Humid and Overcast - August on the river

OUR AIM IS TO PROTECT OUR NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE HABITAT IT PROVIDES FOR WILDLIFE ALONG THE RIVER

To find Nature Notes and records of Wildlife here, click on

HILLS FARM WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

19th August - our Meet was earlier than usual due to the Late Summer Bank Holiday the following weekend but summer holidays depleted our numbers nevertheless. Fortunately the task was not overwhelming today. It was good to see that both planted and self- sown fruiting plants had survived the unusual heat and lack of rain.

Surrounded by the cool damp shade of wild riverbank plants,

these apples did well.

Windfall fruits were quickly snapped up or pecked into by small mammals and many species of birds. It was a challenge to find a fruit which had been sampled by a bird or a mammal by the teeth marks or beak marks in the fruit. The largest mammal sampling the fruits was easy - humans!  but were the tiny scrapes on the skin made by a field mouse or bank vole - or maybe a small bird? Some were easy as birds had chosen a certain sheltered tree where they remained all day, for many days, foraging on its fruits. These were blackbirds and song thrushes with blue tits joining in. Most were reluctant to fly away when spotted.