PRESENTS OR PRESENCE? November/December
2007
I've got mixed feelings about the approach
of Christmas, it seems such a strange festival of indulgence
at a time of year when nature is shedding the excess, and retreating
into stillness and solitude. Despite the supposed barrenness
and bleakness however, I would invite you nature lovers to create
another kind of christmas list, as late autumn/early winter can
be surprisingly productive for wildlife encounters. The veil
of summer is drawn aside, and the nakedness of winter reveals
much for the discerning naturalist.
First of all lets create an ambient seasonal atmosphere.....
Its late autumn, and there are the first few frosts garnishing
the kaleidoscopic colours of fallen leaves, evergreen trees and
red berries hanging on bare branches. Money spiders float through
the air on threads of silk, ballooning down in vast numbers on
dry days into the meadows and gardens. Bare trees roar with the
chatter of starlings - vast flocks like football crowds suddenly
startled, wheel like a circus act in the afternoon dusk, in both
countryside and towns. As well as the christmas carols, you might
hear the soft twitter of siskins having flown south from Scotland,
the golden breasts of the males glowing in the weak winter sunlight.
No sooner have the summer migrants gone and the grey skies fallen
silent, V-shaped skeins of geese are heading back here from their
summer breeding grounds in Greenland and the Arctic. In England
you'll see the white-fronted geese flock to the estuaries and floodwaters
to feed on clover and winter wheat, the pink-footed geese especially
in the north, and in the west coast of scotland the the islands
reverberate to the sound of barnacle geese yapping like dogs. Christmas
is coming and the goose is getting fat!!
One of the thrills in November that will coax you away from your
firesides, (and me away from designing the 2008 WildWise events
programme!) is to witness the dramatic epic of the salmon run.
We'll soon be slumped in front of the TV, entertained by those
old christmas classics like The Great Escape or The Incredible
Journey, but before this, another seasonal family favourite might
be to go and watch the real thing!
One of the treats of this month is to walk along
the banks of a fast-flowing river to watch the salmon leaping the
rocks, rapids and waterfalls in a desperate bid to reach their
spawning ground. Astonishingly, this will be the same river where
they were born, that they may not have seen for 1-5 years, yet
they are able to navigate back vast distances through the ocean.
You may think its a bit of an effort to get to your relatives for
Christmas, but all things considered this is nothing compared to
the distance and difficulty that faces our native species of atlantic
salmon. Once they have entered the river, their appearance begins
to change, like donning battledress, their colours change and even
their bodyshape metamorphoses to prepare them better (more pronounced
in the males.) They stop feeding whilst they negotiate this new
terrain, a journey dependent upon weather conditions and which
may take a few months! The autumn rains will sporadically swell
the rivers, making it easier to travel uphill towards their destination.
This will still require them to leap over waterfalls where there
is no easier passage to the side. Sometimes you will see 'ladders'
that have been built to help the salmon and trout get past a man-made
obstacle like a weir, and these make good salmon-watching places.
Or if you prefer a wilder location, then walk up river to a waterfall
area where there is no other choice for the fish but to make many
a breathtaking leap. The best place of all of course will be to
observe them in the shallow, clear waters at the top of the river.
Here, in only a few inches of water, they will pair up, the hen
will lie on her side thrashing the water with her tail to create
a furrow in the gravel into which she lays her eggs. The cock will
fertilize them with his milt (sperm) and cover them, and then they
will repeat this process, moving upstream slowly.
At the end of December the high street is full of customers exchanging
unwanted or embarrassing clothes given as christmas presents, and
for some animals, this years winter fashion has definitely come
too early!
For example, not all hares undergo this seasonal costume-change,
but Mountain hares, from highlands of Scotland or even the Peak
district (where there is an introduced species), are whitewashed
with a new winter coat. A bright brand new pair of trainers for
xmas can feel a bit embarrassing to wear until they are worn in,
and for the hares, the timing can be all out as a new coat can
emerge before the winter snows have fallen, so it becomes highly
conspicuous and exposed to both predators and, fortunately, you
wildlife enthusiasts. This can also happen to other creatures inhabiting
the far north, eg stoats, ptarmigan and upland grouse.
Just as your attention turns towards the visit
of Santa, another 'red-coated' visitor shows up in the dark at
this time of year, one that could conceivably frighten a small
child lying in bed, a real 'nightmare at christmas' if you didn't
know what it was. The blood-curdling scream we hear at night, all
too-human in sound, is that of the vixen, communicating her presence
to any dog-foxes in the vicinity, who then give a 'bow-wow-wow'
bark in response. Like those over-indulged small children under
3 at christmas time, its all pissing and pooing and screaming as
the foxes produce multi-sensory sign-language to work out the who/what/where
of the local population, ready for a brief window of mating - the
vixen will be receptive for only 2-3 days.
The mating season for foxes is therefore a good time to see them
together, the dog-fox 'tagging' the female - make a note in your
diary, for 7-8 weeks after this, the cubs will be born.
There is surely no more breathtaking sight than watching red foxes
move over a white-frosted winter landscape decorated with evergreens
and red-berries.....reminds me of a christmas cake!
Merry Xmas to you readers, and don't forget to
indulge in the seasonal offerings from the natural world. |
