November 2023 - A Year in the Valley

Kestrel

Yesterday, I finally got a reasonably good photo of the kestrel when it perched on the power line post. It has been very much in evidence over the last couple of weeks hovering over the valley and flying up and down the hillsides.

Birds of prey in the valley include owls, buzzards, the sparrowhawk, and the kestrel. They can be differentiated by their behaviour. Owls being active at night or dusk, the buzzards wheeling high in the sky on the thermals, the sparrowhawk manoeuvring fast and deadly round the trees and bushes, and the kestrel hovering above the valley and then swooping down for the kill.

Kestrels mainly hunt small mammals like mice and shrews, but especially field voles. They will also eat small birds, worms, and insects.

The kestrel is mainly a rich brown with a black band at the end of its tail and dark, tapering wings. When flying the tail is held straight out, but I caught a shot of the kestrel adjusting position and it fanned its tail out beautifully.

Daisy D

29 November 2023

Birds

Kestrel

Great Tit

The tallest trees in our watermeadow are the sea buckthorn and the ‘tall’ willow. From these trees different species of tit fly up the garden to the willow near the house and the bird feeders. I wondered whether the paler bird was a coal tit, but I think these are a pair of great tits, as there are hints of green and yellow on the duller one, and female great tits have a duller colouring and thinner belly stripe. A coal tit would tend to grey and beige alongside the black and white facial markings.

Daisy D

26 November 2023

Birds

Coal Tit, Great Tit

Earthworm and mosses

It’s still difficult to get down into the watermeadow, as it remains flooded. I’ve seen a few things on the ramp and steps on the right-hand side, but rather neglected the stone steps down on the left under the sea buckthorn. I spotted the small earthworm. I hadn’t seen a worm down there so far and I was quite pleased. There are nearly 30 species of earthworm in the UK, divided into three behavioural types:

Epigeic – living above soil level
Endogeic – living below the ground
Anecic – living below the ground but finding food above

This one, being small and reddish, was possibly a compost, or tiger worm, which lives above soil level. Then I noticed that it was worming its way across some moss, and I realised that that there was a whole section of plant-life that I had overlooked!

Springy turf moss (Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus) – is a soft, bright green mat, with short red stems. It is commonly found on lawns and damp woodland and is also known as ‘electrified cat’s tail’ moss from the stems which shoot out in all directions.

Further down the steps was a patch of velvety, mossy fronds. I think it is a type of Feather Moss. I’m not completely sure what type it is but it is likely to be Rough-stalked feather moss (Brachythecium rutabulum), which is also known as ‘ordinary moss’, as it is another of our most common moss species. It has pointed leaves and branching stems and can be found in woodlands, hedgerows, and lawns.

Daisy D

24 November 2023

Mini-beasts, Mosses and lichens

Earthworm, Feather Moss, Springy Turf Moss

Black Slug and Sycamore

I think the Slug and Sycamore would make a great pub name! The sycamore shoot is in the bank down beneath the silver birch. We frequently get sycamore shoots in the top garden and the bank because this side of the valley used to be lined with sycamore trees. We have four stumps in one of our flower beds. One is pretty much disintegrated and the other three are home to bracket and other fungus. We will probably pull up this little one as it is too close to the silver birch and sycamores can grow up to 35m tall.

I spotted the black slug (Arion ater) a while back, just before Little Venice got flooded.

Black slugs are not always black. They start life as pale specimens, and there are red and brown variations. Also, there is a tendency to darker shades the further away from the equator you get.

I found out that black slugs have a top speed of 1.8inches per minute – that’s 0.0017mph. This compares to the Leopard Slug (Limax maximus), which is the fastest slug and can whizz along at 6 inches per minute – 0.0056mph.

Finally, not all slugs are bad for the garden. The black slug eats an omnivorous diet including dead plant and animal matter, earthworms, and fungi. It rasps its food into tiny pieces with a band of microscopic teeth called radula.

Daisy D

22 November 2023

Molluscs, Trees

Black Slug, Sycamore

Silver Birch

This silver birch is one of three and was originally in the top garden, but we had to move it as it was exposed to the salty Easterlies and wasn’t thriving. Now it is near the top of the watermeadow bank, next to the sea buckthorns and it is galloping skyward. Silver birches really prefer a dry habitat, and the weird thing is that our top garden is very dry with poor soil. So this tree possibly now gets a better balance.

Apparently a silver birch can grow up to 30m tall. This one is helping to provide welcome shade on the left-hand side of the watermeadow. However, the shade that birches provide is light and dappled, so good for grasses, mosses, and wildflowers. It also provides food and habitat for a variety of insects including ladybirds and moth caterpillars. Also the right environment for fungi, including the chanterelle, which we have had on our lawn, and the birch knight, among others. When the birch is a bit bigger it might house a woodpecker, and its seeds are food for greenfinches, siskins, and redpolls. Of these, we have seen a greenfinch in the watermeadow.

Daisy D

19 November 2023

Trees

Silver Birch

Dunnock

I spotted the dunnock a couple of weeks ago and was hoping to get a better photo, but I haven’t seen it since. It is much more speckled than a sparrow, with a darker speckled back. It has a straight-out tail, rather than sticking up like a wren. It has a thin beak, not chubby like a sparrow (though you can’t see the beak in this picture).

It has wren-like behaviour, frequenting the lower boughs and shrubs, hunting for insects to eat. This one was perched on the watermeadow fence behind the alders.

Dunnock update 05/01/24 – I have replaced the featured image, because I have now realised that the dunnock is a regular visitor to our bird feeder, which enabled me to get a better photo. It hops around the bottom of the feeder and bushes like a wren, but here it was perched up in a small tree. You can clearly see its thin dark beak, which has helped me separate it from sparrows.

Daisy D

17 November 2023

Birds

Dunnock

Paper Plant, False Castor Oil Plant, Aralia (Fatsia japonica)

Our two Fatsia japonicas are in flower on the bank of the watermeadow. We have been calling them castor oil plants, but I now know that the real castor oil plant is highly toxic, containing ricin. Castor oil used for medicinal purposes has had the ricin removed. Our plants are, in fact, False Caster Oil plants. Phew!

The false castor oil plant is a non-native species, originating from Southern Japan. It is a hardy evergreen and is related to the Common English Ivy (Hedera helix), which you could probably work out from the similar flowers.

Apparently it can grow up to 4 metres high and has a similar spread. Our two plants are quite large, and though we haven’t seen them in flower before, we have noticed others blooming locally. The flowers appear in the late autumn and, although not a native species, are pollinated by local flies, butterflies, and bees. I saw these black flies and an oscinella frit fly on our flowers. Once pollinated, the flowers will produce dense clusters of fat black berries, which will make a fine feast for blackbirds during the winter.

While I was out taking photos this morning, I could hear ducks, a pheasant and various other chirps. I spotted a great tit, but it flew off before I could focus the camera. The kestrel remains elusive, but a fast brown bird flew towards our kitchen window yesterday afternoon and veered off between us and next door. Perhaps more like a sparrowhawk in its behaviour, it sliced past sleekly in a brown blur, so maybe a kestrel. Maybe something else?

Daisy D

15 November 2023

Insects, Non-native

False Castor Oil Plant, Oscinella Frit Fly

Fruit fly (Tephritis bardanae) on a sunny afternoon

The other day, I went out to try and get some pictures and to have a look at the flooding in the watermeadow. It was sunny and I was surprised at the number of bugs on the ramp at this time of year. I saw a seven-spotted ladybird, a bronze beetle, a drinker moth caterpillar, lots of flies and small wolf spiders. Not bad for November! I even saw a capture. It was this little fruit fly. Shortly after taking the photo, this happened…

… the wolf spider sprang out onto the leaf and attacked the fruit fly.

Wolf spiders pounce on their prey and inject it with venom/digestive juices, so the digestion starts outside the spider and all they have to do is enjoy a liquid lunch. (Sometimes, they squash their prey up into a ball instead to pulverise it.)

The fly is different to both the burdock gall fly and the frit fly (or grass fly) that I have spotted before. This one is a golden colour with transparent wings patterned with black. It may be a Tephritis bardanae, which is another that makes galls on burdock. Tephritidae flies are fruit flies which have black patterning on their wings. Some of the patterns are very intricate. There is a good collection of wing patterns in these pictures Tephritidae – Fruit flies | NatureSpot. It is possible to identify these fruit flies according to their wing pattern, though there is some variation. The larvae make galls on the burdock leaves, and the pupae hide out the winter in dead flower heads.

My best drinker moth caterpillar photo so far. I love the golden specks that look like pollen on its coat.

Daisy D

13 November 2023

Butterflies, moths, caterpillars, Insects

Bronze Beetle, Drinker Moth, Fruit Fly, Seven-spot Ladybird, Wolf Spider

Carrion Crow

I was pleased to see the crow, as I haven’t noticed many of them this summer.

The menu of a carrion crow includes dead animals, but also insects, grains and live chicks and eggs from nest raids. Crows are startlingly intelligent. Corvids, members of the crow family, can make tools, solve problems and work as a group. It is said that scientists rate the crow as having the intelligence of a seven-year-old human.

Whilst many crows are solitary, it is not unheard of for them to form groups (called a ‘murder of crows’) as they can form strong relationships. Last summer, we had a family of five black and white crows. The young crows obviously stayed with their parents all summer, before making their own way in the world. The white patches can happen when they don’t get enough protein and is called leucism, as opposed to albinism in which they would usually be all white with red eyes.

Daisy D

12 November 2023

Birds

Carrion Crow

Blue Tit

The blue tit is one of the small birds that frequent the sea buckthorn and the willows, as well as being a presence in the top garden. It is as happy co-existing alongside humans, as it is in the wild. It will inhabit parks and gardens – or woodland, happy nesting in a hole in a tree – or in a nestbox. It will hunt for insects and spiders in trees, as well as snacking from bird feeders. The blue tit was famed for pecking open milk bottle tops and taking the cream off the top.

This blue tit appears to have a crest. I was puzzled. Then I found out that they will raise their crest when they are excited or alarmed. There is a crested tit, but it has a very obvious crest and is grey – also, in the UK it is only found in pine forests of Northern Scotland – so no danger of a mix-up in the watermeadow!

Daisy D

11 November 2023

Birds

Blue Tit