January 2010 Archives

The early signs of Spring keep being discouraged by the cold weather, but the signs are there if you look hard... very hard.
The first snowdrops are peeking out from the Palace Moat, and along the verges there is definite growth amongst the Deadnettles and even the Cow Parsley : very small growth , but visible.

I recall noting the wintering Goosanders on the river last year : well , they are back.
Saw three ducks and four drakes today : they seemed very nervous, and flew off from the water as soon as they saw me.

There is the odd tentative little burst of birdsong.
About a week ago I watched a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling frantically from
the top of a tree down by the Old Bridge , obviously calling for its mate.

The brief thaw of last week brought out one of my Hedgehogs, dumbling round my garden at noon and relishing the spilt birdfood :~




Hedgehogs seem to like my garden , probably because it's a mess. I have deliberately left a lot of cover down one side of the house , and generally pile up the leaves in the corners in autumn to encourage them.
I have also cut little Hogflaps in the bottom or the fences so they can move about as they wish.

One result seems a little sad : they come to my garden to die.
I know this sounds faintly ridiculous, but many summers I seem to have one looking a bit moribund , which just lays in the sunshine in the middle of the day.
Next time I look there is one dead hedgehog.
They are not long-lived animals, and given the terrible roadkill statistics, it's amazing we have any at all.

Query ? Isn't it about time natural selection had cured their addiction to crossing roads at the
wrong moment ?

Today, I watched a Sparrowhawk doing its low-level hunting routine across the river at Naburn.
This bird really is our most prominent predator, and all our divided gardens give it a perfect hunting environment.
The technique is to fly about three feet above the ground, then zoom over the fence or hedge and pounce on any small bird , which has no time to react. Our birdtables only make it more likely that small birds will offer themselves as dinner , and they are obviously aware of the threat, since they much prefer the feeder to be near a hedge or tree .

Since I spend my working day in a mostly glass workshop at the back of the house, I have thrice seen Sparrowhawks catch and eat small birds in my garden , and there must have been countless occasions when I was otherwise occupied and didn't notice. Starlings seem to be a favourite snack...



A few days back I had one just perched on a nearby roof, for about ten minutes.
They have a terrible yellow eye : if you get a close view, they personify the absolute heartlessness of Nature, truly observed.


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I've had relatively little to report on in the last months , and work and holidays have had to take precedence.
My apologies to regular readers.
Now the winter is upon us with a vengeance, ( there really are small ice floes on the river )  one or two things have come to my notice which it's time to catch up on.

The arctic weather , and the previous floods, make severe problems for some of the wildlife.

Birds :~

The Redwings and Fieldfares from Northern parts are around in numbers, and very bold , coming into gardens : I had one chasing a blackbird off the birdtable this morning .
A Fieldfare :~



Small birds like tits are very obvious, and in this unusually cold weather are dependent on our bounty.
The cold has produced some unlikely visitors :



The Blackcap , a SUMMER visitor , and by no means common here. Apparently the Scandinavian populations , which previously flew south to N.Africa for the winter ,are now partially wintering in Britain.
This saves them a long flight , and offers an advantage in choice of nest-sites when moving north again in spring.
They are largely insect feeders, like all the Warblers, so they must be having a thin time here at present.

And a female Reed Bunting :




Mammals :~

The floods created a problem for the Field Voles living in the grass on the Ings, in some numbers if the hunting Kestrels and Owls are any indicator. I have a report recently of large numbers of voles taking refuge on the Old Railway Embankment as the waters rose : a sort of rodent refugee crisis!

 

Another and more heartening mammal story is that Otters have been seen twice over the autumn , once at dawn under the old railway bridge , and more recently in the drain on the Ings. These were most likely youngsters seeking new territory, and I don't think it's likely they have settled, but nonetheless indicative of their national revival.

Otters are extraordinary difficult to actually see ; it's sheer luck . I have known devoted mammal watchers who have spent a lifetime waiting to see one and failed, and others who quite casually came across one.
I checked likely spots for droppings after the first sighting, but no luck.

They are established at Wheldrake Ings, which is not that far away, and also on the Derwent,
so we live in hope they might return permanently one day.



Insects :
Back in early November we had a small insect invasion ,  most noticeable on the stonework of the old church.
This, alas, is the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis,the most invasive ladybird on Earth.



This ladybird was introduced to North America in 1988, where it is now the most widespread ladybird species on the continent.
It has already invaded much of northwestern Europe, and arrived in Britain in summer 2004.
It's an East Asian species , and its introduction may be associated with the importation of plants from Asia.
Quite how it spreads is not clear, but it's a result of globalisation .
It's Bad News , since it attacks our native species.

Enviromental comment :~

 At the risk of turning this into Victor Meldrew Corner, I am going to pass comment occasionally on environmental issues in Bishopthorpe, with the excuse that they are also of relevance to wildlife.

We are Light polluters on a massive scale : if you take walks after dark ,as I do in the winter, the excessive lighting here is a matter of concern.
We long ago lost the magic of the Night Sky : the streetlights and the general glow from York and even Leeds have largely blotted out any chance of seeing the stars properly . Even the poor old Moon is outshone.

The Night is often wonderful : try it.
The most dangerous Thing you are going to meet is a dog-walker who shines a halogen torch in your eyes,in that helpful way.
But it's got much worse in the last couple of years.
In the name of "Security "( a bogus concept used to sell lighting and burglar alarms ) many properties are now fitted with retina-searing halogen lights. Some insurance companies even insist on them .

The most irritating are the domestic ones,which respond to movement and flash on even when you are on the other side of the street.They are mostly set off by cats.....
Please,if you have one ,check the sensitivity of the detector.
I'm not objecting to a small courtesy light to help find the doorkey, but what's the point of a floodlight ?
They are annoying and insulting to pedestrians , and dangerous to cyclists.

If the household ones are a nuisance, the Institutional ones are even worse...
The Sewage Farm across the river now has something like sixty-five floodlights,
making a moonlit riverside walk into a joke : one has no chance to get one's night-vision functioning before the retinas are seared by the lighting.
What are they trying to protect ? Has there been an outbreak of Turd-Rustling ?
And the Palace is now permanently floodlit : nice occasionally, but not all the time.

And our Own Dear School , and the Co-op cashpoint, are now hazards to bicycle navigation ,
creating a halogen blaze which makes it hard to see anything else after dark.
Why do they point outwards ? Downwards would be more tolerable.

I am fully aware of the problem of vandalism caused by our village youths , having been a victim myself, but searchlights are not the answer, just an expensive palliative .
The recent vandalism at the school was not deterred : QED.

The Point :
This lighting adversely affects our wildlife :
Most birds and insects are hormonally sensitive to daylength.
The reasons for garden bird decline are complex, but I would bet that lighting has something
to do with it. I can't be the only one to have my insomnia extended by blackbirds singing at one in the morning, in January, because of the streetlights.
Nocturnal animals are being driven away from the village because there is no dark for them to hide in, to say nothing of the hecatombs of insects destroyed by them in the warmer months.

And all this costs money and ridiculous amounts of energy.

Embrace the night.

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