A Garden In A "Wildlife Deprivation Zone" (I'm Told)

 I have decided to put two old posts together as, amongst other things (like finding both) it shows what is in an area Avon Wildlife Trust still calls a "wildlife Deprivation area" (1994, 2000 and 2015 -after that I gave up). Its why I set up the Vale Wildlife Group in 1994.

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 Hmm. So Lola the would be Killer Bitch Queen cat has been getting closer and closer to me. Came up the path quickly today. Right by my knee as I talked to her. Food might have something to do with it. I've mentioned this isn't my cat, right? Let me take photos of her.

Below: Lola who is the fastest moving little cat I've ever seen. Last week I saw her with a juvenile rat she killed in the garden.  Look at her....

On the other side of things. I have ten species of tree in my garden. The Buddleja alternifoliua (lilac coloured flower cones) may need trimming back this year as no flowers yet.

Above: Buddleja globosa
Below: Bridal Wreath ( Spiraea fritschiana)

But I have Buddleja globosa all over the place and they are crammed with flowers -putting food in the bird feeders its a wave of honey scent. No wonder the bumble bees, honey bees and others are all over it.

Ornamental cherry tree (Prunus sargentii) flowers quick and is gone. Elder Trees we have three so they will flower and then...

LOTS of elder berries but as I don't drink....Oak of course.

Willows.

Mock Orange I have a big one and four growing from cuttings and they are about 6 feet (2.1m) tall now.

Conifers, obviously.

 Above: Do you see it in the Bridal Wreath tree?
Below: A Marsh or Willow Tit (only one sure way of knowing but not a good enough photo) -call seems to say Willow Tit but there have been calls from both types.

Bridal Wreath (Spiraea fritschiana) still has all its lovely scented flowers the BIG tree is also same species (I think)but 3 times taller.

Laburnum tree which has yellow flowers earlier in the year.

Apple tree.

 Above....Herring gull. I have a lot of arguments with him.
Below: Albinistic jackdaw.

Below: When I first saw this bird in 2010 I never got a close look but something other than the squirrel was stealing the acorns...a Jay.  It has been back a few times this year on the feeder and "plucked" showing she has young!

Below: Wood pigeons

 Above: A wood pigeon egg and, below, a juvenile wood pigeon!

Below: Blue tits

There are various types of ivy (plain and variegated). Ferns. Rose bushes -one growing up through the oak.

Lots of wild flowers (wild flowers are what they call "Weeds" -as one gardener put it: "Weeds is flowers growing where you don't want them growing!"). All provide nectar.

LOTS of insects and I've even seen beetles return this year -hedgehogs do not live by dog and cat food alone (especially that randy little sod). Birds need insects. And ants....bigger colonies this year and, yes, they are herding the aphids.

I can now say that I have seen at least three common shrews (front garden and back).  So they are back here in some strength. There are also field mice and, as the now friendly but still semi wild Lola has shown, the occasional rat (building work nearby is disturbing them so they come into my garden!).

Slow worms -never had my camera on me.  Same thing for a Common lizard and I've seen these in the past so they are here.

The Vixen (Vulpes vulpes)

Above: the vixen who had cubs this year -one of two coming here and there is a younger adult male, too.
From last year and apologies for any naughty words!

Now, with so many people cutting down trees, ripping up hedges and gardens (the main road out front looks like a car showroom just tiled parking place after tiled parking place.

First photo of female hedgehog 2009

Below: Young Hedgehog out in April 2011 and really needed feeding!

Below: Sow and young 2011

Below:The hoglet is the little one in the middle. The curled up position is defensive -the spikes make sure dogs, etc., can't grab them. The sow was VERY aggressive and I'm guessing when I went to check things out the, uh, 'dead' one decided to pull out all the tricks! I should have known better but it fooled me! Mind you...it could have been a zombie hedgehog! 2011

All below 2016. Male and at least two females known in this garden.

When I moved down to this area in 1995 it was classed as "a wildlife deprivation zone". 20+ species of wild bird come into my garden during the year, badger, foxes, hedgehogs.

Let us not forget the mystery of the odd calls.....(still going on in July!)

My wildlife file cards list a lot. Twenty-one species of bird for a start!

Above: I still have to identify the small lilac-pinkish coloured wild flowers but bees like them.

Below: female sparrow hawk with pigeon it killed by front lane.

 Below: The hawk took down and killed the pigeon about 100 yards away by the kitchen waste bin. To the fore you see the front gate where she took it to eat.

 Below: The fifth pigeon kill by this female sparrowhawk in two weeks -this by back window. Her markings were clear enough. The other female and male sparrowhawk returned to garden but this seemed the main killer.

 Below: this female sparrowhawk (white mark on neck) along with the male used to go into the bushes to flush out the smaller birds but NOT kill. It seemed them testing out their skills and "playing".  The female hawk that killed regularly had a large white patch further down her back so she was easily identifiable.

Other birds in my garden regularly, and I do not want to spend all day uploading photos!

Wood Pigeons
Collared Doves
Jay
Feral (dumped racing) pigeons
Magpies
White Wagtails
Hedge sparrow (Dunnock)
House sparrows
Robin (year round)
Thrushes
Blackbirds
Long Tailed Tit
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Marsh Tit
Willow Tit
House Bunting
Yellow Hammer
Reed Bunting
Chaffinch
Gold Finch
Bull Finch
Green Finch
Starling
Crows
Rooks
Jackdaws (the above three birds are here all year round and have plenty of young (3rd lot jackdaws this year just coming in)

there are other, occasional birds but these are the main ones.

Below the female squirrel whose activities I've documented on Face Book!

Below: outside my window -two Mallow bushes (in pots) and in the middle a tiny willow. The rest is all wild flower and Nigella.

A few packets of flower seeds, a bush and a bird feeder -and a source of water like a bird bath or mini pond. That is all it takes. We can't keep on taking and not giving back.

I have noted, this year, an increase in the number of different beetle types -probably due to all the wet weather we've had.  Not seen this many for years. 

What makes me sad is that I have spent 1994 -2016 spreading wild flower seeds around the area, treated manged foxes, taken in injured and sick birds -including feral pigeons,planted to encourage wild life and increased food for various birds (seen a rise in starling young each year and this year a huge number of Marsh tits) and am thinking of a new shallow pond. Twenty three years and I have to remember that from an area with not much wildlife I, and a couple aged compatriots who do their bit when they can, or could (one died recently) have seen it increase in leaps and bounds to what it is today. There is no protection for the property as it is City Council owned and if I get moved on or something happens to me...it all goes.

But we do what we can while we are here and I urge everyone to do the same!

Below: Nigella

Ahh, the things you find in the Summer in your garden.  Some can be quite mysterious. Some can make you scream out "What's that?!"  If you are in the UK the answer is not Bigfoot!

The thing is that most people only pay attention to their flower bed or the height of their grass and most have no idea about insects or wildlife...or things insects leave around.  Such as this....

 Not great photos (I need a new camera!) but this brownish ball is a gall of Andricus kollari Andricus kollari.  More information can be found here:https://alchetron.com/Andricus-kollari-1700793-W

DO NOT panic as they are harmless to your trees and there is no treatment anyway.

 Now if I had a better camera it would look like this, from Nature Spot UK http://www.naturespot.org.uk/taxonomy/term/19701

Below: Wondering what that other stuff was ~everything in one shot!

 Below (left) in photo are the brown clusters of Common spangle gall (Neuroterus quercusbaccarum)

 To the right (above) the pointy items is a gall of the Oak gall wasp
Andricus, Neuroterus, Biorhiza and Cynips species More information as well as photos can be found here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=803

Round brown objects on leaves (above left) Common spangle gall (Neuroterus quercusbaccarum) on Oak (Quercus robur)

My ornamental cherry tree has had clear sap coming from it for years.  Now, if you do a web search "sap coming from ornamental cherry tree" you get this:

Common name Bacterial cankerScientific name Pseudomonas syringae pv. morsprunorum and P. s. pv. syringaePlants affected Prunus speciesMain symptoms Sunken, dead patches of bark and small holes in leavesCaused by BacteriaTiming Cankers form in mid-spring, shotholes on foliage from early summer
Now, my tree does not have "shot~hole" so I need to up its feed and I just used the last of the chicken pellet fertilizer on it.  Leaf cutter insects I find plenty of evidence of!  But there is one thing I encourage and that is any type of garden spider building its web between branches.  

 So I do not have to worry and as fruit trees do tend to release sap and this one does this every year, has good looking green leaves and an abundance of cherries (ask the jackdaws, crows and rooks how they taste  because they were grabbing them almost as fast ~but not quite~ as the squirrel.

Oh, and I did as suggested and cut the sap away and no 'sawdust' indicating bore worm just solid wood.

Plenty of snails, as well as empty shells from where blackbirds have eaten the snail.  Slugs. Quite a few and of a lot of different types (they tend to have a meal on the food put out for foxes and the hedgehogs!).  They also make a great addition to The Green Man (photo top of page).

I've watched a couple of very large hedgehogs, who do not give a damn how much noise they make by the front door (food station in poor weather) nor how many times I have to get up to make sure it isn't burglars!

As both fox and hedgehogs alter their visiting times I was worried that I might just be feeding cats ~a good few pass through here~ and I wanted to make sure.  The old trick is to use a "sand trap" an inch thick (2.5cms) layer of sand around a food dish (in this case) and see what tracks you get. I had no sand so resorted to an old ghost hunters trick ~a layer of talcum powder.

The tracks next day showed a large gull, magpie and cat tracks but also hedgehog and fox. The hedgie tracks don't show up well but the fox ones are reasonable.

 Above, top left the rounded pad of a cat. To the right of that a canid (fox) track showing a nail print.
Below: WHERE to begin! Cat and fox but if you look at the upper right side of the manhole cover you have magpie tracks.  You can also clearly see the webbed gull tracks!

I've also seen the small vixen close to and there was no sign of mange.

There are other indicators of hedgehogs, of course. Poop.  Yes, I know that it should not but it makes me smile seeing it.  It shows if the hedgehog in question is healthy or not.  So when I walked out my front door in June and almost stepped on this I had to go fetch the camera!

I knew one neighbour who used to talk about his arguments with the neighbour who "chucked bits of black tar" onto his lawn.  Never ever saw him do this and pointed to some of this "tar"...hedgehog poop.

From the photos you will see there are plenty of acorns this year. So squirrel should be okay though I spied one of the gardens further along has a squirrel feeder in it (YAY! People beginning to get more wildlife friendly around here at last).  It also means the Jay will be back so I need to sort a feeder out for it.

Lola the cat from somewhere (aka: killer bitch queen for the number of mice, at least one juvenile rat and shrews she has killed) helped out by climbing trees I was trying to inspect and cut back.  And she also helped by attempting to tackle my boots.

Below: Lola on patrol.

Black ants.  oh the black ants. They do say the red ones bite.  Right. The black ones really bite in, especially if I put my arm against the oak tree while filling the bird feeder...in fact, the main type of ant I've seen in the garden (front and back) are black ants.  I used to watch them as they herded aphids in the already mentioned cherry tree.

Below: Kingdom of the Ants!!

All the cut branches from a while back are now stored and will probably be used as supports for other plants, etc..

Below: wood pigeons.  At one point these birds and collared doves were almost wiped out in the UK but since the 1970s have come back in numbers.

The collared doves, wood pigeons, magpies, rooks, jackdaws, crows and of course, pigeons, are still flipping around and so are the smaller birds.

So much of the local habitat has been cut back or destroyed and as new people move in and out gardens are turned over, concreted, paving slabbed and shrubs and bushes done away with. It is nice to see people plant more things these days and not realize ~or realize~ it encourages wildlife.  If you dont have the habitat you don't get Eye Hawk Moths breeding.  These two were, uh, "snuggling up" last month on my back wall.

Not great but this photo shows why how they got the name.

There has also been one or two very large moths shoot out from the shade of the barrel planted potatoes.  Too fast for me to see what they were.  Next year I plan a survey.

Below: potatoes in a bin!

 First year after repotting ~my apple tree

Yes, with foxes, cats, hedgehogs and no real soil here, we reverted to the old trick of planting potatoes in an old plastic barrel bin.  I had planned to use the plastic compost bin, however, we have a colony of bumble bees in there so it's their home now!

Next year is also the planting of more vegetables and fruit in barrels because that means no chemicals and we know where it all came from!

Also, the 12" (30cms) tall nightshade plant has...er...grown a bit. Need to move it from the front door where it is suitably identified as toxic in case some idiot plays about with it.

Wildlife News (26:22)

 Wildlife News (26:22)

A newsletter for the Wildlife Groups of Bristol and South Glos.

More on Gulls

A few people responded to the piece on gulls in the last edition.    Here's what Jen wrote, 'Many years ago I was working for the University.     Every morning I walked up University Rd, past the Maths department gardens on the right hand side.    A small, fluffy grey gull chick had somehow ended up on the ground in the gardens.    The Biology building porters and I weren't hopeful for its survival but the parents guarded it, fed it and eventually fledged it several weeks later.     We cheered it and its parents!

Conversely I've seen a gull pick up a hapless pidgeon by one wing, fly high up into the air with it and drop it into the river.     It wasn't moving after that.      Gulls may be a pain, especially when they're giving it welly at 4am on your roof but I have to say they are excellent parents and have my respect for that.

Our relationship with gulls is complicated, they can be a nuisance but who else would clean up all the chips'

April forwarded this link for those who want to know more about urban gulls: https://bou.org.uk/blog-selt-urban-gull-habitat-use/  .    Enjoy!

Nobody asked about 'ring species', but I'm going to tell you anyway.    But not until the next edition.

And What About Parakeets?

Graham reported two sightings of parakeets a fortnight apart at his allotment in Hengrove.    They may have been the same bird, perhaps an escapee from a nearby house.    On the other hand, they could be examples of the westward spread of the Ring-necked parakeet (Psittacula krameri).      Since the 1990s these bright green birds have established themselves in London and the South East.     They come originally from Pakistan and North India, but will have been brought to the UK by the pet trade and then either escaped or been released.    Probably!!

They now seem well established and spreading.     If you spot a Ring-necked parakeet in or near Bristol, please let us know, including where and when and anything else of interest.

Big Butterfly Count (BBC)

Butterfly Conservation's BBC is from July 15 to August 7.     You are invited to spend time in a green space and record what flies by.      Google 'Big Butterfly Count' for more details.     Given that butterflies are often fast movers and some are hard to distinguish from others unless you get really close, we still have a few butterfly nets that you can borrow.    Get back on this email.    Of course, you don't have to stop on 7 August!!

It was good to see the recent edition of Manor Woods Valley Group newsletter.     Amongst lots of other things, they are working on their fourth annual survey of butterflies on this bit of the Malago.

Fox News

Terry reports: 'Sadly a post mortem came back on a dead fox cub found at Badock's Wood earlier this month and its cause of death was ingested plastic.    No doubt, similar has affected badgers in the past also but I think that a good priority for future local groups if they have large (or small) mammals is a clean up of areas which I know some already do.

Yesterday (22 June) a man was watching a fox on an allotment near Badock's Wood and today went back to find the fox had apparently been shot- this is a residential area.    Unless it is a threat to livestock, foxes have the same legal rights as all wildlife.    The other concern is that someone was using a firearm in the area.

We know that snaring has gone on in the city, but now it seems that shooting foxes can be added to the list.    There was another reported last year.     If groups can maintain some form of watch on their wildlife (not that easy) it might deter this kind of crime as badgers and foxes are the main targets.'

Allotment Audits

We've been talking to a few allotment groups recently about improving their spaces for wildlife.    There is certainly some very good work going on.    There seem to be three key steps.

1. talk to fellow allotment holders about the plight of wild animals in the city and encourage them to do their bit.     Experience suggests that most allotmenteers are up for this.   It would be good to undertake steps 2 and 3 as a group sharing ideas and skills.

2. undertake an audit of the creatures that already visit the site.     This will be a bit rough and ready at first, but after a while you will have a list of birds, butterflies etc that can often be seen on site.    Do you have foxes, badgers, hedgehogs, slow worms etc?      Post up some pictures to aid identification and encourage people to take and display photographs.      Guides from the Field Studies Council can be helpful.     They are only c£4 each.      Go to field-studies-council.org/shop   .

3. what assets do you already have?    For example, are there trees, bushes with berries, ponds, nettle patches, piles of logs etc that will offer food and shelter to wild animals?      Think about what you might add.    Perhaps someone can draw a sketch map of the site indicating existing and potential assets?      Some changes may be easy, others might take a while.    This is your 'Wildlife Action Plan'.

Please pass this newsletter on to friends and neighbours and invite them to join the circulation list.    Let me know if you want to drop out.

A Decline In Squirrel Numbers?

 

After being told of a drop in squirrel sightings on Sunday morning I appealed to local groups asking whether they had noted a decline in squirrel numbers.

Some had while others noticed an increase in squirrel numbers. Someone near a park noted a decline in numbers while at the other end of the park there was an increase.

I was still being sent messages ten minutes ago so 24 hours of squirrels instead of dead foxes and badgers!

From what I can determine the drop in numbers or squirrels no longer being seen may be down to habitat resources. Squirrels eating peanuts and seed from bird feeders will look for other food (as evidence from them eating mu lilies last year!) but regular sources and good habitat then they will stay. Others not having regular food sources and depending on natural resources are going to do what most animals do; eat until the resources are at their bare minimum and then move on to another area.

Certainly the upturn in the number of squirrels in certain areas would be consistent with this.

January to April is generally also the breeding season so this may cause some movement especially if a habitat with better food resources is required (they can breed again during summer).

In effect we are seeing natural behaviour and moving around but as I cannot find any study that has been carried out on squirrels in the City this is my best guess. Nothing sinister and no disease or mass poisoning as suggested.

My thanks to all of those who got in touch.

Red Paper 2022 Preliminary Cover Design

 

VLC?

I have a trail cam problem. Normally I take out the micro card and the video clips play in one program or another and the above is a typical example. However, the new cam will only play the clips in VLC which means no screenshot to tell you what is on the clip just a black screen. Take 30 clips and my time reviewing them goes from 15 minutes to an hour.

I cannot convert them from VLC but if I upload here, on You Tube or Face Book the clips are converted and viewable. Never had this before.

Like I say -a pain and time consuming.

Anyway, above is Sonic to entertain you!

 

The Current Threat To UK Fauna And The Introduction Of New Fauna Species

Pages  20

Binding Saddle Stitch

Interior Color (photographs)

Dimensions A4 (8.27 x 11.69 in / 210 x 297 mm)

UK £15.00

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/terry-hooper/the-current-threat-to-uk-fauna-and-the-introduction-of-new-fauna-species/paperback/product-j4m9r7.html?page=1&pageSize=4

 In the United Kingdom new species of fauna have been introduced since Roman times and the number of species released or escaping into the countryside since 1900 has steadily increased. New species are filling in niches left by species extirpated by humans and these new species have, after 40+ years of observation created no problems.

Despite this the official policy of the UK Government and the Department for Environment Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is to class such species "invasive" and trap and kill them as the opportunity arises.

This paper suggests that DEFRA needs to reassess its stance since it is impossible to exterminate all established "invasive species" -the New fauna now closely tied to the Old fauna,