Local life & Little Histories

Hedgehog Street

Meet Dan our resident blind hedgehog. Dan is just one of the many injured, sick and distressed hedgehogs we have come into us at Willows Hedgehog rescue.

I don't normally write about our work with hedgehogs here on the site but rather in the Willows Hedgehog Rescue area of the site (click on the logo at the top of the front page or click here Willows Hedgehog Rescue). However today I am breaking this rule as this week sees the start of Hedgehog Street a joint initiative between the Peoples Trust for Endangered Species and The Hedgehog Preservation Society.

So what is Hedgehog Street all about?

Well we have over the last 25 years seen a massive decline in the number of hedgehogs in the UK.

Why..... well how long is a piece of string.... loss of habitat from development and changes in farming practices, reduction in natural food sources (I certainly have less insects on my windscreen these days). But one of the major factors is now that gardens are too tidy and also they tend to be fenced off far too well.

Hedgehogs with the loss of hedgerows and woodland edge habitat moved into the urban setting adapting to life in our gardens. The problem now is that many gardens are not that wildlife friendly and that even if they are they may well have impenetrable fences around them.

Hedgehog Street is all about getting neighbours to link their gardens by making small gaps in fences and by making them hog and wildlife friendly by leaving wild areas, long grass, log piles etc,

Simple things you can do:

• leave some areas to go wild, (long grass, wild flowers)
• have a log pile
• plant some shrubs
• have a hedge rather than a fence
• have a compost heap
• leave some of those fallen leaves in a pile to rot down
• make a hole in the fence to let them get between gardens
• don't use pesticides
• don't use slug pellets

Other things you could do to help them along:

• leave water out
• leave some food out (dry cat or dog biscuits, peanut nibs, sunflower hearts)
• have a hog home int he garden

 

Don't tell me that you can look into Dans face and not take a few minutes to make your garden suitable for his friends.....

You can find out more about Hedgehog Street here ... Hedgehog Street

If you are in the area we will be at Webbs of Wychbold in Wychbold this Sunday (see press release here ... Spiky Topic) talking about what we do at Willows Hedgehog Rescue and about how you can help our only spiky mammal in the UK.

Check out the Willows Hedgehog Rescue page for more dates when we are out and about in Worcestershire

Heron - the lakeside sentinel

Most mornings I try before the work day starts on the country park to take a walk around a couple of the pools camera in hand just in case something should catch my eye.

This morning while walking around Willows pool the electric blue of a kingfisher flashed by to alight on an overhanging branch of a willow on the opposite side of the pool, far too far to even contemplate a photograph.

However as trusty as ever the heron was there. The heron is there pretty much every morning, normally at this time of day before the people arrive out in view and on the nearest bank. Herons always seem to be there by pools and lake sides, like prehistoric sentinels watching over the water. Somehow everything seems to be right just by their presence.

The ordinary out of the blue

 

 

 

Sometimes it's the ordinary that catches your eye not the rare or exotic.

Dark Green Fritillary and Marbled White at Combrook

Motorways nowadays depress me, I can't wait to get off them. It's the relentless straightness of them and the blur of the countryside either side that you are missing out on that makes me want to be off and away from the six lanes of traffic as soon as possible. Today after what seemed an interminable (although in reality short) drive on the motorway we turned off down minor roads until finally we pulled down a rough track for about a mile bumping purposefully around sending dust and clouds of butterflies into the air. Pulling into the farm yard we parked along side one of those large open sided farm buildings with the curved corrugated roofs that seem to have been there for ever and on stepping out of the car we stepped back in time. The farm house and its small congregation of out buildings nestled into the surrounding countryside, rambling and a little ramshackle but perfect. However the true joy of the place was still to come. After a short walk along a heavily overgrown and now disused railway line, the long embankment a testimony to another past time we emerged from the closeted shade of once track-side trees into farmland vibrant with Linseed crop stretching into the distance and from there we found ourselves in the meadows beyond.

The camera could in no way capture the meadow. Even some of the older members of the group stood there in awe at the number of butterflies flitting, darting and whirling around the vegetation. The air was thick with Ringlet, Large skipper, Marbled White, Meadow Brown and Dark Green Fritillary. In one patch the vegetation was a seething purposeful mass of bees every flower head having its own dangling bee. Just on the edge of hearing I caught the comment on a gentle gust of wind, 'this is was it was like when I was a lad'.

That was one of the older members of the group being taken back to scenes of childhood, not through 'rose coloured spectacles' but rather in memory of a countryside richer in fauna and flora. I am of the generation when we had already caused a lot of the declines in our countryside, in fact DDT was a common place word in my childhood. I think it was at the time when it's effects were first being questioned in the mid sixties and leading to it finally being banned in the early seventies. However, this small corner of Warwickshire felt like it had stood still in time, it was stunning - heaving with life, a time bubble, somewhere where you wanted to be.

Burnet Moths attention grabbing in their red and black crowded flower heads in their twos and threes per spike, Ringlets tumbled and we counted over two hundred Dark Green Fritillary the striking orange patterned upper wings everywhere you looked in groups of three, four, five - in the air, on thistle heads and knapweed. Everywhere the striking black and white patterns of Marbled White, the occasional orange glimpse of a Large Skipper on the edge of vision. All around the clockwork whirr of Grasshoppers, every step sending clouds of butterflies up into the air and every step forcing a stop to just look around at the display above and in the meadow.

It was pretty much perfect; sun, a beautiful secluded spot out of times forgotten, more wildlife than you could throw a thousand sticks at let alone one.... but..... There is always a but isn't there. Well this 'but' was a minor one, but like an itch that you can't just reach it was a rather irritating one. The day was quite windy out there, the Met office had predicted gusts up to 27 mph which meant that photographing anything small hanging onto a flower stalk or head was an issue. Find a butterfly posing there on a flower head, well that wasn't a problem, take your pick. Sneaking up on it close enough to bring the camera up to your eye without it flitting off, trickier, unless it was a Burnet. Finding that one second interval when the flower head wasn't swaying backwards and forwards like a pub sign on a stormy night in a black and white Hammer House of Horror film... well, worse odds than winning the lottery.

I did manage to grab a few of shots, most of them out of focus. A blur of butterfly on swaying flower head, a blurred flower head with the tail end of something leaving the shot.... but of those a couple proved to have captured those rare moments of calm. The Marbled White above and what turned out to be a rather tatty Dark Green Fritillary below.

It''s strange, I sat there for so long looking at this butterfly before managing to get the shot, yet it wasn't until I looked at the photographs that I saw how tattered it was.

All too soon the field trip came to an end and so we left Combrook retracing our steps along the ghost of the railway line glad to have seen the life in the meadows and glad to know that little oasis of wildlife like this exist tucked away in the countryside - now if only it was all like that and if only the wind had an on off switch.

They say that you can have too much of a good thing, well I could happily fill both my boots with good things like this, a feast for the senses and food for the soul. The farmhouse and it's land are going up for sale and I hope that whoever is lucky enough to own it next will appreciate what they have around them.

White-letter Hairstreak and other butterflies at Upton Warren

Sometimes weeks just don't go to plan. The field outing to see Silver-studded Blue butterfly didn't come off for me, the other half managed to make the trip and kindly rang me while she was there to tell me that she was surrounded by a couple of hundred of them and that a jolly good day was being had by all. I'm not exactly sure that I can remember what it was that I mumbled under my breath but it probably isn't family viewing, although what I actually said was 'oh excellent, fantastic'.

On Monday evening I read in the Upton Warren hide log an entry from Gordon with regards to White-letter Hairstreak being seen on the reserve. Tuesday as it turned out was the day that really didn't go to plan and there was no chance to pop over to Upton to try and spot them. As it transpired three family members ended up in hospital with a long day hanging around hospital wards and nearly midnight by the time we got back. Today (both of us with a day off waiting for news) to try and make a distraction I suggested a trip today to Upton Warren to try to see the Hairstreak. As it was we weren't the only people that had decided to make a trip to see the White-letter Hairstreak and we were greeted by a few birders and a scope on the path where the butterflies had been reported. Thank goodness they were there, in my eagerness for a distraction I had neglected to find out anything about this species and would not have been looking up in the canopy if it hadn't been for the help and enthusiasm of the guys on the reserve. With the help of the guys and the spotting scope we were lucky with some decent views through a scope of the butterflies at rest in the canopy and then two that descended onto thistle heads a few feet away, although only for a few short moments.

Hardly any time was spent in the hide and instead we took a slow stroll around the path with a couple of snaps being taken by me. Firstly a pair of mating Ringlet butterflies that kindly allowed me to intrude into their ritual (OK they were totally oblivious probably with more important things on their minds at the time).

As every time I approach a Ringlet they flutter off out of reach of the camera I was quite please to have the opportunity for this snap, and just to show that they really wasn't distracted by me they also allowed the following shot.

The reserve really was alive today with dragonflies and butterflies. Every step saw a Brown Hawker whizz by, a Broad-bodied Chaser here and there, damselflies chasing over the water and resting on the flora. Comma butterflies colourfully flitting over the nettles (almost always just that little bit out of reach of the camera), Ringlet and Speckled Wood on the paths and path side vegetation, the occasional Small Tortoiseshell and Green-veined White.

In fact there was so much else to look at that thoughts of any of our feathered friends that might be around didn't even enter into my mind and to be honest the hides were so hot that sitting in them was not a pleasure. Goodness knows how anyone sits in the concrete hide in the heat, to me it just brings images of Steve Mcqueen pitching a baseball against the wall in The Great Escape! Anyway, on the single very quick visit to the hide the most interesting thing from a quick scan was a pair of Bullfinch coming to the feeders, so it was back out into the sunshine.

The final quick snaps of the day were of a Comma and a Large Skipper.

 

 

And that was that, but I do have to say a big thank you to the guys at the end of the path with the scope set up on the tree canopy because without their kind help and interest we would not have seen the Hairstreak at all. I guess that thanks also goes for others as well as we met a couple of chaps that had been visiting at this time of year for the last five years to try to glimpse the White-letter Hairstreak without any avail but today they were in luck.

Black Tailed Godwit and Dragonflies at Upton Warren

My solely birding time has for the last year and a half been drastically reduced. It is interesting - make a change of career to work in the area of conservation and while my time spent outside has gone up drastically the time spent on previous pursuits has dwindled.

Of course it makes sense when you are spending time learning to manage woodland (coppicing, felling etc) and learning crafts such as hedge laying as well the installation of gates, styles, different fence types, revetments, pathways etc as well as broadening id skills in Lepidoptera, flora and other areas. And then of course there is the typical day in the life of a ranger which doesn't really include much time to watch the wildlife that is around but is rather a day filled with phone calls, litter picking, visitor questions, checking site fittings, stocking the shop and mopping out the loos. The walks and wildlife watching events and school groups make up only a small part when you can actually get out there and the surveys even less time out there. Even so I wouldn't want to swap back to a life in a shirt and collar in the corporate world.

However the trips to Upton Warren on the evenings have slowly been increasing and today for the first time in a long time I actually made it to the reserve in the morning. The reward for making some 'day time' time to bird was that there were five Black Tailed Godwit on the Moors, not close enough for a close photograph but as all of my photographs this year have been of anything but birds even a distance shot is an improvement.

(three of the five Black-tailed godwit on the moors)

Birds aside, the reserve was alive today with damsel, dragonfly and butterflies and the day was far too nice to spend too much time in the confines of the hides, even though the respite of the shade was welcome at times. So a good portion of what turned out to be three hours there was spent walking around the Moors spotting Lepidoptera (another side effect of the career change as well I think in that I can't stay still inside a hide for ages, I need to be out there moving around. Being inside a hide feels like watching the world from a box - too removed from 'out there'). So out there it was in the glorious sunshine with eyes flitting up and down trying to catch the best of both birds and insects. Since getting more into the butterfly's and moths I sometimes think my head will fall off trying to look up for birds and down at the same time to see what is flitting around the undergrowth as well as in the air and tree tops.

Comma, Ringlet, Speckled Wood and Tortoiseshell Butterflies were in abundance along the pathways around the reserve, however today it was the better halves day to be photographing the butterflies and I only snapped one solitary shot of a damselfly from a distance.

The one other thing that sadly seems to be in abundance these days on the reserve is dog mess, which does seem to have become more prevalent since the trust started to promote Upton Warren more as one of it's selected premier reserves with more signage to the reserve and I guess more promotional material. What is a lovely place is becoming more and more spoilt by having to watch your step as you walk around unless you want your boots smelling of less than roses. It seems that the signage on the entrances informing the public of the SSSI status of the site and the no dog policy is having little effect, something that does need to be looked at. The trust now are heavily promoting and checking on the rule that to access the site you must be a member of the trust or pay a day permit fee. Well I can guess that the dog walkers are probably neither so a little more targeting needs to be done on this front as why pay a day fee to step in dog mess left behind from someone who is obviously not using the site as it is intended.

Anyway little grumble over from what otherwise was a pleasant visit to my home patch and tomorrow it is off to another part of the country chasing the Silver-studded blue butterfly before returning to complete an essay on the defence techniques of lepidoptera. After that it's sitting down to start a proposal for a management plan for an upland heathland restoration project, which will get me out there on the heathland undertaking field surveys.

Finally a quick long distance (again) snap of a Large skipper.

Comma Butterflies and Ringlet at Chaddesley Wood

This week has been somewhat of a moth and butterfly week starting with a visit to Charlecote in Warwickshire with David Brown the Warwickshire recorder with Ringlet, Brimstone, Large Skipper, Meadow Brown, Cinnabar Moth, Speckled Wood, Chimney Sweeper and Marbled White being recorded. The highlight of the field trip for me though was a House Martin nest in the eaves of a low barn alongside the route we were taking. I had watched the House Martin flying to and from the barn while walking back along the pathway and couldn't resist a little peak inside to be greeted by three young hanging over the side of the mud nest.

After the field trip we went off to inspect the result of moth trapping over the previous night which allowed for a couple of snaps of Elephant Hawk Moth which proved to be so docile that one I am sure would have happily stayed in my hand for the drive home.

A quick visit to Upton Warren on Wednesday evening to see if I could actually manage to coincide my visits to the time when the Hobby are hawking turned out to be totally the opposite. I didn't manage to be there at the same time as the Hobby but we did meet up with a gentleman setting up three moth traps and after a quick trip home for some provisions for a more prolonged stay ended up being there until nearly 2am with quite a long list of moths being compiled. The temptation was to stay longer but with daylight and work looming and with a bat walk to help lead on the next evening common sense had to prevail, although by the end of the bat walk the following evening I was quite happy to not partake in any more late night / early mornings for the rest of the week.

Friday daytime during a break allowed the chance to sit on a log in the wood yard at the Lickey Hills watching a mixed flock of some 50 birds with around 30 Long Tailed Tits and the rest made up of Coal and Blue Tits. Long Tailed Tits always make me smile with their 'Billy Bunter' appearance and chases through the trees. Friday evening brought some good views of a juvenile Water Rail at Upton Warren and some nice long views of Sedge Warblers, but still no Hobby even though they had been seen earlier in the evening.

With the weekend finally arriving we decided to take a walk in Chaddesley Wood with an eye out from Butterflies and Birds and we were treated with large numbers of Speckled Wood, Ringlet and Comma Butterflies.

On this visit I had decided to take the larger camera gear as well as the small compact and as the likelihood of a Comma Butterfly letting you get close enough to take a snap with a compact was nil it proved to be a good decision. However my hat seemed to be more of a lure than anything with this Comma as it seemed to take a liking to my Tilly and spent a lot of time landing on my head rather than somewhere that I might have a chance of getting a photograph. However once that hat was removed (something I wasn't over joyed about with the sun beating down) it finally behaved by landing on foliage at last.

The Tree creeper (the real reason for taking the larger camera as mentioned on a previous entry) however didn't behave. They were around and they were going up the trees close enough for good views but not quite close enough for even a reasonably long lens to get anything worth keeping, they also stayed within the shade of the deeper wooded areas which didn't please the camera. So another entry solely with photographs of butterflies - and a couple of moths from the garden.

 

Scalloped Hazel Moth (above) Cinnabar Moth (below)

Broad-bodied Chasers at Chaddesley Wood

A quick nip around the corner to Chaddesley Woods today brought the opportunity to snap a couple of shots of Broad-bodied Chasers Libellula depressa perching at the edges of the pond.

The Broad-bodied Chaser is a hefty bit of natures flying machinery when you get up close with them and you can't help but marvel at the designs nature comes up with.

The Broad-bodied Chaser which is a medium-sized dragonfly can be identified from characteristic dark patches at the base of all four wings, a broad, flat abdomen which is yellowish-brown in females and immature males, and powdery blue in mature males (as above). There are also yellow spots along the sides of the abdomen, as well as pale stripes on top of the thorax

The favoured habitat is for shallow ponds open to the sun with a good mixture of surrounding short grassland, long grass and scrub to provide shelter. The males are very territorial and perch on vegetation at the ponds edge on the look out for females and will dart out to confront other males.

The British Dragonfly Society has seen a drop in recorded sightings of Broad-bodied Chasers and they are encouraging anyone who sees one to let them know as they need to ascertain if the drop in records is from less people reporting to them or a drop in their numbers.

On commencing the walk I had thought to myself that I would like to see some or at least one Treecreeper while ambling around. Normally when you think 'oh I would like to see so and so' that pretty much puts the kibosh on any chances you may have. But an hour into the visit the eagle eyed other half stopped me to say, 'what are those two birds just there creeping up that tree'. After lifting the bins up to have a look, my reply was, 'well the clue is in your description'. And there they were two Treecreeper and after edging forward only some 15 foot away at head height climbing and dropping back down the tree trunk. Having only the pocket sized compact camera on me which is great for views and even the close up photographs of insects (in fact they amaze me in how good they are at semi macro shots) there was no chance of a half decent shot of the Treecreeper. so I had to settle for watching them for 15 minutes or so.

It always happens, when you don't heft the big camera and it's even bigger lenses around an opportunity will arrive for a nice photo opportunity, when you do nothing presents itself and you curse the fact that you have to lug the lumps of metal and glass around distracting from your 'nice walk'. I'm probably going to sound like I'm getting old (and I probably am) but I hate the weight of the camera bag these days and it's bashing onto your back all the time. Next time however I may ignore my urge to not have to carry anything apart from myself and opt to hump the camera bag around but we all know exactly what will happen then.....

 

 

Bishops Itchington - Small Blue Butterfly

A gloriously sunny day saw us at Bishops Itchington in Warwickshire at the site of a former Limestone quarry working. The area now being conserved as a community green-space and nature reserve has as a result of it's former life become a Calcareous grassland and supports flora such as the Kidney vetch which is what makes it the ideal place to find the Small Blue Cupido minimus.

The Small Blue is Britain's smallest resident butterfly and because of its diminutive size and it's habitat choice is often overlooked. As a result of it's choice of Kidney Vetch as it's sole food plant (The larvae live only in the flower heads where they feed on developing anthers and seed )and the habitat required it is a rare and declining butterfly in Britain and as such carries a high conservation status.

However when you have the Warwickshire county moth recorder with you you can pretty much be sure he knows where and when to go to 'guarantee' seeing them. We were not disappointed, and although we only saw two of them during the visit it was within the first ten minutes that we had or first sighting. However you soon realise how easy they are to miss when they are down amongst the vegetation due to their small size and very pale colour when they are at rest with wings closed as pictured below. In flight they live up to their name with a blue dusting on their upper wings which unfortunately I couldn't get a photograph of.

The two were the only ones we saw on the day and other Lepidoptera started to catch our eye with Brimstone, Green-veined white, Orange tip, Holly blue, Small Heath, Treble bar moth and Green carpet moth, Dingy skipper, Grizzled skipper and Mother shipton being seen. Mother Shipton (pictured below) getting it's name from the very distinctive crooked nosed witch shaped markings on its upper wings, the name Mother Shipton alluding to the famous 17th Century witch. Green hairstreak was the other target species for the day along with Small blue, however unlike the latter the Green hairstreak totally eluded us.

The only other species to stay still enough for long enough on the day to snap a photograph was a Dingy skipper and this time in a place that was more accessible to get to try and photograph.

A planned trip to Shropshire later in the week didn't quite turn out as planned with the M5 suffering from some serious issues which meant turning the car around and heading back for a quick visit to Chaddersley Woods on what was an extremely warm day.

Half term and sunny days have brought everyone out onto the country park and with it the heathland fires quite often caused deliberately or by illegal cooking on the hills which has the consequence that the staff have to attend the fire with the bowser to dowse what are potentially very dangerous situations. The other side of lots of public is the human condition that it seems to have to leave a trail of detritus everywhere it goes. How people sit there amongst the discarded carrier bags, drinks cans, food wrappings and used nappies, yes you read that right, used nappies is way beyond me. Litter picking is a fruitless and thankless task as within a couple of hours it looks like you haven't litter picked in the first place. I bet people even say  'isn't it lovely here on the hills and under the trees' as they sit amongst the trash and then add their own small or sometimes not so small contribution. However this isn't every minute of the day, just more than you would ideally want and I did get out with another ranger to carry out some flora surveys on another gloriously sunny day with nothing but peace and quiet a bottle of water and a wild flower key. There weren't any Small blue unsuprisingly but there were plenty of Common blue to keep me company (photo to right).

Bluebells at Chaddesley Wood

An early morning excursion to Chaddesley Wood today gave possibly the most abundant carpet of Bluebells that I have seen this year.

The morning after a rather grey start turned out sunny and bright and walking down the ride from the entrance the feeling of summer rather than spring was in the air with bright warm sunshine puring down onto the ride. Butterfly spotting was on the agenda but with the sunny skies photo opportunities were definitely not on the agenda as the butterflies were far too energised to stay still for long. Peacock and Orange Tip flitted along the scrub lined ride edges as we made our way to the first side track where attentions turned to the magnificent displays of Bluebells under the fresh green canopy of surrounding trees.

It's hard to capture a carpet of Blues bells with a camera, the image captured is always a pale imitation of the real thing, which is why it is always better to get out there first hand and enjoy them and of course you can't 'smell' a picture or hear the soundscape of Blackbird, Great Tit, Chiff Chaff, Wren and Blackcap that accompanied our walk through the wood.

Further into the wood we heard the unmistakable call of a Cuckoo calling close to us and possibly a second some distance away. It's an uplifting and evocative sound to hear as the call is heard less and less now with the Cuckoos decline and subsequent red list status. Now of course there is the slight matter of the way the Cuckoo decides to have it's young reared but when you are listening to the distant (or in this case close) 'Cuck coo Cuck coo' the result is delight rather than a furrowed brow lamenting the poor Reed Warblers plight at the hands of the Cuckoo.

And so back to eyes closer to the ground and to fauna that can't upset anyone where Orange Tip and Peacock here were replaced with more of an abundance of Green Veined White and Speckled Wood Butterflies - however these we no more behaved in terms of gaining a few snaps than the former at the beginning of the walk and distant glimpses and fly-bys or more accurately flutter-bys has to be settled for.

Time always seems to behave different in a woodland, it feels as though you have only been there for maybe half an hour taking in the multitudinous shades of green in the canopy, the sometimes bewildering soundscape of birdsong all around, the smells and the colours of the flowers and yet it has been three hours or more (which is why I often get stern looks when I get home). Which is good, modern life is pressurised to be so fast paced and time is always at a premium - in the woods you forget time, it takes on it's own pace and rhythm and you loose yourself (literally sometimes when you have stopped noticing the route you have been taking).

And so it was that I found it was time to leave the sun dappled rides, the leafy light green canopy with it's explosive birdsong and the bluebell carpeted woodland floor with it's colourful butterflies to be re-visited another day with different sights and sounds to be experienced as the season progresses, but that's the great thing it's always there just a couple of miles up the road from me for whenever I decide to pop out for 'just half an hour'..

 
(Bank & Ditch on the woodland edge)

To visit Chaddesley Wood - from Bromsgrove, take the A448 Bromsgrove to Kidderminster road and about 2 miles after the motorway bridge turn right into Woodcote Lane (signposted Dordale and Belbroughton). In 1/2 mile bear left into Woodcote Green Lane (signposted Bluntington and Woodrow). The main entrance to the reserve is on the left in 1/2 mile at grid reference SO 915736. Roadside parking is available but restricted. More information on the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust Website.