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By Martyn Stenning
December 2016
The first frosts have happened in Sussex,
and the first snow has fallen further north. The first
Waxwings have arrived on the East Coast of England in search
of our berries. The British Isles has a unique
climate, or at least lots of different types of
weather. It all seems to depend on which way the wind
blows. We are roughly on the same latitude as Moscow
and Saskatchewan which frequently get temperatures lower
than minus 20°C. It is the Atlantic Conveyor and frequent SW
winds that keep us so mild. However, they also keep us
rather wet!
We are currently living through the Anthropocene period,
named as an alternative to the Holocene which means
‘Entirely-recent’, however, Anthropocene means Human-recent
(geological era). This is because there are currently
7 billion of us roaming and changing the planet. No
other animal of compatible size comes near to that in
numbers, and probably never has. As a consequence we
Humans are changing the nature of the surface of the globe
like never before, through anthropogenic (human generating)
influences such as deforestation, combustion, urbanisation,
intensive farming etc. A result is that there is now 400
parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere for the first time
since Humans have existed. This is historic and
worrying as it will be almost impossible to reverse
that. The consequences include more moisture in the
atmosphere causing more storms and rain in general, and more
draught in the tropics and less ice at the poles. We all
know it is happening, even if some folk such as Donald Trump
do not accept it. The sea temperatures are rising
slowly and surely. Even the sea off Brighton sometimes
gets to 20°C during late summer.
All this is also changing the behaviour of animals and the
growth of plants. A few swallows now overwinter in the
West Country, and more continental species of insects and
birds are being found in Britain more frequently such as the
Tree Bumblebee Bombus hypnorum.
All we can do is to try to be a bit more careful about our
personal environmental footprint, such as going for fuel
efficient forms of transport, heating and food
production. We can also support initiatives for nature
conservation, and even manage our gardens for wildlife by
exchanging fences for hedges, planting more shrubs and, if
possible, trees and maybe installing a pond?
November 2016
Autumn is with us again, the time of mists
and mellow fruitfulness. The hornbeams, oaks, birches
and especially the maples are transforming from verdant
green to rich shades of yellow, red and brown. The
chlorophyll is breaking down, revealing anthocyanins,
carotenoids and many other pigments that were hidden by the
green until now. As leaves fall, it becomes a good time to
go bird-watching.
Spiders abound as they feed on senescing insects.
Swallows and house martins have flocked together and raced
over the seven sisters charging like squadrons of spitfires
to get to France then on to Africa. Robins wonder what
all the fuss is about and sit and sing from the hedgerows
staking out their winter feeding territory. Robins are
unusual among birds in as much as the females do this as
well as males. The two sexes may even fight over
ownership of the compost heap that is rich in winter food or
the shed which may give them shelter from snow.
December will be the first true month of winter by which
time our many winter visitors should all have arrived.
Our Atlantic islands, warmed by water from the Gulf of
Mexico, provide a winter larder for many species of birds
escaping from the frozen north and east. We are
currently experiencing a prolonged period of easterly
airstreams across the country which will aid this
migration. We have heard about the whooper and
Bewick’s swans arriving from Scandinavia and Russia, but
along the coasts there are little gulls and also
great-northern, red-throated and black throated loons
(divers) from the same areas. Also in coastal wetlands
horned (shore) larks, water pipits and snow buntings can
sometimes be found. In wetlands with open water and offshore
there are horned (Slavonian), great-crested, black-necked,
red-necked and little grebes. In the reed-beds –
bitterns. On lakes and estuaries you can find at least
five species of visiting geese and about 16 species of
ducks. In places like heathlands a few merlins and
great-grey shrikes arrive, and on the mud-flats about 10
species of waders such as dunlins. In the scrubby
bushlands there are visiting long-eared and on flood-plains
short-eared owls; in berry bushes waxwings and on fields
redwings and fieldfares; in gardens and woodlands blackcap,
firecrest, brambling and siskin. This list does not
include species that augment our familiar natives such as
many blackbirds and woodpigeons.
October 2016
I’m back on the Island of Great Britain
now. Incidentally, I discovered recently that it was
the Ptolemy (AD 100 – 170), the Greco-Egyptian writer that
first referred to Great Britain as the larger of the two
main islands with Little Britain (Ireland) of the British
Isles referred to by the Celts and Romans as the islands off
north-west Europe.
The natural history of these islands is extremely complex
and stems back to their geology which itself is complex, and
is a bizarre mixture of volcanic, sedimentary and
metamorphic rock. The latter term refers mainly to
sedimentary rock that has been transformed by heat and
pressure from one rock type, say chalk into another such as
limestone or marble. Here in Sussex all our substrates
are either sedimentary such as clay, chalk or sandstone with
a little metamorphic bits like Sussex Marble. Horsham
stone is another very hard sand-rock that has been
transformed from sediments into a hard rock commonly used
for roofing, including the roof of Framfield Church.
The wide variety of geological substrates in Sussex has
resulted in a huge biodiversity, because chalk tends to be
alkaline and sand tends to be acidic with the clay and other
rocks somewhere in between. Many plants are either
calcicoles (calcium loving) or calcifuges (refugees from
calcium) and we have both in Sussex leading to a very large
flora. Consequently, the small animals that feed
specifically on particular plants are also present in high
variety. For example, snails have to make shells for
which they use calcium from which chalk and limestone are
made, so there are billions of snails of a wide variety of
species on the chalk downs, feeding on the wide variety of
plants rich in calcium. However, there are small
animals that are only found on acidic heathland such as
several species of moth and butterfly which become common on
heathy places such as Ashdown Forest. However, there
are not many snails to be found on heathland due to the lack
of calcium.
Finally, there are large animals that eat the small ones and
search them out in these habitats. It is not well
known, for example, that the sheep of the South Downs love
to eat snails while they are grazing on the multitude of
herbs that grow there. For this reason, the meat of
South Downs sheep is supposed to be particularly
flavoursome.
September 2016
Greetings from France again where I am
currently working. It has become so hot (up to 35°C)
that most of the wildlife around here is hiding from the sun
and staying cool. Even the lizards are hiding more
than they were. Having said that, I have just seen a
female Hen Harrier from my study hunting over the fields of
the French countryside beyond. This is a large
majestic brown bird of prey about the size of a Buzzard with
a white rump. Its flight is characterised by holding
its wings in a shallow ‘V’ as it quarters the land about 4
metres above the surface. The male in contrast is pale
grey with striking black tips to its wings. They
mainly hunt small birds which they catch in their talons as
they panic are flushed by the appearance of this large
predator flying overhead.
The types of birds around here include some familiar species
such as Wood Pigeons, Goldfinches, Greenfinches, House
Sparrows, Blackbirds and Mistle Thrushes, I also heard a
Tawney Owl last night. However, there are also species
rarely seen in Britain such as Hoopoe, Golden Oriole and
Zitting Cisticola. There is also a Little Owl and
Nightjars living nearby and Black Redstarts breeding in one
of the out-buildings.
The Swifts will have left Europe now for Africa, and the
Swallows are getting ready to do the same in a few
weeks. Meanwhile, the resident birds should all be
moulting, during which time they tend to hide as if in shame
of their dowdy appearance. The Ducks especially will
retreat to reed-beds and water margins as many of them lose
the ability to fly during moulting. The usually bright
males become brown like the females allowing them to be
cryptic among the dense foliage of the ponds and
lakes. This is known as going into eclipse. In a
few weeks they will emerge with a full set of new bright
feathers which will keep them warm in the winter and help
them to attract a mate for the spring breeding season.
One fascinating feature of the Mallard is that unlike most
birds, it is the female who makes most of the noise.
The familiar “Quack Quack Quack” is only done by
the female. The male (drake) in contrast makes a
rather subdued snuffling noise. However, that does not
make him any the less amorous.
August 2016
One would not have
thought that feeding birds would be controversial. Some kind
generous people do it to help the birds and bring them into
their gardens and this gives the householder pleasure.
However, it has become controversial because it sometimes
has unexpected consequences. Herring Gulls are a declining
species and have protection. People have been sharing their
fish and chips and sandwiches with them for years. However,
many Gulls now believe they have a right to the food of
Humans, and have developed the skills to steal food from
people who do not wish to share it. Therefore they have now
become unpopular and there have been calls to control them.
Other people feed the feral pigeons that are the descendants
of Rock Doves once caught from the rocky cliffs in wild
places and taken into captivity for racing and carrying
messages. Many subsequently become feral and then breed on
buildings in towns and cities and scrounge food from
wherever they can, but the more they are fed, the more they
breed and eventually become a problem. Calls to control them
also arise. I have also heard of folk feeding ducks, which
waddle across a busy road from their pond to the garden to
get the food putting their lives at risk.
I feed birds in my garden on a bird table because we have
neighbours cats visiting frequently which hunt birds. No I
am not feeding the cats by doing this because it has been
discovered that gardens where birds are regularly fed lose
fewer birds to cats than gardens that do not provide food.
This may sound paradoxical, but the reason is simple. Each
bird has two eyes, so provision of food results in both a)
birds not having to search for scarce food, and b) many more
pairs of vigilant avian eyes in the garden. The result is
that it only takes one bird to spot the cat, it will then
alarm and all the others will recognise that call and know
the cat is there and will avoid getting caught.
Another issue is the type of food. I believe peanuts are a
bad idea for two reasons; one because peanuts are an alien
food from South America and our birds may like them but if
they try to feed the nuts to their nestlings, the young
birds sometimes choke on them and die. Also, I have heard
recently that peanuts attract badgers to gardens that at
first seems like a nice idea, until they start digging for
worms in the lawn and burrowing under fences and creating
smelly latrines everywhere.
July 2016
I am currently engaged in doing some
writing about Blue Tits. This has involved understanding the
range of forms of this popular little bird. It turns out
there are at least eight forms of Blue Tits that can be
described as separate species, and more than 20 sub-species.
They are all a bit different from each other. The ones we
are familiar with are limited to the British Isles and are
the sub-species Cyanistes caeruleus obscurus. The
ones on most of the European continent are Cyanistes
caeruleus caeruleus. However, I will not go into the
20 or so other Latin names here, but I am hoping to publish
a book about it during next year.
It seems that all species of tits originated in China, and
the ancestors of Blue Tits dispersed across Asia, Europe and
finally colonised North Africa many thousands of years ago.
Then there were a series of ice ages during which the
ancestors apparently went extinct leaving the only surviving
Blue Tits in North Africa. Some of these Blue Tits found
their way to the Canary Islands and became isolated there.
Others found their way to Southern Europe. From here they
dispersed north as the climate warmed up and Blue Tits
became common in most of temperate mainland Europe. Some of
these birds probably moved into British territory before the
land bridge at Dover disappeared about 10,000 years ago,
rendering Britain a mass of islands occupied by a limited
number of plant and animal species, one of them would become
the sub-species of Blue Tit mentioned above.
Meanwhile the Canary Island’s Blue Tits on the different
islands were changing in colour, measurements and song.
There are now at least 4 species and 1 sub-species on
different islands. Also as Blue Tits moved east into what we
know as Russia, their diet was changing which resulted in
these ones becoming almost white forming yet another
species, namely the Azure Tit, some of which gave rise to a
species near Pakistan called the Yellow-Breasted Tit.
However, I am focussing on just Blue Tits, and my conscience
would not let me write about a bird that I had not seen, so
I had to visit the Canary Islands to see these ancient and
rare Blue Tits that appeared before the British Isles became
islands. In short, Canary Blue Tits are brighter in colour,
shyer, the blue bits are darker and their songs are all
different. The Blue Tits on the different islands have
different coloured backs - all for now.
June 2016
How lovely are the fresh new green leaves
on our deciduous trees in the spring time! How
extraordinary too are the animals that live among
them. Each tree is an ecosystem in its own
right. Full of the web of life and each animal is
using the tree as its home. First there is the water
drawn up from the roots and filling the veins of the leaves
making them turgid and juicy. Much of this water is
then secreted from the stomata holes on the underside of the
leaves. Many hundreds of litres can be moved by one
mature tree in a single day. This is a reason why
trees are so useful in a flood-plain, also why flood-plains
devoid of trees flood so badly. The animals in the
trees make use of this moisture and many of them, like moth
and sawfly caterpillars, eat some of the juicy leaves.
Many of these caterpillars will be eaten by larger insects,
spiders and birds such as blue tits, which in turn, un-fit
blue tits will be eaten by other animals such as meat eating
birds such as sparrowhawks.
Sparrowhawks are what we call top-predators. Nothing
much can catch and eat them. They fly and perch, often
in dense woodland, and frequently take small birds on the
wing. They too will have a family of 3 – 5 nestlings
to feed at this time of the year.
The pyramid of numbers is startling. In some years,
one mature oak tree can lose all of its thousands of first
flush of leaves to caterpillars. One family of blue
tits can consume 18,000 caterpillars in about 20 days.
One family of sparrowhawks will consume about 10 blue
tit sized birds in one day, and do so for about 28
days! However, when you think of the sheer quantity of
lettuce, chickens, sheep and cattle that we humans eat, it
kind of puts it in context. Also, the oak trees always
produce another flush of leaves (Lammas growth), many
caterpillars do survive to become beautiful moths each of
which lay large numbers of new eggs on the trees, and
sufficient blue tits survive to make this bird one of the
most successful species’ in Europe. However,
sparrowhawks will always be rather thin on the ground and
rarely seen.
Meanwhile, if you happen to walk through oak woodland during
a warm sunny day during May and early June, and the woodland
floor is covered with dry leaf litter, listen carefully for
a sound like softly falling rain. This is the sound of
thousands of caterpillar droppings falling on the dry
leaves.
May 2016
As I am writing this, currently from
Aquitaine in France, some of the observations may seem
slightly exotic, as there seem to be so many more plant and
animal species here than in Sussex. I am about 700
miles south of Sussex. The climate reflects this, as
when the sun comes out it soon gets quite warm, even in
April. The lizards soon appear and start to sun
themselves. Orange tip and brimstone butterflies
appear to visit the pink and mauve ladies smock flowers
growing in and around damp ditches. The early purple
orchids are well in bloom on the sunny banks among the
rapidly growing grass and other herbs. Birdsong is
everywhere as the male birds sing to defend their
territories and attract mates. I have seen and heard
black redstarts, swallows, blue tits, great tits,
goldfinches, blackbirds, mistle thrushes, woodpeckers both
green and black, and the latter never seen in the British
Isles as far as I know.
Black woodpeckers are even larger than their green cousins,
and similarly have a red crown. This bird is as big as a
large crow, and has a rich repertoire of loud calls, some of
which resemble those of the green woodpecker. Like
other woodpeckers it often communicates by drumming on wood,
and its drumming has been likened to a machine gun, but is
louder from males than females. Its extensive natural
range extends from the northern mountainous Mediterranean
regions up through west and northern Europe through
Scandinavia to Siberia. However, it seems that it has
never made its way to offshore islands such as the British
Isles, or those of the Mediterranean such as Corsica and
Sardinia. Its wing span is about half a metre.
However, its flight is rather clumsy, and it does not like
flying very far, hence its confinement to the continent. It
seems to prefer mixed woodlands with a high proportion of
conifers such as pine, or even pure conifer stands. If
this bird ever came to Britain and bred, I feel sure that it
would soon colonise the entire country where appropriate
habitat occurred.
Meanwhile, listen for woodpeckers native to Britain such as
the rasping calls of green woodpeckers, which only rarely
drum and then rather softly but is quite common. Then
there are great-spotted woodpeckers, much smaller than the
green, but also rather loud in both its calls and regular
drumming. Finally there is the very rare (in Britain)
and tiny lesser spotted woodpecker, about the size of a
house sparrow.
April 2016
Meteorological spring has arrived!
However, I think it is colder now than it was in
January. The frog spawn has arrived in my pond but
some of it looks as though it has suffered in the cold and
is not developing. However, there are plenty of full
stops changing into commas within the jelly, so there should
be sufficient tadpoles to produce a new generation of frogs.
I saw the first hawthorn and elder leaves breaking bud
recently in the hedgerows, and the dunnock or hedge sparrow
was singing his head off this morning, so he is pleased as
well, probably because he and his mate can soon get on with
nest-building without being too visible.
The honeysuckle is also leafing up in order to catch the
early year light before the tree canopy shades it out.
It is a striking ecological phenomenon that the small
understory herbs, climbers and shrubs produce their leaves
well in advance of the trees so that they can use the spring
sunshine to get a growing head start on them before the tree
canopy closes up above them. It is rather kind of the
large trees to let that happen really.
Our commonest tree is probably oak which breaks bud on or
about 23rd April on average. Within about four weeks
of this date the leaves of the oak have closed the canopy,
but not before the wood anemone and blue bell has grown and
flowered. However, there are moth caterpillars that
hatch out when the oak leaves break bud and eat them as they
are growing. If the caterpillars waited, the leaves
produce tannin which makes them inedible and the
caterpillars would die. Sometimes caterpillars can be
in such profusion that you can hear their droppings falling
like rain on the leaf litter below. Also, the
caterpillars can sometimes eat so many leaves that the oak
tree is almost completely defoliated. However, the
caterpillars soon pupate if they are not eaten in turn by
blue tits and other birds; so then the oak trees produce a
new growth of leaves called Lammas growth because it
coincides with the feast of Lammas Day or loaf-mass which is
the 1st August and the festival of the wheat harvest.
On this day it was traditional to bring to church the first
loaf of bread made from the first harvest of wheat of that
year, and is an early harvest festival.
March 2016
I am currently in the south west of France
where I have been for a few weeks during January and
February. The amount of rainfall here is much less
than in Britain, and the temperature is on average at least
5 degrees warmer. A consequence of this is that I have
seen numerous lizards basking in the sun and scurrying away
when they see me. There are also many insects active
at this time of year including bumblebees, flies and a few
butterflies. Many flowers are also blooming, such as
daffodils, primroses and ladies smock. However, I
understand that Britain is also experiencing mild
temperatures and unusual environmental life activity.
Looking out of the window right now from the house where I
am staying I can see a buzzard sitting on a telephone cable,
and I have also seen a herd of roe deer in the neighbouring
field. Other unusual bird life that I have seen
recently includes a male hen harrier, black kite, cranes
which over-winter down here and were flying over, and cattle
egrets in fields with horses. There are also many
small birds including the western continental species of
tree creeper known as the short toed treecreeper Certhia
brachydactyla. The British species is the
Eurasian treecreeper C. familiaris which is rare
in France but more common in Eastern Europe and Asia.
However, both species are very similar, but can be
distinguished by voice and close inspection, especially of
the length of the hind claw. Other small birds I have
encountered are more familiar, such as robins, dunnocks,
blue and great tits, goldfinches, skylarks and
stonechats. There has been a mistle thrush singing in
a distant copse, and I regularly hear and see great-spotted
and green woodpeckers. There seem to be an inordinate
number of kestrels here, I see them frequently perched on
cables or hovering over fields. I also regularly hear
tawny owls calling at night.
There are also native trees in southern France which are
considered exotic in Britain, including the fan-palm Chamaerops
humilis, one of only two native palms to southern
Europe. The other is the Cretan date palm Phoenix
theophrasti. Other natives of the area include
the black pine Pinus nigra, and the strawberry
tree Arbutus unedo.
February 2016
I am writing this on 1st January
2016. However, walking in the countryside this morning
I would be forgiven for thinking that it was March or
April. Most noticeable was the birdsong. I awoke
to the clear tones of a songthrush singing in my back
garden. The song could be heard clearly through the
closed double glazing! There was a frost on the grass
and roofs, which was the first for months, but the sky was
bright and the sun came out briefly. On my walk I was
amazed to see expanded hazel catkins dangling and swinging
in the breeze. On close inspection the tiny red female
hazel flowers were also out. These will receive pollen
from the catkins and make a hazelnut in due course.
But to see these on 1st January in the Sussex countryside is
really unusually early. I saw violets in bloom
yesterday, and other herbs were growing in the hedgerows
already. I almost expect to see frog spawn appearing
in the pond any day. This usually turns up during late
February or early March. I have also seen daffodils in
bloom in some places already.
There is an old saying that as the days lengthen the cold
strengthens. I am expecting some cold weather in
January and February. I fear that many plants and
animals will suffer as a consequence, but we will see.
Nature is very resilient, and left to itself will always
find a way to mend damage and fill a gap. It is right
for humans to care about nature and to attempt to right the
wrongs caused by human excess. My team and I spent 15
years reversing an invasion of aliens in Lake Wood.
The aliens were Rhododendron ponticum and Prunus
laurocerasus also known as cherry laurel. We
worked every first Saturday of the month from October to
March carefully cutting out and burning these two plants
that had effectively swamped about 4 hectares of this
beautiful woodland. These plants from the European
continent were introduced during the mid-nineteenth century,
and took over when management was relaxed during the Second
World War. Rhododendron poisons the soil and transmits
a disease to oaks. Both plants prevent natural
regeneration of young trees and ground flora effectively
eradicating plants such as bluebell and wood anemone.
The result is that that these native plants are returning en
force and young native trees are replacing the alien
evergreen shrubs. The biodiversity of Lake Wood has
probably never been higher.
January 2016
Let’s think about thrushes (Family Turdidae)
for five minutes. Most of us are familiar with song
thrushes. They sing loudly, repeat most phrases 2 or 3
times, they have spotty breasts and lay their bright blue
with black spotty eggs in neat mud-lined nests. They
became scarce some years ago, but they recovered, and it is
usually possible to hear a song thrush singing in the spring
almost anywhere in Sussex now.
Less well known is the mistle (or missel) thrush.
Slightly larger than its afore mentioned cousin, rarer and
also known as the storm cockerel as it often sings just
before a thunder storm. This species likes to eat
mistletoe berries which it disperses from tree to
tree. It has a loud rattle of an alarm call and will
fight off any potential predator or competitor.
The blackbird is also a thrush - Latin name Turdus
merula or black thrush. In winter they
sometimes form small groups which forage on fallen
apples. In the spring on a calm bright dawn many
blackbirds can be heard singing together in a dawn chorus
that is truly phenomenal.
During winter, Britain is visited by thousands of
Scandinavian migrating thrushes consisting of all the above
and also redwings. These are small spotty thrushes
that look as if they have had a nasty accident. This
is because they have blood red patches of feathers beneath
each wing extending down to their thighs. They call
with a high pitched seep and form large flocks which move
from place to place. Winter visitors also include
large grey headed thrushes called fieldfares. These
also have a chattering call that they make as they fly over,
and forage in large flocks in fields usually well away from
human habitation.
Other members of the thrush family that can be seen in
Britain include robins, wheatears, stonechats, whinchats,
nightingales, redstarts, black redstarts and rarer visitors
such as ring ousels which are like blackbirds with a white
collar. These pass through Britain in spring and
autumn, but a few breed in upland moors in wales northern
England and Scotland. Another rare visiting thrush is
the bluethroat which is a bit like a robin but with either a
blue and white or blue and red throat.
The migratory thrushes mostly make their long flights during
the night. They navigate by a combination of the stars
and an internal compass.