Trunch Wildlife Watch
Regular contributions about the wonders of nature around us
Until recently the main editor of this topic was Anne Horsfield who very sadly passed from us on New Year's Day.
Anne was a very accomplished scientist and botanist with an enormous passion for butterflies and dragonflies. Her observations, many of them from her own garden or from the Rectory Meadow - a wild habitation she was instrumental in establishing close to the village cemetry - were shared with villagers in her Wildlife Watch articles which enlivend the Trunch Mardle for many years.
Some of Anne's articles are available below. The website and the Mardle would welcome articles from new contributors to open our eyes and ears to the wonders of nature around us and to keep Anne's heritage alive.
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Trunch Wildlife Watch October 09
(author: Anne Horsefield) To round off the summer bird watch I want to pass on the fascinating facts (gleaned from Radio 4) about the feeding habits of swifts, house martins and swallows. All three species catch flying insects.
Swifts live their lives on the wing (except when nesting). They cruise at great heights with their mouths wide open to trap the small insects that form the plankton of the atmosphere. With their long wings they are not very manoeuvrable. They can be likened to basking sharks – large fish that collect plankton from the water.
House martins are active flyers and can twist and turn to chase and catch their prey. The latter are medium sized insects found in the first few hundred feet above the ground.
Most agile of the three species is the swallow. 
In flight they can change direction very quickly. They are able to catch big insects like common flies and insects found around livestock.
With these three different feeding strategies, our summer visitors do not encroach onto each others’ food source.
The summer visitors have departed but the winter visitors are arriving. For a short time we had a pair of goldcrests in the garden – having a break on their journey south. At the feeding station I saw a pair of bramblings last week. Today (14 October) Peter saw redwings roost for a while in the tree tops.
At the beginning of the month Rectory Meadow had its autumn tidy-up. George Dennis came and mowed the meadow and hacked down brambles. As he cut the grass a family of short-tailed voles scurried away, I hope to their reserve burrow. We saw at least 15 frogs of various ages that had been living in the damp tufty grass.
A few days later Nick Hurst pruned the shrubs and hedge and cleared away the cut brambles and nettles. The borders are full of coarse grass but the ground is too hard to dig at the moment – we need rain! Nick hand pulled the long grass stems so the borders do look tidy for now.
Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) are organising a survey of four animals and want help from the public. Unfortunately and annoyingly I am confined to the house at the moment. I hope you will do some spotting for me please?
Barn Owl
NWT wants to know the locations of BARN OWLS, BROWN HARES (see below), HARVEST MICE and GREY PARTRIDGES. The first two are easy to identify. You are unlikely to see a harvest mouse but at this time of year their cricket-ball sized breeding nests can be found above ground, intertwined with several tall grass and plant stems in an area of dense vegetation. Most of the partridges seen are the red-legged or french patridge. They have distinctive barred markings on their wings.
Grey partridges have orange-brown heads and throats, mottled grey and brown backs and wings. The male has a dark brown horseshoe mark on his belly.
Harvest Mouse
Grey Partridge
If you phone me with your sightings I will pass them onto NWT.
Look forward to hearing from you (01263 720649).
"Alien" Ladybirds
(Author: Susanne Mason) Many of you will have noticed this summer the amazing invasion of the Norfolk coast by lmillions of ladybirds. Even today, on the 23 of October, ladybirds were particularly prevalent. In fact, many of those seen this summer are "aliens" and threaten the livelihood of our native ladybirds, as the following article clarifies.
The Harlequin Ladybird has landed! (Article by the Harlequin Ladybird Survey)
"A new ladybird has arrived in Britain. But not just any ladybird: this is the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis, the most invasive ladybird on Earth.
The distribution map on the left or the annnual spread maps show that it has spread rapidly north and west from the southeast of England since its first sighting. There are 46 species of ladybird (Coccinellidae) resident in Britain and the recent arrival of the harlequin ladybird has the potential to jeopardise many of these. The Harlequin Ladybird Survey will monitor its spread across Britain and assess its impact on native ladybirds. Monitoring ladybirds across the country has never been more important. We want YOU to get involved! Please record your Harlequin ladybird sightings on the Harlequin survey website!"
The picture left shows the variety of possible appearances of the Harlequin ladybird. More details to recognise this insect can be found here. |
The harlequin ladybird (
