Week 9
I am glad I am not a pheasant[i], as the males are hugely territorial. The pheasant breeding season is just around the corner and the two cock pheasants on my land are battling it out for supremacy behind the log of a fallen Algerian fir. The smaller male is clearly having difficulty and I expect him soon to give up. For both, their red faces are swollen, and hormones have taken over. At this time of year a male pheasant may even attack a human. Steer clear of the bird when mating approaches[ii].
Meanwhile there are three females, hens, on the far side of my house. They stick together peacefully as the males sort out who will be first in the queue next month. Pheasant mating appears to be over in moments. I sense the bird does not understand the meaning of foreplay. At least one hen has set up shop on my front doorstep and has been there for some time, judging from the droppings. Pheasants can make large piles of scat - my birds clearly have overactive guts - with the individual pieces of scat being white at one end, to show it has been contaminated by urine. I rarely use the front door of my house, so the birds feel safe setting up home there. There is a small depression in the gravel nearby, where they have taken a dust bath. There is much pheasant activity taking place as the birds know they are not going to be shot and there are no domestic animals that gobble game birds. However, being rightly suspicious, the pheasants spend their nights halfway up a beech tree and then come to the ground at daybreak, where they peck and munch, protect their territory and wait for the mating season to begin.
The dead hedge is working hard already as a habitat for wildlife, mice[iii] especially. Within three days the hedge came alive and night-time, thanks to evidence gathered on my trail camera, shows the hedge to be crawling with tiny rodents, plus the occasional rat. The mice look to be field mice, judging by their large back feet and a tail that is as long as their body. I cannot see their colour as my camera has only shown them by night when the images are black-and-white.
There are six types of mouse in the United Kingdom, the commonest being the field mouse (wood mouse[iv]). I have some house mice as well, which come indoors when the weather is icy. House mice are different and have large eyes, a very pointed snout and lack the large back feet of the field mouse. I frequently find house mice in my humane mousetraps indoors and bait the traps with Lindt milk chocolate. House mice, especially the classy ones, are addicted to the stuff, as am I. I catch them, then release them at the far end of my land, only to find the mouse running indoors again, within moments. The mousetraps to avoid, if hurting mice is not your thing, are sticky glue boards, poison, and spring traps[v].
The only thing that will truly eliminate house mice, while keeping them alive, is warm weather. The moment unexpected cold weather returns, you can be sure the mice are not far away and will be headed into the house speedily. As yet, I have not seen a harvest mouse[vi] on my land but am keeping my eyes open, because the harvest mouse is the smallest rodent in Europe and has a prehensile tail with which it can control and handle objects. It is almost like a mini monkey. Nor have I seen a dormouse[vii]. In fact, my knowledge of mice is appalling, and I have much learning to do.
The land is coming alive at the moment. There are shoots sprouting almost wherever I look. Some I recognise, but plenty I do not. The daffodils are still taking their time, despite me seeing them in full flower in other parts of the county, and certainly in the south of the UK, which I visited a few days ago. My daffodils are manifestly the slow variety, not helped by local dustmen who empty my bins and then replace them firmly on top of my daffodil shoots, untroubled by the vegetation they have just destroyed.
In addition to tardy daffodils, I am surrounded by natural history. Hidden in the shade of a length of hedge - my apologies that it is a struggling cypress leylandii[viii] but my excuse is that it was there before I moved in - are the elegant, waxy green leaves of a Hart’s-tongue fern[ix]. How they stay so green escapes me when they receive barely any sunlight. Yet this fern is a strong indicator of what was once ancient woodland[x]. These are areas of woodland that have persisted since 1600 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and 1750 in Scotland, so have had tree cover for hundreds of years. Sadly, just 2.5% of the United Kingdom is now covered in ancient woodlands, which are home to more threatened species than any other habitat. Ancient woodland is irreplaceable. The Hart’s-tongue fern on my land, hiding under its hedge, is sending a strong message that we must take proper care and look after what little remains.
I received some worrying news this week, as Phytophthora ramorum is coming closer. It is a fungal root rot and stem decay and not a bug anyone should seek, the genus Phytophthora being one possible cause of the famous Irish potato famine in 1846[xi]. Some rhododendrons barely five miles away have now become infected and need to be chopped down and burned on site. It is what the regulations say. Phytophthora first came to the UK, or perhaps reappeared would be more accurate, on a viburnum in February 2002[xii], when it was delivered to a garden centre in Sussex. The first record of it then affecting a mature tree in the UK was 18 months later, when a 100-year-old southern red oak was infected. The fungus-like disease was initially more common in the south of the UK but has worked its way slowly north, especially on the west of the country. This is likely because it is so damp in the west, and Phytophthora adores water.
Some plants are more susceptible than others. Larch is at real risk, but so is rhododendron[xiii], and there is plenty of that on my land. Once, Phytophthora was someone else’s problem, rather like society sees climate change now. However, if the beast attacks my rhododendrons, a drama may unfold. There will be a lot of empty spaces on my land should that happen. Many believe that eradication of rhododendron is the most effective way of controlling Phytophthora. Above-ground symptoms often do not develop until root decay is well advanced[xiv].
Mass felling for the disease instinctively worries me. My analogy is the mass culling for the UK foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001. Six million animals were slaughtered, four million for disease control and two million for welfare reasons[xv]. Subsequent analysis a decade later, suggested that this level of culling may have been unnecessary[xvi]. For Phytophthora, the spore itself can survive in the soil, even leaf litter, for several years, especially if the soil is moist, and felling the tree will make no difference to this[xvii]. Resistance to the fungus is possible, albeit slow[xviii]. Ash dieback is another example of natural resistance gradually developing[xix], so I am not an enthusiast for a destructive solution to anything, Phytophthora included, if there is a chance Nature can lend a hand.
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Acknowledgement
Take it from me - none of this would be possible without the help of RSG Horticulture. Rufus, who runs it, has far more energy than me and is full of ideas and skills.
References
[i] Common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) Is not native to the United Kingdom. Likely introduced by the Romans 2000 years ago, for eating. The bird subsequently became a game bird and was then bred for hunting. See https://www.westovervets.co.uk/pheasant-attack/. Accessed 25 February 2023 [ii] Pheasant attack. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3tOjV2nehU. Accessed 23 April 2023 [iii] See https://www.pestdefence.co.uk/news/types-of-mice-in-the-uk-mouse-identification-facts/. Accessed 25 February 2023 [iv] Apodemus sylvaticus. Also known as long-tailed field mouse. See https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/mammals/wood-mouse. Accessed 25 February 2023 [v] Three inhumane mouse trap methods to avoid. See https://www.domeha.com/blog/2018/11/5/3-inhumane-mousetrap-methods-to-avoid. Accessed 23 April 2023 [vi] Micromys minutus. Endangered species. See https://ptes.org/get-informed/facts-figures/harvest-mouse/. Accessed 25 February 2023 [vii] Muscardinus avellanarius. Regarded as a delicacy in Ancient Rome. Nocturnal animals that hibernate for up to six months. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormouse. Accessed 25 February 2023 [viii] Cupressus x leylandii. Leyland cypress trees can grow to 40m. The foliage is dense and hides much of the trunk. The bark is red-grey with ridges, and twigs are slender, brown and flexible. As a sterile hybrid accidentally created in Wales from two species of cypress from North America, Leyland cypress is not found in the wild. It is fast-growing and therefore commonly grown in the UK as a hedge in residential areas. It grows well in most soils and prefers full sun. See https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/leyland-cypress/. Accessed 2 April 2023 [ix] Asplenium scolopendrium. Said to look like the tongue of a male red deer, once called a “hart”. Under threat in many countries and protected by law in The Netherlands since 1998. Used as a medicinal plant in folk medicine as a spleen tonic and known as an astringent, a cough medicine, good for the treatment of high blood pressure, dysentery, digestive problems and for healing wounds. See https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/plants/ferns/harts-tongue-fern/. Accessed 25 February 2023 [x] See https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/habitats/ancient-woodland/. Accessed 25 February 2023 [xi] Identification Technology Program. https://idtools.org/phytophthora/index.cfm?pageID=1874 [xii] See https://planthealthportal.defra.gov.uk/pests-and-diseases/high-profile-pests-and-diseases/phytophthora/. Accessed 25 February 2023 [xiii] Rhododendron ponticum et al. A huge genus with more than 1000 different species. Used as food plants by the caterpillars of some butterflies and moths. Seen as an invasive species in Ireland and the United Kingdom and is an introduced species. Azaleas are a form of rhododendron. Commonly bloom in the spring but can be seen throughout the summer. Has various health benefits such as being a natural pain killer, anti-inflammatory and its flower juice can lower cholesterol. It is anti-diabetic, antimicrobial, boosts immunity, is liver-healthy and prevents cancer. The national flower of Nepal and the state flower of India’s Himachel Pradesh. See entry of 8 January 2023 [xiv] See https://www.rhs.org.uk/disease/phytophthora-root-rot. Accessed 25 February 2023 [xv] See https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmpubacc/487/48703.htm. Accessed 23 April 2023 [xvi] Mass culling for foot-and-mouth 'may be unnecessary.' See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13299666. Accessed 23 April 2023 [xvii] Phytophthora Root and Crown Rot in the Garden. See https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74133.html. Accessed 23 A[pril 2023 [xviii] de Ronne M, Santhanam P, Cinget B, Labbé C, Lebreton A, Ye H, Vuong TD, Hu H, Valliyodan B, Edwards D, Nguyen HT, Belzile F, Bélanger R. Mapping of partial resistance to Phytophthora sojae in soybean PIs using whole-genome sequencing reveals a major QTL. Plant Genome. 2022 Mar;15(1):e20184. doi: 10.1002/tpg2.20184. Epub 2021 Dec 28. PMID: 34964282. [xix] Evans MR. Will natural resistance result in populations of ash trees remaining in British woodlands after a century of ash dieback disease? R Soc Open Sci. 2019 Aug 28;6(8):190908. doi: 10.1098/rsos.190908. PMID: 31598257; PMCID: PMC6731731.
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