We think of spring as a time of renewal, birth, fecundity & growth, but what has struck me this spring season at UWNR, is how it is also a season of death. Death with consequences.
Across the Reserve and particularly around the lake I have scattered approx. 20 sheets of roofing iron. These become solariums for the Grass-Snakes as they emerge from their long winter hibernation. They can warm themselves and seek shelter from adverse weather and predators, beneath these. At this time in the spring season I should be seeing upward of 8 - 10 snakes - yesterday 1, last week none, the week before that 1. The other thing which has become apparent, are the lack of field voles occupying the sheets - those not being used by the snakes. This was all really perpelexing. And then, in the company of ecologists Gareth Harris (amazing things happen when he is at UWNR) and Simon Smart, we found this (see pic);
This scat is either weasel or stoat. It smells of dried hay, mixed with old Spanish jamon - all musty and saltpetery. I keep going back to that olfactory well, for another inhale - it is amazing. Sitting next to the scat is a pile of delicate fur and fine bones. So could it be, that the small mustelid has discovered that the iron sheets are a food source and this resource (snakes and voles), has then been plundered. Local ecologist and friend of UWNR Steve Telling, thinks that is exactly what has happened. Steve’s take on this though, is spot on - ’It’s a sign of a good healthy ecosystem’.
Persistent hunting of waterfowl chicks by a beautiful heron last spring, changed the reproductive outputs from the lake at UWNR. Not a single chick survived this apex predator, last year. This year only one Mallard Duck has nested on the lake to raise a brood - at the same time the heron has abandoned this hunting ground. For how long? The dynamic predator - prey (Saylor) cycle is established.
Seeing this predation as healthy and positive is something that is missed too often and gives rise to us playing the God Species, determining what levels and types of predation are acceptable. Buzzards, Crows, Hen Harriers, Peregrines, Foxes, Golden Eagles, Sparrow Hawks, Kites, Jays, Polecats, Weasels, Magpies, Ravens, Stoats, Goshawks (what have I missed?), are all killed in the name of predator control. Oh yes I missed a Barn Owl, which was recently slaughtered in Scotland - a Barn Owl!?!
A big death - This (pic below) is both sad and exciting.
One of the things that makes the Bialowieza Forest Biosphere Reserve (Poland), so special is the extraordinary tonnage of rotting timber giving rise to abundant invertebrate and fungal populations. Some of the fallen trees in Bialowieza take many many decades to fully decompose. So, UWNR has lost one of its venerable, veteran Oaks (about 150-200 years old I think), but gained a special and unique habitat. I wont cut this tree up - research shows that whole trees provide optimum habitat - rotting very slowly. I will watch closely, as this leviathan slowly changes over time. (There may be one intervention - I may carve out a cavity for another wild Honeybee hive…I will need to consult with good friend & Honeybee expert Matt Somerville first).
Life from death - In her book Wilding, Isabella Tree laments the fact that it is illegal to let animals die and then slowly decompose, on privately owned land in the UK. She writes that this type of decomposition is part of the natural cycle, in wild habitats. (Research by Entomologists support this assertion). I have run with this idea since reading her book and have recently increased the volume of animal discard ,which I source from a local butcher. I scatter this across the land - some is taken and the larger pieces play host to invertebrates. When I left the land yesterday these bones were awash with flies laying eggs. In time, birds will likely predate on the larval maggots.
And affirming life - the Honeybees are happily building their colony in their new log hive, the Barn Owls have started to use their day box in the Barn Owl barn (because they are tending a growing brood), Tit nests are numerous, as are Wren and Dunnock. Pioneering, Broad Bodied Chaser Dragonflies, have emerged and are incorporating the new woodland pond into their territory. Solitary Bees come and go, at a frenetic rate, from their hive. And as mentioned, the Mallard chicks are paddling on the lake.