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Country Matters 13th July 2003
I receive a number of reports of Muntjac around the village every month now. They are obviously becoming habituated to humans and as their only predator in the village is the motor vehicle these reports will probably increase. It is almost impossible to fence them out. If they can get their nose in somewhere the body seems to follow. I saw one inside the deer fence around Paul King’s trees along Pods Lane and a few days later it was near the entrance gate to the compound. I suspect that was where it was getting in. I must remember to tell Paul of this exciting report before he reads this, or perhaps I should warn the Muntjac first. Bob Redman who lives in Cumberland Close, Braintree, a very built up estate had a heap of conifers in his front garden that he had cut down. In the middle of the day his wife was walking round the heap and out jumped a Muntjac that immediately cleared the front fence in some haste but when she looked down the footway it was casually walking away quite unconcerned by the disturbance.There are plenty of signs of the presence of badgers. In our own garden they have turned over the heavy mulch between the strawberries and there were obvious signs of them having eaten some of the fruit. As we neglected to leave out the sugar and cream they did not eat that many. The main attraction was the worms under the mulch. They have also dug out Bumble Bee nests to eat the larvae and Short-tailed Voles nests to eat the voles. The badgers themselves are very rarely seen though numbers must be well into three figures within the Parish.
Ray Peat our village grounds man keeps free-range hens. In January he had 150 hens he is now down to 83. Ray is a keen supporter of wildlife and likes to keep the local foxes well fed. He shuts the hens up every night but some still prefer to sleep in the surrounding hedges and come down from roost at daybreak. In the early mornings the foxes are still on food patrol. But Ray now feels he is being taken advantage of as the foxes are coming over the fence in broad daylight to help themselves to a chicken dinner.
A black Ground Beetle seems to have had a population explosion this year. Many people have found up to double figures in their houses on a daily basis. They usually come out of hiding in the evening or when some object in the house is moved. They are harmless though one gave me a small bite. Some houseowners who shall remain nameless have told me they have gone round spraying them and then sweeping them up next day. One person said that though the beetles where lying on their backs their legs still kept twitching even the next day. I think she had a guilty conscience then! These beetles are predators so we are hoping they are eating all the Silver Fish and House Mites that inhabit our house.
John Taylor had a Humming Bird Hawk Moth on Valerian in his garden and was able to watch it for some considerable time. As its name suggests it hovers in front of the flower and puts its very long proboscis into the corolla to take the nectar. Its wings produce the same loud hum that Humming Birds produce. It is a migrant and flies from the continent in fairly small numbers every year. Subsequent to this report Syl found two in her poly tunnel one morning but we have not seen them since.
Large numbers of pollen beetles were seen this year. Nearly every bright flower has been smothered with them. They only feed on the pollen but if you take a bunch of flowers into your house the table will become covered with large numbers of these beetles. Mark Giles has discovered this when selling his Sweet Peas as with every bunch he is giving away free several hundred of these small black shiny beetles.
Recent reports of birds of prey riding the thermals are usually sightings of Kestrel though I have seen a Sparrow Hawk doing so. In the past we have had Buzzard, Osprey and on one occasion many years ago a Black Kite so one needs to look carefully at these birds. The Kestrels I suspect are just doing it for the sheer enjoyment but for other birds it is part of their migration.
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