Category: Nature Notes

 

Yellow Fish? In Wenvoe? We hope so, sometime in April or May. So what is this all about? The Yellow Fish campaign involves using a stencil to spray-paint yellow fish alongside street or storm drains. This UK-wide project is already underway and its purpose is to draw our attention to street drains and the need to prevent them getting polluted.

Broadly-speaking we have two sorts of drain. Everything in your household should go into foul or wastewater drains – from your toilets, baths, basins, washing machines and dishwashers. The liquid is treated at water-treatment sites and then discharges in a purer form into our rivers and oceans, but street drains are there to carry surplus water off our roads. They do not go to treatment works but discharge straight into our brooks, our rivers and our seas. So anything you put down these drains or allow to flow into them will pollute our watercourses.

So the first issue is to have a think about what you might let get into a nearby street drain. Ever washed your car using detergents or been tempted to tip that surplus bit of oil, paint or antifreeze down the drain? Or allowed litter to slip through the grille? Car wash centres are usually better because the run-off is captured or processed. If you wash your car at home consider using biodegradable and phosphate-free products which are less harmful to the environment. Take that unneeded oil to the Barry Recycling centre at the Atlantic Trading Estate.

The next issue may come as something of a surprise but a significant number of home appliances are incorrectly connected and discharge directly into street drains. Welsh Water have estimated the figure at 20% and another survey found misconnections included many toilets. Next time you dip your toe in the sea at Barry Island remember than an estimated 9% of pollution in bathing areas results from incorrectly connected drainage. If in doubt, get your connections checked.

Does it matter? If you care at all about wildlife – yes! When oestrogen gets into the water it affects the reproductive cycle of fish. Untreated sewage uses up oxygen and our rivers can no longer support insects and fish and those that depend on them like birds and mammals. And if you are still feeling a bit indifferent, remember that, if you are caught causing pollution such as with misconnected appliances the fines can be severe, running to tens of thousands of pounds. So look out for the Yellow Fish which should be appearing in the early summer. And don't worry – a chalk-based spray is used to create them which is non-toxic and will wash away with our ever-so predictable rains.

 

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The last two years has taught me many things. We moved to a new house on a new estate almost at sea level without a single mature tree in sight. The only regular avian visitors were the gulls on the weekly waste collection day. Their cousins, the magpies paid occasional visits but the smaller birds were not tempted into the estate from the rail embankments in the middle distance.

In two months of late autumn at the Redrow Grange in Wenvoe there has been a return to the good old days. First to show were a pair of pied wagtails flitting on and off a neighbours roof taking insects in flight and then swooping away to another perch. My favourite garden bird the Robin struts his stuff on the eaves of the garage staking his territorial claim, then hopping and skipping along the fence and shrubs picking up seeds and grubs. His companion is little Jenny Wren, as small as the tip of my thumb, but neat and fast. Shy, yet cheeky enough to explore the potted shrubs on the patio particularly the Christmas fir even though smaller than the smallest bauble.

On my dog walks there are more wrens dipping in and out of the hedgerow above the Close while chaffinches and blue tits skip away from branch to branch in front of me and close in behind me reclaiming their territory. Our dog often pulls at the lead desperate to go play with the blackbirds that skit about at ground level.

In the bit of woodland near the garden centre I often hear the ratatat of a woodpecker and am fairly sure from odd glimpses that it is a lesser spotted. And I have also seen a creeper picking off insects as it hops upside down on the trunk. Too far away to be sure it’s a tree creeper.

The skies over Wenvoe were busy in October with echelons of geese flying southeast and honking away. Now it’s jackdaws and the occasional buzzards but my binoculars were too well stored to get in time to see the Ravens in January.

This all seems quite ordinary. But our time in the Quays has made me appreciate these everyday sightings.

 

AyJay

 

 

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Ash trees are one of our natives and are particularly common around the parish. In face we have spent 10 years trying to eliminate them from the meadow part of the Upper Orchid Field. But what would our countryside look like if they all went? This is not as unlikely as you might think. We have previously commented in Whats On about the rate of tree loss by human action what with new housing, cycle ways or action by individual householders. This is matched by a replanting record in Wales that is woefully short of the targets set by the Welsh Government. However this is as nothing compared with the threat created by Ash Dieback or Chalara, a lethal fungus first reported in Britain in 2012. In an experiment in 2013, 155,000 ash saplings were planted and only 2.5% remain disease free now. Not only is there a potential impact on the 955 mammals, birds, insects, lichens and fungi that use the trees but it will affect the council tax payer, through the additional cost of removing dead and dying trees, particularly where these overhang roads, parks or houses. And the most amazing thing is that even though it is a native species we imported 5.2 million ash trees from abroad between 2003 and 2011. Many of the pests and diseases our trees and plants are suffering from have been imported on shrubs and trees from abroad. It may be that we as consumers might have to consider asking our garden centres where the plants that we are buying have come from. Scientists are working on a variety of ways to help address the problem but timescales for developing disease-resistant strains can be measured in decades and Chalara is with us now. But, you might say, there are plenty of other types of tree around. The photo shows a veteran Sweet Chestnut tree near Cowbridge which we also have growing on Grange Park and in the woods near the Upper Orchid Field. Another killer fungus has destroyed 3.5 billion Chestnuts in the USA and last summer it reached East London, Devon and Dorset.

 

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Thanks to a donation from a Wenvoe resident the Wildlife Group has just planted a new Mulberry in the Community Orchard. Mulberries are not new to Wenvoe – there is a fine, mature tree at the top of the village that drips with fruit in late summer. But they are unusual and far less common than they used to be. The Community Orchard already has some interesting fruit in addition to the usual suspects, apple, plum, pear, cherry, greengage. You do not see Medlars too much these days but some new Medlar orchards are being planted around London and our 4 Medlars seem happy with our climate and soil and fruit regularly. Quince is also seldom seen but we have one fruit still persisting in the Community Orchard in mid November. So why not a Mulberry? It produces delicious fruit, the birds usually get to it first, but smaller mammals also find them irresistible. They have an interesting history and associations with our culture.

Our variety is called King James 1st (aka Chelsea) and it dates from the 17th century and thereby hangs a tale. King James was anxious to break the French monopoly on silk and the Mulberry is the main food of the Silkworm which produces it. Unfortunately he imported thousands of black Mulberries but it is the white Mulberry which the moths go for and these do not grow well in Britain. So the project did nothing for a British silk industry but the 4 acre Mulberry garden near Buckingham Palace was a popular recreational spot. Mulberries can be found in many of our stately homes, particularly those dating back to Jacobean times. We have fine specimens at St Fagans and near Llandaff Cathedral. They are incredibly long-lived – the artist Gainsborough who was born in 1727 had one growing in his garden which was already over 100 years old and is still there!

And who has not sung the rhyme 'Here we go round the Mulberry Bush'. There are many theories as to its origins but little proof so when you encourage your little ones to dance around the Mulberry bush why not come up with your own story. And if you think it is a good one, get in touch with the Wildlife Group who can publish it on the Community Orchard noticeboard.

 

 

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Those venturing out on our local beaches in South Wales in mid October may have been in for a surprise. Spread along the shore – there were maybe 400-500 on Rhossili beach – were Portuguese Men of War jellyfish. They are usually to be found out on the open ocean but the lively weather and post-hurricane storms drove many of them ashore. Although small, they are quite distinctive with a 'pasty-shaped' bladder which keeps them afloat but they are at the mercy of winds, tides and currents unlike many jellyfish which can swim to a degree.

Strictly speaking they are not jellyfish but an aggregation of different individuals known as a siphonophore. Also unlike many jellyfish the stings from the venomous tentacles, which can be up to 10 metres long, can still be activated long after the creature is dead so resist the temptation to touch it and keep dogs well away. They have few predators although Loggerhead Turtles, Blue Sea Slugs and the Violet Snail will all happily munch away at them. The young Blanket Octopus will even carry broken bits of tentacle which can be used either in attack or defence

 

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A stroll along the new cycleway and footpath on Port Road between Wenvoe and the Alps roundabout revealed some interesting plants lurking at the base of the hedgerow. Most surprising because it has not been recorded yet in the parish is Dewberry. Similar to the Blackberry but with some clear distinguishing features. The berries have a bluish waxy bloom to them and there are far fewer segments per fruit, a bit like a raspberry in this respect. The leaves are closer together than is the case with brambles and they tend to creep along the ground rather than throw up long prickly stems. They are known on Gower as 'monkey grabbers' as their low creeping habit means they are easier to miss until they have snared you around the ankles. On Gower and other dune systems you will often see people gathering the berries which some adore but others find bland and insipid. In Wiltshire it is known as the Token Blackberry. The leaves can also be used to make a tea

 

 

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This fellow traveler took off sixty years ago and it was the first of its kind. The second one carried a dog and the photo shows one of several found down at Goldsland Farm. Confused? Well, the first artificial earth satellite was, of course, Sputnik, which is Russian for Satellite or Fellow Traveller and this was launched in 1957. Later that year Sputnik 2 went into space with the dog Laika on board. And the gall in the photo is the Sputnik or Spiked Pea Gall and it is usually found on Dog Rose which was the case down at Goldsland. It is caused by a small wasp which lays its eggs in the leaves – each gall houses one grub. The Sputniks were launched in Kazakhstan which is the home of the apple – over many hundreds, possibly thousands, of years they worked their way to the west along the silk roads and with the help of traders and the guts of animals. After years of putting up with the mouth-puckering crab-apple, finally the sweet apple arrived and for our ancestors it was a life-changing event.

 

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Sometimes nature can be a bit baffling. In the photo a Rush (the long straight stalk) has grown through the Alder leaf – both are undamaged. How can this happen? Does the Alder leaf sit quietly without moving until the Rush grows through it? Or did a gust of wind force the Alder leaf down on the Rush, leaving it impaled? There are shortcomings with both explanations.

Maybe you have a better idea?

Then there is the question of the Marble Gall. These round galls which are marble sized and shaped grow on Oak and are very common. They have been used for centuries for making the ink that was used to write important documents such as Magna Carta (1215). There are even traces of the ink on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Because the gall is very common now many people assume they were collected in the countryside but the Marble Gall only appeared here in the 18th century when the Turkey Oak was introduced to Britain – the insect that creates the gall needs the Turkey Oak to complete its life cycle. So were the galls imported? – the best were supposed to come from Aleppo which is in Syria – some distance away.

Further probing reveals that there was indeed a substantial trade in these galls with Britain importing around 2,500 tons in 1880. So even after the gall could be found in England and Wales the Aleppo gall was being brought in because they had a higher content of the tannins essential for producing the best ink. There are recipes online for making the ink so if you want to have a go at home or try it in the classroom you can still do so using the our local Marble Galls which grow all around the parish.

 

 

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