Botanical Surveys, Water Tigers and Animal Tracks
18th July 2023
I really look forward to Tuesdays, visiting Wilderness Wood to deliver a little more conservation work. However, it is not all physical 'grunty' stuff (just as well as I get older). Today is a little more cerebral and I'm off to Bat Park to carry out a botanical survey. One of the key parts of any conservation activity is knowing what species you already have and then monitoring them over time to see if the species present change and in what way.
I'm not much of a zoologist so I tend to focus on plants, but I do note anything else that I come across. One distinctive change has been the number of small round holes (perhaps 5mm across) excavated into the soil all over the site. I have never seen any creature entering or leaving these holes, so perhaps they are not prepared to show themselves whenever a human is nearby. I suspect they may be some sort of solitary wasp. The joy of plants is that they don't run away, so counting them is instantly much easier.
For those of you unfamiliar with Bat Park, it is an area of levelled ground on the valley side. The soil was almost non-existent when I first took it on, with what little their was being washed away by heavy rains in the first few months. I set up 4 permanent quadrats (square areas of ground) each measuring 2m x 2m and set about recording the plants found in each. From the off it was evident that rabbits were actively grazing, so I put a chicken-wire exclosure around two of the quadrats to compare with the two remaining control quadrats. That was 5 years ago and its one of those Mastermind problems “I've started so I'll finish”, but I don't really know where the finish is – so I just keep on recording. One day someone smarter than me might find my results and make something of them. If that is you then please feel free to contact me!
A rather parched Bat Park grassland area
(note the rabbit exclosure on the left with ungrazed grass).
Talking about numbers is not the most exciting way to attract blog readers, so I shan't go any deeper, other than to say that the exclusion of rabbits has had a marked impact upon those quadrats benefiting from this action.
I am delighted to discover lesser knapweed growing in one of the exclusion plots, along with increasing numbers of tormentil and heather plants growing from seed. I suspect Bat Park might soon become aesthetically as well as scientifically interesting.
I am close enough to the barn to hear the bell ringing and like Mr Pavlov's dogs I can't resist one of Yoni's lunches, but I do finish my work – if perhaps a little hurriedly.
Suitably replete from the Yoni's fare I head down into the lower wood to inspect the New Ponds – my most pressing project at present. It has only rained a few inches since April, whilst temperatures have been well above average. This has caused the Wilderness Stream to cease running and the new ponds are now in imminent danger of drying out completely.
All that remains of Lower Pond
Arriving at the New Ponds my worst fears are realised, with virtually no water anywhere and with just a puddle measuring perhaps a square metre where the lower pond should be. All the local pond skaters appear to be gathered here like lions around a water hole in the Serengeti. As the water dries out so their prey become more concentrated and will be easier to catch.
Some forty or more pond skaters gather to feast on beleagured pond invertebrates
This time next week we will be pondless. Nonetheless, I have yet another ‘first’ moment (last week it was spotting my first live mole). Something large is stirring in the 'puddle'. It is about 2 inches long with orange and black stripes running the length of its wing cases – an adult 'Tiger in the Pond' – a Great Diving Beetle. https://petehillmansnaturephotography.wordpress.com/2016/07/08/tiger-in-the-pond/
An adult Great Diving Beetle at Lower Pond
I saw the larvae two or three weeks ago in Upper Pond and was excited to see them hanging from the water surface, waiting to pounce on any unsuspecting invertebrate or tadpole. Sadly all those will probably be dead since that particular pond is now dry, but the adult beetle has the ability to fly, should it choose to. This one doesn't look very happy and when I carefully encourage it into a plastic bag I have with me I note that one of its hind legs is missing. They use their hind legs for swimming, so this one is likely to just go round in circles in the pond. Maybe it can't fly either – perhaps a fox or other larger predator found it. https://lifeinfreshwater.net/water-beetles-coleoptera/. But it's a good find and proves that despite the drying out of the pond, wildlife is still drawn to it. Hopefully we can find ways to address this issue over the coming months and years.
A Roe Deer hoof ‘slot’ reveals that they too frequent the ponds when no-one is about
In the now dry Upper Pond the damp mud reveals that two mammals have recently passed this way. One is certainly a deer, quite a small one I suspect – perhaps a Roe Deer – the other could be a stoat or even a mink.
A stoat or mink track in the mud of Upper Pond (£2 coin for scale)
In the middle of the Middle Pond two reedmace plants (sometimes called bull-rush) have established themselves. This is just what I want, since not only will they grow and shade the pond water, thereby reducing evaporation loss, but they will quickly multiply, growing tall and enveloping the proposed new boardwalk to give it a magical 'swamp' feel.
Reedmace growing in the ‘shallows’ of Middle Pond
(it will soon colonise much of the pond margin)
Today's safari is drawing to an end. But I do have one last bit of conservation to deliver on. Returning to the 'Hub' area I find a large enamel bowl, fill it with fresh water and put my 'bagged' beetle into it. After a few photos I then take it to a small pond created out of an old bath, which sits in our vegetable plot. I place the diving beetle into it, in the hope that ‘it’ is a she and she might have a few eggs to deposit here. If so I can play at zoos, collect any larvae at the end of the summer to release them back into wild, once the New Ponds have water again.
A five-legged Great Diving Beetle about to be relocated in the vegetable plot pond
Why not follow my Legging Round Britain blog as I explore our coastline at https://leggingroundbritain.com/