Reading & District

Wildlife News

Tick survey

The RDNHS has many members who are active and spend a fair proportion of their leisure time out of doors. This is especially true in warmer weather when we are more likely to visit the countryside; grassland, wooded areas, parks and go out into our gardens.

There have been reports in the press that there is an increase in the number of ticks (Ixodes ricinus) which, as you are aware, can carry the bacterium (Borrelia burgdorferi) which causes Lyme disease. Ticks are more active in mild, warm weather and they have a shorter dormant period if the winter is mild. Currently most of the tick cases that have been reported are in the Southern part of the UK, with very few cases in the northern England and Scotland.

We wondered whether you could spare some time to complete a questionnaire (see here). On a recent RDNHS walk, one of our members picked up a tick and removed it with no mishap. We wonder how frequent an occurrence this is in this area. Please would all of you take the time to complete the questionnaire, negative answers are as valid as positive. One form for each tick bite. Please duplicate as necessary.

We will report the findings here and at a RDNHS meeting- details will be anonymous, there is no need to give your name unless you wish to.

Please return any completed forms (or negative responses) to the following email:

Slowworms in Cholsey

Tony Rayner regularly monitors the reptiles in and around his garden by examining tin sheets that he has scattered in the margins of fields and lawns. Slowworms are very common visitors and can be found quite early in the year but still Tony was surprised to find that on one transect on 3rd April 2008 he discovered about 30 slowworms and of those half a dozen appeared to be freshly born juveniles. Slowworms usually bear young towards the end of summer so it is a mystery why there seemed to be these early/late broods this year. Perhaps the cold summer in 2007 caused some females to hold-over the birth until the spring?

Summer/Autumn 2007

After a record warm and dry April this year we suffered what must be one of the wettest summers on record. This undoubtably had a very significan effect on our local wildlife but it wil be difficult to assess the longer term changes until next year. From my own personal experiences I know insects were far harder to spot and most emerged weeks later than they normally would, but the relative warmth of late August and September has prolonged the flight period of many late-season species. One such striking example was with the Hornet Robber Flies (Asilus crabroniformis) in Tony Rayner's meadow. He records the flight periods and population sizes each year and this year they emerged approcimately 3 weeks late than any other year, but individuals were still being seen on the 12th October, which is extremely late. This suggests that their emergence was delayed but the lack of really bad/cold weather in autumn has at least mitigated the damage by letting individuals live for a long time.

1st April 2006 - Humingbird Hawkmoth

Not an April Fool - I really did see a Humingbird Hawkmoth in my front garden. It was a bit nippy but the sun was very strong and the moth checked over my Aubretia plants for a few minutes letting me see it clearly from all angles.

We normaly get these moths as late summer migrants from continental Europe and I'm not sure if they have ever been recorded this early in the UK or whether they overwinter here. It is possible that this one was an 'escape' but I don't know anyone local that rears moths so it is a bit of a mystery.

22nd March 2006 - the 'Cholsey Otter'

Otters are very infequently seen in the Thames Valley area so you can imagine how surprised Tony Rayner was to be told at 8:30 in the morning that an Otter had been seen running across the Wallingford Road, just outside Cholsey! Tim Brett said that the shape he saw running across the road was large and definitely an Otter; and the fact that it was seen crossing near the bridge over the Cholsey brook seems to support this. The Otter was heading towards the river and was presumably returning from a night's foraging and using the brook as a familiar route back to the Thames. The sighting will be passed on to local Otter monitoring groups and we hope to have more news to report in the near future.

** STOP PRESS ** - 6th April @ 17:15

David Cliffe reports seeing an Otter in central Reading near "Blake's Bridge".