Tempting fate

We have been really blessed with the weather, so for someone like me who never misses an opportunity to gripe at the lack of it this is a real bonus but as they say we are never happy and I could do with some rain for the garden right now, but only at night on week days only and not on the bank holidays.



Ladybirds great to have around the garden

 The warm spring has seen a flurry of insect activity, there are plenty of ladybirds in the garden and plenty more less desirable ones on the wing too. This will hopefully bode well for many bird species whose previous two breeding seasons have been very much a wash out. Both my nest boxes have occupants and there is also a blue tit nesting in the park wall so here's hoping for a bumper year.


The fine weather is bringing a constant stream of migrants to our shores and also allowed several more intolerant species to stay too. Avocets, a remarkable looking wader, are finding the conditions in and around our Trusts nature reserves in Druridge Bay very much to their liking, as up to 6 birds are regularly present. The marsh harriers too have returned and we are more than hopeful conditions will suit breeding better this year. Its great to see such fantastic birds and proof that the varied management regimes within the Bay’s nature reserves is working to increase the abundance and variety of species present.



Beautiful and elegant avocets

 Whilst doing some WeBs survey counts last week I was also treated to another magnificent summer visitor. Mobbed by a throng of smaller birds and gulls an osprey winged its way lazily up country along the coastline at Hendon in Sunderland (yes it did have a flak jacket on). Hopefully they too will be successful again at Kielder water and thus bolstering further the English population.


Osprey


It is early days but there are indications maybe that some policies are working in the wider context. Druridge Bay, Kielder along with Prestwick Carr and several other larger areas are all part of this bigger picture, this vision of a joined up landscape fit for people and wildlife, the Living Landscape. Getting this right on a large scale will help so many species overcome their population declines and start to flourish again.


Some species however will always need that extra helping hand, I mentioned the dormouse last week and our efforts in woodland management, and another species in dire need of an extra helping hand is the water vole. This little fellow once so familiar to many of use along our rivers and streams is now confined to the north Pennines. Lost from the bulk of the County by predation by non native American mink and habitat loss this species lives in reasonable densities where it survives but try as you might it is very difficult to get them to expand their range through conventional habitat improvements.



Mink and kit

 It’s a complicated affair but basically water voles won’t expand their range unless there is a good reason to do so, that being the presence or near presence of their own species. The habitat can be superb but if there are no other voles in the vicinity they will just stay put such is their dispersal strategy.


It would be wrong to contemplate encouraging the species to expand without any control of mink, its arch nemesis. These however are some of the decisions you have to take to safeguard a species.



Damp water vole

 I was reminded of these factors last week whilst in Allendale, there is some superb habitat available but no water voles, yet just a few miles upstream they are abundant in places. Around Druridge Bay this was the same storey, along the Wansbeck too, in fact almost everywhere in the region. I can remember them there myself whilst conducting otter surveys now they are all gone.


So whilst we have some success stories that fill the media there are as many that are not quite as successful or as easy to solve as some may think.


For the water vole there is hope but we wait with baited breath for its outcome, but that they say is another storey for another day.

Dormouse Hunt

Im going to stick with the woodland theme again this week as I have had a recent opportunity to contribute to the management and ecology of one of our Trust’s woodland reserves. We are very fortunate at the Trust to get some great sponsorship from the Peoples Post Code Lottery that enables use to do many varied and vital elements of conservation work we would not easily be able to do otherwise.



Dormouse asleep with hazel nut cache

Briarwood banks is an excellent example of relic ancient semi natural woodland, this woodland along with its neighbours along the river Allen host one of the countries smallest, rarest and most enigmatic creatures present in the northeast of England, the quite ironically called, Common or Hazel dormouse.

There is only one native species of dormouse in Britain, whose basic biology is very different from that of ordinary ‘mice’. The hazel dormouse is a distinctive native mammal that is infrequently seen owing to its rarity and nocturnal habits. It is rarely caught in traps or by predators such as cats and owls, so it is easily overlooked even where present.

Dormouse with another favourite food, Blackberries, that are now flourishing now the canopy has been reduced in Briarwood

Moreover, it spends most of its active time high off the ground and passes at least a third of the year in profound hibernation, again making it unlikely to be seen by the casual observer. Dormice hibernate on or under the ground from about October until March or April. Formerly it was also found by woodland workers during coppicing and hedge laying operations, who would often take these attractive animals home to show to their children. The dormouse is therefore a familiar species, despite being rarely encountered in the wild.


The most northerly populations are in and around our site near Hexham which begs the question why? Well again it is down to lack of traditional woodland practices, inappropriate woodland practices, reduction in and poor management of hedgerows plus a general paucity of woodland in the north. They were however more widespread just over a hundred years ago with records from the main Wansbeck valley and river Font valleys.



Good hazel coppice for dormice

 We only know of their presence in Briarwood Banks because we have found their characteristic feeding signs as the last live one to be seen was over two years ago on neighbouring land. Through grants by the Forestry Commission we have been able to increase our woodland management to favour dormouse and with the assistance of the Post Code Lottery funding I was able with some very helpful volunteers to erect 25 dormouse nest boxes on site to assist our monitoring programme.



Dormouse box secured to a tree in Briarwood Banks

 It got me thinking though, of the past locations dormouse had been recorded in and would they still be there. The main reason dormouse survived in the present location was because the woodland survived, even after WW1 there was still substantial areas left because of they difficulty of getting the timber out. Very much why the woodlands along the Wansbeck still survive today too?


So if the woodlands are the same why are no dormouse still present, well that answer is simple we really don’t know because of the difficulties outlined in finding the species. Another reason is the woodlands of Briarwood along with adjacent lands have been in conservation management for x amount of years so they have been monitored and surveyed specifically more than other woodlands might be. They may well still be in existence along the river Font as there are plenty of hazel and honeysuckle plants, two of the dormouse’s favourites, but this truly is an enigmatic creature and without really looking very hard for signs we really will not know.

Hazel nut opened by a dormouse

So here is a challenge for all you budding wildlife detectives, go looking for gnawed hazel nuts, or stripped honeysuckle fronds. The hole left by a dormouse in a hazel nut is very characteristic it has a very smooth circular hole without teeth mark on the outside of the shell. If anyone also has a record of a dormouse, no matter how old that would be useful too, drop me a line because you just never know they may still be out there.

Wild Boar

Squeal like a pig boy!!

Last week I mentioned woodlands and how little we have, well this week I'm going to have a go at the management of woodland or lack of it. The valleys of the lower river Blyth and most of the Wansbeck catchment Northumberland have got some excellent woodland’s along their length which greatly aids the quality of this environment but there are certain elements missing from these woods that make them completely functioning ecosystems. They are not alone throughout the entire region and indeed the whole country there is a paucity of good favourably conditioned woodlands.

The last real remnants destroyed to service the Royal Navy and the industrial revolution, the final realisation coming with timber shortages for the Great War 1914/18. The formation of the Forestry Commission in 1919 led to mass afforestation with commercial conifer plantations. The remaining relics, clinging to steep valley sides have remained largely un-managed and in neglect as mechanisation and changing needs have reduced the need to coppice, pollard and other woodland crafts. Only in very recent times has there been a drive to plant more woodlands of the deciduous type; but again that mangement element is missing after woods establish.



Boar recycling un-recycleable beech litter

Having visited many forested areas across mainland Europe the diversity of species is far greater than ours; it can be explained in some part by the UK’s geographic isolation but also in many more ways by the effects of man. I watched a documentary recently about the forest of Dean and the views expressed by foresters etc. as to the presence of certain species in the woods especially wild boar were very depressing. I was very surprised to note how negative the majority were about their presence yet these same people were much less ambivalent about the presence of destructive non native fallow deer. It struck me as a bit of a contradiction on how to achieve the degree of naturalness they were trying to create. In a sense it showed how much we have become divorced from nature and how little many people know about what is natural, native or right.


Who's afraid of the big bad pig!

Less than 10 years ago there was a fledging population in Chopwell woods but the FC in all their wisdom shoot them. There reasoning, they were in a public woodland and may have posed a threat, these creatures live side by side humans all across Europe in many public forests with very little consequence save for those deliquent enough to let there dogs run out of control.

Now I don’t mean to alienate the fluffy bunny, tree hugging immigary so many have of trees and things 'natural' but the knowledge that outside a commercial plantation the nature of woodland is one of growth and death, change, structure, regrowth and not all about trees is sadly lacking. Don’t get me wrong trees are great but they are not the be all and end all of everything they need to be managed either directly or by natures own engineers, who lets face it have far more years experience than we do. We often get calls from the public over the felling of trees, displaying their outrage at felling trees, some of which are worthy but more often than not they are commercial crops reaching harvestable age and their loss is not great ecologically.

Some trees are ecological deserts whilst others veritable oasis’s on their own. Some are grown purely as a commercial crop whilst others for their recreational and environmental benefits. More often than not they are however left alone, unmanaged in their clinically lined planting orders clearly seen in the preponderance of plantations about the region. These then become dense, single storey, low diversity rubbish dumps without any form of management save some ad hoc vandalism.


The ferocious be-hackled wild boar, tusks gleaming, warning signsin the FoD

Having visited the forest of Dean many times post and pre wild boar the differences in such a short time are clear. If you can get past the hysteria that often accompanies these quiet inconspicious forest dwellers; what looks like destruction of the forest and up rooting of sapling trees is actually a huge benefit to the forest and it flora and fauna. Smothering bracken's and brambles are reduced, stale ground is uprooted beneath beech trees to allow plants to grow, the canopy is reduced over time as glades and clearing are created which allows light in creating more space for plants and invertebrates. Dead wood is created and the recycling of nutrients is completed as fungi proliferate. The uprooting activity creates feeding opportunities for life’s opportunists like birds such as the robin that will flick behind a rooting boar for any displaced insects, all told the cycle of death and rebirth is virtually complete.

A woodland is not meant to be packed with trees and trees alone there needs to be a range of tree heights and a range of tree density from thick to none at all allowing light to the forest floor and space for grazers and browsers. It is the actions of these creatures that make a woodland and wild boar are the principle architects. Stick in a few larger herbivores and may be a larger predator and you have architypal olde world forest.


Lynx anyone??

Without any major predators like wolves, which our health and safety conscious public would never allow, the next best thing would be the odd lynx or a sustainable harvest from the boar themselves via sporting rights. Now I don’t condone the source of these wild boar, I believe species', if re-introduced, need to be done legally and above board, but they are natives and they are here now so let’s make the most of them.

Now I'm not saying re-introduce them up here, right now, although I can’t hide my support for such things but think more broadly. As a tool on a grand scale as we seek to re-naturalise our landscapes and diversify our management of the land, wild boar are a successful element of any landscape and great tourism draw. Many local tour operators now exploit their presence in the forest of Dean and elsewhere.

Just think what would your rather come across in Ashington community woodlands or their like, a 'sounder' of wild boar or the sound of a Suzuki 125, and besides wild boar sausages, what more could you ask for, magnificent.


Yummmmmy wild boar sausages

Our woodlands and landscapes are special places but they don’t manage themselves and dont get me going on to beaver again.