Beltain

Beltain is a celebration of the fertility and rampant potency of the life force. All of nature is growing and manifesting now in a wild whirl of creative energy. This is the time to celebrate unions of all kinds, fertility and manifestation on many different levels, love, sexuality and fruitfulness. It is a time to be in touch with the instinctive wild forces within and without, to be aware of the potency of the life force and its power on the physical, spiritual and mystical levels. This is the beginning of the final and most actively potent of the waxing phase of the sun`s cycle. All of life is bursting with fertility and the power of its own potential. Everything is in the process of becoming. This is the peak of the spring season and the beginning of summer, the onset of the growing season when the earth is clothed in green, the vibration of love and the heart chakra. Flowers are everywhere, birds and animals are having their young, the sounds of birdsong fill the air. It is a time of sunshine and rain, swelling and bursting, rising sap and fresh new growth. The earths energies are at their most active. The dragon paths can be intuitively sensed or dowsed. This is the perfect time for walking these ancient energy paths.Beltain energy of one of reverence for all of life, celebrating and honouring the fertility which grows from the union of opposites. It is about the sacredness and spirituality of love and sexual pleasure, and deep connections of the heart. These life changing forces are not just the focus of sexual union, but unions of all kinds. Integrity of spirit and power brings the physical and spiritual into balance. This creates a strong life force energy which becomes the light and eternal love of spiritual energy.

The muridae family.

Part one the wood mouse.

The wood mouse or the long tailed field mouse is probably the most widespread and abundant of all our British mammals. It is not just confined to woodlands though as its name suggests, it will thrive in hedge rows along with more open spaces including moorlands, mountains sides and our gardens where it will live in our sheds and out buildings. Wood mice do not have a strong smell to them unlike house mice. The wood mouse is very active, running and bounding from place to place with their front feet tucked up and venturing into open places where other small mammals will rarely go. As quick as they can be though if you listen out for them as you are taking a walk you will come across them in the undergrowth. Wood mice used to only move under cover of darkness, but they now seem to be moving alot during daylight hours. They are still taken frequently by owls and cats and some raptors. Most wood mice will stay in a general area, but may travel up to a quarter of a mile during the day or night. During a cold winter they have been known to go into a torpid state(almost like hibernation) during this state the use less energy than normal. This enables them to survive food shortages. The population is always at its lowest after a cold winter, but their numbers soon pick up. They start to breed in March, the female might bear up to four litters during one year. Each of the litters may contain up to five young. They rarely live over two years in the wild. Its sandy brown coat and large ears and eyes help to distinguish the wood mouse. Their underparts are white with a yellow streak on the chest with their long tail being slightly haired. They are about three and a half inches in length. When a wood mouse becomes frightened, they often wash and groom themselves. They do this by sitting on their haunches and licking vigorously at their armpits, forelimbs and belly. Wood mice dig their own burrow system, where they store food and spend their time when they are not foraging for food. The young mice are born in the nest chamber. Autumn fruits such as hawthorns and other berries are part of a wood mice`s diet, often using an old birds nest to store them.Seeds are the wood mouses main food, along with shoots and buds. They will also eat snails by nibbling their way through its shell. Wood mice are always cautious when approaching something they are not sure of. They have an acute sense of smell and rely on odours as a means of recognising other mice. They have large hind feet that enables them to leap almost like kangaroos.

Butterflies of sunny downlands.

The gently rolling downlands of southern England provide a warm and bountiful home for a multicoloured population of butterflies. On sunny days in summer the grassy hills come alive with bright patches of colour as groups of butterflies flutter around their favourite plants. Clusters of blue butterflies, coppers, green hairstreaks and marbled whites sparkle like jewels in the sunshine. The chalk soil of the downs favours chalk-loving wild flowers such as marjoram,thyme ,vetches, knapweed, scabious and yellow carline thistles. And the butterflies reap a harvest of nectar, particularly in warm hollows and on slopes facing south. A butterfly`s, life in the sun is spent establishing territories and fighting off rivals, having minor tussles with bumble-bees and hoverflies, courting and mating, feeding from flowers and basking in the sun. One active common blue might see off half a dozen other butterflies in a lightning chase over the grasses. Fleabane, with its yellow nectar-rich flowers, attracts common blues, small coppers, small heaths and small skippers, especially where the chalk soil is overlaid with clay and flint. Hawthorn, whitebeam,dogwood and spindle bushes provide vantage points for butterflies, such as green hairstreaks, that seek out territories. Where downland meets woodland, sulphur-coloured brimstones patrol the edge of the trees in search of buckthorn and ivy.

The first cuckoo.

I havn`t got a lot of time today to blog, so i thought it would be a great idea for anyone who comes onto my blog to start listening out for the first cuckoo. As we enter spring tomorrow,(i have a blog about the spring equinox) this wonderful bird that has evolved to lay her eggs in other birds nests. For me its magnificent to hear my first cuckoo calling. So let me know when and where you are when you hear your first cuckoo of 2012.

The cervidae family.

Part eight the axis deer.

Native to India and Sri Lanka, the spotted axis deer can be seen in Britain in a few parks at woburn and whipsnade in Bedfordshire. It is the most attractive of India`s eight species of deer, and its hindustani name is chital, which means spotted deer. In its homelands, the axis deer lives mainly in lowland forest areas where there is good cover along with good grazing. It will also wander from the forest to feed on crops of nearby villages which has led to alot of the deer being killed by the locals. At the start of the twentieth century herds could be reckoned in their thousands, but now they number much fewer in their native India. As like most deer, axis deer graze by day or night. When they are alarmed, they emit a shrill whistle. They have no fixed breeding season, the young calves may be seen among the herds in Britain parks at any time of the year. A stag rubs its antlers against a sapling in order to remove the velvet or to mark its territory. Nor is there a fixed season for stags to shed their antlers, so all stages of antler growth, as well as hard antlers cleaned of velvet, can be seen among animals in the herd at any time. The attractive axis deer has a rich brown summer coat heavily dappled with white spots, and it has a white bib. Winter colouring is slightly darker. A stag`s three tined (pointed) can grow up to thirty inches. The stag is about thirty seven inches at its shoulder, with the hind being slightly smaller.

Red deer cull.

Part three.

Keeping deer numbers low on private estates is unusual as the land owners normally want high numbers of red deer for hunting. But the land on these estates is grazed like sheep by the deer. After there has been a cull on a private estate its completely transformed, it becomes a beautiful wild blossoming habitat full of heather and young trees. These young trees will grow into the caledonian forest of the future. Its a difficult decision to make for the land owner, but in the long term these habitats might become home to some of Scotland's most spectacular species. For the landscape as a whole, the highest numbered animal the red deer do need to be culled. This is for the balance of the eco-system and to benefit the red deer, even though it is a very difficult decision. Man has manipulated the landscape for so long that conservation issues like this one are hard, emotionally as a human it is hard to watch a cull but you must understand that its about a fine balance. Could indigenous predators be re-introduced? I think yes as long as it is correctly monitored, but those decisions are not for me to make. Red deer also bring lots of money into the highlands, so there is a lot of conflict between land owners. Let me know what you think.

Red deer cull.

Part two.

Red deer's are monitored across the highlands by Scottish natural heritage. Red deer are normally in herds of between forty and sixty. This is then looked at to see what effect the deer have on the landscape. Because of these herds, the treeless landscapes are under stress as a result. On the lower slopes of the highlands, their are dying remnants of the old caledonian forest. For many years , the older trees have not been able to establish a younger crop below them. This is because the young pine sapling are being eaten by the red deer, they are a great food source for the red deer. Some of the highland estates have put in a management programme to protect the saplings, reducing the impact the red deer has on the saplings. In some areas, woodland is much more dense, there are so many more trees. Most importantly there is clear evidence of the young trees coming up through the vegetation. From a great height its easy to see that high numbers of red deer result in grazed and barren moors. Where there are low numbers of deer, rare caledonian pines are making a come back.