Snakes in Calderdale! but the wrong ones.

This story seems to have made its way into the Yorkshire Post,

certainly was a talking point on Facebook.

Last week my wife gave me a call to say there was a snake hanging out of the viaduct wall on Thornhill's Beck Lane near where I live.  I walked down hoping maybe we had our first adder or grass snake.  Unfortunately it was a very torpid royal python, a native of tropical Africa.  A settee had been dumped the night before so I assumed it had been living in there and the perpetrator had unknowingly dumped their escaped pet with it.  The next morning a neighbour called to say there was four snakes in the lay-by about half a km further up the lane.  Luckily, working at Calderdale College I knew some animal technicians that could come and rescue them.  On a hunch, I thought I'd go back down to the viaduct and do a search.  I soon found another three snakes, two in the wall and one under a bin liner.  The next day another turned up slithering across the lane near the lay-by, and three more turned up by the viaduct, rescued by neighbours.

In total we've found twelve, but I guess we'll never know how many were dumped.  Four have died, but eight are doing well and will be re homed in time.  As you all know the last thing we want are exotics out on the loose.  These wouldn't have lasted long in our climate, but had they been temperate species then the impact on native wildlife could have been negative.  Quite why some one did it we'll never know either, but I guess its somehow linked to the current corona virus situation.

A comet is coming

Information on a comet which may soon be visible can be found here

https://www.space.com/bright-comet-atlas-visibility-april-2020.html

Tadpoles at one week old

As I posted some pictures of the newly-hatched frog tadpoles in my garden pond last week I thought I'd take some more to see how they're getting on.

They've grown rounder and the larger ones have much less conspicuous gills. Filaments of blanket weed have also started to grow in the warm weather.

Their eyes are more distinct. This one seems to have lost a piece of its fin.

Most of them have kept in a tight group around the empty egg mass but a few of the most well-developed are definitely 'tadpole shaped' and swimming strongly here and there, apparently exploring their environment.

I hope to post an update each Sunday till they leave the pond.

A tiny fly resting on a water hawthorn leaf

 A snail munching on the vegetation at the edge of the pond. It kept putting its head under water but withdrawing its eye-stalks first!

A damselfly larva which seemed to be tackling a white worm.

New-to-me Toad Crossing

This came from a cyclist via his mother who is one of our members at Halifax Scientific Society.      

"Hi Steve, Daniel has just cycled up Cragg Rd and has picked up toads crossing to a pond on the right.

He reports a lot of squashed toads and surprised to see them out in the daylight."

So that's the Cragg Vale road.

Is anyone in that vicinity and feeling like patrolling it without breaking social distancing rules?

Although Daniel reports toads crossing in the daylight, by far the majority set off across the road after dark in the early part of the night.

Another jumping spider

This intriguing creature was sitting behind the hasp on my garden shed door this afternoon. Fortunately it didn't go far while I ran indoors to get my camera.

I could see from its shape that it was a jumping spider, but even smaller than the zebra jumping spider (see my post on this blog, 25th of March ). This is a male, body 3-4 mm long.

I think he's a Pseudeuophrys erratica, a species which has a decidedly northern and western distribution: South Pennines, North Wales and parts of Scotland but described as 'nationally scarce' in the British Arachnological Society's field guide.

They live on walls and piles of stones and leaf-litter. Their bodies are iridescent and, like other jumping spiders, the males use their legs in courtship displays.

To be sure that he isn't one of the other two Pseudeuorphrys species examination under a microscope is necessary (if I can catch him!). I'll pass my pictures on to the Arachnological society and get advice. Nice to think that I might have a nationally scarce species in my garden in Halifax!

I'll post any more information when I have it - they'll probably say 'P.erratica? oh, no, nothing like it!'.

Pleased to find a lovely and interesting spider, whatever species he turns out to be.

First Tadpoles

These frog tadpoles in my garden pond hatched en masse overnight. I found them catching this morning's sun, wriggling a little but otherwise mainly staying put on top of the spawn mass.

There has only been one clump of spawn in the pond this year, laid on the 9th of March or possibly one or two days earlier. That makes 26-28 days gestation. How does this compare with other members' observations?

Feathery gills. Don't appear to have eyes or a mouth yet

Springtails were jumping all over the dead leaves and on the surface tension of the pond, sometimes jumping on the backs of the taddies. They are not harmful to them, mainly feeding on rotting vegetation and detritus. In fact the tadpoles will soon learn how to eat them!

A springtail, a big one at about 1 mm long

They have a tensioned spatula-shaped appendage under the abdomen with which they flick themselves away from danger.

First Frogspawn

Saw the first frogs & had one clump of spawn in the pond today.

I was beginning to think the newts had frightened them away.

More amphibians

Found this unusual colour morph of common toad crossing the lane to the pond.

It looks reminiscent of a brown version of the European green toad Bufo viridis.

Meanwhile, the smooth newts are having a nocturnal ball at the moment,

floating around in the water column, snapping at daphnia and chasing each other.

Fantastic Sky

Took a couple of photo's on 23rd March on the phone of the cloud (Cirrus I think) - very high cloud, with the added bonus of a 'Sun Dog' (second 2 shots) showing to the left of the sun mid morning.

Not sure how it will show up on the blog but I'll try.

Notice - no vapour trails !!

'Click the photo's to enlarge'

Sycamore and sapwood

This young sycamore has grown 'coppice' shoots after being cut down,

despite the decayed stem leaving just a ring of living wood.

Many ancient trees are hollow yet continue to thrive.

Decay is a natural process within a tree and the photo shows how little sapwood is needed to retain viability.

But why doesn't the sapwood also decay and this Sycamore tree is killed?

Most fungal spores cannot develop within sapwood as it is too high in moisture content and no available oxygen.

The tree also creates a chemical barrier zone, defending the expanding sapwood from the internal decay.

As long as the sapwood can grow and expand to keep pace with internal decay,

there is no reason why this Sycamore could not live for many years as a coppiced stool.

As I understand it, fungal spores are present within trees from their time as a seedling,

which means when fruiting bodies appear after branch removal or damage,

they have often developed internally and grown out of the wound and not,

as we usually think, by spore entry via the wound.

Bats

My son reported seeing lots of bats last night at Hollas Bridge.

When the new bridge was put in place it included built in concrete bat boxes.

Lots of flying insects yesterday so no surprise the bats were out.

Jumping Spider - what I saw on my 'daily exercise'

 There were several zebra spiders Salticus scenicus running around in the sun on my allotment shed door this morning. This one is on the hinge.

 This one is about to inspect a nail hole

 This is a male with his extra-large mandibles. Note the fangs folded underneath, like flick-knives.

 A typical pose, ready to jump

 Hard to spot, but the four points of light on the dark stripes on top of the head are backwards-pointing eyes

Sight hunters with excellent vision, this one seems to be fully aware of the camera lens.

Looking forward to seeing what these little chaps are up to if we get more sunny weather. Maybe I'll be able to observe their 'semaphore' courtship displays. 

Look out for them on sunny inside windowsills.

Toad pond restored

Very pleased to report the restoration of the toad pond in Clifton was completed last Friday.

It had been empty for months due to the winter floods damaging the bank and letting all the water out.

Some toads appeared last Monday to an empty pond,

but from now on they have somewhere to breed again.

Common Lizard

Quite a surprise to find this lizard in the grass near Scammonden.

Thanks to Dan R for the report and photo's.

Talks, Walks and Social Dinner Cancellation

Due to the current virus pandemic the talks of 14th April, 12th May and 9th June have been cancelled.

We will review the situation in the first week of July with regard to the rest of the year’s programme.

The outside walks are also cancelled until such time as it seems reasonable to continue them.

It is in the same vein that the Social Dinner has been cancelled.

Please continue to add your sightings to the blog.

If you are not able to make posts please contact

calderdalewildlifeblog@gmail.com and request to be added.

We wish all members the best during this unsettling time.

Cherry Plum ..continued

From Peachysteves post recently on 8th March...(thanks for the prompt).
I eventually got around to checking for both Cherry Plum and Blackthorn species on Shroggs Road reclaimed landfill site. There is a large flat, and very boggy grassland area, which is very good for lots insects in summer but not a lot visible in winter.

There is one large planted tree area adjacent to Brackenbed Lane and another banking of planted trees alongside Shroggs Road. The trees in both areas were planted around 1989. Our son and pupils of Lee Mount Junior School planted the trees on the banking in liaison, I think, with Calderdale's Million Trees Initiative.

I found around 6 groups of Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa, all on the grassland side of the tree belt and looked for the green sepals between each petal along with the black twigs and sharp long thorns. the flowers are just starting to emerge on some plants whilst another group was in full flower.

Below
Later in the morning I came across an isolated small tree on the same site, in flower, and carefully checked the twigs and flowers. I came to the conclusion this is probably the Cherry Plum - Prunus cerasifera
The flowers looked marginally larger than the Blackthorn. They were on green twigs and the sepals were curled back. Click on the images to enlarge.

Bumble Bees

Quite a few Bumble Bees out this afternoon at the old Milner Royd Allotments and my first of the year.

Frogspawn & Caterpillars

Estimated 15 clumps of frogspawn in a pond on top of Crow Hill, Sowerby and 2 Fox Moth Caterpillars? on Aaron Hill. No spawn in the small ponds on Aaron Hill where I’ve seen it before although these have a tendency to dry out by early summer.

Natural History Secrets of Silsden - Postponed

This event is postponed until further notice

Newts

Smooth newt numbers have been building up this week, lots at the surface last night plus one huge crested newt female full of eggs.

Cherry Plum

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) is not very common in Calderdale.

There are a few hedges around with plenty of Blackthorn in but then we don't have that many hedges.

There are also a few old Blackthorns here and there, presumably relics from very old hedges.

I don't think it is a local species.

Blackthorn flowers much earlier than Hawthorn and it flowers before it comes into leaf so it really stands out.

If you see what looks like a Blackthorn in full flower right now then have a closer look.

Even rarer in this area is Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera).

Cherry Plum flowers a little earlier than Blackthorn and the flowers open at the same time as the leaves.

So when I spotted this tree in blossom at Cromwell Bottom last week, across the river,

I had to find my way to it and see which it was.

So, I hear you cry, how do you tell which is which?

Well the twigs of Cherry Plum are green, they are brown/black in Blackthorn.

Cherry Plum lacks the long pointed thorns of Blackthorn

And Cherry Plum has reflexed sepals.

See here how the sepals are folded back and so when you look at the flower face on you only see the white petals.

But when you look at the Blackthorn flower you can see the green of the sepals between each petal.

I have very few records for this so please look out for it now and if you see it let me know.

Butterflies

2 Peacock and a dozen wild bees (not bumble) on our winter flowering heather today.

Scarlet Elf Cup - Sarcoscypha species at Copley

This bright red cup fungus really stands out against the mossy branches it grows on.

 Three species are found in the UK, this is likely to be the common Sarcoscypha austriaca.

 Most commonly found on Willow branches.

 Sarcoscypha coccinea prefers calcareous habitats and is commonly found on Beech litter. 

March Events

Bryophyte Walk at Hardcastle Crags - 7th March

Did you know Hardcastle Crags is a special place for Goblins Gold, Dog Lichen and Portuguese Feather-Moss?

Join Ranger Natalie and local bryophyte expert Johnny Turner on a guided walk to explore the wonderful world of lichens, liverworts and mosses.

Learn all about the different types of bryophyte in the woodland and find out how to identify them. 

Tickets cost £12.50 and places are limited so we recommend booking early. Booking is essential for this event. 

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hardcastle-crags/features/ranger-ramble-bryophyte-walk-