Patch of Life

If you visit Waitrose in Paddock Wood and perhaps park your car near the border with the railway land you may have noticed that there is a short drainage ditch about  80 - 100 metres long, which joins up with the main culvert near the John Brunt public house, just before it disappears under the railway.

The culvert is overshadowed by trees and bushes, but for about a third of its length sunlight reaches the banks & bottom of the ditch. 

Perched across one of the lower branches of one of these trees is an abandoned collard dove nest of twigs, which perhaps provided a place where new life began as young collard dove chicks started life in this nest.

However there is certainly life in the more open areas of the ditch, as a visit on Sunday 21^st August revealed.

The ditch had a wonderful display of late summer flowers, attracting honey bees and bumble bees to gather pollen and sip nectar. The flowering plants included Purple loosestriff, greater willowherb,, meadowsweet, greater birds-foot trefoil, ragwort as well as figwort & bulrushes.

Amongst the trees and bushes I found  buddleia still in flower and berries ripening amongst the guelder rose and a hawthorn bush.

Ok, so not exactly a nature reserve, but in this short stretch of neglected ditch, alongside an area covered in tarmac, nature has grabbed a toehold and was doing its best to bring colour and life to an urban setting. 

Lovely to see :-).

Church Farm - Abandoned Orchard

Following on from the last post I visited the abandoned orchard on Sunday 21^st August to see what summer delights could be found.

The start of footpath from Church Road was strewn with litter, but this aside the plant life hinted at the damp area this is in the winter time. There were large patches of mint and also clumps of rushes and willow trees dotted around,  as well as areas of bare clay, now dry and cracked. The steam, which was in full spate during my winter visit, was a calm backwater of still water on this visit.

The dormice tubes had been removed by the ecological surveyors, although the marking tape still dangled from tree branches, indicating where the tubes had previously been placed.

I saw one or two pear trees, but the area is now covered in self-seeded oak & hazel trees, plus the willow trees mentioned earlier. A further sign of dampness under the shady canopy of the growing oak trees was a great collection lichens attached to the branches and trunks of the trees and old dead bramble stems.

Growing up in the 1970’s lichens were pretty rare to find in south east England, but now that air quality has improved somewhat, lichens which require less polluted air are starting to reappear. It was good to see them in this neglected part of the site.

Perhaps that is just what wildlife needs to survive, patches of land which are just left to nature’s care.

Summers turning

Introduction

The last few months have been really busy for me with the main wildlife survey season in full swing but Saturday 13^th August was a quiet time so I popped along to Church Farm to view the fields, hedgerows and streams, at a time when summer is starting to wane and signs of autumn begin appearing.

I followed a route around the edge of the main field starting along the railway line, where the headland is currently 10 – 30 metres wide.

It is worth mentioning that in May the government appointed planning inspector confirmed what I had already assumed in January, namely that all of three proposed new main housing areas for Paddock Wood (Church Farm, Mascalls Court farm & Mascalls Farm) will be allowed to be developed over the next ten years.

The Railway edge

Wandering along the northern edge of Church farm the many blackberries were dark in colour, juicy in the mouth & sweet on the tooth. One or two damson trees displayed ripening drupes and I spotted an apple tree with apples still needing a month or so to swell and redden. The headland along this stretch is at its widest, some 30 metres in places and as such has a richer variety of wildlife to view.

The area was covered in late summer wildflowers and arable weeds, fleabane and ragwort forming colourful expanses of bright yellow blooms swaying in the light wind. The flowers were full of honey bees and bumble bees, plus hoverflies in smaller numbers. The path and crop edges contained many arable weeds;  mayweed, feverfew, scarlet pimpernel, creeping thistle, spear thistle, bistort & hawkweed amongst them. 

Further along a larger patch of common knapweed proved to be a great attraction for red tailed and buff tailed bumblebees, grabbing the last of the pollen and nectar before the colonies break up and new queen bees seek abandoned small mammal burrows to hibernate in until the early 2017 spring sunshine causes them to wake again.

Along the railway land boundary the poplar trees reach ever towards the sky, but it’s the call of their leaves which attracts me, for in the slightest breeze they flutter in unison and whilst being far from water they give you the feeling of being next to a gentle waterfall. I’m not sure at present what species of poplar or aspen they are, more investigation is needed for there are many cultivars and types produced by the horticultural trade, but on the ear they are a favourite of mine.

Bird life was sparse, for this is a time when many birds skulk in the bushes as they moult their main flight feathers. I saw and heard a number of hedge sparrows but little else. The most numerous avian species to be seen across the fields was the wood pigeon. I counted 25 birds perched on the power lines traversing the forest of broad beans, which covered most of the site.  The pods are full and ready to harvest soon, but the woodies seem to be tempted to harvest the crop early ! I watched as they disappeared in amongst the forest pecked at the pods and their bean feast, contained within.

 East Rhoden Stream

What was apparent, compared to my winter visit, was the much reduced water flow. The Tudeley Brook to the west of Paddock Wood keeps flowing at a steady rate throughout the year, as it rises in the High Weald and flows towards the River Medway. It would seem that the water in the East Rhoden stream is more of a drainage ditch, draining the lower area surrounding the eastern side of Paddock Wood and so during drier periods of the summer the water flow in much reduced.

Having said this the damp ground around the stream allowed a good number of late summer flowering plants to be on show, such as Purple Loosestrife, Greater Willowherb,  Meadowsweet and various species of rush & umbelifers. I also noted a couple of starwort species in the water.

Bird life was sparse, as was any signs of mammals, apart from human  activity.

Human Presence on the site

Along the northern edge of the field I had noted a large campfire area, with burnt logs and food rubbish. 

There was also a kids rope swing across the East Rhoden stream. Further along, in a southern wooded area of the East Rhoden stream, a more permanent presence was in evidence, with a tent and associated rubbish thrown in the stream.

Around the whole site a reasonable amount of dog poo could be found along the paths and indeed a rather amusing incident occurred along the southern path, bordering the Paddock Wood cemetery. Here two dog walkers came walking along when one of the dogs squatted. The owner saw me and got out a plastic bag to collect the doggy deposit. I walk past the couple and turned south along the middle field ditch. The dog’s owner, seeing that I had past their dog, put the plastic bag back in her pocket, unused, and left said dog deposit on the path !

The southern edge & middle field ditch

Of note along the southern edge was the abandoned pear tree orchard, with fruit in evidence. The crematorium hedge had been trimmed, so any berries had subsequently been removed, leaving little food  for the birds this winter, which was disappointing to see.

The middle field ditch held no water for its entire length, but was merely damp at the bottom. There was a good clump of purple loosestrife, two horseradish plants and one or two patches of bramble, but little else worthy of comment.

However the pond near the line of polar trees, whilst containing no clear stretches of water did have a good growth of emergent pond vegetation.

Summary

The summer visit matched my winter walk in terms of wildlife sittings. The areas of interest remain the boundaries of the site with the middle of the field, being a forest of broad beans, having  little opportunity for wildlife to establish a permanent presence. The best wildlife area remains the northern boundary alongside the railway line, but the East Rhoden stream was a little disappointing and I had hoped it would hold more wildlife promise.  

 

Professional surveys of the abandoned orchard have revealed dormice in this area last year, although I did not have the time to review this area in this visit. The other area I wasn’t able to explore was the land bordering Church Farm itself, but being rough grassland I suspect it holds more opportunities for wildlife than much of the rest of the site. Will have to see if I can find the time to study these areas in more detail, in the coming weeks.

A bat evening in Paddock Wood

No Posts for a while

It’s been a while since I last posted a few words about nature sightings around the town. May – September is a busy time for me, working on commercial bat and reptile surveys, as well as my nature wardening duties, so free time has been at a premium for the last six weeks or so.

Bat Surveys

A few weeks ago I upgraded my old bat detector (a BatBox Duet), which has served me well for the last 10 years and bought a state of the art Batlogger M, made in Switzerland by an electronics company called Elekon.  As the name ‘Batlogger’ suggests not only does the detector help me to hear the bat calls, but at the same time it records & logs everything I am hearing and more ! Although more expensive, the Batlogger comes with a great computer software program, which enables me to analyse the bat calls in far greater detail.  For these reasons and more,  many professional bat surveyors are switching to the Batlogger detector in droves !

Batlogger M detector

It has taken me a little while to get to grips with the new machine and software and explore its capabilities, but it has been great fun using it to find out more about the bats in my area.

Computer screen of the new impressive bat call analysis software 

which comes with the BatloggerM detector by Elekon.

Whetsted Wood

On Saturday 25 June I popped down to Whested Wood again, after the numerous rain clouds during the afternoon and evening had passed overhead. June 2016 in south east England has been very wet with intense thunderstorms for large parts of the second half of the month. Records will probably reveal this has been one of the wetter Junes during the last 50 years or so, maybe even longer.

Anyway I arrived on the edge of Whetsed Wood, beside the Tudeley Brook, around 9.25pm and awaited the arrival of any bats, to feed along the treeline stream and surrounding fields. All the bat species found in the UK (18 species) feed on insects, during the hours of darkness and usually wake up and start feeding  around sunset. In Paddock wood on the 25^th June sunset was at  9.19pm and I didn’t have to wait long (9.29pm) before the first bat, a Common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) arrived to feed along the trees lining the Tudeley Brook. The bat made four passes along the brook, before flying off in a northerly direction. There was then a break of five minutes before the next two bats, also Common Pips also arrived. Common Pips are one of the most abundant bat species encountered in the UK and are often seen flying around people’s gardens at sunset, feeding upon midges, gnats and other small fly species.   For the next ten minutes feeding activity along the brook was sporadic but slowly increasing.

At 9.37pm I was pleased to hear and see a Noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula) flying high overhead  (about 75 metres high) in the sky about the neighbouring field. It made two passes and then flew away in a westerly direction, towards Five Oak Green. Noctule bats  feed on larger insects, such as moths and beetles and tend to fly much higher in the sky than Pips.

Pip activity hotted up around 9.50pm and for the next 20 minutes the sky was alive with feeding pipistrelles, all common pipistrelles. It was great to hear the sound of the bats, via the detector, as they flew around along the treeline and over the neighbouring fields and woodland.  You have to be quick to catch a glimpse of the bats in the fading light, but a view of a speeding bat, just above head height is great to witness. For the first time in nearly 15 years of watching bats I actually felt the wind rush, caused by the bats wings, as a pip flew past my face;  magical.

By the time I stopped recording at 10.25pm I had recorded 271 bat passes (269 Common Pips & 2 Noctules) totalling an impressive 8614 bat calls over the last hour. That’s not 271 bats, just the number of times a bat flew past my position. Most of the time there were three or four common pips flying around the sky at any one time, but I does give you an idea of just how much distance they must cover and how many calls they make as they hunt for their food.

Organised bat evenings & future bat survival

During the summer many wildlife groups and nature reserve organise bat evenings and if you have never heard bats calling before you are missing out on one of nature’s joys.  All bat species in the UK are legally protected, for their numbers have dropped alarmingly over the last sixty years or so, as we become ever more successful at destroying insects found on farmland.

Fewer insects = less damage to arable crops , but also fewer bats.  We provide subsidies to farmers to provide us with cheap, blemish free vegetables in the supermarket. However, we also increasingly have bat free skies , with fewer areas where bats can find enough food to survive. it’s just one example of a ‘cost to the planet’ which doesn’t appear on the balance sheet !

Let us hope there are still bats flying above the skies of Paddock Wood in 25 years time.

A bat evening in Paddock Wood

No Posts for a while

It’s been a while since I last posted a few words about nature sightings around the town. May – September is a busy time for me, working on commercial bat and reptile surveys, as well as my nature wardening duties, so free time has been at a premium for the last six weeks or so.

Bat Surveys

A few weeks ago I upgraded my old bat detector (a BatBox Duet), which has served me well for the last 10 years and bought a state of the art Batlogger M, made in Switzerland by an electronics company called Elekon.  As the name ‘Batlogger’ suggests not only does the detector help me to hear the bat calls, but at the same time it records & logs everything I am hearing and more ! Although more expensive, the Batlogger comes with a great computer software program, which enables me to analyse the bat calls in far greater detail.  For these reasons and more,  many professional bat surveyors are switching to the Batlogger detector in droves !

It has taken me a little while to get to grips with the new machine and software and explore its capabilities, but it has been great fun using it to find out more about the bats in my area.

Whetsted Wood

On Saturday 25 June I popped down to Whested Wood again, after the numerous rain clouds during the afternoon and evening had passed overhead. June 2016 in south east England has been very wet with intense thunderstorms for large parts of the second half of the month. Records will probably reveal this has been one of the wetter Junes during the last 50 years or so, maybe even longer.

Anyway I arrived on the edge of Whetsed Wood, beside the Tudeley Brook, around 9.25pm and awaited the arrival of any bats, to feed along the treeline stream and surrounding fields. All the bat species found in the UK (18 species) feed on insects, during the hours of darkness and usually wake up and start feeding  around sunset. In Paddock wood on the 25^th June sunset was at  9.19pm and I didn’t have to wait long (9.29pm) before the first bat, a Common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) arrived to feed along the trees lining the Tudeley Brook. The bat made four passes along the brook, before flying off in a northerly direction. There was then a break of five minutes before the next two bats, also Common Pips also arrived. Common Pips are one of the most abundant bat species encountered in the UK and are often seen flying around people’s gardens at sunset, feeding upon midges, gnats and other small fly species.   For the next ten minutes feeding activity along the brook was sporadic but slowly increasing.

At 9.37pm I was pleased to hear and see a Noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula) flying high overhead  (about 75 metres high) in the sky about the neighbouring field. It made two passes and then flew away in a westerly direction, towards Five Oak Green. Noctule bats  feed on larger insects, such as moths and beetles and tend to fly much higher in the sky than Pips.

Pip activity hotted up around 9.50pm and for the next 20 minutes the sky was alive with feeding pipistrelles, all common pipistrelles. It was great to hear the sound of the bats, via the detector, as they flew around along the treeline and over the neighbouring fields and woodland.  You have to be quick to catch a glimpse of the bats in the fading light, but a view of a speeding bat, just above head height is great to witness. For the first time in nearly 15 years of watching bats I actually felt the wind rush, caused by the bats wings, as a pip flew past my face;  magical.

By the time I stopped recording at 10.25pm I had recorded 271 bat passes (269 Common Pips & 2 Noctules) totalling an impressive 8614 bat calls over the last hour. That’s not 271 bats, just the number of times a bat flew past my position. Most of the time there were three or four common pips flying around the sky at any one time, but I does give you an idea of just how much distance they must cover and how many calls they make as they hunt for their food.

Organised bat evenings & future bat survival

During the summer many wildlife groups and nature reserve organise bat evenings and if you have never heard bats calling before you are missing out on one of nature’s joys.  All bat species in the UK are legally protected, for their numbers have dropped alarmingly over the last sixty years or so, as we become ever more successful at destroying insects found on farmland.

Fewer insects = less damage to arable crops , but also fewer bats.  We provide subsidies to farmers to provide us with cheap, blemish free vegetables in the supermarket. However, we also increasingly have bat free skies , with fewer areas where bats can find enough food to survive. it’s just one example of a ‘cost to the planet’ which doesn’t appear on the balance sheet !

Let us hope there are still bats flying above the skies of Paddock Wood in 25 years time.

Bats at Whetsted Wood

It's 8.35pm on Saturday 7th May, the sun has just set on another lovely warm and sunny day. For the last week everyday has got warmer and it feels like summer. So different from the previous week, when for much of the time it was colder than during the Christmas week.

Maybe it's just my perception, but for the last few years I have noticed that the weather patterns appear to get ‘stuck’ for weeks, if not months, at a time. December 2015 - Late February 2016 was the warmest winter ever recorded in the UK. Then in the last week of February the wind switched to the north and north east and for much of the next two months the weather was cold and spring was delayed. 1st May arrived and all changed, summer arrived almost overnight ! This current warm spell is forecast to continue, but maybe a little cooler and I am enjoying typing this post under a sunshade, drinking a cool beer, looking out across the garden at butterflies and bumble bees visiting the flowers in the garden. Is it climate change, or just part of the Earth's changing weather patterns? Time will tell. 

Anyway back to Saturday night. I am standing on the edge of Whetsted Wood looking south across a grass field, awaiting the arrival of the local bats, as they visit to feed along the woodland edge and the Tudeley Brook. The air is full of tiny midges and gnats, hovering above my head, the ground vegetation and newly unfurled tree leaves. A smorgasbord of aerial insect nibbles, irresistible to any bat making a beeline to this ‘picnic spot’.

Bats often have their ‘favourite’ feeding areas, places they know they can rely on to have a regular supply of food. For many years I have known about this bat ‘picnic spot’ on the edge of Whetsted Wood, used by local bats, as they awake from a daytime spent asleep.

 8.43pm and the first bats arrive, two pip 45’s (common pipistrelle) flying along the Tudeley Brook from a southerly direction. One minute later and both pip 55’s ( soprano pipestrelle) and pip 45’s are in the air above me, feeding on the gnats and midges. They are flying fast, high and covering a large area of the wood and surrounding fields, but don't seem that determined to stay. Maybe this is just a quick ‘snack stop’! More pips, both 45 & 55’s arrive over the next ten minutes. The aerial display is fast and furious. I have the bat detector tuned to 45 KHz, and with my headphones plugged in I can pick up both the 45 & 55 pips clearly. I am all alone in a warm field with a darkening skyline, lost  in my own soundscape of repeating clicks and occasional buzz’s as I watch an old fashioned style aerial dogfight between the bats and midges above me. The buzz sounds are feeding buzz’s, a rasping sound, as the bat speeds up its sonar echo location system, to home in on a midge and as the buzz ends, so does the midge’s life !

 By 9.05pm many of the first arrivals have moved on, flying away in a northerly direction, following the Tudeley Brook towards the River Medway, about 2 kms away. Left behind are two pip 45’s who for the next 20 minutes hoover up as many insects as they can catch.

The best way to see them as the light fades is to lie low and look towards the West, where the light remains for the longest. Silhouetted against the sky, the bats can be picked out. They are flying slower now, in a more determined pattern. This is their feeding area and they know the landscape well. They can pick out every tree, shrub & bush. They hug the edge of the wood and trees along the stream. Flying where the midges are densest, the pair of pip 45’s feeding buzz’s and loud and frequent. Flying between 4 - 8 feet above the ground and at a lower speed, it's helpful that I am sitting on the ground, as I marvel at their aerial skills. My own private air show, however their flying skills are far superior to any human pilot and all the time the soundscape of clicks and buzz’s is ringing in my ears.

 At 9.14pm two robins suddenly start singing from either side of the field. A last minute declaration to each other to keep to their own territory, their own side of the fence so to speak. This verbal spat lasts for about two minutes and then they stop and presumably turn in for the night.

The pair of pip 45’s frantic feeding is drawing to a close now and eventually at 9.30pm they are no longer around. It's dark now and I cannot tell in which direction they headed, but they will be moving on to another favoured food stop, before they have full tummies. Feeding contniues for about two hours after sunset, before bats tend to take a break, to digest their night time meal. Feeding then starts again later, just before dawn and then they return to their daytime roosts to sleep during the day.

I leave now, heading back to civilisation, but as I look back I see a dog walker, torch in hand, patrolling the footpaths around Whetsted Wood. I wonder if this person knows that above them a nightly duel is taking place.

Sunset bat emergence visit

After another fabulously warm and sunny day and a clear evening promised, I thought I would grab the opportunity to pop along to a house near to the rail crossing in Lucks Lane and check out the Soprano Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) roost in the west facing gable end of the house. This is a roost I ‘discovered’ about 8 years ago on a springtime evening stroll along the lane. Passing beneath the overhanging gable I heard bats chattering just before they emerged from the roost. Since then I have visited the roost in May / June, when time allows.

West facing gable end of the house where the bats roost.

The owner is aware that bats roost in the house during spring and early summer period and takes part in a national bat roost survey, run every June by the Bat Conservation Trust, for this is an important bat maternity roost, where baby soprano pipistrelle bats are born.

Soprano pipistrelle bats were only recognised a separate species in 1990, up to then the two ‘pip’ species in the UK were thought to be just one species. As its easier, I tend to call them ‘Pip 55’s’ for they produce their best sounds at a sound level of 55,000 HTZ, whereas the common pipistrelle bats are best heard at 45,000 HTZ and so are known as ‘PIP 45’s’.

Soprano pipistrelle bat (Wikipedia)

The human ear can hear up to about 20,000 HTZ. So how can you hear bats which are above our hearing range ? You use a bat detector ! This is a ‘magic’ box which reduces the sound by a factor of 10, so that we can hear the sound bats are making when they are flying. All bats in the UK fly mainly at night and feed upon insects. They navigate the night time skies using sonar, in effect shouting and waiting for the echo to return and using their very sensitive ears create a soundscape of their environment. Each of the 17 bat species in the UK makes a separate and recognisable sound and like bird song once you get your ear tuned in you can identify the different bats flying around in the sky,  between dusk and dawn.

A simple bat detector

So back to my spur of the moment emergence visit, what was involved ? All bats species in the UK are legally protected, so surveying must take place in a manner which causes them no harm. Actually it’s really pretty simple. I just drove round to the house and sat outside in the car with the window wound down, the bat detector switched on and waited for any bats to emerge. Timing is important so I arrived 10 minutes before sunset. Pip 55’s usually emerge around 20 mins after sunset, but its best to be early !

Sunset time was 20.24 on Tuesday 3^rd May and at 20.31 out popped the first Pip 55 bat and flew off in a southerly direction. The bat emerged from a gap in the soffit at the top of the gable end.  Pip bats are pretty small so any gap which is at least 8-10 mm wide will be enough. As well as hearing the bat I also saw it as the light was still good at that time. It was another 16 minutes before any more emerged, but at 20.47, after a bit of pre-flight chatter two more Pip 55’s popped out and flew along the lane towards the railway crossing. A minute later three more emerged, again flying in the same direction. Pip 55’s like to feed on insects around areas of water, rivers, streams, ponds, lakes etc and there are fishing lakes nearby and the River Medway about 2 Km away, so it’s not that far to travel for a  bat snack! The last three bats emerged at 20.51 and then that was it for the night, a total of nine Soprano Pipistrelle bats.

Pipistrelle bat in flight (Wikipedia)

In recent years the Pip 55’s have tended to meet up in this house, prior to finding additional local maternity roosts, so I am expecting numbers to rise over the next 4 – 5 weeks. I will post further reports in later in May / June, to report progress for the 2016 bat breeding season, but it’s great to know that the bats are still using this house as a roost.