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By Martyn Stenning
December 2021
COP26 is in full swing as I write. The planet is changing, and those changes are largely due to us c. 8 billion Humans. We are living in an era that the geologists have named Anthropocene or the age of human affected geology. We dig up or harvest almost everything that we use to build civilisation, we change what we have obtained then distribute it around the world to make other things, we use those things then bury them in the ground, flush them out to the oceans or burn them when we have finished with them. Just ponder, for example, the history of the structure of your computer as you type and the obsolete computers that you and I have had in the past. There are components that are made of rare metals and other materials that have been dug out of the ground. Some products are recycled which adds to the dispersal of the material. Not all human activity is bad and I am not making value judgements, but we are changing the world at a geological level as well as many other levels. It is down to us to try to put it right, this is the objective of COP26.
So, where to go from here? We are not be in the business of problems, just solutions. We get hungry, so we eat something. We get thirsty so we drink some cool fresh water. We generate too much carbon dioxide, so we must stop doing that and find alternatives. One latest solution is aeroplanes that run on hydrogen fuel instead of petroleum from fossils. Burning hydrogen just produces water. There will soon be hydrogen cars along-side electric ones as we phase out petrol and diesel engines. Us and planet would be healthier if we eat less meat and exercise more by cycling or walking instead of driving short distances. We can plant a tree that will soak up carbon dioxide and release oxygen, but not within 7 metres of a vulnerable building. We can make a pond and not mow lawns so frequently or rewild part of a garden or countryside. We can seek alternatives to gas for heating and cooking and install solar panels. If in employment, we could either work from home or live near the job. We can buy locally produced food and other products. We can share!
We all share responsibility for global warming and its consequences and all of us can respond by sharing global resources accordingly, because 8 billion people pulling in the right direction can create a sustainable world.
November 2021
There are just three types of animals on planet Earth if you classify them by eye function. 1. Those that have forward vision only, like us and most spiders, these animals are usually predators; 2. those that have side-of-head eyes, virtual all-round vision such as chickens and butterflies, these tend to be prey animals 3. those that have no eyes, like worms and cave fish, live in dark places and have lost or never found the power of vision.
Eyes may be the single most improbable and miraculous organs of the body, a window on the world. Even the Evolutionary Biologist Charles Darwin exclaimed that it was "absurd" to propose that the human eye evolved through spontaneous mutation and natural selection. Yet evolve they did because evolution itself is an elegant and miraculous process.
Actually, even worms have cells that detect and inform them as to whether they are in darkness or light. From simple light sensors like these, eyes developed and improved gradually over many generations.
Predators and prey alike probably have the best eyes on the planet as their existence depends on them. A golden eagle has phenomenal eyesight and can see tiny prey movements from hundreds of metres away. Similarly, deer and antelope who have all-round vision, and who often live in herds, will spot a predator immediately unless the latter is well camouflaged, hidden and still. Feeding and survival for these 2 groups has been a process of refinement and skill development over many generations. The same can be said of humans as athletes continue to break records every year at sports meetings. We no longer depend on the skills and agility of hunters in order to eat, but we still try to improve the capabilities of our bodies. Animals will be doing likewise. However, some animals, like us, have adopted a cultivation strategy for their food. They still need good eyes, but use them for management rather than hunting or evading being hunted. Among these are ants who ‘farm’ aphids and scale insects. Lions who live with herds of antelope, getting to know them and identifying individuals that would be easiest to catch.
Autumn is the time for spiders, hunters that set gossamer insect traps.
October 2021
Planet Earth is changing fast. You and I have both been affected (hopefully not infected) by a minute virus we call called COVID-19. In addition, we are all ageing and new babies are being born. Life goes on and the climate continues to change. We all have to adapt to survive.
Circumstances have permitted my wife and I to visit our place in France for a short while after a year of no management or maintenance. Many of you will have heard of the new trend in ecology called re-wilding. This philosophy essentially means letting nature take its natural course with minimal intervention. Unless you try it, you cannot know what surprises nature can present after one year of natural freedom!
Neighbours told us that the colours in the meadows that were our lawns during May were wonderful. However, on arrival in August, the lawns had become hay fields with grass over 1 metre tall in places. We apparently had a visit from a stone marten during our absence who got into the attic, left its calling card and gnawed through a door into the main body of the house. A stone marten is a cat sized relative of the weasel. Apart from a few urine stains no further damage. Indeed, there were no mice in the house when we arrived, stone martens like to eat mice.
Birds currently in our garden would wow even hardened bird watchers and include pied flycatchers, cirl buntings, stonechats, wheatear, whinchat and black redstarts. That list itself is a good recommendation for rewilding. However, in order to access to the ground, we have had to do a certain amount of de-wilding. Even nature reserves need managing to make room for humans and control alien invaders such as (here) American Robinia pseudoacacia trees and bamboo. In doing so, we discovered some interesting insects including praying mantids, coneheads, fritillary butterflies and wart-biter bush crickets.
We hear owls calling at night, they also like to eat mice. We also hear a chorus of crickets and other insects calling to each other in the hope of reproducing, as they have done for 300 million years! This morning I watched a roe deer quietly walking across a neighbouring field and a fox left its calling card on our (now) newly mown lawn.
September 2021
There is a bird, fairly common in Britain, namely, about 80,000 pairs, that anyone living near or in a town or in the countryside, can see easily, and frequently, during the months of May, June and July, but is impossibly rare during the remaining months. This bird weighs from 31 – 56 grams, has a wingspan of 42-48 cm and is dark brown to black or slate grey for the most part with a small light patch beneath its beak.
This bird almost exclusively eats insects, but will also take spiders that are ballooning on gossamer webs. All this while flying continuously.
This bird remains on the wing all its life for about 10 months of the year even roosting on the wing at altitudes between 1000 and 2000 metres, gliding and sleeping on and off until dawn. This bird can also mate and drink water on the wing. The only time this bird lands is to make a nest in a building, tree hole (such as an old woodpecker hole) or in a nest-box, or on a craggy cliff-face. This bird is most fond of church buildings.
Both males and females share nest duties and often preen each other (allopreening) while at the nest. Their clutch of eggs can be from 1-4 but are usually 2 or 3. The eggs are long, elliptical smooth and white, but not glossy. Incubation takes from 19 to 27 days. This is so variable, because, in the nest, the young of this bird can endure short periods of hibernation in and out of the egg and their little bodies become dormant. This is when the adults find it hard to find food during cold spells of inclement weather often flying far and wide to feed, abandoning their nestlings for days at a time. The nestlings are in the nest from 37–56 or sometimes more days during which the parents feed, clean and warm them.
When they are ready to fly, the fledglings leave the nest at about 08:00 h when their parents are absent, and they find their own food from that day on for the rest of their lives of up to 20 or more years during which they fly the same distance as if going to the moon and back up to 7 times. By the beginning of August, most of these birds have left Britain and flown to Zaire, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This bird, known for its screaming, very fast flying flocks, is the common swift (Apus apus).
August 2021
Prof. Brian Cox concluded one of his recent documentaries about the cosmos by saying that “we are here because we have to be”. I have just been watching the wildlife in our garden, and there are fledgling jackdaws calling to each other and their parents, collared doves trying to defend their nest from a magpie, a grey squirrel eating an unripe apple in our fruit tree and a Planet Earth-coloured blue tit taking sunflower hearts from a bird feeder. This is in a background of tall birch trees, an herby lawn allowed to grow with clover and birds-foot-trefoil and a pond full of metamorphosing tadpoles/frogs. All there because they have to be!
I try not to make value judgements about the organisms in the garden, simply because they have to, or should, be there. However, it may be that we humans have to sometimes attempt to correct mistakes of the past by ‘gardening for wildlife’, which does sometimes mean making value judgements, i.e., weeding, especially in favour of those animals and plants that have been rendered rare by some of our human predecessors.
Every plant and animal species has a history, jackdaws are a type of crow and all crows originated in Australia before radiating naturally around the globe due to their ability to fly. Grey squirrels originated in North America but were introduced by humans to Britain in 1876. They have decimated Britain’s native red squirrels, but are still innocent animals with entertaining behaviour. If we get too judgemental about an organism, we could end up persecuting them all unfairly for some reason or another. After all, we are part of nature as well. However, the natural world needs management because we humans have a responsibility of stewardship due to our disproportionate numbers and impact upon it. As Sir David Attenborough has said “We have overrun the planet”. Do we have a moral duty to carefully share this blue, yellow, green, white and black Earth with all other forms of life that should be where we find it?
When I was a teenager, I discovered a lovely piece of prose called ‘The Desiderata’ (Things Desired) written by Max Ehrmann (1920) who pre-empted Prof. Cox’s words as it includes: …”whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should ”.
July 2021
Having studied biological/ecological science for many decades, I feel a bit concerned about how some human activities effect the natural world.
When we express concerns about the environment that supports us, some with other preoccupying, often commercial, concerns, label us as “bunny huggers” or non-pragmatic ideologists. It is true that I did keep pet rabbits as a child and so did our children. However, there are a few provisos that need to be made clear. First, keeping rabbits or any other animal is an opportunity to understand their biology, and this led me into an advanced education in that science subject. Secondly, rabbits are not native to Britain, but were introduced here by the Normans in the 12th century for their meat and fur. Therefore, rabbits have not contributed to the maintenance of Britain’s primeval natural biodiversity and may even have harmed it. For example, Natural England, the Government’s advisory body on nature conservation, actually pays people to control rabbits on some of our National Nature Reserves (NNRs). This is because rabbits sometimes cause serious damage to the biodiversity of native species rich grasslands, such as those found on the downlands of Sussex.
Following on, it is the total natural biodiversity, from bacteria to blue whales that regulates population levels of almost every global living thing, within balanced limits. In the past, some humans have kidded themselves that removing certain organisms would make life easier. This naïve attitude to nature sometimes resulted in a knee-jerk reaction to kill “vermin” such as birds of prey and foxes. Other folk exploited animals such as beavers and little egrets to adorn themselves, such that they became extinct on these islands. As a result, our native ecosystems have become unbalanced, raising more problems for us to deal with.
Currently, the science of ecology is revealing solutions to these issues and other environmental problems such as climate change, disease transmission and the rapid decline of plants and animals that our parents knew and loved, such as marsh marigolds, nightingales and otters. Some of these species are now returning. One solution is the preservation of green and blue ecosystems such as the forests and oceans that provide the oxygen that we breathe. It is a solution that we can all contribute to.
June 2021
Most oak trees have broken bud in Sussex now (early May), with oak flowers (catkins) bunched beneath the developing leaves. Oaks are monoecious, which means that they are both male and female. However, I have just learned that female oak flowers are fussy about where the male pollen they use comes from. Oaks are wind pollinated and the female flowers get inundated with local male pollen, some from their own catkins. But they also receive pollen from afar. Apparently, female oak flowers can reject pollen that comes from local catkins in favour of land-distant and genetically distant pollen from trees far away. That way they can avoid breeding with their close relatives, just like we humans avoid pairing up with our relatives. The result is much healthier offspring.
A dry, cold April has meant that the grass is growing slowly and meadow flowers are persisting for longer. It has been a fantastic year for violets, cowslips and primroses. However, I am worried about the lack of insects to feed the insectivorous birds. I have not heard a single cuckoo yet; these brood parasites specialise in feeding on hairy caterpillars. However, I saw my first swifts of the year about 6th May, swifts eat copious amounts of flying insects, but most insects only fly in temperatures above 10° Celsius. So swifts may be having a hard time.
I visited Splash Point near Seaford early on Friday Morning 7th May and the kittiwake colony on the cliffs was in full swing. Dozens of these cute small black-footed gulls with black tips to their wings were busily building their nests on cliff ledges. There was a pair of fulmar petrels there also. These relatives of the albatrosses and petrels spend most of their long 30 year plus lives at sea, but look for a cliff to breed on in the early summer. They are mate-faithful and usually lay just 1 egg per year.
I monitor the 46 blue tit nest-boxes at Lake Wood when I can, and this year 35 of them had nests with eggs in at the end of April. One nest had 14 eggs! The wood looked superb with carpets of wood anemones and bluebells this year. The blue tits will be aiming to time the hatching of nestlings to coincide with the development of the green caterpillars that feed on the young oak leaves, such that the insect larvae will be about 2 centimetres long and full of protein, water and other beneficial nutrients.
May 2021
I am writing this on Friday 9th April after a week that has included impressive snow showers and significant frosts. However, nature is resilient and activity among plants and animals is revealing new discoveries every day. The milkmaids cress also known as ladies smock, cuckoo flower, mayflower and Latin Cardamine pratensis is showing in our wet grasslands all over Sussex. I mentioned this in a previous NN and that it grows prolifically in the Little Horsted road roundabout, this year it is as good as ever. Other wildflowers are also appearing including wild daffodils, violets, forget-me-not, wood anemones, primroses, greater stitchwort and the occasional early bluebell. This is the May NN, and by then our ancient woodlands will be carpeted with bluebells.
Resident birds too are nestbuilding obsessively! I have also seen several swallows. Our local blackbirds have fledglings being fed by their parents in our garden. Bumblebees, butterflies and ladybirds are appearing in small numbers. Chiffchaffs and blackcaps arriving from the southern countries are singing in the woods along with our resident species.
May is the month for rapid reproduction with insects collecting pollen and nectar from the flowers to feed to their own young and fertilizing the flowers’ ova as they do so. During May there is a frenzy of nutrient flow through the ecosystems of the northern hemisphere. Insect reproduction is phenomenal, with billions appearing in every habitat, from the mayflies and mosquitoes in the water to the caterpillars on the trees and on people’s prize cabbages. The young and old birds, insectivorous mammals, reptiles, amphibians, larger insects and spiders will eat those insects, and in turn will be eaten by larger animals and so on. A time of plenty and a dynamic food chain. May is the best month for nature watching because there is so much to see and the temperature is nice too.
With the reduction in hunting and the introduction of legal protection, we are seeing many more beautiful predators in Sussex, such as the red kite I saw near Plashett Wood on Wednesday and the abundance of buzzards that we see almost every day even over Uckfield. These predators are an important part of the ecosystem and will often clear away roadkill, the victims of disease and the weaker prey that cannot breed anyway.
April 2021
From about 21st March to September 21st, days will be longer than nights. We are still learning how important this is to us and the natural world. Many of us suffer from Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD) or low mood due to a lack of day light. A tortoise, dormouse or hedgehog will hibernate and sleep through the dark months. Humans evolved in the tropics where animals don’t need to hibernate. We tend to retire into our houses to keep warm and cosy on dark winter days and nights. Many of us take vitamin D tablets to make up for the lack of sun.
Blue tits are tightly connected to phases of the sun. Male blue tits start singing on 22nd December and from then to March 21st demonstrate potential nest cavities to females. Female blue tits start to take nest material such as honeysuckle bark and moss into the cavity around the 21st March. They aim to have their nestlings fledged and flying by 21st June. Humans have celebrated solstice and equinox for thousands of years and Christian liturgy links its major celebrations approximately to these times (Christmas, Easter, Feast of the Sacred Heart, Harvest Festival). Grasses mature and flower in June and farmers know that June is the time to cut good hay. That is when the grass pollen count is highest. Wind pollinated grasses don’t need the help of insects for that.
In temperate zones, the growing season is from the spring equinox to the summer solstice. Most terrestrial temperate organisms know that, even deciduous trees. I find it fascinating that most trees in the tropics and arctic zones are evergreen, but most trees in temperate zones are deciduous. They decide to shed their leaves in the autumn and grow new ones from the spring equinox to the summer solstice. During this time most folivorous insects such as moth caterpillars flourish and feed on the juicy young arboreal leaves and in turn the birds, such as blue tits, feed the caterpillars to their nestlings. Plant leaves are the solar panels of the planet, generating stored, carbon rich, energy and oxygen for all life. They can also regulate the water cycle as they take water from the soil and release it into the air from their leaves often making it rain in the tropical and temperate rain forests of planet earth.
March 2021
Gardens can be diverse havens for wildlife. I sometimes cringe a little when I watch garden makeover programmes that completely and expensively, blitz what is already there. Similarly, when I walk past some local gardens and see them as sterile concrete or tarmac surfaces.
Added together, the gardens of England must make up thousands of hectares. However, each one is probably only about 100 square metres on average. That is, about 10 x 10 metres. There are over 27 million households in England. The majority of houses will have some kind of garden. 1 in 8 households have no garden, the remaining 7 in 8 do. Each one of those can provide some kind of home for nature. In order to do something to counter climate change, it is only necessary to grow green plants. The greater the area covered the better. If there are 7 metres between a building and the garden perimeter, consider planting a hedge punctuated with a tree rather than having a fence (which will eventually decay anyway). A tree in the garden will guarantee birds. Grow cabbages, potatoes, spinach or other vegetable or fruit if you wish to produce food. Plant a native evergreen shrub such as box Buxus sempervirens, which will make oxygen and fix carbon all year round. The darker the leaves, the more photosynthesis your plant will do. Whatever you plant, prefer plants native to the country you live in.
Making ponds is also excellent as they are homes for frogs, newts water beetles and much more. Natural ponds are usually temporary as they silt up in time. New ponds will soon be colonised by water creatures, but please do not put fish in them as they eat the water creatures seeking a home, especially tadpoles. Limit restoring ponds to August.
I find it is best to manage the garden slowly. Work gradually with what exists already and let the garden evolve with time and inspiration. Culture a wild area where plants and animals colonise naturally. Pave with bricks (as bricks allow drainage) a suitably sized, sunny area to sit with a small table and chairs to take refreshments and watch nature. Create your own garden of Eden, feed the birds, compost green waste. Watch how the biodiversity of your patch increases. It is so rewarding!
February 2021
New year – new life! Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the present and the present is a gift! One thing I recorded about blue tits, when researching for my book on the subject, was that blue tits rarely sing between the longest (c. 21st June) and the shortest (c. 21st December) days (solstices) of the year. However, nearly every year, the first blue tit song I hear is on or about the 22nd December when the daylength is about 1 minute longer than the 21st. Blue tits are surprisingly intelligent for an animal so small and live short lives (mostly less than one year), so the gift of a new day is especially valuable to them. They seem to be keenly aware of any positive changes such as day length. My local ones have even been scoping the nest-box that I have for them in the garden in late December.
Trees are essential for blue tits, no trees – no blue tits. Indeed, trees are essential for any organism that uses oxygen in respiration. Since the invention of the timber chainsaw in the early 20th century, humans have been felling trees at a phenomenal rate, an activity that contributes to climate change and reduces the sustainability potential of life on Earth. Allowing trees to grow is one of the best things that any human can do for the planet. Sadly, 3 diseased ash and 1 (non-native) unsafe cypress trees had to be removed from Framfield churchyard recently. However, these have been replaced now with 4 different new, native, healthy saplings, namely crab-apple, whitebeam, juniper and rowan. All of these are highly suitable for the churchyard as they never get too large, grow slowly and support the lives of many other species, especially insects and birds. When planting a tree near buildings, it is advisable to locate it at least 7 metres from the building so that the tree does not affect the building’s structure or function.
Even small trees or hedges are important. There is usually a correlation between the number of trees and the number of birds in a garden or other location. A hedge will last longer than a fence, but will need maintaining in a different and sympathetic way with regular clipping (instead of expensive painting). Trees will even remove particulate pollution from the atmosphere and act as natural air conditioners
January 2021
I find it fascinating that some animals specialise in eating some very strange things. I hope you will be equally fascinated. For example, cuckoos specialise in eating hairy caterpillars! These are caterpillars that have evolved poisonous hairs to stop animals eating them, but cuckoos have evolved the ability to be resistant to the poison. Similarly, giant pandas specialise in eating bamboo, which contains significant amounts of cyanide precursors, that could kill a human.
It is also extraordinary that huge anteaters can survive on eating tiny ants and termites. Also, the honey buzzard – a large bird of prey, similar to rabbit-eating common buzzards – actually survives on eating bees and wasps! Owls often swallow quite large rodents whole. The massive bird of prey called lammergeier or bearded vulture – eats large mammal bones by carrying them to a high altitude, drops them onto hard rocks, which breaks them, then flies down to eat the sometimes very large pieces of bone, whole. One was seen in Sussex recently.
Many fish-eating birds, such as herons, sometimes catch quite large fish and swallow them whole and it is possible to see the fish slipping down the inside of their skinny neck as a large bulge. Incidentally, herons will sometimes resort to hunting and eating moles in the same way if frosty weather freezes over their favourite hunting water.
Two favourite foods eaten by badgers are earthworms and hedgehogs. In turn, favourite foods consumed by hedgehogs include slugs and snails. Moles also specialise in earthworms. Bluetit nestlings can eat up to 100 caterpillars per day. One sparrowhawk can eat 10 bluetits in one day. Some butterflies glean essential salts from dog faeces.
Plant nutrition is equally fascinating as a large tree can consume about 15 grams of carbon per day in the form of carbon dioxide and goes on to produce 10 times more oxygen during the day (as providential waste) as they consume for respiration during the night. Using water, trees use the carbon to make carbohydrates such as sugars and cellulose. The waste oxygen is then available for all life, such as us, to breathe.