Mistletoe Miscellany

Apologies for the belated posting of this write up of our December meeting.

Jonathan Briggs, who has studied mistletoe for 30 years, gave a most interesting and amusing talk on this peculiar shrub. There are about 1500 mistletoe species worldwide but his talk concentrated on “our” mistletoe, Viscum album.  It is unusual in that it is a hemi-parasitic, evergreen shrub that grows on deciduous trees; mostly on apple but also on lime, hawthorn and poplar. It is the only native white-berried species in northern Europe. Because it does not grow on the ground, it forms a spherical growth and each branch bifurcates every year to give an exponential growth. It's such a unique shrub and has attracted myth and legend through history. It has pagan associations and is rarely seen in churches although it is common in churchyards.

In the UK, mistletoe is found predominantly in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Somerset. It grows in much of Europe but is not found in northern countries. England is on its northern edge and it is rare in Scotland. Despite growing in orchard counties, its connection with orchards is in question and its success in these counties may be due to climatic conditions. Mistletoe’s preferred growth areas may be moving to the north and east, perhaps caused by climate change.

Mistletoe (c) Jonathan Briggs

There are only a few birds that will eat the berries: mistlethrush and blackcap are the most common. Blackcaps are the most efficient propagators of the seeds as they don’t eat them but wipe them from their beak onto a branch, from where the seed has a good chance of germinating. Trees are killed if too much mistletoe is allowed to grow on them because the nutrients are diverted away from the host. Its management is important so it is marketed around Christmas time, when there is a strong demand for it and the berries are approaching their best. However, the male non-fruiting shrub should also be removed.

We hope to see you at our next meeting on 7th February when Peter Garner will be talking about Notable Trees of the Malverns.

Derek, Malvern Local Group

A Taste of the Falklands

king penguins

By popular request, the first talk of 2013 was given by the chairman, Margaret Vernon.  A year ago, in January 2012, she was invited by friends to go to the Falkland Islands, where she was promised exceptional experiences of the amazing wildlife there. The collection of photographs and videos shared was truly stunning.

After an 18 hour flight from Brize Norton with the RAF, she landed at Mount Pleasant Airport and immediately started exploring. The bird life is the main attraction of the islands and at that time of the year the resident penguins are joined by many summer visitors including black-browed albatrosses. The white-rumped sandpipers had travelled all the way there from the Arctic, and two-banded plovers, steamer ducks, imperial shags and South American terns were in abundance. 

The penguins are the stars of the show however and there were many amusing close-up pictures of them daring each other to swim, jumping the rocks, feeding their chicks and running around on the white sand beaches. 

rockhopper penguin

A helicopter trip to Bleaker Island led to an encounter with enormous sea lions; dolphins and elephant seals were spotted playing in the sea around Carcass Island. 

Life on the Falklands is tough and basic and the wind howls ceaselessly across the landscape. The San Carlos cemetery is a moving reminder of the war of 1982. Let us hope that the residents of the islands, including the wildlife, will be forever left in peace.

The next talk will be at 7.30 pm on February 7^th at Malvern Evangelical Church. John Tilt will talk about Searching for British Orchids (a change to the published programme). 

Alison, Malvern Local Group

Wettest year for wetland reserve

This year has been disappointing at Feckenham Wylde Moor in terms of very low butterfly, dragonfly and damselfly numbers. We had hoped that after last summer's good conditions that everything would have done well this year. This was not to be the case. However, we did get relatively good numbers of various warblers.

The reserve has been very wet all through the summer and is now the wettest I have ever seen in all the years that we have had the reserve. I places there's up to 12" of standing water and the public footpath alongside the Mouch ditch is virtually impassable. The footbridge is under water and very difficult to cross. I have never seen this before!

The meadows are under significant surface water and this does not bode well for next spring, particularly if we get more rain. Any creatures that over-winter underground will be struggling. Plants, too, are waterlogged. However, FWM is a wetland so we hope it will manage to get back to normal...only time will tell.

We were unable to mow and bale so this has meant that the meadows have been left virtually untouched. We did manage to get a couple of days with the roving volunteers, who worked hard to cut the margins, which will make a difference. We have had up to 20 Hereford cattle on site but these are currently away for TB testing and we don't know, as yet, when they will return. They had, up to a few weeks ago, done a magnificent job in eating most of what we could not cut but we have had to be selective where and for how long they graze particular areas.

These photographs, taken on Wednesday 12 December, show the frost which always make the reserve look very picturesque.

Anyone planning to visit will struggle to negotiate the bog that, in places along the trail, is very sticky and will hold onto your wellies or even steal them from you. Our new kissing gates that have replaced some of the stiles have suffered following the heavy rains and we now have plans to try to change them or at least make them easier to negotiate. Please take extra care if visiting.

All the best for the New Year!

Paul, Feckenham Wylde Moor

Soggy Grafton Wood

It's a bit wet out there, isn't it?!   

At Grafton Wood this Wednesday we had 26mm of rain during the morning.  Despite the conditions 10 people attended the work party working on the north coppice.  It was almost impossible to get to the container to get the tools but, undeterred, a large chunk of coppice was cut and a good fire lit. This helped drying out the coppicers in the afternoon!

And then more rain fell...

John, Grafton Wood

Deer talk

It's always exciting to spot deer when out for a country walk and it was fascinating to gain more insight and knowledge from Peter Watson’s well illustrated talk.  Peter Watson is Director at The Deer Initiative and his talk to the Malvern Local Group last week gave us an insight into the UK's deer populations.

In England and Wales there are six kinds of deer roaming the countryside but only two of them are native species, the red and the roe. Both of these are rapidly increasing in numbers and range and they represent a remarkable conservation success story. In 1972 there were a few red deer and now there are about 40,000; the roe were wiped out by 1750 and now there are over 500,000. 

Fallow deer were introduced to this country by the Normans and were protected in the hunting forests for centuries; many escaped during the two wars. Muntjac deer were introduced at Woburn Abbey by the Duke of Bedford and now there are over 200,000 roaming our woodlands. Chinese water and sika deer were also originally introduced on the big estates, escaped, and are growing in numbers in many places.

Why do we need to manage these deer? They are valuable in many ways, aesthetically, historically, as venison, and as trophies. However, they also impact on our environment in undesirable ways - eating trees, crops, native flora and bulbs, and causing problems for nesting birds. Some are infected with diseases like bluetongue, bovine TB and ticks. About 60,000 deer a year are involved in road traffic accidents. 

The purpose of The Deer Initiative is to deliver a sustainable, well-managed deer population, in balance with its habitat. Groups as diverse as the Wildlife Trusts, National Trust, the RSPB and shooting organisations are involved in and support the Initiative. Management includes infrastructure support, population and impact monitoring, and collaborative culls. Interestingly, in some areas the number of traffic accidents reduces hugely after relatively small numbers of deer are culled. Fallow deer and muntjac are the main problems nationwide and need to be controlled.  

Our next meeting is on December 6^th at 7.30 pm at Malvern Evangelical Church. Jonathan Briggs will present “A Mistletoe Miscellany”. We look forward to seeing you there.

Alison, Malvern Local Group

Monkwod Dormice ... doing well!

2012 seems to have been a bit mixed for dormice around the country but at Monkwood it’s been one of the best years yet!

Things started well with a successful grant from Peoples Trust for Endangered Species to help pay for 65 new dormice nest boxes to follow up a tube survey of the perimeter of the wood in 2010-2011 that found signs of dormice all around the wood.

10 of these boxes were used to replace some existing worn out or squirrel-damaged ones at the north end of Monkwood and the rest enabled us to set up a new run of boxes in an area of younger growth at the south end of the wood. The new boxes went up at the end of March and had only been up for a few weeks before we found a torpid female dormouse during our check in June.

Dormice hibernate fully during the winter but during the summer, and particularly during spring when there is less food around, they can go into a deep sleep known as torpor to save energy and so are often found fast asleep at this time of year. After a couple of minutes in the hand they will start to wake up but sometimes are relaxed enough to go back to sleep again! Instant winner of the ‘Cutest animal in the wood’ award!

Wood mouse

In July we found a few new dormouse nests but no dormice. However, the boxes were home to a total of 10 yellow-neck mice (Apodemus flavicollis) and one woodmouse (Apodemus sylvaticus). Apart from having pretty slummy domestic habits and making a right mess of the nestboxes, yellow-neck mice are widely believed to eat torpid dormice so the dormice often seem abandon the nestboxes in favour of safer natural nest sites at this time of year.

In August we found just one female dormouse in the same box as 2 months earlier but showing little increase in weight and we began to suspect that all the rain was keeping the dormice in at nights and affecting feeding and breeding.

We needn’t have worried though - by September the dormice were back and we found a few more nests  and two males and one female in another of the new southern boxes. All three were a good weight for the time of year and beginning to fatten up for hibernation. Judging from the weight and fur colour, one of the males was a juvenile born earlier in the year and a good sign that some young were being born and finding enough to eat.

Dormouse weigh-in

This was all confirmed last week in our October check. Apart from a few nests we didn’t find any dormice in the southern boxes but found three juveniles in one of the northern boxes. Again these were all at a good weight ready to go into hibernation in the next few weeks.

Many thanks to PTES for funding the new boxes and to all those who have helped with the checks this year. Particular thanks must go to the Trust for the management work during the last few years as the regenerating scrub patches provide excellent dormouse habitat and the population seems to be responding accordingly.

Hopefully 2013 will be even better.

Andy, Worcestershire Dormouse Group

A blog from a blog

A different kind of blog....

Last week we held our first taster day for volunteers to help with our wildlife garden at Lower Smite Farm.  We had a great turn out and one of our new volunteers went away and updated her own blog.  Rather than just pop a link to it as 'blogs you may like' we thought we'd do it justice with a proper link in a blog post all of its own.

Thanks Alison for writing the piece and we hope everyone enjoys reading it...

http://www.alisonpike.com/blog/