Cookies on this website

We use some essential cookies to make this website work.

We'd also like to set optional cookies to enable features like embedded videos and maps, collect anonymous statistics, and improve the overall experience.

View cookies (change your cookie settings)

Archive for category: News

You are here: / News
Main content start

May 2021

/by

I am writing this on Friday 9th April after a week that has included impressive snow showers and significant frosts. However, nature is resilient and activity among plants and animals is revealing new discoveries every day. The milkmaids cress also known as ladies smock, cuckoo flower, mayflower and Latin Cardamine pratensis is showing in our wet grasslands all over Sussex. I mentioned this in a previous NN and that it grows prolifically in the Little Horsted road roundabout, this year it is as good as ever. Other wildflowers are also appearing including wild daffodils, violets, forget-me-not, wood anemones, primroses, greater stitchwort and the occasional early bluebell. This is the May NN, and by then our ancient woodlands will be carpeted with bluebells.

Resident birds too are nestbuilding obsessively! I have also seen several swallows. Our local blackbirds have fledglings being fed by their parents in our garden. Bumblebees, butterflies and ladybirds are appearing in small numbers. Chiffchaffs and blackcaps arriving from the southern countries are singing in the woods along with our resident species.

May is the month for rapid reproduction with insects collecting pollen and nectar from the flowers to feed to their own young and fertilizing the flowers’ ova as they do so. During May there is a frenzy of nutrient flow through the ecosystems of the northern hemisphere. Insect reproduction is phenomenal, with billions appearing in every habitat, from the mayflies and mosquitoes in the water to the caterpillars on the trees and on people’s prize cabbages. The young and old birds, insectivorous mammals, reptiles, amphibians, larger insects and spiders will eat those insects, and in turn will be eaten by larger animals and so on. A time of plenty and a dynamic food chain. May is the best month for nature watching because there is so much to see and the temperature is nice too.

With the reduction in hunting and the introduction of legal protection, we are seeing many more beautiful predators in Sussex, such as the red kite I saw near Plashett Wood on Wednesday and the abundance of buzzards that we see almost every day even over Uckfield. These predators are an important part of the ecosystem and will often clear away roadkill, the victims of disease and the weaker prey that cannot breed anyway.

April 2021

/by

From about 21st March to September 21st, days will be longer than nights. We are still learning how important this is to us and the natural world. Many of us suffer from Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD) or low mood due to a lack of day light. A tortoise, dormouse or hedgehog will hibernate and sleep through the dark months. Humans evolved in the tropics where animals don’t need to hibernate. We tend to retire into our houses to keep warm and cosy on dark winter days and nights. Many of us take vitamin D tablets to make up for the lack of sun.

Blue tits are tightly connected to phases of the sun. Male blue tits start singing on 22nd December and from then to March 21st demonstrate potential nest cavities to females. Female blue tits start to take nest material such as honeysuckle bark and moss into the cavity around the 21st March. They aim to have their nestlings fledged and flying by 21st June. Humans have celebrated solstice and equinox for thousands of years and Christian liturgy links its major celebrations approximately to these times (Christmas, Easter, Feast of the Sacred Heart, Harvest Festival). Grasses mature and flower in June and farmers know that June is the time to cut good hay. That is when the grass pollen count is highest. Wind pollinated grasses don’t need the help of insects for that.

In temperate zones, the growing season is from the spring equinox to the summer solstice. Most terrestrial temperate organisms know that, even deciduous trees. I find it fascinating that most trees in the tropics and arctic zones are evergreen, but most trees in temperate zones are deciduous. They decide to shed their leaves in the autumn and grow new ones from the spring equinox to the summer solstice. During this time most folivorous insects such as moth caterpillars flourish and feed on the juicy young arboreal leaves and in turn the birds, such as blue tits, feed the caterpillars to their nestlings. Plant leaves are the solar panels of the planet, generating stored, carbon rich, energy and oxygen for all life. They can also regulate the water cycle as they take water from the soil and release it into the air from their leaves often making it rain in the tropical and temperate rain forests of planet earth.

March 2021

/by

Gardens can be diverse havens for wildlife. I sometimes cringe a little when I watch garden makeover programmes that completely and expensively, blitz what is already there. Similarly, when I walk past some local gardens and see them as sterile concrete or tarmac surfaces.

Added together, the gardens of England must make up thousands of hectares. However, each one is probably only about 100 square metres on average. That is, about 10 x 10 metres. There are over 27 million households in England. The majority of houses will have some kind of garden. 1 in 8 households have no garden, the remaining 7 in 8 do. Each one of those can provide some kind of home for nature. In order to do something to counter climate change, it is only necessary to grow green plants. The greater the area covered the better. If there are 7 metres between a building and the garden perimeter, consider planting a hedge punctuated with a tree rather than having a fence (which will eventually decay anyway). A tree in the garden will guarantee birds. Grow cabbages, potatoes, spinach or other vegetable or fruit if you wish to produce food. Plant a native evergreen shrub such as box Buxus sempervirens, which will make oxygen and fix carbon all year round. The darker the leaves, the more photosynthesis your plant will do. Whatever you plant, prefer plants native to the country you live in.

Making ponds is also excellent as they are homes for frogs, newts water beetles and much more. Natural ponds are usually temporary as they silt up in time. New ponds will soon be colonised by water creatures, but please do not put fish in them as they eat the water creatures seeking a home, especially tadpoles. Limit restoring ponds to August.

I find it is best to manage the garden slowly. Work gradually with what exists already and let the garden evolve with time and inspiration. Culture a wild area where plants and animals colonise naturally. Pave with bricks (as bricks allow drainage) a suitably sized, sunny area to sit with a small table and chairs to take refreshments and watch nature. Create your own garden of Eden, feed the birds, compost green waste. Watch how the biodiversity of your patch increases. It is so rewarding!

February 2021

/by

New year – new life! Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the present and the present is a gift! One thing I recorded about blue tits, when researching for my book on the subject, was that blue tits rarely sing between the longest (c. 21st June) and the shortest (c. 21st December) days (solstices) of the year. However, nearly every year, the first blue tit song I hear is on or about the 22nd December when the daylength is about 1 minute longer than the 21st. Blue tits are surprisingly intelligent for an animal so small and live short lives (mostly less than one year), so the gift of a new day is especially valuable to them. They seem to be keenly aware of any positive changes such as day length. My local ones have even been scoping the nest-box that I have for them in the garden in late December.

Trees are essential for blue tits, no trees – no blue tits. Indeed, trees are essential for any organism that uses oxygen in respiration. Since the invention of the timber chainsaw in the early 20th century, humans have been felling trees at a phenomenal rate, an activity that contributes to climate change and reduces the sustainability potential of life on Earth. Allowing trees to grow is one of the best things that any human can do for the planet. Sadly, 3 diseased ash and 1 (non-native) unsafe cypress trees had to be removed from Framfield churchyard recently. However, these have been replaced now with 4 different new, native, healthy saplings, namely crab-apple, whitebeam, juniper and rowan. All of these are highly suitable for the churchyard as they never get too large, grow slowly and support the lives of many other species, especially insects and birds. When planting a tree near buildings, it is advisable to locate it at least 7 metres from the building so that the tree does not affect the building’s structure or function.

Even small trees or hedges are important. There is usually a correlation between the number of trees and the number of birds in a garden or other location. A hedge will last longer than a fence, but will need maintaining in a different and sympathetic way with regular clipping (instead of expensive painting). Trees will even remove particulate pollution from the atmosphere and act as natural air conditioners

January 2021

/by

I find it fascinating that some animals specialise in eating some very strange things. I hope you will be equally fascinated. For example, cuckoos specialise in eating hairy caterpillars! These are caterpillars that have evolved poisonous hairs to stop animals eating them, but cuckoos have evolved the ability to be resistant to the poison. Similarly, giant pandas specialise in eating bamboo, which contains significant amounts of cyanide precursors, that could kill a human.

It is also extraordinary that huge anteaters can survive on eating tiny ants and termites. Also, the honey buzzard – a large bird of prey, similar to rabbit-eating common buzzards – actually survives on eating bees and wasps! Owls often swallow quite large rodents whole. The massive bird of prey called lammergeier or bearded vulture – eats large mammal bones by carrying them to a high altitude, drops them onto hard rocks, which breaks them, then flies down to eat the sometimes very large pieces of bone, whole. One was seen in Sussex recently.

Many fish-eating birds, such as herons, sometimes catch quite large fish and swallow them whole and it is possible to see the fish slipping down the inside of their skinny neck as a large bulge. Incidentally, herons will sometimes resort to hunting and eating moles in the same way if frosty weather freezes over their favourite hunting water.

Two favourite foods eaten by badgers are earthworms and hedgehogs. In turn, favourite foods consumed by hedgehogs include slugs and snails. Moles also specialise in earthworms. Bluetit nestlings can eat up to 100 caterpillars per day. One sparrowhawk can eat 10 bluetits in one day. Some butterflies glean essential salts from dog faeces.

Plant nutrition is equally fascinating as a large tree can consume about 15 grams of carbon per day in the form of carbon dioxide and goes on to produce 10 times more oxygen during the day (as providential waste) as they consume for respiration during the night. Using water, trees use the carbon to make carbohydrates such as sugars and cellulose. The waste oxygen is then available for all life, such as us, to breathe.

December 2020

/by

I have commented that there is no such thing as disaster in nature, only change. Many changes run in cycles, just like the daily cycle of night, dawn, morning, afternoon, evening and the yearly cycle of winter, spring, summer and autumn (fall). Incidentally, although fall is used in the USA instead of autumn, it is actually an ancient English word commonly used up to the 17th century when it was largely replaced by the Latin word autumn(us). The climate is also changing.

There is also the carbon cycle, water cycle and of course life cycle of every organism that lives. Diseases also tend to go in cycles, and there is a commonly quoted cycle of rabbits and myxomatosis caused by the rabbit myxoma virus. Rabbits control this disease by changing their behaviour. As the population of rabbits breeding underground in warm burrow nurseries increases, the transmission of myxoma virus by the secondary host, which is the rabbit flea, increases. This causes many rabbits to die. Then, those rabbits that breed above ground under bushes, as some do, are more likely to survive because the (cold blooded) fleas are more likely to die of cold during frosts. These rabbits then increase in number but sometimes produce offspring that resume the underground breeding strategy in order to avoid predators such as foxes. This allows the myxoma virus to increase again and so on.

Similarly, there is a well-known cycle of Arctic foxes and Arctic hare numbers. As the hare numbers increase, so fox numbers increase until too many survive to be supported by the over hunted hares and many foxes die of starvation, allowing the hares to increase again and so on.

These population cycles, regulated by climate, disease or predation control the numbers of animals that we see around us. There is no reason to suppose that the same cannot happen among humans. It was predicted by Thomas Robert Malthus (1766 – 1834). We are unlikely to be controlled by predators because we are the planet’s top predator, but we have less control over climate and microbes. In the end, each living thing dies, which is sad for those around it, but then there is room for others to be born, providing joy for those around the birth event.

November 2020

/by

There is no plan(et) B. Earth is our only option. We either preserve it or lose it. I think it is amazing to listen to our oldest environmental campaigner, Sir David Attenbrough and maybe our youngest, Ms Greta Thunberg. Both are apparently in total agreement about the need for concerted global action by everyone to save our only available home, planet Earth. This is an area in which our children will take the lead.

Part of this planet is our garden in Uckfield, close to the border with Framfield. In this garden we have an exotic shrub originally from Mexico called Koeberlinia spinosa. This plant is also known as the crucifixion thorn due to its leaves taking the form of sharp thorns similar to gorse. As I write in early October, this plant is also covered by a mass of sweet smelling tiny white flowers that are providing a late crop of nectar and pollen for a large number of pollinating insects such as red admiral butterflies and bees. Many of the bees are buff-tailed queen bumblebees that have mated with a male and will soon go into hibernation below ground until early spring. After a long sleep underground, they will wake up and lay a few worker eggs to start their colonies. These female workers will start to collect pollen and nectar to provision the colony, fertilising the flowers that they visit as they go, leading to the crops of fruit and veg that we and other animals in turn will eat. After a while, the queen lays some male eggs which will produce suiters for queens produced from other colonies. Our queen will also produce some new queens to mate with suiters from other nests and so on. Additionally, many of these bumblebees will be eaten by insectivorous birds and other animals that make some kind of contribution to our global ecosystem upon which we all depend for every meal we eat, breath we take and waste we produce.

One of the joys of autumn that have stayed with me since being a child is seeing the red admiral butterflies visiting fallen apples, Michaelmas daisies and other autumn produce. Red admiral males are territorial and have to impress a female before mating. Many red admirals then migrate to warmer latitudes for the winter. Others hibernate until the spring. The female will usually lay her eggs on stinging nettles upon which her caterpillars will feed before pupating and becoming adults.

October 2019

/by

Early this morning I was privileged to see 2 black storks flying over fields near our house in France on their way to Africa. These are rare, shy birds that nest atop tall trees in remote northern Eurasian forests. Recently, I have also seen white storks going the same way. White storks are not shy, however, and tend to nest on church towers and other high buildings, trees and pylons across Europe, but only rarely in Britain. Also, I’ve seen wheatears passing to a similar destination from northern latitudes. Pied and spotted flycatchers have been sallying forth from our elm trees to catch flying insects on the wing as they sojourn before flying to West Africa. Swallows and other hirundines have also been gathering on overhead cables ready to fly as far as South Africa. These are in turn hunted by a small falcon called the hobby.

Chiffchaffs, a type of small leaf warbler, still sing their name as they migrate south, past where we are. You may also hear them in Sussex as they head for the coast and beyond. Chattering starlings are also gathering. They do not usually migrate far, but they can form vast flocks that fly at sunset wheeling and diving like a single organism, often chattering as they do so, in an aerial dance called a murmoration.

It is not often realised that some butterflies also migrate south in the autumn. One of these is the painted lady. Painted ladies donate their Latin names to humans as they are in the genus Vanessa and the sub-genus Cynthia. Apparently, they often fly south to Africa in the autumn and back to Europe in the spring. Considering that they cross the English Channel, the continent, then the Mediterranean followed by the Sahara Desert, it is an incredible journey for a tiny butterfly. Some may be taken in flight by insectivorous birds making the same journey, but others clearly succeed as the annual routine continues.

There is a plant that is also a harbinger of autumn that also has a feminine name and that is autumn ladies tresses. This is a delicate white orchid that can turn up almost anywhere, but usually in low numbers. Like most orchids, the seeds are profuse but tiny, like grains of dust and settle everywhere, but only a few survive to flower. I have even seen them flowering in Manor Park, Uckfield. They are fairly frequent on the chalk Sussex Downs where the grass is short. Their charming Latin name is Spiranthes spiralis.

October 2020

/by

Humans need houses. Of that there is no doubt. But what about the millions of living things that make up nature’s biodiversity with which we share the planet and which provide us with the hidden ecosystem services upon which we all depend? Do these living things need a home also? If they exist near our dwellings, does this mean we always have to sacrifice them to make way for more brick boxes and tarmac roads?

For more than 30 years, I have been privileged to expedite ecological research in a woodland of exceptional biodiversity which is part of an even larger ecological unit in the NW of Uckfield. This unit is known as Downlands and The Rocks. It was here that I collected ecological data for my University research and eventually my book called ‘The Blue Tit’. However, it seems that because it is so close to Uckfield, this land and all it contains must be considered a prime site for yet another housing estate. From Downlands, it is possible to see the South Downs National Park and the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which, in my view, Downlands should be part because of its own scenic beauty and high biodiversity. This was part of the old Streatfeild country estate preserved by this local family since about 1780 but then sold in packets of land during the 20th century. Downlands, Lake Wood and The Rocks are all that remains of this English heritage landscape. A quiet refuge for over 70 species of birds, 20 species of mammals, more than 140 species of butterflies and moths, thousands of other tiny animals and plants of all sizes from the liverworts of the ghyll valleys to mighty ancient oak trees of the woodland forest. There are 5 species of amphibians including great crested newts and 4 species of reptiles.

Nature needs a home as much as humans. We are actually part of nature because we contribute to it and take from it. Nature provides us with air, water, food, it recycles our waste and provides natural therapy for our troubled minds. I believe that we have a duty of stewardship to protect those places that are home to a rich diversity of non-human living things with which we share the planet and on which we have a mutual dependence. It is sometimes difficult to understand that we depend on some animals such as mosquitos and wasps, even rats and venomous snakes. However, each one has its place in the web of life.

September 2020

/by

The first sounds to be made by an animal on planet Earth probably came from an insect, more than 400,000,000 years ago. These were probably primitive cicadas or crickets. In England, we have a few insects that make noises such as grasshoppers, they do this by rubbing parts of their chitinous exoskeleton against another part, e.g. legs against wings. Insects also often make a noise when they fly, such as mosquitos, bees and wasps, warning us of their presence with a buzz.

Boris, Emmanuel and COVID-19 have finally allowed us to visit our nature refuge in France. Here, the insects have gone mad and there are vast numbers of them singing in chorus, especially during warm nights. The old barn is full of wooden cavities. These in turn are used for reproduction by a huge variety of ants, bees, wasps and sawflies. Collectively, known as Hymenoptera, Latin for membranous wings, describing their incredibly fine thin flying apparatus.

We have seen carpenter wasps and bees, paper wasps, grass carrying wasps, masonry wasps, both solitary and social wasps and bees, semi-social wasps and ants that are almost always social, also European and Asian hornets that are really very large social wasps. The other day, I was amazed to see what looked like a very large fat green caterpillar flying into a hole in a timber pillar. It was apparently being carried by a female grass carrying solitary wasp, which had paralysed it with its sting, was a fraction of the size of the caterpillar and was mainly black with transparent wings. The wasp took it into its wooden hole and laid an egg on or inside the caterpillar, then it spent about two days carrying many single blades of dried grass into the hole and finally arranged the grass into a closely woven nest around the caterpillar. The wasp’s egg will eventually hatch out and eat the hapless caterpillar and grow for a while before metamorphosing into an adult solitary grass carrying wasp. It will then emerge from the cavity and will carry on the tradition.

By day we also see many species of butterfly including scarce swallowtails, fritillaries and varieties of blues. Also, preying mantids and huge crickets, even an Egyptian locust! We also hear the diurnal cicadas endlessly zizzing their stridulation song high in the elm trees.

Footer start