Category: Fauna

Native or not?

The rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is usually classed as a non-native introduction to the UK, but it seems that in the past there may have been native rabbits here.

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More creatures of the night

When you are out trick-or-treating this Hallowe’en and you hear a tu-whit tu-whoo noise, go carefully because it isn’t an owl.

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Dark nights

The clocks go back tonight; the nights, which have been getting longer since the autumnal equinox, will seem extra long and especially dark now just in time for Hallowe’en. We cosy up in front of the fire and scare each other with ghost stories, but out in the reserve, the ratio between daylight and dark triggers many natural processes.

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Gold crest or firecrest?

From one of the UK’s biggest birds to two of its smallest. Goldcrests are resident in the reserve but we have not identified a firecrest here yet. Their UK numbers are rising so we live in hope. Here is a video from the excellent BTO Bird ID series to help you identify these two tiny birds.

Reclassifying grass snakes

 The UK has three species of snake, the adder (Vipera berus), the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) and the grass snake, recently re-classified as Natrix helvetica.

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Bioturbation

Wikipedia defines bioturbation as the reworking of soils and sediments by animals or plants. Here is a video of a system with and without soil fauna such as earthworms, mites and isopods over a 15 week period: this is what is happening to the fallen leaves all over the reserve.

Winter territory

During the spring and summer, robins’ pair up and defend a joint territory, chosen specifically for its nest site and the nearby availability of invertebrate food suitable for nestlings. Now, at the end of September, those pairings have broken down and each bird holds an individual winter territory which it will defend fiercely: robins have been known to fight to the death over territory.

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Red admiral

by Ian Bushell

After the article on Sunday about the Small Copper, I have noticed at the reserve that there are many Red Admirals flying around. I can guarantee seeing some almost every time I visit but I was stunned over this weekend to see so many.  There is Ivy now in flower and the most I have seen around a flowering Ivy bush are at least a dozen.

I don’t know whether these are the latest hatchings [from the nettle beds] that will migrate or possibly over winter here, or if they are the latest wave of immigrants from mainland Europe. I suspect that they are hatchlings because they are all absolutely pristine and beautiful.

The ground beneath our feet

We rattle on about the reserve’s biodiversity, its species-rich hayfields, the insect life buzzing through the hedges and our woods filled with birdsong but we pay scant attention to its most biodiverse habitat, the soil.

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Fascinating fact

In the next few weeks each of the reserve’s jays will cache as many as 7500 acorns, carrying away from the tree as many as six acorns at a time and hammering them into the ground in a spot believed to be chosen for a nearby memory-jogging marker.

Ten facts

Otters

Every year, otters are seen in the Lambrok right the way up into Southwick village. They hunt swan mussels in the stream in the reserve and fish in the moat at Southwick Court. Here are some things you may not have known about this species.

Read on for ten Fascinatng Facts

The winter thrushes

Fieldfare (Turdus pilarus) and redwing (Turdus musicus), migratory thrushes from mainland Europe, are common winter visitors to the park. They are easily confused; here is a video to help you distinguish the two species.

Header picture: Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) by Teresa Reynolds (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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