Laugavegur Street is the main shopping street in Reykjavik, full of coffee shops, touristy gift shops, wine bars, cake shops and more. It was very busy in November when I was there. It was pedestrianised in parts which was useful. Other than a few single trees dotted along the pavement, there were no large trees or hedgerows in this area at all to attract birds after berries. I was very surprised to see redwings in the street and as you will see in the film their behaviour I thought it worthy of filming as to me it was so unusual. I did not see this behaviour in any other place I visited in Iceland outside of the capital.

The RSPB describe the redwing as usually a winter visitor and is the UK’s smallest true thrush. Look for the creamy strip above its eye and the orange-red flank patches. They roam across the UK’s countryside, feeding in fields and hedgerows, rarely visiting gardens, except in the coldest weather when snow covers the fields. Only a few pairs nest in the UK.

The BTO continue during the early winter the Redwing is very much a bird of open country but during freezing conditions, redwings can often be seen in parks and gardens. With birds arriving from both Iceland and Fennoscandia. Redwings can be found across Britain & Ireland during the winter months. These birds tough it out here.

My own experience of redwings 

My own experiences of redwings in the UK are that they and fieldfares arrive in the UK as flocks and feed in hedgerows, berry-bearing trees, farmland copses, fields, etc. They are very shy birds and quickly fly away if you approach them. Then when the weather turns much colder and the ground freezes you may see them in rural, suburban gardens and possibly urban parklands that have suitable forage for them, being berries or soil invertebrates weather permitting. When they eventually do venture into more urban/suburban areas, you can attract them to your gardens by having a pile of sliced or bruised apples on your lawn. These will also attract song thrushes and blackbirds.

Two redwing species

Two subtly distinct types of redwing are known to visit the UK from autumn through to spring. Besides Turdus iliacus species being present in Iceland, another species of redwing T.i. Coburni. also lives there, in fact, it lives and breeds there as well as in the Faroe Isles. It too is a migratory bird that moves south to the British Isles and Europe. According to the British Trust for Ornithology, you are most likely to see these slightly larger and darker-coloured T.i coburni species in the west of Britain and Ireland, where they overwinter. Although both species are omnivorous, when migrating, due to weather conditions and there being little or no soil invertebrate prey items available, e.g. earthworms, they become frugivorous.

Completely different behaviour

I was really surprised to see redwings on the pavements not only on the busy pavement with people walking next to them but also feeding on food thrown by people on the pavement and into plant troughs. They were competing with blackbirds, starlings and just one ∗house sparrow∗ (See below). Like our house sparrows, the redwings were fearless around people, prams and wheelchairs, even electric scooters!  I had never seen this before nor had I expected to see this at all. They fought over scraps of food. I did not see this behaviour in any other places  I visited in Iceland.

Artificial Light

Besides food, perhaps another reason attracted these birds to the busy city centre. Research has found that thrushes, including redwings, are attracted to artificial light at night (ALAN) and Reykjavik is a seaport and a city with more lights than the surrounding countryside. Perhaps the lights attracted them to have an overnight stopover and then they went foraging before they continued with their migration. Who knows?

In a study by Guiten et all (1994) In Iceland the crowberry, (Empetrum nigrum), European blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) bog bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) and bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) were very popular. They also found that these berries were patchily distributed amongst other plants. I would suspect that Iceland has unusual environmental conditions with its erosion-prone volcanic soils, harsh climate, depth of snow/ice, forest clearances and grazing somewhat limits the availability of enough berries to sustain both species of redwings hence they fatten up on the available food before migrating south. However, I cannot say which species it was that I filmed.  Although I suspect the T.i. coburni species. See more about the two species here

Value of hedgerow fruits

Food from hedgerow fruits, such as berries, sloes, haws and crab apples, provide a valuable resource for several UK farmland bird species from late summer, through winter and into spring. Jacobs states that although these birds are omnivorous,  due to the reduced or complete unavailability of invertebrate prey items, supplement their diet with such fruits to maintain their energy, switching back to soil invertebrates when the fruit supply is exhausted. The flesh of hedgerow fruits is nutritious, containing lipids, protein and carbohydrates and topped up with a small amount of invertebrates, when available, could help these birds build up fat reserves.

UV light advertiser! 

Siitari et al state that the fruits within hedgerows and trees, have to be seen by the birds and need to be visually attractive to them as ultimately, the birds are the dispersers of their seeds. Thus ripened fruits have evolved bright colours to attract the birds which can be seen against a background of green foliage for some considerable distance. Red or black, both colours being favoured by birds on the lookout for ripened berries. Some fruits with a waxy coating, such as blue, violet and blackberries may also reflect ultraviolet light further advertising them to birds that have through age or have learnt, that such berries are ripe. The advert clearly states “Eat me. I am ripe!” Naive birds show no preference for such berries and probably learn by social learning, observation or hunger-driven sampling.

Kestrels and hunting

I often wondered how kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) found their vole prey amongst all the ground vegetation. In his fine book, “The Kestrel” Andrew Village states that their flight-hunting hovering technique is its most familiar feature. They also hunt from perches. They use their sharp talons and strong beaks, making full use of their keen eyesight. We know little about the kestrel’s visual perception. He was right of course. Well since its publication in 1990, science has moved on. I was under the impression that it was their keen eyesight and their ability to detect the slightest movement which located their prey items. This is correct but another method is used by them which greatly augments their senses/ability somewhat.

UV light helps kestrels

Viitala et al. were the first to show that kestrels can see UV light in the presence of urine and faeces but not in visible light, along the male vole runways as they scent mark them. Koivula et al went on to find that male voles would leave fine trace urination marks and droppings all over their trail system within their home range, whereas females and juveniles may try to hide their urine and faeces. So the UV light shows where the male voles are most active when they scent mark and are more likely to be predated. 

You may find this paper about artificial coloured lights and their effect on migrating birds interesting.

∗House sparrow in Iceland?

As mentioned I saw nothing unusual that merited filming a house sparrow waiting around some food scraps. Later I realised that even though I had travelled to other places in Iceland, I saw no sparrows whatsoever. I thought I had better check and I emailed  Birdlife Iceland.

I explained that I could easily identify a house sparrow having undertaken numerous surveys for the RSPB and BTO. I intended to film the Redwing’s behaviour and never gave the house sparrow a second thought, so I never filmed it! Well, my sighting generated quite some interest! Anna-María Lind Geirsdóttir from Birdlife forwarded my email to the Icelandic Rarities Committee, and I received this reply from Yann Kolbbeinsson of that organisation.

Dear George,

The only recent colony of House Sparrows in Iceland went extinct in 2016. That was the colony at a cluster of farms at Hof, just over 80 km southwest of Höfn.

There are only two records from Reykjavík.

1. A pair in 1959 bred and raised 4 young but the whole family was subsequently collected. This was also the first record of this species in Iceland.+
2. Three birds were found in late 1968, with some being seen into summer 1969 They were considered to have come with a cargo ship to the city and are therefore not included in the species‘ tally of Icelandic records.

Your sighting of a single bird in Reykjavík is thus of great interest. Could you please send a detailed report of the bird and how other small passerines were excluded, circumstances of the observation, optics used etc, as this record would need to be reviewed by the Icelandic Rarities Committee.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Regards

Yann (member of the Icelandic Rarities Committee)

References and my observations

With special thanks to Anna-María Lind Geirsdóttir from Birdlife and Yann Kolbbeinsson of the Icelandic Rarities Committee

Jacobs, J.H (2008)”The birds and the bees: pollination of fruit-bearing hedgerow plants and consequences for birds” PhD thesis Stirling

Nocturnal flight calling behaviour of thrushes in relation to artificial light at night

Snow and Snow (1988) Birds and Berries. T. & A. D. Poyser, Calton 

This is my second review of a book by Ted Benton. I enjoyed the much smaller first book and when I asked him why he wrote the first Solitary Bee book, his comments were just as appropriate for this second book. However, there are so many more details in the second version and to be honest I am blown away by the second book, jointly written with Nick Owens. Here is a brief review.

I was gifted this magnificent book by the authors. It was so informative and I am learning so much more about solitary bees that I decided to write a brief review about it, to help it reach a wider audience. Being an academic book, though written in easy-to-digest format it’s not cheap although you can purchase it a lot cheaper on various websites as an ebook.

Both are authors and entomologists with many years of experience. They don’t concentrate on identifying specific species with detailed diagrams, keys etc., in great detail instead they concentrate on their interests, that is behaviour and ecology. Other books are available for identifying solitary bees e.g. The Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland, by Steven Falk.

The authors mention Gasteruption jaculator several times so here is a film of one ovippositing inside a common yellow face bee nest, probably very rarely filmed.

The Authors, both of whom have written books about bees before, describe in great detail their behavioural observations, (and that of many other peoples’ observational/behavioural/studies) on solitary bee behaviour. The vividly and detailed written observations I enjoyed. Especially when reading something completely new to me.

For example, I had never seen or heard anything at all about the mutillid wasps, which is not surprising for me, as they appear way down south and are found only sporadically in northern England and central Scotland. They are described as the ‘velvet wasp’, its colour probably acting as a warning to potential predators, (Aposematism). These wasps have a painful sting, which they use to defend themselves. 

So many species- scarcity of literature

There are more than 7,000 species. of this wasp. Even in Prof. Seirian Sumner’s excellent book, “Endless Forms. Why We Should Love Wasps” she admits that the family to which it belongs, Mutillidae, has very little to find in the scientific literature on the predator-prey relationship of this family and several other families. The authors describe how winged males of some species of mutillid wasps carry the wingless female in flight and potentially take her to an area where a variety of wasps and bees are likely to be nesting! 

According to BWARS, they are known to be parasitoids of the resting stages of other insects, which are inside cocoons. 

And boy, I am learning such a lot of new information. The authors certainly scored highly for achieving this with me. It is a real coup for the authors, the New Naturalist Library and for us, the readers by having so much information about solitary bees from experienced bee observers with so much interesting information to digest.

 What the book covers

Male courtship behaviour, sex and the solitary bee, life cycles, nesting behaviour and development, flowers, cuckoos, parasites, predators and more are all covered.

This is a very timely addition as more and more people are aware of the different species of bees and not just concentrating on honeybees and bumblebees. Wildlife gardening is now undertaken by many people which has helped people to appreciate solitary bees. Consequently, their awareness of solitary bees expanded. This book will vastly improve their knowledge and understanding of them.

As we roll up towards Christmas, this book would make an excellent present for any budding entomologist or even the more seasoned one. It can be bought here 

I would like to thank the authors for mentioning my work several times throughout the book.

You may find this paper interesting Associations of mutillid wasps (Hymenoptera, Mutillidae) with eusocial insects

Ladies first!

Here I will explore the Wool carder (Anthidium manicatum) (Megachilidae: Anthidiin) females’ behaviour, nesting etc. and then go on to the males. Unusually for solitary bees, female wool carder bees, are smaller than males and females generally emerge first in this species. Also unlike many other species, the males die first, leaving the females to make their nests and forage for the provision of their offspring. Whereas male and female wool carder bees fly around for about the same period of time together. They are generalist feeders and after their natal flight, they will forage for food and seek out suitable nest sites usually inside pre-existing cavities. They sleep overnight in such cavities waiting for the males to emerge. Obviously, during the pre-mating days, the females will need to forage for food and this would give them a great opportunity to seek out the optimal plants for all their needs, in peace, before the males arrive.

Interestingly, they started their nest as you can see in the film, presumably in preparation for the male emergence and mating, when the nest building would be in earnest. I never saw any males when filming for the first few days, just the females foraging and resting inside nest boxes with the evidence of nest-building materials inside a cavity they were each using to rest. I do think that although I had a few yarrow plants, there simply were not enough plant hairs on them to sustain further nest building as per the film and the females abandoned the partially constructed nests to nest elsewhere, probably where a better supply of nesting materials was located.

Lamb’s ear, an excellent wool carder nest material provider

Nest sites

They are rather an opportunistic nester, using pre-existing cavities in walls, hollow plant stems, larger beetle exit holes in deadwood, window frames and even metal chair arms! I do feel the females start their nest before they mate with the males. It could be a few days later that males appear so why waste the time doing nothing else than feed? Plus various man-made objects In many of the papers I have read, researchers state that they are scattered far and wide in the wild and therefore hard to find. So I’m proud to say this includes my Nurturing Nature nest boxes!

Nest materials

Falk states they use furry leaf surfaces, including great mullein, woundworts, yarrow and lamb’s ear. See the film “Flowers to attract wool carder bees” Other plants are also used to make their nests. So females have to choose plants for nesting materials AND plants that can supply themselves with food and forage for their offspring. Flowering Lamb’s ear can provide both forage and nest materials. They may also seek out other plants to collect plant secretions, see below.

Plant hairs-aka wool

They use their sharply toothed mandibles to remove wool-like hairs from suitable plant stems and leaves, moving downwards as they gather up this material and roll it into a ball. This must be easier and much quicker than pushing the wool ball upwards as they cut the hairs moving upwards. This takes about  Roll them up into a ball under their thorax which, Benson describes as a cage, and carrying them to the nest site where they tease them open to make their nests. Then like other solitary bees forage for pollen and nectar lay a single egg, seal the cavity and start again.

Choose the right lamb’s ear

Lamb’s ear, Stachys byzantina is a top woolly plant for them with soft spikes of woolly, pink-purple flowers appearing from June to September.  I made the error of planting a non-flowering species, Stachys byzantine “silver carpet”. It just spread and spread like a carpet and has never ever flowered! Looking at the way they collect the hairs, having flowers to attract them lends itself more easily for them to harvest the hairs along the underside of the leaves and carry on straight down the stalk.

However, recent research by Kelsey et al (2017)  has shown that when the females shave the wool from the lamb’s ear, the plant gives off a certain Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) which then can attract other females to that particular plant thereby causing it damage. If you have the time do read it it makes interesting reading.

Females collect plant secretions

Many of you will be aware that solitary cavity-nesting bees use various plant materials to make their nest, from plant leaves, masticated plant materials, resins, and plant hairs, a kind of wool-like material covering leaves or stalk/stems of certain plants. Some solitary bees also use plant resins, which are well known for their water-repellency, antimicrobial and insect-repellent properties and are likely to protect young bees inside their cells as well as the forage. Although we only have one species of wool carder bee, they do not use resins, whereas Falk states that few American species do.  Muller (1996) discovered that female wool carder bees also make use of ‘extrafloral trichome secretions’. They collect the secretions using a specialised tarsal brush on each of their legs, by brushing against the secretions whereby they are absorbed probably by capillary action onto the hairs, using plants from the Pelargonium family. You may better know some of them in particular as geraniums, which have seeded heads that resemble a stork’s beak. The females only collected the secretions during individual nest cell building which they deposited onto the wool. No deposits were made when a cell was used to deposit forage. This would make sense as the forage could be contaminated with what is an oily secretion that has beneficial properties for the health of the bees during their time in the cell. Eating it would not be a good idea! Observers saw the bees forage for just these secretions which can be seen as brownish droplets, deposited on the outside of the nest below. There may well have been other droplets deposited throughout the wool, used to glue the wool threads together, or dare I say knit the wool strands together! She may also, like the common yellow face bee, possibly apply additional substances originating from her Dufour gland. They hypothesized that the secretions may serve to waterproof the cell, prevent microbes from attacking the pollen/nectar forage, protect the larvae and/or deter nest robbing. So it appears this bee provides its offspring with some type of protection from attack

Plant secretions are deposited onto the wool by female wool carder bees (A. Muller 1996)

Disguises the bee odours

Almost 20 years later Eltz et al (2014) using more modern techniques and equipment found that olfactometer tests suggested that trichome secretions reduce the attractiveness of the odour of the host brood cell to parasitic wasps.

Titbit of info! Did you know that these bees have been called the most widely distributed unmanaged bee in the world, because of their expansive native and non-native range (Strange et al 2011)

Mating strategies

Whereas most species of solitary bee females emerge first. Males have to be quick to find and mate with virgin females numbers of which are declining, as they mate just once. A very limited resource. This is known as selection pressure. Therefore females will resist attempts to mate again. Not so with wool carder bees. Let’s have an in-depth look at their different strategies. 

Female solitary bees usually only mate once, but females and males of this species mated many times. Females mate not just once but continuously over their reproductive lifetime, Svveringhaus et al state that besides being polyandrous, females have mated with intervals as short as 35 seconds between copulation. Males are polygamous. Depending upon their size and the size of other males in the area, may defend territory where nectar, pollen or nesting materials can be found. It boils down to a strategy known as “Late male sperm precedence”. In other words, the male who mated the last was more likely to father any offspring. There is an excellent article that explains this in more detail by Africa Gomez at her brilliant website  ‘Why do male Wool-carder bees defend a flower patch?’ species.

Male behaviour depends upon your size

Abdominal mace!

A lethal weapon of offence carried by the male Wool carder bee

To back up his mating territorial claim, males are armed with 5 sharp ‘mace-like spines’, at the end of their abdomen. If another male or other flying insects arrive or feed in this area he will attack.  Wirtz et al describe how he will ram into the intruder at high speed, and shortly before the moment of impact, he curves his abdomen forward to hit with the long spines. I have watched this many times when an intruder is feeding on a flower. He will hover at the rear of the intruder, then ram it and grab the intruder whilst they are still feeding, in a bear-like ‘hug’ and press the mace-like spines into its body. Shortly before impacting the intruder, males curve their abdomen forward to strike at the intruder with their 5 spined mace-like abdominal tips. The intruder can be injured, such as broken or punctured wings, maimed, wounded or even killed. The bumblebee male was attacked several times by the same male wool carder bee and was unable to fly. Crawling up to the top of plants, buzzing its wings but falling to the lower vegetation or ground several times. He was now probably doomed to die. Wirtz et al describe that upon closer inspection flying insects that were attacked were examined and found to have punctures in their wings corresponding in size to the deadly spines.

Read the papers, and books now to make a film!

It’s great reading scientific papers (sometimes anyway!) and imagining the scene the researchers paint. But it’s a rare opportunity that allows you to observe it in your own back garden. I feel it was a real privilege to have read the papers and then actually see their work for myself live. Well I’ve read the papers, observing the action now need to make a film! How lucky is that? I was buzzing and delighted with anticipation. I am not the only one to get excited by this! Kate Bradbury wrote a delightful article in the Guardian and you can feel her excitement and delight as well. Professional journalists do have a much more expressive way with words than I do!

Modus operandi

Over the course of a few days, it became apparent to me that one very large male was carving out territory. There were many hours of observation spent over quite a number of days in my garden. I am assuming it was the same male as I never marked him. But he did nod at me several times in recognition as he sped by! The Modus operandi for this male was to preen himself on a raised bed every morning, weather permitting. He would feed upon usually on the toadflax, presumably for nectar as fuel, then start to patrol his estate, regularly checking flowers for females to mate or males to maul. Fuel up and off again. If he spotted a female, I noticed that mating occurred when the females were nectar-feeding within his territory, not when they were in flight. If he spotted something else which was on a flower, he would observe it a while from a distance. Slowly he would move nearer and hover near it, probably gauging the distance and whether it was a female to a mate, a male to maul or an insect to chase away. Then he would speed up the flight, hover the rush towards and pounce on the unsuspecting bee. If his target was already flying he would chase it. He chased any flying insects he saw that entered his estate unless, of course, he was otherwise occupied.  Woe betide any other males or even any other insects that entered it! This male was a large aggressive resource defender. He was a beaut!

Male wool carder bee foraging on Orange hawkweed

The conqueror and gladiator

At first, several smaller males fed on the toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) on the estate, which also contained  Bowles’s Mauve, (which was also very popular with the females) as was the French lavender growing in pots, his first estate. After a few mace attacks, they were soon banished to the much larger wildflower meadow, which did contain several forage resources but more scattered around it than the toadflax area. After a few days, this magnificent beast of a bee slowly made exploratory forays into the wildflower meadow area, a small area a short distance from his estate. Then returned to his estate. As days went by he was spending more time in the meadow which contained bird’s foot trefoil, a plant used by females for pollen. Having less forage in a much larger area was harder for him to monopolise as easily as the rather smaller and more densely packed toadflax area. I saw smaller males ‘sneak’ into this new larger territory whilst he was in the toadflax area and would mate with females or feed themselves before he returned. These smaller mating males did not want to be maced!

He chased bumblebees, solitary bees, honey bees, hoverflies, flies and even butterflies in order to monopolise his ever-increasing forage patch. I watched him mate many times, especially in the toadflax patch which was very popular with the females. Usually, he mated with females whilst they were nectar-feeding on the toadflax and often in quick succession if females were available.

What about smaller males?

The attack on a male bumblebee and solitary bee.

The poor bumblebee male, a Bombus lapidarius, immediately after the unprovoked attack, crawled up a flower stem and was attacked again by the male wool carder bee. It tried to fly away several times but simply couldn’t. I watched as it climbed up to the top of several other flowers, and tried in vain to fly. Several minutes later it was still trying to fly. The solitary bee took the hint and flew off!

The aggressive male wool carder bee in the USA and beyond

Unfortunately, the aggressive nature of the male wool carder bee causes me some concern. The poor male Bombus bee was viciously maimed and could not fly. Now the males are causing problems in the USA. Yes, you guessed it to the detriment of other insects, including native bumblebees, some of which are already in decline. This article by Dr. Kelsey K. Graham “Bee battles: Why our native pollinators are losing the war” published by The Conversation will explain as does her short film “Bee battles: Are our native bees losing the fight for resources?” It is becoming a worldwide invasive species.

With many thanks to ecologist John Walters, Kate Bradbury and her nest box and Vivian Russell’s wool carder cocoons.

“All my articles and videos, available free, are funded by my presentations.  Please help by spreading the word and forwarding this link to your friends and colleagues. http://nurturing-nature.co.uk  Thank you” George Pilkington

Refs and further reading

Read a delightful article here about wool carder bees in Kate Bradbury’s wildlife garden in the Guardian

Excellent overview of Wool carders here

Download a BWARS Information Sheet about wool carder bees

Bumblebee Conservation Trust

For info and a link to buy an excellent book Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland by Steven Falk

An extremely useful resource that supports this book by a special website feature within Steve Falk’s Flickr website which furnishes extra photos and other useful resources to assist with identification.

Solitary Bees book by Ted Benton

Interested in Citizen Science and pollinators? The Buzz Club 

Photo of male spikes from Wikipedia

Several businesses offer dolphin and whale watching tours sailing from Lagos in Portugal. We decided to go with Sealife because on every trip they have a qualified marine biologist accompanying you on their boats.

Instead of hugging the coastline, we sailed out far and away from it into the blue yonder! Hm! After a while as the swell increased I felt a little queasy if I’m honest. But we carried on further and further out quite a considerable distance and for a considerable time without any sightings. Time was ticking by and I wondered whether or not we would be lucky to spot them within our allocated 2-hour trip. Everyone on board, children as well were keenly scanning the horizon for the telltale white waters made by dolphins as they leap and dive back into the sea or dolphins fins actually breaking cover over the sea surface as they tend to do.

Suddenly someone spotted a potential area that looked active. We sailed off to investigate and sure enough our waiting and searching paid off. Then a report came in of more dolphins nearer the coast and we sailed off to see those as well which made up for the time lost searching further out. We certainly got our money’s worth and went over our allocated time. Thank You Sealife.

I have used this business for a few years now. They offer desirable rental accommodation in and around the Marina and the historical town of Lagos when we are holidaying in Portugal. They have given us great service, and are trustworthy, helpful and very friendly Algarve Retreats. 

On our travels, we are always on the lookout for organic food stores and cafes. We found one right in the heart of Lagos behind the bus station. Fresh fruit, vegetables and many other organic foods, wines and stores. Well worth a visit for a quick lunch at the Mercearia Bio shop and cafe. Rua Victor da Costa e Silva, s/n8600-645 Lagos

My wife and I watched spell bound as we were fortunate to watch the actual work undertaken during the construction of this beautiful wooden boardwalk. Although we have walked many miles on boardwalks in the area, we had never seen how they are actually constructed so it was interesting to see this and watch it develop. I hope you find this film of interest.

Boardwalk at Ponta da Piedade

A four-kilometre long wooden boardwalk is due to be built at Meia Praia in Lagos.

The plan has been unveiled by the local council as part of a €1.5 million project to “rehabilitate and recover” the beach’s dunes. The investment will be partially covered by community funding via the POSEUR programme.

“It will be an elevated boardwalk which will run parallel to the coast from the Lagos breakwater to the Palmares golf course,” Lagos’ interim mayor Hugo Pereira told Correio da Manhã.

The goal is to make it easier to walk along the beach while also making sure the dunes are protected from the stomping of beachgoers.

The plan also involves creating structures to “retain sand” and removing a ground-creeping plant with succulent leaves known in Portugal as ‘chorões’ or in English as ice plants (Carpobrotus edulis).

As the beach is under the jurisdiction of the Portuguese Environmental Agency (APA), the council had to sign an “interadministrative contract” with the agency in order to get the project going.

Hopes are that the bid for community funding will be approved soon so that the works can “begin at the start of next year,” says Pereira.

Taken from   https://www.portugalresident.com/four-kilometre-boardwalk-to-be-built-at-meia-praia/

Carpobrotus edulis

Although a beautiful plant, it has become an invasive species in many part of the world. Part of the funding for the boardwalk was to retain sand by removing the plant. You will see a mound of it in the film. After reading the highlighted paper, this mechanical treatment method may not be the right approach and may even have adverse effects. Managing the invasive plant Carpobrotus edulis: is mechanical control or specialized natural enemy more effective?

I have used this business for a few years now when holidaying in Portugal. They have given us a great service, are trustworthy, helpful and friendly Algarve Retreats. 

I have had two hedgehogs feeding in my garden since spring. Both at different times and each approaching the food from a different location. I had never thought of hedgehogs fighting. Before I could film this aggression by one hedgehog onto another, I missed filming the most aggressive behaviour! I was too busy watching it! I was shocked to be honest. The slightly larger one was the more aggressive. Whilst feeding the second one appeared and went towards the food. The larger one grabbed it by the spines near its head and violently shook it from side to side like a dog with a rag doll. It did this for a few minutes, released it and returned to feeding dish.

Is weather affecting prey items/food availability?

The other one must have been hungry and tried to approach the food again. The weather had been very hot and dry, for quite a few days now, possibly limiting the range of food and prey items for both of them, hence them both coming when it was not very dark. They were both hungry. 

According to Reeve, hot and dry weather affects the availability of many soft bodies prey items such as earthworms, slugs caterpillars and leather jackets, all of which contains moderate amounts of energy, they are slow moving and easily digestible. Earthworms are more than nine times more energy dense than other prey items. However during dry conditions they are less available on the dry surface of the soil.

As far as hedgehogs are concerned a high energy food resource at one location is better for them than having to forage for meagre resources scattered over a wider area.

The aggressive one charged at it put its snout underneath its body and tried to push it over and continued pushing underneath it towards the pond. I was shocked. The attacked hedgehog rolled down the pond bank and the aggressor felt satisfied and walked back to the food. The attacked one then walked around the pond, through the wildflower meadow, behind the gabion and sat there as shown below.

Hedgehog waits its turn to feed

Then it moved towards the food again after several minutes. The larger one was busy feeding. Being solitary animals and not part of a group, with home ranges that may overlap, the attacker was not trying to show dominance over the other hedgehog.

The next night one came before the other and fed in peace. It must have been the lesser one because the aggressive one came through the meadow and must have made some noise as the feeder broke off and when to the safety of the one to drink.

It looks to me that during the dry weather, both hedgehogs left their summer nest earlier than usual, even in the daylight as evening approached to feed. I also noted that after some heavy rain recently, both appeared much later and separately. Probably they found prey items on the now moist soil as they slowly made their way to the food dishes.

Solution?

The solution for me was to scatter small items of food in the garden along their known entrance routes and pathways, which delayed their time and also to put two dishes out in two different areas. See the warning below regarding feeding too many mealworms.

Both of them use the Hedgehog Highways I made in the garden. You can even buy Hedgehog Highway signs! Although I doubt the hedgehogs will be able to read them!

Concrete Gravel Boards are barriers to hedgehogs

According to Hedgehog Street hedgehogs can travel about one mile every night in search of food and a mate. “We now know that one of the main reasons why hedgehogs are declining in Britain is because our fences and walls are becoming more and more secure, reducing the amount of land available to them.”

See my other hedgehog films.

3 hedgehogs feeding together in my wildlife garden

Hedgehog enters garden using a Hedgehog Highway then walks the plank!

Do hedgehog highways work? 

Hedgehogs need Hedgehogs Highways and Homes. National Hedgehog Survey.

BTO GardenBirdWatchers find hedgehogs active in December 2016

Further information and resources

Hedgehogs by Nigel Reeves- Poyser 1994

What to feed hedgehogs and the danger of too many mealworms 

Ten tips for encouraging hedgehogs

British Hedgehog Preservation Society  offers help and advice for sick, injured or orphaned hedgehogs

State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2018 Report 

BTO Research “UK Hedgehog Datasets and their potential for long-term monitoring”

This is a new product that I had no knowledge about at all. I saw it painted on a Pilkington Glass HGV I passed on the motorway. It grabbed my attention. So I checked it out. I have had, over the years, several bird strikes onto my patio window, which have in some cases caused the death of the unfortunate birds. This product looks like it may well put a stop to that and I felt it needed more people to know about it. Especially those involved in the running of wildlife centres and the like. Who knows? It may well also be fitted to the domestic market if enough people request it.

As well as Mere Sands Wood Nature Reserve, (which itself is a little gem of a nature reserve and well worth a visit!) recently the glass has been installed in a new observation tower and gondola station in Solina, Poland (Mountainside attraction protects local bird species with specialist glass | British Glass (britglass.org.uk)

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  Pilkington AviSafe Solina

Pilkington AviSafe™ is an innovative solution, developed to greatly reduce the number of bird collisions. The unique patterned UV-enhanced coating disrupts the reflection on the glass, so the bird can see a barrier.

The reflection of vegetation, the sky, and other buildings is deceptive and can result in bird collisions. Birds in flight are unable to use visual signals such as window frames to distinguish the location of the glass, as a human would.

Unlike humans, birds can see light in the ultraviolet spectrum. Therefore, the coating on Pilkington AviSafe™ makes the glass more visible to birds while remaining aesthetically appealing on the exterior surface. From the inside, however, it’s barely visible to the human eye, unlike other solutions.

When installed in an Insulating Glass Unit (IGU), the coating is located on surface #1, the external face of the outer pane. This enables the product to be as effective as possible at disrupting the reflection so the bird can only see a barrier.

Benefits

Pilkington AviSafe™ offers the following benefits:

• This will greatly reduce the number of bird collisions with glass
• Passes the WIN test, a measure of bird impacts from reflection
• Maintains high transparency
• Aesthetically appealing externally
• Internally it’s barely visible to the human eye, unlike other solutions
• Available in 4 – 10 mm thickness. 12 mm available on special request.
• Available in the following sizes:
  • In Europe sizes up to 6000 mm × 3210 mm
  • Outside Europe up to 5100 mm × 3210 mm
• Highly durable surface #1 coating
• Pilkington AviSafe™ can be used annealed or toughened
• Can be combined with many other Pilkington glass products for additional benefits, for example, thermal insulation, solar control, safety & security, and noise control.
• Download a brochure here.
• Pilkington did not pay me for the use of my website.
• For further information email us at enquiries@pilkington.com

I am assuming that this is the species! She nested inside a common yellow face bee (H. communis) nesting cavity. Looking at the BWARS site and Falk’s book ( links below) along with her two ‘shoulder epaulettes’, I took an educated guess.

Female foraging on Orange hawkweed

Similar nest to a common yellow face bee this female nested where the original owner had died inside the actual cavity. Not wishing to waste a suitable nest site this female made use of it, whilst the original owner’s body was still inside!

Read more about this bee on the BWARS site.

Solitary Bees by Ted Benton I highly recommend

Steven Falk’s Flickr page Hylaeus hyalinatus (Hairy yellow-face bee)

A Bit rusty or a novice about bee identification? I can recommend the book ‘Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland’ by Steven Falk by Steven Falk.

A beneficial and useful resource that supports this book by with a bee-dedicated website feature within Steve Falk’s Flickr website which furnishes extra photos and other valuable resources to assist with identification.

Slow worm (Anguis fragilis) Watch out slugs, here I come!

Today I saw something moving on one of two steps which lead to my garden. Lo and behold it was a slow worm, a first for my wildlife garden. I could see it was trying to climb the step to get back to the garden where it probably came from and where there was ample cover. If it went down the step it would only reach the flagged patio. I coaxed it into a cardboard box and placed it in my wildflower meadow.

Although the slow worm may look like a snake, it is in fact a harmless legless lizard!! It really is a gardener’s friend feasting upon slugs and insect pests, which is great for an organic gardener! It likely came from a local nature reserve where it is known they can be found. A booklet, Amphibians and Reptiles of Risley Moss, by Rob Smith, a local environmentalist, has been published, for a small sum and is available by contacting their email:   contact@rimag.org.uk   Rob has also written a book Birds of Risley Moss.

This and the fact I had a hedgehog last night in the garden has made my day!

Like many people, I have been feeding sunflower hearts which attracted a lot of goldfinches to my garden. I noticed a huge increase in wastage on the ground underneath the feeder. Not only can this be attractive to a few ground-feeding birds, but it can also attract squirrels and worse still rats. Plus the detritus looked unsightly and would likely be unhygienic for a lot of wildlife as it aged and killed any vegetation underneath it.  I wondered why the goldfinches wasted so much of the food. I also noticed that these discarded sunflower scraps were readily eaten on the anti squirrel dome by younger goldfinches. Something I wanted to deter as it is a sure way for them to catch trichomonosis or fat finch disease.  If you have finches in your garden watch out for these symptoms as shown in the film.

I noticed that when the goldfinches picked up a full sunflower heart in their thin beaks and either outright rejected it and let it drop, or they manoeuvred it so that the pointed tip and the rounded edge were both protruding outside of their bills and when they closed their beaks this scissor-like action cut off both ends of the sunflower heart allowing the bird to manoeuvre the piece left inside the beak to be further nibbled and eaten. It was this action that caused the waste to fall. I collected the waste as shown in the film and had to put a wire mesh over the discarded pieces as many birds started to eat the waste in the tray! This was only 2 days worth of feeding!

As you can see that’s a considerable amount. So what can you do to stop this waste and potential trichomonosis reservoir? Buy sunflower chips. The waste is massively reduced because the pieces are smaller than a whole heart and the goldfinches can manage them more easily without chopping off large pieces of it saving a huge wastage. You will find that this saves you money as well as you will have much less waste and the bird food, therefore, goes a lot further.

So what birds have used the sunflower heart chips? Bullfinches, chaffinches, greenfinches, house sparrows, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, robins, nuthatches, great spotted woodpecker and even dunnocks have used them from the feeder, which for me is rather unusual. Probably because there is less wastage on the ground for them! Wood pigeons and collared doves could also use them from the feeder, but I stopped that with my anti squirrel and anti wood pigeon bird feeder set up as shown here.