I thought you might like to see what I've been up to the past few nights. Each video is only 10 seconds long, but hopefully enough to give you a flavour of these wonderful creatures in their natural environment.
Badgers, I am learning, are very characterful. It is impossible not to fall in love with them when you spend time watching them regularly at close quarters as I have been doing. Over time you get to know them and you begin to learn their differences in behaviour even if you haven't yet been able to distinguish them by their markings (those stripey faces are different, believe it or not). There is one (not pictured here) who likes to sit down while eating the peanuts; another who always retreats to a safe distance, peanut in mouth, to eat it, and another who must be the dominant boar because everyone else defers to him. I think he is the one in the video pushing the other badger off the nuts and telling him off in no uncertain terms. The Badger who's been pushed off then scent marks the dominant one on the bottom. This is submissive behaviour in this context rather than dominant. They are very territorial and have strong family bonds so everyone smelling the same is an important tool in defending the patch from interlopers. Similarly, they scent mark the extents of their territories and finding a badger latrine will often tell you you've reached the border of one group's territory.
Last night, the camera picked up a fox and a badger eating beside each other, no fuss, no bother, no arguing. I was amazed. And last night's shots contained more fox than badger. I saw a fox in daylight last Friday. He was running on three legs. He went straight past me only a few metres away and didn't notice me frozen by a tree. They are fantastic creatures. It's years since I've seen one so close in the wild and I haven't stopped smiling since.
It's the time of year when fox cubs start to emerge from the den. I was reading that they are vulnerable to predation from cats at this stage, because the vixen will now leave them for short periods of time to hunt. So if you see a cat being chased by a fox during April and May it may not be the fox being aggressive. Similarly, now is the time baby badgers also venture forth from the sett. By June they will have learnt the extent of their family's territory - I will be ecstatic if I manage to photograph young badgers :o)
So, apart from telling you that I watched three male cuckoos displaying for territory this morning (amazing and I wished I'd had the camera with me) and that the sharp decline in cuckoo numbers in the South is thought to be connected to the decrease in moths - the young cuckoos feed on moth and flutter caterpillars - so there's even more reason to create a patch in your garden to support all life stages of moths and flutters (and that usually means allowing plants we consider to be weeds- willowherb, nettles, docks, thistles etc - to grow for the larvae), and to let you know that the Canada geese on the lake have hatched 6 goslings this morning, that's it from here. Oh, and Ted wants you all to know that he's been to see Mrs Danning today and is as shiny as a new pin and several pounds lighter for lack of hair as a result, and also that Poppy has done two poos and one wee in the house this week AND escaped through a hole she'd dug under the hedge that she was pretending the hedgehog had made....
I'll leave you with the badgers and the fox and wish you all a pleasant evening (or day, depending on where you are).
A very quick post to say I heard our first Cuckoo on April 11th, one day earlier than last year. Have you heard any where you are? It used to be thought that Cuckoos turned into Sparrowhawks before hibernating in mud for the winter. Edward Jenner, who produced the first successful Smallbox vaccine, was one of the first people to postulate on migration to account for their absence over winter instead. Swallows have been seen a few miles from here too and we are tripping over Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps. Is it just me or is the migration getting earlier and earlier? We're tripping over Hairy-Footed Flower Bees here at the moment too. They visit the Lithodora daily so if you don't have one I highly recommend it. HFFB's are small black bees with yellow knees (the girls) or stripy bees (the boys). They're about the size of my thumb nail and they hover in front of flowers taking nectar. They're a Spring bee and are out now so do check your flowers for them. The other first this week has been a male Orange-Tip whom I spotted yesterday in the garden. Would love to know if you've seen any yet where you are (if you're UK based, obvs!). And the Small White pupae I've been nursing all winter in the greenhouse have emerged this week too. It's all go here :o). In other news, the break from computers is having the desired effect and the book is coming on nicely. I've been out filming badgers most nights which is a complete delight, highlights have been watching two squabble over the same peanut. One bumped the other off it, only for the other one to get revenge by scent marking the bumper on the bottom! I've also been watching the newts slip into their mating finery in the pond and yesterday discovered a freshly shedded dragonfly nymph case floating on the surface. Happy Days. T and P are well and send you all love. I hope you're all well too. CT :o)
'The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings.'
I'm a great believer in the time being right to do certain things. Of moments in life that require special notice and adherence to. They are signposts, if we can but see them for what they are.
For many weeks, months really, I have struggled with screens. Computers, tablets, mobile phones. My eyes just don't like them. And neither does my brain. I'm uncomfortable with the electro-magnetic energy they project and how that interferes with our own energies and I don't like the way life disappears into them either.
So, I have made a decision to cut right back on all screens. I shall be telephoning people for a proper conversation instead of texting; I shall be writing letters once more as I always used to instead of emailing. I wish blogging were possible without computers but it isn't, so this decision means closing the blog down. Perhaps not forever, I don't know yet, but for the time being at least.
I know I will miss you all, and I want to say a true and heart-felt thank you to everyone who has read, commented on, or thought about the things I've put on here during the last couple of years. I hope it's been of interest and that you feel you've advanced your knowledge on things wild, which was a large part of the reason I began the blog in the first place: to share and spread knowledge that helps ensure the continued survival of our wild things and gives them the recognition they all deserve.
I have enjoyed every minute of blogging; the friends I've made, the humour we've shared, the things I have learnt from all of you. But it is time to do things differently now. I want to write differently too, putting pen to paper and conjuring something lasting. Hopefully I'll be back in a year or so with news of a book to share with you, if that happens expect a post to pop up.
I'm not entirely eschewing internet-based communication, so if you'd like to stay in touch leave your email address in the comments page. I won't print it.
So really all that's left is to thank you most sincerely for your company along the way, and to send you all good wishes and blessings.
Over the last three years we have been working to create a wildlife-friendly garden. Changing the plants we grow has changed the way the garden works. We get a huge range of wildlife living in the garden as well as passing through it- I know this because I keep a note of everything I see and the change in three years is remarkable.
A few of you have asked recently about plants for pollinators, so I thought a post on the subject might be useful.
Many more people are aware of the need to provide nectar for insects now than ten years ago, which is great, but I suspect folks still overlook the need to provide breeding and over-wintering habitat and larval foodplants. They are as important as the adult nectar source, because you won't get adults unless the babies survive :o)
As an illustration, and because everyone loves a butterfly (hopefully) here are some of the UKs commonest butterflies along with a list of the larval food plant (FP) that their caterpillars need and good nectar sources (NS) for the adults. You'll notice that the food sources are much more precise than the nectar ones.There is a full list of nectar sources at the end.
Peacock. FP: common nettle NS: buddleia, hemp acrimony, teasle and others.
Small Tortoiseshell. FP: Common nettle, small nettle, hop NS: wide variety
Painted Lady. FP: thistles NS: wide variety
Red Admiral. FP: common nettle NS: wide variety Large, Small & Essex Skippers FP: areas of mixed grasses left long over winter, especially Cock's foot and Yorkshire fog. NS: field scabious, red clover, bramble, red Campion, thistles
Small Copper: FP: common and sheep's sorrel NS: wide variety
Dark Green Fritillary FP: violets NS: knapweed, red clover, purple and mauve flowers
Common Blue FP: bird's foot trefoil, white clover, black medick NS: wide variety
Holly Blue FP: Holly (1st brood early spring), ivy (2nd brood late summer) NS: bramble, forget-me-nots, holly
Orange Tip FP: lady's smock (also called cuckoo flower), garlic mustard, jack in the hedge, bittercress NS: bugle, cruisers, honesty
Speckled Wood FP: grasses NS: aphid honeydew on oak, ash and birch
Meadow Brown FP: grasses NS: thistles and wide variety of meadow flowers
Ringlets FP: grasses NS: Bramble and others
Good Nectar Sources For Pollinators (the list isn't exhaustive so please do add to it in the comments section)
Buddleia Scabrous Knapweed Red Valerian Hemp Agrimony Daphne Orange-Ball Buddleia (bees adore it) B. globosa Honesty Hebe Globe Thistle Bugle Fleabane Caryopteris (autumn nectar) Betony Ox eye daisy Michaelmas daisy (late nectar source) Marjoram (one of the best all round nectar sources for a great many insects) Thyme Basil Rosemary Hyssop Borage (beloved of bees) Fuchsia (hawkmoths) Star Jasmine (hawkmoths) Willowherbs (FP for Elephant hawkmoth) Chives Nepeta (top nectar source) Salvia Astrantia (masterwort) Honeysuckle Verbena bonsariensis (top nectar source for flutters) runner bean flowers Everlasting sweet pea (brimstone butterflies esp) stonecrop (autumn nectar) Liberia Red clover Primrose Spirea Daisy Dandelion Viper's bugloss lithodora (early nectar) Crocus (early nectar) pulmonaria (early nectar) pulsatilla (early nectar) Dog rose Viola mignonette alyssum Arabism bacopa aubretia Chicory Green alkanet (early nectar) Ivy (v important late nectar over winter) Winter jasmine (as above) Snow berry Tagetes (be careful of the variety- disco is a good one) Night scented stock (moths) Nicotiana (moths) Poached egg plant Snap dragons (bees) Echinacea Campanular Tansy Tickseed A long list but hopefully enough there for everyone to find something they can grow :o)
Hope that was useful? This year I am also planting my hanging baskets as pollinator-friendly too.
British wildlife relies on Europe for its protection. There has been no new or updated home-grown wildlife legislation since 2000, and that act didn't add much to what was already in place from twenty years earlier. The 1981 wildlife and countryside act covers listed species of plants, birds and animals and their habitats, making it an offence to take, disturb, sell or harm them and the 2000 countryside and rights of way act adds on a few extras. The 1981 act is generally acknowledged to be the more significant of the two, yet it is thirty years old, and in those intervening years we have lost more wildlife than at any other time in the last 8000. It's also rare for there to be prosecutions under the act and without that kind of enforcement how can it hope to be effective in what it sets out to do? You might say it is out of date and requires amendment or better still fresh legislation. But that is so clearly not on the agenda that our wildlife has had to rely instead on European legislation to protect it.
The 2010 habitat regulations amalgamated the birds and habitat directives of the 1990s and now forms the basis of all European member states wildlife policy. Its not perfect by any means but it is certainly better than anything our own governments have offered since 1981 (which amounts to more or less nothing). Yet, only last year, George Osborne added his voice to those who were calling for a watering down of the habitat regulations on the grounds they were anti economic growth and development. Fortunately, Europeans returned a resounding NO to that call when asked for their feelings by public consultation.
I won't insult your intelligence by going into great detail of the many, many ways wildlife supports our own lives, but think soil, water and air provision, nutrient and waste recycling, flood management, pollination, food, weather, temperature regulation, medicine, and that's without the considerable health and relaxation benefits a walk in the woods or by a river brings, and the simple undiluted joy of watching the birds and bees and butterflies visit flowers you've planted in your garden, or seeing dragonflies and damselflies visit a pond you've created that newts and frogs also call home. There is also nothing to touch the feeling you get when a rare or endangered species begins to visit your garden because of the things you've put there to help it. I know this to be true because we now have Silver Washed fritillary butterflies here and very rare Longhorn beetles and they weren't in the garden until we created the habitat for them. That kind of food for the soul can't have a price tag put on it. There is also, of course, the moral and ethical responsibilities we have to what my wise friend Mel calls our Wild Cousins.
Although I personally think it wrong to talk about nature in terms of what it gives us economically, if that is the language that politicians understand then even they must acknowledge the benefits inherent in protecting our wildlife. BUT, the truth as demonstrated by successive governments since 1981 is that Whitehall does not consider wildlife to be significant enough to deserve updating old legislation to ensure its survival, let alone creating new. If we want that, it will only come from Europe, as it has been doing for the last twenty years and if we end up leaving Europe I really, really fear for the future of our wild friends and places.
Surely reading is one of life's greatest pleasures? I am steadily working my way through a pile of books. They have been gathering dust and they are Quite Cross as a result. To the extent that I've heard dim mutterings about people who buy books and never read them whenever I walk past the shelf they've all been sitting on these past two or three years. Badgerlands, The Sparrowhawk's Lament, Meadowlands, H Is For Hawk, Inglorious, The Cuckoo, The Green Road Into The Trees, Where Do Camels Come From, as well as Robert Ryan's excellent Dr Watson series. I've distributed them around the house now so there is one to hand whenever I feel like reading and the grumbling has settled to the extent I now fancy I can hear a purr of pleasure in its place. While reading is a delicious thing to do, offering escape, learning, excitement and many other things, and while all these books are excellent reads, the pleasure derived from looking for, and finding, and brining home, old books is something else. It started with M giving me the Dean of Rochester's book of roses for valentines. It was a rediscovery of an old pleasure, because when I was a teenager I spent hours and hours in a wonderful old bookshop in the Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells revelling in the ancient tomes that covered acre upon acre of the shelves in the old building. I wonder if it's still there. As a result, I have old, old copies of works by Disraeli, Shelley, Shakespeare, Wilkie Collins, Chaucer, Keats, Wordsworth and others. I like to look at them, take them down from the shelf and open them and consider the other hands who have likewise held them down through the years and what the readers felt when they settled down to read them. Yesterday, I added to them. A new old book, the first one in twenty years. It's an 1889 edition of Richard Jefferies The Open Air, a treatise on nature. I have dipped in and it is wonderful. The chap who sold it to me had lovingly wrapped it in bubble wrap and brown paper and thus it arrived, neat and tidy and protected, like a sacred trust passed on. I shall treasure it and take the responsibility seriously. I am going a tad Jane Austen this week- as well as appreciating old books and spending time in the day reading (with Amy's gorgeous hand-crocheted scarf around my shoulders for extra warmth and comfort), I've been painting. Efforts offered for your perusal above. I'm not a very tidy or painstaking painter: I prefer to sweep colours about. I also like pen and ink drawings and have been doing a few of Dorset's ancient manor houses taken from a book written by a friend of the family. I've also been knitting (a blanket for cold knees when on the sofa) I fear am in danger of soon finding a piano with which to break into song by candlelight after supper and (more worryingly) swooning when my husband comes home from work. The keen eyed among you will have noticed the Swarovski's. Uber expensive and tiny weeny bins they may be (they fit in the palm of your hand and are as light as a feather), but my goodness they are sharp. I've adopted a slightly devil-may-care attitude this week and the new bins are the result :o) Have you done anything devil-may-care recently? CT :o)
It is easy in modern life to get over-whelmed. Before you know it, and without much appearing to have happened in the way of conscious thought or decision making, you find yourself juggling many things, spinning far too many plates not to drop one. I tend not to notice the subtle signs that rest is needed. I am a Power On Through type of girl, impatient with mortal frailties. A Coper. The end result is that, sometimes, I can topple over into exhaustion. This is OK (ish) when you have no other responsibilities than yourself and a week or two off can be spent sleeping/ watching TV/ going for walks/ reading/ getting up late, and at the end of it back up you pop, all restored, refreshed, recharged and raring to go. It is less straightforward when you're a busy wife and mother and have other people depending on you. Then, that kind of rest necessitates other people shifting the smooth flow of their lives around to accommodate you, which, however kindly they do this, doesn't seem very fair on them.
Anyway, over the past couple of weeks I have revisited the lesson that has been raised more than once in the past twelve months, a lesson I thought I was adhering to but apparently not enough, that rest is an important element of capacity and that limits are there to be honoured and respected. I had little choice in the matter as it turned out, which perhaps was just as well. I've got it now, the lesson. I am reorganising life. I have stopped my degree and I am returning to previously well-trodden paths that enable activity minus the stretched-out thin exhaustion brought on by juggling too many things at once. I find that I am starting to see things clearly again, breathing calmly in and out now that the mist is clearing. I was directed a while ago to a book about England's ancient roads, and when I started reading it I wondered why I found myself writing down a quote from it on the inside of the front cover: "There is nothing like a walk for making you accept an obvious solution, no matter how challenging it might be." The words rolled about my head and echoed and I kept returning to stare at the quote, trying to figure why it, more than anything else, kept connecting. Eventually I worked out what it was telling me and what I needed to do. So, a reorganisation. Time to breath and think and quietly formulate gentle plans and simple directions. Already I feel better; already I can see the path ahead; an uncomplicated path, a simple, rustic, wooden and unfussy path that was there all along, running quietly through woods and trees, fields and rivers, with the wind whispering peace beside it. How about you? CT :o)
