Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage

 

Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage (Chrysosplenium oppositifolium) grows as a gold-speckled pale green mat on the banks of small streams in shady places on rocks and in woods, throughout Great Britain. It varies in size from comparatively large specimens in lush, damp surroundings to small, dense tufts in more open, drier areas.

Plants grow up to 6 inches (15 cm) high, with flowering stems standing out from a low, sprawling mass of leafy shoots that take root at intervals. The rounded leaves, which are usually bluntly toothed, thin and crisp, grow as opposite pairs (hence the plant’s name). The stalks are about the same length at the blades.

Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage flowers from April to July. The flowers have four sepals but no petals. A raised, lobed disc surrounds the styles. The fruit opens by splitting along the inner edge.

The leaves were formerly eaten as a vegetable. It was once thought that their shape resembled that of the human spleen (hence the “splenium” part of the Latin name) and – to the medieval mind – that meant that they were designed by God to provide cures for diseases of that organ (this is referred to as the “doctrine of signatures”). Infusions of the plant were therefore drunk, as well as the leaves being eaten.

There is a related plant – alternate-leaved golden saxifrage (Chrysosplenium alternifolium) that has kidney-shaped leaves growing alternately. The stalks and flower stems are longer, and it does not have creeping stems so does not form mats. It is, however, more robust than opposite-leaved golden saxifrage and grows further inside crevices in mountainous regions.

© John Welford

Goshawk

 

The goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) is present all the year round in upland forested areas of northern and southern Scotland and northern England. A very efficient killer, it swoops through trees to take its prey unawares, killing its prey with its powerful claws. It is often trained as a captive falcon.

Adult males and females are similar in appearance to female sparrowhawks, but are considerably larger. One difference is that, unlike the sparrowhawk, they have a whitish streak running from the eye to the ear coverts. The overall plumage is brown on top and light-coloured with darker bars underneath. Male goshawks are up to 20 inches (50 cm) in size, and the larger females up to 24 inches (60 cm).

Goshawks take larger prey than sparrowhawks, such as wood pigeons, crows, rats and hares.

The wing strokes are usually long and slow in their display flight. When hunting, goshawks fly swiftly and surely between trees.

Goshawk nests are substantial platforms of sticks, lined with green leaves or pine needles. 3 to 5 eggs are laid, usually in April or May. Incubation, almost entirely by the female, takes upwards of five weeks. The chicks are fed at first on morsels of food brought to the nest by the male but given to them by the female. As the chicks grow and demand more food, both parents provide it.

© John Welford

Mossy saxifrage

 

Mossy saxifrage (Saxifraga hypnoides) is a plant that, although it can occasionally be found growing wild in lowland sites in the United Kingdom, generally prefers hills and mountains, notably in Snowdonia, the Pennines, the Lake District and Scotland, sometimes as high as 4000 feet (1220 m) above sea-level. An alternative name is Dovedale moss, which refers to a location in the Peak District.

It can assume widely diverse forms, depending on its environment. In very moist sites it may be long and trailing, but in drier or more exposed areas it will form a wide, creeping mat. It usually grows on mountain ledges and scree, if the soil is non-acid, and on open, grassy hillsides.

Mossy saxifrage can grow to between 2 and 8 inches (5-20 cm) in height. The leafy lower shoots spread in a tangled mat, while the flowering stems carry little foliage. A notable feature is that some of its branches are barren and others fertile, carrying attractive white flowers (between May and July) in groups of 1 to 5. The flower buds are often tipped with pink. The sepals do not bend back but remain upright. When ripe, the fruits split at the top.

This is a wildflower that has also found a home as a garden plant, its creeping nature and showy, white flowers making it a popular edging plant for herbaceous borders and a fill-in plant in rockeries.

© John Welford

Montagu's harrier

 

Montagu’s harrier (Circus pygargus) is very similar in appearance to the hen harrier, and was only recognised as a separate species in 1802 by the Devon naturalist George Montagu, hence the name. The hen harrier is far more common in the United Kingdom, with Montagu’s Harrier being one of Britain’s rarest breeding birds, limited to a few pairs in southern England.

Adult male Montagu’s harriers, which are more slightly built than hen harriers, are up to 16 inches (40 cm) in length. They have black wing-bars and brown streaks on the whitish underwings and flanks. The upperparts are grey and underparts white. Females are brown above and white streaked with brown below, with a narrow white rump patch.

The flight is buoyant with the wings raised in a shallow V.

Montagu’s harriers often perch on posts that overlook grassland as they scan the ground for prey that includes insects and small mammals.

The Montagu’s harrier winters in Mediterranean regions and tropical Africa and those that nest in Great Britain arrive in April, settling down in pairs by the end of May or early June. The nest will be on the ground among vegetation in any kind of open country, including farmland and sand dunes.

The eggs are laid at intervals of up to three days with incubation beginning as soon as the first egg is laid. The young hatch at the same intervals after four weeks.

The female greets the male as he brings food for her and the hatched chicks. The prey is passed from foot to foot in midair or, if dropped by the male, will be caught by the female before it hits the ground. She will share the hunting after around three weeks. The chicks fledge at around five weeks and all the birds will fly south in September.

© John Welford

Red-breasted merganser

 

The red-breasted merganser (Mergus serrator) is one of only two species of sawbill duck (the other being the goosander) that breeds in the British Isles. The red-breasted merganser has a long history of residence in Scotland and Ireland. However, since about 1950 they have spread into England, breeding as far south as Derbyshire and also into Wales.

Red-breasted mergansers grow to around 23 inches (58 cm) in length. Adult males have dark green heads and reddish-brown breasts and necks. The head has a double crest. Females are brown on the head and neck, the colouring merging into the breast. Their white wing patches are most noticeable in flight.

Flight is fast and direct, with the neck and body outstretched to produce a long, narrow shape.

The term ‘sawbill’ refers to the finely serrated cutting edges on the bills that enable red-breasted mergansers to grasp slippery fish. When fishing, they often swim with the head under water before diving to catch their prey.

Red-breasted mergansers have suffered persecution in the past due to their liking for young trout and salmon. However, they also eat species including eels, perch and pike which prey on the eggs and young of salmon and trout.

The nest is a shallow depression in the ground, lined with grass, leaves and down, that is sited near a river or lake and often in thick vegetation which makes it difficult for a predator to find. From late April to early July the female lays and incubates 8 to 10 eggs that take a month to hatch. When she leaves the nest to feed, she camouflages the eggs with down. When hatched, the ducklings are attended to by the female on her own. They can fly around two months after they hatch. Only one brood is reared each year.

© John Welford

Meadow saxifrage

 

Meadow saxifrage (Saxifraga granulata) grows in non-acidic well-drained soils, mainly in the eastern parts of the United Kingdom such as the Breckland area of Norfolk. It used to be more widespread in meadows throughout much of Britain, but the uprooting of hedges has been a major element in its decline.

Meadow saxifrage grows up to 20 inches (50 cm) in height, each plant having a single stem that is straight and hairy until it branches near the top. It has long-stalked, kidney-shaped leaves that are hairy and toothed or lobed. Leaves that encircle the base may wither when the flowers appear. The flowers, which appear between April and June, have narrow white petals with green veins. When ripe, the fruit splits open at the top to release the seeds. Tiny bulbs form where the stalks of the lower leaves join the stem. These bulbs are the means by which the plant perpetuates itself.

The word saxifrage means ‘stone-breaking’, and it is possible that this name was originally given to the plant by the Romans because they found it growing in crevices of rocks and wrongly assumed that it had been responsible for breaking those rocks apart.

However, according to Pliny the Elder, the plant was given the name because it had the medicinal power of breaking up gallstones in the bile duct. This idea almost certainly came from the ancient belief that plants with powers to cure disease display a sign to indicate how they should be used. It was therefore ‘obvious’ that a plant that grew stone-like brown bulbs around the base of its stem was intended to dissolve small stones in the body.

© John Welford

Anhingas (darters)

 

The Anhingidae family of birds is closely related to other families within the Sulae suborder, which includes gannets, boobies, cormorants and shags. However, the four species that comprise the Anhingidae show several features that set them apart from birds such as the cormorant to which they might, at first sight, appear to be similar.

 

The four species are the anhinga or American darter (Anhinga anhinga), the Oriental or Indian darter (Anhinga melanogaster), the African darter (Anhinga rufa) and the  Australasian or Australian darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae). They are long, slim water birds that inhabit tree-lined margins of freshwater lakes and rivers in tropical and warm temperate regions, only rarely being found in brackish waters. Their regional distributions are suggested by their names, but the differences between the species are not all that great. Indeed, they can almost be thought of as four subspecies of a widely distributed species, the anhinga or darter, which is also sometimes called the snakebird. Another name used in the United States is water turkey, which is strange in that any presumed resemblance to a turkey must be the product of a very vivid imagination! However, this may have something to do with the anhinga’s appearance on the Southern table as meat.

 

The anhinga is between 32 and 36 inches in length, which makes it similar in size to a cormorant, but their heads are slimmer, their bills longer and thinner and unhooked, their necks longer, and their body feathers thicker. Males and females are differently coloured, unlike cormorants. However, one feature that anhingas have in common with cormorants is that their flight feathers are relatively permeable to water, so they need to spread their wings to dry after they have been swimming. They also lack air sacs under the skin and have quite heavy bones, which is an aid when diving.

 

Female anhingas tend to be slightly larger than the males, but with smaller bills. Males have generally dark plumage with the females being lighter in colouring.

 

Anhingas are strong fliers, with steady and rapid wingbeats, but they glide and climb more than cormorants. They can sometimes be seen riding warm air currents several hundred feet up, with wings outstretched and necks and legs extended, thus forming a cross shape.

 

Anhingas from the northern part of their North American range will fly south for the winter, which is when they are sometimes found in more brackish waters.

 

Anhingas only enter the water to escape from danger or to feed. They can swim completely underwater, with nostrils closed, or with the body submerged and only the head and neck above the surface. This latter mode is what gives them the “snakebird” epithet.

 

The name “darter” is equally well deserved, as this refers to the bird’s method of catching their prey. The neck will be held in an S-shape and the rapier-like beak thrust suddenly forwards to spear a fish. This is then brought to the surface, tossed in the air, caught again and swallowed whole. Other prey includes frogs and salamanders, which are speared and then beaten to death against a rock. Crayfish and water insects also form part of the diet.

 

Anhingas nest in small colonies, often alongside ibises and herons. A bulky nest of sticks, lined with green leaves, is built in a bush or tree, anything from three to thirty feet above the water. The average clutch size is four eggs, although this can be as few as two or as many as six. Incubation, by both parents, can take up to four weeks, after which the chicks are fed by food regurgitated by a parent bird.

 

The chicks are born blind and naked, but are able to leave the nest when two weeks old, should the need arise. If danger threatens, a chick is able to fall into the water and swim ashore, although they are then very vulnerable to predators such as alligators. A chick can climb back to the nest by using its wings and neck as well as its feet.

 

Young anhingas fledge at six to eight weeks, staying close to the nest until they are ready.

© John Welford