Bluebells- A Fine Excuse To Pause Revision, & Insomnia In Teens

Did I mention that I have an exam in a fortnight?

I've been revising Like Mad today, in between washing the towels, taking L who is home with a sore eye to the nurse, getting essentials from Waitrose (french bread, strawberry jam, muffins, hot chocolate) and baking some chocolate chip buns to take L's mind off the sore eye (a small stye, as it turns out).

He's been having huge problems sleeping of late, poor lad. He's always been a bit of a night owl (as was I at that age) but over the last few months his sleep rhythm has shifted considerably and at the moment he can't go to sleep till 2am and then can't wake till 11am. Teenagers need between 8-9 hours sleep a night.

Apparently, this shift in sleep patterns is not at all uncommon in teenagers- their circadian rhythm alters to a later production of melatonin (the sleep hormone) which means they can't sleep until the level of melatonin in their bodies is high enough. 

In adults, melatonin levels usually begin to rise about 9pm, and within two hours there's enough of it in the body to make us feel sleepy. Melatonin production only happens at night when it's dark, and it drops sharply after twelves hours when, for most of us, the natural light of day has returned. But in teenagers it doesn't kick in until much later, and as a result, teenagers are frequently on a different sleep/ wake pattern to adults. Add to this that most teens stare at artificial light sources (TV, computer, mobiles) until late into the night, and you can see how it complicates things for them.

Yesterday, I did a load of research and printed out a sheet for L with useful suggestions to help train your body back into natural restful sleep (thankfully reinforced by the nurse this morning), and he did take heed of it last night by turning the TV and computer off early and going up to bed to read and listen to music. It's going to take time to reset his patterns but I'm really hoping things will start to settle down for him soon. School is increasingly demanding and they are exposed to so much pressure these days in so many ways. We live quiet, simple, peaceful lives here, but even so you can't always block everything that's of a noisy and distracting nature out.

Anyway, back to the revision.... Having written up the history of conservation in GB over the last hundred years and started to look at human influences on EU biomes, I have decided a break is in order, to refresh my brain and prevent it from exploding, so you're getting a post on Bluebells today :o)

On Sunday, I dragged M and the dogs to Great Copse to look at the Bluebells. Great Copse is part of an ancient wood (circa at least 1600 but probably much, much older) and as such it boasts one of the thickest, bluest carpets of bluebells you are likely to see. They are Very Fine, and I always visit them at this time of year.

Last year, Casey over in the States was inspired to write one of those Japanese short poem thingies (the name escapes me right now, which is all the evidence I need that any further revising today is pointless), when he saw one of the photos of the wood. I wonder who they will inspire this year?

 
Glorious, no?

While there, we also saw this Very Small who landed on my arm (not liking the way my skin looks like an elephant's hide close up AT ALL)....

And a St Mark's Fly at rest (they are everywhere at the mo- flying about with their big dangly legs hanging in the air beneath them)....

Once we got home with the sun still shining I popped round the garden with camera in hand to record how everything was doing. The high winds and rain of the past two days has knocked it all about a bit since then....

Top pic: our beautiful Camellia (have been promising her I'd get a good piccy and put it on the blog for ages, because last year she was over-crowded and couldn't muster any enthusiasm for flowering at all but now, since we took all the scrub down that was growing too close to her, she's blossomed like mad, bless her cottons).
2nd pic: Dock Bug on Sorrel, 3rd pic: Red Damsel resting on the lily leaf and 4th pic: white violas for my moths.

I'll leave you with a pic of the world as seen by Teddy...

Wishing you all a Peaceful Evening, full of Good Sleeps,

CT :o)

A Magical Encounter With A Brown Hare At Dawn & Farmland Bird Recording For The BTO On The Chalk

Before I say anything else, I am Under Strict Instruction from one Mr Ted Westie to pass on his delight at the response to his request for new Pigeon Watchers Club members. He tells me that membership now stands at a Whooping 14, including several new International Members. He is Thrilled and has been Pigeon Watching here over the weekend with renewed vigour and dedication ever since (although Poppy got distracted by a fly and was in imminent danger of having her membership revoked as a result. It took some sorting out, believe me.....) :o)

Right, on with the post.

I signed up at the tail end of last year to do some Breeding Bird Surveys for the BTO and was assigned a square up on The Chalk. It is the most beautiful transect to walk, running through bluebell woods, crossing an ancient Roman road and following a section of the Clarendon Way across acres of rolling farmland, before coming out in a idyllic medieval village stuffed full with chocolate-box-type  thatched cottages. It takes in some really stunning countryside, which more or less makes up for the fact that Breeding Bird Surveys are Summer Affairs that start as close to Dawn as you can persuade your aging body to get up and go outside for. As a result of this I fell asleep on the sofa at 2pm with the dogs crashed out beside me, and only woke when Waitrose turned up at 4 to deliver our weekly food shop, sending Teddy off into full on Guard Dog Patrol Bark Mode.

You may understand this better when I tell you I was awake at 4.30am yesterday, was up at 5 and had started the survey by 5.50. 

They are run along Very Precise Rules. You complete two surveys, the first early April to mid May and the second mid May to late June, with each at least four weeks apart. They need to be done so they avoid the frenetic activity of dawn and the quieter time from mid morning on. We don't do them in heavy rain or strong wind either and you record weather conditions as well as start and finish times. The birds you see and hear are all noted down in one of three sections on the form: within 25m of the transect line, between 25-100m of the line and more than 100m of the line. Each species has a specific code attached to it and you use an arrow under the code to represent birds you see in flight. Juveniles aren't recorded and you also don't make a distinction between males and females. In addition to this, you note down details of the habitat type for each of the 200m sections along the two transect lines.

Sounds quite complicated and I have to admit quailing when I first saw the forms, but actually they are reasonably self-explanatory and as soon as you start you realise it really isn't rocket science....

You do have to be reasonably proficient at recognising bird song to do these surveys because, believe it or not, you don't actually see many birds while surveying. Last summer I would not have been good enough - my ability to confidently id birds from song alone was restricted to our regular garden visitors, but I have worked and worked at bird song ids and am now not too bad. The list recorded yesterday stands at:

Yellow Hammer
Wood Pigeon (more of these than anything else!)
Skylark
Wren
Robin
Chaffinch
Song Thrush
Blackbird
Blackcap
White Throat
Cuckoo
Dunnock
Great Tit
Chiffchaff
Red Legged Partridge
Goldfinch
Linnet
Tree Creeper
Green Woodpecker
Carrion Crow
Swallow

I was surprised not to hear Blue Tits, Green Finches or Goldcrests, but perhaps we'll get those on the second trip. The other thing that's worth noting is that it is Hard Work concentrating for over an hour on each and every bird call at a time of day when they are all shouting loudly at the same time. My head was spinning by the end and, much as I enjoyed it, it was something of a relief just to enjoy the birdsong and not work out who was who when we finished!

All the recordings are sent to the BTO who then use them to monitor species trends and advise Government and European conservation legislation as well as habitat management, so the surveys are vitally important.

We only had the little camera and my mobile with us, so the pics are not really up to my usual high exacting standards (!), but I want to show you the magical thing that happened while we were surveying....

A beautiful Brown Hare came hopping up the track towards us. We both froze, I thought he hadn't seen us and would hop over our feet. He came ever so close, but eventually he hopped under a gate a few feet away and went into the next door field. 

I love hares, they are magical creatures.

In 1800 there were approx. 4 million hares in Britain, but they are thought to have suffered an 80% population decline in the last 100 years, and they are now believed to be entirely absent from some areas of the country.
There are very few, if any, left in the west of the UK- instead the main bulk of the population resides in the east with its large number of arable fields.

Certainly, I used to see a lot more of them 20 years ago. Watching Mad March Hares boxing was a not uncommon site when I lived up on The Chalk, but its now a phenomenon that few people have seen. Habitat loss, changes in farming practice, hedgerow removal and pesticide use are the likely culprits. As well as hunting and persecution. The pesticide one is nasty- it gets on their paws while they are hopping among fields looking for food, so they lick them to try and clean them, ingest the toxins and die a painful death. Illegal trapping and hare coursing are barbaric too.

They are considered a pest species by some farmers because they eat some crops. The Brown Hare's preferred food source is actually grasses and herbs, with grasses forming their summer diet and herbs the winter food source. If you take all the grass and herbs out of an environment by removing hedges and creating mono-cultures of cereals and vegetables then you leave the wildlife little chance to feed naturally, so they will turn to whatever is available to them. It's the same problem otters face with over-stocked fishing lakes and rivers. They're an irresistible draw- an easy meal. Our local keeper allows a budget of £6000 to feed his otters per annum, reasoning that it's his responsibility to look after them. If only everyone was so enlightened when it came to caring for the wildlife on their patch.
The huge loss in hay meadows and the preference for silage making has also impacted heavily on hares, both as food and shelter sources. The farming practice of stripping fields bare of cover over winter also hasn't helped them, although thanks to environmental farming schemes that is decreasing now.

For some reason best known to DEFRA (let's not start on that one or we'll be here all night) hares are the only game species NOT to have a closed season. This means they can be legitimately shot all year round, including when they have young. Leverets (baby hares) are thus orphaned and left to starve. A campaign to get them a closed season was rejected by the Government in 2013. Because of this, the only legislation that gives hares a modicum of protection dates from 1892, which is a tad ancient, even by archaic UK conservation legislation standards.
They do have their own BAP (Biodiversity Action Plan) which aimed to double their numbers by 2010. I doubt that has been achieved. But, the good news is that hares appear to be relatively resilient at bouncing back when given a chance- there are records of hares breeding in every month now, presumably a climate-change link is at work there, so if we can look after their habitat better hopefully they can make a come back. As with all things, we also need to demonstrate that hares are not responsible for decimating crops by themselves and can live peacefully side by side with agriculture.

They are remarkable creatures- did you know they can accelerate up to 45mph? 

If you want to know more, or feel moved to support them in a more direct way, the Hare Preservation Trust's website can be found  here  . Membership is £10 per year and I have just joined :o) I've also registered the sighting with them- if you live in the UK and happen to see any Hares when you're out and about I'm sure they'd be very grateful for the record. The form can be found at their website and is very easy to use.

I'll leave you with a few pics from yesterday's breeding bird survey, taken on the mobile so apologies for the quality, but you get the sense of very early morning, hopefully? I'll take the proper camera out with me next time....

 
Hope you're all well?

CT :o)

A Post By Ted

Good Evening everyone, Ted here :o)

Poppy and I are aware that it's been ages since we were on mum's blog (she's been far too consumed with showing you all insects and plants and the such like), so we've taken matters into our own paws and decided we'd do a post of our own.

Actually, I say we, but of course I mean I. The truth is that Poppy (who is not yet two) is far too silly to be trusted to write a reasonable post. I, on the other hand (who will attain the Grand Old Age of six this summer - where does the time go?) am far more sensible and also have a Proven Track Record of blogging, as we all know.

So, we thought we'd tell you what we've been up to recently.

It has been a Fairly Hectic Round of chasing each other round the garden (and the greenhouse- goes without saying really), chasing rats, chasing bees (we get into trouble for this), interspersed with some Interesting Walks out with mum, eating and sleeping in front of the fire. Yes, we still have a fire lit at night because it is so cold, brrrrr.

I actually caught a rat last week :o) Poppy is useless at ratting - would you believe she just sits and watches them? No effort to catch one AT ALL. It's all left up to me :o(  When I remonstrate with her about this and wonder out loud why it is all my considerable Rat Expertise is not sinking in, she just shrugs and says watching them is more interesting! Honestly! I ask you!

Here is me doing my Famous Alert Westie Rat Staring Stance (there is one of the little blighters in the hedge).... I could win prizes, couldn't I?
 

Quite a lot of my time at the moment is spent patrolling the patio and barking at the pigeons who are nesting in the hedge there. I swear they blow raspberries at me from that nest. This makes me feel Very Cross Indeed and I show my displeasure with them the most powerful way I know.....

Ha! That'll teach 'em to Mess With A Westie :o)

I have reformed the Pigeon Watcher's Club once again after the winter break. So far there are six members (me, Poppy, Dylan, Dougal, Ember and Toffee our cousins). If you would like to join, just drop me a message in the comments and let me know. Membership is free and lasts a lifetime, so it really represents extremely good value. Wouldn't it be marvellous if we could get members watching pigeons all round the world?

Here are Dougal and I demonstrating Pigeon Watching the summer before last. It isn't hard to master the technique, but you do need to be quite committed. Amazing really that the Club has been going that long....

Yesterday, mum and L went to see Grannie. Mum said it was probably the first time in our lives that Poppy and I have been cleaner and smarted than Dylan and Dougal, our Westie cousins. They are going to see Mrs Danning (our hairdresser) next week.

Mum had a hello message for us from Coco and Shanti, our horse cousins...

Coco came up to say his hello but Shanti didn't, she shouted it from the bottom of the field because she was worried her grass might disappear if she left it :o)

When mum got home we had a trip round the garden to look at plants (yawn)...

 

 
I made my feelings about this plain.....

But I Cheered Up considerably when Poppy got told off for jumping over the Ragged Robin by the pond and nearly pushing mum in it :o)

As usual, Pop wasn't remotely bothered....

There was a bit of a hoo-hah when Poppy thought she'd discovered a Monster on the wall....

She stood on the bench by the apple tree and eye-balled it in case it tried to crawl over and Get Her...

Matters weren't helped much by mum telling her it was an empty Dragon case. She had to go and have a lie down to get over her worries that a dragon might be flying around the garden :o)

When she'd woken up, we both went off into the garden again to see what we could find on the Insect Front. We have to be careful about this because if mum thinks we're actively looking for insects she follows us and shoos the insects away :o( 
Cunningly, I put her off the scent by pretending to enjoy looking up at the beech hedge leaves...

 
Meanwhile, Poppy spotted a very small spider hiding on the lavender that thankfully mum didn't see or there would have been an Embarrassing Scene involving screaming and running about with her arms waving wildly in the air. Sooo embarrassing....

I pondered why it should be that a dandelion looks insignificant from far away but amazingly impressive Close Up....

....And Poppy wondered whether the nasturtium seedlings were actually all that was left of an upside-down duck stuck in the soil.....

 Then she found a Bee who she said was staring at her....

A Footballer Hoverfly (she thinks)....

And a Scorpion Fly....

After all that Insect Watching we were both completely exhausted, so we went indoors, got in our basket and fell Fast Asleep.....

Night night :o)

Love Teddy (and Poppy) XXXX

 

Odds And Ends: Newt Hunting, Top Creation And General Stuff

It's been another busy week here.

On Thursday I did another talk on butterflies and Chalk Downlands, this time out on the hills beneath glowering grey skies which held the threat of what turned out to be hail, to a group of students from another college- 28 teenage lads, whom I had been warned would be a pain in the whatsit, intent only on mucking about and pushing each other down the steep slopes of the hill while not listening to a word I said.

Au contraire as it happens. They turned out to be a lovely bunch of boys who paid attention, asked intelligent questions, told me all about the conservation work they're involved with (including one lad who expressed a wish to have his own sheep and another who was off to do his first butterfly survey the following day) and they all said thank you and waved goodbye out of the minibus at the end. So that was All Good too.

Thursday night, the Butterfly Wizard and I met up just before dusk at college to survey two of their ponds for Great Crested Newts, now that we both have a licence to do so....

 

 

 

Despite some Thorough Searching, we didn't find any newts, Great Crested or otherwise although we did see a Froggy, heard a Reed Warbler and saw a Snipe. On the way there a male kestrel was perched on a telegraph pole and on the way home I spotted a Little Owl who swooped down out of one of the farm buildings and up into a tree. I got out to have a proper look at him and he peered back at me in that way Owls have. It's a look that says you think you are looking at me, but in fact it is I who am looking at you.

Yesterday I saw my old friend and colleague Mandy in Bournemouth for a put your bones back in the right places session. As always after one of her treatments I felt sleepy, so I indulged in a sewing afternoon and whipped up a couple of tops. No pattern, because I am lazy and can't be doing with all that painstaking measuring, cutting and pinning :o) As with the jarmy bottoms, I used an existing top as a template.....

We saw old friends for supper last night. We all ate and drank too much and spent most of the evening crying with laughter, and as a result I am dehydrated this morning and not in the mood for Poppy's exuberant HI MUM! LET'S PLAY THAT GAME WHERE YOU'RE TRYING TO WORK AND I JUMP ON YOUR LAP AND OFF YOUR LAP, ON YOUR LAP AND OFF YOUR LAP OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN!

Poor Pop - Ted isn't in the mood for the game either (in the version involving Ted she substitutes my lap for his head), so she's contenting herself with chucking her ball noisily about instead.

There are seeds to sow and seedlings to re pot this weekend; revision to organise for my exam which is in a fortnight; butterfly transect data to enter on line; minutes from the latest committee meeting to write up and email out; new school trainers to buy for L; washing to do and hoovering too; a visit to pay to Gran's to see her and Em, my youngest niece; a trip to the Copse up the lane to see the Bluebells in all their Blue Finery; some sewing alterations to make, and then a Chinese for tea with a chilled bottle of white burgundy (in honour of His Grace, the Duke whom I met on Monday) and a movie on the tele. Perfic. 

Hope you all have a Lovely Weekend,

CT :o)