A quick catch up

The Safari hasn't been able to get out as much we we'd like this week. Today we got a slightly longer look at Patch 2 than yesterday but yesterday we did see a Curlew land on the beach which when we checked our records discovered we'd forgotten to add it to our Year List (121; P2 #36).

At Base Camp in the evening the first Lesser Black Backed Gull (Garden #22) flew over.

Today the beach offered us the best count of Sanderling of the season, 250, there'll be more to come in the next few weeks. A single Dunlin was with them but there could have been a few others in the most distant groups. A Knot (P2 #37) was bullied off its shellfish finds by the outfall pipe. Sadly this is going to be removed and replaced with a buried pipe, better for water quality but there'll be no 'reef' structure and no swirling silty mud for the waders to probe in - quite disappointing really, they call it progress we guess. There may be the opportunity for some rock armour but it'll all be below the lowest spring tide mark.

Our side of the wall a pile of wind-blown sand dampened by the overnight rain had several trails from Sea Slaters, we've not seen one yet this year but they must be about.

We were going to have a rant about hedgerows and how their current management may or may not be beneficial to wildlife, focusing on some farmland breeding birds but not exclusively, there's wintering birds, there's small mammals, hedgehogs, bats, a multitude of invertebrates, wildflowers.

There's also the requirements of cross compliance for farmers to access their payments and there are regulations they have to abide to for the different levels of Stewardship.

But it's not only farmers that have hedgerows, there's Highways hedges and garden hedges too although the latter have barely any rules governing them.

Here's a few pics of some local hedgerows - over to you - discuss amongst yourselves

Hmmm

Better but gappy an lacking low cover

Gappy but wide enough to give some decent cover

This one hasn't been touched for at least 25 years, has had Long Eared Owls roosting in it

May! How many berries will there be in the autumn?

He's just cut off all the flowering wood - numpty but there's no law against it, he's 'tidying up'. If only he had had some natural history education through his school years.

Another one trimmed just before the flowers opened - this time by 'professional' landscape gardeners. And we wonder why the various pollinator species are suffering

We used to have a Privet hedge, nowhere near as big as this. Yes it was a bit wild and wooly but the birds, bees and butterflies loved it.

It's very drastic at the time

On our drive up the motorway the other day we saw some nice lengths of hedge-laying - excellent stuff. But on the other side of the carriage way was some that had been done a couple of years ago and sadly now was flailed to a 1 metre square 'tube' with a tiny amount of 'cover' confined to the top couple of inches when the cut stems had resprouted before being cut off again - we've seen this on several occasions locally - sad.

Where to next? More brief Patch 2 stuff tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know who's making tracks in your outback.

Bring back the nature table

The safari's recent trip along the motorways, A-roads and byways of Lancashire had us seeing red...or not as the case will prove to be.

Why? The ‘tidy’ brigade had been out with their machinery and mile upon mile of (mostly Hawthorn) hedgerow had been trimmed hard and flowering roadside verge mown to huge blobs of rotting grass. In certain parts of our journey this was justified for very legitimate road safety purposes but for the most part was totally unnecessary and will have the inevitable result of a massive reduction in the number berries available in the autumn for our birds and animals. Not only that there is now reduced cover for them to protect them from the worst of any severe winter weather we might get. Judging by the freshness of the cuts and the debris on the left on the roadside much of this work had been done very recently and perhaps since the RSPB put out its annual plea not to trim hedges too early.

Already on this blog you’ve read about the B-lines project and the campaign to protect our roadside verges

And there is another campaign, more aimed at gardeners than local/highways authorities but relevant none-the-less as it is the time year when all the flowers are removed from Britain’s many miles of privet hedges. Bumble Bee Conservation’s Bee Kind plant-finder tells you what you could plant to help protect our diminishing bumble bee populations but that won’t help much if the flowers get cut off some of those species like the Privet and Hawthorn.

A few years ago we did a survey, with our primary school children, of the local House Sparrows and discovered that they were quite closely associated with areas of extensive Privet hedging and especially those hedges that had been allowed to become a little ‘unruly’.

The biggest problem we had to overcome was that almost all of the children had no idea what a House Sparrow was despite many of them (still) seeing sparrows every day.

These children are the decision making politicians, developers, architects, builders, roofers, planning officers, highways engineers, machinery drivers, gamekeepers, police officers, teachers, shop keepers, bankers, entrepreneurs, social workers, nurses etc et of the future but what future will our wildlife have if they haven’t a clue about it. They will no doubt recognise Meerkats which they’ll probably never see them in the wild but won’t have heard of Black Knapweed is even though it’s flowering all overt the country right now. (Older readers might recognise Constable Knapweed from the children’s programme The Herbs but he didn’t really look much like the plant.)

But the sad thing is that what they don’t know or never had they won’t miss. So perhaps no chirruping House Sparrows, exaltations of Skylarks, enigmatic Cuckoos, plopping Water Voles or sky dancing Hen Harriers for them in not too many years. Not knowing how to look is missing out on the thrill of shouting to their mates “What’s THAT???” and all gathering round some mysterious unknown insect and wondering what it is and what it does and why.

It shouldn’t be up to a few ardent ‘wierdo, greeny, bearded, sandal wearing, tree hugging, conservationists’ to ‘tell’ the rest what’s the best way forward, they should already know and use the conservation professionals to fine tune the plans.

A new development has been opposed on a brownfield site of little natural worth in the town centre but do the new homes have Swift bricks, bat bricks, House Sparrow nest holes as the default design or will the conservationists amongst us have to fight to get them added as an after-thought even if they will only cost a couple of quid extra per house. Will the gardens and public spaces be planted with species from the Bee-Kind list?

All the more reason to stimulate their natural curiosity and bring back the nature table in school, or even a virtual version of it – isn’t that what the brilliant iSpot effectively is...somewhere to share your finds and have someone help you identify them if you’re not sure or just - like us most of the time – don’t know. Would be great if it was a real part of the curriculum but even 10 minutes worth once a week before ‘proper’ lessons would be worthwhile

Then maybe they’ll see what the natural world has to offer and its value, but not its price, and learn of the interconnections and relationships within it and how we are part of it and apart from it - then we could have a real sustainable future

Yes there are still plenty of children who do that and many of those join environmental projects such as the Wildlife Trusts’ excellent Watch groups but wildlife is for everybody, from the inner-most areas of inner cities to the widest of countryside horizons there is something to be seen, identified, understood and most of all enjoyed for its own sake...and ours too!

No doubt lots of kids would be ‘lost’ during their teenage years but at least the seeds of natural history would be sown and as they grew out of the teenage lusts stage and evolved in to adulthood they would have an understanding of the world around them which seems to be so sadly lacking at the moment.

When all of us realise how much we impact on the natural (= our) world then maybe we’ll learn how to appreciate it and use it more sustainably and there won’t be the need for campaigns like this which arrived in the in-box this arvo while we were trying to find shells, crabs and jellyfish etc amongst the swathes of sewage related debris on the beach today – not particularly pleasant and most of it not from our town...thank you for your ‘deposits’ River Ribble...so don’t put anything down the bog you shouldn’t if you live up that way.

The most unusual thing found on the beach today was this cow, suitably cropped so as you don’t need to witness any of the McNasties that were lurking nearby.

Young Un JS saw a small pod of Bottle Nosed Dolphins just up the coast this morning we looked as hard as we could but they’d disappeared over the horizon by the time we were able to get out. But the reactions of the punters around us said it all; ‘they’ tell us dolphins are popular animals and the public ‘love’ them but no-one we told there were some to be seen could be bothered to even look over the wall at the sea – maybe they only like them close up and personal in a tiny tank performing tricks for a large entrance fee – how sad would that be if it were true...and it very possibly is.

We got out at lunchtime for a quick squint at some ducks that have been hanging around on a flood near the nature reserve and found one of the three + Garganeys (181).

When we stopped a Clegg must have flown through the open window of the Land Rover, now a Wasp in the car is scary but the thought of a Horse Fly landing on you whilst driving is down-right petrifying. We managed to swat it against the window behind us while we were stopped at some traffic lights...but when we opened the door later there was no sign of the carcass...nothing worse than a stunned, injured Horse Fly waking up and coming looking for some serious revenge - the stuff of nightmares!

Where to next? Back out on the beach in a bit with yet another group of young explorers and adventurures. Another re-visit to an interesting site in safari-land is on the cards for tomorrow afternoon - wonder what we'll find. 

In the meantime let us know what's on the nature table in your outback.

 

A hedgerow rant - already???

The Safari was up and down the motorway the other day and saw mile upon mile of mid-summer hedgerow tidying, 99% of  it unnecessary for road safety or any obvious agricultural benefit. so why do it - what on earth is the purpose? If there were any flowers in the spring there sure ain't gonna be no berries for the autumn and not a lot of shelter if we get spells of severe cold again. And we wonder why some of our farmland birds aren't doing to well!

Not only that in our 200 mile trip in glorious hot and humid summery conditions we didn't need to squirty dead bugs off the windscreen - where are they??? No wonder there's trouble with some most farmland birds.

We traveled through some prime dairy country and got the impression that even in these frugal times  more of us should be drinking organic milk and pay the small premium at the till because the cost of silage and fodder maize fed milk is extremely high on the environment, but of course if you don't care about the environment, and the food-chains therein, keep buying the cheaper stuff. Must be better for the cows too.

One day we'll break one of those chains that is one we're connected too - then we'll know it! We're already tempting fate with the use of neonictinoids on crop seeds resulting in the poisoning of beneficial pollinating insects weeks or months later - surely that's not clever...apparently the French and Germans have banned their use.

One of our neighbours removed a long swathe of (non-native) Campanula plants from the bottom of her fence - it was in full flower and looking lovely and full of bees and other insects so why do it? Because it looks slightly straggly? No all you can see is a thin strip of bare soil and the gaps at the bottom of the fence panels - hardly aesthetic...and of course the bees are now gone.

The local Privet flower purge continues unabated - why is it so necessary to remove the lovely white flowers from this otherwise fairly boring boring shrub, and  of course no flowers means no berries later in the year.

Best stop now before we find something else to rant about!
...Today...Now we really do have something serious to rant about...we had a hand malfunction and dropped our SD card with all today's and all the family pics from Tuesdday in to a pot of Strawberry Yoghurt and now it;s asking to be formatted...AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH. What's worse is it worked fine after a little bit of a wipe on the t-shirt and we didn't take advantage and download everything to the laptop's hard-drive.
So no pic of that stinky but interesting fish skeleton with a similar skull to the one we found the other day and no pic of the complete Bean-like Telin which is a rare find for us.
Where to next? National Whale and Dolphin Watch weekend starts tomorrow and we'll be watching with a group of eager volunteers.
In the meantime let us know what's gone horribly wrong in your outback

Some saved pictures from the dead card - we had to format it in the end :-(

 

No double U's today

The Safari got nowhere on Patch 1 the n drove to work noting nothing out of tthe ordinary apart from a Herring Gull paddling about in R'ouzel Puddle. The sea at Patch 2 was pretty useless until a couple of Gannets were found and from nowhere we had a nice stream of Arctic Terns, totalling about 30 but there was some to-ing and fro-ing as the hawked and dipped along a bit of a rip someway offshore and some Sandwich Terns go past. Two Grey Seals were pick of the morning.

No lunchtime Patch 2 safari today instead we met up with other members of BEAT Naturewatch and Young Un JS to check out a potential Grass Snake habitat, where last summer one may well have been seen by some groundsmen moving a pile of wood that had lain untouched for some time. We found a small Frog and some tadpoles so prey is present and on the other side of the fence was some good looking damp rough grassland - perfect. Unwittingly the groundsmen had also started a compost heap of grass cuttings; in a fairly good location too! JS has been tasked with keeping a watch on the site and a couple of black carpet tiles have been judiciously placed along with a modified log pile to help him...fingers crossed he strikes gold.

After the meeting ended we mozied on down to the big park with the hope of catching up with the Wood Warbler but with no news from the morning it was highly likely it had gone overnight.

There seemed to be a distinct lack of Willow Warblers and Blackcaps in the area where yesterday the Wood warbler was seen, only minutes after we left...dooohhhh, but we hung around a while and scanned the emerging canopy just in case.

With no joy we decided to walk across to the nature reserve in the vain attempt to find a Whinchat. Before we'd gone more than a few paces we saw something we've never seen before, a Treecreeper having a right old splash in a puddle at the base of a large tree, unfortunately it evaded the lens as we crept a few millimetres too close...darn it!!! We did see a second one a little later but that was too high up in the tree for a decent shot. Lower and, more importantly, bigger was this Mistle Thrush.

A brisk walk across the field follwed and when we got to the rough fields so often favoured by Whinchats on passage we scanned the fence posts and stunted bushes...not a sniff. A few Whitethroats were churring away from the depths of the rank vegetation but that was about it. In the distance we spotted a Sparrowhawk.

More worryingly we spotted this gawp.

Wot no safety gear when cutting at head height? But more importantly it's the beginning of May and he's adjacent to a Local Nature Reserve and County Biological Heritage Site do you think he has had a peer reviewed ecologist check for nests, or even done it himself? He must know there's wildlife about as miles of new Great Crested Newt fencing appeared only feet away from where he's stood last week. And he's cutting off all the flowers, so no berries for the winter visitors on this hedge next autumn. Why is he doing it? To make it look 'tidy' of course! Tidy is cr*p!!!

Disillusioned we headed back to the park passing a few Swallows swooping low over the field as drizzle started.

In the far corner of the lake was the hybrid Red Crested Pochard thingy...or is it a real one dropped in on the recent weather?

Overhead about a dozen House Martins and a similar number of Swallows swooped about to the sound of a not too distant thunder clap. Time to head back to the  Land Rover before the big black cloud unleashed its deluge on us.

The deluge took longer to reach us than we thought it was going to and that gave us (yet) another chance to snap away at some gulls in flight when a bread thrower appeared.

Bit noisy with high ISO under the gloom of a jet black cloud and after all that the deluge never happened...

Where to next? Will the moth trap go on tonight - it certainly will tomorrow night, but before that there may well be an early morning safari to the nature reserve...in the frost! May Bank Holiday Weekend has built an excellent reputation for turning up a decent migrant at the nature reserve over the years- fingers crossed this one produces the goods too.

In the meantime let us know what never happened in your outback.