I have often read that ivy is a superb food source for pollinators late in the year but never really witnessed it. But the ivy in the garden this year is absolutely bursting with flowers and literally abuzz with insect life.
I think these are mostly hoverflies. There was a white-tailed bee too. I haven’t capitalised that since I do not know the species – it could be one of several.
Privet berries
WordPress nags
This has been one of those posts a few days in the making. WordPress nags about unpublished posts which is fine and quite useful (but I want to say okay, okay, I know, I just haven’t finished it yet), but I don’t get the need for approving comments when they are my own references back to older posts (in which case I want to say of course it’s fine, it was me that did it).
A canal journalist
I took part in a litter pick around the village at the weekend which was productive and does make one feel rather virtuous. We chatted with a guy who announced himself as a “canal journalist” which seemed pretty niche. I referred him to this blog since there is so much about the Kennet & Avon in it.
Chuckwallah
This was the answer to a cryptic crossword clue. I had never come across the word. Turns out to be a kind of lizard mostly found in the southwest of the United States and Mexico. Some of the species are island dwelling. The name is from the Shoshone word tcaxxwal. They have flat midsections but when threatened squeeze into a crevice and inflate their lungs to wedge themselves in.
Wild Justice
The disgraceful and shameless attempt by Natural England to deter the Wild Justice legal challenge to the badger cull by making an application to increase the costs for which WJ would be liable if they lose, a figure which is normally capped at £10,000 for such cases, has been defeated.
Chris Packham has, independently, spoken out about his fear of the rise of the far right, saying that the playbook is very similar to that of the Nazis before they came to power. Labour, who promised so much change, he adds, seem to be spending most of their time kowtowing to them.
Planning
Our local paper reports that developers are trying to withdraw their promise of building a school as part of a large-scale house building project (401 new houses). This seems to be what developers always do – they either wriggle out of their commitments or just ignore them knowing that nothing much will happen. Population is predicted to fall, they say, so the school will not be needed. Schools prefer not to be full to capacity so as to enable greater parental choice but anyway, more schools, smaller classes – these must be good things. They should be made to withdraw their application altogether just for the sheer effrontery. But the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is, rather than being strengthened, it seems, being watered down. The language is already woolly enough.
The unlovely Rachel Reeves has called local councils “blockers” who have “gummed up” the planning system with “burdensome bureaucracy”. “Our pro-growth planning bill shows we are serious about cutting red tape to get Britain building again, backing the builders not the blockers to speed up projects and show investors that we are a country that gets spades in the ground and our economy growing.”
Autumn leaves
Also in the local paper is advice to let leaves lie where they fall so that they can provide homes for insects, including caterpillars (and therefore food for birds), and fertilise the soil. Earthworms will pull them underground, and trees can use the mulch as a sponge from which to drink in dry spells. Good for hedgehogs too. I have always felt that they should be left and am the opposite of an obsessively tidy gardener but in previous years the grass has turned black underneath them so I will do some clearance, but thanks to the author of the article for lightening the load.
Penguins in prison
Just about every campaign group I support has made this a national headline story. There are fifteen Gentoo Penguins kept underground in a basement at the London Aquarium. They never see sunlight or breathe fresh air. Their horrible pool is thought to be no more than six or seven feet deep. In the wild they can dive to as much as 650 feet. They are not an endangered species so that tired old excuse for imprisoning animals won’t even begin to wash.
Butterfly healer
Having volunteered at two animal rescues for a number of years, I have all too often seen the suffering caused to animals even by the most well-intentioned but ill-informed. At a wildlife centre in Long Island wing transplants are carried out but an expert has pointed out that the broken wings are most likely caused by sickness, a parasitic infection, which the repaired butterflies will go on to spread more widely.
Hamza Yassin
I have mentioned Hamza’s Hidden Wild Isles on the BBC already, saying that he seems to be a wise and lovely man. I am now thinking he is perhaps our best wildlife cameraman bar none and his ability to spot wildlife is truly extraordinary. He has a small team and various experts and one of the most advanced thermal-imaging cameras in the world to help him, but even so. Over the years I have learnt to notice movement even from the corner of my eye*, but his abilities are truly astounding. Through four restorative episodes, each covering one season, he takes us all over the UK to find and film elusive and rare species. He by no means ignores the various threats to our wildlife but does so in a way that is not depressing. His enthusiasm and sense of wonder are boundless and infectious.
*There’s a bit of a catch with this at this time of year – every falling leaf puts me on alert.
He and sound recordist Ellie Williams pinpoint individual bird species during the dawn chorus, he films a Bittern at RSPB Minsmere actually booming, badgers emerging from their sett, Great Crested Grebes performing their courting rituals, Brown Hares, a range of predators benefitting from a spring high tide in the Wirral which has forced small mammals to leave their homes, Adders and a Nightingale in song. And that’s just spring.
In summer there are encounters with a Blue Shark, Otters, Nightjars, Wood Ants, Beavers, Greater Horseshoe Bats, Swifts and Common Dolphins.
Autumn brings Bluefin Tuna breaching, a Kingfisher in London wetlands and Foxes in Highgate Cemetery. Entering an underground cave system he is helped to discover Cave Spiders and a bizarre fungus which infects the spiders, causing them to behave differently, and eventually takes them over, turning them into ‘zombies’. Totally misnamed Bearded Tits are next, which are notoriously difficult to see, and there’s a spectacular display of flocks of shore birds in their thousands. He also looks at the mental health benefits of interactions with nature. And it’s autumn so visible fungi are plentiful. Under UV lights they are even more glorious.
In winter, mostly filmed in Scotland, we see Ptarmigans and Mountain Hares, both of which turn white at that time of year to blend in with the (increasingly less) snowy landscapes they inhabit. Then Wild Boar, Crested Tits, Red Squirrels, Woodcock (a woodland wader, something I hadn’t previously understood), Pine Martens and a Tawny Owl up close.
Hitchens & Fry
Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens make impassioned speeches denying that the Catholic church is a force for good, here The Catholic Church is a Force for Good in the World – Full Version. Hitchens is especially good on the church’s apologies (Holocaust silence, the Inquisition, Galileo, anti-semitism, the missionaries, child abuse, the cover-ups, saying that condoms were helping to spread AIDS and so on) which have mostly come too late or not at all and have tended to be mealy-mouthed to say the least. For example the admission that Galileo was right about the relationship between the sun and the earth came only in 1992.
While I was watching this torrential rain arrived. It was so loud on the roof of the summerhouse that I could barely hear them speak. I loved it. It reminded me of those short, fierce rains I experienced in Sri Lanka, the fat drops rattling and thrumming on the corrugated iron roofs. Then when the rain stopped and the sun returned, the entire country seemed to gently steam for a while. Also of swimming in a pool in Jamaica with my children in heavy rain. I don’t see what’s odd about that but Jamaican people stood and watched clearly thinking we were absolutely mad.
First fungi
Just before my visit to Savernake (see previous post) I realised that if it came to it I didn’t need to go further than my garden. Two new species suddenly emerged.
Lepiota cristata (Stinking Dapperling), possibly
No idea about the second. I rather liked AI’s solicitous “In summary, you have at least two different species of mushrooms growing in your mulch, and both belong to groups that contain deadly poisonous look-alikes. For your safety, observe them but do not touch them, and absolutely do not consume them.” I wonder if it came up with that on its own or through human intervention.
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