Gentrified Squirrels

Sign of the times, one of the new neighbours must be feeding the squirrels almonds. Forgetfulness, surfeit or happenchance: this curious little seedling has been potted on to see if it thrives.

Plot57b Pollinators

Beefly Bombylius major first spotted on 01/04

Hoverfly ♀Myathropa florea thnak you to @HoverflyLagoons for confirmation of ID.

A poor pic, but posted here for the record: hoverfly Helophilus sp. possibly pendulus

We used the exceptional photographs by Chris Webster on his site British Hoverflies to ID our beauties.

Wasp possibly Dolichovespula media

Hairy-footed flower bee ♀ Anthophora plumipes

Time of the Toad

The first and only clump of frogspawn appeared in the pond on the 29th of March, a single toad spawned on the 3rd of this month. Yesterday was a good day for it and the toads started calling. Their chorus continued until evening as they laced cat's cradles through the pond weed.

We counted six pairs in one count with a further 5 lone males jostling for position. We recorded the final tally with the Fresh Water Habitats Trust's Big Spawn Count.

Let there be tadpoles!

#nhmwildlifegarden Spring Wildlife Event

We went to the NHM to attend the Natural History Museum Garden's informative 'Gardening for Butterflies' talk. We came away with a plan to improve Plot57b habitat for butterflies by planting more larval food plants.

We have Holly Blue Celastrina argiolus butterflies as we grow its larval food plants: holly and ivy. The nettle patch we've had established for a number of years in the disused garden incinerator goes some way to attracting Comma Polygonia c-album and Red Admirals Vanessa atalanta. We plan to plant Buckthorn Rhamnus cathartica for Brimstone Gonepteryx rhamni and Lady's smock Cardamine pratensis for Orange-tip Anthocharis cardamines butterflies.

Caddisfly larvae Trichoptera Sp.

WE also made the most of the Spring Wildlife Event pond dipping activity. As you would expect from the nation's wildlife museum, the garden's pond is teeming with wildlife.

Our list tallied:
• 3 Caddisfly larvae Trichoptera
• 1 Lesser Water boatman Corixidae Sp.
• 1 Greater Water boatman Notonecta Sp.
• 5+ mayfly larvae Ephemeroptera
• 1 damselfly larvae Odonata
• 1 Water hog-louse Asellus aquaticus
• 2 Leech possibly Erpobdella Sp.
• 10+ flatworm Dugesia Sp.
• countless phantom midge larvae Charborus sp.
• countless daphnia Cladocera

Leech possibly Erpobdella Sp.

Mayfly larvae Ephemeroptera

Hoverfly Lagoon

Looking up more information on the Bees 'n Beans citizen science project we'd signed up for via Twitter, we read about the University of Sussex Buzz Club and their hoverfly lagoon project to provide suitable habitat for hoverfly species that have an aquatic larval stage. A perfect way to learn more about these critters and perhaps contribute to the wider study of the state of the nation's pollinators.

There was just enough time between breaks in storm Katie's last throes to assemble the lagoon from an upcycled 5l water bottle (previously used as a cloche), a cracked 7l terracotta pot, nettle, dried leaves and a handful of sticks.

Ta da! We stationed the lagoon next to the nettle patch (growing in the long-time decommissioned garden incinerator) and compost bin at the bottom of the garden.

This ground bug Rhyparochromus vulgaris(?) was out and about.

Spring Stirrings

Wild primrose, Primula vulgaris

A somnolent bufo bufo, a dream-state Beelzebufo not yet stirred by the beating of membranous wings.

The Tulip Turkestanica are proving popular with the early invertebrates, our efforts to provide all-season forage have had immediate effect. We love their sun spot petals, the more so when they flare in the water-sphere lenses of rain droplets.

♂ Hairy-footed Flower Bee, Anthophora plumipes

Common Green Shieldbug, Palomena prasina (winter colour). Thankyou to @NHM_ID Team for confirming the ID.

Lungwort, Pulmonaria officinalis

Herb-robert, Geranium robertianum

An Ugly Frame For A Pretty Picture - Slow Gardening

We had been thinking of ways in which we could improve our garden for wildlife and hatched upon a plan to entice the shy wrens that flit along the hedgerow at the bottom of the garden to adventure closer so that we might see them more often. We had been deliberating on winter-flowering honeysuckle to extend seasonal forage for pollinators so, we were taken in hand by Alys Fowler's Gardening Advice Saturday 26 December about wintersweet and winter-flowering honeysuckle. The read proved a resolute decision-maker... we're sorted.

We chose the more compact Sweetest honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima as we planned to use a 1.8m length of A142 rebar mesh we had left over from a project to build a trellis on which to support it. On Alys's ingenious suggestion we also planted a cultivated blackberry, ‘Loch Ness’ AGM as it is thornless. This will provide forage for the Speckled Wood butterflies that frquent the garden and provide pickings for our favourite recipes. Frankly, we've not foraged for years as we've been horrified by the increasing number of foragers who strip baby buggy loads of pickings from the wild places nearby. We don't want to be seen to be encouraging or endorsing their plunder by picking any for our own consumption.

We would have been even happier if we could have been sure the plants were peat-free.

The box the plants were shipped in has been employed in keeping the kitteh from rain-induced cabin fever by giving her a den from which to scowl at the damp, soggy world yonder.

#WorldWetlandDay 2016

Wide skies and the wild heronry on a walk organised by the London Wildlife Trust at the Walthamstow Wetlands to celebrate #Ramsar World Wetlands Day 2016.

Walthamstow Resevoir is currently being transformed into a wetland nature reserve, it is undergoing habitat enhancement work and restoration and development of a victorian engine house as a visitor centre. We are gladdened by the foresight and conservation efforts of London Borough of Waltham Forest in partnership with Thames Water and key stakeholders including the Environment Agency, Natural England and the Greater London Authority. The area has SSSI (Sites of Special Scientific Interest), SPA (Special Protection Areas) & Ramsar designations and is an ecologogally important site both locally and internationally. We can't wait for the Walthamstow Wetlands to be opened to the public in 2017 when it will be operated by the London Wildlife Trust.

Big Garden Birdwatch #biggardenbirdwatch 2016

A blustery and overcast day for #biggardenbirdwatch 2016. We were pleased the long-tailed tit showed up for the count. After the hour was out the count stood at:

• 2 collared dove
• 3 wood pigeon
• 1 blackbird
• 2 robins
• 2 blue tits
• 2 coal tits
• 1 long-tailed tit
• 1 great tit
• 5 house sparrows
• 4 crows
• 2 magpies
• 1 starling

... and 6 squirrels.

Great Spotted Woodpecker ♀

Waiting for their turn at the feeder (the squirrels, magpies and wood pigeon get first dabs).

This hungry ♀ Great Spotted Woodpecker arrived 20 days earlier than our first sighting (of a ♂) in our garden last year January.

We wonder if there is a route from one wooded area to another used by these birds at this time of year and that they are attracted by the activity of the squirrels. Perhaps it is the lure of overwintering invertebrates hunkered in the fissured bark of the old 28ft pear tree which they pick clean before leaving.

NHM Earthworm Talk

We attended a fascinating Natural History Museum talk on earthworms where we were gladdened to learn there is an Earthworm Society Of Britain.

We'd wondered that there seemed to be more types of earthworm than the brandling and the blackbird's early worm, how many UK species are there? We were pointed in the direction of the free pdf earthworm identification guide available for download, published by the Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) network to identify presumably the 13 most common of the 27 UK species of earthworm. A more comprehensive guide to identifying all 27 species is published by the Field Studies Council. We've set ourselves a challenge to identify the Plot57b species we come across in 2016.

05/04/16 Update: It is now possible to survey your garden or allotment worms for the Earthworm Watch citizen science project.

@EarthwormWatch Survey

We chose our no-dig raised veg beds and a flowerbed as sites of different garden management for the Plot57b @EarthwormWatch survey.

We felt a little guilty for hauling out these unsuspecting critters on a cold, soggy morning; the deeper dwelling earthworms promptly removed themselves to depths deeper than the 10cm control depth of the pit. We are interested to find out how the numbers of our earthworms population compare to other gardens and national baselines.

05/04/16 Update: It is now possible to survey your garden or allotment worms for the Earthworm Watch citizen science project.

@EarthwormWatch Citizen Science

We signed up the Plot57b garden earthworms for @EarthwormWatch,"A new #CitizenScience project to improve knowledge of how humans affect #earthworms and soil health in the UK." The kit* landed on our doormat today, when the rain abates we'll venture into the mire that is Plot57b and administer the science.

*On reading the destructions it seems the sachets of vinegar and mustard condiments are NOT for wormy spaghetti alla Roald Dahl.

05/04/16 Update: It is now possible to survey your garden or allotment worms for the Earthworm Watch citizen science project.

Bricklane Bugle: The Barbaric Butchering of Brocks

They are having their pound of flesh... and more. 'Tis theirs and they will have it they say - despite the science. Why do we pay the subsidies?

The Badger Trust

A Small Smeuse or Two...

It is a known fact that our impenetrable garden fences are attributing to the decline of hedgehogs by limiting the amount of habitat available to hedgehogs to roam. This quick 20min project is a start to putting things right - get yer wellies on.

In response to the Hedgehog Street campaign by The British Hedgehog Conservation Society and the Peoples' Trust for Endangered Species We dug a hole (it only needs to be 13cm x 13cm, 5"x5", under each of the fences bounding our garden to link our garden with the neighbouring gardens*.

This hole has become a smeuse for the resident squirrels and blackbirds

We gardeners are implicated in safeguarding our native biodiversity. We cannot urge other nations to safeguard tigers, elephants, gorillas, orangutans, panda bears et al if we are not prepared to go the extra mile needed to save our own threatened species. We need to change our view of our gardens as dominion for our own designs and acknowledge that we are only short-term caretakers of habitats which should be shared with the species we are displacing.

The London Wildlife Trust's 2011 report, From green to grey; observed changes in garden vegetation structure in London,1998-2008, assessed among other aims the amount of garden in the boroughs of London available for supporting biodiversity (p5). Counting front and back gardens as separate plots it tallied 3.8 million individual private garden plots. It estimated the total land area of garden available is approximately 37,900 ha (p.10), or 24% of Greater London. 22,000 ha of this is covered in some form of vegetation which is equal to 75% of the total area of all designated Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation in London (p19). Imagine the wildlife wonderland we'd create if we gardened to create a continuous corridor of micro habitats to support insects, amphibians, reptiles and small mammals to move about as they need.

*We would LOVE to hear from any peeps in Walthamstow who have hedgehogs visiting their gardens. We did a hands-up survey of our gardening club members and we're sad to report that not 1 out of 30 has a hedgehog visiting their garden and or allotment.

References:
Smith, C., Dawson, D., Archer, J., Davies, M., Frith, M., Hughes, E. and Massini, P., 2011. From green to grey; observed changes in garden vegetation structure in London, 1998-2008 , London Wildlife Trust, Greenspace Information for Greater London, and Greater London Authority. Published 2011, London Wildlife Trust.
© London Wildlife Trust, Greenspace Information for Greater London, and Greater London Authority, available online 20 September 2015,

Building for Bumblies

Our crawl of the internet for the optimum construction of a bumblebee nest returned this NERC article 'Bumblebee nest boxes don't work'. It reviews the dismal outcomes of a 4 year study on 6 different types of nest box by researchers from the University of Stirling and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, where of the 736 nest boxes installed only 23 were occupied by bumblebees.

However as all gardeners will recognise, we are a people of hope, more often than not we garden with our finger's crossed. No matter how we rail against the indiscriminate randomness of elemental powers greater than our own, we have an indefatigable belief in the serendipity of nature as a constant. We cede to the slowness of garden-time, despite it passing concurrently with the contradictory rapid proliferation of weeds.

So, we were particularly delighted to read the numerous comments posted in addendum to the article which proved that contrarily bumblebees do make nests in man-made shelters in gardens. Gabriel Broaders from Devon posts that bumblebees are nesting in an upcycled fur-lined boot after a robin had nested in it the previous year. In fact many people attest to bumblebees nesting in disused bird boxes, perhaps because of a dearth of abandoned mice nests. We might remember to save the detritus when we clean out our bird box and use it in one of our bumblebee nests - of course we were going to build them ...and of course the bumblebees would come. Fingers crossed.

We chose this construction method as it seems to mimic a disused mouse nest, the preferred home of a houseproud bumblebee. It was easy to purchase the materials, we were able to build three nests for under a tenner and our experience in obtaining the used hamster bedding was priceless. We concede it is a little less attractive than having an incidental post-artisanal megalopolitan-crofter curated rhubarb forcer knocking about perhaps, though there is the chance that once the plants get established around them they'll be more easy to pass off as "gardenalia-n". For this project you will need:

• 1 terracotta pot size EV27
• 1 terracotta pot tray/saucer size EV23
• galvanised (not pvc coated) 1.2mm garden wire or chicken mesh
• 30mm length, 20mm (minimum) inner diameter tubing
• a means to make some holes in the tubing - we used a drill
• used hamster/or mouse bedding
• nesting materials - ideally dried leaves, we improvised with straw and dry sphagnum moss
• a couple of flat pebbles, we had broken quarry tile to hand

Using garden wire or chicken mesh make a grille to fit up inside the mouth of the pot. Make sure it has feet to lift it a good 25mm off the ground. The grille will keep the nesting material dry by lifting it above the soil.

The tubing curves which will cause condensation to pool, drill holes on the outside of the curve to allow it to drain.

This food grade silicon tubing can be bought by the meter on ebay, for those nearby ♥ W.P Wakefield Ltd.♥ (682 Lea Bridge Rd, London, E10 6AP)sell it - just look up when you enter the shop, there is a coil of it amongst the product suspended from the ceiling.

Trace the diameter of the upturned terracotta pot and dig a shallow pit, scour out a shallow trench to hold the tubing. Line the pit with pebbles. Position the grille (feet down) into the pit. Insert the tubing up through the grille to ensure the entrance way is firmly secured into the nest. We also supported the entrance at the far end of the tubing by propping it between pebbles before covering it over with soil. Make sure the drainage holes in the tubing are pointing down so that condensation will drain down into the soil.

Our local pet shop was happy to supply us with a handful of used hamster bedding; we took the strange looks we received from those earwigging our request to mean we were deemed eco-futurists, just a little out of sync. We didn't have very much to divide between the three nests we built but we reckon the odor de hamster Cuddles McGee is pretty pongiferous as the neighbourhood fox made a detour from its rounds to topple the saucers off all three nests last night.

We didn't have sufficient dry leaves to fill three pots so we used dry Sphagnum moss, here we may have made a mistake because the moss is specifically adapted with hyaline cells in its leaves that die on maturation to form receptacles for absorbing and retaining water from the atmosphere. In other words it acts as a sponge - we were hoping that it would wick condensation from the inner nest but it may well act just as effectively as a sink for all the rain we've been getting.

Line the pot with the nesting materials then up-end it onto the grille.

Place flat pebbles on the pot before balancing the saucer on top, this allows air to circulate and the saucer prevents rain getting into the nest.

We're holding thumbs and crossing our fingers and toes.

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Buglife

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust

References:
T. Jones, Bumblebee nest boxes don't work, 13 January 2014,NERC Science of the Environment, Available online 13 September 2015
Gillian C. Lye, Kirsty J. Park, John M. CHolland and Dave Goulson, Assessing the efficacy of artificial domiciles for bumblebees, Journal for Nature Conservation, Available online 21 April 2011, doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2010.11.001