Species of the month

The natural breeding range of the Atlantic salmon is massive from rivers along the east coast of North America to Europe, including our own River Wharfe. Unlike it’s relative the smaller Pacific salmon who make similar journeys up the rivers they were born in, return to the sea to repeat the journey another year, most of our larger Atlantic salmon do not survive the journey inland. Salmon are such popular fish, each part of their life cycle has been named. After hatching in the spring, they are called alevins, they then remain in the relative safety of the gravel for around a month. After which they emerge as fry, These fry soon become parr, and live in our freshwater rivers, feeding on invertebrates. When they reach 3 or 4 years old, they become smolts and head to sea.

Like all flies they start life in a larval stage, to find their dull grey maggots, known as ‘leatherjackets,’ check out short grass or mossy areas close to the edges of steams or ponds. They rarely eat after pupating into the familiar dangly adult, so at their leatherjacket stage they have to gorge themselves, they live just underneath the surface of the soil feeding on detritus, roots and plant material they drag down. After many months of eating they pupate in the soil before emerging as the not so elegant long legged Cranefly, leaving a crunchy black/brown cask poking halfway out of the soil.

The female Cranefly is larger than the male but with shorter wings than her abdomen. Whilst males are generally smaller with relatively longer wings. Females produce between 200 and 300 eggs and emerge as an adult insect full of eggs, ready to meet a male. Because they are burdened with all these eggs, females are not able to fly very far, mating must take place as soon as possible, so the eggs can be laid. 14 days later the larvae (leatherjackets) hatch and start feeding immediately. The leatherjackets spend the winter in the soil and can continue to be active in temperatures as low as 5°C.

The larvae of the Cranefly (leatherjackets) play an important role in the food chain of many other animals. They have a long list of predators, including mammals such as shrews, hedgehogs and moles. Many birds, including blackbirds, starlings and woodpeckers will also hunt leatherjackets. As adults they are still tempting targets for birds, which might explain why their thin long legs are so weakly attached to their abdomen and can easily break off to escape an attack. There are a lot of myths around craneflies; they’re sometimes said to be one of the most venomous insects, but this is not true, they are actually completely harmless. They don't have any poison! And although they superficially look like mosquitos, they do not bite

Roe deer are dainty creatures with large black eyes, nose and big ears. They have a body size a little smaller than a Labrador, but with long graceful legs. The males (bucks) sport small antlers, which have three points when fully grown. Roe deer vary in colour throughout the year, being most distinguishable now and throughout the summer when their coats are rusty red. In winter, their coats turn a dull, slate grey colour. Both sexes have a prominent white rump and appear to have no tail, as it is actually very small in comparison to other deer species.

Roe’s use well-worn paths across their range, leaving small hoof prints about 4 cm long in soft ground and small piles of faeces, the scat will usually be cylindrical with a dimple one end and a nipple on the other. The Buck will mark his territory by scraping at trees and laying scent from the glands in between their toes, whilst also frequently urinating to mark their territory. Roe deer are generally found in open mixed, coniferous or purely deciduous woodland, particularly at edges between woodland and open habitats, you can see why the Chevin Forest Park is ideal territory for them!

The Roe deer’s diet is varied and includes buds and leaves of deciduous trees and shrubs, bramble, rose, ivy, herbs, conifers, ferns, heather and grasses. They eat buds and leaves from trees and shrubs, as well as ferns, grasses and heathers. One of their favourite foods is plentiful up on the Chevin, Beech nuts. Unfortunately, the eating habits of deer can sometimes have a negative impact on woodland ecosystems. By feeding on young trees, deer can prevent the natural growth of new woodland. Large numbers of deer can also eat plants that other wildlife, such as birds and insects, depend on for food and shelter. Historically, predators such as wolves and lynx would have kept deer numbers in check, limiting these impacts. Whilst the adults have no natural predators left; the young are occasionally taken by foxes.

Incredibly the doe has evolved a delayed implantation strategy, the roe deer is in fact the only hoofed animal in which delayed implantation occurs, so that the young are not born during the harsh winter months. Once fertilised by the buck, the doe keeps the egg in her overies until late December and then implant it to the womb and 5 months later the kids (usually two or three) are born in May/June, a time of plenty in terms of food. Young Roe deer make a high-pitched whistle to attract their mothers when they become lost.

Buzzards are monogamous and once paired will mate for life. A male attracts a mate, or impresses his existing one by performing spectacular aerial displays often called ‘roller coasters’.

The bird flies high in the sky, then turns and plunges down, twisting and turning in a spiral, to rise again immediately and repeat the display. From March to May, a breeding pair construct their nest in a big tree on a branch or fork, the nest is a bulky platform made of sticks and decorating it with fresh green foliage, where the female lays two to four eggs.

Buzzards will eat a wide range of food, principally small mammals but also birds, reptiles, amphibians and earthworms! Whilst they are impressive high fliers, their favourite hunting technique is to perch on bench posts, dead tree, rocks etc and scanning surroundings, then sweeping directly onto its located prey. In fact they spend so much time quietly sitting around, if you spot a large bird perched on a telegraph or fence posts it is very likely to be a Buzzard.

Whilst the Buzzard is our most common bird of prey now, this hasn’t always been the case. Persecution by gamekeepers and the use of pesticides meant the species had disappeared from most of the country by the mid-20th century. In Scotland, the buzzard is sometimes called the ‘tourist eagle’ due to visitors mistaking it for the larger bird. Before you see them, you are likely to first hear their iconic call, often described as a cat-like ‘’meow” or “kee-yaaa.” Their call is so impressive is it often played on TV when filming an eagle, as the eagle call is much more subtle.

Frogspawn is fascinating, there can be up to 2000 small black eggs, each surrounded by a 1 cm jelly capsule. The raft of spawn is over 99% water but loses heat to the surrounding water very slowly, maintaining a nice warm temperature inside for the egg. Each of the many eggs are also permeable, so everyone gets their share of oxygen from the surrounding water. As the tadpoles grow they become faintly speckled with gold and brown, this is how you can tell them apart from the Common Toad tadpoles which remain all black. At about 16 weeks old, the tadpoles gradually change into froglets by first growing back legs, then front legs and finally by ‘absorbing’ their tails. This process is known as metamorphosis.

After populating your pond with tadpoles, adult frogs become our allies, if allowed to do so they can clear out those pesky slugs and snails from your garden! As adults, Common Frogs have smooth skin that varies massively in colour from grey, olive green and yellow to brown, amazingly they are able to lighten or darken their skin to camouflage with their surrounding environment and improve their chance of survival. Adult Frogs can live up to 10 years old, if they don’t get eaten first by their many predators; including grey herons, foxes, otters, birds of prey and domestic cats.

In winter frogs hibernate in pond mud, under log piles or in compost heaps. This choice of sleeping on the land or under the water is possible because the oxygen uptake through the skin is enough to sustain the frogs during hibernation. They will take advantage of milder patches of weather throughout winter, by waking up to forage. At around 3 years old the adults are ready to make more tadpoles, as soon as they wake up in early spring, they will head to a pond to breed and the cycle begins again. At this time of year it is the tiny ‘adult’ frogs you should look out for, leaving the pond for the first time to try out their land legs!