Tawny Owls in long term decline

Field voles populations are stable. They used to fluctuate wildly and glut years let the tawny owls breed. Owls will slowly die out over the next decades. This vole stability is the same all over Europe and is linked to environmental change. Read the article here http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=1638&cookieConsent=A

Hollins Mill Lane, Sowerby Bridge 16.03.2014

Wall Pennywort (Umbilicus rupestris) seen by Michael yesterday.

Colden Clough 14.03.2014

Michael and I witnessed lots of springtime activity on our walk up the clough.

Fungi on dead cherry

My old cherry tree has now another fungi

I cannot see this in Philips, any idea?

This one of the many and varied slime moulds (Myxomycete)

Thanks for the information Alison

Grayling (the fish)

I've been interested in grayling from my angling days when I was a lad and was wondering if there is anywhere in Calderdale where they can be seen/photographed?  I'd be especially interested in a location where they are actually caught by anglers for a 'out of water' close up photo.
Somewhere down the line I have heard of places in the Calder where they are to be found (Mytholmroyd area I think and somewhere else, but can't remember), but am wondering, as they are very sensitive to pollution, if they are still present.
I used to watch them from the old bridge in Bakewell (Peak District), but have not seen them there for a few years now.

Many thanks, Chris.

Invasive Plants - presentation and survey

Hugh Firman, Conservation Officer with the Countryside Service sends this invitation to Naturalists in the Calderdale area:

On Wednesday 19^th March at 7pm Jon Dunster from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust will be giving a presentation on invasive plant species. Jon has an in-depth knowledge of species of plants which threaten our native flora.

Jon will also discuss how you can become involved in a project he is heading up, which aims to map the distribution of invasive species in the Calder area.

The venue is The Mereside Cafe at Shibden Park. This is the modern cafe at the bottom car park, not the one at Shibden Hall.

Please book a place by emailing Philip.singh@calderdale.gov.uk. 

Male Eider on Rochdale Canal at Walsden.

Kathy and I had superb views of this beautiful duck this afternoon. (Sunday 2.3.14)   Pictures over on Calderdale Birds Blog. (Link at the top.)

I don't remember any previous records for this species in Calderdale.

A rare grass

Just counted hundreds of last year's now dead plants of Fern Grass Catapodium rigidum at the Copley Valley Development site. It's an annual. Not in Murgatroyd(1994) and considered very rare by Wilmore in the WY Plant Atlas.

It grows in disturbed, calcareous soil and is a very distinctive little grass. I'm happy to show it anyone down there.

There are good pics of it on the New England Wildflower Society website.

A couple of interesting plant sightings

Had a walk around Cromwell Wood and Marshall's yards yesterday.
Finally found the Witches Butter Fungus with its parasitic fungus attached that Alison G and Peachysteve discovered in Calderdale. (See Mycology Blog .)

We also found a self generated Japanese Holly Fern Cyrtomium falcatum at the base of a drystone wall at Southowrham; a good-sized plant a few years old. I've seen this happen once before at Todmorden, when a small plant appeared in wall mortar but didn't survive when transplanted. It is known for "going wild"
in Europe and America.

Something I've never seen is Juniper berries ripen in Calderdale (These are at Barkisland.). There's no wild Juniper here, but many in gardens. The pictures show ripe and unripe berries which I assume will ripen next year if we get another hot period as last year. I've often seen the green berries before, but never the shiny black ones. The nearest wild junipers I've seen are on the Old Man of Coniston Fell in the Lake District.

Is this a fungi?

This lovely raspberry looking fungi is not one I have seen before. It was on a dead branch of a Wych Elm. Can anyone identify it?

Is this statement true?

I have read a book published in 1930, advocating roadside planting of trees and suggesting suitable species, published by Country Life for the "Roads Beautifying Association".

It contains the following statement:- "It must be confessed that the English population is lacking in the primary instincts necessary for the creation and maintenance of agreeable surroundings to a greater extent than any other nation in Western civilisation".

Has anything changed in 84 years?

Foot Note: (posted by Bruce)

Andy C has added this in comments. Thanks Andy - very encouraging!

Look at Andy's LINK

FIGHT WILDLIFE DISEASE

The March edition of Wildlife magazine has an article with the above heading.

www.gardenwildlifehealth.org is the website of a national project run by the Zoological Society of London, BTO, RSPB and Froglife, that monitors wildlife disease outbreaks to help fight future declines.
It has launched the website along with a hotline ( 020 7449 6685)

for us to report dead or ill animals, especially, birds, amphibians, reptiles and hedgehogs. You can fill in a simple form, and in the case of carcasses the project's vet may be in touch to arrange a postmortem examination.

Some of the diseases the GWH researchers are worried about are avian pox in great tits, Trichomonosis in finches and sparrows, lungworm and ringworm in hedgehogs and Chrytridiomycosis in amphibians.

The symptoms can be found on the website where there is also advice about what to do and a map of the disease outbreaks around the country. One thing it asks us to look for is skin blisters on newts in garden ponds, so those of us with ponds and are lucky enough to have newts may want to do this.

Snowdrops 08.02.14

A great photograph taken by Michael.

Petasites fragrans - 07.02.14

Found by Michael.

Winter Heliotrope (Petasites fragrans).

Great News for Swifts in Halifax Town Centre

I suggested to Alex Liddell of LDN Architects that while they were building a new library, they might as well incorporate some Swift nest boxes in the walls. This was last year, and yesterday I heard they are going in !
He is sourcing some from www.swift-conservation.org.

I know the new library project is very unpopular with many library users, but it has been voted on by elected members of the Council and passed, so we have to work from the position we are at.

I had support over the Swift nest boxes from Carole Knowles and Andrew Pitts, senior managers with the Council at the meetings I attend along with other library users. We are called the Library Reference Group.
I also got them to consult Hugh Firman, Conservation Officer.

We are having some native plants among the landscaping and log piles to support invertebrates to encourage a variety of birds.

The library is planned to be ready in 2016.

View from Winding Road.

Projection of the new library built or "wrapped" round the old spire of the Square Chapel that burnt down. Square Chapel Centre for the Arts is on the left and Industrial Museum on the right.

You can view all the projections of the new building in the current library on asking.

Badger lovers see post below (This one is the Society's upcoming events for February.)

Thanks Bruce for flagging up our brilliant speaker Alison Tymon (at the top) who is travelling down from Berwick-upon -Tweed where she now lives to bring us one of her favourite talks with slides. Alison is still very much involved with the Yorkshire Geology Trust.

It will be of interest to gardeners, farmers and developers as well as geologists and naturalists.

Please note, the usual meeting room is needed for Calderdale Election meetings, so by kind arrangement with the library staff we will be in the Children's Library; first right after entering the front door of the Central Library, Northgate, Halifax.

All welcome; our meetings are open to the public, with a voluntary donation to Society funds. (Suggested £2, or £1 members.)
________________________________________________________________________________

February Walk: 22nd Feb at 1.30pm near Hebden Bridge.
Most of our walks and outdoor events are open to the public, but for reasons of conservation this one is for members only. Also to say thank you for being loyal members. Please email or call me on usual number(s) to arrange meeting-up.

Coffee and cake in Hebden Bridge after?

It is an easy walk of about 1 mile round trip along a green lane and through a wood to look at the White Butterbur, Petasites albus; only known from two other sites in Calderdale, and rare in Yorkshire.

It was  not originally a native, but is not invasive, and attractive, if fleeting in its flowering. It looks beautiful in this situation by a rill of water. I photographed it flowering on 3rd March, so given this mild winter, it should be out on this date. (See picture below.)

There is another Butterbur relative, Petasites fragrans, or Winter Heliotrope, even rarer in Yorkshire.
This is possibly still at the point of its introduction by some Victorian gardener at a church opposite the Fire Station at King Cross, Halifax. There has been some car park development, so it may no longer exist here.

It flowers with a gorgeous fragrance, but low to the ground, so is easily missed.

White Butterbur; rare in Yorkshire, three sites only in Calderdale.

PETITION RE BADGER CULLING IN CALDERDALE

http://Www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-calderdale-councils-badgers-from-culling

Badger culling could come to Calderdale!

If you would like this to be avoided please sign the petition and give your opinion to the council.

The culling of badgers is cruel. There are other ways to do this if badgers must be controlled. Science has proved that this is not the way to go. 

The Scientific Society feel that individuals should have the chance to voice their opposition.  Members may have varying views on the cull and by posting this the Society is not voicing the opinion of the Society as a whole.

Walk Report

Last Saturday, 25th January, the Mosses and Liverworts walk went ahead in Hardcastle Crags. There were 5 of us on the walk including an employee of English Nature invited by Johnny Turner, the Brylogist who was leading us. (Johnny has recently been welcomed as a member of Halifax Scientific Society.)

A liverwort - Plagiochila asplenioides

Liverworts were not my favourite plants for many years as a gardener, having to weed them from the compost around plants in pots, until I learned that many of them are as attractive as mosses, and all grow in their own particular habitat. The one above carpets rocks in damp, shady woodland. It needs slightly less acid rocks. I didn't realise how frequent these are in Hardcastle Crags.

The moss - Dicranum majus - the one I find most attractive of the many we saw. This one was at the base of the top dam at Gibson Mill.

Johnny uses common names whenever they exist, for instance Catherine's Moss, which was also there, named after Catherine the Great of Russia, who claimed it was her favourite moss. 

Among birds we saw were the reliable Dipper on the top dam, along with 8 Mallards, which never used to frequent Hardcastle Crags. Perhaps they are trying to escape the mink of lower waters.

At the two Heron's nests high above Midgehole Road I witnessed a change-over on the nest as I walked up from Hebden Bridge, showing that at least one pair are incubating eggs already. 

We passed by a large and beautiful Tsuga, probably Tsuga heterophylla, the Western Hemlock, a conifer from North America, I had never noticed before, at the top side of  Hebden Hey. It was raining heavily by then, so I didn't take a photograph. 

It was a brilliant field meeting despite the rain that came on at the end, and a subject I think many people would get a lot of satisfaction from, with a good introduction as we had, and a little study. 

  

We have just done our annual cleaning of the dozen nestboxes and 2 of them had been occupied by wasp nests. Some of the cells still have emerging (dead) wasps.

Our design of the box shows it is hinged for opening at the front, rather than the top. The box is thus easier to clean and inspect and the top can then be made watertight with roofing felt. Hinged roofs are a phaff to make and can now simply be nailed down.

The front hinge is just a nail at either side of the top of the front 'door'.  The box is loosely hung from a large head nail via a similar size hole at the back of the box. The flange of the nail head stops the box falling, yet the box can easily be lifted off the nail for inspection or repair. The 'door' is held shut by a single protruding nail through the side, in an oversize hole for easy removal by hand.

Help save our Ancient Woodlands

Biodiversity Offsetting: Please sign this petition and help save these irreplaceable woodlands and all the species that live there.

Why is this important?

Our Ancient Woodlands have evolved over hundreds of years and cannot simply be replaced by new plantings of trees, no matter how many trees are planted for every one destroyed in an ancient woodland. Read more and please sign here:-   https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-our-ancient-woodlands

Walk to explore Mosses and other Bryophytes in Hardcastle Crags Saturday 25th January

Meet expert Johnny Turner to see new discoveries and follow in the footsteps of the old botanists in this scenic valley long known for its Bryophyte flora. Johnny is a brilliant communicator.

Meet by the warden's hut in the Midgehole top carpark at the bottom of the valley. 10.30 for 10.45. The National Trust charges about £3.50 for parking but there are buses from Hebden Bridge. Donation to HSS welcome, suggested £1 members £2 non-members under 16s free. Bring packed lunch, a damp-proof sitting sheet and dress warmly for a non-strenuous ramble. (Approx. 3 miles.)
A hand lens would enhance the experience and any spares would be greatly appreciated.

Hardcastle Crags

Migrant Bat

http://www.bats.org.uk/news.php/233/tiny_bat_crosses_the_north_sea

Crimsworth Dean 15-01-14

Whilst Peachysteve and I were having a walk through Crimsworth Dean we came across this pair of Mallards which appeared to be asleep and did not make any movement whilst we passed by with the dogs - Basil and Lace. At the time we did not notice that they had one eye open as they were on the far side of the dam and Steve used the zoom on his camera to capture them. Peachysteve mailed me later after doing some research and said that they were in a state of unihemispheric sleep, where one cerebral hemisphere sleeps whilst the other remains alert and this is widespread in birds and in just a few aquatic mammals. This is an evolutionary process that protects birds from predators and aquatic mammals from drowning. 

Hazel catkins

At the weekend I noticed in Todmorden that the Hazel 'lamb's tails' catkins were already opening to shed pollen. Notice also the tiny scarlet female flowers.

Bramblings at Sowerby Bridge

Peachy Steve got these superb shots of a male Brambling in Dodge Royd Wood on 5th January. The flock was feeding on beech mast on towards the Triangle area.

You can see how the the head feathers are black closer to its skin, and will give it the black head in spring when the grey feather tips wear off. This is a common way of changing colour in birds' plumage. It avoids them having to grow a new set of feathers.