Talkin Tarn Wildlife Report January
2012
It’s often difficult and unscientific to base
change on small sets of data, but anyone who was out and about in
Cumbria between Christmas and New Year would not be blamed for
thinking we are having a mild winter.
When the weather is not what we expect we
start to observe things and see patterns when none exist. In many
places around the world the four seasons system does not apply, but
is followed non-the-less.
Dr Stephen Thackeray of the Centre for Ecology
and Hydrology, in Lancaster stated last year:
"We have measured the date of the arrival of
spring according to the behaviour of more than 700 species of
British animals and plants – including life forms such as plankton
on lakes – and we have found that, on average, spring arrived 11
days earlier in the middle of the past decade than it did in the
middle of the 70s," he says. "And the rate of change is getting
greater."
"Each year, a sequence of natural events
unfolds," he says. "Plant life becomes active, then herbivores that
eat those plants, and finally the carnivores that eat the
herbivores."
Some of the first signs of spring include the
appearance of the yellow flowers of Lesser Celandine in woodlands.
Similarly, Oak trees come into leaf, Black-headed Gulls acquire
distinctive chocolate-brown hoods, and Rooks begin rebuilding their
nests.
The crucial point is that the appearances of
plant life, herbivores and carnivores once dovetailed. However,
they are responding to spring's early arrival in different ways and
at different rates, with the result that there is now a distinct
danger that birds – which need to feed on particular species of
insects – are hatching too late to do so. Similarly, juvenile fish
that need to feed on water fleas may hatch too late, and could
starve. "The timetable that controls the way spring unwinds is
changing and we badly need to find out how that might affect
Britain's wildlife," says Thackeray.
So who will be the first person to spot
Coltsfoot, Lesser Celandine or Daffodil flowering at Talkin Tarn
and can we beat the first arrival of 2011’s summers birds – a Sand
Martin on 28th March!
Finally, we have a contractor on site over the
next few weeks planting trees. There will be thousands of mixed
woodland trees planted in tubes in the three fields that we own to
the east of the site. This is an exciting project, continuing from
the planting we undertook last year. The scheme has been funded by
a Woodland Grant from the Forestry Commission and over time will
develop into mature woodland providing enhanced habitat to a
diverse range of species.
I will end with the same comment that I
made a year ago in the Wildlife report for January 2011 – “So is it
too soon to start looking forward to the arrival of spring and the
snowdrops and daffodils flowering?”
Happy New Year from all the staff at Talkin
Tarn.
References
McKie, Robin (2011).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/23/spring-early-plant-animal-behaviour
Natures Calendar, Woodland Trust. http://www.naturescalendar.org.uk/
iSpot: Your place to share nature. http://www.ispot.org.uk/
Dave Pearson
Country Park Supervisor