Wildflower Seed Mixes

Wildflower Seeds mixes

Last autumn we saw a couple of fields not too far from home which had been sown with a Fodder Radish and what looked like  a Kale orTurnip mix. As we drew near, a great flock of Linnets flew up and into the hedge ahead. What a treat! We don’t often see these pretty little finches. We didn’t notice these fields earlier so I don’t know what their management has been. But the results were stunning. All through the winter they were visited by big mixed flocks of finches. We didn’t see the Linnets again, but flocks of mainly chaffinches repeatedly flew up from the seeds mix to perch in the hedge bushes and then flew back down into the fields to disappear among the two-foot high vegetation.

So far, (late August, following the remarks above,) these fields are still full of Fodder Radish, Thistles and other arable weeds, promising another winter feast.

Meanwhile, back in June we spotted another field, just outside the village with a substantial corner  of a cornfield sown with a ‘wildflower ‘ mix consisting largely of Fodder Radish, three Clovers(White, Red and Crimson) Tares, and Birdsfoot Trefoil. Plenty of native arable weeds were coming up too and through the summer the field had become more and more colourful. Numerous Bumble Bees are visiting the flowers, and butterflies and even on a couple of occasions the migratory Clouded Yellow and Painted Lady butterflies, which have been scarce visitors this year.

Wildflower seeds mix with a continental, robust Birds-foot Trefoil in foreground.

Crimson Clover flowers going over.

 

Fodder Radish seed pods. When seeds are ripe they are good bird food.

 Talking to the farmer, we understand there are grants  available these days for sowing wildflower seeds mixes, with certain stringent guidelines, and subsequently, locally, we have seen several more sowings, one a wide strip of Buckwheat and Phacelia, a ‘pollinator mix’.

 

‘Wildflower’ mix is a loose term. They don’t necessarily include our native wildflowers. Buckwheat, long grown worldwide as a food crop, and also sometimes grown as a cover or green manure is now also recognized as a ‘pollinator crop’. It originates from the Far East and is a member of the dock and sorrel family. Phacelia is a native of California, but has now naturalised in a few places in Britain.It is an annual, and is a member of the Comfrey and Forget-me-not family. It is very popular with Bumble and Hive bees.

'Pollinator strip' of Buckwheat and Phacelia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phacelia.

 The clovers and birds foot trefoil in the first patch we found, are agriculturally improved strains which produce large leaves and a bulky plant, and the birds foot trefoil is a vigorous European native. Tares are like a glorified common vetch.

A wildflower patch in Stokeclimsland, a local source of interest and pride, is a colourful bed of a mix of native (but some now sadly extinct in this country), European, and North American annuals. However the insects which visit for nectar, and the birds feeding on the radish seeds, don’t ask questions!

 

Wildflower corner in Stokeclimsland.

 

 The 'wildflower' mix also contains Marigolds, Cornflowers Corn Cockle and Evening Primrose.

 

With the recognition of the need to encourage pollinating insects especially bees, whose populations have been severely reduced by pesticides over many years, the sowing of 'wildflower mixes' has been boosted by widespread publicity. This can lead to  well-meaning but inappropriate scattering of wildflower seed, and inappropriate varieties and species, which may cloud the story when botanists attempt to establish the distribution of our native flora. For example I found, a few years ago, some plants of Corn Cockle by a seat part - way down the Camel Trail! Corn Cockle is extinct in Britain as a wild flower, and anyway is an annual weed of cornfields, so to be growing by a seat in pastoral land  up the Camel Estuary was an obvious deliberate scattering. (it had disappeared the next year.) Usually, like this, these sowings are obvious and short-lived, but we are haunted by the story of the introduction of the rabbit in Australia, or, closer to home, the escape of Japanese Knotweed from Victorian shrubberies.

 The suppliers of these seeds mixes perhaps don't have access to sufficient quantities of our native seeds. The Highways authority sow a species of Birds-foot Trefoil, for example, which is a European native. It is a robust upright plant which out-competes our less vigorous  native Birds-foot Trefoils. And mistakes can be made. A friend was supplied, a few years ago, with a mix which the supplier claimed contained Vipers Bugloss. In fact the plants which came up were the related Purple Bugloss which scarcely occurs in Britain but is a widespread weed in South Australia where it's known as Patterson's Curse!

https://northcornwallnaturalist.blogspot.com

 

LOCKDOWN GARDEN & MOSAIC

 

LOCKDOWN GARDEN, and MOSAIC

I am sheltering under my temporary workshop in the garden, where I have been sieving compost for the last several days, watched by two fat Collared Dove squabs bulging over the edge of their flimsy nest in the Buddleia nearby. I am looking out at a menacing black cloud bearing down from the north, and the first big raindrops start to plop on the roof.

 

The Watchers: Collared Dove squabs.

 I contemplated the scene and thought back through the fifty years I have worked in this garden. We moved into a ¾ acre, rectangular plot behind the house, running downslope towards the west. We are nearly 600 ft. high on the NW slopes of Kit Hill, a granite landmark in East Cornwall. The garden is bounded by a 3-4 foot earth bank to the south and stone banks topped by mixed deciduous native bushes and trees to the north and west. Across the garden, three-quarters of the way down the plot, is a  line of big granite boulders  marking an old field boundary. The soil is a moderately deep free-draining acid loam overlying yellow shillety sub-soil. These features remain, though we cut and layer the hedges every few years.

The immediate problem  when we moved in, were the abundant bramble patches throughout the garden, concealing holes where the outgoing owner had dug up her shrubs to take away.  A few garden plants of rugged disposition still hung on. What to do?

Looking down the garden in the early days

 Over the next 18 months I cut then mowed an open area at the top end and gradually dug my way outwards making temporary veg and strawberry beds. A plan formed and I laid down ropes to mark the outline of wide curved-edged borders down each side of the top end and vegetable beds below, and started digging. Beyond the boulder row was an area designated for the children’s play, and beyond that we planted fruit trees to augment what had once been an orchard, but with only one apple left. It had been cut to a 2 foot stump but regenerated and turned out to be a local variety nicknamed ‘Pig Snout’. Throughout this bottom end appeared rows of daffodils, Spanish bluebells and the local double snowdrop, apparently part of the past local flower-growing industry.

We kept generations of various poultry down this end over the years: hens, ducks, ‘gleanies’, our beloved geese, but we finally capitulated. Frequent fox attacks left devastation and sadness and after our last lot of bantams was devoured we stopped poultry keeping and instead devoted our barricading to keep out the deer which in latter years have been visiting the local gardens. Rabbits and squirrels are a fact of life, but on the upside, so too are grass snakes, slow worms, frogs, toads and newts, more rarely now, a hedgehog, and a varying population of birds and insects.

 

Looking down the garden now.

 

 

Looking up the garden. The Prunus shirotae cherry was planted two years after we came here.

 Largely devoted to perennials with shrubs and trees in places, the ornamental garden developed over the years, every plant with a story, a memory and associations. This sort of gardening requires a good knowledge of what is where, and a great deal of work.  After about twenty years, for the next ten year period the garden was subjected to the neglect of several six- month spells while we travelled in Australia and slowly the choice plants were overwhelmed by the more robust pushy  individuals. Thus the main structure was developed, refined and modified throughout the years.

 During this time two things have become apparent; although the rainfall seems to still average about 50 inches a year, it falls in a different way! There are more spectacular really heavy downpours these days. And the winters must be getting milder on the whole because when we first came here in 1969 bits of ‘Mind Your Own Business’, a not fully hardy plant would get blackened and almost killed in most winters. Now it survives all too well and has spread throughout the garden in spite of great cushions being yanked up at regular intervals. Similarly an obscure little club moss which roams through the lawns of houses in the milder west, now survives and is increasing fast in our grass.

As the work of maintaining the garden and especially the big borders became too much as we have got older, we have grassed down parts of the southern border  to make a series of garden rooms, each different in its degree of sunshine or shade, with surrounds of different plants and shrubs. 

 

After grassing down this makes a sheltered 'room'

 

This year good rain followed the drought, and then another warm spell, so the growth has been terrific and good crops have followed. We have had bushes smothered in fruit that we have never seen before. The orange flowered Berberis darwinii became a mass of blue-bloomed black fruit, taken over by a family of blackbirds till they had stripped it bare; the Amelanchier which has slowly grown into a multi-stemmed tree has had a huge crop of small black fruit which attracted birds for several weeks. The Greenfinches started feeding on them while they were still green. The Alder Buckthorn grown from seed many years ago, for the Brimstone butterflies, this year has a big crop of red-ripening berries.

 

Peas (etcetera!) in raised vegetable beds. Exuberant growth this year.

 We live with wildlife as much as possible. We don’t spray, so the battle against Ground Elder and Hedge Bindweed is unrelenting, though we have managed to eliminate Creeping Thistle and ‘Stroil’(Couch Grass). Brambles frequently arch from the banks into the soft soil below and young Oak, Ash and Hazel saplings attempt to turn the garden into woodland. On the whole, there is enough bounty for nature and us. The voles, once they have picked and cached enough small green strawberries, leave the rest for us, though the squirrels don’t share. They get the Hazel nuts before they are ripe enough for us to harvest.

 This lockdown year, our resident birds soon became accustomed to our constant presence and went about their business of nest building then feeding youngsters, unfazed by us. For weeks the traffic noise from the distant Launceston road was silent and the air was full of birdsong, dominated by dawn to dusk Blackbird song. Suddenly in July they were hushed and only now, in mid-August are we beginning to hear a few calls again. Greenfinches and Nuthatches are calling in their family groups and now  we are hearing the evocative ‘tick-tick’ and phrases of Robins’ autumn song. In the height of the drought we could set the time by the birds' bath-time. Between four and half past, every day, a succession of birds from Siskins to tits, from Blackbirds to finches, perched in the branches of the Amelanchier beside the pond and plunged down to drink or wash in the shallow water below, then returned to the tree to shake and preen.

Despite growing a wealth of what are  now trendily recognized as ‘pollinator plants’, this year, sadly, is repeating the story of the past decades of reducing numbers of butterflies. Plenty of assorted ‘whites’ but the numbers of our showy, dashing ‘coloured butterflies’ bears no resemblance to the dozens especially round the buddleias which our kids used to delight in counting till they ran out of fingers, when they were young. Now half a dozen in one count throughout the garden is a triumph.

 

Small Tortoiseshells on Sedum, a welcome sight.

 But it seems a good year for bees of all kinds, and now, hoverflies as well. Setting the moth trap down the garden at fairly frequent intervals is showing, until this recent warm and humid spell, a decline in overall numbers which seems to be echoed across the country.

And don’t laugh  --  this summer I have been digging up bits of our previously grassed-down areas to grow more plants again! Tony is appalled.

MOSAIC

 

 

 

 

Katrin.

 Katrin, our daughter-in-law has swopped the warm summer for the Arctic. She is currently part of a scientific expedition in which the German Research Vessel  Polarstern has been drifting in the Arctic ice since last autumn. The expedition is joined at intervals by international teams of scientists, investigating the ice and its behaviour, the sea below, and the weather, with consequent insights into more knowledge about climate change. Katrin is a member of the last, fifth, team to join Polarstern, coincidentally the ship on which she and our son Angus first met when he was a visiting scientist  on board Polarstern  in the Antarctic! That was over twenty years ago!

 

 

 

 

The link given below gives an interesting insight to the expedition.

https://follow.mosaic-expedition.org/

 

INTRODUCING THE DOWNGATE BATMAN

INTRODUCING  THE DOWNGATE BATMAN

Have a look at the link:

https://downgatebatman.blogspot.com

A leading bat-worker in the south West, not exactly known for his tact, said recently to Tony, “You’re up against stiff opposition so don’t expect to get anywhere. I was nominated twice and didn’t get it.”

He was referring to the 2020 Bat Conservation Trust’s annual award for outstanding contribution to the bat world.

Tony, to his astonishment, had been nominated!

The text of the nomination is as follows:

From Paul Diamond Cornwall Bat Group .

What can I say about Tony Atkinson? I’ve known Tony for over 12 years and surveyed with him on many occasions over this time, his knowledge, commitment and desire to pass on his knowledge is absolutely inspiring. Tony is the ‘bat man’ for southeast Cornwall and his been a pivotal figure within Cornwall Bat Group for many, many moons. I understand that Tony has been an ever present member of the Cornwall Bat group Committee since the late 1980’s .

 Tony’s involvement with bats extends back to the 1950’s (around 65 years ago) when he worked with John Hooper to ring Greater Horseshoe bats ostensibly to monitor their movements and determine whether bats on Dartmoor were the same bats as those in Torbay (which they are) and which co-incidentally revealed that the life span of this species can exceed 30 years.

Tony has been involved in a bat box check scheme for over 25 years and surveying for the National Bat Monitoring Programme (NBMP) for over 20 years. During the summer months counting Horseshoes, Brown long-eared, Common Pips and Daubenton’s, and going underground into mines and adits in the somewhat less pleasant months of January and February to count Horseshoes and any other bats which turn up from time to time. All of the above require at least two survey visits per season, with some requiring three – this is an incredible level of commitment for anyone, perhaps more so when you realise Tony is 85 years young.

My first underground hibernation survey with Tony was around ten years ago and I distinctly remember Tony apologising to the group in advance as it was likely, that being in his 70’s, he would hold us up during the survey as we walked from cars to hibernation sites and back – In fact Tony became the target to keep up with, as he always seemed to be striding out in front! I also discovered during the day that Tony is so much more than just a ‘bat man’, he is an all-round naturalist with interests across all of the Natural World, not to mention industrial archaeology as he explained how various features in the landscape were created and how biodiversity had taken over and thrived on some of the neglect.

I would also like to briefly mention Tony’s wife Mary. Mary is a remarkable naturalist in her own right, being an exceptional botanist and a top-drawer lepidopterist. In fact, whilst Tony is undertaking bat counts, Mary can often be found just around the corner with her moth trap catching and recording the Lepidoptera in the vicinity too. They are a formidable team who can often be seen holding hands and not just to stop each other falling over! In addition to Tony’s monitoring and recording work, Tony has led innumerable ‘bat walks –n-talks’ over a great many years. He has given presentations on bats and their role within the ecosystem to diverse audiences across the county and acted as trainer and mentor to many aspiring ecologists, myself included. If the above are not sufficient reasons for people to agree that Tony thoroughly deserves the recognition that a Pete Guest award bestows and vote accordingly, I would like to add that Tony is also one of the longest serving Natural England -Volunteer Bat Roost Visitor (VBRV) in the County. When I informed Tony that I was intending to nominate him for the Pete Guest Award, his  response  was that he did not consider that he had done enough to warrant such an award , and that I think, tells you the measure of the man – 65 years working with bats, 85 years of age and still thinks he has not done enough… His energy and enthusiasm for all living things sets him apart from many in our industry. He not only cares about the natural world and the challenges it is facing due to human actions, but also cares very much about people making sure everyone feels included, humbly sharing his vast knowledge, whilst in partnership with his wife Mary he feeds anyone that has forgotten their lunch. Talk to an ecologist in the area and they will all have a story about Tony. His non-nonsense attitude, his enthusiasm, but probably most of all his kindness, giving his time freely to a wide range of activities and providing the driving force for so much conservation work. In short, the world would be a much better place with more Tony Atkinsons and I know of nobody more deserving of winning the Pete Guest Award than Tony, a man who I am proud to call a friend.

Inspection of bat box

 

Annual Autumn bat walk an' talk.

 

Training session for bat-work volunteers.

 

 

 

Putting up a new design of bat box.

 PS from the batman’s other half:

Don’t call me Robin, but, as the other half of downgatebatman, I’ll also mention that for about twenty years Tony was on the other end of the phone for the national Bat Help-Line. This resulted in many calls in the week, particularly in the summer season when young bats tend to get lost and come into closer contact with a disconcerted public. This called for comfort, support, advice, calming, and quite often needed a visit to rescue bats in trouble and pour oil on ruffled feathers, to mix my metaphors.

We have had calls from Edinburgh, South Wales and even from Holland; 3.15 one night saw him rescuing a bat from a back room of a ward in Derriford Hospital. All this, not that it ever occurred to him, was unheralded, unsung, and without a petrol allowance! But it all made trying to fit a couple of weeks’ summer holiday in, somewhat problematical.

Aug.'20 the work continues...