Andrew Graham's report for September's Tisbury Focus concludes with the above advice for us on how to live with the growing number of these birds that we are seeing overhead. He writes: 'The red kite is a magnificent bird of prey becoming increasingly common in this part of Wiltshire. It is unmistakeable with its rufous brown body and distinctive forked tail which it twists to use as a rudder in flight. In the 1930’s the UK population declined to two pairs which clung on mid Wales, but the species was saved from national extinction by a major protection programme. Since then, birds from Spain and Sweden have been successfully re-introduced to England and Scotland. Red Kites now breed over an expanding area of the UK and non-breeding and wintering birds may be seen across most of the country. 'The birds we will see are almost certainly part of the expanding reintroduced population rather than from the surviving native population in Wales. Males and females are essentially similar but in bright sunshine their strongly marked plumage is striking. The white primary feathers of the wing contrast with black wingtips, the yellow beak and eye stand out against the grey head while, in the right light, the tail may look positively orange. Its call is like but distinct from that of the buzzard – less mewling and more quavering - and will often be heard when several birds are together. Indeed, as numbers of birds in an area starts to grow, they may gather in communal woodland roosts where they can be seen dropping in from the surrounding countryside at dusk. 'They were common birds of the town in Shakespearean times where they lived on carrion and offal and served an important role in clearing up human waste. When birdwatching in Europe, rubbish dumps were often a good place to find them. Their diet remains mostly carrion, roadkill and worms which they can often be seen collecting in recently ploughed fields. As scavengers, they are particularly prone to poisoning from illegal poisoned baits and pesticides. They will occasionally take small mammals given the chance and will gather around harvesting operations on the lookout for a meal. 'Red kites nest in woodland in a scruffy nest often on top of an old crow’s nest. They hunt widely over mixed countryside, wooded valleys, and pasture, will stray over towns and can be see flying over Tisbury on occasion. Urban areas near the successful reintroduction in the Chilterns now regularly see numerous (double figures) kites overhead. This is partly because people took to putting out scraps to attract this impressive bird to close quarters. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a developing problem akin to that of herring gulls at seaside resorts where emboldened birds, used to being fed, start to pinch food from humans. This can be very alarming for children, so such feeding is not recommended. Nothing like that has been reported hereabouts so hopefully we can enjoy more views of this handsome bird in years to come without encouraging them to become a pest. Then our summer lunches won’t be subject to the warning: “red kite in the morning; put out the awning”. August alert Rooks and jackdaws seem to have had a very successful breeding season with the roost in the beech trees off Vicarage road containing thousands of noisy birds. At this time of year, they can be a nuisance on ripening cereals but for most of the year they are beneficial. Andrew Graham tells us about one of their favourite foods: ‘Leatherjackets in our lawns are favourite foods for starlings which often feed in our lawns. 'They are commonly seen in our gardens and make a nuisance of themselves by coming into houses where they seem to bump around the walls in an aimless and slightly sinister fashion. They are largely nocturnal and as they are attracted to light they will come in through open windows in the evening. With large translucent wings and long gangly legs, they can be quite disturbing especially to people who do not like insects. They are sometimes be confused with spiders or giant mosquitoes. Alarmingly, if you try to do the right thing and catch them to release outside their legs often drop off in your hand. However, they do not bite are generally harmless and are not to be feared. However, although the larvae of most species feed on decaying organic matter so playing an innocent part in nutrient recycling, a couple of species are agricultural pests and can seriously affect our lawns. 'When the adults emerge in late summer they may do so in large numbers and then after mating, as they only live a few days, they die in similarly large numbers. 'After mating, the females lay their eggs amongst grass, and these develop into the rather unpleasant looking grey grubs we call leatherjackets. A damp autumn helps these eggs and larvae to survive in greater numbers. These live underground feeding on grass roots or emerging at night to chew on stems. A serious infestation can create areas of poorly growing or dead grass. But on the positive side they do provide food for starling, rooks, crows, and magpies.’ Kingston Lacy Estate, The National Trust
Organiser: Peter Shallcross Our Chairman led an evening walk on Holt Heath Nature Reserve (roughly 5 miles north-east of Wimborne Minster) for an hour or so as dusk came down, in search of glow-worms and nightjars. In a welcome innovation, we joined Peter for supper at the Cross Keys Inn, Holt Rd, Wimborne BH21 7JZ before setting out. If you'd like to go yourself, plan to get there at sunset. Holt Heath is unhelpfully on two different OS maps - OS 118 (Shaftesbury & Cranborne Chase) and OL22 (New Forest) but you can also find it on Dorset Explorer - search for Holt Heath. Head for the pub and then continue westward along the road onto the Heath and look out for a parking area on the road on the left - on the map, its the more westerly of the bridle tracks that cross the road, at SU 051 045. There's an information board (sadly illegible) by the track that you can follow down to a 'cross roads'. Don't forget to take a torch as the ground is quite rough and it will, of course, be dark. Peter Thompson, Game & Wildlife Conservancy Council - Can wildlife and modern farming co-exist?19/11/2020
Peter has very kindly made available here the slides he used for his talk, which include all the photographs that so clearly demonstrated that the answer is a resounding 'yes!' Peter began by comparing British farming in previous decades with what's happening now. Most farms used to rotate arable with dairy, beef, sheep or pig rearing and that was highly beneficial to wildlife. But now the country is broadly divided into vertical strips down its length, with purely arable mainly on the eastern side and animal farming increasing to the west. (More rain so more grass, maybe?) A particular problem has been autumn ploughing, which has left the land bare through the winter with no stubble to prevent soil erosion in heavy rain and resulting pollution of waterways with fertilisers and pesticides. What is required to help wildlife recover is year round care – nesting habitats, summer food for the young and food throughout the winter. And it can be done. On Peter's own farm, wildlife was declining like others but within five years populations were back up to levels of the 1960s. Peter trained as agronomist so can now talk about getting best of both worlds. Pesticide use is still very important but caring for the soil as much or more so, and this has been largely ignored until recently. Darwin is mostly known for his Origin of species, but his last publication was on the subject of earthworms and the vital role they can play, now known to restore carbon from plant growth back into the soil. For that to happen, new methods of rearing animals are needed, such as 'mob grazing' (described in the film, Kiss the ground). Indeed, Darwin said, 'It may be doubted if there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organized creatures.' Controlling insects with pesticides can still be necessary, but better still to choose flowers which attract insects that will eat aphids you don't want - 'Marmalade fly' hoverflies especially are very good at that, along with ladybirds and lacewings (as every gardener now knows). And for pollinators, bumblebees will fly even in poor conditions but they do need tussicky grass in field margins to overwinter, often in small mammal holes. To make a difference, such changes need to be on a 'landscape' scale, hence the 'farm clusters' now established throughout the UK and notably in our own backyard in the Chalke Valley, southward round Martin Down on Cranborne Chase and in our own Nadder Valley, where Peter Shallcross now leads the new Farmers Group.
We can be encouraged by the work done, for which Payments out of Government (ie taxpayers') funds are almost always one of the four essentials along with People, Planning and Passion. The latter three are definitely not in short supply so let us hope the first can withstand the assault of COVID and BREXIT. (This video is of the famous 'jangling keys' song of the corn bunting, now on its way back in this area thanks no doubt to our Farm Clusters.) For more information about these Farm Clusters, go to their website: it's a fascinating read. It's not just the pretty-pretty stuff that fascinates - insects are I think the largest class of animal life on earth, and we have about 20,000 species in Britain. The closer you get, the more amazing they are. Here are some of what we've managed to photograph in and around Tisbury over the past week or so.
Of Andrew Carter's photo of the hoverfly on hawkweed, Peter Shallcross (our resident insects guru), said there's an interesting way of telling the sexes apart. 'In common with many other species of hoverfly, males have the eyes meeting on the top of the head, whilst females have their eyes widely separated. Adults are very similar in appearance to Syrphus vitripennis and Syrphus torvus.' Of the rather gruesome photo, Peter said, 'Crab spiders are voracious: I watched one overpower an oil beetle larva much larger than itself on Swallowcliffe down in early May.' Just great to learn something new. If it hadn’t been for the coronavirus we would have urged you to join an excursion we were due to make to Martin Green’s organic farm at Sixpenny Handley. When our Chairman Peter Shallcross asked him to give us some idea of what we would miss, Martin replied: “We have just had an unprecedented number of raptors on the farm & adjacent this weekend. My neighbours cut an adjacent field for silage last week and since it has been a focal point for feeding - a few hundred corvids at least 7 red kites & 10 buzzards and a marsh harrier - not bad! Anyway my friend James Phillips visited and recorded these species on the farm – around our pond and in a re-wilding area - hopefully gives a feel for what your group may have seen here. Maybe next year…………….?” And he copied James Phillips’ message:
“17th May 2020: Around the pond and woodland planting: Highlights were Emperor dragonfly, Azure and Large Red damselfly, Small blue, Common blue, Green hairstreak, Large skipper butterflies, Burnet companion moth plus singing Lesser Whitethroat in the woodland scrub and a pair of Corn bunting and a pair of Yellowhammer on territory around the pond. 12 Hectares: Highlights were Grey partridge on territory calling, 3 pairs of Yellowhammer, a flock of 16 Corn bunting plus 4 pairs on territory, 1 pair of Linnets, 6 singing Skylark and 2 Brown hare with at least 3-4 Red kite over the nearby woodlands towards Wimborne St Giles. It’s was also great to see the Woad still in flower.” To give you a start on what to look out for when up on Cranborne Chase, here are James's photos and others from our growing photo-library. Should you need help identifying, I do intend to provide a list of the myriad apps now available. For birds, meantime, the British Trust for Ornithology has a wonderful page to help you. The RHS is calling all gardeners! The beneficial Yellow Cellar Slug, which only eats dead material, is facing extinction due to the invasive Green Cellar Slug and they need your help (this is not 1 April!). Join the springtime slug hunt to help them understand how to encourage and protect these little creatures. Go to the Cellar Slug Hunt web page for full information.
Chairman Peter Shallcross came across this 'interesting' larva at Boscombe Cutting this week. Dr John Muggleton helped with the identification: 'The black slimy grub on hawthorn is the larva of a sawfly, known as the Pear and Cherry Slugworm (Caliroa cerasi). It feeds on a number of rosaceous plants including hawthorn and, as the name suggests, pear and cherry. There are three generations a year and the larvae found at this time of the year overwinter in the soil before pupating in the Spring. They exude the slimy stuff as a form of protection - underneath is a normal sawfly larva.' |
Photo: Avocets (Izzy Fry)
The headers display photos taken by our members. Do get in touch via the Contact Form if you'd like to submit a photo for selection.
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