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.

Welcome Rain

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

To find Nature Notes and records for wildlife - click on

Hills Farm Wildlife Conservation

Our scheduled Meet was on 29th July 2018 and the weather forecast was right - rain all day - rain at long last. Would this mean an end to worrying about fruit trees and riverside berries and nuts surviving into the autumn and winter to provide food for wildlife? After a few more odd days of rain - this now seems likely, grass has quickly turned green again, new shoots are rapidly appearing on riverbank vegetation and berries are ripening.

Raindrops on Guelder Rose berries just ripening.  30th July 2018

Our Meet on 29th July was partially postponed, with an increasingly large haul of items left in the river and retrieved the following Sunday, 5th August,  including a bicycle, supermarket trolley and three traffic cones. The weather was dry and hot again by then with blackcaps  and a garden warbler singing.  Meanwhile on 29th two intrepid group members braved the rain and collected two bags of rubbish along the paths.

Skippers on Guard

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

To find Nature Notes and records for wildlife here, click on

Hills Farm Wildlife Conservation

Our Meet this month was on 24th June 2018 - another very warm and dry day. A Mallard family with  about eight ducklings was spotted on the river, heading downstream in the dappled shade and there were many butterflies in the long grass and on the river banks. The majority were Meadow Brown butterflies but there were several Large Skippers on the warm dry embankments and Ringlets ranging along the damper margins. Bright Comma butterflies were seen flying as well.

Here is a Large Skipper (Ochlodes venata) on bank side vegetation.

Always very alert, they will often chase other butterflies away from their patch.

In addition to our usual meet, some members of the group went out on a sortie on the evening of 7th June when they found a sewing machine amongst the usual litter.

The mist clears and damselflies emerge from the river

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

To find Nature Notes and records for wildlife here, click on:

Hills Farm Wildlife Conservation

Our meet was early this month, on 20th May 2018, a fine day after early mist, later becoming partially cloudy. Good numbers of Banded Demoiselle damselflies , males and females were seen, together with some Beautiful Demoiselle damselflies and a few Large Red damselflies along the river. Speckled Wood and Orange-tip butterflies were ranging along the banks as well. A buzzard was gliding round on the thermals above the river and below,  blackbirds, a song thrush,  and common whitethroats were singing strongly. 

A male Banded Demoiselle damselfly perching on a riverbank grass.

Note the black 'band' on the wings. When open the wings appear to have a black 'thumbprint' on the metallic blue wings.

Oak before Ash this April

Our April meet was on 29th, a typically cool day, very damp and overcast as most of the previous week, but trees had suddenly come into leaf. It was clear that this year would be an 'Oak before Ash' year but it remains to be seen if the rhyme will be true and that summer rainfall will be light. There was to be 10mm of rain overnight however.   

At last the river was low enough for some members of the group to pull the deflated inflatable boat out to the collecting point. It had been washed downstream from an unknown location and had been embedded in the river for a long while, mostly invisible. There's more to be done next time, the river level allowing.

It was good to see that all the fruit trees were in blossom now:

Each tree is a different variety and blossoms at a slightly different time.

The Reluctant Spring allows the blossom in

   The 25th March 2018 meet - a month since our last meet in February - and what had changed on the riverside?

At first glance very little - a return of the 'Beast from the East' brought more snow than its previous visit in February although it did not last long but the cold conditions prevailed. The days grew longer and what light there was made a difference to wildlife activity. Fortunately the first blossom buds appeared on the Blackthorn and after a few days the river banks were brightened by white blossom, attracting early Bumblebees and birds.

Towards the end of March the first blossom appears on a young tree. Old and young Blackthorn trees were soon showing blossom which will last at least a month when Hawthorn blossom will take over.

Winter bites and delays the spring

Signs of Spring were put on hold when a freezing cold wind blew in from the east during the week before our meet on 25th February 2018.   Overnight frost had made the ground hard and the bitter ENE wind quickly dried out any remaining damp. As the conditions were less muddy and slippery, it was possible to haul out two 'For Sale' signs from the Arun where the banks are steep. Some of us could remember winters here when snowdrifts piled up against our doors and the river actually froze over in parts and desolately bare banks offered no shelter for wildlife. This time the river was flowing well and the sun shone. Birds were singing - it was very good to hear greenfinches joining the song thrushes and robins.  Snow fell the following day but most of it was blown away and over the coming days the area escaped the heavy snowfalls experienced elsewhere.

OAK buds forming on an old oak on the river bank

on 16th February 2018 give the outer branches of the whole tree a reddish tinge.

and on the same day, the first snowdrops appear on the river bank,

the flowers not yet open. Last years dry grasses and leaves form

shelter for wildlife all along the banks, and plenty of acorns lie hidden here.