BENFIELD WILDLIFE

AND

CONSERVATION GROUP

SPRING NEWSLETTER

2020

https://benfieldwildlifeandconservationgroup.wordpress.com/

http://benfieldlnr.tumblr.com/

Help Lines

My thoughts are with all our members and friends during this difficult time. With this in mind, I am giving you some ph numbers to help people with or without an I Pad or computer etc. with shopping especially if you are in isolation.

I have not put in an Events Diary as this lockdown could be on for some months.

BAKERY

Sugardough - 01273 771218 (within walking distance of Victoria Terrace or via deliveroo)

Coburn + Baker - 01273 414166/414104 or text/whats app 07957 399149

Bread Bin 01273 720285 is taking orders and that Hangleton Mutual Aid will deliver if necessary

BUTCHER

Rogman 01273 778828

R.C. Secker -01273 731502 or 07515 878881/878879 (their mobile numbers work from 24 March onwards) 

FISH 

Fish Galore 01273 323216 - min spend £20

Brighton and Newhaven Fish Sales  (FISH) - 01273 414707 (free delivery for over 70's minimum order £20 - delivery days Tues and Sat order. Between 7am and 3pm)

Nutritious Fish - 07496 852133 

GROCER

DPJ Fruits - Dean the fruit and veg man on George Street - 07907 813948 dpjfruits@hotmail.com 

GENERAL

Harriet’s of Hove - plastic free and local. Visit their website to put in your request by their online form.

Hangleton Covid 19 Mutual Aid on facebook will help collect medicines and will deliver basic necessities

For anyone self-isolating in Brighton & Hove. food.bhct.co.uk 01273 677559

https://bhfood.org.uk/directory/community-transport-brighton-hove-and-area/

http://www.brightonquarantine.co.uk/

BrightonQuarantine.co.uk.

Roger Musselle 01273 308268 for Wildlife Rescue advice

East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Services 07815 078234

Acorn Vet.Surgery 177 Hangleton Way 01273 720755 Emergency 01273 566993 and

Email contact@acornvets.co.uk

Grove Lodge Portslade 90 Valley Road 01273 421738 emergency 01903234866 and E mail Portslade@grovelodgevets.co.uk

The AGM is postponed until we can all safely meet up againPlease take care during the coming months, keep in touch with family and friends. The web site for Zoom is a video contact tool, when you set it up you can then talk and see each other, excellent for family get togethers.

The Hillside and Home in its spring colours

Thank goodness for the sunshine, how we and the wildlife have needed this break after all the seemingly wet weather. In my garden I sat and watched a beautiful Brimstone butterfly flying too quick to photo. A Bee mimic landed on the Ivy and I managed to take a quick snap, in front of me was a sea of yellow flowers, daffodils, aconites, forsythia, with forget me knots and hyacinths. No wonder I sneezed the evening away frightening the life out of Dave with yes, you guessed it, hayfever!!

Scrub clearing came to an abrupt end on the hillside as more warnings were sent out to stay at home. At least we had all worked hard to cut down the brambles and the sheep had done their bit to help. Sally Wadsworth on one of her surveys, had spotted a great deal of Adders, so we all set out to see how many we could find and Sally was the winner with a total spotted from all over the reserve of seven. I found this furry caterpillar whilst checking the sheep one morning; annoyingly I have not positively identified it yet. It could be a Fox moth; I watched it move quickly through the grass and then carried on to check the sheep.

During our last few days of clearing we managed to finish one bonfire completely and here are some of the volunteers working hard on a beautiful sunny Tuesday morning.

Honeycroft Hogs – Spring Update

With the mild start to winter we were able to release hedgehogs rather than keep them until spring. They don’t like being in captivity which causes them undue stress, so it was good to let them go back to the wild where they belong.

What to look out for in the coming months:

Hedgehogs are now beginning to appear in gardens so please leave out fresh water and food for them. Cat food and cat or hedgehog biscuits is all that you need to supplement their diet. You can easily make a hedgehog feeding station:

Hedgehog Feeding Station

What you will need:

A plastic storage box about 12” wide by 18” long (or bigger).

A roll of duct tape

Instructions:

· Either use the box with the lid on or turn the box upside down.

· Cut a 5” hole (about a large fist size) in one of the short ends.

· Tape around the cut-out hole to cover any sharp edges.

· Put the food at the opposite end so a fox or cat cannot put their long arm in and pull out the food.

· Put a brick or heavy weight on top of the box, to stop it being knocked over or the lid pulled off.

· If cats or foxes still try to get in, then place the box about 6” away from a wall, with the entrance facing towards the wall. Put brick 5” from the entrance to the feeding station.

· Hedgehogs can be messy eaters, so put newspaper on the floor of the box and change daily.

Again, please be careful when using a strimmer or other gardening equipment. Always check before you use to see whether a hedgehog is resting up under bushes and close to lawn edges.

A hedgehog out in the day means there is something wrong. If it is circling, lying on its side please pick up the hedgehog and place in a high sided box and cover with a towel. Immediately call your local wildlife rescue for advice. The only time a hedgehog will be out in the day (from May onwards) is a female and she maybe be on a mission, so just observe and leave alone.

If you have any questions, please contact Carole on 07985 987908.

NATURE IN OUR SHARPTHORNE CRESCENT GARDEN

Sally says “We have daily visits from a male Blackcap, together with the usual House Sparrows, Starlings, Dunnock, Collared Doves and Robins. A Chiffchaff has been seen on a few occasions. Our Hedgehogs are obviously out and about as the food goes every night, but we haven’t seen one yet. The Fox still visits, but unfortunately leaves a “calling card” which we could do without! The moth trap season is upon us, and there are very few at present. Totals are in single figures but one night we had 6 individuals, but 2 were new to us which was good. Up to now we have seen a total of 166 Macro and 73 Micro making a total of 239, and as there are 2400 species in the UK we have plenty of work to do. I have been looking at the different species of bee coming into the garden but as they buzz around so fast I haven’t managed a positive ID on any as yet, but I shall persevere.

See how many you can see - we are going to have plenty of time to look at the wildlife in our gardens as we are in virtual lockdown, so enjoy. Keep smiling if you can.” ********************************************************************

HK Hedgehogs

2020 started with challenges for us all due to the Covid-19 virus.

Although we had planned events in April and May to celebrate Hedgehog Awareness Week, we believe these may now be cancelled.

HK Hedgehogs are still active within the local Hangleton and Knoll community.

We are keeping a log of all hedgehog sightings, both dead and alive. Please let us know if you see hedgehogs in your area by either sending us an email or message us on facebook.

Hedgehogs are now up and about from their hibernation and will be very hungry. Please leave out cat food and/or cat or hedgehog biscuits and plenty of fresh water.

To encourage hedgehogs into your garden, make a hole in your fence, ask your neighbours to do the same, thus creating a hedgehog highway. Hedgehogs need 12-15 gardens per night to forage for food. Let us all help hedgehogs who are currently in decline.

Stay safe everyone.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/hkhedgehogs

Email: hkhedgehogs@gmail.com

Did you Know?

Did you know that in 2018, a well-preserved frozen bird was found in the ground in the Belaya Gora area of north-eastern Siberia. Researchers at the Centre for Palaeogenetics, a new research centre at Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History, have studied the bird and the results have now been published in scientific journals and the analyses reveals that the bird is a 46,000-year-old female horned lark. As Mr Dussex reports,

"Not only can we identify the bird as a horned lark. The genetic analysis also suggests that the bird belonged to a population that was a joint ancestor of two sub species of Horned Lark living today, one in Siberia, and one in the steppe in Mongolia. This helps us understand how the diversity of sub species evolves," says Nicolas Dussex, a researcher at the Department of Zoology at Stockholm University.

“The result has significance on another level as well. During the last Ice Age, the mammoth steppe spread out over northern Europe and Asia. The steppe was home to now extinct species such as the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros. According to one theory, this ecosystem was a mosaic of habitats such as steppe, tundra and coniferous forest. At the end of the last Ice Age, the mammoth steppe was divided into the biotopes we know today -- tundra in the north, taiga in the middle and steppe in the south.”

"Our results support this theory since the diversification of the Horned Lark into these sub species seems to have happened about at the same time as the mammoth steppe disappeared," says Love Dalén, Professor at the Swedish Museum of Natural History and research leader at the Centre for Palaeogenetics.

In the slightly longer term the researchers´ ambition is to map the complete genome of the 46,000-year-old lark and compare it with the genomes from all sub species of horned larks.

"The new laboratory facilities and the intellectual environment at the Centre for Palaeogenetics will definitely be helpful in these analyses," says Love Dalén.

The researchers at the Centre for Palaeogenetics have access to plenty of samples from similar findings from the same site in Siberia, including the 18,000-year-old puppy called "Dogor" which the researchers are studying to determine if it is a wolf or a dog. Other findings include the 50,000-year-old cave lion cub "Spartak" and a partially preserved woolly mammoth.

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SPRING ON BENFIELD HILL

Sally says, Corona virus or no Corona virus, Nature still carries on as normal. Flowers in bloom are Primroses, Sweet Violets, Ground Ivy, Red Fumitory, Daises. Cowslips are in bud and are prolific near the Holm Oak. Cuckoo Pint/Lords and Ladies are everywhere. Birds to listen and look out for are Skylarks, Greenfinches, Blue and Great Tits, Blackbirds, and Robins. Watch out for Buzzard, Kestrel, Sparrow-hawk, and maybe a Red Kite if you’re lucky. Getting close to nature is good for the soul. We are allowed to get out and walk providing we adhere to government guidelines. ie.”Keep your distance”.

Brighton and Hove Green Spaces Forum Spring Seminar – 11th March 2020

One of the conditions of our Grant Funders is that we are asked to liaise with the Green Spaces Forum, which is a partnership project supported by BHCC Communities Fund (collaboration scheme) providing a platform and network, promoting the work of like service providers. So a group from Benfield Wildlife and Conservation Group went along to a most interesting evening of talks on the theme of Trees and Wildlife in our Green Spaces.

Update on the work in Stanmer Park

Will Furze, Stanmer Estate Ranger of BHCC gave an excellent round up of the 5.2 million pound Restoration Project taking place in Stanmer Park, which is a unique example of an 18th Century designed landscape within the South Downs National Park.

Well over sixty years ago, as youngsters, we can remember walking and biking to Stanmer Park, taking picnics, calling out at echo corner, listening to the birds sing, the insects hum, watching the cows in the field, seeing the Bluebells and early Spring flowers. In winter snow, it was a lonely quiet place, but what fun to place the first foot prints in the snow and play “dare” by walking on the frozen pond beside the church.

Will told us of the 10 year management plan for the park, which you can find at https://new.brighton-hove.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2020-02/Woodland%20management%20plan.pdf Having started out as a Broad Leaf woodland with many Beech trees around the 1800’s, when the older generation working on the estate retired in the early 1900’s, the woods lived on to thrive untouched. After the 1987 storm which saw many trees fallen and left in a dangerous state, it opened up the canopy and let the seeds of the Sycamore and Ash along with other trees to take over and flourish. Will said they started at the Lodge clearing diseased Ash trees and Sycamore which also cast a lot of shade, however it became apparent that the arborists using chain saws were in danger of being hit by falling tree tops which were hung up in the canopy, and so for safety, big machinery was brought in to clear the area, which soon looked devastated. It became apparent that the driver was unable to communicate with the public, getting in and out of the big machine was not practical, so thoughts turned to other avenues of tree removal. Once the old trees were removed, re planting took place with the whips purchased from Special Branch Tree Nursery based at Stanmer Park (they have a web site) with seeds used from the area, the whips are well under way now and looking good.

Phase two of the restoration project took place behind the Nursery and greenhouses, this time bringing a team of four men and two heavy horses. Now the general public were able to stop and talk to the crew and ask questions, allaying people’s fears of what was happening. An open day was held where you could meet the horses and express any concerns, which went down very well. Mindful of the ecology, records are being taken, regular surveys completed. The Bat Group have done surveys and marks on the trees indicate either the tree is to be kept, removed, a Bat roost etc. A request was put out to ask if anyone was keen to start a Friends of Group for Stanmer Park, do contact Will if you would like to take part. Many experts have been consulted on this restoration project and the work undertaken has been noted by the Forestry Commission, Plumpton College etc.

Exciting plans are in the pipeline for new courses to take place to train volunteers to help with the work. There are regular volunteer days which you can go along to, including coppicing.

The Potter Wasp

The story of the Potter Wasp which John Walters spoke of at the Biological Recorders Seminar was so interesting that I wanted to share it with you.

The Heath Potter Wasp Eumenes coarctatus is a fascinating inhabitant of heathland in southern England. It belongs to the solitary-wasp family Eumenidae, all of which use mud to construct their nests. Of the 21 species currently resident in Britain, this is the only one that constructs beautiful clay pot nests attached to vegetation. John explained it took him years of painstaking search to find and record the life cycle of this little wasp.

Heathland is its preferred nesting sites with patches of exposed clay soil (quarry sites) and sources of water, e.g. ponds, streams and bogs. Nests (pots) are constructed of a mixture of clay and water, on heather, gorse and occasionally dead grass stems. After mating the female selects a site. She does not collect soil but will land and test the soil with her mouthparts. She then flies slowly through the vegetation stopping occasionally to test the stems of heathers, gorse and grass stems for suitability as a nest site. When a site is selected the wasp spends a few minutes working at the point that the first mud will be placed with her mouthparts, cleaning the surface; she sometimes wets the stem to enable her to remove loose material. She then collects water and returns to the quarry. Water is added to the dry clay soil to form a small ball of mud that is held in the jaws and forelegs. This is carried to the nest site where building commences.  Each pot takes 1.5–3 hours to build in optimum conditions but nest construction is often delayed by bad weather and can take several days to complete. Between 22 and 28 balls of clay are used to construct each pot. When the pot is completed, the wasp will sit in vegetation near the pot for a few minutes before returning to lay a single egg in it. The egg hatches after about 3 days. And guess what, the egg is suspended by a short strand of silk from the wall of the pot. So that when she stuffs the pot full of tiny caterpillars for her little babe to consume she does not squash it. Between nine and 38 caterpillars are used to fill the pot. Provisioning usually takes 2–3 days but can be completed in 3.5 hours if conditions are favourable. One of the failures of the lava to grow is due to parasitism, e.g. by the sarcophagid fly Amobia signata (Meigen). The wasp frequently inserts her antennae in the pot entrance during the provisioning stage to check if the babe is ok. If the larva has died, provisioning ceases and the wasp returns to the quarry to select a new site.

However, when the pot is full the wasp returns to the water source before collecting a small ball of clay to seal the entrance. The wasp then checks the outside of the pot with her antennae. The wasp often flies away from the pot and returns to check its surface several times before finally leaving it. Occasionally a second pot is attached to the first. Higher multiples of 3-8 have been recorded. Multiples of 3 or more are almost always built during September and early October. During her lifetime, which usually lasts for 2–3 months, a female builds and provisions about 25 pots.

If the pot is built before the end of June the larva will pupate immediately and emerge about 2–3 weeks later. Some pots built in early July (up to 11th in south Devon) may also emerge in the same year. Otherwise the full-grown larva will remain unchanged through the winter and pupate in April or May.

What a clever wasp, it is a scarce na and only inhabits special areas fit for its purpose.