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.