to use for Weasels as with many predatory mammals, much of their lives are spent in solitude. Male Weasels hold a territorial of a varying size but can be over a hectare. Territory size will be defined by prey availability which is also a key factor in breeding success of females. Within in the boundaries of a male’s territory there will be the territories of a female or possibly two. Both sexes will defend their territories all year round and even when the females are ready to mate there will be a fight between the male and female until the larger male overpowers the female. After mating the males has nothing to do with raising the youngsters. A few years ago, one May day, I witnessed two weasels fighting and was so close to them for a minute that I could see it was a pair and I was witnessing the violet courtship before mating. The breeding season is normally between April and June and normally consists of four to six kits.

The female will raise the kits in a burrow that has been built by other small mammals, possibly something she has eaten. She will move the youngsters to another site if she feels they are threatened. We have to remember that although Weasels are fierce predators themselves, they are very small and can get eaten by larger predatory mammals and birds. Young are born naked and blind and only open their eyes after 2 weeks. The
young are normally hunting for themselves after about 4 – 5 weeks or so. Family groups can be seen together when the young are strong and big enough to accompany their mother. These family group will break up fairly soon and the mother will push the youngsters out to find their own territories.

Weasels can be seen in a variety of different habits that offer enough food and cover to ensure survival and over my years of observations I have seen Weasels in agricultural land, farmyards, woodlands, meadows and grasslands, flood marshes, chalk downland, hedgerows and stone walls. This eclectic range of habitats means the Weasel is widespread in the UK and is only absent from some the offshore islands and Ireland.
These charismatic and energetic predators are one of the many joys of our native wildlife, so if you get lucky and manage to see one you may well see some of the things I have discussed here and understand the character of this tenacious little predator. I hope you get lucky and manage to see one.

February 26, 2020

The All Over Bird

The other day as I walked through town, I got stuck for a few moments in a large group of people and as I waited for the people jam to start moving a Pied Wagtail landed on the edge of the crowd and busily started feeding in amongst the crowded pavement.

I have seen this many time over the years and always been in full admiration of this smart, fearless and distinctive little birds. And if you take a look at the life and significance of this species we find another interesting story of our native wildlife. Pied Wagtails can be found in virtually any open habitat in the UK and I have personally seen them in many different habitats from town centres to mountains along with farmland, reedbeds, airports, rivers, beaches, sewage farms, gardens and once on a ferry off Scotland to name a few. They are birds of open country and avoid wooded and heavily vegetated areas but can be found readily in what I call human habitats.
It’s probably worth pointing out that Pied Wagtails are a sub species of White Wagtail, which is a species commonly found across Europe and occur from Greenland to North Africa. They are also found across Asia and have recently been found breeding in Alaska. There adaptability to varied habitats has probably helped them spread across most of the northern hemisphere The White Wagtail appears to be very similar in appearance to our Pied Wagtail but has a distinctive paler grey back and greyer wings. Behaviourally they are identical and I recall from a childhood visit to Venice, seeing White Wagtails on St Mark’s square. The pied sub species that we in the UK know, is only found in UK, Ireland and on the coasts of northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands and nowhere else in the world. which shows the global importance of the birds we see here in Surrey.

One of the reasons I’m writing this article is purely because I find watching Pied Wagtails a very entertaining experience! When they are feeding they are very active and I have witnessed them flycatching insects in many locations from riverbanks to agricultural fields and seen them running as fast as possible trying to steal cake crumbs from feral pigeons. They are mainly insectivorous feeders and will gather in areas where there is a good supply of invertebrate to feed on. They will also eat human scraps which attracts them to our towns particularly during the winter when insects are far less numerous.

Nesting birds also show a great variety in choice of nest sites. Nests can be found in a number of interesting locations including cracks in walls, straw bales, under loose tiles, in stone walls and in a tractor cab that the adults successfully raised young from even after the tractor had been used and my friend who was using the tractor, saw the adults flying into the cab whilst the tractor was moving. They are very committed parents. They normally have two broods of 4 – 6 eggs each breeding season and post breeding flocks can often be seen feeding on playing fields in late summer and early autumn.
Birds that breed in northerly areas of the UK will migrate south during cold weather and during the winter some birds can be seen on the Atlantic coasts of France, Spain and Portugal and a few make it as far south as Morocco and Tunisia.

Like a good number of small passerine birds; Pied Wagtails roost communally and can gather in large numbers to use chosen roost sights. Up to 4000 have been seen in a single roost and as I have witnessed just before they go to roost they will gather in flocks in the surrounding area and be very vocal before flying to the roost site.

The choice of roost sites is another sign of this species adaptability for many of the roost sites are located in urban areas and I know of 3 roosts locally which are all in town centres. The one in Guildford is truly amazing as it is located in a few trees next to Friary Shopping Centre and one of the busiest roads in town and I have found it a quite surreal experience when visiting the site in the winter months, witnessing these small birds just sit quietly as people talk and walk by and rush hour traffic roars past. I also find it quite amazing how few of the passing pedestrians actually notice the 100s of Pied Wagtails a few feet above their heads.

In more rural areas they often roost in reedbeds which offer good protection from land predators and water can actually keep a constant temperature and, in common with the urban sites, roost sites are chosen for warmth and security. Many urban sites are warmer because of the heat of electric lights, machinery and people in the area.

Pied Wagtails are a fascinating species and a familiar species to most people but like many bird species, they are declining in the UK and the reasons for the decline are all to familiar a story. The agricultural changes and mis management of riparian and wetland habitats has reduced insect numbers which in turn has seen numbers of breeding birds decline. There is hope that they will be able to use their adaptability in order to survive and although I feel troubled by all the birds that are in decline, I feel that Pied Wagtails will get through. Whenever you next see one and have some spare time I thoroughly recommend you watch and see what they are up to, you may get quite a show.