Going wild in the winter months
The County Times has teamed up with the Sussex Wildlife Trust to bring you monthly questions and answers about all things nature.
Charlotte Owen, WildCall officer at Sussex Wildlife Trust, is on-hand to answer your wildlife and conservation queries. As well as answering a variety of wildlife queries, Charlotte is always eager to receive your wildlife sightings in Sussex.
WildCall provides fact sheets ranging from how to make bird cake to beach-combing and can offer advice on environmental and planning issues as well as the best ways to help wildlife such as frogs, birds, bats and bees flourish in your garden.
To talk to Charlotte, call 01273 494777 between 9.30am and 1pm on weekdays, email wildcall@ sussexwt.org.uk, write to her at WildCall, Sussex Wildlife Trust, Woods Mill, Henfield, BN5 9SD or visit www.sussexwildlifetrust.org. uk/wildcall related to the blackbirds we usually see in the garden – but this species prefers the open moorland and mountains of the far north.
They spend the spring and summer in Scotland and northern England, where males sing from prominent crags and boulders to establish their territories. Once the breeding season is over they head south for the winter and often pass through Sussex on their way to the Mediterranean or northwest Africa.
Numbers tend to peak in October but ring ouzels have been recorded here as late as December, lingering on the Downs to feed up on hawthorn and other berries, with juniper being their favourite. Sadly, the British breeding population is declining and the ring ouzel is now red-listed in the UK, though the global population remains relatively stable.
What’sthedifferencebetween a pupa, chrysalis and cocoon?
A pupa ( meaning ‘doll’ in Latin) is the transformational stage in the life cycle of many insects, most famously butterflies and moths but also beetles, bees, wasps, midges, mosquitoes and more.
Their life cycle has four distinct phases: egg, larva (or caterpillar), pupa and adult.
The pupa doesn’t eat and it doesn’t usually move, so from the outside it doesn’t look like much is going on. But all the action is inside, and it’s fascinating. Once an insect has pupated, its larval body is digested by enzymes and essentially dissolves into an organic soup, safely contained within its protective pupal casing. Only a few groups of
cells, called imaginal discs, survive this process and remain intact. These discs are responsible for rebuilding the soupy mess into an adult insect, and there will be a separate disc for each of the required adult body parts: one for its eyes, one for wings, one for legs, antennae and everything in between.
Some insect pupae are given specific names, and a butterfly pupa is called a chrysalis. This name refers to the amazing metallic-gold colouration of many butterfly pupae, and comes from the Greek word chrysos, meaning gold.
A cocoon is a protective silk case that some insects, including moths, spin around their pupa. The silk hardens into effective armour to keep the inhabitant safe, and the appearance of the cocoon can vary quite dramatically between species. The best known cocoons are those of the domestic silk moth, which are unravelled and processed into silk fabric.
What is the smallest mammal in Britain?
Of the 107 mammal species found in and around the British Isles, the pygmy shrew is the smallest.
It has a body length of 4cm to 6cm, plus a tail almost the same length again, and weighs 2g to 6g (which is the same as two to six paperclips).
It’s not much bigger than the smallest mammal on the planet, the bumblebee bat, which is literally the size of a large bumblebee. The common shrew, though still small, is substantially bigger and about twice the weight of its pygmy cousin.
All shrews have tiny eyes and a large nose, giving them a keen sense of smell. They live life in the fast lane, frantically snuffling through the undergrowth for their invertebrate prey.
Their metabolism is so fast (the pygmy shrew’s heart rate is 1,200bpm compared to 72bpm for the average human) that they need to eat every two or three hours, so shrews are active day and night in a constant quest for food.
They are highly territorial and aggressive for their size and can sometimes be heard fighting, their high-pitched squeaks and a rustle in the leaves the only clue to their presence.
Adults usually live for about a year but manage to produce one or two litters in their short lifetime, each with around six young.
They may not live for long but there are at least 8.5 million pygmy shrews scurrying through the British Isles, looking for their next meal.
What might we be able to see during a winter walk along the beach?
All kinds of natural treasures can wash up along the strandline, especially after a big winter storm, so there’s always something new to discover.
There will be a mix of different seaweeds and natural debris, fromshells andeggcases to the bones of marine animals, driftwood as well as man-made rubbish – the ideal opportunity for a two-minute beach clean.
But the strandline provides a home for many small invertebrates like sand hoppers and seaweed flies, which can be a valuable source of food for birds in winter.
Look out for turnstones, oystercatchers and gulls picking through the debris. Mermaid’s purses (the egg cases fromsharksandrays), cuttlefish bones and slipper limpet shells are all common finds.
After a storm, there may be rarities like starfish or sea mice – marine worms covered in a furry coat of bristles.
If you take a break from beachcombing to scan the horizon, you might be lucky enough to see a seal’s head bobbing in the waves.