Ferns - Are They Really a Menace?

Bracken dying back in winter…

So, of all the local plants that were kicking about when the dinosaurs walked this piece of the planet, one of the most interesting is the fern... And there quite a few varieties in and about West Dunbartonshire ranging from the ubiquitous bracken up on the hills, that’s already turned brittle and brown, to the more delicate ground-dwelling lady fern, still evergreen in the shade of the woods. 

This all sounds very lush and romantic,  so why should we be worried about ferns? Well, after racing through the bracken as a kid for years and even  using the fronds as pretend swords and spears it turns out that their spores can be carcinogenic. Bracken especially, has been shown to alter human DNA, and not in good way. (British Journal of Cancer 2000)

One frond of bracken can release 300 million spores.

So, what are we to think? Do we stay inside and hold our breath in a world already rampant with restrictions?  

Personally, I’ll avoid walking through bracken at certain times of the year. 

The Autumn is ‘spore time’ so we’re probably over the worst by now. Apart from breathing in those bracken spores there is concern that large quantities may end up in our water supplies or even in our food.

I began this article expecting to praise this complex and beautiful plant, but I’m not so sure now... stepping back a bit, it provides a habitat for pollinating insects and for beautiful birds like meadow pipits and yellowhammers...

Yellowhammer or Scotch Canary

Lady Fern

The Moss Under my Feet…

Spore-bearing capsules of fern moss

Well, we’ve looked at lichen, so it only seemed fair to take a squint at moss. If you live in the west of Scotland, you live in one of the best places to see the moisture-loving, non-vascular plant. It might not have any veins (known as xylem and phloem in plants) to transport water and sugars but it still harvests sunlight and CO2 which helps to produce some of the oxygen we need to survive. In fact there is a theory that we wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for the development of moss about 350 million years ago. Leaving algae and other primitive plants in the sea moss slowly covered the land and significantly increased the oxygen levels in the atmosphere. This may have initially caused an ice age, acting having a kind of anti-greenhouse effect which, in turn, could be the reason there was a mass extinction event at that time. Then again, moss is still a very efficient oxygen producer and is excellent at absorbing nitrogen dioxide, dust and other ozone gases. Just 4 meters square of moss has the same air purifying properties of 300 trees. As a result, many cities are creating moss sculptures, potentially combating a whole host of health problems.

Spongy, soft and damp to the touch, moss is actually quite beautiful close up.

They don’t have proper roots. Instead, they have a series of filaments or threads called rhizoids that anchor them down. Like lichen, moss can attach themselves to most things - trees, stone, soil... 

Interestingly, they have a very complicated sex life. Male and female plants have sperm and eggs respectively. The sperm travel through a film of water and have tails to help. The female plants even release a chemical that attracts the sperm. After the eggs are fertilised, stalks ending in capsules are produced and spores released into the air.  

There are over 12,000 kinds of moss and some of them are pretty useful. They are a big component of peat which is used for fuel and for smoking malt whisky. Moss itself was used as a dressing for wounds. High in iodine, it keeps the area sterile. It actually saved thousands of lives in World War One when the British army had run out of bandages. A Scotsman, a military surgeon called Charles Walker Cathcart identified two species of sphagnum moss that stopped bleeding and helped wounds heal. 

Juniper Haircap Moss

Moss has also been used in mosquito control as it purifies water and stops the flies breeding. Some mosses are used as diuretics and for coughs while the Romans had a more basic use for this moist, antiseptic, easily-plucked plant. It predates Andrex by about two thousand years. So no need to panic when the shops run out of toilet paper. Some tribes of Natives Americans used to line the baby’s cots with moss. Soft and sterile, it acted as a natural nappy. 

There are, of course, the potential medicinal uses for moss. Some are already used as diuretics, the Haircap Moss being one example. It’s said to be good at unblocking the urinary tract…

Finally, The saying ‘don’t let the moss grow under your feet’ is a bit of a malaphor. A blend of two proverbs - “don’t let the grass grow under your feet” and “a rolling stone gathers no moss”, both meaning don’t hang about, just get on with it.

A Squirrel’s Tale…

Red Squirrel minus ear tufts…

Scotland has two squirrel species: the native red and the grey which was introduced... Originally from the North American East Coast, the grey squirrel was brought over in the 1890’s. The population in and around Loch Lomond is said to have been introduced in 1892, when a pair were released from Finnart on the shore of Loch Long. From there they spread out and reached eastern Loch Lomond by 1915.  

Our red squirrels are thought to have come from North America too but much further back in time. Possibly about 14500 years ago when geologists now think there was a bridge of sand islands between America, Greenland and Europe. 

The problem with the grey squirrel introduction was that they out-competed the smaller reds. For example. they are able to digest acorns which have high tannin levels whereas the reds cannot. The bigger greys don’t ever seem to attack the reds but they do carry a disease called squirrelpox that is still deadly to the red population. However with the disease now mainly restricted to south east Scotland, and with proactive squirrel  management, the reds are making a bit of a comeback. Scotland has about 75% of the UK population of red squirrels, which represents about 115,000 individuals. 

You’ll often hear red squirrels before you see them as they chatter to each other or even stamp their feet when an intruder approaches. About the size of a man’s hand with the tail about the same again, their colour can range from a rusty orange to a deep brown but they usually have the characteristic ear tufts that make them so cute. Interestingly, the red squirrel in the picture is missing its ear tufts. This is because their tufts moult off in late summer and regrow again in late autumn. All part of the red’s transformation into its warmer winter coat. 

Both squirrels have ankles that swivel 180 degrees which means they can run up and down trees without having to go backwards.  

Reds mainly eat seeds or nuts but when these are scarce they will eat berries, shoots, fungi and even bird’s eggs. Like their grey cousins, they don’t hibernate during the winter but sleep a lot and snuggle up for warmth in their dreys. They also hide caches of food to see them through the winter but lose about 25% of their store to other animals or simply forget where they put their stash. If territories overlap, greys will often steal the red’s caches which may result in the female reds having one litter the following spring instead of two.

Grey Squirrel hiding acorns

Now back in the southern reaches of Loch Lomond the red’s long-time predator, the pine martin, a member of the weasel family, has followed them into West Dunbartonshire...

Lichen - The story so far…

A rock by the sea covered in at least three types of lichen…

It’s the grey stuff, the green stuff, the orange and yellow stuff you get on wood, stone and the soil that gives the world a bit more colour and texture, but it’s more than that...  

Lichens are a community, mainly made of a mix fungi (think mushrooms) and algae (think seaweed)...and sometimes cyanobacteria (think bacteria that behave a bit like plants) and at times, yeast (think bread, but mainly - think single-celled fungi). 

The fungus provides the structure, protecting the community from UV rays and supplying moisture to the other organisms which live there. 

The algae or the cyanobacteria, in turn, use sunlight to produce sugars which the fungi harvest by pressing their filaments through their bedfellow’s cell walls. 

The yeast element, only discovered in lichen around 2016, is thought to produce toxins that may protect the lichen from predation. 

So, Lichen is like a mini ecosystem but is it a symbiotic relationship, where all parties benefit, or is it like a kind of one-sided, bad marriage, where the fungi win? On their own, algae and cyanobacteria can manage ok, whereas the fungi shrivels and dies.

Lichenisation may be a fungal lifestyle that evolved about 600 million years ago. 

Lichen cover about 7% of the earth’s surface.  Some grow very slowly, and can live for 10,000 years, others spread rapidly and chalk up three foot in a year. 

There are over 28,000 different types, if you can think of a shape or a colour, there’s a good chance a lichen like that already exists.

There are about 1,600 species of lichen in Scotland and we have all three of the main types: the Crustose (Crusty growth form), Fruticose (Shrubby growth form) and Folios (leafy growth form). 

A crustose lichen, like the chewing gum lichen, is often found on curbstones. Named for obvious reasons, it prefers clean air. You won’t find it in polluted cities, so if you see something like that on the street in Kanpur, it really is chewing gum. 

Foliose lichen (leaf-like) fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and then make it available to the surrounding plants.

Shrubby lichen (fruticose lichen) are extremely sensitive to climate change and can be very important indicators of air purity. 

So, how do lichen benefit the environment? Well, some creatures use lichen for mimicry, some for nest material, some for food. 

We use them in the production of natural dyes, perfumes, litmus paper, and even for food in some places. The bigger use to humans may however, as yet, be untapped...

70% of all pharmaceutical drugs originate in nature and as lichens produce about 1000 unique chemicals, we’d be nuts to ignore them. 

This is worth thinking about as, according to recent estimates, 40% of all fungi are heading towards extinction…

Sometimes known as the coral of the forests, lichens are a vital part of our biodiversity. 

Sometimes, it’s not the bird in the tree we should be looking at but the lichen on the branch. 

Old man’s beard lichen is stretchy and was used as the original tinsel on Xmas trees. Seen here, hanging down as green filaments below the spotted flycatcher, it only grows where the air is particularly pure. So, good news for Balloch - Loch Lomond, where this picture was taken. 

Dung Today Pong Tomorrow…

Woodland Dor Beetle

Dung Beetles, sometimes called Dor Beetles or Scarabs, are in decline... not only are they reducing in numbers but many species have become extinct. The size of general insect extinction, about 40%, is one of the biggest extinction events in millions of years. 

So what? I hear you say... Well, take dung beetles as an example. They are really important creatures that save UK cattle farmers a fortune, about £370 million a year. However, the very farmers that need them may also be adding to their noticeable decline. Nothing worse than shooting yourself in the welly, eh?

So, how exactly do they save farmers money?

1. They burrow down and aerate the soil encouraging grass growth. Cows eat grass - ‘tick!’

2. They eat cattle dung and bury it. By removing it, they stop the build up of flies and other parasites that would hinder milk and beef production. 

3. They are also a food source for wild birds and animals that contribute to biodiversity which helps balance the ecosystem. Biodiversity - keeping a good and varied amount of different wild creatures, can even-out the impact of intensive farming and act as a kind of buffer against rapid environmental shifts, like climate change. 

So what’s causing this rapid decline in dung beetles?

1. The intensive use of cattle wormers, mainly the ML types. The ‘mectin’ drugs. They keep cattle free of parasites but they can also pass through the animal and effect the poo-munching, beneficial beetles. 

2. Soil disturbance, by machinery and animals, may churn up and kill beetle larvae. 

3. The disappearance of farm animals from long-established areas. For example, some estate owners now want to regrow the old Caledonian forests and remove sheep, cattle and even deer from the land. That all sounds great but, when it comes to nature - you can often do one thing and effect ten others... 

What are some farmers doing to help?

They are leaving ‘beetle banks’ ... a one meter strip of natural vegetation around fields.

They are worming their cattle when the dung beetles are dormant. This varies from place to place but is often late autumn or winter...

They may have higher stocking densities on pasture for a shorter time, this has been shown to help the dung beetle population.

What are the dung beetles doing? Here are a few amazing facts:

Dung beetles roll up the dung and drag it below ground to feed their young. They can actually bury 250 times their own body mass in one night. 

They can navigate by using the sun and stars. 

The dung beetle is the strongest animal on the planet. They can lift up to 850 times their own body weight. That’s like me being able to lift 10 elephants at once!

Male and females stay together  to make sure their larvae get a good start in life. 

Like bumble bees, they have little orange mites on them that use the beetles like buses to get from place to another. 

They often fly at night. (I was once hit on the side of the head by an Atlas Beetle in the Indonesian jungle. About the size of a golf ball, it almost knocked me out when I was just about to have a swig of beer. 

When it comes to cow pats, you get three types of dung beetle -  the tunneller, the dweller and the roller... use your imagination. 

They were worshiped by the ancient Egyptians. Perhaps they knew something we’ve now forgotten? The importance of the dung beetle.

The Egyptian god Khepri was represented by a scarab and was said to roll a new sun across the sky every day. I guess this comes from the dung beetle and it’s habit of rolling balls of poo across the sand... Interestingly, other great civilizations have creatures the move the sun across the sky. For example, the ancient Greeks had the Titan god, Helios, ride a golden chariot which dragged the sun across the sky each day from the east to the west. His chariot was pulled by four winged, fire-breathing horses that he alone could control. 

Scarab beetles were also used in funeral rites in ancient Egypt. Placed near the heart of the dead, they were supposed to stop the heart baring witness against the departed when they were judged. 

Some may come and some may go…

Willow Warbler

Migration... Quite a thorny subject these days, but in the animal world, it’s almost business as usual. 

Our fair-weather visitors include the obvious candidates like the Cuckoo, the Swallow, the House Martin and the Swift. All arriving from Africa between late March and April - but there is another among them who was perhaps less conspicuous, yet is our most common migrant. 

Two million pairs of Willow Warblers breed in the UK which is three times the amount of Swallows. Often hidden in trees and bushes, you just don’t notice them as much. 

Before that return journey to their winter home in South Africa, they stock up on as many West Dunbartonshire bugs as they can. 

Weighing only ten grams, that wee bird makes the 8,500 mile journey back to the Dark Continent for the second time. 

As the summer visitors check out the winter visitors check in. Redwings and Fieldfares travel here from Iceland in October. Members of the thrush family, they love our winter berries and often feed together in one big flock. 

One of the most beautiful birds to look out for is the Waxwing, with an elegant little tuft on its head and a robber’s black mask, it’s mainly light brown with flashes of yellow and red on its wings and tail. About the size of a Starling, it gets its name from those red wing-markings which reminded people of sealing wax.

Waxwing

It would be great if you could send any info on sightings to natureonthehoof@gmail.com

instinct or extinct..?

Could this blackbird give us an important heads up?

It always amazes me when I see a bird preen itself, build a complicated nest or simply arrive for the summer after navigating jungles, deserts and oceans... Who teaches them all that? The pre-programmed stuff, I mean. Of course, some say God and that’s that, but as a ex-scientist who also gets the whole God thing, I lean more towards instinct. 

When you look up the word it says that it’s ‘an innate, typically fixed pattern of behaviour in animals in response to certain stimuli.’

What stimuli? I hear you say...

Well, that depends. If it’s preening, it might be that the bird is too cold or too hot and somehow knows to rearrange its feathers and perhaps use an oil gland to smear them with another layer of protection. If it’s when to nest, it might be when there is a plentiful supply of food. Caterpillars, for example, might be more abundant in certain years than others and at different times, which may effect the bird’s nest-building timetable. 

As our climate changes, these imbued abilities might need to track the evolving environment. Research is already showing that some birds are performing better at adapting to changes in external stimuli than others. 

Some species of bird are now nesting about 30 days sooner than they did in the 1960’s, the blackbird being a good example; while others are sticking to their guns...? Is this natural selection at work? Will...or indeed, has climate change always been a big factor in natural selection. Because the climate has always changed on earth. We might not be helping just now but in the past, volcanoes and asteroids had dramatic effects on that big, complex, delicately balanced ecosystem that is our planet. Ask a dinosaur, if you don’t believe me. Oh, no, you can’t because they’re extinct. See!

Is instinct something that changes and adapts too...somehow..?

Well, there is already proof that birds are changing their migratory routes due to warming temperatures in Europe. These routes are thought to be instinctive, inherited genetically...and the timing of these journeys seems to be shifting.

This is worth watching, as pests that damage our food sources are often controlled by birds. The birds need to be here at the right time. Birds also clean up. They scavenge on the dead, removing foul-smelling carcasses before rats and other possible vectors of disease encroach. Birds also help with the pollination and general reproduction of many plants, including some of the fruits that we enjoy so much. 

One upside, is that more people watch birds these days than shoot them, so at least when the birds do arrive, we don’t blast them out of the sky any more. 

In my opinion, birds are worth watching, and not just for their obvious beauty. They may also act as a natural barometer that could give us an important heads up…

The Beetles…

No, not those Beatles but there is a link. Supposedly, John Lennon and his best pal Stu Sutcliffe were big fans of Buddy Holly and the Crickets so, they looked for a similar type of name for their band. Eventually, they decided on the Silver Beetles and then just the Beatles, changing the ‘Beat’ part to tie in with the music.

During spring and summer months, you might think you’re seeing a fly whir over your head on the lawn but it could easily have been a beetle exploring your garden. 

Beetles, or the order of insects known as Coleoptera, form the biggest animal group on the planet, making up 40% of all insects and representing 25% of all living, breathing things. There are over 360,000 species  characterised by a pair of sheathed wings, or ‘armoured’ layer, that surrounds a delicate second pair of functional flying wings beneath.

You might be familiar with ladybirds but there are so many more species in and around your home. Biscuit beetles may infiltrate your cupboards, ground beetles may scamper under your feet, but the ones I want to look at are the colorful soldier beetles that gather on flower heads during the summer months.  

One of the first beetles named due to the red colour of their coats, which reminded people of  the uniform of the British army, they are harmless to us but really good for your garden. The adults eat aphids, pollen and nectar, appearing more often than not on Hogweed, Daisies, and Ragwort where they spend the summer feeding and mating. They often gather in colourful little clusters. 

The larvae live at the bottom of grass stems where they eat snails and slugs so, yet again, good if you want to look after your lettuces or rescue your roses.

The sailor beetle, similar in habits to the soldier beetle, in that it flies over rough grassland hunting for aphids and caterpillars, is less common in Scotland. The beetle shown below is a Grey Sailor Beetle - Cantharis Nigricans, first noted in 1776 by someone with the surname of Müller, may suggest that it was a German sailor’s uniform that gave them the inspiration for its name.