UK Nature Blog

Muntjac deer

I've seen Muntjac deer before, but usually just the rear end rapidly disappearing into the undergrowth. They are quite dissimilar to other British deer, being small and stocky with tiny straight horns and little tusks - almost like a cross between a wild boar and what you might classically think of as a deer shape. They are also very wary and prefer to skulk through overgrown thickets. That's why I was quite surprised to see this one ambling slowly over a footbridge then casually grazing on the grass beside a path on the other side.

Usually I don't have time to pull out a camera before they're gone, so this was quite the golden opportunity. Unfortunately I only had a small compact camera with me, which has struggled to get a good image, but it's still the best I've ever managed.

Scottish red squirrels increasing territories

The BBC reports that red squirrels have been returning to parts of Scotland where they had been missing for many years. This is put down to the pro-active controls on grey squirrel populations. We've previously reported on similar measures and successes in North Wales.

The squirrels pictured are actually Northumbrian, but that's fairly close to Scotland.

Yorkshire bat tower

The Telegraph has a great story about the building of a 20ft tall 'bat tower' near Huddersfield. Designed to mimic the local traditional mill chimneys, it provides a home to many bats and is much more engaging (for fund raising in particular) than simply buying vast quantities of imagination-free bat boxes.

The image above is one of my own night-time bat flashing efforts. See the original post on the photographic technique (ropey as it is).

Grey squirrels not affecting birdlife, apparently

The BBC reports on new research by the British Trust for Ornithology and Natural England, which has concluded that grey squirrels probably do not have a significant impact on woodland bird populations.

It was thought that grey squirrels were impacting severely by eating eggs and fledglings, but the research has not appeared to bear this out. In some limited cases there were localised effects, but overall impact was not evident.

Fox prints in the snow?

One of the nice things about a garden full of fresh snow is the evidence of animal movements left behind. Our back garden was full of pigeon and cat tracks, but what stood out was the larger dog-like prints. I'm not aware of any of the neighbours having dogs so I'm suspecting that these are fox prints.

That's a pretty good detailed picture that I've managed to get above, neatly capturing the whole foot including the claws. However Googling for fox paw prints provides a set of conflicting pictures that leave me confused. The version on this BBC page looks nothing like it, being much more elongated, but the diagram here shows a stubbier fox print with the apparently defining feature (compared to dog prints) being that the outer pads are set back entirely behind the front ones with no overlap. That would appear to suggest mine is indeed a fox, but I'm not convinced.

Maybe it's just a really big cat with claws stuck out? These prints were significantly bigger than others in the garden that I know were made by cats, but cats come in different sizes and the tracks were in a neatly alternating line without separate back and front paw prints. Cats walk like this by putting their rear feet where their front feet were, but I don't know whether that's true of foxes. Maybe even foxes do this in the snow because it's easier than making twice as many holes. I have no idea. Your comments are very welcome!

Squirrels don't hibernate

It's a commonly held misconception that squirrels hibernate. They do spend longer sleeping in their dreys (nests) up in the trees, keeping warm and saving energy, especially during bad weather when they might sit it out for days at a time.They come down regularly to forage for food throughout the winter and even breed through December and January, as well as in the summer.

The cheeky red chap in the picture prefers to stick his head in a box of nuts and pretend that the weather's fine really.

Squirrel eats apple

In other news, dog bites man etc.

2009 - a good year for garden wildlife?

A poll in the BBC's Gardeners' World Magazine has given a good insight into the shape of garden wildlife in 2009. 

This survey of magazine readers shows that there appears to be increases to the number of bees, moths and butterflies that we are seeing in our gardens. This may be due to the dry Spring that we had earlier in the year, or instead may be down to the fact that more of us are now creating wildlife areas in our back gardens.

It isn't all good news though. Amphibians and small mammals appear to have dropped in number since 2008. In particular sightings of frogs, toads and hedgehogs are down. Even still though, 27% of those surveyed said that they regularly see hedgehogs. Having only seen one in the last 5 years I was actually surprised at how high this figure was, but in 2008 this figure was up at a whopping 44%.

The survey's results certainly show just how much of an impact we have in wildlife in both the positive and negative things that we do. The increases in bees and butterflies may well be down to the number of us growing plants that attract them in our gardens. On the flip side it is thought that the human destruction of bats' habitats is the reason why their numbers are dwindling. 

If ever you needed facts to back up why we should try to ensure that our gardens not only look nice, but also provide for wildlife then surely this is it.

Full details of the survey and results can be found in the December 2009 edition of the Gardeners' World magazine.

Creating a wildlife wall habitat

The London Wildlife Trust has a mini-guide describing how to make a diverse 'habitat wall'. This seems like a massive no-holds-barred version of the insect hibernaculums that seem to have become popular recently - but with room for everything, possibly even small deer :-)

Red squirrel camouflage

A recent trip to Northumberland provided perfect red squirrel spotting opportunities, especially since there was a very busy peanut feeder on a tree behind the cottage where I stayed. From the North of Northumberland and into Scotland they're the predominant species, but much further South than that there are just a few small pockets where you might expect to see them (for example: in Wales; near Liverpool; on the Isle of Wight; in East Anglia). The Forestry Commission has a good map of the UK distribution (albeit from 10 years ago).

The squirrel in this particular picture is demonstrating how its colourful coat is a positive boon for hiding amidst autumn leaf fall.