On Sunday I led a conservation volunteer group at the
private nature reserve we’ve been maintaining for a year now. Yorkshire
Wildlife Trust were asked to carry out some heathland maintenance and as it’s
near to the Allerthorpe Common reserve, our volunteer group got the job. The heathland
looked fantastic with a covering of frost. Our task for the day was to remove
the birch seedlings and brambles growing around one of the ponds and pollard the
willows, allowing them to produce bushy growth which will suit the birds.
The reserve on a frosty morning
Frosted grasses
Heathland restoration in progress
Pollarded willows around the pond
It
snowed here on Sunday evening, so I went down to Badger Wood on Monday morning,
to see if the badgers had been out. They are supposed to be less active in cold weather,
but not this lot. They’d had a busy night, with
tracks everywhere and well compacted, muddy snow around some of the sett
entrances. I’ve noticed before that latrines appear within the area of the sett
during the winter. For most of the year, their latrines mark the perimeter of
their territory, but in severe weather some of the badgers just nip out a few
yards from the sett entrance – and who would blame them!
Signs of heavy badger traffic
Badger tracks through the woods
Cold comfort: badger latrine in the snow
Juvenile badgers on a night out, unfazed by the cold
weather
The two most common birds on the island of Dhigurah are the Asian koel and the Maldivian house crow. The koel, being a type of cuckoo, is a brood parasite and the crow is its host - the koel lays its eggs in the crow's nest. The koel is a protected species in the Maldives, whereas the house crow is regarded as a pest. Both are noisy birds. The koel is more often heard than seen, as they tend to perch in the densest vegetation and betray their presence only by their extremely loud calls. The house crow is a bolder bird. It will call loudly at passing humans, apparently in defence of its territory. Call of the Asian koel Call of the Maldivian house crow The Oriental garden lizard is often seen around the village. They are large lizards, up to 37cm in length, including a very long tail. They can move each of their eyes in different directions, like chameleons, and change colour to match their surroundings. During the breeding season, the male's head and shoulders turn ...
It’s difficult to pick a favourite nature reserve, as they’re all so different and vary so much with the seasons, but one of my favourites must be Fen Bog, on the North York Moors. It’s in a hidden valley surrounded by moorland, with a boggy mire in the centre. Volunteers pulling bracken I usually only visit once a year, when Yorkshire Wildlife Trust have a conservation volunteer work day there. This year we’ve had two days, cutting back the bracken on the valley sides which threatens to engulf the reserve. The denser patches are cleared with brushcutters while thinner and steeper areas can be pulled by hand, minimizing damage to the surrounding vegetation. It’s one of those reserves where the results of our work can be clearly seen from one year to the next. Areas of dense bracken we brushcut last year just needed a tidy up by hand this year. Small pearl-bordered fritillary Large skipper sipping nectar from a thistle This is a great place to find some interesting in...
Today I’ve been to Fulford Ings, to collect seed from tansy plants to sow next spring. Each plant produces dozens of flower heads and each flower contains hundreds of seeds, so the small amount I’ve collected will have no effect on the natural spread of the plants. I’ll aim to produce another 1000 tansy plants next year. Dead flower heads now contain ripe seed The seed will be left to dry out in my kitchen The new generation of tansy beetles that emerged from pupae in the summer have now gone underground for the winter – except for one, which was still wandering around! The last tansy beetle still active I was concerned that the tansy we planted in August was being nibbled by rabbits (see Helping Barn Owls and Tansy Beetles ). Today I saw that new growth has appeared at the base of the plants, which the rabbits haven’t touched, so I think they will be OK in the spring. The wild flower meadow is now being grazed by sheep. They eat tansy plants...
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