Habitats.

Part six life in a beech woodland.

In spring, bluebells and anemones splash beech woods with colour, but in summer the woods are dark and relatively colourless places. Bluebells and wood anemones come up before the beech leaves have fully opened, while enough light is still available for growth. They will continue to grow in heavy shade, while bird`s-nest orchid, which feeds on dead organic matter such as beech leaves, needs no light at all. Beech leaves let little light through the canopy to encourage anything to grow. The leaves are so arranged that all will get some light, but very little filters between them. In the same way, the leaves intercept most of the rain that falls. This lies on the leaves, to be evaporated again after a shower, and does not reach the soil beneath. But the woodland floor, though dry, does provide food for fungi along with small birds and mammals. Wood mice and grey squirrels prize open the beech nuts from the woodland floor. The roots of the beech tree thrive in shallow but fertile soil, spreading laterally just below the surface. Jays are among some of the birds that frequent beech woods to seek fallen beech nuts. Bramblings ,chaffinches and nuthatches are three other birds that take advantage of a beech woodland along with badgers that are looking for a tasty treat, the beech nut.

Habitats

Part four motorways as havens for wildlife.

The amount of grassland and scrub along the broad verges of Britain's major roads exceeds the total area of all the country`s nature reserves put together. People rarely walk on roadside verges because its unsafe and its forbidden to do along motorways. Because of this they offer a comparatively safe home for all kinds of animals that can tolerate traffic noise. Moles, particularly, benefit because no one needs to plough up their burrows, and because traffic vibration brings worms, their major food, to the surface. Small mammals such as bank voles and shrews abound, and foxes and rabbits are quite common as well. The varied plant life offers food as well as cover to some of the small mammals, but it is often contaminated with salt and oil from the road surface and with lead from the exhausts of cars. Road verges serve as corridors along which animals can spread into our cities and also across wide areas of our country. The actual crossing of roads is a problem , however. Many animals do manage it-even slow- moving moles- but rabbits, hedgehogs, deer and other animals active at night are often dazzled by vehicle headlights and ran over. Many thousands are killed on our roads every year. But their corpses serve as a food supply for scavengers such as foxes, crows, magpies and even buzzards. Rabbits dig their warrens in well drained, undisturbed embankments, but will normally feed in near by fields and not by the road side. Hovering kestrels will be looking for voles, mice and beetles for them to eat.  A newly built road may cut across an established badger trail, and badgers using it may get run over because of this. Early in the morning crows may be seen feeding on the casualties from the night before, such as hares, rabbits and even hedgehogs. Next time you are driving along some of our busy roads have a lookout for some of this wildlife.

Nature walks.

Part one.

Many animals and quite a few birds make their home`s underground. So while you are out and about walking in various habitats, i am going to tell you what to look out for.

Badger sets - Look out for large holes (normally eight inches or more). Their will be quite a few holes spread out on a hill side, where established runs converge. Chewed up blue- bell bulbs in spring, excavated earth or nettles and elder trees are a few other signs of a badger earth as well.

Rabbit warrens- Their will be numerous burrows  (about four inches wide each) that will be made in disturbed barren ground. Look out for their droppings on high points, as this is the way they mark their territory.

A kingfisher hole- Kingfishers make a solitary hole in a river bank. They will mark the entrance  by bird droppings. Look out for the male during spring bringing fish to the female at the nest. He will normally bring fish to a over hanging branch by the nest and wait for the female to come and collect it. This will either be for his courtship display,or for the female to feed her chicks. Also look out for lots of droppings around the hole. You can tell by the way he has the fish in his beak whether he will be eating the fish or whether he will passing the fish to the female or to the chicks. The fish `s head will be facing outwards if he is going to give the fish to someone else or the fish`s tail will be facing outwards if he is going to eat the fish hgimself.

Water vole burrows- Although these little mammals are now extremely rare, there are programmes to re-introduce them back into the wild in Britain. They have declined dramatically over the last twenty years or so mainly down to the mink, who itself has established lots of territories around brooks,rivers and canals.
They make their small holes (about three inches wide ) in the river bank and they are linked by surface runs. Look out for grass that has been chewed down the stem or listen out for a plop as they enter the water.

Things to look out for in june.

Bombus pratorum on some bramble.

June is a wonderful month to go for a nice walk with a pair of binoculars to see how many fledgling birds you can spot. Blue tits,great tits,robins,green finches,gold finches and black birds should be able to be seen. I counted four blue tits and five great tit fledglings while i was out walking last week. Make sure that the feeders in your gardens are topped up as the parent and fledgling birds will come to rely on them. The word tit comes from an Icelandic word tittr, Meaning a small bird or just anything small. Make sure that you don`t throw any peanuts on to the floor as the fledglings may choke on them. Nearly all of us will have urban or country red foxes living by us, Whether you live in the town or the country. To find out where the red foxes are, Is to find out where their breeding earth, Then you can enjoy some fantastic viewing. It`s not as hard as you think to find their earth, Small copses or a stand of trees in a park or an tucked away areas of wasteland are good areas to start looking. When you thing their could be red fox earth look for a single hole that is a bit bigger than a rabbits hole and a little bit smaller than a badgers entrance. Because the young cubs are now getting very playful look out for their toys around the earth,These could be bones,feathers,rabbits feet or even whole wings. All of the vegetation will be flattened around the earth as well. One thing that will make you know that its a red fox earth is the strong smell coming from it. This is a good month to look out for meadow brown,speckled wood and common blue butterflies.Birdfoot trefoil,knapweed and ox eye daisies are just a few flowers you might see them on. A walk through any woodland will bring up a male speckled wood, Fluttering in front of you then back down to their sunspot, This will most probably be the second generation this year of the speckled wood butterfly. The meadow brown is Britain's most common butterfly, Whats unusual about the meadow brown is that the female is brighter than the male.(male butterflies are normally brighter than the females).The female lays single eggs on grasses such as cocks foot, The caterpillars can live for up to nine months before they start hatching in the middle of June if the weather is warm enough.

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Banded demoiselle damsefly.

Banded damoseilles can now be seen up and down rivers and brooks, This will also mean that their are caddis and alder fly on the wing as well, As this is one of their main foods. A week fluttering flight,a more delicate build and the fact that a damselfly can hold their wings either vertically over their body like a butterfly or horizontally (a dragon fly only hold their wings horizontally) are the main differences from a damselfly to a dragon fly. Dog roses,campions,honeysuckle,elder flower and ragged robins are just a few plants you may see in flower during June. Particularly elder flower will encourage a whole host of insects to its beautiful flowers, Hover flies, wasps and bees will be drawn to the beautiful white flowers. Also look out for black,orange and brown soldier beetles, They are attracted to the flowers in the search of other insects for them to hunt. Also look out for either the black and yellow Caterpillar of the cinnabar moth or the moth itself depending once again on how warm it has been. The cinnabar moth is easily disturbed so look out for its lovely scarlet wings in flight. Finally a tale of two wonderful insects, Firstly the lesser stag beetle which is smaller than the stag beetle, This is still a wonderful beetle to see though, But neither the male or the female develop the large mandibles that the stag beetle develops(i will be talking about stag beetles next month). Secondly the scorpion fly, This actually related to the mecoptera order, This the same order as lace wings and alder flys. So its not the same as a house fly or a hover fly because they have a different metamorphose stage. I will be talking about metamorphism in a later post. Their name comes from the shape of the males sexual organs, Which are bulbous and resemble the tail part of a scorpion. They are at the tip of his body and are normally curled up over his wings. Scorpion flys are harmless and are mainly found along hedgerows and in gardens. They have long beak-like mouth parts which they use to eat either decaying plant material, or feeding on dead or wounded insects. The males are true gentlemen,offering gifts of saliva or guarding a food item from other males while emitting a pheromone to attract a female and once she is satisfied ,mating commences. Look out for little tadpoles of smooth newts around some ponds where you have seen them spawning in spring, Disturb the weeds around the warm edges of your newt pond and you should uncover Little newts,(their tadpoles are just smaller versions of the adult newts). The fluffy little things sticking out of the side of its head are their gills.

the mustelidae family

Part seven the badger.

A male badger is called a boar and a female badger is called a sow.Badgers are omnivorous meaning that they eat both plants and meat.They live in family groups in setts under the ground. They start to emerge from these setts at dusk when the sun is setting.The badger has a black and white head,with small white tipped ears.They have strong forepaws with long claws making a wonderful adaptation for digging.The boar`s body and head is about seventy six centimeters in length with a fifteen centimeter tail,The sow is slightly smaller.The old English name for the badger is the brocc.Badgers mate from the end of winter right up to October, But the implantation of the fertilized egg is delayed until December so all of the cubs are born at roughly the same time. Their is usually between two or three cubs in one single litter. The cubs are then born underground in a breeding chamber,between the end of January and the middle of march.The cubs remain underground for about eight weeks. The cubs are born blind, They remain blind for about five weeks. Weaning starts after about twelve weeks.Badgers will spend most of winter in their setts underground,They do not hibernate but live of fat reserves that have been built up since Autumn.They live mainly in woodlands in their extensive setts with many tunnels,They may also live on large Commons and fields,(you may also see them within some urban areas).You can sometimes see straw bedding by their setts where they have taken clean bedding into the sett, This is because they change the bedding on a regular basis. Their diet consists mainly of earthworms and beetles, But they will also eat cereals,blue bell bulbs,autumn fruit and small mammals. They may live for up to fifteen years in the wild. They mark their territory with dung pits called latrines. They will have a well established territory that may have been passed down from previous generations. Look out for their pathways from the sett black and white hairs are a give away as well on barbed wire,., It will be well trodden and defended from outsiders. Badgers from the same sett will mark each other with their scent, This process is called musking. They will all groom each other and the young cubs can be very playful in their early years. A tree close to the sett will be used for them to sharpen their forepaws. Some of the young cubs will stay with the family group, But others will move away to sett up their own territories,Some will leave at their first winter but others will leave the family group when they are still quite young during their first summer. As badgers love elderberries there are normally quite a few bushes growing by the sett as they disperse the seeds in their droppings.Because of the soil being enriched with their droppings their will always be a huge number of stinging nettles as well.They like the soil around the setts to be well drained so it makes it easier for them to dig the tunnels for their setts, Large setts may have between thirty and forty entrances.A great time to watch badgers in the wild is between the middle of February and the end of march, As they start to emerge from their setts.

Resource partitioning

This is when animals and creatures come out at night.It makes perfect sense for them to do this, Bats,owls and badgers mostly come out in the evening to forage for their food. Firstly its cooler at night for them. Snails,slugs and earthworms will die in the heat of the day so they come out when it is cooler, The animals take advantage of this to enable them to eat at night.Through resource partitioning owls take advantage of day-time raptors who are asleep at night,Meaning the owls have all the shrews,bank and field voles,harvest mice,yellow neckedmice and woodmice to themselves.Of the 800 large moths 100 of them come out in the day.So butterflies are not avoiding competition but they are avoiding predation.Bats take advantage of the moths coming out at night who themselves may well have become nocturnal to avoid predation themselves.

things to look out for in february.

Spring is fast approaching now so lots of animals are becoming more active,plants are starting to push up from their roots to show the first green leaves.Lords and ladies are one of the first plants to appear as we move through February.You can also look for the green leaves of cow parsley and hogweed,Sweet violet and colts foot are to native plants to seduce early hover and drone flies,Look out for both of these along canal towpaths,Road verges and field edges,dogs mercury will start to appear during February as well but be careful with this plant as the whole plant is highly poisonous,it was said to only be fit for dogs and it was supposedly found by the roman god mercury hence the name dogs mercury.Badgers start to breed during February so its quite a good month to watch your local badger sett,The best time to watch badgers is between dusk and dawn.Blue tits and robins will be seen on the feeders a lot now as they start preparing for mating and building their nests.Its important to keep up a good supply of food for your garden birds,they will come to rely on the food on the feeders and fly quite a long way sometimes for the food.Rookeries are also worth watching.There will be lots of flapping to accompany the cacophony.Watch out for the rooks flying in with distinct bulging throats full of food, a sure sign that their chick have hatched high up in the nests,Its also quite common to see jackdaws in the rookeries as well,These birds are smaller than rooks with a lovely grey collar.You should be able to see Blackthorn blossom in all of its splendor during this month,Although because of the cold snap it night start appearing in march.Sloe gin is a must later on in the season of autumn.The first daffodil shoots will be appearing now,Taking over from the glorious snowdrops.The first invertebrates will slowly start to appear as they start to prepare for the busy months ahead,small tortoiseshell's,peacocks and brimstone's butterflies will start to emerge from hibernation,Especially if we get a couple of days of sunshine.Queen bumblebees are now becoming active as well,Bombus terrestris(buff-tailed bumble-bee) is one of the first to be seen as we move towards spring,she makes her colony on a hedgerow bank,The reason they can start flying early is because they can generate metabolic heat by relaxing and contracting their large thoracic flight muscles.They can do this by taking their wings out of gear and disabling the clutch like attachment of the wing.Rather than the flying muscles working in antagonistic pairs, and almost oscillating within the insects body under their own momentum,as they do in flight,they are then filled with nerves to stimulate both pairs at the same time so any motion they might have generated is cancelled out.This warm up occurs internally.A sign that something is going on is a pumping of the abdomen as the blood is circulated and a slight shivering of the bee's chassis.To help keep this heat in,The bumblebee also has thermal insulation in the form of it famously furry coat.Catkins on aspen trees are also starting to appear,when parted from the grey overcoat look out for the beautiful purple stamens.