Mr Paterson and ancient woodlands

Hearing the news this morning that the Secretary of State for the Environment believes 'off-setting' ancient woodland loss can be made acceptable by planting a larger number of trees elsewhere had me fuming. I read an article on the BBC website, heard more on Radio 4 and felt compelled to go and buy a copy of the Times just so that I had the facts in front of me.

white Early Purple Orchid in an ancient wood

Ancient woodlands are irreplaceable, an undeniable fact. The Times is right to point out that these woods have been standing since at least the year 1600,  but in many cases they were standing at the time of Domesday and probably millenia before - back to the last Ice Age. Ely Cathedral was built 900 years ago - would you ever see proposals to put a high-speed rail-line through that? There have been some remarkable examples of habitat creation over the last 20 years (Lakenheath Fen or Wallasea for example), but you won't see a conservation NGO stepping forward to recreate an ancient woodland.

Not many bendy ash trees like this in a plantation are there?

The man on the street, perhaps understandably, may think it is a very sensible proposition  to plant x number of new trees for every tree lost from an ancient woodland, but that is an appalling simplification for such a rich and complex habitat. There are a wealth of plants that can only be found in ancient woodlands as well as animals that have a prediliction for old woods. Citing two local examples there is Limax cinereoniger (a slug) and Propolydesmus testaceus (a millipede). What about the soil structure and the inter-relations that holds with the flora growing from it?

Wind-thrown ash tree: 1800 species of invertebrate rely upon dead wood.

When it comes to avoidable habitat loss, there has to be a line in the sand. In my opinion ancient woodlands should be sacrosanct.

Herb-Paris: has a strict association with ancient woods

There is no smoke without fire and it would seem that Mr Paterson has sparked the flames already with what he has said in The Times today. It can not be so.

Harrier heaven

I managed to get out on the patch for the third successive morning. Goldcrest was still missing from the Patchwork Challenge so I stopped off at the church first thing. The impression I formed on New Year's Day that the yews were being used as a blackbird roost gained further credence this morning with birds appearing from their dark depths. It was ten minutes before a Goldcrest deigned to call.

Not much was happening at Alton Water, there was no sign of the Black-throated Diver and the Yellowhammer flock along Alton Hall Lane was not showing either. The south-westerly still had a bit of oomph about it as I got down to Stutton Mill, but the sky was the best kind of blue and the sun was on my back. Red-breasted Mergansers were flirting out in the main channel: 41 of them, and then one of the Great Northern Divers that had been found a few days back hove in to view, followed by the second ten minutes later. The 75th species for the year in the village. Just Red-throated, White-billed and Pacific to go then for the patch. Red-throat being the scarcest regular diver on the estuary.

Feeling that my morning could not get much better, I stood at Stutton Mill Sluice (the parish boundary) for a scan of the reeds, fields and trees as it was approaching Buzzard o'clock (11am). There were a few crows bouncing up and down distantly over Brantham and I was delighted to pick up a female Marsh Harrier among them, rather than the expected Buzzard. A short time later, it popped up close by before disappearing behind some poplars. As I dropped my bins, my eyes fell upon a male Hen Harrier no more than 30 metres away. Unbelievable! It floated over the 'beet field before shaking up the saltmarsh roost. A wisp of 15 Snipe was a bonus from it's marauding. Hens that do make an appearance around the estuary are invariably ring-tails and normally don't come anywhere near me. Frustratingly for Chris, he had gone off to do some chores and missed it by minutes. Hopefully it will linger and next time I will not leave my camera in the car.

I did take the camera round to Mistley in the afternoon, where the godwits and Goldeneye were putting on a show.

New Year's Day on the patch

With rain forecast for around 11am, there was less than four hours of decent birding conditions for the first day of 2014. I say 'decent', but the 20 knot south-westerly gave it more of a 'below average' feel.

A hooting Tawny Owl at 5.18am was first up from the comfort of my bed, with a Robin second on the list as I set foot outside at 7.30. The honourable thing to do first was to check Alton Water to see if the well-settled Black-throated Diver was still in place. It was.

Standing by the dam as the morning sky reddened allowed me to aurally tick a few songbirds that otherwise would have been a pig to track down given the weather and the fact that my walking range is about 100 metres max at the moment. As I left the dam at 8.15 I was up to 36 species, missing a couple of dabblers in Gadwall and Shoveler. The church failed to turn up a Goldcrest, but a couple of Redwing were blown over and a rattling Mistle Thrush were useful additions to the day list.

Next stop was Alton Hall Lane for another check of the reservoir and any plastic geese. Last year a Pink-footed Goose got sucked in with the Greylags. This year I couldn't even find the flock. An unexpected bonus came in the form of a 50-strong flock of Yellowhammers in some stubble. I can normally bank on a calling bird at the end of the lane, but this sort of number was a real surprise. I shuffled a few metres in to the field to see what else was among them and had the briefest snatch of a call that made me think tree sparrow, but I couldn't be 100%. Last winter, some tree sparrows spent a few months in a garden within a stones throw of the field I was stood by.

I was down to Stutton Mill just before 9.30, two hours before high tide. The estuary was almost a moderate sea state, making it difficult to pick out birds in the channel. The roost was well occupied though until a Peregrine came in and razzled things up a bit.

Family duty called and by the time I left the Mill at 10.30, I was on to 61 for the day. Omissions included House Sparrow, Starling, Long-tailed Tit and Skylark. Had I been able to spend another hour there, a Marsh Harrier would have made it 62.