I’ve been a little quiet of late (not that anyone will have noticed I don’t suppose), but I’ve been off work for a few weeks (for reasons I may well bore you with another day) and haven’t been returning home with flash cards full of exotic birds and stories of stumbling around jet-lagged in swamps or forests. As someone who has now spent twenty years (as of last week I’ve been airline crew for [shakes head in disbelief] twenty years) hardly looking at the wildlife in his local patch, I’m not used to thinking of what’s right in front of me as especially exciting. In actual fact I haven’t had a local patch to speak of for many years, certainly not since I started blogging anyway, but that of course changed in July when Jo, Evie, and I moved to Great Chalfield in north Wiltshire and ‘local patchwork’ has suddenly become very exciting indeed…

Home - not all of it, no, but a sliver on the far end…still, what a place etc etc

I’ve been blogging about overseas wildlife for so long now that I’d almost forgotten how wonderful the birds, butterflies, moths etc are in the UK. I’d certainly forgotten just how good it can be if you suddenly find yourself living in what to all intents and purposes feels like a working nature reserve (well, a working farm actually, but my respect for Robert and Pats Floyd who runs the estate is growing by the week as I become ever more immersed in the Great Chalfield way of doing things - which is with care, passion, and conservation wherever possible).

Robert’s father began the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, and the estate has been managed for decades (perhaps longer, I need to ask Robert about that I guess) with wildlife in mind. For example six metres of ‘headland’ are left around all field edges, allowing tall stands of grasses and Teasels to grow and native plants (aka ‘arable weeds’) like Round-leaved and Sharp-leaved Fluellen, Field Pansy, and Germander Speedwell to flourish. The headlands also give animals like Roe Deer and Foxes the chance to thrive, and are part of a habitat creation project to re-introduce the rapidly-declining Grey Partridge to the estate.

Common Fluellen (top) and Field Pansy

Where many farms have had miles of hedgerow - which act as nesting sites, corridors of safe travel, and winter larders - ripped out, here at Great Chalfield hedges are encouraged and at this time of the year are dripping with berries from a wide variety of trees and bushes like Hawthorn, Blackthorn, and Spindle. Old trees are allowed to rot over years instead of being ‘tidied’ and felled, and there are the skeletons of some truly ancient and massive oaks dotted around, providing homes for woodpeckers, wild bees, and other innumerable insects. The whole estate is threaded through with clear streams overhung with riparian trees like willows, perfect feeding sites for several species of bat which hunt low over the water, and for Kingfishers and dragonflies and damselflies.

A typical ‘Chalfield’ hedgerow’. October 2009

The result is that for someone like myself, who has really always yearned for the chance to be a ‘generalist’ naturalist rather than a ‘birder’ alone, it feels like I’m in some sort of wonderland!

My little broom-cupboard of an office, for example, looks out onto a garden feeding station that I wasn’t sure - given how much natural food there is on-site - would attract many birds: in the last few minutes there have been four species of tit (Marsh, Coal, Blue, and Great), a pair of Nuthatches, a (Winter) Wren, a Chaffinch, and a Dunnock. Behind the feeders is a dense growth of Yew Trees, peppered with bright red berries that are - right now - crawling with Redwings and Fieldfares and one mightily unimpressed Mistle Thrush, who presumably had eyed up this abundance of food for himself before the viking hordes of migrant thrushes turned up and began feasting.

Earlier in the summer (we only arrived at Great Chalfield in July) this same garden hosted sixteen species of butterflies in four weeks, and I’ve now found almost a hundred species of macro-moths in it in just four months. In August I surprised (and was surprised by) a Grass Snake by the back-door which raced away from me and disappeared into the crevices below some cracked flagstones, and we’ve found both frogs and toads (presumably hunting the abundance of insects that live here). Jo even found a female newt (probably a Smooth Newt) in the front garden in late September - more than likely an individual wandering away from the 100 meter long ‘Fish Pond’ in the Manor gardens next door.

The butterflies and moths have mostly disappeared (it’s been very windy and wet the last few nights so I’ve not been running the moth lamp), but that doesn’t mean that because they’re out of sight they’re also out of mind. I’ve been in regular contact with Mike Fuller, who is the County Recorder for butterflies and fantastically knowledgeable, and what records I already have will be submitted - along with all the moth records - to the National Database. I’ve also held a meeting with the County Recorder for macro-moths, Marc Taylor, who along with Robert and a few other local ‘mothers’ discussed the potential for discovering and recording far more moths across the whole estate. As I’ve been only running the moth-lamp in my garden so far I’ve a feeling (more than a feeling!) that there will be some exciting discoveries to be made next year (I can’t wait). Robert even suggested we hold a few ‘event’ evenings where we set up a chain of lamps across the whole estate: who knows what we’ll find when we do that eh…

Figure of Eight, 23 Oct 2009

Of course just ‘finding out what’s here’ is only half the point of the exercise. Moths are a seriously important part of a local ecosystem: many species of bats (most of which have declined hugely across the UK due to habitat loss, disturbance, and shortage of food - the Greater Horsehoe Bat, for example, is thought to have declined by 90 per cent over the last 100 years) virtually depend on them; mammals eat them; and many small birds feed their young on moth and butterfly caterpillars (small birds which in turn are fed on by larger bird species further up the food chain like Sparrowhawks). Good numbers of moths point to a healthy environment, and Great Chalfield undoubtedly will prove to be a stronghold for several species that - like the Figure of Eight - have virtually disappeared across large areas of the UK.

Robert is entirely responsible for maintaining this important habitat and just two days ago his concern for wildlife was proved to me again when he invited me along to look for bat droppings with Steve Laurence, the County Bat Recorder. Why bat droppings rather than bats? Because at this time of year (in fact most times of the year) bats are extremely sensitive to roost disturbance, and with so little food about at the moment now would not be a good time to rouse them. Rather than go poking into corners, lofts, or roof spaces it’s far better just to look for the (surprisingly diagnostically shaped) droppings instead. Steve discovered droppings from Pipistrelle and Brown Long-eared Bats and (crucially) form both Greater and Lesser Horseshoe Bats (two declining species). He estimated that as many as ten British bat species might be on the estate.

Steve is yet another remarkably enthusiastic and expert naturalist, with an air of ‘mission’ that is irresistable: after an hour in his company I was hooked and asked what more I could do to help. Several emails later I’m being considered as a ‘project leader’ with the opportunity to really learn from him and other local experts and help put the local bat populations on a stronger footing by monitoring, ’spreading the word’, and erecting bat boxes.

I’m in a high state of excitement over all of this I have to tell you. Besides the County Recorders I’ve met (and felt very at ease with, which is unusual for such a shrinking violet like myself [LOL]) I’ve also walked the Estate with representatives from the National Trust (who own the Manor), am now carrying out bird surveys at another NT property in the local area (The Courts), and last night offered to give talks to the local youth group (no, I’m not sure what about yet, but I’ll work something out). And on top of all this Robert has been talking with me about ways to do guided ‘Nature Walks’ here at Great Chalfield’!

What all that means to my current employment I won’t say in such a public forum, but twenty years of having one of the largest carbon footprints of anyone I know is possibly enough. We’ll see…

So, there you have it. With Mike and Corey writing as much as usual 10,000 Birds (which I’m still very proud of, and which still holds much of my focus) hasn’t suffered too much in my periodic absence of course, and hopefully those of you who might have been interested now have a better idea of what this particular blogger is doing when he’s not blogging…

Have a great weekend folks!