Spring-Summer 2014 - The British Naturalists` Association

Transcription

CONTENTS
Spring & Summer 2014
Vol. 33 No. 8
ISSN No.00II-023X
Founded by E. Kay Robinson in 1905
Editor Michael Demidecki
Layout and typesetting Bryan Sherwood
Printing Corsham Print Limited.
Tel: 01225 812930
Country-Side is published by British
Naturalists' Association © 2014
Registered Charity Number 296551
A Company limited by guarantee.
Registered no: 2119195
British Naturalists' Association
Contact details:
Post: BM 8129, London WC1N 3XX, UK
E-mail: secretary@bna-naturalists.org
Telephone: 0844 8921817
Website: www.bna-naturalists.org
Hon. President Professor David Bellamy
Hon. Chairman Roger Tabor
Hon. Vice Presidents Professor Alastair Fitter
David Hosking, Tony Soper, Simon King,
Joanna Lumley, Julian Pettifer,
Lord Skelmersdale, Commander Michael
Saunders Watson, Dr June Chatfield, Bill Oddie,
Roger Tabor
Centre Panel Pictures
Top: Wild boar
(p.4 )
Photo: Michael Demidecki
Middle: Liverworts
(p.13 )
Photo: J Chatfield
Editor's contact details:
Post: BM 8129, BNA, The editor,
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Bottom: Wild Service Tree
Editorial
2
Natural History Observations
2
Observations of Wild Boar
in the Forest of Dean
4
Books, Libraries and the Naturalist
8
A Cover Story: The Harlequin
11
The World of Mosses
and Liverworts
13
The Impossible Seahorse
16
The Crickets on the Heath
17
Hillside Haiku
20
Wallace 100
21
Wild Service Trees
of the London Boroughs
24
Book Reviews
28
Front Cover: Harlequin ladybird
(Harmonia axyridis)
Photo: T. Thomas
Back Cover: Bryum capillare
capillary thread moss with capsules
on a wall in London.
Photo: J Chatfield
(p.24)
Photo: Jon Gurr
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Deadline for next edition: 15 September 2014
Editorial
Letters to the Editor
2 Country-Side Spring & Summer 2014
www.bna-naturalists.org
Natural History Observations
The dawn redwood tree
Photo : B. Sherwood
Spring & Summer 2014 Country-Side 3
Observations of Wild Boar in the Forest of Dean
The Forest
The Royal Forest of Dean lies in
western Gloucestershire and comprises
52 square miles of mixed coniferous
and deciduous woodland, with
heathland, 35 square miles of the Forest
being managed by the Forestry
Commission. The wild boar in the
Forest were once hunted before the
species became extinct there in
approximately 1282 when a hunt
searched for two weeks without finding
a boar, and since that time boar did not
appear on the roles (lists) in the
Verderers’ documents. By the
beginning of the 15th century free living
wild boar were thought to have become
extinct in the whole of England. Now
wild boar are back in the Forest of
Dean, 15 wild boar having escaped
from a farm near Ross-on-Wye in the
late 1990s, and 60 animals having been
released in woods near Staunton, on the
Monmouth side of the Forest, in
November 2004 by a farmer facing
bankruptcy (Clayton, Hayley 2012,
personal communication). It is thought
Foraging signs of wild boar along a forest path, May
Forest of Dean, wild boar, May
that there may have been other releases
too since then but these have not been
documented. Estimates of the wild
boar population in the Forest to-day
vary from about 300 animals to 980.
The study area
We have been studying the wild boar
population in part of the Forest of
Dean since 2012 and now have over a
year’s records, mostly from use of a
camera trap in the Forest but also from
our own observations, and the
following is a digest of what we have
discovered about the lives of the wild
boar throughout the year. Our
particular study area slopes down from
east to west and is mostly within
coniferous forest with scattered
deciduous trees. There are stands of
Norway spruce, of Douglas fir and of
western red cedar. In the Forest many
conifer trees self seed readily (seedling
regeneration could be helped by the
rooting of wild boar in the ground)
with the result that there are almost
impenetrable sections of Forest here
and there comprising young sapling
trees, and this is the part of our study
area where (from the grunts we have
heard many times when visiting our
study area) wild boar will hide and
perhaps lie up in during the day. In the
more open areas of our study area there
is grass and bracken and scattered,
usually thin, silver birch trees. Three
spring fed streams begin in the area and
run down through it and parts of the
area are very wet.
Bite marks of wild boar on a larch tree, with resin
flowing from the wounds, July
Signs showing the presence
of wild boar
The wild boar are mainly nocturnal but
we have seen and filmed wild boar
during both day and night. One January
day we filmed a group of wild boar
lying down for nearly four hours, the
animals snuggling up to one another, no
doubt to conserve heat as there was
snow in the Forest. We have found
many ‘day nests’ (though they may have
been used by day or night) in the Forest,
usually slightly hollowed out areas in the
ground, made smooth where the wild
boar or wild boars have been lying. In
December we have found the occasional
day nest lined with ‘bedding’ of cut ends
of thin conifer branches.
Other signs of the presence of boar
in the Forest are the rooted up woodland
floor or grass, holes they have dug out
(which in sandy soil can be as much as
two feet deep), trees (usually thin ones)
which are mud covered up to three feet
or so (where the boar have been rubbing,
perhaps after wallowing in mud) and of
course footprints-looking a little like
those made by the hooves of fallow deer
but with the two dew claws (other toes)
forming impressions (left as holes)
behind the hoof prints as they are a little
lower on the leg than is the case with
fallow deer. (It is unusual to find dew
claw impressions in the footprints of
fallow deer unless perhaps they have
jumped onto soft ground so that their
dew claws have reached the surface.)
The Rut
Male boars have long canine teeth or
‘tusks’ (which they use during the
annual rut or mating season), while the
canines of the females are much smaller.
Male boars advertise their presence
during the rut by marking trees (usually
young birch and spruce trees) by biting
the trunks (really scraping them
upwards) with their tusks, rubbing
against them with their heads and bodies
and also depositing spittle on the trunks
or branches. The spittle contains a
pheromone which is no doubt of great
significance to other wild boars. We
have seen on numerous occasions small
blobs of spittle on trees at this time of
the year and in one video clip we have
seen a male boar absolutely drooling
with spittle from his mouth.
We have seen older males reach
higher to ‘tusk’ their trees than younger
males, and on one occasion a boar lifted
himself up briefly on his hind legs
(making a small jump really) to try to
‘tusk’ the tree higher up. Perhaps the
females are impressed by higher
tusking!
We have seen these signs of the rut
from September to March. During
January the rut is fully underway, male
and female boars being now found
together, these perhaps including
females with their young from the
previous year which now look fully
mature. Larger male boars, which are
more solitary are also seen from time to
time, sometimes following the group
before joining it and sniffing (seen once)
a female to see if she is ready to mate.
We have seen a pre-mating chase of one
animal by another in January with the
male trying unsuccessfully to mount the
female.
We have seen instances of
aggression between rival male wild
boars, and two such occasions were
captured in video clips one January. In
the first instance a large male boar (no
doubt one of the more solitary males)
was seen to approach a group of other,
smaller, wild boar. The visitor made
straight for a potential rival and
appeared to headbut it several times,
slash with its tusks into its opponent’s
front shoulder and then chase it away, all
this taking place in seconds and being
accompanied by much squealing. In the
second encounter there was a build up to
a ‘fight’, this time between two animals
of similar size. The two males came
together, facing in opposite directions,
with their heads side by side and their
manes of hair erect along their backs.
While one stayed stock still the second
turned away and appeared to feed. Then
it turned back so that now the boars were
again facing in opposite directions and
Two male wild boar prepare to fight,
January
Taken from video footage: Michael Demidecki
side by side. The second animal then
attacked the first by suddenly raising its
head and (presumably) trying to slash
the other’s front shoulder with its tusks.
This behaviour was returned by the first
boar which was then pushed away
however by the second amidst much
squealing, the second boar rising briefly
off its front legs in the process.
Interestingly, during the rut the male
wild boar develops an ‘armour’ of
cutaneous and adipose thickening that
covers the shoulders and presumably
serves to protect the animal from attacks
by rivals (www.maremmaguide.com).
Nesting behaviour
In December we have found short
lengths (measuring a foot or so) of
conifer stems piled one on top of the
other at the base of a tree, bite marks
being visible near the broken off ends,
(perhaps the young sows have been
practising their nest building), and also
lying at intervals along paths used by
the wild boar. In January (2014) we
have seen twice (on video) a female
wild boar breaking off a conifer branch
and then carrying it in her mouth. In
early February (2013) we have also seen
a female wild boar carrying a long
branch and presume she was in the
process then of building a nest.
We have found four nests to date
which we presume sows had built for
giving birth, and all have been
constructed of branches. In one of the
newly constructed nests which we found
in February 2014 (shown in photo) both
fresh green conifer branches and
leafless (dry) branches had been used,
while In two other nests, found in
March 2014, just fresh green conifer
branches had been used. Near to all the
nests we have seen there has been
evidence nearby of many branches
having been broken from young conifer
trees.
The striped piglets soon learn how to rub against
trees, May
Probably, therefore, the males born the
previous year leave their mothers after
the rut and at first go around the Forest
together. From late May onwards we
have seen several large males, each
seemingly living a solitary life.
A wild boar nest, see broken ends to left of photo where branches have been broken off, February
The piglets
In our experience sows can give birth in
the year after they were born. The
young (piglets) appear mostly in early
spring and are striped yellow and
brown. We cannot say how many
piglets a sow usually has as we have
had no direct observations of numbers
born. On 7th February 2014 we videoed
a sow being followed by three new
born piglets and on 15th April 2013 one
of us saw a boar lying down with three
young piglets suckling from it and two
more piglets nearby, but another adult
was close by as well. Sows with piglets
seem to join up and go around together
so it is hard to know which piglets
belong to which sow! We have seen
(on 11th May 2013) as many as 3 adult
females with 12 piglets between them.
(The literature says that one lactating
sow may sometimes feed another’s
piglets-see for example
www.britishwildboar.org.uk).
What is remarkable is that the
piglets show adult behaviour at a very
early stage. We have seen in late April
2013 young male piglets standing side
by side with heads facing away from
each other and then trying to spar, just
as adult males will do. These piglets
A female wild boar bites into a larch tree,
November
couldn’t have learnt this behaviour as
the rut was (mostly) over when they
would have emerged from the nest.
They do, though, appear to learn how
to rub against trees as no sooner has a
sow rubbed her own body against a tree
than the piglets will copy her.
The piglets lose their stripes
gradually and by October most are a
uniform brown in colour. (In 2013 we
saw the first all brown piglet without
any stripes at all on 26th August). In the
Forest there are recorded instances of
piglets being born late in the year, and
on 15th October 2012 ,outside our study
area, we were very pleased (and
surprised) to see a group of wild boar
which included four striped piglets.
Group structure
During the rut male and female boar
are of course seen together, the males
typically fighting one another as we
have described. After the young are
born just females are usually seen with
piglets though on occasions there is an
adult male present too. For example on
29th April 2013, outside our study area,
we saw 5 adult boar and 3 piglets-3 of
the adults looking mostly black in
colour and including one male, but the
other 2 looking brown/ grey and being
perhaps the previous year’s young. On
11th May 2012 a male boar
‘challenged’ us, as if protecting the
other members of his group. These
groups of wild boar are known as
‘sounders’.
On 12th May 2013 we videoed a
group of 7 male wild boars so here was
evidence of an all male group.
Moulting and the importance
of tree resin
On 11th July 2013 our camera trap
recorded video footage of a female wild
boar biting into a mature conifer tree
(Japanese larch, Larix kaempferi) and
rubbing against it (and we have seen
this behaviour on many other occasions
since). On examining the tree later we
could see that resin was oozing from
bite wounds on the trunk. So were the
wild boar purposefully causing the resin
to run? Resins seal over wounds in
trees and it is thought they have high
antiseptic properties (www.forestry.
about). So is the resin having a
medicinal effect on the wild boar? (We
have also found resin oozing from
wounds caused by wild boar to a mature
Douglas fir tree and to two mature
Norway spruces and the resin from
these trees too has, according to the
internet, been found to have medicinal
qualities (see respectively
www.naturalmedicinalherbs.net and
www.ncbi.nlm.gov/pubmed/17504300).
On 15th July 2013 a female adult
wild boar was videoed with hair
hanging from her body, so she was
clearly in the process of moulting. She
was also seen rubbing against the larch
tree which was oozing resin, and we
subsequently found boar hairs sticking
to the resin. So perhaps this is another
reason why females (sows) bite trees
and cause resin to run-by rubbing
against the trees (and therefore the
resin) they are helped with removal of
the moulted hair-a bit like waxing one’s
body we suppose!
A female wild boar seen on 5th
August 2013 on video was completely
moulted except for some whiskers on
either side of the snout. She was brown
along the sides and back with a black
mane extending some two thirds along
her back with a gap and then a further
small length of black mane at the end of
her back. From half way down the sides
of her body she was grey. She was
brown between the ears and a little way
along the back up to the mane she was
black. Her face was grey/brown. By the
end of August 2013 the moult was over
for most of the wild boars in our study
area.
On 18 August 2013 we collected
some long wild boar hairs that had been
stuck to the larch tree by the resin and
looked at them under a hand lens and
binocular microscope. Some hairs were
all black, others were black at the
bottom and middle, and brown towards
the end, where the hairs were often
split.
Feeding
We have found evidence which
suggests that wild boars scavenge on
dead animals. On 8th January 2013
within one day nest we found a fallow
deer leg bone with a little flesh still
attached, while nearby in the Forest was
a whole fallow deer leg bone including
hoof, and also the deer’s rib cage. There
were one or two other fallow deer bones
nearby too, as well as an antler and the
skull. All the bones were of a fresh
creamy colour and looked if they had
been (mostly) cleaned very recently.
Though foxes pass through the area, we
presume that it had been wild boar that
had fed on the carcass. 0n 1st April 2013
we looked for the bones in the places
we had seen them before, but found that
the leg bone in the day nest and the
antler nearby had gone and the skull
had been moved. The whole leg of the
fallow deer and its rib cage were no
longer there either, though there were
small bones nearby.
We had known from the literature
that wild boars were supposed to eat
bracken but it was not until 23rd April
2013 that we realised that it was the
rhizomes (underground stems) that
were the favoured parts of this plant.
On that day we looked closely at an
area where bracken had been foraged
and saw that some of the black
rhizomes which had been exposed by
digging had been cut through: broken
and apparently chewed as a few ends
were sticky and wet with saliva
(indicating that feeding had been very
recent) and appeared to have been
crushed. From this we surmise that the
wild boar had been feeding on the
rhizomes to get at the stored sugars
within. However some rhizome pieces
are certainly ingested as we have seen
old droppings of wild boar containing
pieces of the outer layer of these black
stems.
In the winter, within beech
woodland in another part of the Forest,
we have found an area where bluebell
bulbs had been dug up by wild boar but
as there were many bulbs left exposed
on the surface we assume that this was
not the food item that the wild boar
were interested in at this time.
In the winter there is some evidence
that wild boar feed on grain from farms
as we have found some boar dung
containing grain, perhaps barley.
The year 2013 was noted for its
wonderful tree seed and fruit crops.
Although there are many sweet
chestnut trees near our study area we
were surprised, however, not to find
evidence of wild boar foraging around
these trees. We can only assume that
there was a sufficient food supply for
them elsewhere.
Nuisance damage
We have seen a few instances, all
outside our study area, where young
trees have seemingly been partially
uprooted by wild boar foraging
activity, for example a young larch tree
and three spruce trees were all bent
over and partially uprooted. This has
always happened where the ground has
been wet and where foraging has been
extensive. In December 2013 and again
in February 2014 within our study area,
we found some very young sapling
Norway spruce trees (seedlings really,
about a foot or so high) uprooted,
presumably by wild boar gripping and
pulling them out of the ground, but it
had been very wet the previous day.
Perhaps the trees had been pulled by
females trying to break off the stems (as
described above for branches).
There are often signs of extensive
foraging around healthy trees but
perhaps this is a mixed blessing as the
digging must help to aerate the soil, to
control weeds and to bring some
manure (in the form of wild boar dung)
to the roots. We think that any damage
to trees by foraging of wild boars is
insignificant in the Forest.
Wild boar root extensively in grass
verges along the roads and paths
through the Forest and sometimes,
within villages; this can be unsightly
but the grass does recover! Rooting in
the grass of a football pitch however
has caused annoyance, so in such an
area fencing is perhaps called for.
Control of numbers
Culling of wild boar by the Forestry
Commission began in late 2012-and the
target of 100 animals to be culled in
2012/2013 was reached by Christmas
2012. For 2013/ 2014 the target was set
at 135 animals, with the desired
eventual population density being set at
400 for the statutory forest, and the
Forestry Commission having agreed to
only cull animals above this level for
the following three years. (2013 Wild
Boar Population Strategy Meeting, as
reported by the UK Wild Boar Trust
20th August 2013). There is too a
voluntary closed season agreed (when
no wild boar can be culled) from
February to August for each of these
three years. Before the culling in 2012
began it was not unusual to find cars
that had stopped in the road during the
day so that their occupants could watch
a sounder of wild boar nearby. It is now
however very rare to have such
sightings in the day and no doubt the
wild boar are now even more wild than
they were before!
Acknowledgement
We are grateful to Hayley Clayton of
the University of Warwick for her
comments on a first draft of this article.
Suggested reading
Wild boar tracks in the snow, March.
Goulding M. 2003 Wild Boar in Britain.
Stowmarket: Whittet Books Ltd.
Steven Rutherford (left) with Henry Tomkins in Thorpe Hesley Library
Photo: S. Rutherford
I, like many other Naturalists of my
age, started out on this lifetime’s
passion with nature with the purchase
of a small but important book. I came
by mine on a family holiday in the
Lake District in 1966 at the age of
eight; the book was The Observer’s
Book of British Birds, this title being
the very first of the Observer’s Guides
first published in 1937. I already had a
reasonable knowledge of some birds.
Birds that were locally common to me
included some nationally important
species, even though I didn’t know this
at the time, such as the bullfinch
Pyrrhula pyrrhula, linnet Carduelis
cannabina, yellowhammer Emberiza
citrinella and tree sparrow Passer
montanus. Others were the more usual
and familiar urban birds such as the
wren Troglodytes troglodytes, robin
Erithacus rubecula, blackbird Turdus
merula, starling Sturnus vulgaris and
the dunnock Prunella modularis
(known locally as a hedgy or spuggy). I
lived in the Tyne valley in sight of the
river and just a few miles away from
where the 18th century naturalist and
artist Thomas Bewick was born and
grew up. It was a wonderful place to
start my studies of the natural world: in
the summer watching skylarks Alauda
arvensis high overhead while keeping
caterpillars in jam jars to see them
change into butterflies; in the autumn
seeing clouds of gulls swarming above
the overflows on the river and grey
wagtails Motacilla cinerea feeding on
the banks. In winter the thrushes came
in huge numbers from the continent and
the spring brought birdsong from every
bush and tree, and all this just a short
walk from my door! This little book
also opened my imagination to exotic
rarities such as the hobby Falco
subbuteo, the bittern Botaurus stellaris
and the avocet Recurvirostra avosetta
that could, I read, be found in the
southern counties of England, while in
the northern reaches of Scotland the
crested tit Lophophanes cristatus,
golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos and
dotterel Charadrius morinellus could
be seen.
Growing up in the North East of
England during those black and white
days of the 60s and early 70s travel to
the hot spots of the birding world was
beyond my reach, so much so that I
believed that many birds would always
stay illusive to me. However, my
curiosity was lit, and I had a desire to
find out more. And to achieve that, at
the time, I had two things that I could
do: first think about the areas that were
accessible – the northeast coast was not
a bad birding area to have on your door
step as were the moors of
Northumberland – and second, I needed
more books. Books, not just about birds
now, books about the trees that the birds
were in, books about the flowers and
insects that the birds were feeding
around, books about the amphibians and
mammals that I came across as I looked
for the birds. And the more that I looked
the more that I wanted to know. This
meant not just children’s books on birds
but more specialist books and that
meant visiting a library. The closest
library to me within easy reach in those
days was just a short walk along the
Tyne in the village of Newburn, and
that library is still there today looking
exactly as it did in the 1960s. Looking
the same on the inside too, in fact if the
computers were taken out of the
building it would look as though I had
stepped back into those days of great
music and yellow buses, of red brick
school buildings and quiet roads with
little traffic, of pit heaps surrounded by
fields undisturbed and full of flowers,
and long hot summer days! When I
visited Newburn Library last year and
set my thoughts for this article I noted
that it still had a good selection of
children’s books, with a few still
devoted to natural history. This library
used to have, as I remember, a large
collection of the New Naturalist series
in the wildlife section, and it was this
series that I turned to even at a young
age as my first real reference books.
These books also seemed to be perfect
in the library with their uniformity in
looks and size and, of course, their
ability to blend serious scientific study
with a very readable format.
My affinity with libraries has
continued through to adulthood and I
am fortunate to have a very active
library in the village of Thorpe Hesley
in South Yorkshire, where I now live.
This library is within the Borough of
Rotherham and uses a small room in the
new community building that was built
in 2007, and sits next to the parish
church. It also uses a clever folding
bookcase design enabling the staff to
move the bookcases to the walls at the
end of the day so the room can then be
used for other purposes, thus taking
some of the financial burden away from
this small branch. It was also while
researching information for a guided
walk that I had been asked to lead that I
discovered the depth and range of books
that were available to me to order
through Rotherham Central Library,
finding that the books would then be
sent directly to this local branch for me
to pick up. I asked for any books that
they had on amphibians and was
surprised by the response that included
two books from “The New Naturalist
Library” – The British Amphibians and
Reptiles by Malcolm Smith number, 20
in the series, and number 87,
Amphibians and Reptiles by Trevor
Beebee and Richard Griffiths, and both
were in stock and available.
I have, over the years, been building
my own reference library at home and
have sixteen books from the New
Naturalist Library, but this find of such
delightful and important books available
on my doorstep has caused my local
library to become to me a valuable
source of information for my love of
writing. And for that, as I now look to
other natural history subjects that I may
write about for the future, a trip to my
library is an obvious port of call. And it
was this last point that brought me to
wonder how many reference books I
would need for all the subjects that I
would come to write about. How many
of those books would the Library
service be able to supply? And, finally,
how many of the books supplied from
the local Library would be volumes
from the New Naturalist Library? To
answer these questions would mean
creating a new record within the
Rotherham Library Service. I would
have to request all of the books in the
New Naturalist series that were held in
the system at Rotherham Central
Library on one library ticket – my ticket
– that would be any from the series
including all of the monographs that
they had too. I asked the principal
library assistant Claire Leary if this was
possible. Claire not only thought that
this was possible, she was going to
make sure that it happened! The order
was duly placed and a few weeks later I
received a call from Henry Tomkins,
Claire’s assistant, to say that the driver
had delivered the boxes of books that I
had ordered. I arranged to meet him the
next day so we could set up a photo
shoot.
In total thirty three books from the
series had arrived to which I added my
own sixteen copies making an
impressive forty nine books to set out
on one of the shelves as a display. The
shoot took longer than anticipated as we
opened books so that they could be
examined for their quality (only two of
them had their covers missing), sections
were quoted from random books out
loud by Henry, while I scanned the titles
planning further writings and Claire
explained to other customers what we
were doing. The record for loan books
on one ticket had been set!
As for my own library I have some
very important books that I have
collected over the years so that I can use
them too for reference. These includes
the set of the Handbook of the Birds of
Europe, the Middle East and North
Africa (also known as The Birds of the
Western Palearctic) and, I suppose, its
predecessor, The Handbook of British
Birds by Witherby, H.F., Jourdain,
F.C.R., Ticehurst, N.F., & Tucker, B.W.
(the first volume published in the
autumn of 1919 with the fifth and last in
the series completed and published in
February 1924). As for up to date books
on identification I usually reach for the
Collins Guides first with the exception
being wild flowers and then it is, for
me, The Wild Flowers of Britain and
Northern Europe by Marjorie Blamey,
Richard Fitter and Alastair Fitter that I
find the most user friendly. As for
working in the field I tend to use quite a
few of the fold out guides from the
Field Studies Council, not only very
useful but easy to transport too. The
WILDGuides books that now include a
very good hoverfly identification guide
to supplement others in the series such
as dragonflies, butterflies and galls also
seem to find their way into my kit bag
these days. Other notable books that are
well used in my library include the
Collins Pocket Guide- Insects of Britain
and Western Europe by Michael
Chinery, Field Guide to the Bumblebees
of Great Britain and Ireland by Mike
Edwards and Martin Jenner, A Guide to
Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe
by Dick Jones and the Collins Pocket
Guide to Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and
Ferns of Britain and Northern Europe
by Richard Fitter, Alastair Fitter and
Ann Farrer.
Identification is still only half the
story of books, it is the whole story that
make the plant, animal, bird or insect
stay with the reader; and to find that
Principal library assistant Claire Leary at Thorpe Hesley Library
Photo: S. Rutherford
hook within the story other books on
the subject might give more interesting
facts and insights. For instant, on a
recent walk that I helped to lead with
Chris and Bob Fitt on winter trees for
BNA’s South Yorkshire branch , Chris
was carrying two field guides – Collins
Tree Guide and Collins Complete
British Trees. Two substantial volumes
to carry around for the day in your bag,
and I would have chosen the Tree
Guide only. Chris however used both
books in a very positive way by first
using the Tree Guide, as I would have,
to encourage the group to use the best
field guide for a definitive
identification, and then using Collins
Complete British Trees to find other
information that was missing in the
Tree Guide such as the uses for wood
in charcoal production for gunpowder,
and grain quality of timber for cabinet
making. Introducing these other points
of interest helped the group, I feel, to
remember the trees and their
identification better.
Of course books of reference have
helped me to understand the natural
world around me just as other books
have helped me discover the people
behind nature. Of these other books
Peter Scott’s autobiography The Eye of
the Wind stands next to his series Travel
Diaries of a Naturalist. Then there are
Bill Oddie’s Little Black Bird Book ,and
Bill Oddie’s Gripping Yarns which
stand beside David Attenborough’s Life
on Air and Nature’s Engraver: a Life of
Thomas Bewick by Jenny Uglow. Then
there is The Natural History of Selborne
by Gilbert White and next to that the
biography of that author by Richard
Mabey. Some of my books have helped
me to understand how the attitude
towards nature over the years is
changing and to see how conservation is
developing, examples of such books
being Birds in a Cage: Warburg,
Germany, 1941. Four POW
birdwatchers. The unlikely beginnings
of British wildlife conservation by
Derek Niemann, and Birds That Came
Back by John Gooders as well as the
more up to date books such as How to
Be a (BAD) Birdwatcher by Simon
Barnes, Fighting for Birds by Mark
Avery, and Crow Country and Birds
and People each by Mark Cocker.
All of this having been said about
books and libraries they are still only an
aid to good field work and accurate
recording and can never replace, for me,
the joy of company and sharing
moments watching nature. However,
saying that, my own route to finding
the British Naturalists’ Association
also came from looking at books;
books this time in a second hand
bookshop in Northumberland.
Searching through some of the old
leaflets and magazines in the natural
history section I came across a very
battered autumn 1977 copy of
Country-Side. It was nestling between
two booklets in the Shire Natural
History Series on the red squirrel and
the shrew, and was of the same A5
size. As I sat with this journal and
drank my coffee in the bookshop’s cafe
I was drawn to search out more
information about the BNA, because of
the quality of the writing. There were
three main articles in this copy –
Native British Orchids by E.C.M.
Haes, A field guide to the British
harvestmen by D.W. Mackie and The
five hundred million year-old trilobite
by Fredric Burke. It was, however, the
Nature Notes and Queries written by
BNA members that grabbed my
imagination, such as, Scattered
hawthorn petals by R D.Y. Perrett
from Sheffield, Day flying bat by E.R.
Hutt from Farnborough, An acrobatic
woodpecker by P.J. Rudkin from
Lincolnshire, and Percy the pelican by
(Miss) M.J. Corking from Warkworth,
Northumberland. You see these notes
and observations from members helped
me to realise that there were other
people like me out there looking at all
things natural, being amazed, making
notes and asking questions. And, as I
bought this old and battered copy of
Country-Side in the bookshop in
Alnwick, I secretly hoped that it had
originally belonged to Miss Corking
from the nearby town of Warkworth in
Northumberland as I too had travelled
to the Northeast coast to see Percy the
pelican in 1976!
Steven Rutherford MBNA is Chairman of
the South Yorkshire Branch of BNA.
Some several years ago the late Mike
Majerus identified some ladybirds as
the harlequin (Haronia axyridis),
which I had collected from railings not
far from the centre of Luton. He
suggested that my specimens had been
found under sycamore as this species
seems to be associated with this tree. I
decided to test this comment by
collecting regularly from the place
where the ladybirds had been found.
The Place
The A6 main road runs north to south
through the centre of Bedfordshire,
neatly dividing the county into half.
The final run-in to Luton is a tree-lined
avenue finishing about a third of a mile
from the town centre before running
into a complex of junctions. Now,
about two miles north of Luton’s
centre, the River Lea becomes two
streams, running parallel to the west
and east sides of the A6. The eastern
section flows into the two lakes of
Wardown Park then leaves becoming a
stream again flowing for nearly a third
of a mile between a high embankment
on which are houses and gardens, and a
wall topped by the railings. This
embankment has a variety of mature
trees, shrubs and scrub, and in many
cases provides cover over the stream
and the railings. It was this part of the
Lea that was examined for ladybirds.
The railings, at regular intervals,
have main support posts with finnials
and these are where the majority of
ladybirds gathered. From 2010 to 2013
these railings were examined for
ladybirds, attention being paid only to
the main posts. The counts should not
be regarded as accurate because of the
ladybirds’ movement and activity. In
the counts notes were made not only of
the ladybirds but also of any larvae,
pupae and empty pupal cases.
The Cover
I decided that my definition of cover
was that given by the trees and shrubs
2-4 spot harlequin
Photo: T. Thomas
overhanging the stream and railings.
Only the overhanging plants were
identified and counted. There were
problems in making an accurate count
for several reasons. Many of the
sycamore trees were multi-boled,
coming from one base, i.e. may have
been coppiced at some time in the past;
these groups were treated as one tree.
The original total of all sycamores
came to 59 but as these each formed
one cover then, when counted as single
trees, became 29. Another problem was
that during the four year period of the
experiment, thirteen of the forty eight
horse chestnuts were pollarded with
another having to be removed after
going down in a storm. It may be that
the ladybird count was affected by a
loss of at least fifty yards of cover.
Also, many of the trees had a
coating of ivy though only a few of
these were so densely covered as to
overhang the Lea. Some trees formed
pairs but here the ladybird count was
given to that tree considered to be
dominant. Counting was done in
various seasons despite the loss of leaf
cover during leaf fall.
The figures for the cover are given
in Table 1. Horse chestnut and
sycamore provided over 50% of the
cover, with the former being the
dominant contributor.
The Results
Six species of ladybird were found:
harlequin (Harmonia axyridis), 7-spot
ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata), 2spot ladybird (Adalia 2-punctata),
eyed ladybird (Anatis ocellata),
cream-spot ladybird (Calvia 14guttata) and orange ladybird (Halzia
16-guttata). Over the four years, nine
individuals of the last four species
were seen and so have been ignored
for this study.
Two ladybirds, in the total count,
the harlequin and the 7-spot, made up
87% and 12% i.e. 99% of all noted.
Railings at Wardown by Lovers Walk
Photo: T. Thomas
are only two spots, one on each of the
elytra, but with another, fainter spot
inside). These two types were counted
separately. There were always more of
the multi-spot, roughly in the ratio 3:1.
Though the count varied through the
years, probably because populations
have “good” and “bad” years, and
despite the variation in the number of
visits, the harlequin was the most
numerous of all the six species. The
count showed 58% were found under
sycamore whereas the horse chestnut,
though slightly more numerous, had
only 15%. This difference may be due
to other reasons such as the form of
their leaves rather than the overall
shading.
The numbers of harlequins and 7spot ladybirds and their cover resulting
from thirty three visits in the four years
are given in Table 2. These show, that
The Railings example
Photo: T. Thomas
Table 1.
Covering of the River Lea and railings
Cover and railings
Photo: T. Thomas
The results of the numbers and the
cover are given in Table 2.
The harlequin is a variable species in
appearance with two main
colourings:- multi-spotted (m/s) where
both elytra have many black spots on
a red background, and the 2/4 variety,
the elytra being glossy-black with a
total of 2-4 red spots (sometimes there
River Lea and cover
Photo: T. Thomas
Tree/Plant
Number
%
Horse chestnut
Sycamore
Yew
Privet
Elder
Ivy
Conifer
Other cover
Holly
35
29
6
6
6
5
5
5
3
35
29
6
6
6
5
5
5
3
Total
100
100
Ivy overhanging railings
Photo: T. Thomas
despite the different number of visits
per year, whether or not in the leafless
seasons, that the “preferred” cover of
the harlequin is sycamore, which backs
up Mike Majerus’ comment. Thus Mike
Majerus’ comment seems reasonable in
that the sycamore is indeed the
“preferred” cover.
Table 2. Harlequin and Cover (2010-2013)
Species
Cover
2010
2011
2012
2013
Total
m/s
2/4
7-spot
Sycamore
Sycamore
Sycamore
69
20
12
172
56
65
58
18
7
166
58
0
465
152
84
m/s
2/4
7-spot
Horse chestnut
Horse chestnut
Horse chestnut
8
2
6
36
6
23
38
6
6
50
13
0
132
27
35
m/s
2/4
7-spot
Other cover
Other cover
Other cover
12
2
0
21
14
3
13
6
0
41
11
0
87
33
3
m/s
2/4
7-spot
No cover
No cover
No cover
4
4
0
2
0
3
3
1
0
11
4
0
20
9
3
139
6
23
401
10
40
156
12
13
354
8
44
1050
36
29
Total
No. of visits
Ladybirds per visit
The World of Mosses and Liverworts
What are bryophytes?
These are the lowest group of green
plants now that the algae have been
excluded from the Plant Kingdom. They
are green organisms that make their
own food by photosynthesis, usually in
leaf-like structures but also in other
green parts of the plant. Bryophytes
typically reproduce by tiny spores, like
ferns and their allies (pteridophytes)
that are above the bryophytes in the
evolutionary hierarchy. Ferns are able
to achieve greater size and sometimes
tree forms due to their vascular tissue
conducting liquids around the plant and
by the woody supporting tissue of
lignin. The life cycle in both groups
consists of alternating generations of
gamete (sperm or egg) producers that
are haploid having unpaired
chromosomes and spore producers that
are diploid with paired (and therefore
twice as many) chromosomes in each
cell. In bryophytes the haploid
generation that we recognise as a moss
plant is the dominant green stage that is
long-lived and the diploid generation
(spore capsules and the stalk or seta) is
of shorter duration, while in ferns the
dominant leafy plant or frond is the
diploid or spore-producing generation
and the haploid generation or prothallus
is very small and usually overlooked as
it resembles a young thalloid liverwort
(which has no true roots, just rhizoids
for anchorage).
The main groups
Bryophytes consist of three main
groups: liverworts, hornworts and
mosses with over 1,000 species in
Britain, most of which are mosses.
Liverworts and hornworts are more
succulent and have a greater affinity
with damp places. The simplest in
structure are the thalloid liverworts
without leaves such as Pellia spp. of
damp stream banks and Marchantia
polymorpha commonly found in pot
plants and urban paths. Looking much
like thalloid liverworts are the
hornworts but their spike-like
sporophyte is green and opaque (not
colourless and translucent like the seta
of Pellia) and it just splits
longitudinally to release the spores as
there is no separate capsule in
hornworts. There are very few
hornwort species. The larger number
of liverwort species are leafy but
unlike mosses the leaves may be
divided into lobes and they do not
have a central “midrib” or nerve as
most moss leaves do and they are more
translucent.
Mosses divide three ways into bog
mosses (Sphagnum) restricted to wet
places and having special water
storage cells, erect or cushion mosses
called acrocarps which comprise the
majority of moss species and the
creeping feather-mosses or pleurocarps
with usually, and sometimes richly,
branched stems like the Thuidium
tamariscinum or tamarisk-leaved
feather-moss. In the erect mosses the
seta bearing the capsule arises from the
apex of the moss plant (top of the
stem) while in feather-mosses it arises
some way back from the leading shoot.
Where and when to look
Bryophytes are at their best between
autumn and spring when the weather is
wet and the flowering plants have died
down. They are found in a wide range
of habitats and each habitat tends to
have its own suite of species. The
largest bryophytes tend to be in
marshes, bogs, rivers and woodland
but some of the large mosses also
occur on heathland. They will grow as
epiphytes (being attached to a plant
merely for physical support and to
obtain more space) on the trunks,
branches and twigs of trees especially
in clean air. Through much of the 20th
century, due to air pollution from coal
burning, epiphytic bryophytes were
very scarce in the London area, but
following the Clean Air Act and
banning of coal fires they are returning
A valley bog at Shortheath Common, Oakhanger,
Hampshire with Sphagnum in the foreground and
tussocks of Polytrichum commune behind. The
fungus is the ghost bolete, typical of acid bogs
Photo: J Chatfield
to towns, aided by spores in the air.
Some mosses are tolerant of dry
conditions and can be found on the tops
of walls, tombstones in churchyards and
roofs and survive drought and being
baked by the sun. They are also early
colonists of heathland after fires as
described in an earlier article in
Country-Side (Chatfield 2012). They
benefit from the nutrient increase
following the burning of vegetation and
a few species can become very
abundant covering considerable areas of
burnt ground. Some are particularly
associated with burnt ground like
Funaria hygrometrica the bonfire moss.
What to look for
Firstly work out which group of
bryophytes your plant belongs to and
look for subtle shades of green to detect
the different species and also the form
and size of growth. Young shoots may
also be a paler colour than older shoots
and you can detect where new growth
Marchantia polymorpha (common liver-wort) in a flower pot. It shows cups with
gemmae for vegetative reproduction and umbrella-like male antheridia on stalks
above the thallus. The capsule or sporophyte generation is a small lump on the
underside of the female gametophyte not shown here.
Photo: J Chatfield
has taken place over winter. Growth
form is important to assess with some
forming rounded cushions, a thick turf,
a loose weft, while a few species stand
up on stiff stems (dendroid habit) like
Thamnobryum alopecurum or fox-tail
feather-moss and Plagiomnium
undulatum or palm-tree moss.
Leaves and their size and shape are
as useful in identifying bryophytes as in
flowering plants but none have
compound leaves and they are small.
Now you will need a x10 hand lens.
Look for shapes – long narrow,
circular, blunt-ended and pointed tips to
leaves, smooth or toothed margins, leaf
border and the presence and extent of a
midrib or nerve. In some, especially the
mosses of dry places, the nerve may be
Phaeoceras laevis, a hornwort with thallus and erect sporangia colonising wet
granite gravel at the Eden Project, Cornwall.
Photo: J Chatfield
extended beyond the tip of the leaf
blade to form a white hair point as in
Tortula muralis the wall screw-moss
and Grimmia pulvinata the grey
cushion-moss. Some mosses have
gemmae, organs of vegetative
reproduction that are useful clues in
identification as well as interesting
features. The moss plant can look very
different when it is wet than when it is
dry. Certain species curl up into a
corkscrew when dry. For beginners it is
best to examine single species patches
to get the “jizz” of a species.
Capsules and setae are other
features to observe. In some the seta
bearing the capsule is long as in Tortula
muralis or short as in Grimmia
pulvinata, it may be straight or curly as
Thamnobryum alopecurum the foxtail moss has a stiff erect stem. It usually
occurs on calcareous soil in woodland.
Photo: J Chatfield
Dicranum scoparium, the lesser broom-moss,
forming bright green hummocks on acid soil at
Chawton Park Wood, Hampshire.
Photo: J Chatfield
Sphagnum squarrosum a bog-moss in which the leaves stand out from the
stem.
Photo: J Chatfield
Polytrichum commune common or bog haircap with old square-sided capsules.
Photo: J Chatfield
Funaria hygrometrica, common cord or bonfire moss, with curled setae and
large capsules colonising burnt ground.
Photo: J Chatfield
Grimmia pulvinata, grey cushion-moss, on a wall.
Note the white hair-points and the young green
capsules on short curved setae at the top of the
cushion.
Photo: J Chatfield
Cryphaea heteromalla an epiphyte on trees. It
stands out in profile in a characteristic way.
Photo: J Chatfield
in Funaria hygrometrica and whilst it
starts as green, it can turn yellow or
red in the mature stage. Masses of
setae of the acrocarp Ceratodon
purpureus, the purple-fruited moss are
a dense maroon and can be seen from
a distance in spite of the small size of
the moss. The capsule itself may be of
different shape and held in a different
way, hanging down or pendulent in
Bryum, the thread-mosses, erect in
Tortula, screw-mosses or held
horizontally in Rhynchostegium
confertum, the clustered feather-moss.
The tip of the capsule may have a lid
with a short or long point or beak and
Leaning birch trunk with epiphyte mosses
Photo: J Chatfield
there may be a loose cap on top
(calyptra), the remains of the female
archegonium that protects the young
capsule and detaches as it swells. As the
capsule matures, and often goes brown,
the operculum or lid detaches to reveal
teeth that change their position
according to the moisture level of the
air to open and release spores in dry
conditions. The numbers of teeth and
their length will vary and the
magnificent detail of the peristome
delighted the Victorian microscopists
and plant illustrators. There are some
wonderful engravings of these in old
books.
The British Bryological Society is the
national body for the study of mosses and
liverworts and has an excellent website: visit
www.britishbryologicalsociety.org.uk and
they also publish a lavishly illustrated field
guide.
References
Chatfield, J. 2012. Recovering from heath
fires. Country-Side Summer 2012.
Atherton, I, Bosanquet, S and Lawley, M
(eds). 2010. Mosses and Liverworts of
Britain and Ireland a field guide.
Northampton: British Bryological Society.
The Natural History Day (incorporating
the AGM) in South Yorkshire on the 12th
July 2014 will include a moss workshop and
the BNA booklet How to begin the study of
mosses and liverworts will be reprinted for
The Impossible Seahorse
Imagine opening a Pandora’s Box of
bits and pieces of mythical beasts and
then assembling them together to make
a new, strange, underwater creature. In
your wildest dreams would you put the
head of a horse onto the body of an
insect, attach the tail of a monkey and
the pouch of a kangaroo, make it
change colour at the slightest whim,
and grow fronds on its body to make it
look hairy and then absorb those fronds
when they don’t need them anymore?
On top of all this wild madness,
why not have the male get pregnant
and give birth, not to one or two babies
but up to 1,500 to 2,000 every month,
possibly more and when he has given
birth after contractions that can last for
12 hours then why not make him
pregnant again within 24 to 48 hours?
To eat, give him a straw to suck
through and no teeth to mash the food
up and no stomach so some of his food
passes through and swims away,
relieved at their new found freedom;
then make him eat up to 3,000 bits of
food every 24 hours.
What an act of madness you would
exclaim but no, this is in fact the
impossible seahorse; a creature so
entrenched in myth and legend it could
be the foundation of all dragon
legends. When it eats it blows bits of
food out of its gills making it look like
smoke. A simple bit of Chinese
whispers and you have a fire breathing
dragon, especially when you compare
the seahorse’s very close relations the
seadragons to ancient manuscripts of
the fire breathing dragons of old, a
closer candidate you could not find.
So surrounded by myth and legend
and a cure all for everything is the
impossible seahorse, that it is
consumed in the traditional Chinese
medicine trade at the rate of over 150
million a year, an amount so
overwhelming it could lead to the
extinction of seahorses in the next 20
to 30 years.
Once you have got over the shock
of this magical amalgam of strange and
wonderful beasts then you start to think
this must be a creature of hot, tropical
waters, coral clad bays and dark
mysterious mangrove swamps, and yes
you would be right to think of all of
these areas to find the impossible
seahorse in but look closer to our cold,
dark shores and you will find not one
but two species lurking in our shallow
windswept seas.
The British Isles is home to the
spiny and short snouted seahorses and
they are no less impressive than their
tropical cousins and all the more hardy
for their temperate watery environment.
They have developed some amazing
strategies to cope with our wild, stormy
winter seas.
In exposed areas they will migrate
into deep water, often down to 60 to 80
metres where although cold it is safe
from the storm blasted shallows where
they spend their summers, eating,
mating and giving birth.
With eyes so sensitive they can see
in all but complete darkness they rely
on a range of senses to get them
through the dark cold winters. When
the days get longer they are stimulated
to start to move, to migrate shorewards, a journey that can take weeks
and is carefully timed for when the
coastal waters get to 9 degrees or above
and in the case of the spiny seahorses
for when the seagrass has got long
enough to hide their passage through to
their shallow summer waters, where
they sit patiently, waiting for their
lunch to come to them.
As ambush hunters adult seahorses
will eat any smallish shrimp or crab that
comes within striking distance of that
long probing snout, which in spiny
seahorses gives them their other name,
the long snouted seahorse. They sit
completely still, with independently
moving eyes scouting the surrounding
area; as a shrimp is espied they move
ever so slowly forward, like a river
bank heron targeting a minnow. They
are safe in the knowledge that the
ability to change colour has made them
all but invisible in the long seagrass
where they lurk at the bottom of these
long stems of grass. At the very last
moment the strike is so quick the
hapless shrimp has not got time to think
about what has happened and is sucked
down in a couple of gulps, to start its
last slow journey through the seahorse’s
digestive tract.
Settled in their summer residence,
shallow seas with their abundance of
shelter and food for adults and babies
(fry) alike, the seahorses pair up and
form pair bonds lasting many months
with a daily dance that is intense,
shimmering and beautiful in its motion
and complexity. This dance is repeated
daily and keeps the partners together in
these busy waters, occupied by a
myriad of fish and shrimps, all
competing and jostling together for
food and space. This very web of life is
crucial to adult and fry seahorses alike
and their intricate pattern of breeding,
giving birth and pair bonding is so
interwoven that the slightest disruption
stops the whole process.
If one of the partners is scared off
from the joint territory it can take many
months to return or find another mate;
precious time when getting pregnant
and giving birth is so crucially timed
that the onset of the early autumn
storms can and will stop the pair and
force them on the long journey towards
their deep water refuge, a place so dark
and silent it appears to be a grave but in
this darkness and eerie translucent light
offers a safe haven for this wondrous,
mythical creature, so enwrapped in
myths and legends; the impossible
seahorse.
Neil Garrick-Maidment is the Executive
Director of The Seahorse Trust, 36
Greatwood Terrace, Topsham, Devon EX3
OEB. Email: info@the seahorsetrust.org.
Website: www.theseahorsetrust.org
My article ‘Knee Deep to a
Grasshopper in the New Forest’ in
Country-Side (2013, Vol. 33 No. 6)
reported the results of grasshopper and
cricket (Orthoptera) surveys on the
valley mires (bogs) of the New Forest.
Nationally rare species such as the
large marsh grasshopper Stethophyma
grossum and bog bush-cricket
Metrioptera brachyptera were found
on mires in the New Forest, the former
in its stronghold in the UK. Grazing in
the Forest could be a key influence on
the occurrence of orthopterans in the
area, with overgrazing by ponies
producing short swards, unfavourable
for grasshoppers in particular.
It was with these thoughts in mind,
that I returned to the New Forest in
September 2013 to survey the dry
heathland and gain an insight into how
grazing affects Orthoptera. Using a
standardised method of searching a
100 x 100 m area (1 ha) at each site for
30-60 minutes, I was able to determine
the number of species (speciesrichness per ha) at different sites and to
compare the findings. No beating of
vegetation was undertaken to find
arboreal insects and a record was
obtained if a species was either seen or
accurately identified by its stridulation
(song) without using a bat detector to
aid the detection of calls.
As a first step I decided to
investigate the heathland along the
B3078 on the way to Fordingbridge.
Along the road the Forest landscape is
Burnt gorse patch on rolling heathland on the Isle of Purbeck, ideal patchy Orthoptera habitat
Photo T. Gardiner
open heathland with little woodland.
The differing colours of the bracken
Pteridium aquilinum and heather
Calluna vulgaris are contrasted on
distant hillsides as the land rolls from
valley bottom to hill top. It’s a
comforting thought that these views
have changed little in over 1000 years.
Leaping out of the car while a military
helicopter landed on a patch of
heathland nearby, I scoured a 1 ha area
near Bramble Hill. My first
impression was how uniformly short
(< 10 cm) the heather and grasses
were over such a large area.
Unsurprisingly, only three species
were recorded in this sparse vegetation
Heathland at Godlingston Heath, overlooking Studland Peninsula,
excellent Orthoptera habitat
Photo T. Gardiner
will little cover from inclement weather
and avian predation. Field grasshopper
Chorthippus brunneus, mottled
grasshopper Myrmeleotettix maculatus
and common groundhopper Tetrix
undulata were the species observed, all
insects of dry heathland with quite
sparse vegetation (sheep’s sorrel Rumex
acetosella) and patches of bare earth.
Orthopterans of taller vegetation were
noticeably absent.
Stopping at a further three sites on
the B3078, field and mottled
grasshoppers were joined by the
meadow grasshopper Chorthippus
parallelus, but the general appearance
of the heathland was one of a closely
Overgrazed heathland in the New Forest, note uniformly short sward
Photo T. Gardiner
cropped sward nibbled by too many
ponies, cows and deer. At Godshill
Cricket Ground the outfield was very
closely cropped by ponies, although the
odd patch of heather was flowering near
the boundary edge. Foraging further
afield, hardly any grasshoppers were
found, and there were few, if any
ungrazed tussocks of taller grass or
heather that would form a habitat for
orthopterans of longer vegetation. The
fact that there was virtually no
difference in the height of the grass
sward in the cricket ground and the
surrounding heathland was extremely
worrying.
After speaking to my aunt (who I
was staying with) one evening, I
decided to visit the heathlands in the
south-east of the Forest to enable a
comparison with those of the north
along the B3078. Immediately I was
struck by the differing landscape as I
drove along the B3056 from Lyndhurst
to Beaulieu. Here there appeared to be
more woodland and greater variation in
the height of the heather and grass than
in the closely cropped heathland of the
northern part of the Forest in which
only four species of Orthoptera had
been recorded the previous day.
Stopping at Matley Wood campsite I
surveyed a 1 ha area of heathland with
birch Betula spp. thickets, bracken,
heather and patches of bare earth. The
overall impression was a patchier sward
with variety in grass/heather height and
scrub/woodland. A greater number of
orthopterans were observed, including
three Nationally Scarce species: bog
bush-cricket (in dry heath here),
woodland grasshopper Omocestus
rufipes and wood cricket Nemobius
sylvestris. I was familiar with the
woodland grasshopper from its isolated
populations in East Anglia, and
identification of the chalk white palps
and wonderfully red abdomen and legs
confirmed the find. The grasshopper is
usually found in and around woodland
as its name suggests, often with birch as
a companion. It seems that excessive
grazing by livestock in the northern
areas of heathland may reduce the
structural diversity of the vegetation by
creating a closely cropped ‘lawn’ with
little value for Orthoptera.
I came across the wood cricket
while scrabbling around on the ground
trying to catch a grasshopper. I had
never seen this insect before, so was
understandably excited. The wood
cricket is a ‘Species of Conservation
Concern’ and Nationally Scarce found
in only three areas in the UK: Devon,
Isle of Wight and the New Forest. I
once reviewed a paper detailing a study
on its ecology which went on to be
published in the Journal of Insect
Conservation (2009, Vol 13, Part 5).
This paper suggested that it requires a
well-developed leaf litter layer in
woodlands and that vegetation structure
is important. The study also indicated
that open wood edges (such as at
Matley) are important for the insect.
In all seven species of Orthoptera
were recorded at Matley Wood. While
searching, a lady asked me if I’d lost
anything assuming I had dropped my
car keys! She warned me of the
unexploded ordnance on part of the
heath and also mentioned the nightjars
Caprimulgus europaeus which nest on
the heathland from Matley to
Lyndhurst. It seems that this area of
heathland is extremely important for a
range of New Forest animals. Not
wishing to become the first Orthopterist
to be blown up searching for
grasshoppers, I decided to visit several
other sites in the area. Surveys of
heathland at Culverly Farm, Denny
Wood and Pig Bush revealed a
widespread population of woodland
grasshopper, alongside field, mottled
and meadow grasshoppers. The
common groundhopper and bog bushcricket were also seen.
The heathlands in the Beaulieu area
had much better vegetation structure
and diversity of habitat than the
northern heaths along the B3078.
Correspondingly, the species-richness
of Orthoptera was much higher on the
Beaulieu heaths (5.5 species/ha) than on
the closely cropped heathland to the
north of the Forest (2.8 species/ha).
Pockets of lightly grazed heathland
survive in the New Forest, comprising a
patchwork of bracken, gorse Ulex
europaeus, heather and birch woodland.
It is in these patches that the greatest
diversity of habitat niches exists
supporting several scarce orthopterans
such as the wood cricket and woodland
grasshopper. Extensive areas of closely
cropped ‘lawn’ and heather appear to
support a specialist fauna of short sward
species such as the field and mottled
grasshoppers. Here they may utilise the
patches of bare earth for basking or
oviposition (egg-laying). However,
species of taller vegetation with a more
uneven sward structure (e.g. woodland
grasshopper) were absent.
Moving on to the Isle of Purbeck
several areas of heathland were
surveyed to provide a comparison with
the New Forest sites. Two sites on the
Studland Peninsula turned up the usual
suspects for dry heathland such as the
field and mottled grasshopper.
However, the coastal location allowed a
sighting of the short-winged conehead
Conocephalus dorsalis, and the first
lesser marsh grasshopper Chorthippus
albomarginatus. The distinctive
‘chuffing’ call of the bog bush-cricket
was in evidence from damper patches of
heathland with purple moor-grass
Molinia caerulea. The meadow
grasshopper was numerous on the
heaths, which appeared slightly damper
than their New Forest counterparts. The
National Trust’s Godlingston Heath
nature reserve was well populated by
Orthoptera with eight species recorded
in the sampling area. New species for
the trip included the great green bushcricket Tettigonia viridissima which
was singing loudly in the warm
September sunshine from gorse scrub
along with chirping dark bush-crickets
Pholidoptera griseoaptera. The
distinctive wheeling stridulation of the
common green grasshopper Omocestus
viridulus was heard from a damp
hollow, while common groundhoppers
inhabited a patch of disturbed bare earth
with lichens. A long-winged conehead
Conocephalus discolor was happily
calling from tall grassland along the
bridleway fringing the heath.
What struck me was the sheer
abundance and number of species on the
Purbeck heathlands. The patchwork of
habitats included bare earth, birch
thickets, bracken, gorse, heather (of
varying heights) and purple moor-grass
in damp hollows. Unlike the heavily
grazed heaths of the northern part of the
New Forest, the Purbeck heaths were
quite overgrown in places by bracken
and gorse, while clearance of scrub had
revealed open ground, particularly at
Godlingston Heath. A recent fire had
also killed off an area of gorse at the
site, grassland regenerating in its place.
Therefore, disturbance-dependent
species of bare earth such as the
common groundhopper and field
grasshopper were catered for, while
disturbance-averse insects (great green
bush-cricket) resided in the unmanaged
gorse scrub. The elevated position of
Godlingston Heath allowed breathtaking views across to Brownsea Island,
Poole Harbour, Studland Peninsula and
in the distance the Isle of Wight. The
gently undulating hillsides of heather
really are worth a visit for all natural
history lovers as sand lizards Lacerta
agilis, Dartford warblers Sylvia undata
and nightjars are also present in the
area. A beautiful small copper Lycaena
phlaeas butterfly was seen on my visit.
Stopping off at Corfe Castle for a
cup of tea, great green bush-crickets
were singing loudly from the scrub at
the back of the NT car park at the foot
of the mound. Apparently, the wartbiter Decticus verrucivorus was once
found in grassland in the Castle area
and at nearby Stoborough Heath. The
English name of this species allegedly
refers to the old Swedish practice of
allowing the cricket to bite warts from
the skin. Sadly it’s extinct in the
Purbeck area as I allude to in a recent
poem Insect Emptiness
Ghosts of wart-biters in June
Unhappiness for us in a vanishing tune,
Now heavy rain beats upon my face
Bush-crickets seem so out of place.
Moving on to Hartland Moor and
Stoborough Heaths to complete the tour
of the best Purbeck heathlands, new
additions to the species list included the
stripe-winged grasshopper Stenobothrus
lineatus. This grasshopper is more
commonly sighted in chalk grassland,
so its presence on the acidic heaths may
seem surprising. I could find no sign of
the rare heath Chorthippus vagans or
large marsh grasshoppers, but the total
of eight species combined for both
Hartland and Stoborough Heaths
confirmed the high species-richness of
the Isle of Purbeck which is renowned
as one of the most important locations
for Orthoptera in the UK. Indeed, the
assemblages were much more diverse
overall (Isle of Purbeck: 6.3 species/ha,
New Forest: 4.1 species/ha) due in part
to the good conservation management
of many sites by the National Trust, the
southern continental climate and the
patchwork of heathland habitats present.
Upon leaving the Purbeck heaths to
travel back to my aunt’s house, I passed
a horse and carriage travelling along a
single track road, a lovely way to end
the day’s surveying.
On the final day of the trip, I
decided to visit Brownsea Island to
survey the heathland. It is a well-known
truth of ecology that the number of
species on islands depends on several
factors including size and the degree of
isolation from the mainland for
example. Keeping an eye out for red
squirrels Sciurus vulgaris in one of their
haunts in southern Britain (the other is
the Isle of Wight), I scoured six areas of
dry heathland with birch, gorse, heather
and sporadic patches of bare earth. Only
three orthopterans were found on the
heaths, with the field and mottled
grasshoppers present together at four of
the six survey sites. The other species,
common groundhopper, was found in a
small patch of heather near the Scout
Campsite. The daffodil fields, once
resplendently yellow in spring one
hundred years ago, now have a few
patches of heather which harboured a
small population of the field
grasshopper. No other species were
recorded, including those frequent on
the Purbeck heathlands (e.g. lesser
marsh and meadow grasshoppers). The
overall species-richness (1.8 species/ha)
compared poorly with the Purbeck and
New Forest heathlands. On the way
back to catch the ferry, a small
population of field grasshoppers was
discovered in Branksea churchyard,
while short-winged coneheads were
singing from an unmown patch of wet
meadow near Branksea Castle.
The dearth of Orthoptera on the
Brownsea heathland may be due to its
isolation from the mainland heaths,
meaning that species found on the
Studland Peninsula (the nearest
mainland heathland site as the crow
flies) are unable to colonise the habitat
unless they can find some way across
the water. Contrastingly, if a species
becomes extinct on the Island, perhaps
through entirely natural processes, then
it will be unlikely to recolonise from
across the water. Of course, fully
winged adult forms may be able to
disperse across an expanse of water. An
interesting avenue for further research
exists.
Due to immersion in a nose to the
ground search for Orthoptera, I saw no
red squirrels despite others’ successes
on the day. In consolation, I have
written a few haiku (short form of
Japanese poetry) related to the island
and these were published in the 2013
October issue of the New York journal,
Poetry Nook. One haiku follows:
Silent scrub’s neglect
white clay dug and fire engulfed:
heath grasshoppers sing
A good place to begin studying
Orthoptera
The surveys revealed the incredible
diversity of Orthoptera on the Purbeck
heathlands in Dorset. Twelve species
were recorded here in one day,
including the scarce bog bush-cricket.
This is not a bad total when you
consider there are only 27 native species
of Orthoptera in the UK. The nearby
New Forest heaths were also rich in
scarce species (bog bush-cricket,
woodland grasshopper and wood
cricket), but only where grazing
pressure by ponies and cattle was light
and a patchwork of habitats existed.
Given that the New Forest has the most
extensive area of heathland in Europe
(over 10,000 ha), it is not surprising that
it is one of our most important habitats
for Orthoptera. The decline in the
Dorset heaths (c. 80% loss over the last
200 years) due mainly to afforestation,
agriculture (ploughing up for arable
cropping) and urban development
highlights the need to conserve the
remaining heathlands and the diverse
assemblages of Orthoptera dependent
on the habitat. I leave you with one
statistic; in only three days of surveying
in September 2013 I recorded 14
species of Orthoptera (52% of British
list) from the Brownsea Island, Purbeck
and New Forest heathlands combined. If
you want to learn to identify
grasshoppers and crickets, you couldn’t
start in a better place.
Dr. Tim Gardiner FBNA has worked as a
biodiversity officer at the Environment
Agency since 2009. He has been included in
the 2011 Who’s Who in Science and Technology for his significant contributions to the
study of the conservation of insects and
plants in the UK.
Hillside Haiku
One of the most satisfying ways to
create imagery and express emotions in
verse is to write a haiku, a very short
form of Japanese poetry. Generally,
haiku poems which follow the strict
Japanese definition are rare these days
and most modern haiku stray from the
traditional form. The haiku which
follow are composed of three lines,
often with a syllable count of 5-7-5
similar to the Japanese usage of ‘on’ (or
morae). Haiku often have a ‘cutting’
word (or kireji) with which to
juxtaposition two images or ideas. This
cutting word forms the separation point
between the two images and any of the
three lines may end with it. In the haiku
which follow the cutting word is
followed with a semi-colon. Haiku
should also have a seasonal reference (a
kigo) and take inspiration from some
aspect of nature. The following two
collections of haiku take a free-form
approach and are not strictly defined by
the conventions of the poetry. However,
many have a cutting word and adhere to
the 5-7-5 syllable count. I hope you
enjoy them and recognise the
inspirations from your own visits to the
Scottish Highlands and Wenlock Edge.
Micropoetry (short poems) is popular
on social media sites such as Twitter
which limit the number of characters in
a text message to 140, ideal for haiku.
You can follow my micropoetry on
Twitter with the username
@TimGardiner3.
Ghosts of the Glen
Disturbed skies part;
and reveal the undisturbed
moorland paradise
The snow-clad Etive
pyramid is the guardian
of the glen’s gateway
A summit blizzard
conceals an unseen pleasure;
silent snow buntings
A distant patchwork
of yellow, purple and green;
carpets the Great Glen
The shy otter swims
in calm Loch Linnhe water;
a lucky sighting
Who needs the creature?
The loch's beautiful enough;
that's no foolish hoax
The season brings
the sickly smell of death caps;
a wood’s cyanide
Three sisters beckon
a wanderer into the
weeping valley’s heart
The limp wildcat hangs;
a corpse exposed to decay
on bleak Rannoch Moor
On Hamish’s outcrop
blood-red rowan berries hang;
ready for the fall
A stray stag’s antler
lies rigid on the moist moss;
he’s nowhere in sight
Such sad silhouettes,
ghosts of the glorious glen;
lost in the deluge
Lone lights on the loch
reflect in complete darkness;
with the Milky Way
Where is Edwards Deep?
near Urquhart’s ruined turrets;
where the truth does rest
Two buzzards soaring,
dark wings outstretched tip to tip;
almost touching, close
Nothing but birdsong
on the stillest hillside slope;
peace on Scottish soil
Rain threatens from the
faraway shore of Loch Ness;
time’s transparent mist
In a morning’s frost;
the spider weaves its crystal
web in the moor-grass
Wild-life on the Edge
At the Major's Leap
steep wooded slopes fall away;
a life is ended
The trees part here
to show a distant Wrekin
in a shroud of grey
Water trickles through
the deep ruts of Blakeway’s
sunken bridlepath
Seen from Wrekin top;
the cascading green ribbon
stretches out for miles
The powerful stench
of wild garlic haunts these woods;
forever reborn
Quaking grass tussocks
on scrubbed up cliff faces;
wave in gentle winds
Dripping quarry kilns
are cloaked by willows and ferns;
the price of neglect
St. Peter dropped his
keys on the sacred turf of
a limestone heaven
A ghostly white deer
sprints between coppice fingers;
reaching for the light
Black buds of ash trees
are guns lining fortress walls;
waiting for the war
Unwanted leaves fall
to a crisp carpet below;
each one forgotten
I walk in your shoes
through wild ash and lime forest;
just to be closer
On Ippikin’s Rock
I say your name two more times;
but you don’t appear
Spirits in the mist;
cloak lonely trees in a veil
of frozen teardrops
Devil’s Chair far-flung;
by our feet is the wood-nymph’s
ride, Dryad’s saddle
W allac e 100
WALLACE 100
A symposium in Bournemouth, museum displays, theatrical performance from Wales and statue in the garden of the
Natural History Museum, London
The Reverend Tom Gladwin’s article
on Alfred Russel Wallace in CountrySide, Autumn and Winter 2013
appropriately marked the centenary of
Wallace’s death and underlined not
only the important part that he played
with Charles Darwin as a co-discoverer
of the theory of evolution by natural
selection but Wallace himself as father
of a new discipline, bio/zoogeography.
A recent book Here be Dragons by
Dennis McCarthy (2009) further
expands on Wallace and others on “that
grand subject”. Tom Gladwin had an
additional affinity with Wallace as they
both attended the same secondary
school in Hertford. A series of
centenary events was held in different
parts of the country through 2013
commemorating the life and work of
Alfred Russel Wallace who died in
Bournemouth on 7th November 1913.
These are summarised on the website
of the Wallace Fund including
abstracts, digitised manuscripts and
videos to download.
Wallace in Wales
Wallace was born at Usk,
Monmouthshire in Wales on 8th
January, 1823, but the family left to
live in Hertford when he was five. His
father, Thomas Vere Wallace, died in
1843 and left his widow with little
money and a young son to educate,
while their daughter’s school was
failing. The family home in Hertford
was broken up shortly after and
Wallace’s mother Mary took
employment as a housekeeper. Alfred
had trained as a land surveyor (a skill
that was of great practical use to him
later) and at times he worked for his
brother William but contracts were not
always abundant and he sometimes had
to branch out on his own, such as a
year’s teaching in a boarding school in
Leicester. Information on this part of
his life is given in Peter Raby’s book
Alfred Russel Wallace A Life (2001) as
well as Wallace’s own autobiography
My Life (1905). Some of the survey
work took the two brothers back to
Wales and the Welsh borderland based
at Kington, and for about six years he
lived in Neath just up the River Neath
from Swansea. Apart from being his
birthplace, Wallace’s time in Wales had
a strong influence on his later
successful career as an explorer
naturalist, collector and author. It was
whilst surveying in wild country at the
head of the valleys that he appreciated
the beauty of the landscape and took a
first interest in natural history. These
visits were to map land prior to building
a railway connecting mines at the head
of the valleys with Swansea docks.
Since some of his early surveying
contracts in England were connected
with land enclosure, he became
uncomfortable with the consequences of
his paid employment, seeing that loss of
rights of common would impact
adversely on the rural poor. His life as a
young man was of limited means so he
was sensitive to the conditions of the
poor, hence his later active interest in
socialism and land nationalisation. In
Neath the two Wallace brothers
designed and built the Mechanics
Institute, where he later gave lectures
and involved himself with the library as
well as studying botany.
The Wallace sculpture outside the
Natural History Museum
Photo: M. Demidecki
Claiming Wallace (by birth a
Welshman) as a local hero, exhibitions
were on display at Neath (Antiquarian
Society), the National Museum Wales
in Cardiff (Wallace: the Forgotten
Evolutionist?) with a model of his
expedition hut and at the Swansea
The plaque on the base of the bronze sculpture
Photo: J Chatfield
W allac e 100
Illustration from A Narrative of Travels on the
Amazon and Rio Negro by A.R. Wallace.
London: Ward, Lock & Co, 1890 edition
Museum (Wallace: Evolution’s
Forgotten Father), which I saw in
January 2014. It is not surprising that a
local theatre company Theatr na i’Og
from Neath should put on a production
“You Should Ask Wallace”: this was
taken to many venues in Wales before
going to England and overseas. A one
man show, it took the form of an actor
(Ioan Hefin) portraying Wallace in
talking about his adventurous life. This
was first performed outside Wales at the
conference at the University of
Bournemouth on 7th June 2013 and very
enjoyable it was too. There is a strong
culture of literature, storytelling, the
spoken word and humanity in Wales.
Symposium in Bournemouth
The Linnean Society of London and the
Society for the History of Natural
History arranged a centenary
conference at the University of
Bournemouth on 7-8 June 2013 titled
Unremitting passion for the beauty and
mystery of the natural world – Alfred
Russel Wallace Centenary and the
abstracts of the papers are online.
Chairing one of the sessions was Sir
Ghillian Prance who had spent much
time in the field in South America
before becoming Director at Kew. The
first paper “Following in the footsteps
of Wallace – to the Amazon and Rio
Negro” by Andrew Sortwell and David
Ord Kerr describes a three month
expedition to South America in 1978 by
three school friends from Hertford
Grammar School, Wallace’s alma mata,
and the return of two of them in 2007. It
had been stimulated by Andrew
Sortwell’s reading of Wallace’s
autobiography My Life (1905).
There were several papers focussing
on the various Wallace archives with
Janet Ashdown talking on “Conserving
Wallace’s notebooks and journals”. The
Linnean Society holds ten Wallace
notebooks and they are being conserved
in preparation for imaging and making
them accessible to researchers online.
Another archive project is under way at
the Natural History Museum in London
and Caroline Catchpole described the
work locating, cataloguing and
transcribing known letters to and from
Wallace plus other selected manuscripts
like his collecting notebooks from the
Malay Archipelago. They have located
over 4,000 letters worldwide scattered
through about 150 institutions and
others in private hands. The third
archive talk, “Am Feeling Quite Jolly”
by Annette Lord covered conservation
work at the Oxford University Museum
of Natural History who hold over 300
paper items associated with Wallace,
mostly letters and postcards from 18601913. The majority cover
correspondence with Edward Bagnall
Poulton (Hope Professor of Zoology)
and Raphael Mendola, chemist and
entomologist. A wide range of topics,
including family, house building,
gardening, travels, the need to earn
money, writing and science matters give
an informal insight into the personal life
of Wallace as well as demonstrating his
insatiable curiosity, excitement around
new ideas, kindness to others, concern
for the less fortunate and interest in
social matters , the latter particularly
towards the end of his life. There are
also insights into his relationship with
Charles Darwin. At Oxford the Hope
Entomological Collections hold tens of
thousands of specimens from the Malay
Archipelago and others from Britain
and South America. As Wallace wrote
many scientific papers describing his
finds, including new species, there are
Type specimens in the collection.
Research on the work of Wallace was
presented by Professor Jim Costa of the
Western Carolina University titled “On
the Organic Law of Change”, title of a
book by the Harvard University Press.
This examines Wallace’s evolutionary
insights and arguments arising from his
“Species Notebooks” of 1855-1859. His
time spent in S E Asia (1854-1962) was
one of remarkable creativity with many
scientific papers and letters written
including those of 1855 (on the
Sarawak Law) and the famous Ternate
essay of 1858 that he wrote
summarising his thoughts on natural
selection whilst ill with fever. It was
sent to Charles Darwin asking for it to
be passed on to Lyell. As is widely
known this triggered Charles Darwin
into making his secret theory (that he
had been nursing and agonising over for
some years) known to the world. As
Tom Gladwin speculated in the last
Country-Side, without this letter Darwin
may never have written his Origin of
Species.
Following on was a contribution
from Dr Charles Smith of West
Kentucky University “Wallace on
Natural Selection: What Did He Really
Have in Mind?” A travel book by
Alexander von Humboldt on South
America inspired Wallace to go there
but it also introduced him to the
thinking of “removal of the unfit”. The
paper written at Ternate is where
Wallace puts his ideas on natural
selection together for the wider world
using evidence from field work in the
Malay Archipelago. Charles Smith
pointed out some differences in
approach between Darwin and Wallace
although the basic idea they had was the
same. Both of them however initially
held back from extending the theory
publically to the human race. The
Conference ended with an evening
reception at the premises of the
Bournemouth Natural Science Society,
an organisation that Russel had joined
when living in Bournemouth.
The second day included a coach
excursion to Broadstone cemetery off
Dunyeats Road on the outskirts of
Bournemouth to see Wallace’s grave.
His tomb, shared with his wife Annie
who died shortly after him, is marked
by a pillar of petrified tree trunk from
Portland in Dorset mounted on a base of
W allac e 100
Wallace’s tomb at Broadstone
Photo: T. Gladwin
Purbeck stone with plaques to both him
and his wife Annie. In 1999 the grave
was restored, in 2000 a granite
surround added with an additional
bronze plaque, the conifer that had been
hiding the first Wallace plaque cut
down and the grave lease extended for
another 100 years. The funeral in 1913
was a quiet one officiated by the
Bishop of Salisbury and attended by his
two children William and Violet but his
wife was too incapacitated to attend.
Representatives from the Royal Society
(of which he was a Fellow), the
Linnean Society of London and the
Land Nationalisation Society were
present to pay their last respects. He
was a famous man at the end of his life.
Centenary commemoration
A new portrait of A R Wallace
depicting him at the age of about 46
rather than in old age as for earlier
likenesses now hangs on the stair case
from the main hall of the Natural
History Museum not far from the
marble statue of Charles Darwin and
illustrated in the last issue of CountrySide. In November a new bronze stature
of him dressed for the field and looking
out into the distance has been erected
outside in the wildlife garden of the
museum. It is a superb piece of work
with wonderful texture of clothing and
beard, full of character and lifelike,
even showing his steel-rimmed
spectacles. It was sculpted by Anthony
Smith and donated to the Natural
History Museum by the A R Wallace
Memorial Fund in 2013
.
Bates, Wallace and Darwin
Charles Darwin came from a wealthy
family. He attended Medical School at
the University of Edinburgh and later
took a degree at the University of
Cambridge in preparation for a planned
career in the Church. Expenses on his
five year voyage on HMS Beagle were
paid for by his father and, apart from
some intrepid long journeys on
horseback inland when the ship was in
dock, he was accommodated and eat as
a Gentleman companion in the
Captain’s cabin. Wallace and Bates
however came from families of more
limited means and they had to earn
money from selling specimens they
collected to pay their living expenses
and return passage. The Wallace
family however valued education and
there were books in the house while
Wallace’s father initially took in pupils
and sent his sons to the Grammar
School, but as financial resources
dwindled Alfred spent his last school
year as pupil-teacher in lieu of fees
before being taken out of school at 14
to learn a trade and eventually support
himself.
There were, however parallel paths,
as well as differences. The idea of
natural selection Darwin and Wallace
thought up independently. In both
cases serious natural history began
with a passionate interest in beetles
shared with a kindred spirit of similar
age. In Charles Darwin’s case it was
with his cousin William Darwin Fox
who was at Cambridge at the same
time and in Alfred Wallace’s case with
Henry Walter Bates whom he met in
Leicester about 1844 and in 1848
joined forces to go collecting in South
America. In all cases they were away
from home for several years, Darwin
on the HMS Beagle for five, Bates in
the Amazon for 11 and Wallace in the
Amazon for four before setting off
again for nearly six years in the Malay
Archipelago. All three wrote books
based on their travels and natural
history observations that were well
received and reprinted on a number of
occasions. They all kept journals as
well as collecting specimens and spent
their lives on return in writing books
and scientific papers based on their
travels. Careful first-hand observation
and original thought in interpretation
was also part of the process leading to
their international status as naturalists.
All three married and settled down to
raise families soon after their return
but Wallace did not marry until he was
46 and had a small family compared
with Darwin’s large brood of 11.
Extending their zoological conclusions
to include humans was something that
they were reticent in doing, although
Darwin did take the plunge with a later
book, The Descent of Man, and
Selection in Relation to Sex (1874).
Wallace’s interest in the human
population expanded in the later years
of his life but was more sociological
and idealistic working with the Land
Nationalisation Society in trying to
improve the lot of the poor through
socialism. He was not religious as such
but had a feeling for spirituality and
was a follower of spiritualism, a
movement that came from the USA in
the 1860s, and through a medium, tried
to communicate with the spirits of their
deceased loved ones. Spiritualism had
a remarkable following in London
circles, Darwin did not subscribe to it
but Wallace’s involvement with
spiritualism did not do his reputation
much good as a scientist. He did
receive a Civil List pension and a
number of honours.
References
Costa, J T. 2013. On the Organic Law of
Change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Darwin, C. 1874. The Descent of Man, and
Selection in Relation to Sex. London: John
Murray. Volumes 2.
Gladwin, T. 2013. Alfred Russel Wallace
(1823-1913) Discoverer of the theory of
evolution by natural selection, and father of
bio or zoo-geography. Country-Side,
Autumn and Winter 2013, 15-18.
McCarthy, D. 2009. Here be Dragons.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Raby, P. 2001. Alfred Russel Wallace A
Life. London: Chatto & Windus.
Wallace, A R. 1905. My Life: A record of
events and opinions. London: Chapman &
Hall. Volumes 2.
Wild Service Trees of the London Boroughs
Introduction
In the British Isles the wild service tree
Sorbus torminalis (L.) Crantz is a rare
native tree species, and where found typically confined to ancient
woodlands - is usually limited to very
low numbers, often as an isolated
individual. Wild service is able to
persist in ancient woodland for many
hundreds of years because it
predominantly reproduces by sending
up suckers from the roots of a mature
tree and in the process creates clonal
copies of itself. Although this tree
species has often benefited from being
coppiced (which extends its longevity),
reproduction from seed in the British
Isles is uncommon and therefore the
wild service does not easily spread out
of ancient woodlands and into the
wider countryside. This quirk of
reproduction ensures that the wild
service tree is a good ancient woodland
indicator species, and as such has
significant value in nature
conservation.
An intriguing woodland tree
species that is not always easy to find,
wild service is found scattered
throughout the south-east, including
the London area, where I live and
work. From the results obtained from a
national survey of the distribution of
Sorbus torminalis in the British Isles
Roper (1993) was able to summarise
the species’ distribution in the southeast of England as follows: ‘...records
spread in a continuum, with some local
concentrations, from the Essex coast to
the borders of Buckinghamshire and
Berkshire in the west and Kent and
Surrey in the south.
Virtually all are associated with
London or Boulder Clays and the
gravelly soils that overlie them’. And
‘to the west the tree is still remarkably
well-distributed within the London
Clay triangle of north-west London’.
I was initially introduced to the
wild service tree in 2006 when I began
working for the London Borough of
Hillingdon in Ruislip Woods National
Nature Reserve (NNR). Since then I
Figure 1. Large wild service tree with suckers invading the field and hedge line, Horsenden Hill Wood
Photo: Jon Gurr
have surveyed this NNR for its wild
service population, and having enjoyed
the ‘challenge’ decided to widen my
search. Thus, although I am aware that
wild service is found in many London
boroughs and surrounding counties (for
example, see Pat and Ron Andrews’
article on this species’ distribution in
the Epping area, in the Autumn and
Winter 2012 edition of Country-Side),
I have thus far focused my surveys on
boroughs adjacent to Hillingdon. For
an excellent overview of the Sorbus
genera, including Sorbus torminalis,
the reader is referred to Rich et al.
2010; Roper (1993) provides a broad
and informative picture of the
distribution of wild service in the
British Isles; and Harper (1981) details
many sites where this tree is found
throughout Hertfordshire and
Middlesex.
London Borough of Hillingdon
Ruislip Woods and Ruislip Lido
Ruislip Woods (TQ0833789812) is a
Site of Special Scientific Interest
(SSSI) and NNR covering 726 acres
(294 ha) in the London Borough of
Hillingdon (LBH). Ruislip Lido
(TQ0884189221) is a reservoir with an
artificial beach and although not
covered by the SSSI and NNR
designations is surrounded by Ruislip
Woods. Both sites are owned and
managed by LBH. Within the four
Ruislip Woods (Bayhurst Wood; Mad
Bess Wood; Copse Wood; and Park
Wood) wild service is located across 70
sites, including 29 sites where the tree
clusters and 41 sites where the tree is
isolated, some probably originating
from seed. The population, currently at
240 and counting, appears healthy and
with a good age distribution. The
majority of the trees in Mad Bess Wood
are likely to be suckering from the tree
with the largest diameter
(TQ0729689401), which at 76cm
diameter at breast height (dbh) [at 1.5
metres from the ground], is probably
the oldest wild service tree in Ruislip
Woods.
Wild service trees are scattered
across many sites, but the easiest place
to find them is along the southern and
western boundaries of Bayhurst Wood
(TQ0679288617); see Gurr (2013) for
details and distribution map. A cluster
Figure 2. Veteran wild service tree growing in
Pear Wood, London Borough of Harrow
Photo: Jon Gurr
Figure 3. Two large mature specimens with roots exposed from eroding bank, Hampstead Heath.
Largest dbh is 80cm
Photo: Jon Gurr
Figure 4. A double-stemmed specimen, at 83cm and 75cm dbh, Hampstead Heath
Photo: Jon Gurr
of 30 trees, with many of them
suckering, are to be found on the
woodland edge by the Lido dam wall
(TQ0869188872).
Potter Street Hill, Northwood
Sometimes wild service trees are found
growing in hedgerows of ancient lanes,
such as with the two trees found here
(TQ1070591113); both trees appear to
have been last laid around 50 years ago.
Rickmansworth Road, Harefield
Three mature trees are growing at the
top of a steep bank on an old lane
(TQ0573292158), with another younger
specimen a short distance up the road
(TQ0589792277).
London Borough of Ealing
Perivale Wood
Perivale Wood (TQ1597483723) is a 27
acre (11.6 ha) local nature reserve
(LNR) and site of metropolitan
importance for nature conservation
(SINC) in Perivale. It is the second
oldest nature reserve in Britain, and was
designated an LNR in 1974. It is owned
and managed by the Selborne Society.
This ancient oak woodland has a small
population of around ten wild service
trees, mostly found growing in the
interior of the woodland. None of the
mature trees appear to be suckering, and
it is considered likely that some of the
trees are regenerating from seed.
Horsenden Hill
Lying immediately north of Perivale
Wood, this area of ancient woodland,
meadows and wetland comprises the
largest single nature conservation site
(247 acres or 100 ha) within the London
Borough of Ealing. It is one of the
highest points in the local area, rising to
276 ft (85m) above sea level, and forms
part of the site of an ancient iron-age
hill fort. Centred on the largest mature
wild service tree (59cm dbh) on the
edge of this small woodland
(TQ1617684676) this tree (Figure 1)
appears to have sent up over one
hundred suckers in the immediate area,
and appears to be highly successful at
spreading along the hedge line and
around the edges of the adjoining open
field.
Several other mature trees are to be
found in the area, one recently dead tree
(TQ1603784719) has young healthy
suckers close to it. Another healthy tree
is growing next to the footpath at
(TQ1621984817), and a small group of
suckering wild service trees are
growing in an old hedge line behind the
Ballot Box pub (TQ1597384706). In
total I have recorded 195 individual
trees, including suckers, in this small
area.
London Borough of Harrow
Pear Wood
Pear Wood is situated in the north-east
corner of the borough and is sited
within a wooded commons area that
includes Stanmore Common and
Harrow Weald Common. Pear Wood is
a small ancient woodland (36.1 acres or
14.6 ha), and lies on the fast-draining
pebble gravel and claygate beds of the
Harrow Weald ridge. Cutting across
Pear Wood is the ancient earthwork of
Grim’s Dyke, which is kept clear of
trees to reduce damage to the structure
by tree roots. The origin and purpose of
Grim’s Dyke are unclear: it may date
from the Roman occupation or from the
5th or 6th century; it may be defensive
but is more likely to be a boundary
marker. There are around 16 wild
service trees in this small woodland,
including three mature trees, the largest
of which has a dbh of 66cm and can be
found at TQ1738693698 (Figure 2).
Harrow Weald Common
A small multi-stemmed wild service
tree (TQ1450892596), probably
previously laid, is growing in the hedge
to the east of The Case Is Altered pub
on the Old Redding road and by the
entrance to the Copse Farm track.
Canons Park
Canons Park is a 44 acre (18 ha)
fragment of eighteenth century
parkland between Stanmore and
Edgware. Three mature trees, the
largest with a dbh of 53cm
(TQ1784191867), are found a short
distance along the path from the eastern
entrance at Howberry Road. Three
other wild service trees are found by
taking the western woodland path
opposite Howberry Road
(TQ1761691792).
London Borough of Haringey
Coldfall Wood
Coldfall Wood is an ancient wood in
Muswell Hill, North London, and
covers an area of 34 acres (14 ha).
There are around a dozen young and
semi-mature trees growing in this wood
e.g. TQ2764590101. Coldfall Wood is
the site of the discoveries which first
led to the recognition that glaciation
had once reached the south of England.
Queens Wood
An ancient woodland, Queens Wood
(TQ2880988664) is both an LNR and
SINC. A small population of four trees,
three of which are mature, are to be
found here; the fourth tree, a small
sapling, appears to be of seed origin
(Bevan, 2011).
London Boroughs of Camden and
Barnet
Hampstead Heath and Kenwood
Hampstead Heath is owned and
managed by the City of London
Corporation. The Heath is a SINC and
lies mostly within the London Borough
of Camden, with the adjoining Heath
Extension in the London Borough of
Barnet.
Jeremy Wright (2000) located
thirty-two wild service trees across
Hampstead Heath and Kenwood, and
when I visited in 2013 it had just been
announced that the tallest wild service
tree in the British Isles was one
growing on the West Heath. This tree
(TQ2574086551), with a dbh of
56.5cm, was recorded with a height of
25.7 metres. However, in terms of size
and age Hampstead Heath appears to
have a collection of some of the oldest
wild service trees in London, and
perhaps nationally.
Two trees (TQ2748987205)
growing next to each other on a bank
by Millfield Lane, near to Parliament
Hill, are truly impressive in appearance,
partly due to their old age, with hollows
and old compartmentalised wounds,
and partly because the soil around the
base of the trees has eroded over the
course of their lives resulting in the
trees appearing to be propped up on
stumpy legs (Figure 3).
Two other individual trees are
worth noting, both on an old hedge line.
The first (TQ2683986576) is a large
individual that has had part of its crown
ripped out. The second individual
growing just a few metres away
(TQ2680286569) is double-stemmed,
with one stem measuring 75cm dbh and
the larger one measuring 83cm dbh; this
is the largest wild service tree by
diameter known in the London area
(Figure 4).
Discussion
Around 150 years ago Trimen & Dyer
(1869) described wild service in
Middlesex as ‘rather rare’, while in
1975 Kent described the species as ‘rare
and decreasing’. In addition to the six
London boroughs’ sites I surveyed
Geoffrey Harper (1981) carried out
extensive surveys of the wild service
tree in Hertfordshire and Middlesex in
1978 and 1979, and it is very likely that
most of these sites still contain this
species. The London boroughs where
he found wild service include: six sites
in Barnet; one site in Brent; the
Hampstead Heath and Kenwood site in
Camden; three sites in Ealing; two sites
in Enfield; six sites in Haringey; seven
sites in Harrow; two sites in Havering;
two additional sites in Hillingdon,
which I have yet to find; and one site
bordering Redbridge and Waltham
Forest.
Therefore, this ancient woodland
indicator tree has been recorded, at one
time or another, in all of the outer north
London boroughs, and this perhaps
reflects what Patrick Roper (1993) was
able to state, that in the north London
region ‘Many (wild service) represent
survivors, or descendents, of trees from
the large forests of Essex and
Middlesex which encompassed the
smaller forests of Epping, Hatfield and
others’.
Certainly most sites where wild
service has been recorded appear to be
found in either ancient woodland or old
hedges, or represent the fragments of
these habitats now lost. My
observations appear to show that the
majority of the trees I have surveyed are
healthy, that many populations are
thriving, with a good recruitment rate,
and that in many sites it would appear
that wild service is regenerating from
seed. A good number of the trees also
appear to be quite old (i.e. edging
towards or attaining veteran tree status),
with the largest and oldest possibly
being between 200 and 300 years old.
Throughout my surveys I have found
this latter point particularly fascinating
as it does appear that this tree can reach
a good age, contrary to the views of
some authors.
We may ask why this tree is
important? Could it be that these pockets
of wild service trees represent relict
populations dating back hundreds, if not
thousands, of years? As yet science
cannot tell us the answer to this question,
but what is possible is that these special
trees do seem to provide a connection to
the past. Perhaps they can and should be
thought of as an element of wildness that
can often be absent in such a large and
built up region as London?
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following
people for help with access to and
locating wild service trees in their area:
Claire Abbott (Pear Wood); Peter
Edwards (Perivale Woods); David
Bevan (Coldfall and Queens Woods);
and David Humphries (Hampstead
Heath and Kenwood).
References
Bevan D. 2011. Coppicing Haringey’s
ancient woodlands. The London Naturalist,
No. 90: 55-81.
Gurr J. 2013. The distribution and
abundance of the wild service tree Sorbus
torminalis in Ruislip Woods. The London
Naturalist, No. 92:129-149
Harper G. 1981. Wild Service in
Hertfordshire and Middlesex. Trans. Herts.
Nat. Hist. Soc. 28 (4): 17-26.
Kent, D. H. 1975. Historical flora of
Middlesex, London, pp. 298-9.
Rich T. C. G., Houston L., Robertson A.,
Proctor M. C. F. 2010. Whitebeams,
Rowans and Service Trees of Britain and
Ireland. A monograph of British and Irish
Sorbus L. B.S.B.I. Handbook No. 14.
Botanical Society of the British Isles,
London.
Roper P. 1993. The distribution of the Wild
Service Tree, Sorbus torminalis (L.) Crantz,
in the British Isles. Watsonia, 19, 209-229.
Trimen, H. & Thistleton Dyer, W. T.
1869. Flora of Middlesex, London, pp. 107,
423.
Wright J. 2001. The wild service tree
Sorbus torminalis: Hampstead Heath Survey
2000. The London Naturalist, No. 80: 207212.
Further Reading
Andrews P. & Andrews R. 2012. Wild
Service Tree, Rosaceae: Sorbus torminalis.
Autumn and Winter edition of Country-Side,
BNA.
Roper P. 1994. The British Service Trees.
British Wildlife, Vol. 6, Number 1. Pp 1422.
Rose F. 1999. Indicators of ancient
woodland: The use of vascular plants in
evaluating ancient woods for nature
conservation. British Wildlife, April 1999,
pp 241-251.
Websites
Canons Park http://www.friendsofcanonspark.org.uk/4.ht
ml
Friends of Coldfall Wood http://www.coldfallwoods.co.uk/about/
Friends of Queens Wood http://www.fqw.org.uk/
Hampstead Heath http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-todo/green-spaces/hampsteadheath/Pages/default.aspx
Horsenden Hill http://www.perivale.co.uk/horsendenhill.htm
Pear Wood http://www.harrowncf.org/PW_home.html
Perivale Wood - http://perivalewood.
k-hosting.co.uk/
Ruislip Woods https://www.hillingdon.gov.uk/article/13149
/Ruislip-Woods-National-Nature-Reserve
Oxhey Woods http://www.threerivers.gov.uk/Default.aspx/
Web/LocalNatureReserves#oxheywoods
About the Author
Jon Gurr is an arboriculturalist and has worked
for the London Borough of Hillingdon since 2006,
initially as a woodland ranger in the Ruislip
Woods NNR, and more recently as a trees and
woodland officer. His interests are woodland
conservation and, of course, researching the
wild service tree.

Spring-Summer 2014 - The British Naturalists` Association

Transcription

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