Hare Today Gone Tomorrow

“This week I will be mostly eating…….well wood pigeon actually”, I’ve been helping a farmer friend out up near Morpeth with a pigeon problem on his newly sown winter cereals and this wild harvest is one of the tastiest free meals you can get, I think its like best fillet steak. But the whole exercise got me thinking about what's good and what’s bad about certain land use practices and what effects this has on our wildlife.

A serious agricultural pest (but very tasty) - the wood pigeon

My farmer friend is very good, his hedges are tall and bushy and not flailed to within an inch of their life like many are, he rarely cuts them leaving a varied canopy and they maintain a good crop of berries and other fruits. They have been supplemented with additional plantings to vary the species mix. He also leaves good margins around his arable fields, which have healthy vole populations that the resident barn owls enjoy and there is always some winter stubble for the small birds and most importantly through good stewardship his use of pesticides and fertilizers has been dramatically reduced so he has a very good bug population.

All of these factors were very apparent as I sat in my hide waiting for more pigeons to arrive. The small bird population was excellent and being swelled by recent autumn arrivals the day was a very pleasant experience. The final accolade for the day was on returning to my vehicle I was witness to a titanic struggle between two of natures finest athletes.

Passing the rape fields with Morpeth as the backdrop, ear splitting screams were emanating from the hedge, knowing what might be ensuing I crouched down to witness the spectacle. Stoat vs rabbit a time immemorial struggle but hang on thats no ordinary rabbit!! stoat vs hare, WOW now there’s a fight. There was only going to be one winner in this struggle, the hare I thought…….wrong!

The mightiest of hunters - the stoat

Despite the obvious weight and size differences, the stoat clung gamely to its task looking something like Lester Piggott astride a giant Percheron galloping over the plains. I didn’t for one second think it stood a chance as the bucking bronco show continued for nearly five minutes, all the time the little soldier hung gamely on. Then it was over, his mortal grip complete the hare sank into the rape with just a final kick of the leg.

Not quite fully grown but what a size difference, what an achievement, why go to the Serengeti when you have this on your doorstep.

The message was clear as I passed through the neighbouring farmland on my way home, here the hedges were skeletal, the fields were large and barren, save for sentinel trees with their obligatory crows aloft.

Such simple measures, sometimes so quick to install and execute can have such profound effects on our beleaguered wildlife. On our little farm, hares are common, so the loss of one to a predator is a perfect example of nature as it should be pure and unadulterated, ‘red in tooth and claw’. It is an example of how a little effort can go a long way, if only more land managers and government would follow suit and put a little more aside, oh and we dont carry out predator control we let them control themselves.

As for me I had an experience that will live me forever, one that I revisited over and over again as I tucked into my pigeon a la O’Hara, until next time keep watchin.

Misty mornings and supermarket trolley’s

The good thing about this week is the longer mornings, for a short while at least I hate waking up in the dark of winter. The shorter nights also means you have to make the most of the shorter periods of daylight to do what you have to do, walk the dogs, estate work just getting a breath of fresh air it is all to limiting in the winter months, I hate it!

I definitly support the Lighter Later Campaign/Lighter Later Bill and the growing call for us all to put our clocks back GMT+1 in winter and GMT+2 in the summer so we all get more daylight, all we need to do now is sort the god dam awful British weather out.

It has been reasonably mild of recent with the rain and wind punctuated by some decent sunny days. This has allowed some of the late autumns finest highlights to be witnessed. Mist in the morning can be truly breath taking especially as it just starts to clear, the first rays of sunlight highlight the dew and the cobwebs that are abundant in the autumn.

Low lying damp or coastal areas always produce the best, I was heading north on the A1 over the Wansbeck at the weekend and the whole of the river channel was cloaked in a misty shroud. Mist hung in clumps like giant unearthly sheep in the corner of fields and flocks of fieldfare were flirting with the hedgerows.

Just as was loosing myself in this early morning heaven I had to brake harshly to avoid a couple of roe deer hurdling the single carriage way near Priest’s bridge, dozzy gits!!! that was a close one but I wouldn’t have knocked a bit of venison for Sunday lunch had it come my way. On a serious note they can cause some considerable amount of damage to motorists every year let alone themselves, and I don’t think many people believe there are as many in the countryside as there is.

The roe deer is a very common animal indeed and even where I live it is a visitor to my neighbours, last winter playing havoc with Mrs Smiths herbaceous border. Time we brought some lynx back into play is my suggestion but that again is another story, why can’t we?

I was off a little further a field up to an area around Kimmer Lough in Northumberland to see if the roe’s larger cousin was strutting his stuff. I wondered if there was still any of the ‘legendary’ red deer still hanging around. I was sent a photo a few years back but have heard (no pun meant) nothing since. I didn’t see or hear anything but I had a good jaunt, the dogs really working hard for their supper, to which they remined me I had to get some dog food.

Swinging by a well known supermarket in central Ashington witha tip off on my phone I was greeted with a late t-time surprise in the shape of a sizable flock of those exquisite Siberian visitors, the waxwing. Apparently a large influx of the birds has been incoming over the past week down the whole of the east coast. These are sure fire sign that the winter is nearly here as their numbers rise with the chill factor. The colder it is in the north the more birds descend for better feeding further south. Not sure what that says for our coming winter, we will have to wait and see, meanwhile im going to enjoy the waxwings while they are here. It was very drab the day I saw these waxwings so the images are poor one day I'll catch some in the sun.

A cry in the dark

One thing I like about this time of the year is that there is a bit of noise in the gardens and countryside again, the birds are starting to sing again after there moult. That may surprise a few people who think birds only sing in the spring and early summer but our residents have a full time job on their hands to keep up the tunes.

Why do birds sing? Well it’s simple really, to attract the ladies of course or is it? It is far more complex than just that. The typical songs of many birds are for just that reason, attracting the ladies but why would a dipper or a blackbird be singing to himself in October or a robin or wren be belting out their songs also. Territories! That’s what it’s all about and letting everyone else know you’re still here and you will be available until the music stops or someone better comes along.

Once the hurly burly of the breeding season is over there is time to relax and get a new set of feathers, rebuild your strength and then start it all over again. You won’t hear the same dawn and dusk chorus as you did in early May, but song nevertheless returns to the air.

However, it is not just birds that become more vocal again as the nights draw in. Mammals start to become more vocal for various reasons. Being late one evening walking the dogs last November I remember being startled by the shrieks in the early evening, banshee like screams from the depths of the wood. I met another walker who was transfixed and a little perturbed as to the culprit and when I said it was a badger she was most annoyed declaring badgers don’t scream they are nice creatures and couldn’t possibly make a noise like that.

I moved on with wry smile thinking back to a screaming badger I witnessed outside of my bedroom window many years back and thought to myself, aye badgers don’t scream. Nobody really knows why they have this particular habit but its one that more often than not in my experience occurs more in winter.

Soon the still winter air will be shattered by the unearthly shrieks of another denizen of the night, the fox will be in search of his mate. As the mating season approaches they become more and more vocal in their search for a mate to secure the next generation. Of course the badger will have already mated earlier in the year, using delayed implantation to secure and early New Year birth for their young. Foxes will have to contest the harshness of winter, starvation and several fights with rivals before they secure their next generation.

A harsh time for the fox but one I look forward to as their calls stirs something primeval and it lets us know there are still wild creatures out there in our crowded little country.