Beyond Birdwatching
It may be December, but don’t shut up shop for winter. There is plenty of wildlife to see if you are in the know
Foxes, moths and seals are among the other wildlife to look out for
Raw umber
A neat catch in your December moth trap is Scarce Umber. The colour of autumn leaves, males are golden- or sandy-brown, with indistinct brown lines undulating across the upperwing. Females could not be more different, as they are flightless and arguably resemble beetle larvae more closely than moths! Scarce Umber is well distributed across Britain, but – as it name suggests – never common, for it is dependent on well-established woodland. Accordingly, catching one at home will always elicit a contented smile.
Seal of approval
If you have never been to a Grey Seal rookery, then make haste. The UK hosts roughly half the world population, and pups are still being born this month. Although we think of seals as marine animals, they must come ashore to breed. Technically, then, a Grey Seal bull is our heaviest land mammal.
Shingle jingle
Does anyone else have a love/hate relationship with shingle? I despise walking on it – which is unfortunate given that I live in the same county as the hallowed bird-migration spot of Blakeney Point, a pebbly peninsula. But I love the ephemerality of this dynamic substrate – the result of combined wave and tide in concert. And I adore the rushing hubbub when sea surges onto the massed pebbles.
Religious fervour
In the month featuring Christmas, it seems apt to celebrate an insect that shares its name with a branch of Christianity. Yellow-line Quaker is a moth of subdued autumnal tones that seem somehow fitting for the year’s dying days. Occupying a range of habitats – from wood to scrub, heath to hedgerows – it is widespread and locally common across the UK.
Snow business
Catching the eye with its spherical white berries is Snowberry. Although native to North America, the first examples of this plant were introduced to the UK 201 years ago. They have since spread into the wild, now flourishing over much of the country. Part of their success may be due to Pheasant husbandry, as that introduced gamebird readily conceals itself among the Snowberry’s dense vegetation. The white berries are unpalatable to British birds, so remain on bushes until the New Year, when they turn brown and drop.