Roebuck 152 - Winter 2020

The member magazine for Northumberland Wildlife Trust Winter 2020 | 152 Roebuck WINTER WILDLIFE What’s in a name? Hidden forests The magical relationship between language and nature Explore the amazing miniature world of lichens hEROIC HEDGES Discover the wildlife that thrives in our hedgerows

Welcome 6 Build it back better During the pandemic, people have finally recognised the importance of nature which has led to widespread realisation that we have to do something very big and joined up to protect and ‘build it back better’. The Wildlife Trusts’ CEO Craig Bennett recently launched the new 30 by 30 campaign, its vision to secure at least 30% of land and sea nationally in good condition (it’s about 5% now), requiring £30m to do this by 2030, the now crucial decade to turn life around on Earth. Talk of a new ‘wildbelt’ for nature expansion even rings out from the PM’s lips and new partnerships are being forged to deliver nature recovery. IF good intentions turn into reality, we will see massive upsurges in conservation and people engaged with saving nature. This is not a new thing, but it could be at unprecedented scale. Many of us have been fighting for nature for a lifetime. There are certain people, like Tony Tynan our founder, and Angus Lunn, our Vice President who initiated the vast border mires restoration, who have shown great leadership and perseverance to make change happen. Brian Little, the well-known Northumberland ornithologist, who died recently, was one such person. He was an inspiration; a charismatic, amusing man, guiding the next generations. That is what NWT is trying to do, to show leadership and secure action for a wilder future. Chief Executive Northumberland Wildlife Trust Follow me on twitter @Mike_Pratt_NWT Mike Pratt: Jacky S Northumberland Wildlife Trust Get in touch Roebuck is the membership magazine for Northumberland Wildlife Trust is a member of the Roebuck Magazine Team Northumberland Wildlife Trust UK’s largest voluntary organisation concerned with Editor Fiona Dryden Email [email protected] all aspects of wildlife protection - The Wildlife Trusts. Designer Richard Clark Telephone (0191) 284 6884 Consultant Editor Sophie Stafford Address Garden House, St Nicholas Park, Gosforth, For The Wildlife Trusts Consultant Designer Tina Smith Hobson Editor Tom Hibbert Designer Ben Cook Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 3XT. Roebuck is printed on Registered charity number 221819 Cover: Lichen © Brian Eversham Registered company number 717813 Website nwt.org.uk facebook.com/northumberlandwt twitter.com/northwildlife instagram.com/northwildlife 2 Roebuck | Winter 2020

20 23 Contents 32 4 Your wild winter Seery. mole: pixabay.com. East Chevington: sophie webster. puffin: Lynne Newton. scything: beck bass. The best of the season’s wildlife and where to enjoy it on your local patch 10 Wild reserves Why winter is the best time of year to visit these Wildlife Trust reserves 13 Wild thoughts Nature writer Melissa Harrison on local nature during lockdown. 16 Wild news The latest regional and national news from The Wildlife Trusts 23 Focus on: 30 by 30 Nation-wide appeal to restore 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030. 24 What’s in a name? Author Horatio Clare explores the connection between language and nature. 28 Living on the hedge Green highways links the habitats and populations of so many species. 30 Hidden reserves Trustee Ian Jackson talks about the geology of some of our nature reserves. 32 Coastal conservation A look back at some of the achievments of our Coast Care project. 34 Gardening for wildlife A garden that might seem small to us can be a huge space for wildlife. 6 ways to get involved with Northumberland Wildlife Trust Membership Help us protect Volunteer Could you donate your Local groups Join one of our the wildlife and countryside you love... and skills and time to look after wildlife? A network of local groups and enjoy learning discover the incredible natural world, on wide range of indoor and outdoor tasks about wildlife. your doorstep nwt.org.uk/membership need doing nwt.org.uk/volunteer nwt.org.uk/local-groups Donate to an appeal From Campaigning You can play Leave a legacy If you’ve had purchasing land to protecting species, a vital role in raising awareness, and a lifetime’s pleasure from nature, help exciting projects near you need your lobbying, on local and national issues. ensure its future by leaving us a legacy in support. nwt.org.uk/donate nwt.org.uk/campaigns your will. nwt.org.uk/legacy Roebuck | Winter 2020 3

Your wild winter The best of the season’s wildlife and where to enjoy it Stoat 4 Roebuck | Winter 2020

Thank you dtoTbooniagwaBnwtiidilgndilsgdlWtifat1eihr0ltdco%hsuThaoghorfhiopteitupev.gciseno.hrgV.ytuissfkoiatrle winter SPECTACLE stoat: tim mason Fearless stoats Stoats have short legs and a long narrow body, with a coat of sandy-brown fur, a yellowish-white underside and a black tipped tail. They may measure up to 30cm long from nose to tail. In colder climates, their coat turns white and only the tip of the tail remains black. This white fur is known as ermine and was once used to make the ceremonial robes of kings and queens. They can reach speeds of up to 20 miles an hour but in winter are nocturnal and travel as little as possible in colder months to conserve energy. Stoats are solitary animals, with males and females living in separate territories. Mating occurs in early summer and most females will only have one litter in a lifetime. Young stoats begin to hunt with their mother at eight weeks of age. SEE THEM THIS winter † Druridge Pools Cresswell, Northumberland NE61 5EG † Holywell Pond Holywell, Northumberland NE25 0LB † Holystone Burn Holystone, Northumberland NE65 7AX Tim Mason Retired primary school teacher, NWT Hauxley volunteer, bird recorder and avid wildlife photographer. Roebuck | Winter 2020 5

Your wild Winter Velvet underground Moles are stocky little animals, covered in black, velvety fur, with tiny eyes, a long, pink nose and two big, shovel-like ‘hands’ for front paws. They are regarded as pests to human activities such as agriculture and gardening, however they do not eat plants but only cause damage indirectly, as they eat earthworms and other small invertebrates in the soil. Moles breed between February and May with males searching for females by letting out high-pitched squeals and tunnelling through foreign areas. SEE them THIS Winter † East Chevington Druridge Bay, Northumberland NE61 5BG. † Linton Lane Linton, Northumberland NE61 6PU. † Big Waters Seaton Burn, Northumberland NE13 7EG. Molehedgehog: Tom Marshall Hedgehog mole: pixabay.comurban fieldcraft 6 Roebuck | Winter 2020 Creature comforts During the colder months, an outdoor beasts, frogs and toads whilst old flower space such as a garden or back yard can stems in flowerbeds provide food. Don’t be a safe haven for birds, insects and cut back hedges when they are producing hedgehogs. berries, as they are a valuable food source for birds and mammals, when there is One of the best ways to offer shelter is nothing else around for them to eat. to create habitats in the sunniest, most sheltered spots. Bees in particular love wood with lots of little hidey-holes, left in a sunny place. A stack of bricks and pots will provide a Rotting wood is a valuable part of the home for toads and newts while sticks and ecosystem, and if you leave it, it could logs are great for hedgehogs and insects. become home to beetles, centipedes, spiders and fungi. The best thing for wildlife through colder months is to leave gardens Even the corners of a dusty shed may undisturbed until the spring. have butterflies overwintering in them, or a sunny wall may be harbouring bees or Uncut grass is a haven for frogs and ladybirds. mice. Leaves piled up are full of nutrients and great for hedgehogs, worms, mini-

SEE THIS DO THIS When out and about in the countryside this autumn, Keep your ivy. It’s important for bees and butterflies keep an eye out for red squirrels busy stockpiling nuts as it flowers in the autumn and becomes a valuable in shallow holes for the winter months ahead of them. source of nectar before they go into hibernation. species spotlight Bats Brown long-eared bats Top tips red squirrel: Mark Hamblin/2020vision. Brown long-eared bats: Sarah Hawes. Noctule, Brown long-eared and Pipistrelle: tom marshall. Bats have filled our night sky over the 3 species to spot summer, however, as the night draws Noctule in and winter approaches, they will Our biggest bat with a be heading to their winter roosts to wingspan of up to 40cm. hibernate. Brown long-eared In the UK there are 17 breeding species of known to eat over 3,000 small insects a night, This bat has huge ears bats, some of which take an expert eye to which can include mosquitoes, midges and which it can curl onto its identify. For some, several features from other nocturnal insects. back. wingspan to nostril shape are used to identify the different species correctly. Whereas Bats can be found worldwide and account Pipistrelle others are more easily recognisable, such for about 20% of all mammals. Recent These three species of bat as the barbastelle with their silver tipped research on the sac-winged bat found in were considered a single fur and pug-like faces. The 18th species of Central and South America has suggested species before the 1990s. bat, the greater mouse-eared was officially that mother bats communicate with their declared extinct in the UK in 1990, with only young using ‘baby talk’, in response to their a single bat recorded hibernating in southern young ‘babbling’. This ‘baby talk’ is considered England over the past few years. a different ‘colour’ and pitch compared to the calls directed at other adult bats 1. Other than having a licenced bat specialist to hand to identify the species, an easier With over 1200 species of bat worldwide way for some species to be identified is we are still learning about these brilliant by using a bat detector. These silent fliers mammals. echolocate (a bat’s version of sonar) at such a high frequency that for most people, unless 1. Ahana Aurora Fernandez, Mirjam Knörnschild. Pup Directed you have exceptionally good hearing, they Vocalizations of Adult Females and Males in a Vocal Learning go unnoticed. A bat detector converts these Bat. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 2020; 8 DOI: 10.3389/ high-pitched calls to a lower frequency which fevo.2020.00265. can be heard. Each species has a different call which can be used to identify bats in flight as they chase after insects or head to their favourite foraging spot. Bats love a pesticide free garden with a pond and evening scented native plants, such as honey suckle, lavender and evening- primrose. A common pipistrelle has been SEE THEM THIS WINTER † East Chevington Druridge Bay, Northumberland NE61 5BG. † Holywell Pond Holywell Village, Northumberland NE25 0LQ. † Priestclose Wood Prudhoe, Northumberland NE42 5DL. To find out more please visit our website nwt.org.uk/wildlife-explorer Roebuck | Winter 2020 7

HEAR THIS FORAGE FOR THIS Listen out for migratory birds returning to our Pinecones. They’re everywhere in the autumn. Pick them region for a rest before heading off to spend the up, take them home, dry them thoroughly then turn winter in warmer countries. them into Christmas tree baubles and house decorations. pine cone: Mark Hamblin/2020VISION. bat: Tom Marshall. meadow buttercup: Guy Edwardes/2020VISION. swan: Peter Cairns/2020VISION. garden: Tom Marshall. not just for kids Seven wild activities for winter Reignite your love of nature with these really wild things to do 1 Look after the Dark 2 Get snapping Knights this autumn Follow the changing Build your own bat box and give a bat a seasons by taking photos in safe place to roost. Installing a bat box the same place and watch will help local bats, encouraging them how the colours progress and to move into areas that have limited the world changes. Start with roosting space shades of gold this autumn before the white snow of Find out how at: nwt.org.uk/actions/ winter and the green buds of how-build-bat-box spring appear. 4 Plan for year round colour Plan a garden that blooms all year round to ensure there’s always something amazing to admire and somewhere for nature to thrive. Visit gardenersworld.com/how- to/grow-plants/how-to- plan-for-year-round-colour and start your planning! Garden in bloom 3 A cold and 5 Enjoy fun after dark frosty morning Fun after dark can happen a lot earlier Remember the nursery rhyme, which in the day during the autumn months, so encourages children to do things why not try a bit of stargazing. You can do “on a cold and frosty morning?” this anywhere where light pollution is low, Why not add your own verse about but for the ultimate stargazing experience walking outdoors on a cold and frosty head to Kielder Water & Forest Park. Visit morning? Visit nwt.org.uk/reserves visitkielder.com/play/discover/dark- for your pick of frosty walking spots skies for more details . 8 Roebuck | Winter 2020

Your wild winter 6 Enjoy camping 5 upcoming events whatever the weather Take your pick from this selection of some of the Unleash a pop up tent best seasonal activities and events in the middle of your living room, grab your 1 Living Seas Live sleeping bag, a pillow and 17th December, 27th January, 17th February & 17th March a flashlight and escape Virtual event from the world for a night. A new series of monthly marine focused talks hosted by the For that extra effect, national Living Seas team. Each month team members will download some sounds to join in conversation with expert special guests to chat about re-enact being outdoors. the North Sea, its wildlife and the work that is being done to protect it. Delivered using Zoom and streamed through 7 Make a hedgehog highway YouTube Live, sign up at ywt.org.uk/living-seas-live for Help hedgehogs get around by making holes and more details. access points in fences and barriers to link up the gardens in your neighbourhood. 2 Festive Quiz Trail 5th December - 3rd January You will need Ncraatfutre Northumberlandia, NE23 8AU † A fence panel Visit nwt.org.uk/events to download your guide and set † Ruler off on a wildlife themed festive trail, finding answers to † Pencil questions as you explore the woodland along the way. † Coping saw 3 Fun Festive Stories † Sandpaper 21st & 23rd December Virtual event † Your neighbours’ cooperation! Keep Put on your elf ears, pull on your Christmas jumper and join local storyteller Jim Grant as he tells his wonderful festive an eye out for neighbours doing work on their stories full of nature and winter wonderment. The event is free but donations are most welcome. gardens, or using fencing contractors - this is the 4 Winter Quiz Trail perfect opportunity to get a hedgehog hole put in! 4th January - 12th February Northumberlandia, NE23 8AU How to make Visit nwt.org.uk/events to download your guide and see stargazing: Pexels.com. camping: pexels.com. illustration: Corinne Welch † If your neighbour is happy, remove a fence panel. what a whizz you are when it comes to learning about animals and plants in winter time, exploring the woodland † Measure and mark a 13cm x 13cm hole at the bottom along the way in search of answers to the questions. of the panel. 5 Half Term Quiz Trail † Using the coping saw, cut out the marked hole. 13th - 21st February Northumberlandia, NE23 8AU † If there are very rough edges, use sandpaper to Visit nwt.org.uk/events to download your guide and set off smooth them down. on a wildlife themed trail, finding answers to questions as you explore the woodland along the way. † Put your fence panel back. Your hedgehog highway is now open for business! Our Hauxley Wildlife Discovery Centre is currently closed due to the COVID-19 Lockdown. Once we receive the go ahead, we will look to reinstate our trails and In Focus weekends at Hauxley within safety guidelines. Visit our website nwt.org. uk/events and the Hauxley Facebook page for more details. Booking may be required for some events, admission and parking charges may apply, visit our website for details nwt.org.uk/events Roebuck | Winter 2020 9

OnLum que ea volorrov pa quiscip sanita dolor optaspe dipsant dempor recaboresto comnis au molupta sitium fuga. Nem et es et eri doluptatiis es il incia quid moluptaspi Ford Moss The Trust has managed Steeped in history, it has stunning views peat, which has grown up over thousands the reserve since 1975 over the Till Valley and Cheviot Hills of years. Past drainage and subsequent under licence from and is internationally designated for its growth of birch on the reserve has dried it Ford and Etal Estates. It bog habitat as a Site of Special Scientific out and the dense heather is partly a result consists of a complex Interest (SSSI) and Special Area of of this. mosaic of habitats and Conservation (SAC) colliery remains, home Peatland in this part of the county to a diverse range of The site lies between farmland to the needs a little help to form, unlike the species. north and a sandstone ridge to the south. uplands where peat carpets the peaks. In this lowland setting, with lower rainfall 10 Roebuck | Winter 2020 The raised mire is set in a hollow and has and higher temperature, additional water grown over a small lake that would have from the surrounding slopes is required. been present shortly after the last ice age. Initially starting as a shallow lake and The bog is now dominated by heather but various mire species still occur in wetter Former coal mine chimney at Ford Moss parts of the reserve. A ditch on the north side of the Moss has drained the site for at least 250 years, leaving the present drainage level perhaps four or five metres below the crown of the Moss. A series of other drains were cut across the site by the late nineteenth century resulting in a rapid spread of birch and pine scrub. The Trust has installed dams across the drain network to increase the water table and prevent further damage to the peat. The Moss is composed of a deep layer of

our best winter reserves Tha nk youit re re ut m st is AlCalBlovaasoTnenofddHcLPahoarlaiuobsrsemgeedleorMsedifsguoeenrrTrirnvoheegnipsfl/oraeuceirng heath butterfly breeds on the wet centre now you do it lockdown of the bog and feeds on the crossed leaved heath. Emperor moths can also be spotted. Visit Ford Moss Colour is supplied by species such as lady’s bedstraw, greater bird’s-foot-trefoil Know before you go and climbing corydalis - which is one of Location: 2.5km east of Ford, the few plants to thrive in dense stands of bracken. Northumberland. Nearest postcode TD15 Other plants include chickweed 2PZ. OS Map Reference NT 970 375. wintergreen (found under trees along the How to get there: Via a minor road off the southern edge of the reserve) and on the B6353 2km east of Ford Village. At NT 962 bog itself cross-leaved heath can be seen 375 a gate gives access into the reserve along with bog myrtle - the crushed leaves along a track which links to footpaths of which are wonderfully aromatic. around the site. Bog myrtle was once widely used in beer Opening times: All day, every day. making as a flavouring and bittering agent. Access: There is no easy access onto the Plants supplied from Ford Moss a few mire itself but a circular walk is marked years ago were used by a local brewery to around the site. Tracks and paths can be wet create an ale - the results were an acquired and muddy at times. taste, although, word is, there are some top WILDLIFE TO SPOT pleasant examples blended with hops. Adders can be seen on occasion together The reserve is a great place to spot birds with good numbers of common lizards. such as red grouse, woodcock, meadow Birds such as red grouse, meadow pipit pipit, kestrel and buzzard. and woodcock breed on the site, cuckoos Plants such as sphagnum moss, can be heard in the spring and snipe, cranberry, bog myrtle and common- buzzards and kestrels are frequently cotton grass cover the ground, with spotted flying overhead. Roe deer are also a adders often being spotted - so take care common sight. when walking. The most striking feature on the gradually turning into a peat bog, the peat reserve is a large brick chimney, part is thought to be partially floating, and over of what remains of a former coal mine a period of thousands of years has built to that operated along the northern edge a depth of more than 12 metres. and under the Moss. Coal was extracted ford moss and chimney: duncan hutt. kestrel: Luke Massey/2020vision There are a number of bog pools on the from under the reserve for a long period, mire. These pools were allegedly formed expanding in the late 18th century and because the area was used for target closing in 1917. practice during the Second World War, with The colliery had numerous shafts, a mortar shells being fired onto the mire. blacksmith’s shop, beam engine house, The wetter parts of the site are still pump house and small village. Former home to sphagnum mosses, sundew, spoil heaps push out towards the mire Kestrel cranberry, cross-leaved heath and cotton and are home to plants such as bell grasses. heather and tormentil as well as more The margins of the bog are often unusual species of solitary bees and other things to do alive with butterflies in the summer invertebrates. with common blue, ringlet, small heath A circular walk can be taken around the ʈʈTake a pair of binoculars and look out and meadow brown amongst the more reserve, which utilises public bridleways for the barn owls around the rough bog common ones to be seen. The rare large and permissive paths. These can by boggy margins. did you know and uneven in places. ʈʈFind out more about the coal mining In the north east corner of the reserve, history of the site at berwickfriends. Roe deer. Northumberland’s only native org.uk/history/ford-moss-colliery and deer is widespread throughout the region. two small boardwalks (160cm wide with a They are generally secretive but can often small step) cross an area of bog and pools. then visit it for yourself. be spotted as they run across open ground with their prominent white tails. Care needs to be taken away from the ʈʈFollow the marked circular walk around designated paths as areas of the site can be the site with views out across the mire. dangerous due to deep pools and disused mine workings. n Roebuck | Winter 2020 11

our best winter reserves More Northumberland Wildlife Trust nature reserves for a great winter day out Berwick upon Tweed 3 Ford Moss 1 Grindon Lough 2 Why now? Views down onto the Lough from the Alnwick Stanegate are spectacular. It is an excellent spot to watch waterfowl and waders Kielder congregate during the winter months. Morpeth Know before you go Location: 5 km north-west of Haydon Bridge on the Stanegate (NY 806 677). Nearest postcode NE47 6NJ. Open: No on site access. Lay-bys on the Stanegate give best views across and down onto the lake. Wildlife to spot: Waterfowl and waders. 3 Newcastle upon Tyne Hexham arnold memorial and grindon lough: duncan hutt 2 Know before you go Grindon Lough Location: Located next to the Craster Tourist Arnold Memorial Information Centre (NY681521). Nearest The lowdown postcode NE66 3TW. Lying between limestone ridges, the reserve Why now? Open: All day, every day. is the smallest and shallowest of the four The wonderful colours make the reserve Wildlife to spot: The coastal location makes natural loughs located in the Hadrian’s the perfect place to escape the dark days of it a great place for winter migrant birds such Wall area and situated just north of the November and December. as warblers and blue throats to rest before Stanegate - an old Roman Road that linked journeying across the North Sea. Corbridge with Carlisle. Arnold Memorial The lowdown The water level fluctuates over a large This small reserve (1.4 ha) is an old quarry range, possibly due to drainage through the within Craster Heugh, an outcrop of the limestone and this limits the development Whin Sill. of marginal vegetation. The maturing woodland includes Geese can regularly be viewed including sycamore, ash, elm, elder and willow and is greylag, pink footed, bean and Greenland perfect for breeding birds including sedge white-fronted. Whooper swans also use and willow warblers, chiffchaff and blackcap. the lake and wading species include snipe, golden plover and black-tailed godwit Below the crags grow foxgloves, wood sage regularly visit. and lesser periwinkle and at the streamside are meadowsweet and water avens. The Trust has no influence over management on the ground. Plan your next great day out from all our nature reserves at: nwt.org.uk/nature-reserves 12 Roebuck | Winter 2020

WILD THOUGHTS Melissa Harrison The home patch When you look back at the spring I’ve written before, in these pages and a little bit wild and summer of 2020, what will you elsewhere, of the importance of having a remember? The challenge of home- schooling? The frustrations of domestic ‘home patch’ that we care for and connect It may have seemed as confinement? Fear of illness, or perhaps illness itself? Our shared period of lockdown was a long, strange to, physically, mentally and emotionally. though the birds were time, yet for many of us it came with an unexpected silver lining: the opportunity to rediscover (or Knowing where the swifts nest on your singing more loudly discover for the first time) the overlooked green spaces around our homes. street, which oak in the park is always the during lockdown, Especially in the early weeks, when restrictions were at their strictest, all many of us saw of the last into leaf, why the mason bees nest but in fact, it’s likely outside world was during a brief walk each day. As one of the sunniest springs on record unfolded, we on one side of a nearby building and not they were able to sought out parks, nature reserves and urban green spaces, hungry for contact with the natural world. the other – these things root us in place lower their volume For some time now we’ve been reading about the benefits of contact with nature to our mental and and time, in ways that often prove deeply as they had physical health, but this year it was really brought home to us, as our deepest instincts drove us to beneficial both to the world around us, far less noise listen out for birdsong, plant windowboxes, cherish humble pavement weeds and take daily note of and to ourselves. pollution to compete spring’s progress, drawing deep comfort, amid frightening changes, from one of the eternal verities. If, during lockdown, you found yourself with. This will have saved So what happens now that many of us are back at work each day, and car trips for leisure are once seeing your local area with new eyes, them precious energy, again allowed? Do we consign the local discoveries we made to the dustbin of memory, filing our don’t turn away from it now. Consider and may also have wonder-filled walks under ‘strange things we did in lockdown’? Or can we take something crucial from becoming a Friend of your nearest park, boosted their chances of the weeks we spent close to home, using what we learned to transform the post-Covid world? or supporting The Wildlife Trusts; look reproductive success. online for Forest Schools who want help connecting kids in your area to nature, or other charities that have been doing unsung work to protect and preserve green spaces where you are. At the very least, please don’t stop visiting the Melissa places you discovered in lockdown, no matter how Harrison is illustration: robin mackenzie tempting it is to forget them in favour of a nature writer somewhere further afield. We need them, and novelist, just as wildlife needs them: not just grand and editor of National Parks, but nearby nature, too. the anthologies Spring, Summer, There could still be a new local gem to discover. Find Autumn and out if there’s a Wildlife Trust reserve near you: Winter, produced wildlifetrusts.org/nature-reserves in support of The Wildlife Trusts. Roebuck | Winter 2020 13

Witches’ Whiskers lichen © adrian davies/Nature PL6 places to see Hidden forests Across the UK, hidden forests of lichen are waiting to be discovered. They thrive in almost any environment with enough light, from the rocky mosaics of dry stone walls to the gnarled bark of ancient woodlands. Lichens are fascinating things — not one organism, but a symbiotic coupling of one or more fungus species and an alga or cyanobacterium (or occasionally both). They live in harmony, the fungus providing structure and the other organism making food through photosynthesis. They’re often overlooked, but closer inspection reveals a world in miniature, with lichens growing in sprawling shapes like the trunks, branches and leaves of the forests in which many of them grow. It seems as if no two lichens are alike, each patch a work of chaotic art, from moss-green cups to rust-coloured mats. With a searching eye and an open mind, lichens can brighten any walk in the wild. Usnea florida, a beard-lichen also known as witches’ whiskers, is a declining species found mainly on trees in Wales and south-west England 14 Roebuck | Winter 2020

1 23 4 See the spectacle for yourself 6 5 1 Ballachuan Hazelwood, Scottish Wildlife Trust One of Scotland’s most ancient woodlands, where the hazels and rocks are dripping with lichens and mosses. It’s home to over 372 different lichens, including Norwegian specklebelly, octopus suckers and elf-ears lichens. Where: Near Oban, PA34 4RJ 2 Glenarm Nature Reserve, Ulster Wildlife Trust This beautiful river valley is home to lichens found nowhere else in Ireland. Look for them decorating the branches of ancient oaks or coating rocks along the Glenarm River, where the rare river jelly lichen is found. Where: Glenarm, BT44 0BD 3 Eycott Hill, Cumbria Wildlife Trust Admire the collage of lichens along the dry stone walls, or scour the rocky outcrops to find those orange, leafy lichens that grow best on a bird’s favourite perch as they thrive on the extra nitrates from droppings of meadow pipits and wheaters. Where: Penrith, CA11 0XD 4 Roundton Hill, Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust Once the site of an Iron Age hillfort, this impressive landscape supports almost 200 species of lichen. Look for them on the shady underhangs of volcanic rock outcrops. Where: Church Stoke, SY15 6EL 5 Roydon Woods Nature Reserve, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust This enchanting ancient woodland is known for its wildflowers, but the lichens draping the ageing trees are just as impressive. Where: Brockenhurst, SO42 7UF 6 Isles of Scilly, Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust One of the best places for lichens in the UK. The granite cairns of Peninnis Head offer a good selection, with a backdrop of spectacular sea views. The islands are also home to rare species like gilt-edged lichen. Did you discover any lichen? We’d love to know how your search went. Please tweet us your best photos of the lichens that take your liking! @wildlifetrusts

wild news £831 All the latest regional and national news from The Wildlife Trusts Received via Text-To-Donate since July. Thanks to all those who donated. To find out more about donating visit nwt.org.uk/donate Footage from the Rediscovering Wildness conference regional Rediscovering wildness the Kielder way A global pandemic might have forced the Professor Adrian Manning of the YouTube channel: youtube.com/ Kielderhead Wildwood team to change its Australian National University spoke northwildlifetrust. plans and postpone inviting members of about the historical importance of the the public to Kielder Water & Forest Park Scots pine in the Kielder Wildwood and Looking forward to 2021, the Kielderhead for its conference this year, but that didn’t Dr. Mike Jeffries, Associate Professor of Wildwood team is hoping to offer a three- stop them sharing their experiences and Geography and Environmental Sciences day exploration of Wildwood and Wildness knowledge with everybody. at Northumbria University and Trustee of from the 19th – 21st May including a Northumberland Wildlife Trust, even went mixture of science, culture and art through At the beginning of September, an open as far as to question whether bringing back discussions, debates and workshops in the invitation was issued to all wildlife lovers to woolly mammoths would be possible! woods. For those brave enough, there will attend the virtual Rediscovering Wildness be the opportunity to wild camp at the conference on YouTube, featuring ten short The talks were interspersed with short Wildwood itself, with a site tour and an talks with one unique connection - they all videos about the project from Alnwick opportunity to plant your own bit of the related to Wildwood and wildness. based film maker Alan Fentiman and Wildwood. Visual Arts in Rural Communities Artist Tony Williams, Associate Professor in Residence Shane Finan’s thought And, should the pandemic get in the way of Creative Writing at Northumbria provoking short films on the ‘Wood Wide again, the team will do it virtually for a University, spoke about ‘Going Bosky’: Web’ and how networks work not just in second time. losing your human identity and becoming our everyday lives but in forests as well. more primitive and animal as you become For regular updates go to more attuned to the woodland. Watch the conference on the Trust’s nwt.org.uk/wildwood 16 Roebuck | Winter 2020

News Otter caught L eg a cie s on camera Together we’re stronger regional with legacy support Lockdown ended The Trust is delighted to have and surveys started been named as a beneficiary in the following legacies: At the beginning of 2020, huge plans small pearl-bordered fritillary and large video still: wildwood. otter: nwt. wombles: remember a charity. were being drawn up for all the survey heath, and were joined by botanical Mary Louisa Dawson - work that Trust staff would be able to experts to carry out a number of plant £50,000 carry out this year. walk-over surveys. This selfless generosity is hugely Unfortunately, those plans didn’t come After lockdown eased, the team appreciated. If you are inspired by the to fruition and we completely missed the installed a number of remote cameras on wildlife and landscapes in our region window for species such as amphibians the 258ha site, with remarkable results. and would like to leave us a legacy In and breeding birds due to lockdown. your will, please visit website nwt.org. Sightings include: otter (pictured), roe uk/legacy to find out more or, contact However, once restrictions eased, the deer, water shrew, mice, voles, weasel, Dan Venner, Trust Director of Finance Trust conservation team was able to grey wagtail, reed bunting, stonechat, and Business on (0191 284 6994) or via carry out some of the planned survey wren, linnet, grey heron and goosander. email [email protected]. work. With fungus and water vole studies Remember A Charity Week Its focus has mostly been on Benshaw underway and a Bioblitz planned for Moor, the Trust’s newest reserve, as they 2021, there are many projects to get In September, Strictly stars Len still know relatively little about the area. involved with. Visit: nwt.org.uk to find Goodman and Kara Tointon launched out more. Remember A Charity Week when over In June and July, team members were 200 charities, including The Wildlife able to visit to record butterflies such as Trusts, came together to encourage the public and its supporters to leave a gift regional in their Will, after they have taken care of friends and family. ‘Cliff clan’ provide lockdown inspiration Now in its 20th year, the milestone campaign saw the return of iconic Mike Pratt, Trust Chief Executive, has written his British TV stars, The Wombles, in a seventh book. Titled ‘Lockdown Life’ it features short animated which saw Great Uncle words and sketches of the ‘cliff clan’ of creatures Bulgaria telling Orinoco and the rest that inhabit the stretch of coast near his home of his Womble family how even the smallest donation in a will can make a With titles such as Cliff Fox, Weasel from huge difference to a charity. Take a trip Nowhere, Ol’ Blue Eyes, Rook Society and A down memory lane at: youtube.com/ Recipe to Survive CoVid, the book is a delightful watch?v=ENKsPYHMcNQ. read for nature lovers of all ages. Priced at £5 ‘Lockdown Life’ is available from the Trust’s on-line bookshop. 50% of each sale will be donated to the Trust. Roebuck | Winter 2020 17

uk news Stag beetles are one of many species in danger. UK UPDATE Wildlife Trusts launch biggest ever appeal to kickstart nature’s recovery by 2030 stag beetle © terry whittaker/2020vision As we struggled through the worst Craig Bennett, chief executive of The The changes we need pandemic in living memory, the Wildlife Trusts, said: “We’ve set ourselves importance of nature in our lives an ambitious goal — to raise £30 million Some examples of projects gearing up became clearer than ever. Science shows and kickstart the process of securing to help bring back 30%: that humanity’s basic needs — from at least 30% of land and sea in nature’s food to happiness — can all be met with recovery by 2030. We will buy land to n D erbyshire Wildlife Trust is hoping a healthy natural environment, where expand and join up our nature reserves; to restore natural processes and wildlife surrounds us. we’ll work with others to show how to healthy ecosystems on a huge scale bring wildlife back to their land, and we’re in their Wild Peak project, bringing But sadly, nature is not all around us, at calling for nature’s recovery through a back more wildlife and wild places. least not in the abundance it should be. new package of policy measures including Many of our most treasured species like big new ideas like Wildbelt.” n H ampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife hedgehogs, bats and basking sharks are Trust is planning to bring back all at risk, as well as many of the insects Wildlife Trusts are fundraising to tackle, missing species including beavers, that pollinate our food crops. on a scale not seen before in the UK, the cirl buntings and choughs as part of joint climate and ecological emergency. its Wilder Wight project. Loss of wild places and the breaking up Restored habitats will capture carbon, of those that remain into small fragments helping to tackle climate change, and bring n L ancashire Wildlife Trust is helping has had a disastrous effect. Only 10% of people the health benefits associated with to combat climate change at the land is protected in the UK and much contact with the natural world. There are first ever UK carbon farm, which of this is in poor condition. While some amazing projects right on your doorstep is locking up carbon and bringing areas of the seabed are officially protected, that need support to take flight. back wildlife habitat as the harmful activities such as bottom trawling peatlands are restored are only banned in a handful of locations. Craig added: “The next ten years must at Winmarleigh. be a time of renewal, of rewilding our All is not lost, as we know how to turn lives, of green recovery. We all need n Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is things round: we need to see nature’s nature more than ever and when we planning to restore reed beds, fen recovery happening across at least 30% succeed in reaching 30 by 30 we’ll have swamps and meres, increasing of our land and seas by 2030. This would wilder landscapes that store carbon and water resilience on Bourne enable our wild places to connect and provide on-your-doorstep nature for North Fen, supporting improved allow wildlife to move around and thrive. people too. Everyone can support and agriculture and water quality — The Wildlife Trusts are fighting to make help us to succeed.” which is good for wildlife — this a reality through our new 30 by 30 whilst reducing flood risk. campaign, and we recently called for a Support our campaign today to  new landscape designation for England bring our wildlife back: called “Wildbelt” that would put land in to wildlifetrusts.org/30-30-30 recovery for nature and help us reach 30%. 18 Roebuck | Winter 2020

News UK UPDATE uk highlights New ambassadors for nature Discover how The Wildlife Trusts are Award-winning actor Alison Steadman, nature’s recovery, and encourage more helping wildlife 1 Bradford-based GP and TV presenter Dr people to take action. across the UK 2 Amir Khan, presenter and filmmaker 3 Hannah Stitfall, science communicator Speaking about her new role, Alison Sophie Pavelle and Iceland managing Steadman said, “I’m extremely proud of all 1 Hip hip hoor-hay! the work the Wildlife Trusts do with the director Richard Walker local communities in which they work, but Cumbria Wildlife Trust have recently are taking up the new have come to see that collectively, they’re taken ownership of Bowberhead Farm, role of Ambassadors a force to be reckoned with. Their work home to internationally important for The Wildlife is important, from big picture landscape flower-rich northern hay meadows — Trusts. The nature restoration, to encouraging and supporting a rare habitat with only 900 hectares enthusiasts will people like you and I to do our bit for left in existence. In time these meadows use their voices, wildlife, whether it’s in our garden, or could help create a joined-up network influence and campaigning on issues close to our heart.” of restored, wildflower-rich grasslands audiences to across Cumbria and northern England. help us raise You can learn more about our new cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/ awareness of ambassadors and hear their views on bowberhead the urgent The Wildlife Trusts’ website: need for wildlifetrusts.org/ambassadors Alison steadman © clearwater photography, Spiny Starfish © Linda Pitkin/2020VISION, cranes © nikki williams 2 Crane comeback A pair of common cranes has bred at Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust’s Willow Tree Fen. This is the first pair to breed in Lincolnshire in over 400 years. Crane’s were driven to extinction in the UK in the sixteenth century, but a small number returned in 1978 and eventually started breeding. The population has slowly grown and spread, with 56 pairs attempting to nest in the UK in 2019. lincstrust.org.uk/willow-tree-fen Safer areas at sea protections for the marine environment, 3 Duke’s reprieve giving nature the best chance of In 2019 an independent panel was tasked recovery. By removing all pressure, from Hampshire & Isle ofWightWildlifeTrust by the Government to review whether fishing to construction, our shallow seas, purchased Deacon Hill, Winchester’s only Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) shores and diverse seabeds can become remaining stronghold for the endangered could be introduced to English waters. healthier, more productive and full of Duke of Burgundy butterfly. This is a Over 3,000 Wildlife Trust supporters life once more. crucial piece of land in a network of sites responded to the panel’s consultation, wtru.st/help-our-seas around Winchester that are managed by backing our call for HPMA introduction. the Trust with wildlife in mind. HPMAs would offer the strictest possible hiwwt.org.uk/deaconhill Roebuck | Winter 2020 19

East Chevington Nature Reserve regional Seymour Civil Engineering Ltd is set to install two new sluice structures enabling Massive boost for water levels to be controlled to encourage Catch My Drift project further reedbed development as well as manage the existing 16 hectares. They will East Chevington: Sophie Webster Thanks to National Lottery players, The species with 276 new records. also be carrying out re-profiling of the lake National Lottery Heritage Fund has In addition, ecological and hydrological edges to create a mixture of reeds, ditches awarded the Catch My Drift project a grant and pools, benefiting many invertebrates of £415,800 for the second phase of the consultants developed a master plan for and birds. project. the site that will be used to advise the works that will be carried out over the Marsh harriers first bred on the site in The project, aptly titled ‘Catch my Drift’ coming three years. 2009 and have returned annually. Loss of is a nod to the reserve’s history as it was this established breeding site would be once the East Chevington Drift Mine (1882 The team, led by Sophie Webster, Catch significant. The project team will be able - 1962) and East Chevington Opencast Coal My Drift Project Officer and Anthony to manage water levels and move into the Site from 1982 - 1994. Johnston, Reserves Officer (Druridge area to cut the reeds to open up the sward Bay) along with Chloe Cook the newly and maintain the habitat. If this isn’t done, The 185-hectare site passed to appointed Catch My Drift Trainee, will the area will continue to develop into Northumberland Wildlife Trust in 2003 continue to carry out improvements for scrub and woodland. and now contains lakes, ponds, reed beds, wildlife with the help of their volunteers. woodland, pasture and arable farmland They will also run a variety of events and The 30 hectares of plantation woodland that are homes to nationally significant activities on natural heritage to increase is dominated by quick growing conifers species such as marsh harrier, red people’s understanding of its importance. which provide little ecological value so the squirrels and great crested newts. It is also team will carry out selective thinning in important to the local communities who This second phase of the project, which five hectares, opening up the canopy and use the site as an area for walking and is set to last three years, will see the ground allowing woodland flora to develop access to the beach. It is estimated (in its creation of 20 hectares of new wildflower as well as increase native broadleaved current state) that 10,000 visitors go onto meadows on site that can provide species which provide a higher biodiversity. the site each year. immediate benefits to pollinators, small mammals and birds. Volunteers have The project will also be making Last year (2019) was an amazing already been out to sow four hectares improvements to access to give more development year with the Catch My Drift with another four hectares planned in the people the opportunity to experience team supported by 57 volunteers who coming weeks, so hopefully the yellow nature as well as providing new completed 1,331 hours of wildlife surveys, rattle and eyebright will start appearing interpretation panels to inform more during which they recorded 438 different next year. about the wildlife and history of the site. 20 Roebuck | Winter 2020

News Wooden wigwam Corporate cabins at Herding Hill Farm Membership regional We offer three levels of corporate membership which are designed Glamourous glampers to enhance your Corporate Social Responsibility commitments, provide Herding Hill Farm: Herding Hill Farm. Dr Peter Frampton: Aaron Optometrists. At a time of economic uncertainty outdoor hot tubs, as well as a luxury year-round benefits to your business for many charities, we are delighted lodge. There is a licensed shop and a and support your staff development, to welcome award winning camping luxury amenities building to cater for a PR and marketing strategies. You and glamping site Herding Hill Farm guest’s every need. choose the level that you feel reflects as our latest Silver Category corporate your company’s commitment to the supporter. Ever mindful of its location in an area local environment. of beautiful natural heritage, careful Rated five-star by Visit England and consideration has been given with regard To find out more about becoming recognised as COVID-19 confident by the to the location of all the amenities, the a corporate member contact our AA, the Farm offers stylish camping and materials they are made from and their Marketing Office on (0191) 284 6884 glamping just one mile from Hadrian’s impact on the local environment, as or via email to elizabeth.lovatt@ Wall. It is also a Dark Sky Friendly Park. well as ensuring that there is no light northwt.org.uk. pollution. The site offers guests an experience Gold to suit all tastes and budgets, from large In addition, the site is perfect for serviced gravel pitches for tourers and families, dogs, walkers and cyclists and is Aaron Optometrists spacious grass tent pitches to wooden within travelling distance of the Trust’s 11 Northumbrian Water Ltd wigwam cabins, some with private south Northumberland nature reserves. Ringtons Tarmac With a degree in Environmental Dr Peter Frampton, Thermofisher Scientific Studies (Griffith University Brisbane) I Owner/Lead Optom - have always been conscious of the natural silver environment and our place within it. Aaron Optometrists Harlow Printing Ltd Now a medical optometrist with my Herding Hill Farm own business, I believe that, without Historic Property Restoration Ltd a sustainable environment, we have Karpet Mills nothing. Potts Printers Ltd Riverside Leisure Global initiatives are vital but so too is our local environment, protected bronze by passionate enthusiasts such as Northumberland Wildlife Trust. Bell Ingram Blyth Harbour Commission Dr Peter Frampton Cottages in Northumberland DOptom MSc FCOptom BAppSc(Optom) EcoCabs (AUS) BSc DipTp(AS) DipTp(SP) DipTp(IP) Holidaycottages.co.uk Owner/Lead Optom - Aaron Optometrists Howick Hall Gardens Northern Experience Wildlife Tours Northumberland County Council Northumberland Estates Ord House Country Park Poltross Enterprises Shepherds Retreats The First and Last Brewery Verdant Leisure Roebuck | Winter 2020 21

We bet you didn’t know... y o u!TThhaannkk you Hedgehogs have an incredible sense of smell and can detect an earthworm under 3 inches of soil. Remember: if you are putting food out, do not give them mealworms as they can make them very ill. £10,000 From the Sir James Knott Trust for the Catch My Drift project. Trust volunteer £1,514.16 Georgina Moroney From our fabulous virtual Great North and Jess, our Runners: Emily Noble (£62.50), Dominic Flexigraze sheep dog Hoare (£431.25), Hayley Nixon and regional Callum Smith (£328.75) and Kelly Five hundred reasons to smile Lonsdale (£691.66). Georgina Moroney: fiona dryden. red squirrel: Peter Cairns/2020vision Generous shoppers at ASDA Gosforth rolled up their sleeves and helped our £500 gave us five hundred reasons to smile St Ncholas Park Volunteer Gardening during the dark days of lockdown Group on a number of occasions. Donation for general land with a cash boost of £500 through the management from Simon Garlick company’s Green Token Scheme. We look forward to meeting up with them all again in the future but, in following a Trust news article. The ASDA store on Hollywood Avenue the meantime, it was down to Trust in Gosforth is a valuable supporter of volunteer Georgina Moroney and Jess, £77.70 the Trust and has helped us promote our our Flexigraze sheep dog, to collect the events and membership in store, not to cheque and say thank you From Tom Hague via giveacar.co.uk mention its members of staff who have the charity car scrappage scheme. Visit the site to learn how you can raise funds. regional Red squirrel £50.30 Virtually red From PayPal Giving Fund. Find out During Red Squirrel Awareness Week in more at paypal.com/uk/fundraiser. September Red Squirrels Northern England (RSNE) hosted an information session on £33.75 YouTube. From [email protected] who donate The RSNE project team and guest 0.5% of the price of eligible purchase to speakers presented an overview of red squirrel conservation in the North of a shopper’s chosen charity. England in 2020 and provided guidance on how people can help make a difference. £130 You can watch the video on the Donations following Red Squirrel Trust’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/ Awareness Week YouTube presentation. northwildlifetrust. £1,551 From online clothing and accessories, brand Big Wild Thought for donating 10% of sales (in April, July and October) from its red squirrel range to Red Squirrels Northern England. 22 Roebuck | Winter 2020

Focus on... WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT 30 by 30 Appeal Make 30 by 30 your Christmas donation Restore 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 puffin: Lynne Newton Craig Bennett, CEO of The Wildlife better use of land. He says the switch out new plots of land where we can Trusts, is certainly thinking big as he from meat and dairy farming will free plant more native woodland or flower- launched the nation-wide appeal to up space for rewilding, especially our rich meadows. save nature by 2030 (see page 18). And he forests. He advocates no-fish zones and has a powerful amplifying voice, David an end to unsustainable fishing methods Nature has given us so much, now it’s Attenborough, the world’s most popular to allow our seas to thrive again. But it’s our turn to give back and well-respected naturalist. all about the will to do it. And despite Please make this your Christmas the awful situation with Covid-19, the donation, our young people deserve a ‘A Life on Our Planet’ is Sir David’s pandemic gives the world a chance to wilder future. latest film and ‘witness statement’ about rebuild its economies around sustainable the devastating impact humans are living. How you can help having on biodiversity. His emotional account intersperses clips of the Help here and now – please donate ʈʈ Donate to our 30 by 30 Appeal – online wondrous and beautiful alongside the Closer to home, you can help this nwt.org.uk/30by30 or by post (you apocalyptic – destruction of rainforest, region recover by joining the NWT 30 can use the donation form in the skeleton coral reefs, horrific pollution by 30 appeal. Every pound donated will mailer). and melting ice caps. He points out help us achieve our vision for a wilder that we have to live within limits, or future. Together we can continue to ʈʈ Watch David Attenborough’s film on ultimately it will be we humans that restore peatlands, which store carbon Netflix now. destroy ourselves. and become a home for rare birds like short-eared owls and golden plovers. We ʈʈ Fundraise for us – set up a Virgin Sustainable living can create new wetlands, which reduce Money Giving page and share with Sir David points to fast tracking the risk of flooding and are also great for friends and family. renewable energy and changing to a dragonflies and water voles. We can seek mostly plant-based diet, which makes Find out more visit our website nwt.org.uk/30by30 Roebuck | Winter 2020 23

Grey Heron © ben hall/2020vision What’s in a name? Words have the power to change the way we view the world. Author Horatio Clare explores the connection between language and nature. 24 Roebuck | Winter 2020

What’s in a name? Recently a family passed my house, which to Emma Corfield-Walters who runs Bookish in overlooks a meadow near Hebden Bridge, Crickhowell. Emma has been running a mail-order Yorkshire. ‘Look!’ said the mother, ‘A service throughout the pandemic: ‘I’m selling a lot peacock!’. ‘It’s a pheasant mum,’ her of foraging and identification books, so people are teenaged daughter replied. ‘It’s a peacock,’ repeated taking this time to learn,’ she says. the mother, looking hard at the cock pheasant. It was a joyful exchange to witness. Is this not The depth and richness of all there is to learn how we all begin with nature, with anything — will strike the readers of these books the way those naming and misnaming, feeling our way of us who love fauna and flora were struck when towards understanding? our passions began. The multitudes of dialects and the varieties of ancient languages of which modern There must have been a great deal of new English is comprised speak of an extraordinary naming of nature, recently. On a visit to Scotland, cultural and historical relationship between the our seven-year-old named what might well have inhabitants of our isles and the glittering diversity of been a buzzard a golden eagle. He still confuses species they have been home to — and will, with luck, carrion crows and jackdaws, but like many of support again. us this year, he is making a start, delighted with collective nouns for the unkindness of ravens we see The precise nature of that relationship is found in occasionally, the exaltations of larks on our moors our vernacular and demotic terms for animals and and the murder of crows that patrol the valley. birds: humour, close observation, accuracy and a poetic sense of the country characterise these terms, For months now, teenagers, students and family a cornucopia of words for everything from moles to groups have been appearing in the local woods and herons. It makes sense that the creatures we see most often have the most names. The humble woodlouse fields, absorbing their calm, is a peabug or a nutbug in Liverpool, a ticktock in beauty and perspective. Bedfordshire, a flump in Southampton, a parson Nature has been vital to pig on the Isle of Man, a sow-pig in Norfolk and a us, this hard and awful billybutton in Yorkshire. year; there seems real hope that the change Shakespearean England is alive in our local we have been praying names for species, with the great dukedoms and for is afoot: with earldoms of Cornwall, Norfolk, and Yorkshire reliably any luck, renewed providing their own takes on the world. When Hamlet relationships with announces he knows a hawk from a handsaw he is nature and language using East Anglian dialect: a handsaw or hanser is a are being born. Sales grey heron on the Broads. If the traditional English of field guides are summer involves standing heron-still at a window up, according watching water falling from the sky, the national Roebuck | Winter 2020 25

Our language is full of magical words for wildlife, like ‘ammil’ for the fiery light of sun on hoar frost Jay © Peter cairns/2020vision, sun on hoar frost © guy edwardes/2020vision thesaurus has every kind covered, from mizzle in Try as one might, though, without a community Devon, to picking in Wales, smirr in Scotland (fine, of people who also need and use these words, they drifting rain), letty in Somerset (the kind of rain that remain idiosyncratic and obscure, and the objects is a let or hindrance to working outside); the heavier and effects to which they refer remain marginal or stuff is plothering in the Midlands and the northeast, unconsidered. We can still teach them to each other stoating in Scotland (rain so hard it bounces off and our children ­— who could not love the Yorkshire the ground) and ‘raining forks ’tiyunsdown’ards’ in ‘mowdiwarp’ for a mole? — but language is an organic, Lincolnshire: raining pitchforks. natural force. Apart from the revival of Welsh, the result of huge effort and investment, there are few Many of these terms have fallen out of general use; examples of any tongue or dialect being brought back they form a corps of specialised knowledge, retained to prosperity from impoverishment. in the vocabularies of older people, and in little-read books. There have been efforts to collect and revive 30% of 8-to-11-year-olds them, notably by Robert Macfarlane in Landmarks, cannot identify a magpie, which assembled a trove of glossaries of dialect words but 90% of them can for landscapes and nature. It delights in terms like spot a Dalek ‘zwer’, an Exmoor word describing ‘the whizzing noise made by a covey of partridges as they break suddenly In 2017, Robert Macfarlane and the artist Jackie Morris had a mighty success with The Lost Words, from cover’, and ‘summer a book of poems and pictures featuring wrens, geese’ (steam rising in bluebells, kingfishers and acorns, designed to reverse sunlight from a wet Yorkshire a disconnection between children and nature which came to light with the removal of these words from moor). Reading it, I resolved the Oxford Junior Dictionary. Although the passionate to remember and use the lovely response to the book proves that parents and children Devonian word ‘ammil’ — the fiery still mind about these things, the territory which light produced by sun on hoar frost. the book describes, with its collection of formerly To have a new name for a thing is to numerous birds and common trees, reflects a terrifying have sharper and brighter eyes, to have decline in wild species, and a concomitant retreat in your internal and external worlds enriched (Macfarlane himself loves ‘smeuse’, a word for a gap in a hedge made by the repeated passage of small animals). n T he Welsh name for the jay is sgrech n In Scots, the mountain hare has been n T he eider, a sturdy sea duck, is known y coed, which broadly translates as known by many names including as the Cuddy duck in Northumberland. ‘screecher of the woods’. A fitting name whiddie baudrons, fuddie, maukin, Cuddy is short for Saint Cuthbert, a for this forest-dwelling cousin of the cuttie, and lang lugs — a reference to seventh-century monk that lived on the crow, so often heard before it’s seen. its large ears. Farne Islands and bestowed his protection on the eiders that nested there. 26 Roebuck | Winter 2020

What’s in a name? down the beck, the appearance of the bats and the evensong of tawny owls. Human time, which was post-industrial time, dictated by the clock and fought over by apps and notifications, seems to have slipped sideways towards something much more natural, seasonal and slower. In response, the internet has flooded with the thoughts and observations of people noticing birds and animals, remarking on the dawn chorus, and taking action. Mary Colwell, a naturalist, author and producer of David Attenborough’s programmes, has begun a campaign to introduce a GCSE in Natural History into the school syllabus. The campaign is attracting widespread support: if and when it is successful, our woodlouse © chris lawrence, tawny owl © bertie gregory/2020vision relationship with nature will have taken a crucial step forward. Coming generations will be able to see and A recent survey has revealed at least name the world around them in the way many who 250 names for the woodlouse went before them could not. My words of the year have been ‘essential’ and ‘inessential’ — how much of our former lives was taken up with the latter, and what new and old things, human interest and understanding of them. What and what new and old words, will the changed world chance does ammil have, if, as one recent survey found, decide it cannot do without? 30 percent of eight-to-eleven-year-olds cannot identify Most wonderfully, it seems certain that one casualty a magpie, but 90 percent of them can spot a Dalek? of the coronavirus will be the pernicious capitalist Instead of the miracle it would have taken to fix our cliché that time is money. There is going to be less disconnection from nature, there came the terrible money around, it seems certain, but more time. And affliction of coronavirus. But the effect may be the time is not money: time is life, time is beauty, time is same. As traffic decreased, towns and cities fell silent the one true currency we have to spend in this world. and millions of us worked from home, we began to We cannot hothouse a return of the terms and repair relationships with place, the local and with time languages we once had for nature, but as we relearn that have been broken for decades. I thought I knew how deeply we need the natural world, our words this valley in Yorkshire, but it took lockdown for me to and phrases for it will return and grow anew. really see it. Peacock-pheasant for cock pheasant seems a fine Day by day, I watched the wrens nesting, the kestrel place to start, at least in Hebden Bridge. hunting, and that peacock-pheasant. He established his territory, then crowed and thrummed, broadcasting its potential, drawing in two hen pheasants, one of which then laid eggs, from which hatched chicks, over which the father crooned in a most beguiling manner until the day when they took their first flights, like large drunk bees. Intrigued, I looked the bird up. ‘Pheasant’ comes from the Greek ‘phasianos’, meaning a bird from the land of the river Phasis, which is Horatio Clare’s in present-day Armenia. Well I never! Instead award-winning books include of my diary’s usual harried and time-hurrying Running for the Hills, Down to the Sea in checklist of events and journeys, commutes and ‘wWTuoil-rdwklsihf,eiftr;foeTmuat-uwhrahewod’krosefagtnuadwlahnrleyyroionwnSslshtoaktehsepeare’s Ships and Aubrey re-schedulings, this year has been charted by and the Terrible Yoot. the appearance of the first red admiral butterfly, the return of the swallows, the dive and drifts of flocks of swifts, the herons’ daily journeys up and n In Northern Ireland you might hear a Wildlife A GCSE in Natural History could bring young people yellowhammer referred to as a yella yorlin, around closer to nature. Discover more about the campaign a meadow pipit called a moss-cheeper, a the UK to make this a reality. cranefly known as a granny-needle or a black ant as a pishmire. wildlifetrusts.org/nature-gcse Roebuck | Winter 2020 27

Living on the hedge By Andrew Jamieson, Surrey Wildlife Trust First light and an early on winter mist lies softly the fields. Along the track the low sun is backlighting frosted cobwebs and the frozen stalks of last summer’s hogweed. Redwings and fieldfares, as well as our resident thrushes, take flight from the hedges as I approach. I have interrupted their gorging on a bounty of berries. Sloe, haw, hip and holly are all on the menu, these thorny thickets providing a rich larder for birds that have flocked from harsher Brimstone climes to spend their winter with us. One of a handful of UK butterflies that overwinter as adults, tucked Other birds take advantage of these hedges at this away in ivy. They can even be seen flying on sunny days in time of year, too. At sunset, hundreds of chattering winter. The caterpillars feed on alder buckthorn. starlings will take up their roosting stations deep Hedgehog within the intricate tangle of shrubs and climbers. Hedgehogs will often choose Here they are protected from whatever the elements the base of a thick hedgerow to site their hibernaculum to sleep have in store over the long winter nights. Insects in away the colder months. In milder winters they may be seen out and various life stages are also holed-up. Some careful about as late as December. exploration and you may find dormant ladybirds Stoat tucked deep into bark crevices or the tiny eggs of These fierce predators are active all year round. They use hedge lines the brown hairstreak butterfly lodged in the fork to hunt small rodents and rabbits, although when food is scarce may of a blackthorn branch. Meanwhile hidden away resort to foraging for earthworms. at ground level hedgehogs, toads, and newts are using the security of the dense vegetation for their seasonal slumber. Later in the year our hedge will become a riot of colour, movement and aromatic scents with bees and butterflies visiting the flowers of campion, bramble and honeysuckle. Long-tailed tits, wrens and yellowhammers will be busily raising their broods; shrews and voles will be feeding, sheltering and defending their territories. But all that has yet to unfold, and for now much of life lies waiting. Thousands of miles of hedgerows such as this criss-cross our country in a familiar and historical patchwork landscape. Rich in wildlife, this network of green highways links the habitats and populations of so many species, all living ‘on the hedge’. Illustration by beth knight Farming on the hedge Hedgerows are a vital part of the farming landscape, providing food and shelter to countless birds, mammals and insects. Bird food supplier and Wildlife Trust partner, Vine House Farm, provide a haven for tree sparrows and other wildlife in their hedges. Plus, with every purchase made supporting The Wildlife Trusts, the farm is helping wildlife beyong the farm gate. Find out more here: wildlifetrusts.org/vine-house-farm 28 Roebuck | Winter 2020

Living on the hedge Fieldfare Winter visitors from the semi- arctic regions where they breed, these grey-blue thrushes will often arrive in mixed flocks along with redwings to feed on berries. House sparrow Both house sparrows and tree sparrows use dense hedges for roosting spots, protection from predators and even as nest sites when favoured holes and crevices aren’t available. Ivy This late-flowering evergreen has much to offer wildlife in autumn and winter. Autumn nectar sustains bees, juicy berries feed birds long after other fruits have been snapped up, and dense foliage provides a home for hibernating bats and insects. Dormouse Orange ladybird Well-managed hedgerows are vital This distinctive ladybird is among corridors for many species and none the many insects that hibernate more so than the dormouse. As well in leaf litter at the base of hedges. as a secure hibernation site, the hedge Other species of ladybird will be will provide them with many of the under bark or nestled within thick fruits, nuts and insects in their diet. beds of lichen. Roebuck | Winter 2020 29

Hidden Beltingham River Reserves Gravels Reserve. A site where plants that can tolerate usually toxic heavy metals, washed out of Pennine lead mines, thrive. I’m guessing that most people who read may start out, in the minds of many existence, to GEOLOGY. Roebuck are curious about all aspects of environmentalists, being associated Taking the natural first. At Harbottle their natural environment. I’m hoping that with negative things, as far as the Trust’s that includes the inanimate underworld reserves are concerned, geology ends up Crags and Cresswell Foreshore, we have too, namely the rocks and deposits that being very much a positive. outcrops of Carboniferous bedrock provide the foundation for wildlife. and their associations with wildlife. Where’s the evidence for that statement Grindon and Greenlee Loughs are A couple of years ago I wrote an article I hear you ask. Well if I want to continue geomorphological features, formed as for Roebuck, which gave a potted geological to consider myself a scientist, I’d better shallow scrapes by the last ice sheet history of the Northumberland landscape. provide you with some data. 15,000 years ago, with the level of the It was titled: “What’s a rock got to do with former strongly influenced by underlying anything?” and if you want a refresher on Northumberland Wildlife Trust has over limestone permeability. the region’s rocks, before you roll up your 60 reserves across the county. Twenty- sleeves and plough through this, you might three of them are mires and peat bogs, We have 23 reserves that are mires and want to dig your copy out of the bin. 17 owe their origin to mineral extraction, peat bogs. I can almost hear the ecologists two are natural bedrock outcrops and two fidgeting uncomfortably. Sorry everybody, I wish I’d saved that title for this piece; are geomorphological features. I’ll dig a they may start as living organisms and be it would go well with this attempt to bit further into each of these groups next, assumed the preserve of biologists, but persuade you that geology is pervasive but by my rough reckoning, that means after a few thousand years they become - it gets into everything, everywhere. that more than 70% of our reserves have peat and you’re into the Holocene and Moreover, whilst rocks and minerals a strong connection with, and owe their geologist-time-territory. 30 Roebuck | Winter 2020

hidden reserves Trust me, I’ve spent tax-payers’ variety of wetland wildlife. to see that often some of that rationality money plotting their boundaries on Lastly, five are variably restored and evaporates when it comes to society’s geological survey maps for Her Majesty’s decisions about where we might approve Government, but the link is not just age remediated opencast coal workings. It is a planning for the next quarry. It is always a and maps, those bogs and mires are wet fact that reserves such as East Chevington difficult and balanced decision and those because of the shape of the substrate. and Hauxley, would not exist had coal not of us who care about and defend the Hydro-geology - the way that groundwater been extracted. natural environment have to make sure and surface water flows through that we muster, and accept, the best case bedrock and glacial deposits is crucial to Our love affair with Old King Coal based on science and reason and reject their existence. Their plant species are may, rightly, have long gone sour - being led by undue emotion and parochial influenced by water composition and thus incontrovertible evidence of the role of interests. If we don’t, then when we, as a geo-chemistry. fossil fuels in climate change has seen to Trust, initiate campaigns to protect our that. Nevertheless, let’s not forget that coal environment using arguments based on Lastly our dirty past - the reserves that always will, and indeed should, be part of science and reason, we will rightly be seen have a link, and often much more than a our Northumbrian heritage. The same can as inconsistent or worse. link, to taking stuff out of the ground. be said about mining lead in the Pennines. These have become minerals of the past, So back to the title - Hidden Reserves - a Five are old quarries, such as East and in that sense, easier to reconcile title chosen for its symmetry and double Crindledykes reserve that worked with our environmental sensitivities. meaning. Seventeen, that’s over a quarter, limestone (amazing folded strata in it as We soften the contention and impacts of our wildlife reserves in Northumberland well as wildflowers by the way). of their past extraction with nostalgia owe their origin and existence to the and retrospective wisdom and too often exploitation of rocks and minerals in the Four, including Williamston reserve, conveniently forget how crucial they were past. It’s an irony worth contemplating are places where the heavy metals (lead, to our development. when you’re next sitting quietly watching zinc, barium and cadmium), that washed the rich wildlife and wading birds at downstream from lead mining in the However, things become more pointed Hauxley. Just think without rocks and north Pennines, have collected in the river when we move onto rocks that we still their extraction, they’d have to wade sediments and provided the conditions for need to exploit such as Whin Sill dolerite elsewhere. special (calaminarian) flora to thrive. for road stone, sandstone for building and restoration, limestone for cement Ian Jackson is a Trustee Three are places where old coal workings and agriculture. All rational people for Northumberland Wildlife deep underground have collapsed acknowledge that every one of us depends Trust and was responsible resulting in subsidence at the ground on these natural resources and accept that for creating the first digital surface. This interferes with the natural if we can’t grow it then, currently, we have geological map of the Earth. drainage network and often causes ponds to mine it from somewhere. to form. Big Waters and Cresswell Pond are examples of these, producing habitats for a For a scientist at least, it’s disappointing East Crindledykes Beltingham River Gravels and East Crindledykes: ian jackson reserve, folded strata in an old quarry in the Great Limestone. It was used to produce lime for agriculture and building. Roebuck | Winter 2020 31

Coast Care volunteer scything on Lindisfarne Flying the flag for coastal scything: beck bass At Coast Care, 2020 has been a peculiar catcher’s nesting attempts. last two summers to test the theory that year and presented many unforeseen The staff delivery team was back up and the phacelia has not only supported honey challenges, as it has for everybody. bees from local hives but also provided running and engaging with volunteers a food source for the wider pollinator During these unprecedented times it from the beginning of July and made some community. has been reassuring that more people have amazing achievements in record time. connected to nature than ever before. In addition to clear support for the From July to the end of September, local honey bee hives, comparisons from Project delivery at Coast Care was 57 group activities were delivered. In the surveys were reassuring as other disrupted through the lockdown period, conservation, work can be time sensitive insects including flies and hoverflies but in spite of this, volunteers continued and ecological monitoring is very much were classified as common and frequent to pick up litter along the coastline, check influenced by seasons, so the team had through the data collection. An increase in footpaths and take part in citizen science to work quickly to get organised and bumble bees was also reported. projects to increase ecological recording in encourage volunteers back out to help on the region. priority tasks. We look forward to the official findings being released in a report from John very It has been fascinating hearing what the The first group back out on task carried soon. volunteers got up to over the lockdown out a pollinator survey on a local farmer’s period with some utilising their skills potato field. The farmer has been planting A big project for the team, totalling 85 learnt through Coast Care’s formal training phacelia as a cover crop over the last two hours, was assisting the Trust’s estates sessions. One volunteer rebuilt a dry stone seasons to produce a green manure and team on its Annstead Dunes reserve. This wall in their garden, whilst another created create a nitrogen rich soil. This cover crop site is situated on the coastline between a wildlife pond and scythed their paddock. has consequently assisted the potato yield Beadnell and Seahouses and is quite the One depicted native biodiversity through but was also perceived to have a positive hidden gem - a great spot to enjoy the their knitting and crocheting and from influence upon biodiversity. dune flora and fauna and appreciate another volunteer we heard about the the spectacular view of miles of sandy highs and lows of monitoring an oyster The group, led by retired Professor John beaches. Hobrough, has surveyed the fields over the 32 Roebuck | Winter 2020

Flying the flag for coastal conservation conservation Coast Care key achievements with volunteers over the last three years: ʈʈ 1,556 participants with 990 people becoming registered volunteers. ʈʈ 28 young people have been recruited into the Young Rangers programme.  ʈʈ Three graduates recruited and delivered specific projects.  ʈʈ 27,878 hours volunteered to Coast Care. ʈʈ 9,053 hours dedicated to practical conservation tasks and beach cleans.  ʈʈ 446 group activities delivered.    ʈʈ 66 formal training sessions have been delivered through staff, professionals and recognised qualifications with 771 participants engaging.  ʈʈ 569 participants in ecological surveying. Coast Care is a partnership project supported by National Lottery players and delivered through a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund until 31 March 2021. To find out more about the project visit coast-care.co.uk or view the legacy film vimeo.com/446500563. Through Coast Care, funding has environmental changes; sea temperature The staff team even had a day working been invested in the reserve to make rise, ocean acidification and the spread of at RAF Boulmer with personnel to assist improvements to access across the site. non-native species. them with the management of their Steps along the dunes and onto the beach wildlife pond and offer advice on the base’s have now been installed to provide safer Fourteen surveys were completed for wildflower meadow. access and will also protect the dunes from this year’s Marine Conservation Society’s further erosion caused by visitor impact. Great British Beach Clean. And who can forget Sunday 16th Informal tracks across the reserve were August when the project featured on given a covering of gravel to create clear Over the summer, groups returned BBC Countryfile’s Bamburgh episode? pathways for visitors to follow. to sites where Coast Care has assisted Volunteers were interviewed by presenter in conservation efforts and carried out Anita Rani who informed viewers about Ecological recording has continued as plant surveys: Bamburgh Castle, Beadnell the conservation work Coast Care has the team took part in this year’s Sea Watch Dunes, Boulmer wildflower meadow and carried out on the Bamburgh Estate, Foundation National Whale and Dolphin Embleton Quarry nature reserve. Data the ecological outcomes from removing Watch. Unfortunately, there weren’t any collected will be used to evidence the ivy from the castle ramparts and the sightings during the surveys but a group successes of the Coast Care project and importance of removing the non-native of around 16 bottlenose dolphins put on assist in future conservation efforts on pirri pirri bur from the dunes. a great display for volunteers on a beach these sites. clean at Cocklawburn days later. Becky Bass has been Project Coast Care has continued to engage Manager for Coast Care since Coast Care has started training with volunteers in beach cleans, removing October 2018 volunteers in preparation for the National invasive species such as pirri pirri bur, History Museum and Marine Conservation sea buckthorn and Himalayan balsam, Society Big Seaweed Search. They will helping with much needed vegetation now be recording individually to assist management and clearance and have data collection that will indicate three key started work back on re-building a dry stone wall in Craster. Roebuck | Winter 2020 33

Big gains in Home sweet home small spaces You don’t need a large garden to hang a bee hotel, only a A garden that might seem small to us can be a huge space wall or fence. Erect bird boxes for wildlife. Kate Bradbury reveals how you can optimise in the eaves for sparrows or swifts, or place a tit box 1-2m your space for wildlife. from the ground. Layer bulbs in pot Layer alliums and crocus in the same pot. Crocuses flower in March, then the alliums will grow and the crocuses die down, creating food for bees for longer in the same pot. Grow climbing plants Clothe every inch of your space with plants to provide shelter for insects. You might find night-flying moths resting here during the day! Feed the birds Hanging feeders of sunflower hearts, mixed seed and fat balls can save the lives of birds in winter and also help in the breeding season. 34 Roebuck | Winter 2020

illustration by hannah bailey, photo © Sarah Cuttle Wildlife gardening needn’t just be for those with corridors are important because they enable wildlife Kate Bradbury large gardens. Any space, no matter how small, can to increase their populations and adapt more easily is passionate about be used to create habitats for wildlife. Put together, to climate change. Some species are already shifting our gardens take up more land than all of our nature in a northerly direction — if there are no corridors wildlife-friendly reserves combined. So you might not think your or stepping stones to help them on their way, they’ll garden has much potential as a wildlife habitat, but have less chance of surviving. gardening and taken as part of a much wider network of linked spaces, yours could be one small but vital piece in a You can tailor your garden to meet your needs as the author of vast jigsaw of connected habitats. much as those of wildlife. No room for a pond? Try Wildlife Gardening a little container pond, instead. Worried trees will for Everyone and Small spaces add up for wildlife because they grow too big for your space? Consider shrubs such Everything in contribute to ‘wildlife corridors’, which enable as hazel, guelder rose and spindle. You can grow wildlife to travel, often between other habitats. plants that flower over a long period to provide association with You might have a small garden close to a park. By as much nectar and pollen as possible, such as digging holes beneath your fences on either side perennial wallflower, catmint and salvias. Even The Wildlife Trusts. you will be creating a corridor for hedgehogs to just letting the grass grow in one patch. Anything reach the park, potentially opening up huge new you do will make a difference. spaces for them (especially if your neighbours do the same). You might grow a few flowering plants Gardens of all sizes can help save our struggling on a balcony. These could provide a stepping stone insects. Get a free guide to helping insects at home: of nectar, enabling butterflies and other insects to travel greater distances in search of a mate. These wildlifetrusts.org/take-action-insects Add water Let long grass grow Container ponds and birdbaths Even the smallest patch of long grass are great for bringing wildlife will provide shelter and food for a range into small spaces. of species. You should get wildflowers popping up, too. Wild highways Hedges shelter wildlife and offer access to your garden, but if you have fences, a hole in, or beneath, them on either side provides a lifeline to mammals and amphibians. Grow caterpillar food plants Even small gardens have room for a few caterpillar foodplants. Try foxgove, primrose, hops, honeysuckle and red campion, or nettles in larger spaces. Roebuck | Winter 2020 35

Thank you to players of People’s Postcode Lottery for supporting Northumberland’s hidden gems and the region’s health and wellbeing! For the past 12 years, players of People’s Postcode Lottery have been supporting Northumberland Wildlife Trust, but this year, more than any other, their support has been invaluable as it enables us to preserve the region’s green spaces which have helped so many people stay focussed and positive. Photo: Peter Cairns/2020VISION • People’s Postcode Lottery manages multiple society lotteries promoted by different charities and good causes. People play with their chosen postcodes for a chance to win cash prizes. A minimum of 32% from each subscription goes directly to charities and good causes in Britain and internationally. Players have raised more than £600 million so far. For details of the charities and good causes which are promoting and benefitting from the lottery draws, please visit www.postcodelottery.co.uk/good-causes/draw-calendar • It costs £10 a month to play and winning postcodes are announced every day. The maximum amount a single ticket can win is 10% of the draw proceeds. For details, please visit www.postcodelottery.co.uk/prizes • New players can sign up to pay using direct debit by calling 0808 10 9 8 7 6 5. New players who sign up online at www.postcodelottery.co.uk can pay using direct debit, debit card or PayPal • Postcode Lottery Limited is regulated by the Gambling Commission under licence numbers: 000-000829-N-102511 and 000-000829-R-102513. Registered office: 2nd Floor, 31 Chertsey Street, Guildford, Surrey, England, GU1 4H • Follow us @PPLComms