WILDLIFE REPORT JANUARY - MARCH 2016 TOP BUFF TAILED BUMBLE BEE Bombus terrestris BOTTOM BEE FLY - Bombylius major
Introduction The first months of the year always seem to rather slow. There is not much happening, except on the warmest of days. There is no obvious insect activity and only a few plants have dared to flower. The only exception is the birds which are taking full advantage of the feeding stations. Then as March comes to an end everything is beginning to speed up. This is well illustrated by the two pictures on the previous page which were taken on last days of the month. This report starts with the birds which have been showing well in this period. To see two new species on the nursery being a particular highlight. The nursery list since 2012 now stands at 53 species of bird. Birds The new species to the site are Shoveler and Siskin. Shoveler are a species of duck, a group of five stayed on the reservoir for several days in February in company with about ten Tufted Duck. Siskin a type of finch, came to the bird feeders during the survey carried out for the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust. Overall the number of species seen was 33 down by 3 from last year. The count for January to March over the last four years has been stable at between 29 and 36. A total of 44 species have been on the list over these years so there is some variation from year to year. At least in part this is down to the list being compiled mostly from chance sightings by people made in the course of their other duties. For example Little Grebe and Coot do not appear on the list this year but it is very likely that if the reservoir was checked daily for birds that they would have been seen there. Below is a table of the birds seen over the previous fifteen months
The Farmland Bird Count 2016 This is a survey run by The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. The survey is to compile data on how populations of in particular farmland birds are faring in the context of the modern agricultural scene. This survey is supported by LEAF and its members are encouraged to participate. 2016 is the third year of this survey and Eric Wall has contributed data on all three occasions. Our results are shown on the right. There is a slight decline in numbers and species this year. This year shows though a continuation of a trend towards the birds seen being the ones that are attracted to our feeders. It might then follow that if the range of food offered could be made wider perhaps a bigger variety of birds would come. There were no gulls recorded this year unlike the previous two. If just a few gulls had flown over (as they have in previous years) in the half hour period of the survey we would have had the best set of data so far. There was a follow up questionnaire from GWCT after the survey about your experience of doing the survey. I talked about the difficulty of doing the survey while trying to follow the set criteria which are based around a farm environment. Our business is not a farm so there is no place where there is the recommended 2 hectares of land in view, let alone a range of typical farmland birds like skylark partridge or lapwing. The reply from GWCT is reproduced here. The most important thing about the count for me is encouraging people to find out what is using their land if as in your case it s a small area of land that you are making the most of and the process encourages you to continue or enhance that work then it s been worth it. Feedback like this is always valuable, perhaps we should include a category for horticulture / glasshouse site as I m sure you won t be the only one taking part I look forward to seeing count number 4 next year Best wishes Jim National nest box week 2016 Three new nest boxes have been put up around the nursery for nest box week. Two are an open fronted type for birds like robin, Dunnock etc and are low down on the walls of our outbuildings where they are hidden from view by scrubby growth. The last one is a triple box that is supposed to be attractive to sparrows which like to nest communally, that is near where the skips are kept. This position is close to a known sparrow nest which is in the roof of the old pack house. This box is the only one definitely in use already but not by sparrows; instead a pair of great tit has moved in. Feeding stations The feeding station is a popular place at present particularly for finches. This goldfinch has to queue behind a chaffinch and greenfinch for its meal of sunflower seed.
This great tit (as pictured) has the fat balls to itself at the moment and clings on to the bars for its meal. The smaller long tailed tits can get inside and stand on the balls to feed. The fat balls get attention from birds that cannot manage to cling to the cage, blackbirds in particular have developed a strategy of flying straight at the cage to stab at the balls hoping bits will fall off which can then be collected from the floor. It does not look very dignified but when food is scarce you have to try to exploit any opportunity. The peanut feeder has been for a long time a much neglected resource. To try and rectify this I started filling the feeder with a mix of peanuts and suet strands mixed together this February. This has been a success. The feeder is now well visited by a range of birds that can cling to the wire mesh sides. The mix is bringing in a Great Spotted Woodpecker on a regular basis but of course it did not come for the farmland bird count! Moths The moth trap has been set six times this year. A total of 19 moths have come to the light. No moths were caught in January, four in February and the rest in March. Four species have been caught. These are Common Quaker, Hebrew Character, Chestnut and Early Grey. There is not much to say about these early flying moths but they are the beginning of a set of data which will cover the whole of 2016. Above Common Quaker Left Hebrew Character. The light trap will catch insects other than moths so calling it a light trap is more accurate than a moth trap. There is quite a range of other insects that will turn up including beetles, ichneumons and hornets. At the end of March our trap captured this large adult Caddis Fly. It has no common name so has to be known by its Latin name Stenophylax permistus. A large insect by caddis standards it s about 20mm long and comes to light frequently.
Butterflies There have been a few chance sightings of butterflies, all of them during March. They are all species that overwinter as adults; two Small Tortoiseshell, one Peacock and one Red Admiral. The annual butterfly survey will start in April and run to the end of September. Bees Prior to March seeing bees on the wing was a chance occurrence confined to the warmest and sunniest weather. By comparison in the last days of March finding bees busy about the nursery starts to become easy. The usual species of bumble bee are all out foraging. Their favourite early flower is the ground Ivy which grows in profusion across the nursery. This is the flower in the pictures at the top of this report. This year to date four species of bumble bee have definitely been seen on site. These are Buff Tailed, White Tailed, Tree and Red Tailed. All of these are comparatively easy to distinguish especially the queen. There is no doubt the pictured bee on the right is the Tree Bumble bee. It may look like she is struggling to move here but half a minute later she is flying away! This second bee; which is probably a honey bee is foraging on bluebells. From the amount of blue pollen it has in its basket its been quite successful. To get at the pollen the bee has to crawl almost right inside the flower. Wild Flowers Our most important flower in the first months of the year has to be ground Ivy; this has to be the most popular nectar source on the nursery. It may be common, and not very showy but the bees all seem to find it an excellent source of nectar. It s not just the bees either that come to this flower. The bee fly Bombylius major is also a frequent visitor to this flower. The Celandine is another common spring flower though not very well represented around our site. The biggest quantity is behind glasshouses
6-9. Here they have struggled with the competition from the depth of leaf litter on the ground early in the year and then fast growing nettles. This spring following the trimming of the Alder trees we have cleared away the leaf litter and the accumulated debris to give the celandines a better chance. They have responded by flowering much more freely than in previous years. It is hoped that because the shade from the trees will be much reduced that there will be a better show of plants generally here of the course of the summer. There was a huge volume of wood to deal with after the trees were trimmed. Most of the smaller material that was cut from the trees was removed and burnt. A small proportion has been kept and added on to the two piles from the previous time the trees were trimmed. The biggest pieces of wood were then gathered, cut to length and sorted into a log pile. Fallen dead wood is not a well represented habitat on the nursery and is less common generally in our tidy 21 st century world. It is though an essential habitat and this pile is quite substantial one, much bigger than the pile we created after a Silver Birch was cut down in 2013. Apart from all the insect grubs that will eat this wood, and the various fungi that will decompose it, this is big enough for mice to live in, maybe a hedgehog to hibernate under. A wren might fancy its chance with a nest in it. There are lots of possibilities. Summary The end of the winter and start of spring is always an exciting time. The nursery environment looks well set for a good next three months. We can look forward to blossom and flowers from our trees and plants, plenty of insect activity and the return of migrant birds. Spring is always a good time of the year.