Winter Blackcap survey: Over winter 2016/2017 Blackcaps were recorded at 30 sites in the Cambridge NatHistCam study area. Overwintering of this warbler, which is mainly a summer visitor, is an urban phenomenon, encouraged by garden feeding and warmer urban temperatures. Ringing studies indicate these birds originate from southern Germany/Austria; the majority of this population join the UK birds and migrate south to north Africa to spend the winter but a small population migrate north-west to overwinter in the UK.

Breeding Rook survey: A count in March 2017 found 108 apparently active nests (AAN) at six rookeries in the study area and 111 AAN at the same six rookeries in March 2018. In 1959-60 there were 62 rookeries with 1158 AAN in our study area. The three largest rookeries in 2017/2018 were in the same locations as 1959-60; each with more or less the same number of AAN.

Mistle Thrush survey: Mistle Thrushes are a principal vector of mistletoe, the hemi-parasitic plant abundant in trees in parts of west Cambridge. They nest in March and begin singing in November of the previous year to establish breeding territories. Thirteen singing males were recorded; all were in the north and west of the city where mistletoe is most clearly seen.

Tawny Owls: A partial survey of Tawny Owls from the call of young birds disbursing from nest sites found four sites in the west of our study area and one in the east.

Ravens were once vilified by sheep farmers as lamb killers that plucked they eyes out of their victims leaving them to die in agony. As a result, they were heavily persecuted. We now know they are mainly carrion feeders. Ravens around a lamb carcass are feeding on a still birth or after-birth. They are expanding their range from west to east and two recent articles in national dailies (the i-newspaper and The Times) have carried articles about this (“Beast from the West”/”Black is Back”). Two to three pairs breed in west Cambridgeshire. They have been seen displaying, a tumbling/rolling aerial display, over Madingley and in February 2017 a pair were seen on the northern edge of our project area flying over Impington. This February a pair were seen heading out of Histon towards Oakington, just outside our study area. They are early nesters (February/March) and it’s likely these were young birds nest site prospecting.

The Rooks nesting at Girton College have returned to repair winter damage to their rookery – it’s the only rookery in the city using conifers to nest.

The city Peregrine that was shot last autumn and taken to the Raptor Foundation near St Ives is recovering, but staff are unsure of its ability to hunt for itself. When the weather warms Sparrowhawks will begin their aerial displays; I guestimate 10-15 pairs across the City. The first year Kestrel on Coldham’s Common looks set to stay, but the pair that had three young near the Darwin Green housing development between Histon Road and Huntington Road, which is now being built, will have to move on. The bird seen at Eddington may be one of these.

Golden Plover, Hobson’s Park

Peregrines return to City centre (see Olwen’s February blog)

Red Kite  was seen over Regent’s Street on February 20^th (Rhona Watson).

A Kittiwake flying south over Chesterton on 2^nd March (Simon Gillings) is very unusual and could be just one of a bigger cold weather movement of this species.

Duncan’s photos of the Little Egrets on the Snakey Path from Brookfields (end of Mill Road) to Cherry Hinton Hall park are stunning – walk along the path and you may get the best views of Little Egrets you will ever see!

The edge of the Dickinson Pit at Milton Country Park just comes into our project area. There is a female Scaup there (found by Jon Heath). This uncommon sea duck was probably making an overland passage from west to east and back to its Scandinavian breeding grounds when it was stalled by the “beast from the east”.

A large flock of about 600 Golden Plovers were on farm land in the north of our project area on 12^th February and about 150 Linnets on nearby stubble feeding on meadow grasses, mayweeds and groundsel that have been flowering and seeding over the winter. Also two flocks totalling about 60 Golden Plovers, on Hobson’s Park near Great Kneighton (I always thought the “i” came before the “e” except after “c”!).

Six Siskins feeding on sunflower hearts in a Chesterton Garden in early December are still coming daily; the male has been singing – will they stop to breed? Blackcaps are toughing out the cold by staying close to fat ball feeders; one bird has been present during the cold period from 8:00am to 4:30 most days and sees off blackbirds and tits but slips away when the robin arrives. Female Blackcap seen over several days in John Street (Mary Seymour). The snowy silence was broken on Wednesday morning 28^th February by a singing Robin keeping warm by the gas boiler exit flue!

The cold “Beast from the East” and settled snow causes real problems for birds approaching their breeding seasons. Fieldfares and Redwings have come into the city looking for remaining berries, cherries and crab apples but most have already been taken by resident Blackbirds. I have 12 records of territorial Mistle Thrushes – the Midsummer Common bird has been singing since November – Mistle Thrushes are also early nesters. Redwings will soon muster in numbers for their pre-migration gatherings. I have seen flocks in Cherry Hinton Hall grounds where they sing together as a chorus their curious subdued sub-song.

Fieldfares forced into gardens for food during the cold period

Winter Blackcap staying close to its food source

A solitary Chiffchaff in Chesterton on 2nd March in a leafless street tree looked doomed in the freezing temperatures. Soon time for the first Brimstone butterflies.

Robert Brown of the Cambridgeshire Bird Club is surveying Grey Wagtails, especially breeding birds. They can often be seen by The Rush, the cut across Coe Fen. Last year, a pair were feeding young on the roof of the M&S building on the Market Square and a pair nested in the river wall 100m upstream from Magdalene Street bridge. Please send any records to him at: research@cambridgebirdclub.org.uk

5^th March 2018

Bob Jarman

bobjarman99@btinternet.com

In N. Cambridge, the Toads are waking up and on 19^th Feb were seen moving to the pond from gardens in Stanley Rd and Oyster Row, West Chesterton. I understand this to be a large pond, in the estate of what used to be a farm – does anyone know about this?

It is a wonderful time of year for mosses. However, on one outing in Paradise, we came across something which turned out to be not moss, but the Liverwort, Lophocholia heterophylla. This typically grows on damp logs and is one of 8 different different species of liverwort growing here.

     Lophocholia heterophylla

Paul Rule 

Meanwhile, in the Botanic Garden, with the help of a well-experienced ‘truffle dog’ called Lucy, researchers from Cambridge’s Department of Geography have begun to study the seasonal changes and productivity of the Burgundy Truffle. This fungus depends on tree roots and Lucy will help determine which trees support Burgundy truffles in the UK.

Black truffles

There have been a number of interesting bird sightings this month, in spite of the generally cold weather. On Jan 30^th, Guy Belcher noted  6 Grey Partridges calling, beginning to pair up in the fields south of Addenbrookes, along the Shelford DNA route. In  Hobsons Park, 2 Corn Buntings were  holding territory, there were 10 Snipe on Pond 1 and 10 Skylark in full song. On Feb 1^st, the Pitt Building Peregrines were seen mating on the clock tower over King’s College porters’ lodge, after which they flew to perch at the nest-site. All good news there!

                             Male bullfinch

A male Bullfinch was feeding on berries in Harvey Goodwin Avenue on 6th and 7th Feb. A Tawny Owl was heard calling in Newnham on 18^th and in Highsett, there were regular sightings of a dozen or so Goldfinches high in the oriental planes and a pair of Long tailed Tits looking for a nesting site. In S. Cambridge, a Sparrow Hawk appears to have learnt where the bird feeders are located and has been seen several times flying low in a straight line over these, not yet successfully! Here, Coal Tits are nervously joining the blue and great tits feeding on sunflower seeds. On 24^th, two Herons stood in the winter grass of the Trumpington estate, one attacking a meal, the other eyeing it from 100 yards off. A single Egret has often been seen this month by the brook on Sheep’s Green. The Red Kite seen at Duxford was out of our target area, but they seem to be getting ever nearer. Any sightings over the city yet?

The fields between the M11 and Grantchester Rd are full of Hares – up to 12 at a time, chasing and grazing the just-green crop. They may also be seen further afield, in the Fulbrook Rd and Pembroke allotments. Any in the NW of the city, or Fen Ditton fields?

Other mammal sightings include Muntjac in the Botanic Garden on 2 occasions and, on 21^st Feb, a Fox crossing the road by Addenbrooke’s hospital roundabout, with what looked like a rabbit in its mouth.

On 17^th, Girton College hosted the Cambridgeshire launch of Orchards East. (https://www.uea.ac.uk/orchards-east) This project aims to map, record and preserve all the old orchards that were once so common and which provided fruit and nuts for the local towns. I know of one at Laundry farm, but there must have been many more. Do you have old fruit trees in your garden? Were you and your neighbours once part of an orchard which has now disappeared? Please let us and them know. Old orchards host a huge variety of invertebrates and fungi, some unique to that habitat.

Finally, an update on the current Floating Pennywort removal project. The Cam Conservators together with the Environment Agency have launched a massive 5 year clearance operation, working from top downwards. They have already removed many tons of the stuff, but to keep it clear involves a lot of removal of overhanging vegetation, to eliminate residual pockets. In preparation for this, Cam Valley Forum and Cambridge Canoe Club have installed a chicane boom system, between the River Bank club and Grantchester Meadows, designed to catch any Floating Pennywort that is released during the treeworks, while still allowing river traffic to pass between them.

Grantchester Mill, before and after Floating Pennywort removal

Environment Agency

Olwen Williams

olwenw@gmail.com

Long ago it was a very rare event to see Little Egrets in the UK. But increasingly they are becoming commonplace and their numbers have increased dramatically in recent years. So it was no surprise as I jogged along Cherry Hinton Brook to find several of them hunting for fish near Cherry Hinton Hall. They are remarkably tame as well and will let you photograph them, as long as you don’t get too close.

Their numbers have been steadily increasing in France and they made the leap across the channel to breed in Dorset for the first time in 1996. By the start of the new Millennium they had reached 100 breeding pairs in this country and went on increasing in numbers. Now there are over 1,000 pairs. Initially birds visiting this country returned to France for the winter, but now they have become resident and can be seen throughout the year. The fact that they have colonised the city and are almost urban birds is rather surprising, but an exotic addition to our local fauna.

Their white plumage is not exactly what one would consider good camouflage for a hunting bird. But when you realise that the fish they are hiding from are looking up at the bright sky, white plumage is the perfect disguise. Their black legs are curiously ended with bright yellow feet. Does this give them some sort of advantage? Perhaps its handy to be able to see your feet in the murky water when wading.

Eventually they got fed up with me stalking them along the stream and took to their wings and flew away majestically.

Duncan Mackay 13/2/2018

Gulls are difficult! Immature plumages, different winter and summer plumages, races within species, variation within species, recently separated species and several shades of grey add to the difficulty, or challenge, of identification. The majority of gulls in winter from Riverside to Jesus Lock are our “dead-bog-standard” Black-headed Gulls (without their black heads); numbers range from 140 to 270 depending upon the surface water on Jesus Green and Logan’s Meadow and the availability of worms brought to the surface. There may be a dozen Common Gulls and three or four Herring Gulls amongst them. Look out for Mediterranean Gulls; they have been seen two to three times in our project area. The most recent was a full adult, with Black-headed Gulls in August on wet grassland on the new Darwin Green development; it was probably a dispersed adult from a single breeding pair near Earith. Lesser Black Backed Gulls are mainly flyovers along the river BUT……..in summer birds have been seen in the city centre suggesting they might be nesting on the rooftops!

Travel out of our project area to the Amey Cespa recycling plant at Landbeach/Cottenham Long Drove and the tip at Milton and the number of gulls and species and complexity of plumage variation increases. The following photographs taken over winter 2017/18 on Riverside/Jesus Green illustrate some of the plumage variations:

Typical Herring Gull Riverside

Adult winter plumage Black-headed Gull, Jesus Lock

Unusual Herring Gull with Black-headed Gull, Jesus Green

Seventy-three Grey Partridges at Nine Wells is a spectacular count and 15 in two family coveys on farmland in the north of our project area; four Little Egrets near Long Road in December. Little Grebes are not common on the river, they used to breed on Riverside but increased use of the river probably disturbed them; one was seen in January and two pairs appear to be resident further along the river at Fen Ditton; three in the balancing ponds at Eddington on 4th February. A Great-crested Grebe on the river opposite Trinity College, dodging punts, in early January was unusual.

An oddly confiding Buzzard in College grounds on the 4^th February appeared to be nest site prospecting. City Peregrines were seen mating on 1^st February and then returning to a nest site – that’s got to be good!

Male Blackcap – James Littlewood

Mediterranean Gull Darwin Green 2014

Blackcaps continue to show; in addition to sightings in Olwen’s blog, birds have also been seen in Longworth Avenue, Tenison Road, Benson Street, Stanley Road and East Chesterton. Six Siskins have been daily visitors to a garden feeder in Longworth Avenue and a small group are regular in the Priory Road/Benson Street area off Huntingdon Road. Small groups of Lesser Redpolls have been seen feeding in the alders adjacent to the guided bus track near Cambridge Regional College and Cambridge North Station; they were in the alders in Green End Road but these mature trees have been felled; a flock of 35 Greenfinches in Storey’s Way on 4^th February were unusual for a species that is on the verge of being Red Listed. The Bullfinch in Oxford Road in Olwen’s January blog is unusual; it had probably come into the warmer City, like the Greenfinch flock, for food.  Current research suggests Bullfinches pair for life which enables them to breed earlier than unpaired birds.

A Firecrest in Holly bushes in late January at a site in the north of our project area might just indicate a breeding territory (see blog, The Birding Account, January 2017), a Jack Snipe in the east of our area and townie Woodcocks are unusual waders.

So far only five Mistle Thrush territories have been counted in our project area; there must be more but their absence in Cherry Hinton could account for the lack of Mistletoe there.

The same adult Lesser-black backed Gull, showing how the light can affect the appearance of the grey back and wing colour.

Bob Jarman

bobjarman99@btinternet.com

I’ve just entered into my second year of moth trapping and recording, mostly in my garden in Chesterton. During 2017, I encountered an astounding 197 species of moth in my suburban garden! If I’d been told one cold morning last January, as I forlornly inspected my empty trap, that – over my first year of recording – I’d see so many subtle, beautiful, shiny and even downright cute and furry insects, I wouldn’t have believed it!

My moth trap definitely ranks as one of my best-ever Christmas presents and over the past year, it’s given me all sorts of unexpected insights into a fascinating and diverse group of animals, of which I had very little prior knowledge.

Moth trapping at Logan’s Meadow (John Ethan Walsh)  

Moth traps do not kill moths and neither do moth trappers! The traps are essentially bright light sources, usually with a quite high UV component, which for poorly understood reasons, attract many species of moth. The moths settle in or around the trap and usually stay until daybreak. This means that they can be carefully retrieved, identified and recorded, before being gently released to continue going about their mothy business. Regular trapping provides snapshots of the local moth population and over time, these records can help to highlight changes in populations which might indicate changes in the environment. Moths are an important indicator of habitat health because both the larvae (caterpillars) and adults are critical to the diet of many birds and mammals.

Even though we are still in the quietest part of the year for moths, there are a surprising number of super-adapted species which tough out the very coldest months of the year.

Male Winter  Moths showing variation (Matthew Casey)

Individuals of the rather unassuming and delicate-looking Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata) are still on the wing, as they have been since late November. Don’t underestimate them. They, along with the rather similar-looking Early Moth (Theria primaria), are among the tough guys of the Lepidoptera who brave the winter cold. Their body fluids contain a chemical antifreeze that enables them to fly even when the temperature plummets to freezing. Other moths you may see in traps or coming to lit windows are the Mottled Umber (Erannis defoliaria) and Dotted Border (Agriopis marginaria).

Female (left) and male                             Early Moths     

(Steve French)

Female (left) and male                 Dotted Border

(Matthew Casey)

One adaptation that many of the winter-flying species have in common is that only the male moths have functional wings. The females are flightless and rely on a chemical lure (pheromone) spreading from where they sit on their larval food plant, to attract potential mates to them. It’s a good time of year to explore broad-leaved trees and shrubs including oak, sycamore, silver birch, apple, willow and hawthorn with a torch to look for the tiny, beetle-like females (8 – 16mm in length) as they make their way up the trunk in the early evening darkness.

Mottled Umber female

(Matthew Casey) 

Mottled Umber males

(Matthew Casey)

We’re not really sure what the Cambridge populations are like for these species (along with many others which fly later in the year) as there are few people moth trapping in the city area, or at least who are submitting records!  If you have any moth records to share for 2017 or earlier, please get in touch with Bill Mansfield, the Cambridgeshire Moth Recorder, via VC29@elymoths.org.uk

If you’d like to find out more about moth recording or to get involved with moth surveys for this project, please let us know. We’re hoping to begin to extend our understanding of the moth populations of Cambridge over the coming year.

Annette Shelford  nettifernets@gmail.com

So many sightings this month!!  Many thanks to all contributors. We have had all sorts of weather, but on the whole, it has been warmer than usual and a lot of records relate to the early flowering of plants and the activities around bird feeders.

Invertebrates: On 22^nd December, Ben Greig saw this caterpillar on Cranesbill, thought to be a  caterpillar  of the Angle Shades Moth Phlogophora meticulosa, whose second brood overwinters as a larva.

Angle Shades Moth larva and adult

Outdoors, there have been a few sightings of a Buff-tailed Bumble Bee queen (on a sunny December day on Prunus autumnalis, Jan 12^th on Daphne flowers and Jan 22^nd on some cyclamen in a window box). Throughout January, a Peacock butterfly has been resting immobile on the carpet in my spare bedroom. One observer found little caches of dead Ladybirds in the corners of the windowsills, outside – perhaps caught out by the unpredictable weather.

Mammals: a few Muntjacs are around: off Millington Rd one evening, in the Hills Rd area in a back garden, two grazing happily in the Botanic Gardens and one in a garden off Barton Road in daylight. On the road out to Wimpole were two dead Badgers on the roadside and also a dead Fox. In Hills Rd area, a fox was seen in a front garden. Hares abound on the fields along the Grantchester Rd: five (possibly a sixth dead on the road). In central Cambridge, there was some Hedgehog movement – signs of  nibbles from the food left for them, but not seen yet.

Fish: On Jan 22^nd, I asked a young man fishing in Paradise what he just had caught and he very proudly showed me pictures of two Pike – a huge 17lb and a smaller 12lb he had just hauled in and then released. The larger one was longer than his arm – the biggest he had ever taken. It did make me wonder whether swimming in this river is wise!

Birds: Signs of spring include the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, seen on feeders and in the last week, drumming to establish territory and attract a mate. Tawny Owls are calling, both in Newnham and at Cherry Hinton hall. My Song Thrush began to sing around Jan 10^th. Green Woodpeckers are also about and in Newnham are heard calling insistently. A couple of Jays have been seen gathering coconut fibre from a hanging basket! A Kestrel appeared to be inspecting a nest site. Most of the winter thrushes seem to have disappeared, but seven Redwing were seen at Cherry Hinton early in the month. Wood Pigeons, Collared Doves and Stock Doves are all calling now.

The noisy Herons came back to the Newnham heronry on Jan 25^th, circling and visiting the nest sites. Today, 30^th, I counted 10, wheeling the sky as if to inspect their housing estate and choose the best spot. The Rooks appeared to have disappeared from their winter roost in Paradise until today, when they reappeared along with a large flock of jackdaws and have stayed the night instead of going off to Madingley as usual. Most odd! There were some very disapproving noises from the herons whose nests are in the same trees.

Birds are beginning to pair up over the last two weeks. Liza Steel has a beautiful pair of Song Thrushes, and also a Blackbird pair, a very distinctive female with a rufus, spotted breast like a juvenile and light patches above her eyes. The usual suspects have been active at feeders – Long Tailed, Blue, Coal and Great Tits, Blackcaps, Robins, Blackbirds (nine, mainly female, in a small, central Cambridge garden, along with fourteen Goldfinches).  Dunnock and Wren are also seen regularly, but a couple of people mentioned Starlings reappearing after an absence of some years. However, House Sparrows, Great Tits, Goldfinch and Chaffinch are rarer than before. Magpie, Collared Doves, Jackdaws, a Mistle Thrush singing in Chesterton and a Peregrine on tower of University Library all had a mention. Less usually, a Red Kite was seen over the new Bio energy building, a female Bullfinch in Oxford Rd on Jan 18^th and a Little Egret at Fen Ditton meadows Jan 21^st.

Plants

The traditional New Year’s Day hunt for plants in flower took place from Stourbridge Common, through Chesterton and up Moss Bank to Cambridge North Station.  A list of 88 species in flower were noted! This was one of the longest lists of over 600 from round the country. It included common things which flower all year round, such as Daisy and Dandelion; some small plants where, at the best of times, it is hard to see the flowers and a lot of ruderal species which seem to be enjoying the disturbed ground of the old railway siding near the station. Expert botanists recorded four different members of the Senecio genus: Common and Oxford Ragworts, Common and Sticky Groundsel. But no snowdrops or crocuses! Possibly the most unusual species was St. Martin’s Buttercup Ranunculus marginatus, a casual from the Scilly Islands which sometimes turns up in wildflower mixes – it’s also found on Magog Down. The full list is at https://nyph.bsbi.org/results.php . The most surprising find was Lavender, growing wild – and still in flower – near the David Lloyd Tennis Centre off Coldham’s Lane.

St. Martin’s Buttercup

Woodland plants which can be found in flower at this time of year include Butcher’s Broom Ruscus  aculeatus which is in the grounds of Cherry Hinton Hall (and elsewhere). It has tiny flowers apparently growing out of the leaves.

Butcher’s Broom

Stinking Hellebore Helleborus foetidus, a relation of the garden Christmas Rose, and Spurge Laurel, Daphne laureola, are flowering in some scrub across Cherry Hinton Brook and Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris was also found in bloom.

Early flowering garden flowers include daffodils (about  6″ tall with the flowers visible as yellow inside the flower buds),  primroses, winter flowering iris, snowdrops, hellebores, sarcococca and viburnum.

Our Mistletoe Survey continues to be intriguing. Why so much in some parts of the city, but none in Fulbourn, Grantchester, Trumpington or Fen Ditton? Do you have Apple Trees in your garden? Do they have any mistletoe? We would love to hear from you either way.

Finally, a friend emailed me with the comment, “Worst news is Paradise Lost”.  Contractors had dredged the ditch with heavy machinery, depositing mud and silt over a large area of woodland and snowdrops in this lovely nature reserve. Fortunately, they avoided the majority of the Butterbur which has been there for generations. We will have to wait restoration, but I am sure Paradise will be Regained and the devastation abated within a few months.

Olwen Williams

An excellent article by Paul Brackley in the Cambridge Independent (Jan 3-9^th 2018) talks about how ineffective governance is a threat to biodiversity. He also mentions how targeted recovery programmes by conservation charities e.g. the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts have helped rare birds re-establish thriving breeding populations. It got me thinking: what is Cambridge City’s balance sheet – winners and losers of breeding birds over the last decades? It is one of the questions our NatHistCam project will explore, but for birds the stories are reasonably well known.

The bird story is good: probably more winners than losers. Let’s start with the losers. The main losers are specialised woodland species which fits into a national pattern, not just Cambridge. Hawfinches which once bred in the Botanic Gardens and along the Backs are long gone. Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers (LsW), once our commonest woodpecker and in the 1980s often seen in Romsey Town gardens and orchards near Histon Road, are gone. So have Spotted Flycatchers which bred in Whitehouse Lane off Huntingdon Road and went when the Elms died from Dutch Elm disease. The LsW is  sparrow sized and may have died out from predation by Grey Squirrels or from the larger Great-spotted Woodpeckers. The Lesser Redpoll, a finch of cool northern pine forests, has gone; the last confirmed breeding in the City was in 2002. Nationally this small finch has withdrawn north and west probably as warmer summers have disrupted its insect food supply to chicks in the south of its range.

Our Rook survey has shown that numbers have dropped in the City by 90% since the 1960’s; rookeries along the Backs and in college gardens in west Cambridge have gone. Rooks are birds of open farmland and pasture and their decline mirrors the decline in numbers of many bird species in the farmed countryside. A major shift in farming from spring crops to winter crops from the late 1970’s ended the availability of over-winter weedy stubbles as a source of food. Our local Rookeries are now on the northern and eastern edges of our project area adjacent to neighbouring farmland.

Now for the plus side! Other corvids are doing well, probably due to less persecution. Most morning I’m woken by the belly-aching croaks of Carrion Crows. For several years a pair nested immediately above the Mill Rd/East Rd junction – probably the most polluted part of the City! After food fairs on Parkers Piece, up to 60 can be seen clearing the dropped food and takeaways (likewise early mornings). Magpies and Jays are now frequent garden visitors.

The Little-ringed Plover is an enigmatic species that colonises temporary wet sites around gravel and sand workings. It used to breed regularly in Cherry Hinton but the site became the David Lloyds Health Centre and a Holiday Inn Hotel. I recently heard birds over the Eddington development and it has cautiously re-established in Trumpington.

Grey Wagtails have become common across the City, not just near waterside habitats. I’m sure a pair raised young on the rooftop of M&S in the Market Square in 2017. Woodpigeons now breed commonly across the city (perhaps the countryside is too full of them!). They are one of the few species that can rely solely on vegetation to feed their squabs (or is it squibs!) and do not need high protein insect food to raise their young.

Little Egrets can now be seen across the city wherever there is open water or a stream. Another wetland species, the Cetti’s Warbler, can now be heard in the ditches in Barnwell in the shadows of Cambridge United’s football ground. The number of overwintering Blackcaps continues to increase. Lapwings attempted to breed on the northern edge of our project area, the first time for at least 50 years in 2017 and may do so again in 2018.

The real success has been in birds of prey, as Duncan’s photographs of Buzzards over East Road show. Peregrines were thought of as rare birds of rugged cliffs and haunted moorlands, but there are now more Peregrines breeding in our project area than on the Shetland Isles (2 v 1!). Buzzards have arrived in the last 15-20 years; they probably do not breed in our project area but certainly do on the very northern edge. Red Kites have successfully bred in our project area and may also account for the “eagle” seen in a Cherry Hinton garden! Sparrowhawks are now as frequent as they have ever been (they were extinct as a breeding species in Cambridgeshire from 1960 to 1985) and breed in the very centre of the City in college gardens. As an example of just what can happen if habitat is right, the area in the City boundary between Huntingdon Road and Histon Road (that is now being developed as Darwin Green) was left vacant for about nine years. In that period a big population of Field Voles established. Over-winter 2015/2016, up to four Short-eared Owls and over-winter 2016/17, a female Hen Harrier hunted over this area. In the past Merlin has been seen here. The problem is that alongside the presence of these wonderful birds of prey comes illegal persecution.

What of the future? Grey Partridges are holding on in the farmed margins of our project area with two breeding pairs in the north. But the population faces extinction in the south due to development near Nine-Wells. Stonechats may become breeders in the new country parks around Trumpington. Firecrests, might, just might turn up and breed; they like Holly bushes in winter and Douglas Firs to nest!

What have I missed?

Bob Jarman

bobjarman99@btinternet.com

Bob Jarman

December 2017

The Mistletoe survey at the beginning of 2017 resulted in 122 records of Mistletoe in the NatHistCam area. The most common host trees are Poplars, Lime, Hawthorn and Apple. Mistletoes does not seem to like oaks; or perhaps oaks do not like mistletoe. These are visible locations and probably underestimates the actual distribution of mistletoe across the City; there are probably many more, out of sight, on garden hawthorns and apple trees. This is the next phase of the survey – to uncover the distribution in gardens although very little mistletoe has been found in the 21 gardens surveyed so far.

Please let us know if you have apple trees in your garden (and what varieties) and whether any of them have mistletoe growing on them.

The tree-top distribution of mistletoe is probably by thrushes, particularly Mistle Thrushes. In Chesterton I have seen a Mistle Thrush “hunkered-down” in a clump chasing off any visiting thrushes. The distribution in gardens maybe due to wintering Blackcaps. I have seen two male Blackcaps chasing off thrushes visiting a clump on a garden hawthorn then squabbling with each other over grazing rights! The birds wipe the sticky berries from their bills onto tree branches. Mistletoe seeds do not need any pre-germination treatment by passing through the bird’s digestive tract.

Mistletoe is a hemi-parasite – its roots infiltrate the host’s conductive tissue for water and nutrients absorbed through the host’s roots but the mistletoe’s green foliage actively photosynthesises. It is dioecious (“two-houses”) with separate female berry-bearing clumps and male pollinating clumps that produce no berries. Clarke Brunt has infected apple trees in the orchard at Milton Country park (on the northern edge of our project area) and says that aerial shoots of mistletoe appear after 3-4 months but its takes 2-3 years before significant growth is visible and the male plants produce pollen before the females bear berries.

Why kiss under the mistletoe? The two berries at the base of the leaf fork are supposed to represent male and female fertility. After each kiss, a berry is removed from the stalks; when the last berry is removed, the match for life of the kissing couple has been made. Mistletoe is the marriage matchmaker!

Mistletoe growing near Bethlehem, West Bank, Dec 2011 [below]
Mistletoe is associated with many superstitions especially in Nordic legends. In Christian legend, mistletoe was originally the crown of thorns forced onto the head of Jesus as he carried the cross through Jerusalem to Calvary. The Lord was so angry with the thorny rose bush that he transformed it into mistletoe – a flabby, parasitic, thorn-less shrub that grows at the tops of trees. The original crown of thorns (a Rubus bush) is supposed to grow only at St Catherine’s monastery in the Sinai but contemporary history says that it is a cutting from the original bush that grows in the Greek Orthodox archbishop’s garden in Jerusalem.

Berry bearing female clump, Chesterton, Dec 2017 [left]

Male mistletoe clump without berries Chesterton Dec 2016 [below]

Mistletoe is grown commercially in the fruit orchards of Kent and Worcestershire. Perhaps profits have reduced as  mistletoe establishes itself as wild plants but female berry-bearing clumps growing within easy reach in Chesterton seems to remain untouched.

Happy Christmas – under the mistletoe!
Bob Jarman
December 2017