Wildlife September 2010

[angie]

I think this went over peoples heads. Ireland has no moles, no little owls and woodpeckers are very rare
 

Mark I never new this either, I wasn't sure what you were meaning. My woodpeckers make an awful mess of my trees in the garden.

Angie

[Anthony Darby]

I think this went over peoples heads. Ireland has no moles, no little owls and woodpeckers are very rare

I was with you on that one Mark. They sell little owl boxes here in Scotland too! They just blanket bomb in these stores and don't do their homework. A bit like Roy Lancaster at a Gardeners' Question Time recorded in Dunblane. He was asked what to plant in a mixed hedge and suggested planting Buckthorn to attract egg-laying Brimstone butterflies. Brimstones are not found in Scotland!

I checked the swallows in that structure along one of the weed killed tracks owned by Kippendavie Estates. The nest used last year was empty, but there was another with a cold addled egg in it. There was also a dead swallow on the floor of the 'shed'. SEPA is apparently not interested in doing toxicology on it as it is not a raptor and proving that is was the weed killer would by nigh on impossible. It could be coincidence but poisonous aerosols, not to mention biomagnification of toxins wouldn't help!

[Stephenb]

I was with you on that one Mark. They sell little owl boxes here in Scotland too! They just blanket bomb in these stores and don't do their homework. A bit like Roy Lancaster at a Gardeners' Question Time recorded in Dunblane. He was asked what to plant in a mixed hedge and suggested planting Buckthorn to attract egg-laying Brimstone butterflies. Brimstones are not found in Scotland!

Isn't the reason that Brimstones aren't found in Scotland that Buckthorn isn't available for them? So, if enough people planted Buckthorn following Lancaster's recommendation, they might well start appearing. I've planted Buckthorn in my garden, Brimstones have reached my area over the last 10 years and I've already had two sightings in my garden...

[Anthony Darby]

Stephen that is probably right, but Rhamnus catharticus is found in south west Scotland but the brimstone has been recorded there. You would need a continuous corridor of buckthorn hedges to drag them north and Dunblane is well over 100 miles from the Scottish border. The brimstone's current distribution seems to peter out in the lake district. I have two species of buckthorn in my hedge and Dobbies Butterfly World in Edinburgh tried a planting regime in and around Edinburgh 20 years ago with a view to introducing brimstones. When the publicity dried up the manager at the time (Martin Feather) dropped the project. I wonder what they did with all the remaining buckthorn plants (apart from the two they gave me)? Being a butterfly that hibernates outdoors our damp winters may not be favourable to its survival, but then this also applies to the comma?

[Lesley Cox]

I

was with you on that one Mark. They sell little owl boxes here in Scotland too! They just blanket bomb in these stores and don't do their homework.

And here, all the garden centres are associated with certain chains, all North Island orientated and local garden centres are required to take what is distributed, regardless of the fact that much of it is quite unsuited to our climate in the south. We get tropical and semi-tropical stuff foisted onto us and it will all die as soon as a frost hits it but unless you KNOW the plants, you buy them because they look nice on the labels and no mention is made that they are tender.

[Anthony Darby]

It is amazing what people will buy. Supermarkets here sell water softening agents and all sorts of stuff for getting rid of limescale and people buy it, even though nowhere north of Yorkshire has hard water! I wonder how many mole scarers Mark will sell in a week. He could make it a project?

[Casalima]

It is amazing what people will buy. Supermarkets here sell water softening agents and all sorts of stuff for getting rid of limescale and people buy it, even though nowhere north of Yorkshire has hard water! I wonder how many mole scarers Mark will sell in a week. He could make it a project?

Ha!! I also laugh at the limescale stuff on sale in my part of Portugal - acid soil, granite, soft water ... If I lived down in Coimbra/Lisbon, it would be quite another story, of course.

[fermi de Sousa]

I think this went over peoples heads. Ireland has no moles,

Do you want a giggle?

A shop in N Ireland is selling products to scare away moles  ,

huh?

Mark,
obviously those scarers work!
cheers
fermi

[KentGardener]

Isn't this meant to be an activity for spring?....   

In my garden this week.

[Anthony Darby]

It's nearly spring John! Maybe they mate before hibernation?

[ranunculus]

Why wait anyway ... ?   

[Anthony Darby]

Never pass up an opportunity, eh Cliff?

[Mike Ireland]

Walking near Wells Next The Sea we came across this charming fellow.  Appeared to be munching away on the remains of a grasshopper.  He didn't move, even when the camera was only 6 inches away.  A bank vole, maybe.  Could anyone confirm the I/D.

Mike

[ranunculus]

Super shot Mike!

[daveyp1970]

Super shot Mike!

i agree.