2013's Garden Visitors

I've been using a Bushnell trail camera throughout the year to find out more about the wild animals that visit our garden.  Note that I barely had the camera out in November.

Badger visting on the 10th of October.

How many visitors?

The following graph shows how many wild animals visited per night.

Number of visitors per night.

The peak number of visits was in August, when we often saw two young foxes together.  There is a trough in May, perhaps when young animals are being born or when there is more food available in the woods. November and December show another trough - perhaps because the weather is so filthy! 

When do they visit?

This graph shows the times of these visits.

Times of visits

I've tried looking for patterns in the timings but cannot really see any. Note that the gaps in the data above simply represent times when I did not put the camera out.

October and December garden visitors

October and December garden visitors

Again, I've been remiss with my blog. Blame the day job.

Below, I've summarised the visits in the camera captured during the nights I had my Bushnell Trail camera out in October and December. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below.

October 2013

The camera was out for 12 nights and captured 20 animal visits (excluding cats). The species captured were foxes and badgers. The peak time was 11 pm to 1 am.

Animal visits while the camera was out in October 2013

 December 2013

The camera was out for 21 nights and captured 17 animal visits (excluding cats). Just foxes now.

Animal visits while the camera was out in December 2013

July to September garden visitors

Ah. I've been very remiss and not blogged for 3 months.  Time to catch up with my garden visitors.

Below, I've summarised the visits in the camera captured during the nights I had my Bushnell Trail camera out in July, August and September. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below

July 2013

The camera was out for 13 nights and captured 13 animal visits (excluding cats). The species captured were fallow deer, foxes and badgers. The peak time was 9 to 11 pm.

Animal visits while the camera was out in July 2013

August 2013

The camera was out for 10 nights and captured 21 animal visits (excluding cats). This time, it was all foxes - there appear to be two fox cubs visiting regularly and hanging around in the garden. There is not really a peak time.

Animal visits while the camera was out in August 2013

September 2013

The camera was out for 19 nights and captured 21 animal visits (excluding cats). The two fox cubs are still visiting and hanging around. Badgers are appearing on some nights. Peak time is 11pm to 1am.

Animal visits while the camera was out in September 2013

A shriek in the night

Last week was busy. Very busy. On Friday, I finished work and got to bed sometime after 11 pm and, just as I was dropping off, heard the most horrible shriek. It sounded like a small but very loud animal. It seems that nature's food chain was busy right outside my window.  I couldn't see anything, because the security lights were off. This morning, I saw a few sad bones on our grass. Just a length of spine and some ribs. At this point, I half heartedly poked them with a stick but was too squeamish to investigate further. 

I've just investigated the contents of my Bushnell Trail Camera. I wasn't expecting much because the camera was pointing away from the front of the house. However, I found some fox activity that roughly matches the time of the shriek. The sequence starts at 11:56pm BST.  There are two foxes in the frame. Fox 1 is crouched quite defensively. It is blurred as if it is moving. Fox 2, further up the slope is looking down at fox 1. The next shot, below is clearer.

11:56pm - One second after the initial shot, fox 1 is now sitting.

One second later, it is obvious that the fox is eating something.

14 seconds later, fox 1 has temporarily left its meal to meet fox 2.

20 seconds after meeting fox 2, fox 1 has taken it's meal down the slope.

After this fox 1 disappears back up the slope, taking its meal with it. The last photo shows it roughly in the place where I found the bones this morning.

So that's mother nature being ruthless.  I don't know what was killed. I found it upsetting to find the bones but it didn't look like someone's pet or livestock.  I'm not even sure if the fox was the killer. There are plenty of potential culprits that visit our garden and foxes do like to scavenge others' kills.

Baby frogs and lammas leaves

The frogs spawned late, about the 6th of March and then we had a blackthorn winter. After the snow and ice had cleared the spawn looked rather sick and wrinkled. After not seeing any tadpoles I gave up hoping for young frogs this year. On the 20th of July I was delighted to see a hand full of froglets scrambling round the bottom of the kingcups.

Lammas growth, photographed on July 21st

At this time of year we see a flush of new growth on our oak tree. Unlike the acid green new foliage that first appears in spring this is red tinged. These leaves grow around Lammas day, August 1, which is the festival of the wheat loaf (Anglo-Saxon hlaf-mas, "loaf-mass"). Lammas growth appears in a variety of tree species. According to Wikipedia

This secondary growth may be an evolutionary strategy to compensate for leaf damage caused by insects during the spring.

After the manic spring breeding season, July and August always feel like a time when not much is happening in the garden but subtle changes are still happening and are worth looking out for.

Macbeth and wildlife - SPOILER ALERT

I was inspired to write this post by the National Theatre Live production of Macbeth at the Picture House, Uckfield. As I watched Kenneth Branagh and others doing their stuff, I was struck by the number references to wildlife and the forces of nature in Shakespeare's text. The Picture House at Uckfield is going to be showing some encore performances. If you are planning on going, don't read this - it is full of SPOILERS.

The first line of the play is the stage direction:

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.

Throughout the play, foul weather foretells foul deeds. The line introduces the scene which the three witches decide on the meeting that fires and corrupts Macbeth's ambition. They end by chanting:

all: Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.

The good King Duncan of Scotland and his thanes win a battle and they return to Macbeth's castle. The King and Banquo see swallows (called Martlets) and regard them as a symbol of the wholesome air of Macbeth's family seat and, by implication, of the Thane himself.

Banquo: This guest of summer, the temple-haunting martlet, does approve
By his lov'd mansionry that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, 
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
Hath made her pendent bed and procreant cradle.
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd 
The air is delicate

In Sussex, we are familiar with martlets as they appear on the Sussex coat of arms.

But the the fair air of Macbeth's castle is already being corrupted by the witches' prophesy of Macbeth becoming King. Lady Macbeth had already interpreted a raven's crowing as predicting the death of the King under her roof. As Macbeth murders the King, she hears an owl shriek and rejoices because it foretells death.  Mercifully the hooting of the Tawny owls that I hear coming from Views (Williams) wood means nothing worse than an early start to a long commute.

After the murder is discovered, an old man talks to one of the King's noblemen outside Macbeth's castle.

Old Man: 'Tis unnatural, 
Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last,
A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.
Ross: And Duncan's horses - a thing most strange and certain - 
Beautous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make
War with mankind
Old Man: 'Tis said they eat each other.
Ross: They did so; to the amazement of mine eyes,

Here the owl represents Macbeth and the falcon, the King. In the exchange about horses, minion means favourite and the suggestion is that the Macbeths, who had been favoured by the king, turned on him and would eventually destroy each other.

At the beginning of Act 4, the witches are once more chanting in darkness and thunder. They chant about many animals from the humble "hedge pig" to the exotic baboon - and of course the famous:

Frog hiding from 2nd Witch

2nd Witch: Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

We are privileged to have frogs living in our garden. At this time of year, bats do a very nice job of keeping insects under control as they swoop in front of our windows. I would be grateful if everyone refrained from turning them into a charm.

In his guilt, Macbeth becomes a terrible tyrant, hunting down all who may threaten him. Macduff flees Scotland. His wife asks their little boy how he might live without his father and the boy sweetly refers to living as birds do. He doesn't get the chance, because Macbeth has the whole family slaughtered. When Ray Fearon's Macduff finds out, his grief steals the show as he laments over the loss of his "pretty chickens" and calls Macbeth a "hell kite".

The nobles corner Macbeth and he fights to the bitter end:

Macbeth: They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,
But bear-like I must fight the course.

So there he is. In the course of 2 and a half electrifying hours Macbeth changes from a man whose honourable home was good enough for the fussy swallow to one who was compelled to fight to the death like a wounded bear tied to a stake.

Reference: Information about birds from the Birds theme of Shakespeare Navigators.

A funny place to find a nest

In an earlier post, I mentioned the blue tits and blackbirds nesting in our garden. We know that the blue tits nest in the box at the back of the house but have never tracked down a black bird nest, even though we regularly see babies around the garden and get considerable abuse when working in certain parts of the garden.

Young blackbird sunbathing on wall, 2011

When pruning the pyracantha that wraps around the front of the house I found a nest.  From the information in How to Identify Garden Bird Nests, I decided that it was most likely a blackbird nest.  It was about 1.5 m off the ground and the cup was 10cm across.

Nest built between branches and down pipe.

Neatly woven grass

I don't know if the nest was actually used. It is in a crazy position, between the wall of my bedroom and the front path. I would have thought that someone would have noticed birds there. That said, there have been loads of blackbirds around the front garden this year, so maybe they have used that nest.

A wild patch in an Uckfield garden

I'll confess that parts of our Manor Park garden are rather dishevelled. This is partly by design - we want a wildlife friendly garden. It's partly by accident - we don't always keep up with the weeding and tidying. This year, the late spring seemed to compress gardening time to just a few short weekends. One of the areas that has minimal attention is the wild patch. Usually I act as a referee between competing plants, so the more vigorous ones don't swamp the others and encroaching grass is kept firmly in its place. This year, I blatantly gave up.

The wild patch

The result is a riot of yellow common bird's foot trefoil and common St John's-wort, shocking pink bloody cranesbills, red valerian and many, many more wild and wildlife-friendly plants. The grass that I usually remove has added a golden fuzz of seedheads between and above the flowers. The wildlife loves it too. The patch is full of bees, beetles, moths and butterflies.  Some larger visitors nibble the vegetation and weave their way through the long grass.  In the last few nights we have had a visiting badger, deer and fox. The foxes and the badger seem to have made quite well worn paths in the long grass. The following photos show these animals slightly away from the patch because once they are in it, they are partly hidden from view.

A badger trundles across the slope just below the wild patch

A fallow deer browses for tasty plants.

A fox trots through the grass

Repelling the pink alien invaders

Yep, It's balsam bashing again. I appreciate that this has been a regular topic on this blog, but removing balsam from the Hempstead Meadows Nature Reserve has dominated my Saturday mornings for the last 6 weeks. This week was particularly rewarding as Matt (the local ranger) had rounded up about half a dozen of us including Lee and Josh, who each managed to pull as much as the rest of us put together. It was the usual routine of identifying the balsam, pulling it out and leaving it by the side of the path to dry.

An armful of Himalayan balsam

All the plants in the reserve are growing tall now making it difficult to get at some of the balsams. A thick sea of nettles and other plants on the North side of the path prevented us from getting to some that are already in flower. If we can't get to them before they seed, there will be many more to pull up next year.

This sort of task day, for Hempstead Meadow and Uckfield's other green spaces looks to become a regular feature of town life. I find it tremendously satisfying work and it is a real antidote to a working life spent hammering away at a computer keyboard. If you feel like getting involved, ask Matt to put you on the email list.

As an aside, on the way home, I saw two young robins searching for food at the South end of Lime Tree Avenue. They have the same rounded shape as the adults but not the red breast.

Now at home and chilling out after fighting the alien invador. What should I watch? Doctor Who or War of the Worlds?

June 2013 - Garden Visitors

Below, I've summarised the visits in the camera captured during the 14 nights I had my Bushnell Trail camera out in June. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below.

Animal visits while the camera was out in June 2013

 
This month's score (12 excluding cats) is much better than May's 6. The peak is happening earlier  - 9 to 1 rather than slightly later in the morning but the mix of species is about the same as before May's dip in results.  A pair of fox cubs have been seen in the garden but, naturally, did not walk in front of the camera.

Badger trundling up the slope.

It it always lovely to see the badgers trundling round the garden. They have been making distinct paths in the long grass. Other field signs (yes - I mean poo) have indicated several visits by deer.
 

Alien Smoothies versus Uckfield Roughs

We are still removing Himalayan Balsam from the Hempstead Meadow nature reserve, run by Uckfield Town Council.  Although the pink balsam flowers are lovely, the huge plants would simply swamp the wide variety of native plants in the reserve. The picture below shows a pretty, delicate looking crosswort, which in another week, would have been swamped by the nearby balsam seedling.

Cross wort (centre) next to Balsam seedling (bottom right)

The balsam plants are getting bigger now. Some of the biggest were two and a half foot high (about 70cm in new money) but seedlings are still coming through so we still need to look out for those. The plants are quite easy to pull out of the damp soil. The trick is to grasp them as near the bottom of the stem as possible and pull gently but steadily.  If you snatch at them their sappy stems just break at the joints.

Balsam plants left on the side of the path to dry out.

The young balsam plants are similar to many native plants so we have to be careful to pull out the right ones.  The photo below shows some of the differences.

Differences between balsam and similar native plants.

Himalayan Balsam	Native Species
Leaves - smooth Colour - light, sometimes has a reddish tinge, especially around the veins Stems - pale, smooth, and very sappy	Leaves - often rough, even if only slightly; or hairy Colour - often darker and I've not seen a red tinged one yet Stems - often darker, rougher

To sum up, the alien invaders are red-tinged smoothies while the Uckfield natives tend to be a bit on the rough side. What can I say?

There are a couple more work days to go (Saturday mornings, meeting by the Waitrose carpark gate at 9.00am). See the council website for more information.

Hempstead Meadow in June

I felt rather guilty about marching through Hempstead Meadow Nature Reserve on Saturday.  I had my hair trimmed and the grey touched out, which took most of the morning. Obviously it is the trim that takes most of the time! Unfortunately this meant that I couldn't join the working party who were removing the Himalayan Balsam as described in last week's post.

I did get a chance to look at the trees and June's selection of wild flowers.  Most of the blossom and the delicate spring flowers have gone but others have taken their place.

Hawthorn blossom and black poplar tree (just right of centre).

The first treat was the Hawthorn blossom. This is really thick on the bushes this year. The 5 black poplars that were planted about 15 years again are fine looking trees with shimmering shiny leaves.

Meadow Cranesbill

In the dryer meadow area, I found blue meadow cranesbills. This is a real treat, I have never seen one growing wild before. Once I get closer to the wet areas there is loads of treacherous white and frothy hemlock water dropwort.

Pulled up balsam

I have a quick chat with the working party and then move on. The pulled up balsam on the side of the boardwalk is clear evidence of their efforts.

It was a very short visit as I dashed back from the town to home, but that is the beauty of this local reserve. I can take in its beauty and tranquility without making a special journey.

May 2013 - Garden visitors

Below, I've summarised the visits in the camera captured during the 15 nights I had my Bushnell Trail camera out in May. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below.

Animal visits while the camera was out in May 2013.

Oh dear. These results are quite frankly pathetic. The total number of visits (excluding cats) is down from 16 to 6 even though I had the camera out for the same number of nights, i.e. 15.  I have no idea why there were so few wild visitors. Maybe there were busy breeding, maybe I placed the camera badly. There was much less variety. No deer or badgers and just a few foxes.

A curious fox. I know it's a back view but it really amused me.

Exterminate! Ridding Hempstead Meadow of alien invaders

Each Saturday in June, starting today, there is a task day in the Hempstead Meadow Nature Reserve. The idea is to remove the pretty but thuggish Himalayan Balsam. A group of us located and pulled up seedlings to stop the adult plants overwhelming the native flora later in the year.

Himalayan Balsam seedlings, circled.

As the photo shows, at the moment the seedlings look small and inoffensive but later in the year the plants will be taller than me and causing all sorts of damage as described in TrUck's blog post on the subject. We have to be careful when doing this because we are 'invading' the nature reserve ourselves and are in real danger of tramping the plants and scaring the birds that live there. It was a rather lovely experience, methodically scanning the foliage looking for the slightly red tinged leaves of the balsam and listening to the bird song all around. Martyn Stenning, who was leading the group pointed out the song of several african migrants such as:

• garden warbler
• whitethroat

We have to be particularly careful not to disturb or damage the nests of these birds, which are found in vegetation close to the ground.

Balsam seedlings. Some of the tallest were already a foot high.

We took some time to peer into the clear areas of water next to the board walk.  I saw loads of wriggling tadpoles, about 3 sticklebacks, whirligig beetles, pond skaters and loads of caddis fly larvae. The latter are something I have often read about or seen on the TV but have never seen. They are strange little creatures that build an outer jacket out of bits of stick and debris. One, perhaps a caddis fly fashion victim, had decorated its brown coat with bright green disks of duckweed.

Further along the boardwalk we got a good view of Uckfield's primeval swamp.

Greater tussock sedges in Uckfield's primeval swamp.

Ancient plants like the tussock sedges and horse tail give the swamp a genuinely primeval feel. I almost expected to see a dinosaur lumber out from behind a clump of trees.  Returning to reality, we cleared the reptile basking rocks in case the resident grass snakes, slow worms and lizards wish to do a spot of sun bathing.  

There are more task days, running from 9am to 1pm each Saturday in June, so do come along. There is more info in my earlier post.

Springwatch - Who's nesting?

BBC Springwatch - 3 weeks of programmes tracking the progress of birds and animals through the spring - started today.  I thought that I would do a mini-springwatch of my own and see which birds were nesting and fledging nearby.

First out of the nest are - the starlings! The young birds have only been out of the nest for a day or two but they have already given me a terrific laugh.  This morning, a parent starling was clinging to a coconut hanging from the bird table pecking at the fat inside. Instead of the usual precise extraction of food, there was all sorts of flailing around, loss of balance and so on. Why? Because baby starling insisted on clinging to the adult's back. Kids!

Blue tit leaving box - taken in 1998.

Next up - still in the nest but I can hear the babies if I sit on the bench nearby - blue tits. These are really late this year. I had nearly given up expecting them. A pair did seem to start moving in at the beginning of April but the last cold snap sent them off again and we saw no real signs of birds going to the box until about the 12 of May.

Not quite sure but, I'm hoping, blackbirds. Or there had better be, the amount of abuse I get when I go to a certain part of the garden!

Hempstead Lane and Lime Tree Avenue in May

In my last post, I spoke about walking through Hempstead Meadow on the way home from the dentist. That, of course, wasn't the end of my little journey.

Hempstead Lane

Hempstead Lane is an old road that long predates the houses that line part of its route and the school hidden behind the trees in the photo. The grassy bank under the trees is covered in bluebells, cow parsley, stitchwort, alkanet and other wild flowers.

Bluebells, stitchwort and cow parsley

Turning right took me into Lime Tree Avenue. This wonderful avenue led up to the long gone Uckfield House. I feel very privileged to have worked there, removing unwanted growths from the feet of the magnificent trees. Over the last couple of weeks the new leaves have been bursting out of tight buds that protected them from the winter weather. Cow parsley, alexanders and other wild flowers have created white, frothy clouds below the trees.

Lime Tree Avenue, with cow parsley at the feet of the trees.

It was only a 30 minute walk from the dentist and was so much nicer than taking, and trying to find somewhere to park, the car.

Hempstead Meadow in May

An unexpected bonus of today's visit to the dentist was a walk through the Uckfield Town Council owned Hempstead Meadows Local Nature Reserve. I didn't have to go out of my way or take much time. I just swung through Waitrose car park and walked though to the Hempstead Lane playing fields.

Jack-by-the-hedge growing on the railway embankment.

As if to emphasise how close this little oasis of nature is to my normal working life, a London-bound train left just as I was walking through the reserve. It was partly screened by ash trees that were just starting to come into leaf and its emerald green Southern Rail livery contrasted with the fresh yellow greens of the surrounding spring foliage. Even so close to the train, I could see Jack-in-the-hedge, cuckoo flower, forget-me-nots and wild garlic.

Spring blossom.

There are so many other flowers to see now. Tiny jewel-like germander speedwell flowers vied for my attention with startling white greater stitchwort. The last of the king cups were fading out but there were plenty of buttercups and, I think, lesser spearwort, coming. The more subtle tones of ground ivy and crosswort added to the rich tapestry.

As I admired a clump of cuckoo flower growing in the stream, I noticed pond skaters and whirligig beetles on the water surface. Above birds flitted and twittered amongst the branches.

Wild garlic by the notice board, near Hempstead Lane playing fields.

The Uckfield news tells us that plans are afoot to tackle the pretty but thuggish Himalayan Balsam. A notice on the board says:

Task days will be held every Saturday morning in June,

from 9am to 1pm

If you want to help, you can come along to one of the task days and do as much or as little as you can. Meet at 9am Waitrose car park entrance to the reserve.

Full training will be given.

You can also support the Nature Reserve by coming along to the Advisory Committee's AGM on Thursday 6th June from 7.30pm, in the Green Room, Uckfield Civic Centre.

I hope to get along to some of the task days. It should be good fun and will help preserve the variety of damp-loving wild flowers by removing some of the Balsam.

Views Wood - spring on fast forward

We took advantage of the lovely spring weather and the May Day bank holiday to walk though the Woodland Trust's Views (Williams) Wood today. The much delayed spring is now on fast forward. 

Wood anemones and bluebells in Views Wood

Because of the cool spring, the last of the wood anemones have hung and are now combining beautifully with the first of the bluebells.  Other flowers such as yellow archangel and cuckoo flower are appearing too.

The lovely carpet of wild flowers was animated by little birds - wrens, robins and blue tits - flitting around as they collect food for hungry nestlings.  Amongst the gentle spring colours, there's the dazzling flash of an orange tip butterfly's wings.

King cups in a soggy dip

One of the hidden treasures of the wood is the gold of king cups that gleams from the bottom of a soggy dip. They are surrounded by banks of bluebells.  

When we reached Buxted Park, this sunny bank holiday had one more treat for us. The sound of cuckoos, who must have recently arrived from Africa.

April 2013 - Garden visitors

Below, I've summarised the visits in the camera captured during the 15 nights I my Bushnell Trail camera out in April. I've allocated each visit to a 2 hour slot as shown below. 

Animal visits while the camera was out in April 2013.

 The total number of visits (excluding cats) is up from 14 to 16 but I had the camera out for 15 nights rather than 9.

Fallow deer visiting on the 8th of April. The deer is not white, the security light has fooled the IR.

So what have I noticed?

• I now have fallow deer visiting as well as foxes and badgers - I was surprised not to have captured them before as, in previous years, they had been regular visitors, but they are certainly making their presence felt now.
• peak time is still the 1 to 3 am slot.
• there is a more varied pattern - with some bumper nights and some with no visits before - previously the visits were more evenly spread.

In previous posts, I noted the number of garden visitors in February and March.

Bluebells - just starting

They seem rather late, but finally the bluebells are beginning to bloom.  There are just a few, here and there, making tiny puddles of blue in the garden and local woodlands but it won't be too much longer before the puddles become ponds, the ponds become lakes and finally the lakes join up to make a sea of blue that covers the ground.

Bluebells in our garden, photographed 28th April.

One of the treats of this year's cold spring has been the way in which the primroses are hanging on - giving us a beautiful display of bluebells and primroses together.

Stealing ideas from nature

It's true confession time. When gardening, I steal most of my best ideas from nature. When walking through Views (William) Wood near my Manor Park home I see many pretty sights.  One of my favourites is the mossy old stumps and coppice stools surrounded by dainty wild flowers and ferns.

Wood anemones around the foot of a coppice stool, photographed 14 April 2013

I wanted to make something similar in my garden. Wood anemones, bluebells and wild arum grow naturally there. Maybe the woodland once extended as far as the location of our 1960s home.  

Here's one I made earlier, photographed 14 April 2013

We asked a professional gardener to remove some laurels, giving us a clear space in the shade of our tall birches.  Next, I bought a couple of old coppice stools from Wilderness Wood. My family are always amused by my habit of buying manky old bits of wood but I find they make good garden ornaments without the worry that some light-fingered so-and-so will take a fancy to them.  I got most of the plants by taking pieces of what we already had in the garden. I transplanted seedling wild arums and sprinkled seed from bluebells, cuckoo flower and foxgloves. I supplemented these with ferns, hardy geraniums and a red campion-like plant that I bought from local nurseries and open gardens. I don't stick rigidly to native plants. Sometimes I choose garden species that are similar to local wild flowers. I find that these cope just as well with local conditions, including greedy deer, and extend the options available to me.

The final step was to wait. It will be a year or two before the bluebells are flowering properly but the other flowers and leaves are giving plenty of interest. So that is how I designed my little woodland garden.