The Merlin app identified Coal Tits for me a some days ago, but I only caught a passing glance. Yesterday at least one was back, with the unmistakeable white nape patch and a slightly scruffy appearance.
Fond though I am of them, I realised that I am not so keen on worried-looking birds, a description I would apply to Blue Tits and Puffins, both of which are many people’s favourites. Great Tits look so much more … self-assured.
I am still practising capturing birds in flight and still not finding it easy. These, of a Chaffinch, are yesterday’s almost there efforts.
Of course it would be better away from the feeder but this below has to be my best yet.
An e-mail from British Wildlife magazine takes me to two book reviews, one of Guy Shrubsole’s superb, punchy The Lie of the Land. Who Really Cares for the Countryside? William Collins, 2024, which I have just recently reviewed myself. I think Ted Theisinger is too hard on it. Whilst broadly admiring it, he takes issue with the author’s alleged faith in the good will of the state, “a base presumption that expanded public and community ownership of land will lead to better outcomes for the natural world” and several other arguments which I don’t quite understand. I am not sure that there is such a presumption, it’s more of a hope backed up with examples of places where community ownership has worked for nature. As for the good will of the state, Shrubsole’s aspirations for what a not yet quite a new Labour government could achieve I found touching. All the more poignant the terrible betrayals pretty much across the board. Theisinger also criticises the focus on post-Shakespearean Britain, on the basis that there was no earlier Utopia and the destruction of nature should not be ascribed purely to land ownership – but that is precisely what the book is about and I don’t see that Shrubsole can be held to account for not including the entire history of humankind.
The other book is the timely Living with Lynx, Sharing the Landscape with Big Cats, Wolves and Bears by Jonny Hanson. The reviewer, Ian Parsons, says that Lynx, oddly, only “get a mention” but he acknowledges that the book is balanced and important.
There’s also discussion of the report by Wild Justice on the “continued and damaging use of rodenticides and a lack of effective regulatory control”. Rather depressingly British Wildlife first published a report on this and the effects of secondary poisoning on raptors and other scavengers as long as twenty-five years ago. We are taken to the original article which highlighted the use of second-generation anti-coagulant poisons: difenacoum, bromadiolone, brodifacoum and flocoumafen. These are all still in use today. Rats developed resistance to the first-generation versions, these are significantly more toxic and more persistent. Resultant fatalities were first recorded in the early nineteen-eighties. As ever, government has been slow and the Rodenticide Stewardship Scheme of in 2015 has been an abysmal failure. In fact things became considerably worse, through the rules being ignored and deliberate targeting of scavenger species. It’s not just Red Kites and Buzzards either, “lethal levels of brodifacoum, difenacoum, and bromadiolone reside in the livers of almost half of 96 Cormorants and 29 Goosanders analysed around different German waters.” What is wrong with us as a species? Are we really determined to wipe all the others out, which would of course be the end of us? We, or, rather, a very influential section of society think of wildlife and nature as the enemy, to be eradicated. There seems to be a real hatred of creatures that dare to be free and successful, outside of our control.
I spent most of yesterday afternoon planting to bring colour (and of course pollinators) to the garden. This was one of a number of Common Earthworms uncovered. I assume the head is at the bottom of the photo, but I wouldn’t put money on it. Other images I have looked at show a tapering tail. If you look closely you can see the yellow intestines and red blood vessel along its length.
I never wear gloves when planting: there’s a natural anti-depressant in the soil which we can absorb through our skin. Specifically it is the microbe Mycobacterium vaccae which causes increased levels of serotonin. And anyway, it’s good for the soul.
I am informed that this is a queen White-tailed Bumblebee.
She is certainly impressive. The various species can be very hard to differentiate and various online guides concede that sometimes DNA testing is the only way. It occurred to me that I didn’t really know the difference between honey bees and bumblebees. Bumblebees are larger, louder, live in relatively small colonies and nest on the underground. They do not produce excess honey and can sting multiple times. Honey bees’ hives can have populations in the tens of thousands as opposed to a few hundred and it’s the honey bees who famously communicate food location through dance. Neither are actually aggressive by nature but of course they will react if provoked.
There was also this Common Garden Snail, Cornu aspersum, known as Helix aspersa for over two centuries but now reclassified.
The shells are almost always right-coiled it seems.
Another beautiful sunset. There is something magical about the light around here and from this and previous experience I am convinced it is something to do with being near water.
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