Looking forward to
July

Banded beauties



One striking damsel - demoiselle, actually - is the Banded Demoiselle, named of course from the male's wing pattern. The body and abdomen are an iridescent metallic deep blue-green, and the female has beautiful green-tinted wings.

It likes unpolluted rivers with muddy bottoms and can be seen along the lower Wharfe, where thick vegetation provides perching places. Males will defend their territory vigorously against other damselflies. When mating, the male has a distinctive fluttering display flight, and the pair fly off into the bushes, with the female returning alone to lay eggs into plant tissue.

Good places to see this super little insect are along the Pool-in-Wharfedale to Castley riverside path.

Wildlife in
July

High summer - at last.

• Gatekeeper butterflies
• Chiffchaffs singing
• Migrant Hawker dragonfles - maybe a Lesser Emperor?
• Baby frogs underfoot
• Bog asphodel on the moors
• Roe deer rutting

More here

Feather forecast



Take a walk in the Washburn Valley, around Dob Park, and try to spot a spotted flycatcher! This undistinguished little brown-and-buff bird has the delightful habit of sitting still, then dashing out to catch a passing insect, and returning to its branch to wait for another - diagnostic behaviour which helps identification no end!

They are among our latest summer visitors and in national decline, but last year we had a good season. The upper Wharfe is actually now a more likely area - try Lower Grass Wood and Littondale - but Strid Wood has been reliable in the past.

A black-and-white bird behaving in just the same way is probably a Pied Flycatcher. Strid Wood and Grass Wood, and Folly Hall Wood in Washburndale, are local strongholds, with breeding helped along by nestboxes. Again, 2005 was a good year, and perhaps 2006 will be another - this year's warmer weather will help the birds in their search for insects.

Plants now

Numerous web sites advise how to wipe it out, the Highways Agency spends hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to extirpate it and it is the only weed dignified with an Act of its own (the Ragwort Control Act), which specifies how its spread can be controlled, particularly on land used for horses and livestock. It does contain alkaloids which poison animals which eat it, but they won't normally do so if it is alive (it tastes bitter and the smell crushed is such that the Scots called it 'Stinking Willy'). Only when it is harvested with grass, when it loses its taste and smell and is easily eaten, does it become a threat.

Even if we could destroy ragwort, it would have major effects on wildlife. At least 30 species of insects and other invertebrates are totally dependent on Ragwort as their food. 52 insects are known to regularly feed on Ragwort as a significant foodplant - it is well know as a food plant for the Cinnabar moth. Trying to eradicate ragwort risks losing

Nature Notes
by Jenny Dixon
featured in Wharfedale Newspapers

Feeding frenzy

In the last few weeks I seem to have been having a lot of conversations about the antics of grey squirrels. Although often infuriated by their expensive raids on seeds and peanuts intended for our garden birds, I, for one, cannot but admire their intelligence, persistence and extraordinary tooth power. Two examples will, perhaps, suffice.

In preparation for the winter, a friend bought an expensive squirrel-proof peanut holder - all metal, with a sheath that, triggered by anything heavier than a woodpecker, descended to cover the food. The resident squirrel sized it up and then patiently gnawed loose the heavy metal base: the entire contents were released like a grand peanut jackpot. Next story: some Ilkley friends installed the standard caged feeder and the squirrel quickly learnt how to dislodge the lid and upend itself, inserting head and shoulders down into the tube to clear out the contents. Our friends then wound a chain tightly round the top and secured it: squirrel examined this carefully and began a long process of tugging and gnawing, occasionally breaking off to give an irritated bite to the wood of the bird-table. Eventually, the chain gave in and the dive into the tube was repeated. Squirrels 2 - humans 0. Not one to ignore a challenge, our friends fitted a fiendish device, adapted from a metal coathanger. So far, this has worked. Should be patented, I say!

Last week my sister in the Scottish Highlands sent me a cutting from her local paper. It featured a photograph of a quite different thief. The locals had put out peanuts specifically to attract red squirrels to their gardens. The food is hidden in lidded wooden boxes that their squirrel visitors soon learned to open. However, the photo showed a pine marten - also apparently a frequent visitor and also adept at accessing the nuts - posing confidently beside the box. The accompanying article put forward the theory that pine martens are useful allies in the campaign to preserve the native red squirrels and keep out the greys. Grey squirrels spend more time feeding on the ground and are heavier so cannot retreat to the tips of branches and are therefore easier for martens to catch. I suppose they also make a bigger meal!

All this, though interesting, would not seem particularly relevant to Yorkshire, you might think. However, an ongoing survey by the Vincent Wildlife Trust to find out the distribution of pine martens in England and Wales is coming up with some encouraging results. It was thought that these attractive mustelids had become extinct in England but occasional sightings began to add up to a contrary indication. The Survey collates these, but also relies on the collection of scats - characteristically curved and with a sweetish musky scent - which can now be confirmed by DNA analysis. So, it seems that, despite past persecution and habitat loss, small numbers of pine martens managed to survive in certain core areas, including North Yorkshire. Further information about the Survey can be obtained from www.pinemarten.info. If you are walking in the North Yorkshire Moors or Forests you might have something to report!

More of Jenny's articles here .