Country Matters and Wildlife Reports for August 2007

I started my last report by saying that in a month's time the Swallows and Martins will be departing, they have now all gone.  There was none of the great gatherings over several days before departure, just a sudden exit.  Our last Swallows nest in the garage fledged at the end of August.  Robert Bucknall had one nest that didn't fledge until September.  One of our fledglings died two days later and the adults departed on the 3rd day.  A week into September we had a solitary fledgling still roosting in the nest.  This remaining bird then departed and by then we had no Martins or Swallows feeding around the area.  Why? I suspect their insect food was in short supply and they had to seek foraging elsewhere. The strange pattern of this year's weather has had a serious effect on insect populations; butterflies have had a poor year though the inward migration of Peacocks and Painted Ladies from the continent has been reasonably good.  Hopefully this means that Europe will provide good feeding for our Swallows and Martins before they have to cross the Sahara on their way to South Africa.  I suspect that this year many will not make it.

Bats have had a disastrous year, these insect feeding mammals have been very short of food and females have left their maternity roosts early leaving the juveniles to fend for themselves.  A local church had over 20 dead juveniles and 10 underweight ones from a single roost.  The females had left at least a month early.  It may sound strange to us that the mothers have abandoned their single offspring but in nature the survival of the colony is far more important and the females have to build up their body reserves and mate before going into hibernation.  Their survival is essential to the species. Ralph Buxton, Phillips Close has a large area of Liverwort growing in his lawn.  This plant likes damp shady conditions.  It is a 'lower plant' that is still at the beginning of the evolutionary process.  It has no separate stems, leaves and flowers but consists of a flat green thallus that grows close to the ground and has thread-like roots.  It produces spores and also buds off new thalli to reproduce.  There are several species in Essex some are uncommon but the wet spells in recent years are helping them to thrive.

Sandra Baker, Elm Walk found a young Hedgehog in her garden, it was very small and subsequently died.  The heartening thing is that there has been an increase in Hedgehog reports this year all in the centre of the village where the badgers and foxes are rarely seen.  Sandra also sees bats flying round their house early in the evening, this usually indicates a roost nearby. Harold Giles has seen a Stoat on the Duckend Green allotments and subsequently Syl and I had two sightings along Pods Lane and one near Pudneys Farm.  We then saw a Weasel very near where the last Stoat sighting was.  They are not controlling the rabbit population to any extent, as I hear one person has trapped 102 rabbits in 3 months all at one location.  Stoats often seem to kill for enjoyment like some humans!  I have probably mentioned before the gamekeeper I knew who's pheasants had not yet become acclimatised to the real world.  A stoat killed 96 in one night.  Each bird had a nip on the neck before it was dragged into cover.  Stoats are also adept climbers and bird's nests make an easy target.

Mark Giles was within a few metres of a Badger when walking along Shalford Road, he also has a Pheasant sitting on a clutch of eggs on his allotment in September . It is too late in the year for the young to survive the winter.  Mark also brought me a flattened baby Grass snake that he had found in the road at Duckend Green.  This was almost certainly from a nest of eggs that Veronica Pollit had in her compost heap.  Veronica has seen an adult snake, one of last years offspring and this year's babies.  We have exactly the same on our compost heap which is about 150 m away, though the only sign of the adult is its discarded skin.  I showed Mark the baby snake and the sub adult and when Syl and I looked the next day there were 5 babies curled up warming themselves.  Both Veronica's and our compost heaps are covered by old carpets this not only keeps the compost moist but provides a warm and undisturbed spot for the snakes to warm up.

Last month I mentioned two leverets in our garden, the fox or more likely the Badger has reduced this to one which has grown rapidly on a diet of dianthus flowers and anything else that was precious in the garden.  Luckily the parent appears to have disappeared back to the fields.  We always tolerate them but they treat the flower garden as their personal vegetable garden.  On the 28th August I saw a just fledged Wren in the garden still with bits of fluff, another result of our mixed up climate?

I will finish with an amazing sighting of a Wall Brown butterfly by John Taylor, School Road.  If you have an old butterfly guide you will see this butterfly described as widespread and common.  It is now virtually extinct in Essex and is in severe decline in most of England.  There have only been two other reported sightings of this Butterfly in Essex this year.  Several reasons have been suggested for its very rapid decline but no single cause has been apparent.  The last sighting I know of in Rayne was soon after I was married and Syl saw one on a farm track.  That was eons ago!  John has also reported Red Underwing and Lime Speck Pug moth.  With names like that I had to give them a mention.

Roger Jiggins Tel. 01376 324 311, email r.jiggins@btconnect.com (please put Wildlife as the subject)