niche seperation.

The way different animals make use of it. An oak tree is beautiful, and an oak woodland is an incredibly rich habitat in the United Kingdom. It supports a vast amount of life and the reason for that is the oaks have been growing for longer than any other species. So lots of invertebrate herbivores like caterpillars, bugs and beetles have learned to feed on them. This the food for birds, so that's why its such a rich habitat. But how do they all live in a oak woodland, feeding on the same trees at the same time. This is  something niche separation.They portion themselves so they reduce the amount of competition. They find different ways of feeding in the same place at the same time. How does it work? Lets start at the bottom of the oak tree. The ground beneath the oak tree has plenty of insects and other invertebrate's living on it. This is the food for robins, blackbird, thrushes and even redstarts. Then we have the trunk, this home to some charismatic members of the oak community, the treecreeper and nuthatch. Treecreepers climb up the tree closely examining all of the crevices, into which they put their very fine bill to remove their prey. Nuthatches will go up and down the tree looking for similar things. The nuthatches bill is slightly larger than the treecreeper and they will also eat a little bit of fruit. Then you have the greater spotted woodpecker, if there is any dead wood the greater spotted woodpecker will peck it open on the trunk. The greater spotted woodpecker will even excavate a nesting hole. As we go higher the trunk will separate onto its boughs and branches. You then have a different set of birds living up there. Most notably, members of the tit family. The smaller the bird the further it will go out, away from the main trunk. Turning the leaves over looking for caterpillars, hanging onto little branches. Because of all of this it means that all this can survive on an oak tree at exactly the same time. This is why a walk in an oak woodland during spring is so rewarding.

Conservation.

Bring back the birds.

A garden bustling with bird life will be brought alive by song and flapping wings, and also give us a chance to see wild creatures at close hand. But many of our most familiar visitors are suffering serious decline.

What to look out for.

As well as house sparrows, whose numbers have dropped dramatically, other birds in decline include starlings, dunnocks,song thrushes, mistle thrushes, swifts, house martins, spotted flycatchers, willow warblers, bullfinches, tree sparrows and linnets.

Reasons for their decline.

Cats and non native grey squirrels are to take some  blame for falling populations of these birds, but the main reasons are man made. Patios, decking, drives and the general tidiness of our modern gardens eliminate the seed and insect food of many species. Birds like house sparrows, swifts, house martins and swallows are finding it harder to find nest sites because we are much better at maintaining our houses nowadays, whereas in the past they`d have nested under the eaves. We have also taken out a lot of hedgerows in our inner cities and filled in all of the nooks and crannies on the outside of our houses with p.v.c. Also some modern farming practices, pesticides, the lack of weed seeds and a change to planting times all play their part.

Tips to help.

Leave parts of your garden to go wild.

You don`t have let your garden get hopelessly overgrown, but areas of long grass are a great habitat for insects and nearly all small birds need insects during the breeding season to provide protein for their young.

Plant plenty of native species.

As they will provide seed foods for birds and attract insects. Annual plants that produce seeds in late summer are a good source of food in the autumn and delaying cutting back your perennials until the spring means the seed heads provide winter food. Berry-bearing trees are always good for attracting birds. Varieties of cotoneasters, pyracantha and rowans are popular for redwings, fieldfares and waxwings.

Give the birds a banquet.

With lots of feeders and a variety of food including seeds and energy rich foods like fat balls. Various birds will always come back to your garden so if you put feeders out you must always make sure you keep them topped up. Great tits, blue tits,long tailed tits, chaffinches, goldfinches, robins, blackbirds and starlings. Theses species doing well largely because of their success adopting  to garden feeders.

Provide a home to nest.

Many garden birds share a willingness to use nest boxes. But you can buy boxes that fit under your eaves to attract house- nesting species. Boxes with metal reinforcement around the opening can stop woodpeckers and squirrels from getting in to them as well.

things to look out for in march.

A common frog.

Its been a little bit colder this winter so everything is a couple of weeks later than normal.The equinox is here on the 21`st of march and that marks the first day of spring.As a pagan i celebrate the equinox as a really important festival because of all of the life that's now starting to manifest in so many different shapes and colours.Bluebells,ramsons,wood anemones and flowering hawthorn blossom are four things to look out for as we move into spring.There is something special about walking through a woodland when the bluebells are in flower.In my experiences trench wood by sale green is my favourite woodland for bluebells.Greater spotted woodpeckers are normally hidden from view,But you might be lucky like me and have one visit your feeders in your garden.If you don`t see one in your garden than head out to the woods with a dead stick,Find a hollow-sounding tree trunk and hammer the trunk in small bursts as fast as you can.With luck your hammering will encourage a territorial woodpecker to come and investigate your hammering,Giving you a lovely view of the bird.common Frog spawn should start to appear from now onwards as common frogs are the earliest amphibians to emerge from hibernation and will head straight towards their breeding grounds ,common Frog spawn is always in a ball whereas toad spawn is always in a line.Towards the end of spring tiny little tadpoles will start to emerge in lakes and ponds throughout Worcestershire.March is the best month to look out for brown hares as well,Brown hares may be seen courting in any month but because there is no lush vegetation for them to hide in march is a good month to spot them.Lowland pasture or ploughed fields are good places to look for them.Robins,Blackbirds,Blue and Great tits and song thrushes should be able to be heard now staking out their territories.Look out for where these birds are singing as it will normally be overlooking their territories.Also look out for our commonest newt,the smooth newt which resembles a smaller and slicker version of the greater crested newt.Toads and the other two species of newts,greater crested and the palm newt will all breed as well through march.Adders will start to emerge from hibernation as well as it starts to get warmer.
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Small tortoiseshell on a spear thistle.

Brimstone,comma,peacock and small tortoiseshells should be out being seduced by the beautiful spring sunshine.Primroses should be out in force by the end of march,They get their name from the words prima rose meaning the first rose but they are not actually a rose.Bumble bees such as bombus pratorum and bombus hortorum will be seen visiting long tubular flowers,the first can be identified by an orange band on its abdomen and the latter by a white band on its abdomen.Buzzards can be seen as they hunt over meadowland,They are getting ready to have their young later on in spring.Normally they would be looking for carrion but at the start of the year they can be seen hunting.

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.

things to look out for in january

Hazel catkins during winter.

Now we are moving through winter,various animals and plants will slowly start to appear.Catkin's on hazel and alder trees start to appear,Hazel has a beautiful lemon yellow male catkins and red female flowers that will emerge from buds in the centre of the shoots.A breeze is all it takes for the pollen to start an amazing journey,a few will land on the female flowers,a few more make the nuts of autumn.Lesser celandine will carpet woodland floors and riverbanks during this month,they have a delightful yellow flower that tells you spring is on the way.Sparrowhawks may start building their nests now,depending on the amount of food that's around,For most of the time the sparrowhawk flies around unseen in dense cover throughout most of the year,but during winter because there are less leaves on the trees they become easier to spot.The sparrowhawk is an avian bird,this means they catch their quarry on the wing.There are around 32,000 sparrowhawks in Britain,this is our second most common bird of prey behind the kestrel.Lapwings feeding on a water logged field in the watery winter sun can be spotted during January.Starlings may be seen as well in large numbers looking for food and then coming down at night to roost,Wrens and tits may come into nest boxes to roost when it gets really cold,look out for them in your garden.Small mammals such as wood mice and bank and field voles may be seen as well,The wood mice will still be out looking for food so keep a look out for them,nibbling on shoots of grass are a give away,as their little bodies feel the squeeze of winter,they get bolder and more adventurous moving farther afield.Bank and field voles operate in runs as they move around looking for food,they will tolerate each other more during winter as they are searching for food,the runs are normally patrolled by one pair of voles.Small pellet-shaped droppings and fresh grass clippings are all giveaways that voles are in residence.Long tailed tits will come to your feeders in your garden during this month,but will most likely be seen off by the two great territory holders,the robin and the blackbird.Barn owls can be spotted,hunting low over fields looking voles and rats.Common frogs may not be spawning yet,the males will certainly be accumulating by their breeding grounds.Common frogs 'purr' and do not go 'rrribitt' as we have all been misled to believe.Damselfly,may and stone fly nymphs are stirring in our rivers waiting to emerge in spring and begin the cycle all over again.Fox's start mating during late December and January so its a good time to see the dog fox and his vixen together.Foxes are getting vociferous as the breeding season comes into full flow.The 'wow-wowing' bark and the blood-curdling scream,produced mainly by the vixen,are their way of getting the lowdown of who`s who and where.