Walker's Way - Number 174
GOODIES IN THE GARDEN.
Having deliberately slanted the garden to encourage as much wildlife as
possible, it is interesting to take a look at what has been attracted and to
wonder just how much is due to human effort and how much would
have arrived anyway. However, the effort has been made and the
garden does contain a wide variety of ‘helpful’ plants including such wild
ones or 'weeds’ as red campion. stinging nettle and figwort, which are
allowed to flourish and indeed seed in selected areas. The stinging nettle
is of course important for some of our common butterflies such as the
red admiral, small tortoiseshell and the peacock, while bees are
constantly busy on figwort.
Similarly there is a wide variety of trees, shrubs and hedges providing
food, nest sites and cover for all sorts of creatures. A bird bath,
freshened daily and two bird feeding stations providing a year-round
array of ornithological treats, together with a number of different types
of highly desirable residences for feathered friends. A good many
species of birds visit from time to time; only this morning there were
blue tits, coal tits, great tits, long-tailed tits, hedge sparrows,
chaffinches, a green finch, collared dove, wood pigeon, woodpecker, a
nuthatch and - rather less popular - two crows,a magpie and a rabbit.
However the number of visitors on any one day varies enormously .
Additional habitats are provided by a bughouse and a corner designed to
provide shelter for frog, toad, newt and anyone else who cares to join in,
all within a couple of yards of the pond, which needless to say has its
own inhabitants. The most obvious animal inhabitants there are the
pond skaters, slender brownish predators, some 10-12mm in length
which skate over the water with their feet resting on the surface film.
Then there is the water boatman or common backswimmer which does
indeed swim on its back with a large bubble of air attached to its front;
its means of propulsion is a large pair of broad legs which it uses just
like oars. But the largest insect by far seen in the pond is the great
diving beetle which measures 28-38mm in length. This is an unwelcome
visitor being a particularly voracious predator which is quite capable of
killing off most other animal life in the pond.
Although the very word beetle comes from the old English bitan,
meaning ‘little biter’, not all beetles will bite humans. The water
boatman certainly can, but despite its size the great diving beetle does
not, although it will make short work of tadpoles, so is probably best
removed.
A violet ground beetle also appeared in the garden recently, a species
which is better not handled. Like so many other animals, it has its own
particular means of defence, which in this case is rather unpleasant. It is
able to squirt a nasty and irritating liquid and is also quite capable of
giving a sharp nip with its jaws! So there we are, we do what we can,
and it will be interesting to see what arrives and stays in the future.
A recent visit to the foreshore revealed an old favourite, sea holly, that
prickly plant of beautiful bluish green with spine toothed leaves. It is in
fact a xerophyte, a plant adapted to withstand desert-like conditions in
which water is difficult to obtain and in which dehydration must be
reduced to a minimum. The leaves are therefore leathery and waxy,
there is a thick cuticle, cells have thick walls and rooting is deep. There
was also sea kale, sea sandwort and silverweed. Since competition is
minimal on the foreshore, the latter extends its range dramatically by
sending out stolons in all directions, some of which measured over
50cms in length!
Alan
Gane.