The theory goes that a period of 30 days is enough time to form (or change) a habit meaning that if you were to get outside and appreciate nature every day for 30 days, you would be more likely to continue after the 30 days had finished (I looked into this a bit more and you can read what I found out in the comments below if you’re interested). The campaign really gained momentum last year and in 2016 I imagine that it will be even bigger and better. Look out for special events going on in your area and with your local trust and be sure to check their website for plenty of ideas on how to take part in 30 Days Wild. The dedicated 30 Days Wild blogging team is made up of a great mix of people of all ages and all interests; you can read about the activities of my fellow blogger’s here. Don’t forget to use #30DaysWild on social media to share your fun and see what everyone else is doing!
Stay Wild!
All images subject to copyright. All opinions expressed on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the view of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust for whom I volunteer, or any other organisation.
I’m back! It’s been a while since I’ve written regularly for my blog. I haven’t been feeling myself recently and that meant I was struggling to write anything that felt real. Anytime I tried to put words down, it felt alien and I couldn’t get across my meaning. I’ve got a lot of things to write about though! In the last couple of months I’ve had some wonderful wildlife experiences; from walking and cycling the West Coast of Ireland & Connemara National Park with one of my best friends and her toddler; to having a bat visit our Watch Group at Attenborough; to watching the exploits of the nocturnal wildlife caught on trailcam in my Mum’s garden. The latter feels most appropriate to start with today but I will write about my other adventures in due course 🙂
I’ve briefly explained in previous posts that there’s been quite a lot going on in my life so far this year. Between; moving house twice, the break down of a relationship, changes at work, numerous doctors/hospital appointments, my first (very minor) car accident and the death of my wonderful degu Jeffrey who had been my best buddy and mood-lifter for the past 4 years – all within a few months and whilst still withdrawing from 5 years on SSRIs – I was understandably left feeling pretty miserable and sorry for myself. My anxiety levels have probably been at their worst in years and all-consuming at times but I feel now as though I’m on the mend again and I’m sure a big part of that is due to taking some time off to go back to my roots in Suffolk.
My beautiful boy sadly passed away in February.
I drove back down to my Mum’s on a Thursday afternoon for a long weekend and arrived around half six in the evening. I was shattered but Mum dragged me into the garden to help with the her evening frog count and listen to their calls. She’s been disappointed so far this year with the amount of frog/toad spawn but there seemed to be a lot more on the day I left than there was when I arrived so maybe they were just a bit late laying. We broke Mum’s previous record and counted almost 60 frogs & toads plus a few newts, so she was really happy.
Mum on her daily frog count.
One of our pond frogs from a few years ago. Mum has been disappointed that we haven’t had as much spawn this year – photo credits to my stepdad Michael Lodge.
What you lookin’ at? – photo credits to my stepdad Michael Lodge.
I went to bed not long after that but a couple of hours later Mum knocked on my door again and whispered ‘come with me!’. Confused and half asleep, I followed her into her bedroom where she stood by the curtains and asked me to listen carefully. Mum & my stepdad have a trailcam set up in the garden and have recently had a rather large badger visiting. Mum had pulled me out of bed to get my opinion on whether the grunting and snuffling outside the window was the badger or something else… but she refused to open the curtains or turn on the light in case we scared it away.
The next morning we went for a quick trip into Bury St Edmunds with my Mum’s best friend Louise. We got some excellent charity shop finds: my highlight for the day was this beautiful leatherbound embossed edition of Maeterlinck’s ‘The Life of the Bee‘.
When I got home, I was so tired again but I decided I needed some thinking time and walked the lonely old route around the village that I used to take as an angsty teenager when ‘it all got too much’. It was perfect: retracing those steps – up Mare Hill where I spent one of my favourite New Years Eve’s with two of my closest friends – past the field where I played truth or dare in the hay bales with old schoolmates – alongside the stream where Mum & I found my first newt – onto the bench that I sat on so many times just looking out over the whole village – down Clockhall Lane and back into the village. I walked past my old school where our portacabin classrooms have been replaced with brick buildings and an adventure playground. I walked through the churchyard to the cricket meadow and looked over our old den, where I fell out of a tree and cut my hip open on barbed wire in the ditch beneath.
Looking down Mare Hill back towards my village.
My primary school. When I moved there in 1997 this was the only building and our year 1-4 lessons were held in portacabins out the back. Since then it’s been extended (to the left) but the playground and original building haven’t changed at all from the outside.
I’m sure we made a plank bridge across this ditch to make den access easier 🙂 We had to fight our way through a big bush to get there but someone has since cut the trees down.
Our after school hangout at the back of the cricket meadow. Someone has cut most of the trees down!
I love that my village has these signs. I’ve never seen them anywhere else.
That evening Mike went through the trailcam footage and it turned out that the badger had been back the previous night, as mum had suspected. However, he wasn’t alone! We also had a fox, a muntjac deer, a local cat and some magpies set off the camera.
Mum has started putting peanuts out for the badger.
Boris the badger eating peanuts that Mum left out, with the muntjac deer in the background.
One of the local cats on the prowl.
Foxy skulking around the pond.
Boris is a very large badger and seems to have a bit of a mangey backside.
A deer visiting our garden.
For Christmas, I bought Mum & Mike a tiny wireless cctv camera designed to fit in the roof of a birdbox. Mum’s boxes are used every year and Mike usually sets up a camera on a tripod, with a waterproof cover and live feed to the bedroom TV. They put it outside the box so they can watch the birds fledge but I thought it would be great if Mum could see them hatch too 🙂 While I was visiting at the weekend, the birdbox had it’s first overnight visitor! Unfortunately the signal has to go through two brick walls to reach the TV so the picture isn’t perfect (for some reason it comes out purple). We thought that the first bird could be a long-tailed tit but they don’t generally use nestboxes. Anyway, it only stayed one night. Since then though, the blue tits have moved in and have so far laid ten tiny eggs! So exciting!
Our first overnight visitor in the birdbox this year – not yet identified!
Mother blue tit moved in a few days later.
A nest full of eggs!
Recent email updates from my stepdad sound like some kind of secret code!
Blue tit progress – 10 eggs as of Monday…
Have established that the fox is a wimp- avoids the badger. Conversely, hedgehogs are ok with the fox, and deer are ok with badgers.
So that was supposed to be my blog post about the wildlife in my Mum’s garden, and I suppose it is. But actually the whole trip home that weekend meant a lot more to me. I lived in the village from age 7 and there are so many memories caught up there. I think it really did me good to go back and think about where I’ve come from. As a child I mildly resented being towed around nature reserves and sitting in freezing bird hides with my mum and stepdad while my peers were visiting theme parks (I’ve still never been on a rollercoaster). I was impatient but I was more interested in books than birds so if I had my favourite Enid Blyton with me I wouldn’t complain too much. We alternated annual holidays between Derbyshire (Edale) and Scotland (Ullapool) which I loved but when I got back to school and friends were chatting about the beaches in Lanzarote or Tenerife I felt out of place…
Looking back now, I wouldn’t change a thing. Going home reminded me that I am who I am because of my mother and her love of nature. My appreciation of nature and the environment – my whole idea of life really – stems from those early experiences with my family; from spotting eagles in the highlands to collecting sheep skulls on walks in the peak district.
I’ll leave you this time with some wonderful photographs that Mike’s taken over the past few years of the wildlife in our rural Suffolk garden.
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All images subject to copyright. All opinions expressed on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the view of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust for whom I volunteer, or any other organisation.
Back in February, my Wildlife Watch group celebrated the last day of National Bird Box week with a session all about birds. It was half term so we had a bit of a smaller group than usual but everyone was really keen to get out on the reserve. The plan was to walk to the Kingfisher Hide and see if we could find different birds to the ones we had spotted from the Tower Hide the previous month, then follow up by making bird feeders in the classroom and of course filling in the next page of our scrapbook!
It’s feels like Spring is coming – we were totally surprised to see a pair of Egyptian Geese (Alopochen aegyptiaca) waddling around the car park followed by an entourage of 6 tiny goslings! It’s really rather early for the eggs to have hatched but it has been a strange season, and in any case they seem to be doing OK. The geese had been nesting in the kestrel box near Tower Hide (follow this link to see a great photo along with Attenborough Assistant Manager’s comments on the story). Can you imagine being a tiny gosling having to make a 20ft leap of faith on your first time out of the nest?
When we got to the Kingfisher hide we spotted the Egyptian Geese again – I don’t know how they managed to swim ahead of us. I tried to take a few photos through my binoculars and I think you can just make out the little fluffy chicks although they are very well camouflaged against the gravel.
A view through the binos at Attenborough’s Egyptian geese & goslings.
A view through the binos at Attenborough’s Egyptian geese & goslings.
A view through the binos at Attenborough’s Egyptian geese & goslings.
As we continued on the walk, one of our eagle-eyed Watchers spotted a heron in the reeds not too far from the path. While we were looking at it, a huge queen bumblebee came out of nowhere and buzzed around our heads. Everyone called on me to identify the species but I’m out of practice and couldn’t get close enough! I have a feeling it was a red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) because I did see any orange/yellow or white markings but I couldn’t say for sure, which is disappointing. Still: another sign of spring!
Some of our group looking out of over the gravel pits at Attenborough Nature Reserve.
The view from the hide was magnificent. Although it was quite a cloudy day, when the sun shone through it lit up the golden reed beds and really made them glow. We saw teal and shelducks, the smallest and largest members of the duck family respectively, as well as other ducks including gadwall, tufted and mandarin.
When we got back to the classroom we wrote down all the birds (and the bee!) that we had seen out on the reserve. We’ve started a scrapbook, in which the one of the children writes a list of all the wildlife we’ve seen and a short diary entry each session. It’s really nice to have a record of what we’ve been up to so the kids can look back over it at the end of the year. Time got away from us while we were out in the hides and the session was nearly over but we quickly put together some pine-cone bird feeders (described in my previous post here) and some recycled tetra-pak feeders. The tetra-pak feeders are made by cutting a window out of the side of an old juice or milk carton, filling with seed (the easiest way is using a funnel and going through the lid!) and then poking a stick through below the window to make a perch. Finally, put a piece of string through the top and you’re ready hang it. Hopefully these will help encourage birds in our kids’ gardens 🙂
We spotted so many different species of bird out of the reserve today!
Pine cone bird & tetra-pak bird feeders.
All images subject to copyright. All opinions expressed on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the view of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust for whom I volunteer, or any other organisation.
I haven’t felt much like writing recently; there’s been a lot going on at work and home. However, it’s about time I did because I’ve had some really good sessions over the past few weeks…
14th-21st February was National Nest Box Week and I was back at Skylarks Nature Reserve in Rushcliffe helping some of our local Mencap group to build bird boxes!
Bob, the volunteer warden at Skylarks, had prepared the kits so we were all ready when the group arrived. Each kit had been sawn by volunteers and consisted of:
two side plates
a long back panel which extends above the lid so it can be attached to your wall/tree/shed easily and without drilling through the actual nesting space.
a front panel with a hole ready drilled. Ours were 25mm diameter making them suitable for blue tits or coal tits. If you want to provide a nestbox for great tits the hole needs to be slightly bigger at 28mm.
a base
a lid with one each sawn off at an angle to fit against the back panel
a rectangle of linoleum. This is tacked on to make a hinge and is a really useful feature to help you clean out the birdbox easily at the end of the year. If you don’t have any spare lino around, bike inner tubes work just as well (anything waterproof, strong & flexible really).
The Mencap group were keen to get stuck in straight away but we only had two tables to work on so we split into groups with half of us starting on the bird boxes and the other half making pine cone feeders, then swapping half way through. I started with the birdbox group and one of the guys asked me to be his building partner. I can’t say it was a particularly wise choice as I’d never made one of these before, but luckily we had my fellow volunteer David on hand to help out.
We cobbled together the wooden boxes and lined up the lino hinge so that the lid was secure. I was so impressed with the finished result! The Mencap group took a couple back to the community garden, and as there was a spare left one of the group kindly allowed me to take his creation home to put up in my new garden 🙂
Afterwards we made bird feeders out of pine cones. It’s really simple – mix together some Trex vegetable fat with bird seed and press it into the pine cone. Just remember to tie the string on before your get your hands and the cone all greasy (I won’t be making that mistake again…)
Lovely blue skies at Skylarks!
Making feeders out of Trex, seeds and pine cones.
We finished up the session with a quick walk around New Skylarks, hanging up our pine cone feeders on the way, and a visit to the rapidly growing burial mound which is part of an exciting Skylarks Experimental Archaeology project – follow the link to find out more.
All images subject to copyright. All opinions expressed on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the view of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust for whom I volunteer, or any other organisation.
A couple of weeks ago I came home to my new housemate Joel (who is also a colleague and general non house or work related wonderful friend) reading Colin Tudge’s ‘The Secret Life of Trees’ on the sofa. Joel is obsessively bookish, which is great because it means that by sharing a house with him, I am essentially living in a private library. He told me that he wanted to learn more about trees and when I mentioned that I had booked myself on to a Winter Tree ID course at Attenborough Nature Reserve, he decided to come along too.
So last Saturday morning we headed off to Attenborough; my local nature reserve since the move. It was kind of a grey, chilly morning but the Nature Centre was warm and we arrived to a full classroom and fresh coffee. There is always an interesting mix of people attending these Wildlife Trust run courses and today was no exception: I caught up with a couple of people who I had met on previous courses; a plant scientist with an ecology degree and a NWT conservation volunteer. It’s great to have people of all ages in attendance and a mix of those with an academic interest and those who simply have a passion for gardening and/or the outdoors. I suppose that at the moment I fall somewhere in between the two, and I think Joel just likes knowing things – any things.
Wintry twigs ready for keying out.
The FSC book has a usefully illustrated key.
Our teacher for the day was Angelena, a trainee ranger at Attenborough and someone I’ve known a while through various volunteering activities, courses and social groups including Nottingham Bat Group. She’s fantastic at public speaking (she led the bat walk at Attenborough that I wrote about a few months ago) and I was really impressed with the way she delivered the course – maybe one day when I’m more experienced I’ll be able to emulate this 🙂 She began with a presentation which covered some of the features we would use to identify deciduous trees without leaf, namely the anatomy of twigs, including bark and buds. We had several specimens which we spent the morning keying out (using a fantastic FSC book) – mostly successfully but we did get stuck on occasion. Listed below is some of the key terminology that I learned on the day…
Terminal buds – these are the buds at the very end of a twig and extend past the tip of the stem.They can be arranged singularly, in pairs or in clusters.
Axillary buds – buds on the stem before the tip. Again these are found as singular or clustered, and are positioned along the twig as either opposite, alternate or spiralling.
Lenticels – one of my new favourite words! The lenticels are like the pores of the tree and are instrumental in gas exchange between the inner bark of the tree and the atmosphere. Lenticel shape is a distinguishing feature in some trees, for example in Wild Cherry (Prunus avium) lenticels appear as characteristic horizontal stripes in the bark.
Leaf scar – when a leaf falls from a twig, a ‘scar’ is left. The shape of these leaf scars can help you distinguish between different species, for example they are heart shaped in walnut trees, but shield shaped in ash.
Bundle scar – bundle scars are found within the leaf scar and show the remnants of the vascular bundle when the leaf was attached to the tree.
Bud scales – these are modified leaves which cover and protect developing buds. The number of bud scales, any pubscence (hairs) and/or stickiness are useful to note when identifying trees. On older twigs, previous years growth appears as bud scale scars, which we realised can easily be misidentified as a bud stem if you’re not an expert in twig ID.
Pith – spongy tissue found within the stem. It is either continuous or chambered (as in walnut species).
Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) caught nearly everyone out, as although Angelena assured us there were no Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) samples present (due to the very high risk of infection if a thorn injury is sustained), we somehow all managed to key it to that instead.
After a lunch courtesy of the wonderful Nature Centre Café our class headed out on to the reserve to put some of our new found skills into practice. While learning the anatomy and nomenclature we needed to follow the key, we had also picked up a lot of simple identification skills that are useful in the field. The colour of a bud is hopefully easy to recognise and when taken into account with bark colour/texture can allow quick and reliable identification in some species e.g;
Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) has distinctive black buds, smooth bark in young trees/diamond patterned in more mature trees and with ‘keys’ (winged seeds that hang like bunches of keys);
Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) has bright green buds, in combination with smooth bark and ‘helicopter’ seeds;
Horse-chesnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) should be easily identifiable by a very sticky, large, single terminal bud;
Alder (Alnus glutinosa) has grey-purple boxing glove shaped buds, pendulous purple/green catkins and reddish-purple twigs with orange lenticels. Female catkins later develop into woody cones.
Grey-purple boxing gloves on Alder.
Purple catkins on Alder.
Alder catkins beginning to flower.
Alder catkins in flower.
Alder catkins, buds and cones.
A recurring topic of conversation throughout the day surrounded the controversial spine/thorn/prickle terminology. I don’t think that anyone who attended this course will forget that, contrary to many popular expressions, roses have ‘prickles’ not thorns, even if they can’t remember what exactly the difference is. In fact, I’ve just had to look it up again (Joel would have remembered but he’s not here), but I’ve found a useful description on this gardening website.
Thorns are modified stems.
Prickles are extensions of the epidermal layer.
Simply put, prickles grow from the outer layer of the stem and are not vascularly connected to the twig. Thorns are modified stems whereas spines are modified leaf parts. Confused? I am, especially as one of the keys we were looking at on the course seemed to use ‘thorn’ and ‘spine’ without distinction. I have been assured however, that each of these terms constitutes a different identifiable feature on plants.
The difference between thorns, spines and prickles was discussed alot! This FSC key describes wild roses as having ‘thorns’, but it should be ‘prickles’.
The next day we confidently named a number of different tree species on campus (next stop Latin names?) and talked to friends about the course and some tree ID tips. Joel said that Saturday made him take a bit more notice of the things around him, which I love and I hope he will pass on to others. I learned a lot on this course, from the simple identifying features I’ve described above to more complicated tiny physical structures that can only be seen through a hand-lens. I know that I’ll be able to use this knowledge whenever I’m out and about, whether I’m walking along a tree lined city avenues or in the midst of a mixed deciduous woodland.
All images subject to copyright. All opinions expressed on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the view of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust for whom I volunteer, or any other organisation.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time to write for a few weeks. Among other things, I’ve been moving house (again) but I finally had a few days off at the beginning of this week and finished my move and I’m very very happy with my new room and housemates. More about that later – for now, I want to talk to you about Wildlife Watch.
Attenborough Nature Centre on a January afternoon.
A few weekends ago I attended Wildlife Watch at Attenborough Nature Reserve for the first time, with a view to leading a session later in the year. I have been co-leading the City Wildlife Watch group (based at Wollaton Hall) for just over a year now. It’s so much fun and really rewarding – you can read about my first solo led bee-themed session here.
Wildlife Watch is the junior branch of The Wildlife Trusts and we have over 100 clubs up and down the country. The clubs are run by volunteers but are generally overseen by The Wildlife Trusts who send us ideas and updates in our quarterly leaders magazine, as well as providing branding for our newsletters and merchandise. Members have their own website and get a quarterly magazine from The Wildlife Trusts which is filled with animal facts and wildlife watching tips, fun games and projects for making at home and even posters. A friend of mine, Sorrel, who helps at the City Watch group recently set up a nature table at her school, using the Wildlife Watch posters to great effect.
Sorrel set up a nature table at her school, decorated with Wildlife Watch posters.
Sorrel set up a nature table at her school, decorated with Wildlife Watch posters.
So Sunday was a lot of fun. We had planned a bit of bird watching with a visit to Tower Hide followed by some painting in the classroom, decorating stones and wooden discs (which the kids sawed under supervision) to create our own versions of tic tac toe. It was a much larger group than I’ve experienced at City Wildlife Watch; we had 4 new children and 6 that had been before.
The session was being filmed for a new Wildlife Trust promotional advert (hopefully I will be able to post the video when it becomes available).
One of the things I enjoy most when it comes to volunteering with children is the opportunity to help shy and nervous children socialise and making sure that everyone is included in the group. There are dominant personalities in any societal group but I think it’s especially important to help children listen to each other, empathise and recognise differences in opinion. The natural world seems to be the perfect environment to do this in as, in my experience, it distracts people from themselves.
It was a great afternoon, and just what I needed really in terms of a break from the stress of moving and all the things I had to think about. I’m looking forward to continuing with my involvement in Attenborough Watch group this year. Here’s our plan for the next few months:
February – It’s national nest box week! We’ll take a short walk around the reserve with binoculars, do some birdwatching and finish up by making our own bird feeders to take home and hang in the garden.
March – Our Wildlife Watch children will be running a stall at the Broxtowe Family Event at Attenborough Nature Reserve. Hopefully they will be encouraging other families with nature activities including arts & crafts, tours of the sand martin hide and possibly a bug hunt.
April – One of our group leaders is a qualified bat carer and rehabilitates injured bats at her home. She will tell us all about bats and will be bringing in one of her real live bats for the children to see.
May – With Summer on the way we will be heading out to the meadow to take a look at the wildflowers. We will learn about the importance of pollination and undertake a quick bumblebee survey before talking about we can help the pollinators in our gardens and sowing some of our own wildflower seeds in pots to take home.
June -The return of The Wildlife Trusts’ “30 Days Wild” campaign. From making crowns and masks from natural materials, to pond dipping in our big lake; we will be getting stuck in with all kinds of wild activities.
There will be plenty more planned for the later half of the year 🙂 I can’t wait!
All images subject to copyright. All opinions expressed on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the view of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust for whom I volunteer, or any other organisation.
December was a super busy month – as shown by the distinct lack of blog posts! Moving house, work, another trip to Germany, driving home for Christmas (with my two degus in the car) and then of course Christmas itself with my Dad’s family and Boxing Day with my Mum’s family meant I’ve been rushing around all over the place. In between all of this however, I’ve had the chance to spend time with some special little creatures.
A hedgehog has between 4000 and 7000 spines which usually stay flat on it’s back but when threatened the hedgehog contracts it’s muscles and rolls into a ball making the spines stick out in all directions.
According to the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, hedgehogs are dying out in Britain at a rate equal to that of tigers worldwide and could be extinct within 10 years. It’s really important that we do everything we can to protect Britain’s ‘national animal‘! I’ve been very lucky growing up in rural Suffolk but I’m still surprised when one of the kids in my wildlife groups, or someone at work tells me they’ve never seen a wild hedgehog!
For the last few years, a family friend called Jill has been caring for sick and underweight hedgehogs over winter at her home in Suffolk. This year my mum has been helping her out with the daily cleaning routine and administering medication and over the Christmas holidays I also got involved!
There are currently 15 European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) living in Jill’s shed; brought to her by concerned members of the community who may have found them out in daylight or just extremely small and underweight. On arrival the hedgehogs are deflea-ed, deticked and treated with deworming medication if necessary. One particular hedgehog called Lilac had over 100 ticks removed by Jill, earning her the nickname Miss Tick. In cases like this parasites could easily overwhelm the animal, causing anaemia and eventually death. In a recent episode of Autumnwatch Unsprung (2015, episode 2), TV veterinarian Matt Brash advised against defleaing wild hedgehogs unless they are obviously completely infested and overwhelmed. He said it can upset parasite balance in the ecosystem of the hedgehogs skin and allow space for nastier, more dangerous parasites to take over which is certainly true. However, in this case I think that it is perfectly reasonable to want to keep that space flea free, especially as Jill is caring for wild animals in close contact with each other and in a secure indoors environment Hedgehog fleas are host specific and will not bite humans or pet dogs/cats but they’re still not particularly pleasant to have around – and this is coming from someone who loves insects. Jill’s hedgehogs are weighed and she ends off samples of their droppings to be tested for worms if the animals are off their food or losing weight (much to our local post-mistress’ bemusement).
The shed is home to 15 wild british hedgehogs. A couple of whom were even found in this garden 🙂
Inside the shed: 15 separate cages hold the hedgehogs. The sides and bottoms of the cages are insulated on the outside with carpets and matts.
Poo samples ready to post off to the lab.
I spent a few mornings in Jill’s shed cleaning out the hedgehog cages. Each hog lives separately in small guinea pig indoor style cages lined with newspaper, which are labelled with the name of the inhabitant.. They spend most of their day in a wooden house at one end. At the other end there are three bowls; one for water which is refreshed morning and night; one for hard food (IAMS cat biscuits) which is given every morning; and one for soft food (pedigree chum) which is filled at night.
The hedgehogs spend their days in the shelter of these wooden houses. Their water, dry and wet food is replaced each day.
The wooden houses are filled with torn newspaper which the hedgehogs use to nest.
Once a week the hedgehogs are weighed and Jill maps their progress from the time they enter her care until they leave. Any negative changes in weight, or failure to gain weight could signify illnesses such as liver fluke. A couple of the hedgehogs are currently trying to hibernate so haven’t been eating or putting on weight but the food is always available should they get hungry. In the wild a hedgehog under 600g does not have the fat reserves to survive hibernation and and needs to be taken inside to overwinter. Most of Jill’s hedgehogs have gained a reasonable weight but she will keep them overwinter anyway as normally they would have begun hibernation in November. In March when spring has sprung, Jill will release the hedgehogs back to the gardens they were found in. At the moment each hedgehog has a small amount of nail varnish painted onto their spines to help identify them, and this is where some of their names come from (i.e. Blue, Fuschia, Peach).
Fuschia has a small patch of bright pink sparkly spines to help identify her.
Fuschia has a small patch of bright pink sparkly spines to help identify her.
I was privileged to be in charge of weighing the hedgehogs on two occasions over Christmas. The difference in weight between animals was quite substantial. The smallest, Mikey, weighed in at just shy of 500g – still far too small to survive hibernation even though he’d been in Jill’s care for a couple of months. Speedy is the largest hedgehog – more than double Mikey’s weight – at over 1kg. Mary has made the most substantial progress: increasing from just 180g at the end of October to 842g on last weigh in before Christmas – that’s a 467% weight gain!
Speedy – a big boy at over 1kg.
Mikey is struggling to gain weight and remains at around 500g.
The rough chart showing the hedgehog’s weight in grams at each weigh in. Herbie has gone to live with one of Jill’s friends who also care for hedgehog’s over winter in her home.
Mikey had stopped putting on weight and Jill & Mum had decided to treat him for worms in case internal parasites were stopping him from gaining weight. Jill is in regular contact with her local vet who provides the medication, needles and syringes for a small fee. My mother was a specialist oncology nurse before she retired so is very used to various medical procedures and has been charged with some of the hedgehog’s medical care. On the advice of the vet; she is currently injecting Mikey with tiny daily doses of levacide (usually used to control nematode infections in cattle and sheep). I was expecting noisy protests but Mikey didn’t really seem that bothered by the injection and just crawled back into his wooden house when he was released. He did seem to be splaying his feet a little when he walked though and the three of us were a bit concerned that this multitude of symptoms could mean bad news.
Mikey curled up in protest – he probably knows what’s coming.
The levacide is administered subcutaneously between (carefully separated) spines.
Another poorly hedgehog is Charlie who had a nasty case of ringworm and had lost quite a few spines. Jill had been giving him daily medicated baths which I don’t think he was particularly keen on but they have definitely helped with his skin condition. I’m not sure if it’s because of this daily handling or whether he was like this before, but he seems quite habituated in that unlike the other hogs he doesn’t curl up straight away and he was quite active in our presence. He certainly wouldn’t keep still for a photo!
Rather blurry action shot but hopefully you can make out the scaly skin on Charlie’s face caused by ringworm. Also note the blue nail polish on his back – before being nicknamed Charlie, this hedgehog was known as Blue2.
It was really interesting to learn more about hedgehogs while helping out at Jill’s, and so funny to see all their individual personalities shining through. Some, like Charlie and Speedy, were confident and curious and keen to make quick a quick getaway if you weren’t looking, while others were very shy and quiet. Fred (aka. The Shred) was infamous for making a huge mess with his newspaper, including by soaking it in the water dish, whereas other hedgehogs kept their cages pretty immaculate. Jill does an amazing job caring for these hedgehogs and the vast majority survive in her care through to their release in Spring. Any who still pose concern in Spring are released into Jill’s own garden where they are regularly fed and she can keep an eye on them. My mum also feeds her hedgehogs throughout the year and you can read more about this in one of my previous 30 Days Wild blog posts.
Hopefully I’ve inspired you to find out a bit more about hedgehogs in the UK, and maybe look for some in your garden at home. I just want to finish up with a few tips – maybe together we can turn around the depressing rate at which these charismatic creatures are dying out.
Compost heaps are a perfect habitat for nesting, hibernating and foraging hedgehogs. Be very careful if you want to use a pitchfork or spade to turn your compost as this is a big cause of hedgehog injuries!
Create a hedgehog highway by making a hole the size of a CD at the bottom of your garden fence, and asking your neighbours to do the same. This will give your hedgehogs a greater range for finding food and mates. Read more about this campaign here.
Do not use slug pellets or toxic pesticides in your garden! These chemicals mean less food for hedgehogs and could even poison them if ingested.
If you have a pond or pool, make sure the edges are sloped so that any animals that fall in will be able to climb out easily.
If we could all do one or two of these things, it could make a difference. My final suggestion is that you submit any hedgehog sightings. There are a few different places to do this – a quick google search has brought up two recording websites: bighedgehogmap and Centre for Environmental Data & Recording. Another option is finding out whether your local Wildlife Trust are recording hedgehog sightings, or contacting your local county mammal recorder. Remember that it’s important to report both live and dead sightings and any roadkill hedgehogs can be recorded here.
Hedgehog Update: Since writing this blog post I have received the unfortunate news that Mikey (who was off his food and having injections over Christmas) has had to be put to sleep by the local vet. He was still struggling to gain weight so Jill took him to the vet who took X-rays and discovered that Mikey had some internal injuries. It appears whilst living in the wild Mikey had been walking through some type of bleach (or similar) that had caused sores on his feet. The poor thing had been licking his feet to make them better but ingested the bleach in the process which meant sores then developed in his mouth and further inside his body. Obviously this is the reason he was finding it difficult to eat. The vet advised that Mikey was put to sleep and Mum & Jill are mortified at the thought that they could have been prolonging his suffering by trying to care for him. However, they were unaware of the extent of Mikey’s problems and although they do the best they can – neither are wildlife vets. The remaining hedgehogs (and those from previous years) are testament to the fact that the two of them and their associates do a fantastic job.
RIP Mikey.
All images subject to copyright. All opinions expressed on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the view of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust for whom I volunteer, or any other organisation
This afternoon I took a walk at Skylarks Nature Reserve, Nottingham. Skylarks has been Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust’s largest reserve since 2014 when they used donations and Heritage Lottery funding to extend the reserve by a further 36ha. The reserve was previously home to commercial gravel pits but now holds an amazing variety of habitats including wetland, reedbeds, woodland and meadow grassland.
At Skylarks Nature Reserve, overlooking the reedbeds and wetland habitat.
At Skylarks Nature Reserve, overlooking the reedbeds and wetland habitat.
A birch plantation and grassland at Skylarks Nature Reserve.
It was a lovely bright afternoon and my plan was just to get some exercise really but of course I got distracted by the scenery and wildlife. During school visits with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, we often do a listening activity with the children (with varying degrees of success!) and I decided to do this myself today. I listened carefully everywhere I walked – to the mud squelching beneath my boots and the crunch of the gravel; distinguishing between the sounds of the trees creaking and the leaves stirring in the wind; comparing the cacophony of dumpy wood pigeons taking off with the gentle rustling of tiny birds in the undergrowth. It was a beautiful experience! After using my ears I directed my eyes towards the sounds and caught tantalising glimpses of a shy goldcrest (Regulus regulus) inside the tangles of an ivy bush.
On the reserve I found remnants of the fungi that I had learnt to identify on a foray at Skylarks including candlesnuff (Xylaria hypoxylon), turkey tail (Trametes versicolor), and the shells of some rather old meadow puffballs (Lycoperdon pratense) which at first glance could be mistaken as round, white pebbles.
Candlesnuff fungus, (Xylaria hypoxylon) at Skylarks Nature Reserve.
Turkey tail, (Trametes versicolor) on Skylarks Nature Reserve.
The recent warm weather seems to have confused nature somewhat. As well as the fungus, which I would have expected to be long gone by now, I found flowering pink campion, white dead nettle and ragwort. The earliest snowdrops have forced their way through the soil and leaf litter and some of the trees have grown new shoots and are even beginning to blossom.
Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris) on Skylarks Nature Reserve. Favoured food plant of the cinnabar moth larvae!
Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) blossoming at Skylarks Nature Reserve.
Snowdrops (I think) pushing through in the first week of January.
Pink campion (Silene dioica) at Skylarks Nature Reserve.
As I followed some of the smaller paths through the woodland area I was reminded of something George Monbiot said at his recent lecture at Idle Valley Nature Reserve: over 5000 years ago Britain would have been covered in closed canopy rainforest. The land was smothered in wet forests that support plants that grow on other plants, i.e. epiphytes. The woodland at Skylarks, with it’s large ferns, moss covered trunks and hanging ivy vines were very suggestive of this in my mind. You can read more about George Monbiot’s answers on the natural history of Britain here.
Fern at Skylarks Nature Reserve. I took a leaf from it to try and identify the species with my new FSC chart.
Hanging ivy vines at Skylarks Nature Reserve.
On the edge of the reserve I found the remains of a huge bird, presumably one of this years cygnets judging by the size and colour but as only the wings and a couple of vertebrae were present I couldn’t say for sure. The wings were very impressive though and if they weren’t in such a state I would have been tempted to take them home and try to preserve them. I’ve been doing a few more taxidermy/bone collecting experiments recently – including home-tanning the fur of a roadkill rabbit I found over Christmas. The skin is still in the tanning solution in my mum’s garage so we will have to see what the outcome is, but it’s all a learning curve.
The wings of a large bird at Skylarks Nature Reserve, Nottingham.
There weren’t many other people out on the reserve today, just a few dog walkers and a couple of families. At one point, there was a small family (2 adults, 2 kids) walking in front of me and I was glad to see them using the reserve and encouraging outside play with their children. That was until I realised that the youngest child wasn’t involved in his surroundings at all but was walking along watching cartoons on a tablet – seemingly to the amusement of his parents. I couldn’t help feeling a bit distressed that this child was so disengaged with the wonderful environment around him. Leave the electronics at home and enjoy the natural world, please! Later, to my relief, I saw him running around with his older sibling so I suppose one small step at a time is all that I can ask – better to be watching cartoons in the fresh air and getting a bit of exercise than sitting inside with eyes glues to a screen.
I continued my walk and finally got a good view of a goldcrest (Regulus regulus) further through the reserve, as well as a few quick flashes of white bobtails as the bunnies scampered away from my footsteps. I left the woodland area and crossed over the road to the meadow area. Dusk was approaching and the birds were settling down for the evening. I did a quick lap of the field as the geese flew over in formation and headed back to the car. A last look over the field revealed a beautiful murmuration above the tree tops which seemed to me a perfect parting picture.
A murmuration in the treetops, Skylarks Nature Reserve.
Geese in formation at SKylarks Nature Reserve.
Sunset over the meadow at Skylarks Nature Reserve.
All images subject to copyright. All opinions expressed on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the view of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust for whom I volunteer, or any other organisation.
“A few years ago I got into the habit of writing down events from the previous year that I was particularly proud or grateful for, rather than making a list of resolutions which probably wouldn’t come to fruition (i.e. going to the gym every day). However, I was pleased to be asked to write about my conservation related goals and resolutions for 2016 – these are personal ambitions that I care about but that can sometimes get overlooked in my busy, everyday working life.
This past year has been successful to a point. I was pleased to be interviewed for two very different positions at the beginning of the year: a surveying & monitoring trainee with Natural England and an Education Assistant with Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. Unfortunately I didn’t get either job but the interview feedback was most useful and has led to my recent application for a distance learning MSc in Wildlife Biology & Conservation. Looking to 2016, I hope that I am accepted on this course and that I can continue to gather knowledge and skills in the wildlife conservation field. I am especially excited at the prospect of a 3 week intensive field trip in Scotland where I could practice the identification skills I gained through training courses with my local Wildlife Trust. If my application is rejected then I’m determined to improve it and apply again for September entry!
Mark Avery signing books at Idle Valley after the lecture.
I recently attended a lecture by Mark Avery entitled “10 New Year’s Resolutions for the Wildlife Enthusiast” at Idle Valley Nature Reserve in Retford. One of his offerings in particular inspired me: ‘No. 7 – Write to your MP about a wildlife issue you care about’. Last summer I drafted a letter to my local councillor about the cutting of a grass verge that was at the time home to thousands of peacock caterpillars. Unfortunately I never got round to finishing the letter and posting it, partly because I felt as though it would be an insignificant issue to most people and, sadly, I was a bit afraid of getting laughed at. Mark Avery reminded me to ‘No. 1 – Be Proud’ and ‘No. 9 – Speak out’ about my love of wildlife. I thoroughly enjoy my voluntary work encouraging children and families to connect with nature but I can find it difficult to talk to other adults who don’t share my passion for the environment. In 2016, I endeavour to shake off these anxieties and make sure that I do speak out on the issues I care about, no matter who the audience are.
Some of the caterpillars living and feeding on the nettles that were cut down in August.
Another of Mark Avery’s suggestions was around ‘No. 6 – Supporting the right NGOs’. To me; this generally means local and in 2016 I will be joining my local bat group and hopefully finding the time to attend their regular meetings and talks, as well as joining them on surveying trip. I also want to buy a membership to BWARS as their website has been an invaluable resource for my personal interest in bee species and for researching and writing my blog so I feel it’s only fair to give them something back really!
Looking for bees. I need to get myself a good net and up to the North-West coast of Scotland.
Speaking of bees – I would love to travel the coast around the very North of Scotland and its islands to try to see Bombus distinguendus, the Great Yellow Bumblebee. This trip needs to happen sooner rather than later as Bombus distinguendus are increasingly rare and are confined to the most north-westerly points of Scotland. I thought I’d got lucky on Handa Island earlier this summer but I think that the bee I spent half an hour chasing around the thistles (much to my partners amusement/frustration) was a carder species in the end.
My new found freedom!
I also aim to spend time outside closer to home. I got my first car this year and the freedom that came along with it is immeasurable. The past few months I have tended to sign up for cover shifts on all my days off. In the New Year I want to spend my days off off and exploring the countryside, parks and green places around Nottinghamshire, including the Peak District, which I know will leave me healthier and happier.
The final resolution I want to mention for 2016 is one I know I can keep: I will to continue to be inspired by the members of AFON. From blog writing, to taxidermy, to identification skills, to education & community work and even artistry – I learn something new every day and I’m so glad to be part of this amazing community.”
All images subject to copyright. All opinions expressed on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the view of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust for whom I volunteer, or any other organisation.
By this time, maybe you’ve read my previous two posts: Walking in Cantabria and Butterflies of Cantabria (of which there were so many they had to have their own blogpost!). This piece will focus on invertebrates, other than butterflies, that I spotted on the cliff paths.
One order of insects that particularly impressed me in Galizano this year was Orthoptera, or crickets and grasshoppers. There were so many and they were so big – all different colours and patterns too! I’ve had to do a bit of online research to be able to tell the difference between grasshoppers and crickets, as I’ve gotten myself quite confused in the past trying to ID either. From what I’ve read, it shouldn’t be as hard as I thought. Grasshoppers are diurnal, herbivorous, have short antennae and ovipositors and they stridulade by rubbing their hind legs together. Crickets are basically the opposite! Nocturnal and predatory with longer antennae and pronounced, extended ovipositors – they stridulate using their wings. All of these creatures were photographed during the day so one could assume that they are all grasshoppers but I have a feeling that might not be the case! Can you spot the odd one out?
A grasshopper species. Galizano, Cantabria. September 2015.
A grasshopper species. Galizano, Cantabria. September 2015.
Possibly great green bush cricket, Tettigonia viridissima? Notice the long antennae which give away that this is not a grasshopper species. September 2015.
A grasshopper species. Galizano, Cantabria. September 2015.
A grasshopper species. Galizano, Cantabria. September 2015.
A grasshopper species. Galizano, Cantabria. September 2015.
Previously I’ve photographed a ridiculous number of bumblebees around Galizano, including a B. pascuorum nest in my dad’s garden that was brought the our attention when the silly dog tried to dig it up. This year, disppointingly I didn’t see so many. I suppose it was towards the end of the season but with so much other wildlife around it was still suprising to me that the landscape was lacking in bees. We did however, come across this extraordinary wasp nest while walking the cliff path towards Loredo. I’ve never seen anything like it! Alex & Stuart from the BWARS facebook group helped to identify these as wasps of the Polistes genus (possibly dominula species – also known as European Paper Wasp) of which only one small population has been recorded in the UK at Ham House, Richmond. These eusocial wasps build distinctive nests attached to stalks, as can be seen in the photographs below. I was surprised to find out that the nest we saw was almost completed – paper wasps don’t cover cells in the way that I’m used to seeing with England’s native wasps.
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Following on from wasps – our next (non-butterfly related) discovery was this fantastic Wasp Spider, Argiope bruennichi. These spectacular creatures are native to the Mediterranean and were first sighted in the UK in the 1920’s. I haven’t seen one in England yet – they are slowly moving northward across the country – but fellow AFONer Megan, brought this species to my attention back in August when she blogged about one she found while working at Lorton Meadow Nature Reserve in Weymouth. Argiope bruennichi is a member of the Araneidae family, also known as Orb-Weavers. The name sends shivers down my spine – reminding me of the giant Golden Silk Orb-Weaver sitting as big as my hand in 2m webs in the forests on Victoria Peak, HK – this species used to be included in the Araneidae family but is now classed as Nephilidae. I never noticed the webs until I saw a spider a few metres in front of my face while looking out at a viewpoint. After that I saw them everywhere and was traumatised when my stepdad pretended one had fallen onto my head – 13 year old me burst in to tears and the Golden Orbs are now one of the few insects that I can’t stand! This Wasp Spider was a beaut though – and female; in this species sexual dimorphism is especially prominent, with the males being a third of the size of the females and much less spectacularly coloured. The Araneidae family of spiders spin characteristic spiral orb webs centred with a bold zigzag shaped stabilimentum, the function of which is currently being explored by scientists.
Argiope bruennichi with prey. Nr Loredo, Cantabria. September 2015.
Argiope bruennichi with prey. Nr Loredo, Cantabria. September 2015.
Argiope bruennichi, the Wasp Spider. Nr Loredo, Cantabria. September 2015.
Argiope bruennichi with my little dog! Tino didn’t disturb her though. Nr Loredo, Cantabria. September 2015.
Such stirking colours! Argiope bruennichi, the Wasp Spider. Nr Loredo, Cantabria. September 2015.
Argiope bruennichi, the Wasp Spider. Nr Loredo, Cantabria. September 2015.
Dad photographing the Wasp Spider, Nr Loredo, Cantabria. September 2015.
Argiope bruennichi, the Wasp Spider. Nr Loredo, Cantabria. September 2015.
Argiope bruennichi, the Wasp Spider. Nr Loredo, Cantabria. September 2015.
As I walked up the heaths from Galizano to Ermita de San Panteleón, I was bothered by this robberfly (family Asilidae). It was huge (at a guess 3-3.5cm in length) and looked dangerous. At the time I had no idea what it was but I decided it would be best to try and keep my distance (while still being close enough to get a photo – tricky task!) as it looked like a biter! It turns out (thanks to Insects of Britain & Northern Europe FB page for the ID help) that these flies are formidable hunters; some species of robberfly prey on grasshoppers and even dragonflies! They have been known to bite humans, but only when provoked as robberflies don’t feed on blood.
A robberfly on the cliff path near Galizano, Cantabria (family Asilidae). September 2015.
Finally, a few photographs of these funny little beetles. I think they might be from the Dor Beetle family – but I’m sure some Facebook friends will be able to help me with a truer identification. I just wanted to include them because they’re adorable! The two photographed below were seen on the cliff path, in cop. before going their very separate ways. How sad!
A moment of passion? Galizano, Cantabria. September 2015.
It was all over too quickly. Galizano, Cantabria. September 2015.
So that’s it for my Cantabrian Adventures this year. As I wrote in my first post of this series; Walking in Cantabria – this is an area of the world that I’ve fallen in love with so thank you very much to my Dad and Stepmother for introducing me to Northern Spain and giving me the chance to explore it! Of course, there is always more to see so I will be walking the Camino de Santiago next summer if all goes to plan. Watch this space!
All images subject to copyright. All opinions expressed on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the view of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust for whom I volunteer, or any other organisation.
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trails&tails 