Thursday 28th April

 

For me, this is the time of year when the English landscape looks its finest, and changes most rapidly.  The sense of place, which is instinctive to most people, runs deep, and I think is refreshed by the annual cycle of the seasons.

This was brought home to me last weekend, when a visit by a musician friend from London gave me an excuse for a tour of several Wildlife Trust nature reserves. He was particularly eager to hear his first Nightingales, and although those in Short Wood, who had sung beautifully for a guided walk the previous Tuesday, were silent, the four at Glapthorne Cow-pasture were in glorious full-throated song on Friday evening. The vivid greens of the fresh foliage took on a cooler tone by torchlight, but they provided a warm and mellow acoustic for the Nightingales, and for a loud and apparently ill-tempered domestic exchange between a pair of Tawny Owls (who probably have young chicks to feed by now).  A second, this time sunlit, encounter with Nightingales, at Woodwalton Fen, showed my friend that they could hold their own against the competition from Robins, Wrens, Reed Warblers and Willow Warblers.

These summer visitors, freshly returned from a winter in southern Africa, have to ‘hit the ground running’, or in their case, singing.  It’s vital that the males, who usually arrive a few days earlier than the females, establish their territory, attract a mate and identify a nest site within a matter of days.  Timing is all.  The masses of freshly emerged insects  -  from the clouds of (thankfully) non-biting midges in the woods and fens, to the tumbling flower-beetles on the hawthorn blossom, were a consistent accompaniment to my walks, but are the staple diet of our summer songbirds, and their lack is the reason for migration  -  Britain is a tough place for an insect-eater in Winter.   Even the glistening Large Red Damselflies and Hairy Dragonflies at Woodwalton may fall prey to summer migrants, in their case, the small, swift and stylish falcon, the Hobby.

Walking in the woods with a botanical frame of mind highlights some of the geographic variation of our area.  ‘Central England’ doesn’t really do it justice, as it is a region of edges and boundaries, which add to its uniqueness.  You could see bluebells in woods from Cornwall to Kent to Inverness  -  they are a very British flower, the blue misty carpet being more developed and fragrant here than anywhere else in Europe.  But their companions vary greatly across the country. Our bluebells in High Wood, near Daventry, Northants, are accompanied by masses of Sweet Woodruff, giving it a strong ‘western’ flavour (as well as a scent of new-mown hay), as do the Wood-sorrell and the Golden-saxifrages by the stream side.  The flora is more akin to woods in the Welsh borders; for a Cambridgeshire resident, the steep slopes and shady ravines add to the effect.  The finest Cambridgeshire bluebells grow alongside Oxlips, which appears midway between Primrose and Cowslip, but which are a distinct species with a very limited central-eastern distribution in Britain, confined largely to Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and the inland end of Norfolk and Suffolk.  And in Bedfordshire we have woods and especially, chalk grasslands (my destination next weekend) which are the northern spur of the Chilterns, and have strong affinities with the North and South Downs.

As well as ‘blogging’ I’m also sharing my field trips with anyone who’s interested to see them, via my slowly expanding set of photos at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/

Last week I also had the pleasure of two hours’ radio broadcasting  -  Henry Stanier, Matt Johnson and I, chatting with a highly professional presenter on BBC Radio Northampton, supported by a cast of bumble-bees, Chiffchaffs, Orange-tips, Holly Blues and Brimstones. It was a great reminder that an urban site like Lings has a wealth of stunning wildlife. 

 

Thursday 31st March

It’s been a fortnight of events and talks for me. On 24th, I spoke at the Cambridge Science Festival about recent changes in British wildlife, and what the Wildlife Trust is doing about it. The event was supported by our friends at Cambridge University Press, and attracted a large and dauntingly high-powered audience. Thankfully, everyone seemed to enjoy the talk and to be very supportive of our work. Below is a link to a podcast of the talk on the University of Cambridge website, as well as an illustrated text of the talk.

http://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1126728

Transcript of Talk

On 23rd March I was at a national meeting of education, community and marketing staff from around the Wildlife Trusts, discussing what we should do to engage local communities more, and to celebrate the movement’s centenary in 2012. I gave some of the historical background, which Trust members can read in the latest issue of Natural World magazine. I also spoke about Bioblitzes. If you’ve not come across this concept, it’s an entertaining and useful import from the US: not as violent as it sounds, it’s simply a 24-hour wildlife survey of a site, to find as many species as possible. So far, our bioblitzes have been organised jointly with the Northants biological records centre. Our first was in 2009 at Abington Meadow in the Nene Valley near Northampton, a site which is due to become a Trust reserve shortly. With a team of county recorders, staff, and keen volunteers, we identified over 900 species in a day. Last year, a bioblitz which aimed at more public outreach was held at Bradlaugh Fields in central Northampton. Although the numbers of species were lower, it did turn up some exciting surprises, not least of which was a really beautifulrare and declining ground-beetle, Carabus monilis, and a very placid Lime Hawk-moth which spent much of the day sitting on my shirt and entertaining the public and the media.

26th saw the annual conference of the Wildlife Trust’s Watch leaders at Paxton Pits near St Neots. These are the key volunteers who run our Wildlife Watch groups for 8-12-year-olds, and GreenWatch groups for the 13-18-year-olds. They are an inspiring bunch, hugely enthusiastic, and natural communicators about wildlife and the environment. Our Trust is a national leader in Wildlife Watch, one of the few with a fulltime member of staff - Amanda Brookes - to co-ordinate the volunteers, to help set up new groups and to help the current groups run smoothly. Amanda is clearly popular among the volunteers, and our 23 groups and over 100 leaders (due to expand soon) are probably the most of any of the Trusts.

And this week I was in London for a joint parliamentary reception organised by the Wildlife Trusts and the Heritage Lottery Fund, to stress to our MPs that HLF is hugely important for its funding of wildlife and landscapes, as well as buildings and culture. In this Trust, having received the biggest ever natural environment grant in England,for the Great Fen, we are well aware of that, but a surprising number of MPs seemed surprised to discover that wildlife was part of 'heritage'. I was especially pleased to meet two of our MPs who are respectively a government minister in Defra, James Paice, and a newly appointed Labour shadow Defra shadow minister, Gavin Shuker. It was a chance totalk aboutwhat we would like to see in the forthcoming Natural Environment White Paper, and I hope to meet them both again soon to provide more detail.

Finally, some wildlife! As Spring moves forward, keep watching the bumblebees and you’ll probably see a new one, Bombus hypnorum, which first bred in Britain in 2002, and is now widespread. I photographed it in my garden in Cambridgeshire last year:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5390918503/in/set-72157625914257134/

and the sharp-eyed of you may have noticed one lurking in the gorse blossoms on the 'signs of spring' section of the Trust website, photographed by volunteer Cameron Yuill at Lings last week. Luckily, it’s a very distinctive bee, our only bumblebee with a bright orange thorax and a white tip to the tail. So, whenever we record species on a reserve, either on a casual visit or in a bioblitz, we can help understand the changes in species, be thatthe effects of habitat loss, orthe positive responses to a warmer climate and cleaner air.

 

 

Monday 21st March

 

The glorious Spring weather at the weekend coincided with a visit to Flitwick Moor by a group of specialists from the Conchological Society (slugs and snails!)  in search of a rare snail called Phenacolimax major, last see there in the 1980s, and at its most easterly site in the UK.  With a team bringing together specialist from across the country, we didn’t find our target species, but we did record about 30 other kinds of slugs and snails.  Tiny molluscs might not be to everyone’s tastes:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5544511596/in/pool-bcnp

but they can tell us a lot about the nature reserve  -   how well we are managing it, whether it’s suffering from climate change impacts, whether the spring water which keeps the Moor wet is as pure as it should be.  On the basis of this visit, Flitwick is doing well.

On my way home from Flitwick, I called in at Cambourne, in the hope of seeing the rumoured flock of Waxwings.  I was in luck: their numbers had grown and I spent a delightful couple of hours watching and trying to photograph up to 34 of these amazing, exotic-looking birds.  There are more images on my Flickr site at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5541535988/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5541532566/in/photostream/

I think of waxwings as berry-feeders  -  they are most often seen on shrubs such as cotoneaster in gardens  -  so I was surprised that they were spending most of their time picking at the bright yellow male catkins of the sallow bushes. At first I thought they might be looking for insects  -  there are quite a few specialist insects which live inside sallow and willow catkins, such as the little weevil I found at Devil’s Ditch the previous weekend:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5520802460/in/pool-bcnp

But the birds seemed more interested in the pollen itself.  When not on the willows, the waxwings were eating the berries of guelder-rose, almost the only berries not eaten already by our resident thrushes and blackbirds, or by wintering fieldfares and redwings. Interestingly, there is evidence that waxwings in north America eat pollen to make certain berries more digestible.  Perhaps this is what’s happening with the guilder-rose berries.  But the pollen itself is probably nutritious, too (and was being gathered by dozens of queen bumblebees, too).

It’s encouraging that a new settlement like Cambourne, a mere decade old, is now a place which can attract naturalists as well as wildlife.  Waxwings are occasional winter visitors from the far north of Scandinavia, so might pass through anywhere.  But the bumblebees are thriving at Cambourne, and I also found an egg cocoon of the Wasp Spider on Saturday  - containing a hundred or so tiny spiders, almost ready to emerge as the weather warms up.  This new arrival in Cambridgeshire is a resident, and is clearly breeding successfully here now, in Cambourne’s new habitats.

 

Monday 14th March

 

Walking along Devil's Dyke, between Cambridge and Newmarket on Saturday, with bright sunshine and blue skies, Spring had definitely arrived, and the wildlife was there to prove it.  The bright yellow sallow catkins were heavy with pollen and popular with the many foraging queen bumblebees:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5520210957/in/pool-bcnp/

The timing is important  -  the bees are fresh out of hibernation (only the fertilised queens survive the winters), and beginning to start their new nests. I saw several prospecting for potential nest sites around mouse burrows and tussocks of grass.  The first few weeks can be a precarious time for them, as they work single-handed to establish their nests and provision their brood with nectar and pollen.  Food can be in short supply, so the nectar-rich catkins are a blessing.

The other large and exciting insects which attracted attention were the bloody-nosed beetles, also freshly emerged:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5520209851/in/pool-bcnp/

These are slow-moving chunky blue-black beetles about 2cm long, which feed on goosegrass and other bedstraws. Their name comes from their habit of exuding a bright red irritant liquid from their mouth when they think they are being attacked.  The best way to provoke them is to breathe on them, which may suggest it's a defence against predatory mammals, such as foxes or shrews.  The liquid, which smells yeasty, causes a burning sensation on the tongue, followed by a numbness  -  you'd not try eating more than one.

Devil's Dyke is a Saxon earthwork, built as a defence against invaders, running from the edge of the Fens at Reach, to the more undulating and wooded country at Woodditton. It thus spans the open swathe of chalk country which would have been important sheep-ranching country in the 7th century.  Now, the flower-rich chalk grassland of Devil's Dyke is internationally important for its wildlife, and is particularly valuable because it forms a 12km long wildlife highway:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5525880210/

The bumblebees fly along the site, the wingless Bloody-nosed beetles crawl along the footpaths, much as they have done for 1200 years.  But much of the surrounding landscape is now arable land or species-poor pasture, heavily fertilised and sprayed with pesticides each year.  Linear sites like Devil's Dyke and the nearby Fleam Dyke and Roman Road serve as vital refuges, and also help wildlife move through a hostile landscape.  In the future, we need to increase the network of such wildlife highways, to reconnect the countryside. The Cambridgeshire chalk linear sites are also reconnecting in a different way -  lots of people walk along them, appreciating the countryside (and chatting with horizontal naturalists about bloody-nosed beetles), so increasing their own awareness and understading.  That's the essence of the Wildlife Trusts' vision for A Living Landscape:
http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/?section=environment:livinglandscapes
joining up the countryside, and reconnecting people with their surroundings.

 

Thursday March 10th

 

By now, if you’re a Wildlife Trust member, you should have received your copy of our magazine, Local Wildlife.  It's been quite radically redesigned  -  I hope you like it.  We’ve tried to improve the quality and relevance of the photographs, and made the lay-out crisper and easier to read.  But I’m keen that there should still be plenty of detailed information about wildlife, and about what the Trust is doing for it. Please let me know what you think of the new style.

Signs of Spring are everywhere now. At the weekend, on a rather chilly walk along Devil’s Dyke, the hairy violets were looking stunning:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5504185543/in/pool-1263021@N24/

and the elm trees were also in ‘full bloom’  -  if you’ve never looked closely, you might not have realised what makes the twigs take on a pink-purple tinge at this time of year:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5504780504/in/pool-1263021@N24/

Elms are generally wind-pollinated, but the flowers are also visited by insects.

If you take a look at our website for news, and especially our Flickr group for images from our reserves, you will see more signs of Spring  - celandines, dead-nettles, coltsfoot and the first cowslips are out already.  Some of the winter visitors, such as fieldfare, redwing, wigeon, goldeneye and even goosander are still hanging around, the latter waterfowl showing well at Paxton Pits on Monday.  I hope you all find time to enjoy some seasonal wildlife.

 

Friday 18th February 2011

 

Forestry sell-off off!

The cliché about a week being a long time in politics comes true again.  Yesterday, the Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, gave an unconditional apology to parliament, and announced the end of the proposed sell-off of Forestry Commission Land:

"I have taken a decision to end the consultation on the future of the Public Forest Estate and I take full responsibility for that. I am doing so because it is quite clear from the early responses to the consultation that the public and many MPs are not happy with the proposals we set out.

“I would like to announce that I am establishing an independent Panel to consider forestry policy in England. It will report to me with its findings this autumn. The Panel will advise me on the future direction of forestry and woodland policy in England, on the role of the Forestry Commission, and on the role of the Public Forest Estate. The Panel will include representatives of key environmental and access organisations alongside representatives of the forestry industry. I will shortly publish its membership and terms of reference.

We have already heard positive suggestions about how we can do this - for heritage forests and all other woodlands. We have spoken to the RSPB, the National Trust, the Woodland Trust, the Wildlife Trusts, the Ramblers and other groups. The Forestry Commission has itself acknowledged that change is needed and will of course be fully engaged in this process going forward, as I know they have many ideas to contribute.”

It’s marvellous news that public pressure can bring about change, and that so many people care about our woodlands. 

The next few months of deliberations will nevertheless be a challenge.  The Forestry Commission is a very mixed organisation, restoring wildlife habitats wonderfully in some regions, but with a history of large-scale commercial planting on invaluable wildlife sites in other areas. Last weekend, I was surveying wildlife on heathlands in Norfolk Breckland, just north of Thetford. I was in a 50 acre Site of Special Scientific Interest, some of the best heathlands I’ve seen anywhere in Europe. It is surrounded by 20,000 acres of dense dark conifer plantations, planted by the Forestry Commission on equally good heathland which used to support nightjars, woodlarks, stone-curlews and much else besides. Seeing the gloomy, species-poor plantations, and seeing the Forestry Commission is still replanting with non-native conifers when it clear-fells an area, we can’t defend the status quo uncritically.

The worst outcome for wildlife might be for the Forestry Commission to continue to ‘manage’ all its own land but on a very much reduced budget. That could result in important wildlife sites being mismanaged by an even more commercially minded Commission.

We need to ensure the government actually delivers a better future for wildlife in the forestry estate, whoever is managing it.

Late winter wildlife

I’m looking forward to a weekend of wildlife:  it’s still not too late to see snow-fleas on our heaths (and maybe get a better photo than I’ve managed so far:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5429420264/in/set-72157625950196944/

These tiny wingless insects, close relatives of the summer Scorpionflies, are active from November to March, feeding on mosses on heathlands, with the males performing a sort of trapeze act on grass stems at twilight. 

If your passion is for larger wildlife, I can recommend a trip to the Ouse Washes, where the spectacle of over 70,000 wildfowl is amazing at present.

 

 

Monday 14th February 2011

 

Forestry sell-off update

The massive public hostility to the government’s proposals to sell off the Forestry Commission’s land may be having an effect.  Last week, Defra announced:  “The programme of forestry sales announced in the Spending Review in October 2010 will be temporarily suspended until extra protections on access and biodiversity are put in place. Once this has happened, the sales will go ahead.”

This only applies to the 15% of the public forestry estate referred to in the Spending Review, not the ongoing consultation on the future management of the other 85% of the public forest. 

The delay is welcome, but it’s worrying that as much as 15% could be sold off before a strategic assessment of the role of public forestry.  I’m pleased Defra recognise that protection for biodiversity and access was not sufficient.

My view is that the government should work out what it wants from its public estate first, and then see whether it should be selling (or buying) land in order to achieve its aims.  We’re expecting a new Natural Environment White Paper in Spring this year  -  surely that is needed first, before selling off the forestry estate should be considered.

The Forestry Commission Consultation runs till 21 April, so you’ve still time to make your views known:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/forests/index.htm

And I suggest you send the key points of your response to your MP directly.

Planning Award for Great Fen

You’ve probably seen the exciting news on the front page of this website:

http://www.wildlifebcnp.org/whats-new-story471.htm

I think there’s an important underlying message. For the first time in 33 years, the country’s top planning award has gone to landscape restoration with the focus on wildlife rather than the built environment.  The reaction of professional planners at the awards ceremony was warm and supportive, and many congratulated us on what they see as a nationally important project.  One developer at the awards said he would be keen to be involved with the Great Fen, as it was ‘something his children could be proud of’.  Restoring nature, and enabling people to enjoy wildlife, is now mainstream. 

Winter and Spring wildlife

It’s been a good winter for northern visitors, such as waxwings, redwings and fieldfares, and there have been flocks of Whooper Swans in the new habitats of the Great Fen (if you’ve not seen the Great Fen Flickr pages -  I can recommend them!  http://www.flickr.com/groups/thegreatfen/pool/ ). In the next few weeks, these winter visitors will be leaving for their breeding areas, but our summer migrants will return from wintering in southern Africa. 

Right now, the sun is shining, the first flowers are in bloom (daffodils, chickweed, red dead-nettle and groundsel in my garden so far),  birds are carrying nesting material, and the recent warm weather has produced a flush of new fungi.  At the weekend I saw this strange species for the first time:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5443112096/in/set-72157625788812173/

Its shell-like fruiting bodies grow directly out of the mosses on which the fungus feeds.

It’s also the best time of year to see many mosses and lichens at their most colourful.  If you’re willing to get down on your hands and knees, there are some stunning shows of ‘Gritty British Soldiers’ (a red-fruited heathland lichen) at Cooper’s Hill nature reserve in Bedfordshire at the moment:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5398389221/in/set-72157625788805583/

Within a few days or weeks, the first butterflies and bumblebees will be out of hibernation and on the wing: expect the first Brimstones http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5431661115/in/set-72157625914205182/

or Tortoiseshells or Commas before the end of the month. 

So, there’s plenty to see, and it’s changing day by day. 

 

 

Friday 28th January 2011

Some background

I became Chief Executive for the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough in November 2009 after having worked here as Conservation Director from 1997. The views expressed in this blog are my own, although I do not envisage saying anything that will counter the aims and objectives of the Trust - I wouldn't be working here otherwise!

Why a weblog?

I’d like to share some of my experiences of local wildlife, and encourage visitors to the website to get out and enjoy the riches on our doorstep -  and this seems a very quick and easy way to communicate (if anyone reads it!). 

It’s a hugely important time to be involved in wildlife conservation, and I hope you may want to help, in a variety of ways.

Local wildlife: good news

One reason it’s exciting to look at local wildlife now is, it’s changing faster than at any time in 13,000 years. Not since the end of the most recent Ice Age has the changing climate enabled southern species such as

Wasp Spider http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5390923181/in/pool-bcnp/

or Hornet Hoverfly  http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5390924865/in/pool-bcnp/

to colonise our area.  I took both these pictures at Cambourne last year.  As Spring approaches, we can’t predict what the next new colonist will be.  That makes every trip into the countryside even more exciting.

There are other encouraging signs to be seen among local wildlife. One of the many kinds of wildlife I find fascinating are the lichens, many of which are very sensitive to pollution in the air.  But in the last 20 years, cleaner air has meant that dozens of lichens have recolonised our area. Wherever you find large trees on our nature reserves, look carefully and you can now find beard-lichens like this Usnea subfloridana:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cladoniophile/5391528438/in/set-72157625788805583/

Every time I go for a walk in search of lichens, I find new things.

But lichens, hoverflies and even spiders have one big advantage:  they can fly, or allow themselves to be wind-blown (as young spiderlings or lichen spores), so travel long distances swiftly across hostile countryside.  Much of wildlife is not like that  -  it needs connections in the landscape which it can move through.  That’s why the Wildlife Trusts’ vision of A Living Landscape makes such sense  -  bigger nature reserves, better managed with climate change in mind, and joined up, so future wildlife can actually get there.  We’re working to make that happen, and you can help us.

Local Wildlife: bad news?

This week’s headlines have been about the government’s consultation on plans to sell off the 285,000 hectares of  Forestry Commission land. Nationally, the Wildlife Trusts have produced a statement on the subject:   

The Wildlife Trusts urge the Government to recognise the practicalities and realities of securing the long-term protection of England’s forests for the future.  They were commenting on the consultation into the sale of publicly-owned forests, a high proportion of which have wildlife value.

The transfer of ownership of these forests away from the Forestry Commission presents a real risk to the future of our natural heritage.  Nature’s recovery is a key objective of the imminent Natural Environment White Paper – this could be a barrier to achieving that.  

The Wildlife Trusts recognise that the consultation seeks to put some safeguards in place with Sites of Special Scientific Interest.  However, the safeguards must extend to Local Wildlife Sites which represent some of our richest wildlife areas, and their importance was recognised by Making Space for Nature.  The operation of market values and commercial timescales for the disposal of high value land totally fails to recognise the extreme challenge to voluntary and community bodies as they seek to raise funds to take on such sites. 

I would go further.  I think that the publicly owned forests have generally improved immensely over the last 30 years:

- much better access for people  -   in surveys, 77% of people say they visit woods for recreation 

- better management for wildlife, replanting with native Oak and Ash rather than barren, wildlife-poor introduced conifers,

- more open habitats such as rides, glades and patches of heathland too. 

It’s vital that, whoever owns the forests in future, these great public benefits are maintained. For many people, Forestry Commission land has been a vital first experience of the countryside and wildlife.  That needs to be safeguarded.  And the value of the land for wildlife must likewise continue to improve. This could be achieved under private ownership, providing conditions are attached to any sale, and that the conditions are enforced with the new owners. I don’t think it’s realistic for local communities and charities to raise perhaps £1-200 million to buy the Forestry Commission’s estate. We need to be sure that whoever owns the land in future, public access and appropriate management for wildlife is retained

So, if you have time to take a look at the consultation, and express your own views, please go to:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/forests/index.htm

Future blogs I hope to update this blog every couple of weeks.  I’ll say something about the wildlife I’ve encountered, the nature reserves I’ve enjoyed, and the news and political issues I think are important for wildlife in the three counties.  If there are topics you think I should cover, please let me know  -  email ideas to charlotte.munson@wildlifebcnp.org