The Dark Days of December?

 

As the end of the year fast approaches, the days become increasingly shorter.  There is less time, and less light, so I don’t expect to be able to see much of nature, especially flowers or invertebrates.

I began this blog on the 21st of December; the Winter Solstice which is the shortest day and longest night of the year. Literally, one bright phenomenon to look out for was the so-called Star of Bethlehem, the Great  Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.  In the days leading up to this “once in 400 years” event, early evening cloud prevented it being visible.  We have an excellent dark sky view to our south and west from home but couldn’t beat the clouds.  That is, until the 22nd when the vision was apparent

The rain during these few days meant that even the view from our windows to the feeders was blurred and indistinct.

Saturn and Jupiter

Our daily walks were punctuated with rain, but even when it cleared, there was no much expectation of seeing anything of note.

The farmers had been using this quiet time to trim their hedges and verges, further reducing opportunities as vegetation and any insect population was trimmed back to woody branches.

Neatly trimmed hedgerows

The omni-present Red Campion was seen every day as well as its companion Herb Robert.  We were unprepared for an out of season Field Buttercup but not too surprised to see an early Primrose and a single Lesser Celandine right at the beginning of the month.  The vanilla/marzipan smell of the groups of Winter Heliotrope are a welcome Christmas flower.

Field Buttercup

Primrose

Winter Heliotrope

An advantage of trimmed hedges and verges, is that the hedge bottom is visible and in the gaps, can be seen the fields normally hidden by Cornish Hedges.

Fungi were found in the hedge bottoms but despite the wet damp weather, were not abundant.  Brackets and encrusting fungi could be see as well as a few Candlesnuff fungi (Xylaria hypoxylon) the rare, but spreading Perenniporia ochroleuca as well as Tawny Funnel - Lepista flaccida and my favourite, Cobalt Crust.

https://northcornwallnaturalist.blogspot.com/2020/11/blue-sky-experience.html

Tawny Funnel Cap

Perenniporia ochroleuca

Cobalt Crust

Invertebrates were very few, although any sunshine brought out masses of midges near the stream at Crosswater.  A late German Wasp was seen on Ivy, no doubt seeking a hibernacula.  One Green Shieldbug was also found on an Ivy leaf for three days in a row, before it either succumbed to predation or fell lower down the hedgerow.  We also had a couple of sightings of active 7-spot Ladybirds.

German Wasp

7-spot Ladybird

Green Shieldbug

The views through the hedgerow was welcome allowing us to see a Red Fox crossing a field and a Roe Deer busily eating amongst the Purple Moor Grass until it sensed us.  Two areas on our walk have quite a number of trees and here, on three or four occasions we were rewarded with sightings of Grey Squirrel.  We often see the hoofprints of deer on the paths that cut the hedges and cross the roads, but carrying the correct lens at the right time to get a photograph of a deer itself is more challenging.

Red Fox

Roe Deer

Deer slot

Another advantage was to be able to find abandoned bird nests.  We identified these as Tits, Blackbird and at least four Wrens’ nests.

A Wren's nest

Apart from the permanent presence of Gulls and Corvids, we were rewarded by the sighing of a small flock of Long-tailed Tits, a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers chasing each other and, at regular intervals along the walk, a singing Robin.

Back home, there are more invertebrates with Winter Moths regularly seeking out our lighted windows and a rain speckled 7-spot Ladybird rescued from the house wall and brought into the garage.

Winter Moth

The last sighting of the year on the 31st was of a Rabbit.  It's good to know that they are surviving Myxomatosis and VHD.

Blogs I follow

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Living in a Zoo - Mammals

 These last few weeks we have seen more mammals that usual.  I wonder if it is dispersal time and we are seeing youngsters seeking their own territories.

The blog was prompted by the sighting of a Stoat on our garden.  We have seen one before usually once year.  My records show one in March 2016 and again in September 2017.  This one appeared this last week on 27th August.  It was doing what they always do, snaking in and out of the stones in our wall; no doubt following the routes that our resident Bank Vole takes. 

Stoat

Bank Voles are resident in our garden wall.  I have records from 2014 up to the present. They appear almost every day traversing the route along the back fence, before emerging from the right hand wall, dashing across the gap and into the other wall.  Here they appear between the stones and head into the undergrowth before returning a few minutes later. 

Bank Vole

I know there are Hedgehogs in the garden, they leave little present of their dropping here and there.  My records show them from 2014 mainly in Summer and Autumn.  I left a part of the lawn to grow and noticed hedgehog sized tracks through the long grass which my trail camera confirmed were hedgehog trails. 

Hedgehog

An unwelcome visitor since this year has been a regular sighting of a Brown Rat.  It appears to follow a route between our fence and hedgerow before heading into next door’s garden.  Our neighbour very kindly puts down food to attract hedgehogs, but the rats have noticed and make regular calls to check for free food.

Brown Rat

We have had the odd sighting of a Red Fox in the field beyond our fence.  Two wonderful sightings were made in July when a young fox visited on the 23^rd and again on the 29^th.  Earlier sightings were of an old mangy fox, this youngster can visit any time.

Red Fox

Since 2015, I have recorded the occasional Grey Squirrels looking longingly at the bird feeds, a newly acquired ground feeder was found in June by a squirrel.  It came day after day to gorge on any peanuts in the feeder but we had to remove it when the rat appeared. 

Grey Squirrel

Bats are quite common around our house.  Once shortly after we moved in 20 years ago, we called on the services of the North Devon Bat Group who recorded over 90 Pipistrelles emerging from our loft.  We do see them on warm nights and assume that they are Pippistrelles but until we found and photographed a dead one on our drive we could never be sure.

Pippistrelle

There are quite a few pet cats about and they catch quite a lot of vertebrates and leave their prey for us to find.  

Common Shrew

Common Shrews are frequently seen as cat kills on our driveway

Although we can’t condone this and do chase cats from our garden, there have been two remarkable sightings that we might not have had otherwise.  Many years ago, I photographed a very blurred picture of what I suspected was a Water ShrewIn July, we came across a cat kill which is undoubtedly the real thing.

Water Shrew

Later on in August, the other extraordinary kill was a Dormouse.  

Hazel Dormouse

It was dead on the road and had obviously been hit by a car, but to be on the road it had probably been caught by a cat and then left there.

House Guest - House Pest?

With apologies to Richard Jones for borrowing the title of his book (ISBN 9781472906236).

I recently stayed in Big St Johns, one of the Lundy properties, while enjoying two week's holiday. Most of the time was spent out of doors, observing and recording nature. There were a couple of days when the weather was not very good when we had short walks and spent more time in doors.

We found durng the current pandemic that you can enjoy nature in your own garden or by venturing only quite locally from home. Bur, how many of us have had a good look around indoors? I'd like to persuade you that you don't necessarily need to go out to observe nature.

The first species I found in Little St Johns was under the box of groceries we had delivered from the Lundy Shop - a Banded Centipede (Lithobius variegatus). We usually manage to see some of these, but I've not often found them indoors. It is easy to determine this species with their diagnostice purple-striped legs. They are predators feeding on other insects, perhaps those detailed below.

Banded Centipede Lithobius variegatus

One of the most frequent species found most mornings when we began making breakfast is the Pill Woodlouse (Armadillidium vulgare) . These were easily the most common and two or three could be found during each day. We don't make much mess, but any crumbs were no doubt being hoovered up by them as they feed on organic matter.

Pill Woodlouse Armadillidium vulgare

Another myriapod we recorded, but only once, was the Common Shiny Woodlouse (Oniscus asellus) with its attractive yellow markings on each segment.

Common Shiny Woodlouse Oniscus asellus

In the corner of each room you could guarantee to find at least one Cellar Spider (Pholcus phalangioides). Their characteristic very long legs earns them their other name, Daddy Long-legs Spider. These are good guests to have as they prey on other spiders. So tolerate these and you might not see any other spiders in your accommodation.

Cellar Spider with egg sac Pholcus phaliongioides

We must have made some crumbs as we did find a couple of Silverfish, Lepisma saccharina. They feed on sugars and starches as their scientific name suggests. They are fast though and were a little challenging to photograph.

Silverfish Lepisma saccharina

I observed a solitary wasp continually flying against the window in the bathroom. I manage to persuade it out through the open window, but each morningh, it was back again. Eventually I identified it as Ancistrocerus sp. a Potter Wasp. When I read up on the species I found that they lay eggs in holes in wood then provision each egg with grubs which it paralyses so its developing larvae can feed on them. This wasp was seen one day head first in a redundant window fitting hole. Once it had completed this task it did not reappear. This is the second year I have seen this performance and now look forward to next year's sighting.

A Potter Wasp, Ancistrocerus sp.

The final species was an appearance late in the evening of a Pygmy Shrew (Sorex minutus). An insectivore, the previous listing, particularly of the Woodlice might explain what it was doing there. These are tiny and extremely active zooming around the skirting boards like a clockwork toy. It certainly had plenty of invertebrates to feed its high metabolic life-style. I was not quick enough to grab a picture so have used an early photograph taken outside on Lundy.

A Pygmy Shrew Sorex minutus

Seven species without venturing outside is a lockdown triumph.

Stranger in the night

Over the last week or so, we have been finding small, cylindrical, black droppings which look to me to be hedgehog droppings.  The picuture below shows three examples.

Hedgehog droppings

During lockdown, I decided to leave a few square metres of lawn uncut to see what grows and hopefully bring more biodiversity to the garden.  I inspect this fairly often to see what might be pushing through and noticed there were well-used pathways in the growing grasses.

Hedgehog trail

These two pieces of evidence made me decide to put out my trail camera, a Spypoint IR-8.  The following morning amongst the recordings of grasses moving in the breeze was the clip shown below.

Yes, a full-grown hedgehog going about its business and probably sleeping in the hedge bottom during the day. Now to set up a better camera position to see if I can capture some more images.

A Whale of a Time

Sperm Whale at Perranporth

It felt like a pilgrimage. Hundreds of people were walking northwards from Perranporth along the shining pink road towards the beached whale.

We heard on the Sunday news that a female Sperm Whale was found beached near Perranporth and decided we just had to take the opportunity to see it in the flesh. We had underestimated how far from the nearest car park it was. Along with many others we walked 50 minutes to see the whale and another 50 minutes back to the car. The beach was covered in a pink tide by millions of Moon Jellyfish and the odd Blue Jellyfish. We judged we would have plenty of time to get there and back as the tide was ebbing from full. People of all ages were striding out with dogs and children. People who would normally just manage to walk a couple of yards from their parked car to empty the dog and get an ice-cream were making the journey.

The pink jellyfish path

Being two days after it had beached, the whale had been post mortemed on the beach with obvious incisions and jaw removed. The carcass was beginning to darken and bloat and the exposed entrails were bubbling and fizzing with the release of decomposition gasses.  

When the pilgrims arrived there were hushed conversations “Such a pity it had to die for us to see it.”, “They say some lads were trying to get souvenir teeth”, (in fact the autopsy team had removed the lower jaw with teeth to age the whale), “Well worth the walk to see it.”, “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

On our return there was still a continual stream of people walking northwards to pay homage.

Post-mortem team

The following day I has a call about another stranding. This time, a female juvenile Minke Whale much closer to home at Bude. I was unable to get to it until the evening due to tides and commitments. Arriving at 9pm, there was a team of people from the Marine Srandings Network, British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) and of course James the volunteer veterinary who was beginning the post mortem.

James was assisted by both divers, one handling and wrapping the samples, the other listing what these were – Kidney, Liver, Ovaries, Eyes, Heart, Stomach contents (Krill) with Niki the Strandings officer taking record photographs. Duncan was the local Strandings callout with us other three local yokels provided guidance and porterage to get them, the samples and equipment back up the cliff in the dark at 10:30pm.

What a difference in the two experiences – Perranporth, a long walk along a sandy beach to see a Sperm Whale – 11 metres long with a long thin toothed jaw for feeding on octopus and small fish; Bude a stiff climb to a rocky beach to find a Minke Whale – 7 metres long with a large jaw with baleen filters to eat Krill and small fish.

Minke Whale at Bude

Both were judged to have been live strandings. The Sperm had died as her organs collapsed without the support that the sea gives to it; the Minke probably driven ashore by perhaps Dolphins had, judging by pre mortem lacerations and bruises, injured herself fatally whilst trying to squirm back to the sea.

They say things happen in threes – let’s hope this old adage is wrong. Nice as it is to experience the huge marine mammals at close range, I would rather there were no more such strandings.

A Wonderful Wildlife Week

Every now and then there is a week that is day after day of natural history. 


This last week was just such a one. There was an event planned for every day and the weather was kind.

Great Crested Grebe on her nest

Monday The monthly BTO Wetland Bird Survey was due, and as usual we deferred it for a day to avoid the busy weekend at Tamar Lakes. It is April so the winter visitors had gone and there was only a chance of spring or summer visitors being present. We did hear a single Sedge Warbler staking out his territory and spotted a Great Crested Grebe sitting on a newly constructed nest. There was also one or two Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and a lone Swallow.

Peacock butterfly

After lunch the weather was warm and sunny with hardly any wind. It was the ideal time to walk our newly registered UKBMS butterfly transect. This starts at the Bush Inn at Crosstown in Morwenstow, descends to the Tidna Valley and follows the river to the coast then up the cliff before heading inland along a green lane to Crosstown Green. It was a good decision with butterflies of four species – Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma and Peacock.

Sunset over the south end of Lundy

Tuesday We had an early start, leaving Bideford quay at 9am for Lundy. The sea was like a mill pond but we saw no cetaceans and few birds. The island was alive with spring birds though – Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps. I spotted a Sparrowhawk at Quarter Wall Pond after a long meeting inside. The return trip was spectacular with a brilliant orange sunset over the island as we returned at 7pm.

Piscicola geometra

Wednesday The first Riverfly survey of the year on the Torridge near Bradford Mill and the first since the July 2015 was planned. In August and September last year, the river was in spate and two metres higher than normal. In the event, the river was slightly higher and faster than normal, but it turned up plenty of invertebrates. It was interesting to record the difference in abundance of the eight indicator species. Stoneflies were particularly abundant with a few extremely large specimens almost ready to become flying insects. The normal Perlodidae were joined by two specimens of Taeniopterygidae. Another unusual species, not part of the survey set, was a fish leech, Piscicola geometra.

Planting Marram Grass

Thursday This was a Bude Valley Volunteers working party day. Following the “planting” of retired Christmas Trees after 12^th night in January at Widemouth Bay the plan was to supplement this with the planting of Marram Grass. The trees were already doing their job of accumulating sand around themselves. We were allowed to dig up randomly selected Marram plants and transplant them between two rows of the trees. The expectation is that the Marram will further stabilise the sand allowing and embryo dune to form.

 This will in future plug a gap where the dunes had “blown out” and reduce the chance of sand blowing onto the adjacent coast road.

Picnic at Dexbeer Bridge

Friday The culmination of a busy week – to walk the whole length of Bude Aqueduct. Four of us started from Lower Tamar Lake and walked the whole 5 miles to Vealand Reserve where we then followed the permissive path for a final 700 yards. The weather was again kind allowing us to have our first picnic of the year at Dexbeer Bridge on Councillors Shadrick's memorial table. We shared the area with a pair of Willow tits – confirmed as they responded strongly with identical calls to those Willow Tit lure. We recorded a total of 34 species of birds on our walk including all 5 tits – Great, Blue, Coal, Long-tailed, Marsh and Willow and 4 finches – Gold, Green, Chaff and Bull. We also noted 4 spring plants – Wood Anenome, Wood Sorrel, Cuckoo flower and Lesser Periwinkle together with all 3 mammals so far seen on this walk – Roe Deer, Grey Squirrel and Rabbit.

The only let down was Friday night's Garden Moth Survey which due to the cold and wet attracted not a single moth.

Stranding 7400

After a couple of false alarms, this week I had my first real Marine Stranding.

In September last year, about 30 volunteers attended a Marine Strandings Network workshop in the Parkhouse Centre in Bude.

Abby Crosby lead the day and described how the MSN operates then showed and described to us the typical species that are washed up on the Cornish beaches.

We then went through the recording process for the two most common strandings; Seals and Cetaceans. This was followed by a gruesome film showing what the volunteer veterinary surgeon has to deal with when a stranding is sufficiently fresh to be worthy of a post mortem examination. Thankfully this was after we had eaten lunch, not before!

The rest of the day was taken up with simulated recording exercises outside in the sun. First we practised on a blow-up dolphin then a seal.

.."placed under the waterfall"

After three long months the call came on Thursday afternoon that a dolphin had been washed up on nearby Sandymouth beach. The coordinator told me where it could be found and that it had been moved above the High Water mark as the tide was within an hour of High Tide. I also had to describe what I would be wearing in case of accidents so that the Coast Guard would know what to look for and agreed to phone in to confirm that I had found the stranding and successfully left the beach.

As agreed with my local colleagues on the training day, I phone Duncan who wanted to help. My kit had been packed for three months, but I still needed to go through my check list before driving the mile or so to Sandymouth.

The carcase was immediately visible when I arrived at the beach. Unfortunately the considerate people that had reported it have moved it almost directly under a waterfall. The strong onshore wind was blowing the stream of water regularly over the corpse drenching it and anyone who approached it.

Duncan and I moved it to where we could photograph and record and tag it as Number 7400. A concentrated 45 minutes followed while we went through the procedure we had been taught. Duncan had already recorded a couple of seals so his expertise was most useful. We were battered by the wind and covered copiously in the blowing spume.

Common Dolphin - Stranding 7400

My first stranding was a beautiful Common Dolphin. It had lost one eye and suffered a broken jaw, but on the post mortem can explain why it died. It was a privilege to see one of these magnificent animals at such close quarters, to touch its skin and gaze into its eye. It is such a pity it had to die so that I could have that experience.t

Natural History Week June 2014

The observation and pursuit of natural history does occupy much of my time, but occasionally there comes a week crammed full – this is one such.

Ringlet

Sunday 15^th was my monthly Wetland Birds Survey.

Summer surveys don't record many water birds on Tamar Lakes and this month was no exception being dominated by the few breeders that use the lakes – families of Canada Geese, Mallard and Moorhen featuring. Terrestrial breeders were also present – Reed Bunting and Sedge Warblers were very obvious. It was a butterfly day too with a mass emergence of Meadow Brown, some Speckled Wood and a beautiful single Ringlet seen.

Large Skipper

Monday 16^th – CWT meeting

We hosted an evening with friends on the committee of Cornwall Wildlife Trust Tamar Group where we planned the activities for summer and the forthcoming winter season. In advance of the meeting we took our dog around our usual walk and were delighted to see the first Large Skippers of the year. 

Tuesday 17^th – Ponds and fields with year 3 of Bude Junior School.

Water Scorpion

72 enthusiastic 8/9 year old in four groups. It was a most hectic and challenging session, but the children were very adept at catching mud! They did catch lots of interesting creatures though ranging from Newts, through Eels, Damselfly larvae, Dragonfly larvae, water louse, freshwater shrimps, chironomid worms, water boatmen and backswimmer and the stars of the show, water scorpions. All were eagerly observed before finally being repatriated into the Bude Tourist Information Centre pond. 

Bee Orchid

Thursday 19^th – Bude Marshes quarterly transect and annual Bee Orchid count.

Although circumstances left us with only 4 on the walk, and we were accompanied by the children from Adventure International in kayaks on the canal and bikes on the multi-use footpath, we managed to record 22 birds species,

The orchid count went well too – despite the vigorous grass growth, the Bee Orchids are maintaining their numbers 33 plants as compared to last year and the Marsh Orchids, previously uncounted were counted as 69 plants. It is obvious the preferred habitat of the latter is on the short sward between footpaths and the dense grassy layer, whereas Bee Orchids are happy in the mixed flower and grass habitat growing in loose groups of 2 or 3 plants.

Friday 20^th – ERCCIS Dragonfly workshop.

Keeled Skimmer

What a fantastic couple of sites. Great Wheal Seton is a post industrial contaminated area with small shallow ponds but is host to Scarce Blue-tail Damselflies – the last remaining site in Cornwall where we were privileged to count around 30 of both sexes.

The old settling pits at Bell Lake Marsh in the Red River Valley have been transformed from overgrown Willow scrub to a shallow marshy area with scrapes and was host to Small Red Damselflies, Keeled Skimmers as well as patrolling Emperors. 13 different species was a very good workshop.

Saturday 21^st – Sandymouth BBS butterfly transect

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

Vixen and 6 cubs

Accompanied by two naturalist friends we were able to count 8 species of Butterfly – 38 in total (Meadow Brown, Small Heath, Common Blue, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell, Large Skipper, Red Admiral and Painted Lady) 2 moths (5-spot Burnet and Hummingbird Hawk Moth) and a Golden Ringed Dragonfly. They agree that this is a Beautiful Square (op cit). To cap it all, as we finished the transect, we noticed that we were being watched intently by a Vixen about 400 metres away whilst her 6 cubs played!

Sampling at Marsland Water

Sunday 22^nd – Fox Club “Dung Ho!” at Marsland Nature Reserve.

Together with a friend from Cornwall Wildlife Trust, a small group was entertained by his description of what pollutes our waterways. This was followed up by our catch of myriads of invertebrates kick sampled from Marsland Water. We used the excellent wildlife centre courtesy of Devon Wildlife Trust in the idyllic setting of Marsland nature reserve.

Marmalade Hoverfly

Monday 23^rd - Equinoctial walk on Bude Aqueduct from Moreton Bridge to the junction with the Holsworthy branch is about 2½ miles of absolute quiet taking in woody shade and open walks and Bursdon Moor Nature Reserve. We were lucky to not only hear birds but to see them too – including two Treecreepers. The stars of the show had to be the dragonflies and damselflies along with lots of butterflies. We were fortunate to capture a picture of a strikingly decorated, striped hoverfly which we identified later as a Marmalade Hoverfly. 

Read my other blog at budeaqueductwalks.blogspot.com

As I am writing this, over my left shoulder I am watching the wind ripple a field of grasses, docks and sorrel. The weather has been dry and very hot and as the wind stirs the stems of the plants, millions of seeds are blown from their heads into rolling, billowing clouds looking like smoke. They roll slowly over the field, a perfect demonstration of natural seed dispersal. They are now next year's plants in waiting.