Like the Clappers!

Morwenstow Parish Church

When I am not out and about looking at wildlife, I spend some of my time ringing church bells.

Thursday is bellringing practice night at Morwenstow Parish Church.  Last night, we were five plus one new ringer.  We rang five bells up and had a peal then brought them back down again for practice for our competition next week.  Pete, our new learner then had a guided session learning how to handle the rope.

The second time round, we began ringing the bells up again when we heard a loud thud from above in the bell chamber.  I said, “That’s the sound down dropped down.”  “No,” replied the Tower Captain, “it’s still up.”  Then there was a second lesser thud.  I said, 

“I think we had better set the bells and go up and have a look.”

Morwenstow Bell Ringers

As we were still only halfway to ringing the bells up, my rope jumped out of my hands, taking my fingertips with it, and the rope and bell swung wildly out of control.

We all thought I had broken the stay, but as the bell was still on its way up and nowhere near the stay, it just did not seem right.  Everyone else set their bells; the Tower Captain took the opportunity to show our learner the bell chamber and they both climbed the steps to the tower.  Meanwhile, the remainder of us set about untangling the rope from the guides around which it had wrapped itself.

The Clapper and bolt

The pair descended after some little time with the clapper of my bell and its fixing bolt in their hands.  The bolt had sheared inside the bell allowing the clapper to fall – the first thud, followed by the long bolt and nuts – the second thud.

As this happened, the rope had jumped off the wheel, hence the sudden whipping away of the rope rather than as a result of a broken stay, allowing the bell to swing uncontrollably.

The pieces have gone to a local metalworker to fashion a new bolt so that the clapper can be re-attached.

It could have been worse.  The bolt could have lasted until Tuesday when three other teams of bellringers join us for the final leg of our Winter Competition.  But, if the bell is not repairable before then, we may have to relocate to another tower.

[The bolt goes through the Gudgeon into the bell and attaches to the swinging arm from which the clapper hanges in the centre of the bell]

Anatomy of a Bell

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

Wonderful Ivy

Gorse Shield Bug

It is very late October and the weather was pretty poor yesterday.

So, i wondered whether to carry my heavy camera on my daily dog walk.  I once missed a picture of a Fritillary butterfly because I decided to leave it at home, so I rarely leave it behind.

Small Tortoiseshell

Well I was pleasantly surprised when I checked a stand of Gorse in the hedgerow.  There was a group of three late summer coloured Gorse Shield Bugs.


And on the same piece of Gorse, was a Dock Bug.




Around the corner I came across a Small Tortoiseshell then heard the "pitchoo" call and saw a Marsh Tit.  A bit too quick for a photograph, but not a bad couple of sightings for late October I thought.

Painted Lady

Ivy Bee

Further on I was looking forward to inspecting some stands of Ivy.  Most are in flower with a few developing the red-black fruits so attractive the members of the Thrush family.  The stands are in a south facing hedgerow and had been in full sun for most of the morning.

Comma

Red Admiral

It was well worth carrying my camera  for the butterflies and bees.  There were a couple of Ivy bees and a two Buff-tailed Bumble Bees.  But I was really pleased to see butterflies - four Red Admiral, two Comma and a Painted Lady.  All thanks to the late flowering wonderful Ivy with its tiny yellow flowers that is depended upon by insects late in the year.


I don't dare leave my camera behind now.

Indian Summer

Giant Puffball - £2 coin for size

Dock Shieldbugs

According to my researches, an Indian Summer, which is an American expression, is used to describe a period of unseasonably good weather coming at the end of Fall, or as we would say autumn.

This last week has been a most welcome period of really warms, settled weather following a very mediocre period that should have been summer.  A real Indian Summer.

Small Copper

Yesterday was warm and dry with a cooling easterly breeze just the right weather for a good walk. We decided to walk out to our cliffs then north along the South West Coast path to the Bush Inn for lunch before returning home.

We were rewarded by a surprising number of species.  We started with a group of Giant Puffballs near to Stanbury cliff followed by a growing number of butterflies on the wing – eight different species in all at the end of September. 

Other invertebrates were about too, innumerable Silver Y moths, a Common Darter and two species of Shieldbug, Dock and Gorse.

Flocks of Linnets were seen, a large group of Herring Gulls, a couple of Kestrels and Oystercatchers too.  Masses of white butterflies were seen many too distant for specific identification and there was a definite migratory movement of Red Admirals heading south.

Red Admiral feeding on Ivy

One memorable sight was of eleven Red Admirals seen feasting on the newly opened tiny flowers of Ivy.  This is a good reminder to keep your Ivy until after these flowers have formed the hard bright black berries.  The flowers are magnets for flying  invertebrates of all sorts and the berries are a staple in the diet of Blackbirds and Thrushes.

Riverfly - Riverflow

Torridge in flood - note the line of
vegetation showing the submerged bank

Today was our last attempt at the August Riverfly survey.  A friend and I volunteer to survey 8 species of invertebrates in the River Torridge near Bradford Mill.  This takes place once a month between April and September.  We usually plan to survey mid-month so as to allow us an alternative date, if the weather is too bad, later in the month.

Last week the it rained heavily all of the day we had planned to survey so we postponed until our alternative on the 26th August.  I drove across the Tamar to get to the site and noted flooded fields either side of the border on the Holsworthy road which did not bode well.

Surveying on the lower river bank

Nonetheless, Barrie and I set out to our survey site which is half an hour walk from where we park the car at Bradford Church. It was wet and heavy going towards the last field where the river flows.  Going through the final wet and muddy gateway we could see what is usually a strip of Juncus in a damp hollow had become a deep tributary to the Torridge. This was too deep to pass, so we walked parallel with it to where it flowed into the main river.

What a deep raging torrent! We could see the tips of Himalayan Balsam that group on top of the river bank just breaking the flood. Our survey site was under 2 meters of fast flowing turbid water carrying large branches along with the flood.

Small Copper 

Discretion took over, a couple of pictures and we trudged back home. No chance of the waters subsiding before the end of the month meant a nil return for August. It will be interested to see how quickly the invertebrates re-colonise the river after this flood event.

The silver lining to this cloud was an early return home to find my wife excited by a new species of butterfly in the garden.  A beautifully marked Small Copper adds to our species total making it 11 for our garden this year.

My Beautiful Butterfly Square

Painted Lady

Gorse Shieldbug Instar

I managed to fit in my WCBS http://www.ukbms.org/wcbs.aspxfirst survey of the year between all the gales and rain. It has to be less than Beaufort 5, no more than 60% cloud and above 14C to stand any chance of seeing butterflies. My square is always a bit difficult. With it being on the Atlantic Coast as any slight breeze blows in from Labrador!

Nonetheless, today conditions matched the minimum and I was rewarded by a Peacock as my first sighting in my BTO BBS square near Stowe Barton the former home of Sir Richard Greville of the Armada.

Gatekeeper

I did try to record nothing but butterflies, but could not fail to notice the hovering Kestrel only yards away and the charm of 19 Goldfinches chattering and fluttering over the square. One section was particularly barren of butterflies; the NE wind on the cliff top was quite bracing but as I threaded my way through the occasional gorse bushes, I could not help but look for Gorse Shield Bugs.

Small Copper

And what a sight, a few adults were there, but there were 10s of early instars showing a thriving population on almost every bush of Gorse – Ulex europaeus. None found on Western Gorse Ulex gallii even though U. europaeus is lost most of its flowers and U. gallii is beginning to flower.

All in all a most successful survey albeit mainly of Meadow Brown and Gatekeepers, but also Peacock, Painted Lady and Small Copper in my beautiful bird and butterfly square.  

Orchids and Tortoises

Bee Orchid

Southern Marsh Orchid

Every year we count Bee Orchids Ophrys apifera in an unimproved meadow in Bude.  The field is mowed once a year but despite becoming overgrown with rank grasses, it continues to be quite species rich and diverse.

We counted over 30 Bee Orchids and there were also over 80 Southern Marsh Orchids as well as Yellow Rattle, Vetches, Fleabane, Bird’s-foot Trefoil and many other flowering plants.

5-spot Burnet moth

I was supposed to be concentrating on Orchids but could not fail to notice the Sedge Warbler singing for the whole time of the survey.

Walking head down with notebook, pencil and camera in hand I also recorded all the invertebrates that I kept seeing.  This included butterflies and moths – Common Blue, Meadow Brown, 6-spot Burnet and Silver Y Moths.  The Burnet was particularly well represented with adult, larva (caterpillar) and many cocoons on the stems of long grasses.

Fleabane Tortoise Beetle

The best sighting was of something totally new to me; a strange orange and black-spotted beetle that looked like a tiny armoured vehicle.  Within half and hour of posting the image on an insect group in Facebook, I had an identification.  It was something that until then I was unaware of as there are no pictures in my insect book – the aptly named Fleabane Tortoise Beetle Cassida murraea