Windowbox Wildlife

Late spring apogee

2009-06-18T21:01:00.001+01:00

The window box is just going over from a kind of aesthetic apogee that so often happens in nature during the run up to midsummer. Everything is fresh and bright with a bit more growing to do before the dustiness of summer and the first hints of autumn start to appear.

At the southern end of the box the tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum) has flowered and a faded one is now forming a red berry that will soon turn black. Around and about the tutsan are half a dozen flowers of white clover that attract the occasional bumble bee. Hairy tare (Vicia hirsuta) pruned so drastically a few weeks ago has sent more delicate vines up to the light and their tiny mauve-white flowers thrust boldly forwards on long pedicels, challenging the variable breezes.

At the northern end of Wbx, a place that could now perhaps be called a copse, this year’s goat willow wands are one third of a metre high as are the new shoots of the Himalayan honeysuckle. The grey sallows are not so fast but look in good health.

The soft rush is just coming into flower and, deep in the foliage, the filigree leaves of herb robert are gathering strength for the plants that will make a bigger showing in autumn or next spring.

Bullfinches and vetch mulch

2009-05-08T22:19:00.003+01:00

I am quite proud of the above post title - slightly reminiscent of Shakespeare's "Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore", though I was not, of course, planning to emulate the sound of breaking surf.

Some have thought though that Shakespeare was acknowledging Ovid who in Metamorphosis XV wrote:

sed ut unda inpellitur urgeturque prior veniente urgetque priorem

Anyway, enough of that. The other day a male bullfinch perched by Wbx and, I am sure, flew over the window box.

A somewhat misty picture as it was taken through our not-recently-cleaned sitting room window.

These beautiful little birds pass through our garden once or twice a year searching for seeds and buds. Sadly they are now of the RSPB's Red List - the highest conservation priority, with species needing urgent action. To quote from Shakespeare's sonnets once again:

From fairest creatures we desire increase,

That thereby beauty's rose might never die

So, on to the second part of my title, the vetch mulch. This is simply that I took the quarter pound of hairy tare I gathered from Wbx the other day, dried it and crumbled it as a light mulch over the upper surface of the box, brushing it down to soil level between the plants. By such actions I hope to build up the shrinking soil a bit, or at least to stop it declining so rapidly.

Management decision

2009-05-03T23:47:00.001+01:00

The hairy tare of last year has seeded itself quite liberally and over the last few weeks and has been growing with great vigour. It rapidly smothers other plants and its weight is so great that it pulls them down to the ground.

So, I decided to remove the plants and give more space for the other things to develop. The results are depicted below.

I kept the tare arisings and weighed them indoors: 100gm (approx. 4 oz). I have put it out to dry as hay and may then crumble it up to return to WBX.

The little things in life

2009-03-01T23:40:00.001Z

On St David's day I found this tiny springtail, Entomobrya nivalis, sunbathing on the edge of the window box.

Also, on top of the central sallow log I found a few strands of moss emerging from the cracks.

I reflected that this project is in the spirit of St David's last words when he told his brothers and sisters to be joyful and "do the little things in life" (Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd in Welsh, his native language)

A Wealden wood

2008-12-23T21:53:00.001Z

With its complement of fallen leaves lying on the moss and the various plants arrayed around within the window box, I noted that it now looks very much like a small rectangle of Wealden woodland floor.

This is not surprising as this is exactly what the area where the window box is situated would have been before the land was cleared by human activity.

I feel quite pleased as it would be almost impossible, or very difficult to produce such an effect quickly and deliberately.

The photo was taken on 21 December 2008.

Target leaf-spot fungus on clover

2008-11-20T21:24:00.001Z

Some of the leaves of the white clover (Trifolium pratense) has developed target leaf-spot fungi, probably, I think, Stemphylium sarciniforme (there are many leaf spotting fungi found on clovers and they all look very similar unless studied under a high power microscope).

They are called 'target fungi' because they tend to make target-like concentric rings on the leaf.

Fourth year begins

2008-11-04T23:54:00.001Z

Today the window box had its third birthday and now sets off into its fourth year.

I took the picture above from the rear to avoid it looking exactly the same as the ones taken a couple of days ago.

I must repair that rim sometime - the consequence of journeys to Islay and London with TV crews.

At least the soil does not seem to be shrinking so much and I am thinking of ways of building it up with box-grown stick bundles and blown in fallen leaves.

World's smallest coppice?

2008-10-28T13:09:00.001Z

I have, as I do every year, cut back my three sallow trees (actually two grey sallow, Salix cinerea, and one goat willow, Salix caprea) now all the leaves have gone (mostly eaten by sawfly larvae).

The pictures below show the situation before and after the coppicing and sharp-eyed visitors may be able to see where some of the twigs top left have disappeared.

I took the cut off twigs and shaped them into a bundle. I call these 'woodcharms' but I suppose the correct term is 'faggots', a word deriving from the same root as 'fascist' (from the bundles of rods, or fasces, carried by people in power and authority in ancient Rome).

A faggot was, like mine, bound with two ties. If only one tie had been used it would have been a bavin (I now feel moved to make a bavin so I can legitimately use this word).

My faggots are also a bit small. A short faggot would have been 24 inches (61 cm) round and 32 inches (81.3 cm) long and a long faggot 24 inches round and 48 inches (121.9 cm) long. I guess mine is a microfaggot.

I have put this microfaggot alongside the northern end of the window box and one of the cut sallow stools can be seen top right of the photo. Hopefully this will help to rebuild the soil level which still continues to shrink and drop. This year I will leave any fallen leaves that blow into the box, though I don't think these will help much.

The striped gold midget

2008-10-19T00:21:00.001+01:00

Some dark blotches on several of the leaves of the Himalayan honeysuckle (Leycesteria formosa) have proved to be the upper side of the leaf mine of the striped gold midget (Phyllonorycter emberizaepenella).

'Phyllonorycter' means 'leaf-digger' and 'emberizaepenella' 'bunting-winged' so the vernacular name should, perhaps be 'bunting- winged leaf-digger'. But there are some further complexities with this wonderfully Ciceronian scientific name: the second half of the specific name derives from Latin penna meaning a wing. This would give two n's in emberizaepenella and the fact that there is only one is said to be a typographical error. Unless a properly recorded earlier version of the specific name of this moth is found the misspelt version has to remain under the international rules of nomenclature.

The moth is said to widespread but very local and the larvae feed also on honeysuckles and snowberry. There are no records for the species in East Sussex in the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre's database. There is however a dot for East Sussex in The moths and butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland, so it must have been found. It is, however, listed by the Record Centre as occurring at Ebernoe Common, West Sussex.

More Nematus pavidus sawfly larvae

2008-09-21T18:43:00.001+01:00

A few weeks back a colony of Nematus pavidus sawfly larvae fed up on one of the sallow in Wbx. Recently a new colony appeared, founded I suspect, by an adult of one of the earlier larvae.

Today I noticed that there were three ages: the small white worms and their left behind eggshells, some rather large larvae but still with some growing to do, and some really big ones almost ready to pupate.

There was also a parasitic wasp (ichneumon or braconid) pottering about nearby and maybe looking for an opportunity to lay eggs in some of the sawfly larvae via that vicious-looking ovipositor.

A sawfly: Nematus pavidus

2008-08-13T13:26:00.001+01:00

The baby sawfly larvae spotted recently on the goat willow (Salix caprea) have turned out to be Nematus pavidus, confirmed by John Grearson of Symphata: The Sawfly Forum (a very useful Internet discussion group for those interested in British sawflies). The picture above shows two mature examples on the window box.

N. pavidus does not appear to be at all common. There are no records on the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre's database and none for Sussex on the National Biodiversity Network. Indeed there are only six 10km squares in Britain from which the species has been reported, including one that covers Lundy Island.

Although the caterpillars are very obvious, working out what they are was not easy and, as with many sawflies, the adults may not be much in evidence, so it is probably under-recorded rather than rare.

Whatever the case, they have turned many of the goat willow leaves into fretwork, though I am sure this will do no long term damage.

Hairy tare goes to seed

2008-07-30T23:24:00.001+01:00

The hairy tare (Vicia hirsuta), now sprawling all over the window box, is running out of steam as it seeds ripen. First the pods turn brown, then black, finally splitting to scatter the seeds all over the place.

The leaves in the background are one of the sallows that have nearly been overwhelmed by this wiry weed.

Sawflies attack sallow

2008-07-29T00:11:00.001+01:00

One leaf of one sallow plant has been turned to fretwork by a host of small sawfly larvae.

Although they feed quite openly during the daytime, they are easily overlooked, the bare leaf veins being the most noticeable thing. Their habit of cocking their tails up in the air when alarmed is characteristic

They are too young to be certain of the species but I suspect it is Croesus septentrionalis. I will be able to tell when they are larger.

Beetles, flies and rushes

2008-07-19T12:56:00.001+01:00

Much action on the Windowbox today. In the morning three common red soldier beetles (Rhagonycha fulva) were crawling about on the hairy tare, which is now like green wire-netting.

Several small flies rested, as they like to do, on the leaves of the largest sallow. The one below is, I think a lance fly (Diptera: Lonchaeidae)

There was also (below) a common flower bug, (Anthocoris nemorum) on a sallow leaf, a plant of which it is particularly fond as an aphid hunting ground (though there do not appear to be any aphids).

The soft-rush (Juncus effusus) is flowering now, though this year's stems are very weak and the flowers unusually pale. For some reason this plant seems to be photographed by others mainly when the it has run to seed. Maybe actual flowering is very brief.

A new hoverfly

2008-07-11T12:57:00.001+01:00

A new hoverfly was settled on the sallow leaves on the window box the other day. It had gone by the time I got the camera, but I re-found it on some nearby hogweed flowers.

The larvae of this species live in the hogweed roots and it is generally quite common in the English countryside at this time of year.

The flowers on this particular hogweed plant are pale pink as opposed to the normal white. This is because the backs of the petals are pink.

More insects

2008-07-01T23:10:00.001+01:00

Many insects rest on leaves in the window box. Today in addition to the gold-green Chrysotus spp. (Diptera Dolichopodidae) that are around all summer, I found the wing-waving Sepsis fulgens, the lauxaniid fly Minettia longipennis and the neat gold moth, Micropterix aruncella. There are only six Sussex records for this in the Biodiversity Record Centre's database, six of them from the garden here. It is a pretty little thing as this picture shows.

I have now recorded over seventy spcies from Wbx.

Loxocera albiseta emerges

2008-06-29T15:08:00.001+01:00

The other day I noticed some black and orange flies crawling about on foliage around and above the soft-rush plant in the window box. They turned out to be Loxocera albiseta (Diptera: Psilidae), relatives of the carrot fly and whose larvae live in rushes.

I have never seen this species in our garden and we have very few rushes so I wondered if a female had laid some eggs when the Windowbox was up in Islay with Simon King during last year's Springwatch TV programme.

The flies constantly wave their rather unusual antennae. In the picture the long black third segment contrasts with the more slender white arista (hence the specific name 'albiseta') making it look as though the antennae are forked.

Hairy Tare (Vicia hirsuta)

2008-05-12T01:25:00.001+01:00

Today I identified the vetch, which is now flowering as hairy tare (Vicia hirsuta). Having remained a very small plant throughout the winter, it has grown rapidly over the last month and is now the largest plant in Wbx. Clearly it is finding ample nutrient. As far as I know it grows nowhere else in the garden and in the Square Metre the very similar smooth tare (Vicia tetrasperma) fills an equivalent ecological niche. Hairy tare is flowering a week or two earlier than smooth tare and the latter is said to prefer damper conditions.

I wonder if the hairy tare is the same as the plant mentioned in the Bible’s New Testament. Matthew Chapter 13 says, for example: “tares are the children of the wicked one.” Devilish plants that strangle their neighbours. Certainly the Wbx tare has a fine capacity to overwhelm but, as an annual, it may only be a short term dominance.

Plantain arises

2008-03-01T17:35:00.000Z

The spear-shaped, reddish leaves of greater plantain (Plantago major) have emerged from the soil again, having died down completely for the winter (an old flower stalk lies to the left). Though an annoying weed elsewhere, it is as welcome as a treasured alpine in the Windowbox and unlikely to become any kind of a nuisance. The white clover leaves are also starting to enlarge now, having been much smaller during the cold months.

New leaves - tutsan and sallow

2008-02-24T20:02:00.000Z

The tutsan plants (Hypericum androsaemum) start into leaf very early, sending up shoots surmounted by purple spear-shaped leaves. The older leaves remain on the plant and the whole is only halfway to being a proper shrub, a suffruticose perennial I suppose is the correct description. The sallow 'coppices' are also starting into leaf.

Goblin chestnut

2008-02-01T19:30:00.000Z

Hard up against the sallow log a saw a boot-polish brown glint in a small hole. After careful probing I brought a shiny Spanish chestnut to light that must have been buried by a grey squirrel. Though maybe it was a goblin of the kind described in Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti:

One began to weave a crown

Of tendrils, leaves, and rough nuts brown

(Men sell not such in any town);

This large seed raises some interesting question for a wildlife recorder. Do I claim a chestnut (Castanea sativa) for the windowbox, or should I wait to see if it grows? How about a grey squirrel, or a goblin, or a gruffalo? Well, no, I think not. I did, however, put it back in its dark hole to see what happens anon. The nearest trees, incidentally, where such a nut could have come from are probably 50 metres away.

In the middle of this episode a man called with a new shelf for the fridge. I explained the windowbox and the chestnut to him and, surprisingly, he did not seem to think I was crazy.

Rough-stalked feather-moss

2008-01-19T21:33:00.000Z

I have started to look again at the mosses on the windowbox as winter is a good time for this, free of the more heady distractions of the warmer months (not that mosses aren't heady in their way).

This one, growing up the side of the sallow log, is the very common rough-stalked feather-moss (Brachythecium rutabulum). It is distinguished by the yellowish tips to its shoots and the roughened seta - the stem that supports the spore-bearing capsule. and other features.

Seasonal snow

2008-01-03T23:22:00.000Z

It was reported today that Britain had its second warmest year in 2007 since records began (the warmest was 2006).

Today, however, was decidedly cold, though the snow did not lie until much after lunchtime.

As the other photo shows, I have been doing some cutting and coppicing. The rush, like a spiny green and white sea urchin, is soft-rush, Juncus effusus, and seems a very strong plant, so I am sure it will survive. Elsewhere in the picture you can see sallow stumps where I have started a small coppice.

Iced smooth tare, Vicia tetrasperma

2007-12-19T22:54:00.000Z

One of the newest arrivals in the windowbox is a plant of what is almost certainly smooth tare, a mini-vetch. It appeared in the autumn and has been growing steadily since.

For the last few days the weather has been very cold and frosty and the soil in the windowbox will, by now, be frozen right through. This makes it a much harsher microclimate than the garden round about where the roots of many plants will be below the level that frost can penetrate.

We will see what survives (the previous two winters have not been as cold as this).

Long-legged fly (Tipula paludosa)

2007-09-13T21:56:00.000+01:00

Today I found this female cranefly, Tipula paludosa, resting quietly in a cage of rushes. The Juncus in the windobox has grown large enough to serve this sort of purpose.

The insect dangled unmoving within the shelter of the plant and it reminded me, as craneflies always do of Yeats's poem:

That civilisation may not sink,
Its great battle lost,
Quiet the dog, tether the pony
To a distant post;
Our master Caesar is in the tent
Where the maps are spread,
His eyes fixed upon nothing,
A hand under his head.
Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
His mind moves upon silence.