Countryman Diary - March 2009
I’ve never seen a long-eared owl in the wild,” I said to a Countryman contributor who knows about these things.
“I know where there are some,” he said confidently, and he gave me details of a location in Wensleydale, in the Yorkshire Dales, where, he said, I was “bound to come across one — go just as the sun is going down,” he added.
So off I went one January evening. After parking the car, I headed about a mile and a half up a path at the edge of a plantation. I carried a bag with drink, snack, weak pair of binocs and a spare sweater.
I realised halfway up the track that my hooded outline must have looked like some dodgy character on a poaching mission, but I was miles from any buildings so carried on regardless.
I settled down in what I thought was the perfect spot and waited for the show to begin … and waited … and waited … Not a sight nor even the sound of any sort of owl — or any other bird for that matter. Not only that, it was now pitch-black and you can guess what wasn’t in my bag — that’s right, a torch.
I stumbled back on what seemed like a three-mile return journey to the car. I switched on the lights and there in front of me on a gatepost was an owl. I swear it had a grin on its smug round face.
I’m not sure what kind of owl it was — it didn’t stay around long enough for me to identify it properly — but my guess is, it was a tawny.
The long-eared variety tends to be smaller, and can look tall and thin when roosting (like our splendid cover picture). What seem to be ears are actually tufts of feathers and have nothing to do with its hearing but they sometimes rise up when alarmed. Their wings are longer than the tawny’s, with a span of up to three feet.
The best time to see them is probably at the back end of May or early June when they will be feeding the young. However, across Yorkshire at the RSPB reserve of Fairburn Ings, near Castleford, it was a different story. There, a group of five long-eared owls put on a show for visitors in mid-January. No comment.
Wet summers bad for robins
Scientists from the British Trust for Ornithology have highlighted the effect a second wet summer in a row has had on one of our favourite birds, the robin.
Dr Rob Robinson, principal ecologist, reports that the robin had its worst breeding season since the trust began collecting records in 1983.
The number of young birds recorded was down by twenty-two per cent on normal, meaning almost a quarter of all young robins were lost.
Great tit and garden warbler also experienced their worst breeding season, with productivity down by thirty-five and thirty-four per cent respectively on normal. Song thrushes and blackbirds (at thirty-five and thirty-two per cent) fared badly too, but it was not their worst ever year.
The timing of the wet weather was crucial. Nationally, the 2008 breeding season was wettest towards the end, during July and August, affecting those birds that have later broods. Worryingly, this followed a very wet summer in 2007.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Two species that breed early in the season posted healthy rises in breeding populations, with chiffchaff numbers twenty-two per cent above average and long-tailed tit sixteen per cent above normal. Both these species nest earlier in the season and managed to miss the worst of the weather.
Under new management
Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) has completed the purchase of seventeen acres of woodland and meadow adjoining its Marsland nature reserve, near Bude in north Devon.
The land, part of Beatland Woods, is an important addition to the Site of Special Scientific Interest and will provide extra habitat for many rare species of birds, plants and insects. The site is exceptionally diverse, consisting of wooded, steep-sided valleys along with coastal heath, meadows, small streams and ponds.
DWT’s land management manager Matt Boydell says: “This site is the largest nature reserve we own and it’s great to be able to increase it further with this new purchase. At nearly 500 acres (200 ha), this site has a wide variety of habitats. This new area of woodland and meadows should help us to manage the site more effectively, allowing a wide range of species to thrive.”
The site is well known for its important populations of five species of threatened fritillary butterflies. Nature reserve officer Gary Pilkington has looked after the reserve for more than two decades. He comments:
“We have had some great success stories managing the site, particularly for butterflies. The site is home to Devon’s largest population of pearl-bordered fritillary. Their numbers have seen an increase of over 200 per cent over the past twenty years. It will be good to see how the site develops over the coming years.”
For more information about DWT’s nature reserves, visit the website www.devonwildlifetrust.org.
No more boundary changes
Thanks to those who pointed out we’d moved Exmoor into Cornwall in a story last month — no, it isn’t a case of more boundary changes, just an error we didn’t spot.
Competition winners
The winners of the January competition, for Karen Phillips and Ulster Weavers Designs products, were: 1st prize (buzzard print, linen tea-towels, tote bags, greetings cards) R Kendrick, Metheringham, Lincoln; 2nd prize (otter print, tea towels, tote bags, greetings cards) Mark Barnard, Hove, East Sussex; runners-up (tea towels, tote bags, greetings cards), Mrs M Bastin, Axminster, Devon, and Mrs E Russell, Willesborough, Ashford, Kent.
When children are a blessing
John Perryman writes to tell me of an old Worcestershire man who, having lost his wife, was trying to put into words the wonderful support he was receiving from his children. He just kept repeating the phrase: “They won’t let the wind blow on me.”
Paul Jackson
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