After what seems like a long winter we are all emerging from our various states….
I have heard the first chiffchaffs; toads have arrived in a swirling, writhing bounty (I have never seen so many in the lake); the heron is gorging on these arrivals; the moorhens are busy carting around strips of bullrush (they are in nest building mode); I have seen the first bats vigorously hunting at dusk; the badgers are on the move and are attentively tending their sett holes (please click on the link below to watch an enchanting vid of this activity - I’ve called this clip ‘Badger School’); flora like gorse and goat willow are in early blossom and the male tawny owl is calling with vigor.
I love this time of the year - it steadily ramps up from now on and hits a frenetic crescendo in about June.
A seasonal turning point is having people to the the land to learn and engage. Very recently we held a (Wiltshire Mammal Group) dormouse training day, run brilliantly by Georgie Starkie and Gareth Harris (two outstanding Wiltshire based ecologists - we are lucky to have them in our midst!). The group looked at dormouse ecology, current status and surveying techniques. Here they are!
An extraordinary start to the 2023 spring season was cleaning out the abandoned wild honey-bee hive. Wild honey-bee hives typically fail after a number of years (5-7) - this abandonment and renewal is a natural process. Last summer, I had detected dramatically diminished levels of activity and after conversations with the wondrous Matt Somerville (check him out at beekindhives.uk) we decided, this early spring, to investigate. Matt’s inspection showed that the hive had been abandoned. At that point, we had a decision to make. If we had left the wild hive as-is, the next bee swarm would have cleared it out and reoccupied it, but that expends valuable energy. Our increasingly erratic climate is escalating the number of challenges this species has to overcome, so helping out seemed right and proper. And just maybe we would get a haul of honey. Matt scaled the veteran oak and removed the comb - alas, not even a teaspoon of liquid gold. It had been recycled by more deserving creatures - other honeybees, wasps and hornets the most likely candidates.
The blades of comb. The lighter upper-parts is where honey is stored, the next layer down is where pollen is stored and the darker bottom parts is where the brood is nurtured. On the right hand blade you can just make out a protrusion - this is called a queen cell. This is where the queen is nurtured. This invertebrate just blows my mind!
And next weekend we kick off the John Muir Award again and on March 30th (in conjunction with Rewilding Britain) we are holding a one-day workshop with young ecologists (the future!) from Kingston Maurward College….its all kicking off & I am so excited!