A goat willow’s flowers, or catkins, are known as pussy willow because they look like furry grey kittens’ paws. They appear in February, some weeks before the willow’s leaves, one of the earliest signs of spring in the reserve.
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This is a female wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi) at the end of summer, guarding her egg sac, one of the largest egg sacs made by any spider resident in the UK.
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We already know how damaging light pollution can be and we know that noise pollution impacts birdsong and is linked to whale strandings – but what about other sensory pollutants? A study conducted at the University of Washington in Seattle has concluded that air pollution is making it more difficult for some insects to detect the fragrances of flowers, important mediators in the relationship between plants and pollinators, insects and food sources.
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How many species of earthworm are there in the UK?
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Our field voles (Microtus agrestis) are having a winter break from their long breeding season. They don’t hibernate; instead they grow a thick, very dense coat to shield them against the cold, and their metabolic rate almost doubles in order to maintain their body temperature.
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Our primroses, which have an interestingly complicated sex life, are just beginning to flower in the reserve’s sheltered ditches and copses.
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This is one of our field maples, Acer campestre, growing next to the circular path at the top of Simpson’s Field. The photograph was taken on April 1st 2021.
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On one of our forays into of our invertebrate species list, we just noticed this: a common malachite beetle, Malachius bipustulatus.
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This far south, Eurasian collared doves, Streptopelia decaocto, breed almost all year round. In the reserve, even this early in the year, their ever-present monotonous calls (…my toe hurts…my toe hurts…) become just background noise.
Recording by Olivier Swift (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED) xeno-canto.org
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Did you know that there are neonicitinoids in the monthly flea and tick treatments your vet prescribes for your cats and dogs, and that these dangerous neurotoxins can be transferred to your hands right the way through the active period of the treatment, despite what it says on the box.
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Common name: Roe deer; the male is called a roebuck, the female a doe and their young are kids or fawns.
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Each year, the first day of February is Time to Talk Day, the nations biggest mental health conversation.
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Researchers from London’s Imperial College believe they have discovered why moths and other flying insects seem to be so fatally attracted to light.
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On Tuesday, a member of FoSCP saw a waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) in the copse at the bottom of Kestrel Field. He didn’t get a picture and there was nobody to confirm the sighting so it hasn’t been added to our species lists yet. If you have seen it, or photographed it, please contact us.
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It’s Big Garden Birdwatch weekend! Sign up, join in and get counting.
The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, has been taking place over the last weekend in January every year since 1979. This is important citizen science: the RSPB uses the information we collect to monitor our native bird populations. Each year, as global warming takes hold and our climate changes, planning for the future of our wildlife becomes more urgent.
Below is a link that will take you to live-feed cameras watching bird feeders across the UK.
Changing temperatures are initiating plant growth earlier and earlier every year. In the reserve, there are already primroses in flower. While we might find the early flowering of daffodils and snowdrops encouraging, there are other species in the park for which it might be a disaster.
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Did you know that some robins migrate?
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Hot on the heels of Storm Isha comes Jocelyn, the season’s tenth named storm.
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This warm, wet weather will bring all sorts of things into flower in the reserve. Lesser celandine, Ficaria verna, will be among the first to arrive.
Ian reported a flock of fifty or more redwings visiting the reserve last week.
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Dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis) is one of those mysterious, usually nameless, plants that is hardly ever noticed. It forms dense carpets on the woodland floor and beneath old hedgerows but appears to most passers-by as just background for the bluebells and primroses.
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This far south, and despite the freezing weather, the reserve’s rooks will have begun to collect nesting material. Rooks pair for life and build their nest together: the male finds most of the material and the female puts it in place. Here is a video that shows us what kind of behaviour to look out for:
Video by Film Studio Aves;
Header picture (CC0) pixabay.com
Last year’s UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP28, was hosted by a major oil producer, the United Arab Emirates, and chaired by Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Do you want to guess which country is going to host COP29 in November of this year?
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A long tailed tit all fluffed up against the cold.
Header image taken in the reserve by Simon Knight
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 