Category Archives: animals

Smell a rat?

27 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by in animals, mammal, nature

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

If you don’t like rats, look away now!

170927 Brown rat (4)

While I realise that a blog about rats might not appeal to everyone, I rarely get to see or write about mammals so, when these two rats came brazenly sniffing around for the seeds I was feeding to the birds at Cosmeston, I couldn’t resist taking photos. And once I have photos, a blog shall surely follow.

These are Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus), immigrants from central Asia that arrived in Britain around 1720. Of course, I don’t mean these two individuals arrived in 1720 – rats usually only live about a year in the wild – but their ancestors were sea-going rodents that just loved to sail the oceans wide and jumped ship wherever they docked. Nowadays, rats are more settled, and they’ll live almost anywhere – houses, gardens, parks, farmlands and farm buildings – you name it, there’s probably a rat in it somewhere.

170927 Brown rat (5)

They particularly like cereals – so, my bird seed would’ve gone down a treat – but they’ll eat pretty much anything, from small birds and their eggs to molluscs and food scraps. If you’re someone who hates these much-maligned creatures, remember that they too play an important part in the food chain, in particular as food for the owls and foxes that everyone loves.

The taming of the shrew

23 Saturday Sep 2017

Posted by in animals, mammal, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

I have only ever seen two shrews, both sadly deceased. Britain has two species of shrew, the Common (Sorex araneus) and the Pygmy (Sorex minutus), but I believe the ones I have seen have been Pygmy shrews. Though both species have brown fur on their backs and silvery grey fur on their bellies, and they are of a similar size, the Pygmy shrew has a tail that is two-thirds the length of its body, whereas the Common shrew’s is half the length. It’s a small distinction and I’m sure experts could point to more scientific methods of distinguishing one from the other but, for me, the tail has to be the telling point.

170923 Pygmy shrew (1)

Pygmy shrews lead short but frantic lives. In their twelve to eighteen months of life the females can give birth to two, sometimes three litters of between 5 and 7 young. Though very few people ever see them, they are common in much of Britain, ferreting about frantically, in grasslands, woodlands, the fringes of arable fields and in the urban garden, for the small insects they like to eat. As you can see, they have tiny eyes but that relatively large snout gives them a keen sense of smell to help find their prey.

170923 Pygmy shrew (2)

In case you’re wondering how I managed to get such detailed photos of this little Pygmy shrew, I brought it home with me. This wasn’t just to get photos – through someone I know who is doing a PhD in biosciences at Cardiff University, this little creature has been donated to science. Its details will help in the study of these often elusive small mammals, and it will be preserved and used as a teaching aid. I was sad to find such a gorgeous wee beastie dead but at least its death has not been in vain.

Ratty!

05 Saturday Aug 2017

Posted by in animals, nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Of course, the ‘Ratty’ in Kenneth Grahame’s much-loved tale The Wind in the Willows is not, in fact, a rat, it’s a Water vole (Arvicola amphibius), as are the gorgeous little creatures in my photographs.

170805 Water vole (2)

Water vole numbers have declined hugely in recent years, partly, it seems, due to predation by American minks and partly due to loss of habitat. Luckily for me, one hundred Ratties were recently reintroduced at one of my local country parks, and a few of them have made themselves at home in a location where they are easily visible.

170805 Water vole (1)

You have only to be quiet and watchful to see them swim out from their hiding places amongst the reeds at the edge of a pond, nip off a leaf from the floating water lilies, swim back to the pond edge, and sit contentedly nibbling away. They are the cutest wee creatures!

170805 Water vole (3)

‘A Natural History of the Hedgerow’

08 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by in animals, birds, fungi, nature, plants, trees, wildflowers

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

170708 hedgerows (1)

Reading John Wright’s excellent book A Natural History of the Hedgerow and ditches, dykes and dry stone walls (Profile Books, London, 2016) has led me to look at the countryside with slightly more knowledgeable eyes, at least when it comes to field boundaries.

170708 hedgerows (6)

Not only does Wright’s book provide a superbly researched history of the hedges, dykes, ditches and dry stone walls that divide up the countryside, it also provides detailed information on the plants, birds, invertebrates and animals that inhabit Britain’s hedgerows, as well as including practical details on how the various boundaries are constructed and maintained.

Now, when I go out on my rural rambles or I’m being transported through the countryside by train, car or bus, I can recognise where hedges must once have grown by the broken line of mature trees marching across a field, I shake my head at the neglect of the hedgerows on so many farms (though I can appreciate the sculptural beauty of ancient hedgerow trees), I can spot where farmers have removed existing boundaries to create huge open fields, and I can appreciate how well-maintained hedges add an extra dimension to the landscape.

170708 hedgerows (4)

Wales and England now have legislation in place to protect hedgerows that meet certain criteria but it would be good if all hedgerows were protected and if more was done to ensure existing hedges were also properly nurtured and maintained.

The Welsh sheep

26 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by in animals, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, ,

When I relocated from New Zealand to Wales in 2015, it didn’t occur to me that I was swopping one sheep-filled nation with another but so it has turned out.

170626 Welsh sheep (1)

Wales has around 10 million sheep; Welsh lamb is considered a delicacy; beautiful wool is produced locally; and I sometimes hear the same lewd sheep jokes that I used to hear in New Zealand.

170626 Welsh sheep (2)

The Welsh have taken their worship of the sheep one step further than New Zealand – there’s a National Wool Museum and, no, I haven’t been – but New Zealand still has a higher sheep to human ratio than Wales, at 7 to 1 as opposed to a measly 4 to 1.

170626 Welsh sheep (3)

I met this friendly Welsh local on my recent birding trip to Lliw Reservoirs.

Birding at Lliw Reservoirs

25 Sunday Jun 2017

Posted by in animals, birds, insects, nature, trees, walks, wildflowers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

170625 Lliw Reservoirs (3)

I celebrated the solstice with an outing with my Glamorgan Bird Club buddies to Lliw Reservoirs north of Swansea or, perhaps that should read, I sweated through the solstice – it was one of the hottest days of the year and the middle of a mini heatwave. Still, you know what they say about mad dogs and Englishmen (and Welshmen and a Kiwi) …

170625 Lliw Reservoirs (1)

It’s a superb location. The two reservoirs were built in the second half of the 19th century, and still supply water to communities throughout south Wales. We only walked up one side of both reservoirs, through broadleaf woodland and then out onto open areas of grass and scrub and moorland, but there’s an 8-mile circular walk, which would be brilliant in cooler weather and includes large open commons of heath moorland on the hilltops.

170625 Lliw Reservoirs (2)

We heard more small birds than we saw (but that’s helping me learn their songs); buzzards and magnificent red kites were soaring overhead; we heard then saw the elusive grasshopper warbler in flight; dragonflies and damsels and the odd butterfly flitted about; and there were lots of lovely wildflowers (my particular favourites were the foxgloves, tormentil and bog pimpernel). Oh and, most importantly, the locals were friendly and the cafe serves delicious ice cream!

Critters at RSPB Ham Wall

13 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by in animals, insects, nature, parks

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

The only problem with going on a birding trip is that, in order to get photos of the birdies, I usually have my long lens on my camera, which means it’s then not easy to get photos of all the lovely smaller creatures I see as I’m walking around. And both RSPB Ham Wall Nature Reserve and, just across the road, Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve have a profusion of delightful, and sometimes rare smaller creatures to be seen.

170613 Shapwick Heath

In particular, we saw a wealth of damsel- and dragonflies, including several of the Four-spotted chasers and Black-tailed skimmers shown below and, we think, the unusual Variable damselfly (though this can be tricky to identify). Spiders were particularly abundant on the path-side scrub, as were Dock beetles, judging from all the holey leaves we saw.

170613 RSPB Ham Wall critters (1)

170613 RSPB Ham Wall critters (2)

We rescued several large hairy caterpillars which were determinedly marching across the paths but risked annihilation from feet and bicycle tyres, as well as one large and very friendly Caddisfly (above). Butterflies weren’t as plentiful as I expected, though we did see good numbers of very fresh Small tortoiseshells, presumably newly hatched.

The most unexpected sighting, and a highlight for me, was a Roe deer on the canal-side bank in Shapwick Heath. Only its head and its very large ears could be seen, as it munched happily on a large green mouthful of vegetation while keeping a close eye on our admiring group of photographers.

170613 Roe deer

As I mentioned in yesterday’s piece on the birds of Ham Wall, you really need a week to explore these superb reserves thoroughly and then you might be lucky enough to see their resident water voles and otters. I have to go back!

Botanising, with insects

30 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in animals, birds, insects, molluscs, nature, slugs

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I returned from my last Botany Group walk with more photos of insects – and other living creatures – than plants. The Gorse weevil got a blog of its own yesterday; now here are some of our other finds.

Firstly, a couple more weevils, both on nettle and the second one is definitely a Neetle weevil (Phyllobius pomacues) but I’m not sure about the first. The Click beetle was also found on nettle.

These two were at a farm we passed through; the sheep was lording it over the home paddock and the rooster was king of the farmyard. Both handsome dudes!

A nice little grouping of slug species, with their small friend, the Granny Grey, and a grasshopper. There were lots of these hopping round on grass and rushes in a boggy field. It may be a juvenile Meadow grasshopper but I’m not 100% sure.

A little flock of Micropterix cathella moths were feasting on this grass flower, and there were lots of other small moths, probably one of the Bactra species, plus an unidentified spider with a distinctive striped body.

And last, but certainly not least, these Bloody-nosed beetles (Timarcha tenebricosa). The photo on the left shows the chubby larva and on the right is the adult beetle munching on a grass stalk.