The Blink of an Eye

 The lifespan of a human is perhaps 80-90 years and increasing with every generation. That's a lot of living for an organism. It's easy to forget that for most species life is much shorter and much harder. There is a rough rule of thumb that the larger the organism the longer the lifespan the graphic below illustrates this quite neatly.

There are complex ecological reasons for this involving life history strategies and energy flow but in essence, species generally exhibit one of two life strategies. Complex large animals have longer lives than smaller less complex ones. These strategies reflect two extreme modes of reproduction and survivability and can explain why and how different species behave the way that they do.

The two strategies are r and K. r/K selection was developed in the 1960s as part of MacArthur and Wilson's famous theories on Island Biogeography. The theory dictates that species have either an r or a K reproductive strategy. r-strategists are related to the rate of production of a species and so these species produce large numbers of offspring, have short lifespans, and have a low probability of survival. 

K-strategists are dictated by the carrying capacity of an ecosystem, these species have fewer young and live longer. Offspring develop slower and they tend to have higher greater parental care and therefore greater chance of survival.

All this information is pertinent at this time of year as the country erupts in a reproductive fever. Everywhere organisms are mating and having young and it is in this month that one of the organisms that typifies r-selection is abundant.

May is the time in which Mayflies emerge from our rivers in great clouds of dancing pixies. On some rivers, this display of flying mayflies is awe-inspiring but on my patch, it is somewhat subdued. It is still fascinating and this year has been particularly good. There are in fact 51 species of mayfly in the UK and they play an important role in the ecology of a river. They provide food for fish of many species as well as birds given the huge mouthfuls I saw the local Great Spotted Woodpecker taking into its nest.

On my stretch, I managed to identify two species, the Common, or Green Drake Mayfly (Ephemera danica) pictured below and Drake Mackerel Mayfly (Ephemera vulgata). These mayflies have hindwings and three tails. These species may be simple but they are an ancient species, mayflies were around before the dinosaurs, and they are a very successful species.

Most mayflies live but a few hours some as much as a day. I say mayflies, what I actually mean are the adult forms. They emerge from the water in mid-may as dull-winged insects, they then fly into undergrowth and moult again into a much brighter mating form.

The males dance above the water with females darting into the cloud to select a mate where they mate on the wing before the female descends to the water below. She will lay her eggs in the water and then exhausted collapse.

We tend to pity the mayfly's short lifespan but that is only the adult form. The eggs hatch into larvae which will spend up to two years developing on the river bed feeding on algae and vegetation. So feel a little less sorry for the mayfly, yes their appearance to us is fleeting but they in fact have a reasonable life out of sight. The paternal sacrifice of the adults feeds the bellies of fish and birds in a complexly balanced ecosystem. 

And to be philosophical for a moment a two-year lifespan may seem like a blink of an eye to us but this species has lived on earth for perhaps 300 million years whilst Homo sapiens has existed a mere 300,000 years, now who lives in a blink of an eye.

Video Catch Up

 Spring and summer are always a busy time and this year has been no different. With Otter Cam now added to my main camera processing time has increased. A weeks data can include between 200-300 video clips and images. Video clips are each 10 seconds long but that can still take awhile to process and identify the individuals shown.

This has meant that some interesting footage has been recorded but not yet put up and so this post is an attempt rectify that.

First up is a late Spring Video blog to updated the winter one I made,

Next is an update on the youngsters on the site. I had believed the Foxes had not bred this year. The dominant male, Half-tail hasn't been seen since the winter and even then looked very old and haggard. A younger slimmer Fox was seen on the site who I assumed was the offspring from last year, however to my delight a single cub has been sighted on my main camera and I suspect they are using a den site nearby, but with both my spare Bushnell trail cams out of action from water damage I can't check that.

Another of this years treats was the increased number of sightings of Roe Deer. The small herd is perhaps 4-5 strong when the dominant Buck is counted. I noted earlier in the season that one of the does was looking very pregnant and I was looking forward to seeing the fawn. Then nothing, she disappeared for several weeks and I assumed that she had had the fawn and was looking after it out in the scrubby grassland. This week however mum returned to Otter cam and I got some lovely footage of the fawn, all full of life and some nice touches between mother and child. The footage shows the fawn with still some juvenile marking, the white spots are just visible and I suspect it is about a 3-4 weeks old at this point.

Whilst otter numbers are not the same as they were last year the smaller individual is still visiting at least once a week and marking the territory, last week I caught some interesting interactions with the Otter chasing a Muntjac, it is unusual behaviour. Neither is an intrinsic threat to the other but the otter definitely wasn't comfortable with the small deer's presence

To finish up lets look at the Badgers, they have been remarkable absent from my main camera, I think their main passage route has changed and so they don't pass the camera as much as they used to. Even so I have caught the glimpse of a small individual who is probably one of this years Cubs. On Otter Cam however one of the Sows sauntered down and spent a good fifteen minutes cleaning herself and delousing. I love how they sit on their backs and scratch their bellies.

To Bee or not to Bee

Forgive the terrible pun but I thought it apt to title a blog post about bees with a quote from the counties birthday boy - Shakepeare.

A few months ago I attended the Warwickshire Recorders Meeting Conference, the first one I have managed to go to. It was a revelation, a great group of people and fascinating talks. One of the talks was by Steven Falk who presented his latest book - the Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland. Now I have to report a vested interest at this stage in that I know Steven. He worked for many years as the Keeper of Natural History at Warwickshire Museums Service. I met him several times and he even reviewed a copy of my first book.

Steven is a consummate ecologist, his passion for the subject is apparent the minute you are in his presence, he has written widely on wildflowers and trees but he is a magnificent entomologist. His book, illustrated by the equally talented Richard Lewington, is a masterpiece bridging the gap between the novices ID guide and a professional scientific key.

In his talk Steven regaled us with some of the stories he gathered during his time researching and writing the book. I attempted to buy a copy of the book but was somewhat deficient in the wallet department instead I ordered the book from Bloomsbury and waited the few days for it to arrive,

The book is beautifully presented with superb illustrations and descriptive text, opening up an entirely new world to me.

Since its arrival I have been dying to give it a whirl, today I managed to put aside some time and the weather was good enough for me to go on a bee hunt.

I started in the garden at the comfrey plants. Comfrey always attract bees and I did not have to wait long before a Bumblebee appeared and started flitting from flower to flower. I decide my best bet for identification was to obtain a photo of each species as I encountered them. This however was a lot harder than you might imagine. Bees move quickly and sometimes erratically and unless the flower is open then they have a tendency to disappear from view. 

The first Bee I identified with the book was this one:

This species I identified as Bombus hortorum, fittingly the Garden Bumblebee.

Also frequenting the Comfrey was a second species that proved a bit more difficult to ID,

After a little searching I was able to identify this Bee as Bombus pratorum, the Early Bumblebee. The most fascinating thing about this bee was the enormous pollen baskets on its legs.

On the brick wall of the conservatory there is a small hole into which a screw once held a trellis. As I passed I noticed another bee taking an interest, this I new had to be a mason bee and is this helped get me to the right place in the book revealing it to be Osmia bicornis, the Red Mason Bee.

These are an innocuous but pretty looking bees that are solitary and nest in small holes in bricks.

Venturing further afield I went down to the canal, ostensibly to check to see if the swans had hatched yet, they hadn't, but I also new several bees frequented the ivy that lined the towpath. Sadly there were none present at all, but on the way home I spotted a number of bees hovering beside a wall and entering cracks at its base. A first glance might make you think they were wasps but they are in fact Bees.

This species presented me with considerable difficulty, the more I looked the more confused I got and the more they looked the same. The book gave me a great starting place, they were obviously of the genus Nomada but getting closer than that was starting to prove difficult, but yet again Steven was able to help included alongside his book he has a vast flickr site with hundred and hundreds of photos, Stevens Flickr Page this helped me to narrow it down to Nomada marshmella, Marsham's Nomad Bee. This took some time due to the arrangement of the stripes on the abdomen and which ones met in the middle and which did not. The picture however nicely picks out the three ocelli on the top of the head, these are simple eyes, nothing more than basic photoreceptors useful for detecting movement.

So what can I say in conclusion? The book is well worth a purchase you will be amazed by the diversity of bees in the country although patience is most definitely required to first get closer enough to see or photo the bee and then work through the keys and pictures to a conclusion. If you love beautiful books, finding out more about nature or love bees then this is the book for you.

If you want to purchase your own copy you can from good bookstores and Amazon

Butterflies and Mumruffins

We have been blessed with two successive Sunday's of glorious weather spread between two weeks of typical April weather with showers and sunshine. Such weather has encouraged the wildlife and down on my patch things are moving on a pace.

Whilst it is still not warm enough yet for most butterflies Brimstone's and Tortoiseshells are on the wing. The Brimstone's are large, obvious butterflies being one of the only yellow butterflies found in this part of the world but never seem to settle. Over the years I have built up a catalogue of images of the different species, but the Brimstone continues to elude me, and I fear my chance for this year has passed me by. Last weekend I chased one along the entire length of my patch. It never once alighted on a perch, the power of its flight remarkable and more direct than many. It remains a challenge for future years, its always good to have the one that got away still out there.

Elsewhere on my patch the celandines are starting to ebb, their vibrant yellow star like flowers that track the sun are now tattered and subdued their leaves already becoming overshadowed by the emergent nettles. For the past few months have my patch has been flooded by the river although most of this has been under only a few centimetres nevertheless under these damp conditions the Epilobium is starting to rise and the buttercup and forget-me-not are filling out ready for a summer show.

As for the birds there has been a marked change none more so than in the arrival of the Chiffchaff's. Their sing-song call now reverberates across my patch as several individuals. Last week one particular individual spent quite awhile foraging among the willows near the feeding station. For a bird that is so melodious its is a surprisingly drab little olive brown bird that is until you see it up close and can see the eye stripe (supercilium) and subtle colourations.

A bird with a bright supercilium that you may not be aware of is the Wren, it maybe that they are so secretive that you don't manage to see them up close but when you have a chance you can see a definite eye stripe and the delicate checkerboard along its wings. I caught this Wren after it had been singing its territorial call and came down to the rivers edge to drink and forage.

Today the Buzzards were prevalent, up to three circling up and around tussling and avoiding the mobbing crows who seemed to give them very little peace until they were able to climb up the thermals to the very heights mewing all the way.

Lastly were the Mumruffans, an old term for a Long-tailed Tit, their behaviour has changed profoundly over the past few weeks, generally these diminutive birds travel in family groups. Over the winter I was recording groups as large as 12 as parents and last years young band together to join the tit flocks and forage together in safety. In the last few weeks these flocks diminished and each of them has formed pairs. They bobbed about the brambles and thickets exploring for nest sites. Excitingly today I identified a nest site. They build tiny delicate nests with moss, grass and spider webs. This nest is lodged in a willow bough on the bankside.

This discovery is one to watch over the next few weeks and I hope I will be able to make some notes on the food being brought in and its regularity.

Bald as a Coot

I have recently upgraded my canon camera to the latest model and today was the first time I have had chance to put it to the test.

I decided to pay a quick visit to the local park to check on the Swans as I am certain they would have nested by now. On arrival I found a number of odd things.

Firstly there seemed to be two Swans sitting on nests. One was in plain site in a poor location beside the cycle path and another was on a more discreet nest set between the pool and the river. In the past few weeks I had only seen one pair of Swans. The two nests are fairly close together so it is possible they are of two different pairs or it is possible that the pair I recorded built several nests and the male is just resting/roosting on one of the nests. This is borne out bu the fact that no other swans, the 'males' were observed.

Having recorded the swans I took a circular walk around the pool and found another unused swans nest and a dead coot. There did not seem to be a mark on the bird and it was fresh, perhaps only a few hours old. It is possible he was a casualty of one of their violent clashes between rival birds.

I also stumbled upon a Coots nest and was surprised to find that they already had chicks. Coot chicks or Cootlings as I like to call them are balls of black full with ugly red and black heads with flecks of orangey red feathers. The red often confuses people into thinking they are Moorhen chicks. They two are black but have a more 'cute' appearance.

The green shoots of recovery.

Given that yesterday my usual patch visit day was horribly wet it was lucky that today on my day off that the sun was shining and I was able to get out and down to the Mill. Whilst the sun was out there was still a brisk cold wind blowing.

Wind in my experience is a major issue for bird watching. When it is windy there is a definite reduction in the number of birds sighted. This I think is due to the fact that flying in wind is hard work and birds dislike hard work that expends energy unnecessarily. Instead of flitting about the meadow or along the riverbank they choose to head to the heart of the woods where there is greater shelter, sadly this area is inaccessible to me. Additionally the sound of the wind causes problems in terms of finding the wildlife. It may sound odd but probably 50% of my wildlife watching is based on hearing with the other 50% being seeing.

Obviously bird calls and songs alert people to their presence but there are more subtle sounds that alert me to their presence. Often I can identify the presence of blackbirds by the sound of turning leaves, the clap of a woodpigeon wing beak or the presence of voles by the rustle in the undergrowth. If you listen carefully you can even pick up the high pitch squeaks of shrews. Light wind is okay and once you know what you’re listening for you can quickly distinguish between the random noise of windblown vegetation and the rhythmic motion of something moving, strong winds on the other hand destroy this affect and the subtle movements are lost in the swirling of leaves and nodding of boughs.

As it turns out despite the wind the visit was very productive. In the space of the hour I was walking I identified 25 species by sight and song. Below is a picture of my field notebook as I thought I would explain my routine.

I follow the same route every week and on average it takes me about an hour although in the summer when there are butterflies and dragonflies to count it often takes longer. I make notes on numbers observed taking care not to double count where possible. I use my own hybrid recording code some of which will be obvious to you. This sometimes causes problems in my role a British Trust for Ornithology surveyor. The BTO have a coding system but my own system was developed as a teenager before I had even heard of the BTO and its proving hard to change to the accepted system.

Highlights this week include the sighting yet again of the snipe. I always flush this bird before seeing it and doubt I will ever do anything different. They are so small and cryptic and the vegetation so dense that it will take a miracle for me to spot it before it spots me. This is a shame as I would love a photo of this timid, dainty bird a species which in Warwickshire no longer breeds.

The Chiffchaffs are well and truly back. I have observed individuals over the past few weeks but today there were at least three singing their characteristic name sake calls, elsewhere love is starting to blossom.

The absence of female Mallards on the river indicates to me that they are probably secreted away in the undergrowth on nests. A pair of Kestrels was seen hunting over the site and the eerie warbling ululating sound they sometimes make indicated some form of interaction between them.  Higher up in the skies the resident pair of Buzzards were making use of some thermals to soar above the fields fast disappearing from view. Skylarks could be heard calling from the field and I saw the first Kingfisher in weeks. It was incredibly fast and seemed to be carrying a fish as it flashed past. This is excellent news. Kingfishers can be early nesters but I suspect the fish being carried was a present to woo a female.

Across the meadow the green vegetation is starting to emerge from the brown dead stalks of the willowherb and nettles and I hope that this year will be a bumper year for the grass loving species of butterfly such as the Skippers and Ringlets as the winter cut has substantially reduced the nettle cover, conversely of course this will probably result in a fall in Tortoiseshell numbers.

Spring has Sprung

In the past 7-8 days spring really seems to be upon us. Last week I commented on my swan surveys and how they seemed to be forming pairs well this week other signs of spring have become evident.

Last saturday I saw my first Bumblebee of the year and few days later the first butterfly, it was a fleeting glimpse and so I couldn't get an accurate ID. Its underwings were very black and I suspect it was a Small Tortoiseshell that had emerged from hibernation.

On Sunday I was accompanied to my patch by a very important guest, my 3 year old niece and my sister. My niece was nearly as well prepared as me. She brandished a small net in one hand and a pair of binoculars in the other, binoculars I must add that she spent most of the time using to look at the ground. It was she who found the first flowering Celandine of the season.

During the week the school pond had been visited by an amorous pair of frogs and much to the delight of the students had laid a mass of frogspawn in the newly enlarged and deepened pond.
Frogspawn is one of the quintessential signs of spring and this year the BBC Wildlife is supporting the Big Spawn Count run by the Freshwater Habitats Trust. You can get involved by keeping an eye out for frogspawn and recording them at: http://www.freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/projects/big-spawn-count/ This sorts of citizen science project rely on your help and provide valuable information to researchers. Another good phenology site is the one provided by the Woodland Trust at: http://www.naturescalendar.org.uk/

Lastly to bring my spring sightings to a close today whilst on my patch I watched as the Jackdaws took up position in the Old Hollow Alder Nesting tree they have used for years and the basal rosettes of Comfrey just beginning to emerge and the arrival of a Chiffchaff and Skylark.

Jackdaw Nest Tree

First Marsh Marigolds in Flower

Comfrey starting to come up