Looking
forward to July | July
1 | Botany Ripon,
Quarry Moor | | July
4 | Workday Sun
Lane (am) | | June 10 | Workday Ben
Rhydding | | July 10 | Summer
visit Kilnsey: Moths, Bees, Butterflies
and Flowers | | July 15 | Workday Sun
Lane (pm) | | July
15 | Botany Timble Ings | | July
17 | Workday Ben Rhydding | | July
18 | Summer
visit Nethergill Farm, Oughtershaw | | July
27 | Summer
visit Rodley Nature Reserve | | July
31 | Summer
visit Otley Wetland Nature Reserve |
Full Summer 2010 programme
here
|
| | | Amber
alert for this yellow beauty | | County
to be urged to create flower meadows to aid bees | | Gargrave
resident's distress over dead birds | | Peregrines
to star again at Malham Cove | | Generations
join forces to establish new Ilkley woodland | | A
tale of beauty and persecution |
| | |
| Counting
butterflies  There
are 58 species of butterfly in the UK and over 2,500 types of moth but sadly in
many cases their survival is threatened. In the last hundred years, four butterflies
and over 60 moths have become extinct. Almost half of our butterflies are now
threatened and 70 per cent of common moths are declining.
The Big Butterfly
Count is a nationwide survey aimed at helping us assess the health of our environment.
Butterflies react very quickly to change in their environment which makes them
excellent biodiversity indicators. Butterfly declines are an early warning for
other wildlife losses. You can help!
Simply count butterflies for 15 minutes
during bright (preferably sunny) weather from 24th July to 1st August. Then send
in your sightings online at www.bigbutterflycount.org.
|
| 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. |
| Tick
time
Take home a tick - and spend a few weeks in pain, maybe with
serious organ, joint and skin problems. Lyme disease is caused by the
bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. These bacteria are transmitted to humans
by the bite of infected ticks. They are carried by deer, sheep and also birds.
Spring is the most dangerous time, and moist, shaded areas with leaf litter and
low-lying vegetation in wooded, brushy or overgrown grassy habitats the most risky
habitats. To protect yourself against ticks, wear suitable clothing,
covering legs and arms, use insect repellents and check for ticks and remove any
that are attached when you come home. Take care - the safe way is illustrated
here.
Symptoms include, among others, a pink, slowly expanding “bull’s-eye” rash,
which is not usually itchy or painful; fever, malaise, fatigue; facial nerve palsy.
If you suspect a tick infection, see your doctor. Antibiotics can cure the disease
but if left untreated, the infection spreads into organs, nerves and joints, becoming
extremely debilitating and hard to treat. | |
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 
Of course, we all know that weeds are just plants in the wrong
place, but the bright yellow plant which dominates over-grazed fields and roadsides
has such a bad reputation that most people regard it as simply disposable. 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
. | |