Oaks & auks

Tom Pattinson’s delving into late season colour and singing the praises of indoor plants, and it’s national tree planting week

And, Tom Cadwallender’s in search of a small Arctic seabird that’s as tough as they come, and he’s looking at the curlew and the pressures they’re facing... Plus some top tips for the garden from Tom P.

Chapters

• 0:00 00:00:00: Intro and Theme tune
• 2:15 National Tree Planting Week
• 7:50 Auk spotting
• 13:33 Winter plants to lift the senses
• 19:16 A sad curlew tale
• 26:57 Jobs for the week with Tom P
• 32:30 Outro

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Nature Garden Podcast, with me, Carl Stiansen, and the Weekending Show Team from Lionheart Radio. 

Thanks for joining us on a canny wee wander down the garden path and country lane… with the birds and the bees, and the flowers and trees…

In this episode… 

It’s been a wee bit chilly of late… but don’t let that put you off gardening…Tom Pattinson’s delving into late season colours and singing the praises of indoor plants… and… it’s national tree planting week

And…. Tom Cadwallender’s freezing cold gannin alang the shoreline in search of a small Arctic seabird that’s as tough as they come….and… he’s looking at the curlew and the pressures they’re facing… 

Plus some top tips for the garden from Tom P…

All coming up… on the Nature Garden Podcast….

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00:00:00: Intro and Theme tune: Princess of the Ocean by Carl Cape Band featuring Steve Deegan, Carl Cape and Jamie Robb (fiddle).

Carl Stiansen: Hello… It’s National Tree Planting Week coinciding with a what is a great time to plant trees… as long as it’s not too cold… Tom Pattinson’s taking a look at the ins and outs of introducing a new tree or two to your garden space… 

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Tom Pattinson: audio (02:40):

Hello, I thought I'd start this week by reminding you it's National Tree Planting Week. It begins today, Saturday, November the 23rd and runs until Sunday, December the first. That's a week tomorrow. What is National Tree [00:03:00] Plant in week? Well, it's an opportunity for individuals and groups throughout the country to do something, a small thing in replacing trees that we've lost some through the bulldozing of areas in the rainforests throughout the world, some of them through disease. In fact, it was a disease that sparked off the national tree planting week way back in the early seventies. Dutch [00:03:30] Elm disease wiped out millions of our trees in this throughout our country. And in response to that, the tree council decided in 1975, we'll launch a tree planting week once a year to remind people and so people feel they're contributing towards the nature and the wellbeing of their own surroundings and the planet and it's run ever since then, [00:04:00] where you're going to get the trees from and where you're going to plant them.

(04:04):

Well, I guess the choice begins at the local nursery or of course you can do it mail order online, but if you go to the local nursery, you have a choice you can see and pick your own. You'll find some of them are grown in pots, pot grown, so they have lovely ball of ruon. In fact, in theory you could plant them anytime in the year. They're expensive, more expensive [00:04:30] than the bare rooted type, but this is the time of year. You can plant bear rooted types, no salt on the roots, examine them if they're coming by mail through the post, then of course you've got to check 'em first when soon they arrive. What generally happens is the roots are dried out a wee bit. You can get round that easily by filling a bucket with water plunging the roots of your tree [00:05:00] or any trees you've got into that bucket and leaving them certainly overnight.

(05:06):

If there's frost around, you don't plant. It's not a good time to plant. You need to have a frost free day. So if the frost say lingers for a few days, if you can break some soil, break the frost on the top, get the roots into the soil temporarily, not permanently, then do so. If you can do that [00:05:30] in a mild day, it's a useful thing, a holding operation before you start planting. When you do plant, where are you going to plant? You just can't just go outside your own property and plant on land which is owned by someone else. You have to have permissions whether you're in a group or an individual, there must be permissions. So it's wise to follow that line up within your own property. You can plant anywhere [00:06:00] you wish. If you own it, you own the land, the garden, it's yours.

(06:05):

But what are you going to plant? And this is a careful one to consider because Ash Beach for example, they'll go up tens of metres above into the sky, send a large canopy out that cuts out the light. That's not good thing. And generally speaking, the area of the canopy that is [00:06:30] the branches and the leaves and everything above ground generally is reflected by the roots underground. So if you plant too closely to the house, the roots are going to damage the foundations of your house or any structures in the garden. The top growth, the canopy. If it covers or reaches the guttering or the tiles, you have a problem there as well. Google for yourself online or search online [00:07:00] and you'll find safe planting distances you generally find for the toilet trees, it's something in the nature of 10 metres, at least 10 metres morph you if you can spare it away from the house on any buildings. The smaller ornamental trees say cherries, crab apples their fairly safe distance or planting distance is at least four or five metres from the house. Bear that in mind when [00:07:30] you're choosing a tree and good luck. I hope you get some planting done or join a group doing the planting throughout the next week.

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(07:50): Carl Stiansen: audio: Tom Cadwallender’s back from sunny Peru to a rather chilly Northumberland and he’s out and about… in the thick of it… on the coast… looking out for some small birds that are super-tough fans of the Arctic weather...

Tom Cadwallender: audio: (08:10):

Gosh, it's freezing. I'm perished. I've got my thickest winter duvet jacket on. I've got gloves. I've got two pairs of trousers over trousers. I've got my thermals on everything. Why? Well, it's cold for a start, but why am I cold? Because [00:08:30] I've just been out onto the coast onto the shore at Seton Point locally and we've got this really fantastic blow from the north. You may have seen on the weather forecasts this arctic blast of cold northerly air. This wind is just blowing straight down through the North Sea and you think, well, why are you outside your dafty? Well, actually it's because [00:09:00] I'm a keen bird watcher. I can't help myself at this time of year. In the wintertime back end of November when the north wind blows from the Arctic, the high Arctic things start to get stirred up up there. There are these small birds up there that spend all their time on the sea.

(09:19):

They are called little auks and they're related to puffins, they're related to GMOs to raise the bills. And they're little A is [00:09:30] the idea that they're quite small. In fact, they are smaller than the other guys, but they're not tiny, but they are smallish and they are kind of at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to size. But anyway, the point is these birds get displaced from their northern wintering areas. They to be on the sea. These guys are tougher as old boots. They love to be on the sea. They've got black wings and they've got wide bellies and they feed on small kind of [00:10:00] fish that live in the cold ocean. They really are cold water specialists, no doubt about it. But anyway, back to the plot. They get blown displaced from their northern kind of habitats down through the North Sea.

(10:18):

And this is a regular phenomenon. They'll get blown right down because of this blast. It's actually blast. And when we bird watchers, when we see this, we kind of get out on the coastline because all of [00:10:30] these little auks are relocating, they're scooting. They don't want to be down here, they don't want to be down in the North Sea. They don't want to be off the Northman coast or further south. They want to be back in the Arctic. They want to be back up there and they will pass by in their thousands and just today off the Northumberland coast, there must have been easily a thousand birds. All told. People have been watching them from various points and we were nipping down to the Seton point [00:11:00] and we got a few under our belt there and almost as soon as I set my scope, it was great actually.

(11:05):

I sat down next to a pole and I said, have you seen Muchin? And he said, yes. And I put my scope almost the first bird I saw was a little auk scooting up and Muriel was quite pleased to get her eye on that because it's a good bird for your year list and good, good bird for your monthly list for the patch. Anyway, we were watching these birds and [00:11:30] we must have seen them about 30, 40 or perhaps even 50 of them quite close in too. And they're quite spectacular when they go by. It's great fun. And there was a tale I was telling her, my friend actually back in, oh I dunno, about 10 years ago I was looking for a similar situation. I was looking for little auks, big, big northly blow, and I was sitting with a pile looking at the scene.

(11:57):

I'm saying, why aren't we seeing these little [00:12:00] auks? We are peering out there looking hard, looking hard. Why aren't we seeing these little auks? Then we just sort of took back from our telescopes and looked up and they were actually flying over our heads. So on land flying over our heads, it was incredible they were going through like that. But yes, and the other species associated with them, we're seeing good numbers of kittiwakes. Again, this will be the same principle kittiwakes, which breed in this part of the world, but [00:12:30] they don't winter here. They will be in the North Atlantic. They'll be out at sea because they're really another tough as old boots species and they get relocated or displaced if you like, back down into the North Sea, but they don't want to be here. And so they're scooting by in huge numbers.

(12:48):

There's tens of thousands of those guys going past. So yes, today was a cold and not miserable though. It was cold day because we got to see [00:13:00] little auks and it's not every day you get to see little auks, these arctic little terriers. I think they're brilliant actually, and it cheers me up no end and I'm really happy and even though I'm freezing, I'm going to get back in. I'm going to have a hot toddy and I'm going to be fine with my tales of little auks. Anyway, it's another tale from the North Sea, another tale of birdwatching. Brilliant, love it. Gan canny folks. 

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Ident audio: Tom Heap: I'm Tom Heap from Country [00:13:30] File and you are listening to the Nature Garden podcast.

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Carl Stiansen: audio: (13:34):

Tom Pattinson's enjoying some indoor plants and their cold weather cheer like orchids and primulas on frosty cold days. Plans to keep you happy, whatever the weather says, Tom.

Tom Pattinson: audio: (13:51):

Well, those long heady days of summer have past, I'm afraid the garden isn't looking as bright as [00:14:00] then, but that doesn't mean there's absolutely nothing to see and enjoy. Even fragrances from some of the shrubs. I'm thinking of the viburnum Boe, dawn pink tinged flowers started flowering in late October and goes through to march, April all the way through winter. Highly fragrant, beautiful, and then there's no fragrance coming from the winter, Jasmine, Jasmine and [00:14:30] broom with those yellow flowers, but it is there and admirable to look at it and see how it stands up to the frosty evenings. And then of course there's the so-called autumn cherry that for me it flowers all the way through, starts flowering in that late October period, and it too goes up to the point of April, beautiful pale pink tinged flowers. I'm thinking it's sella autumn. [00:15:00] Dawn is the hybrid, the one I'm thinking of.

(15:06):

Beautiful pink, pink tinge and fragrant. There's the long yellow EMS of the certain fragrant, two of the mahonia, japonica, mahonia charity, all those things. But there are days when it's just not possible to get out into the garden. One of these occurred just [00:15:30] this week. I woke up one morning, everything was covered in snow, just mounds where the shrubs were. Not much you can do then greenhouse work, of course, but I've got gardening indoors and many of you have got an aspect of gardening and plants that is in your homes which keep you pleasantly happy and occupied throughout the year. There's so many to choose from. I've brought quite a few of the [00:16:00] plants of summer from the summer, summer garden and summer greenhouse into the conservatory or garden room as we call it because there's so many flowers in it in the house. The thing we need in there is a modicum of warmth overnight for those frosty nights.

(16:20):

So I have a heater which is set a 10 degrees Celsius, which is the minimum I put my potted plants through. [00:16:30] So some of the plants in there are in dormancy. They're just ticking over throughout winter and quite a few of them are coming up to flower or they have berries or they have some super foliage and that's what I'm enjoying at the moment. So the other day when it was snowy outside, I was doing a bit of research through the catalogues for plants for next year and seeds for next year and in their company it's so good. So [00:17:00] how do I look after them during winter? Well, of course watering is important. Those end dorm. See, I don't give them very much water at all. In fact, two or three lovely geraniums or pelargoniums with fancy coloured leaves, they're just ticking over. I've pruned them back and the compost gets quite dry, but they'll take that in their stride, little water for them, for goodness sake.

(17:26):

Not too much at this time of year, just the opposite of summer. [00:17:30] But there are some inactive growth and those are the ones I water when they require it. Sometimes it's once a week, occasionally it's twice a week, depends upon the temperature during the day in that room, they're in the garden room. The higher the temperature, the greater the evaporation through the leaves and from the compost. So watering gauge water is going to be watered. So what do I have in there? Well, Hassman of course [00:18:00] I have some Isaiah Indica, two of those to D Azalea, which flowering this time of year poche, which is that there's beautiful scarlet bracts. There's a yellow bracts and there's a white bract one as well. Quite a variety these days. And I have an orchid, the OPIS orchid, which is the simplest orchid ever to look after. It's been flowering for a year nonstop. Exactly. We bought it last November [00:18:30] and it's kept producing flowers, the real beauty. And then there's those annuals, the premiers of Konica Q Enes and they're just annual annual plants, but they're flowering now and cheering us up. Then the Cineraria, beautiful flowers, aria, lady’s purse, flowers, just gorgeous. There's so much choice. So get yourself to the garden centre and buy [00:19:00] one or two of these plants and they'll keep you happy. Put a smile on your face even if it's snowing outside in the morning.

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Carl Stiansen: audio: (19:20):

Now a bit of a tricky one, Tom CADs looking into the world of the curlew and some of the concerns about their numbers and extinctions. [00:19:30] It's a bit sad this report, but there's no point hiding away from the brutal facts. So over to you…Tom Cadwallender.

Tom Cadwallender: audio: (19:43):

Spending time on the Aln estuary. And you've heard me mention the Aln estuary before. It's my local patch and we're quite privileged to have lots of interesting birds here during the wintertime. And one of the species I'm particularly keen on is the curlew, [00:20:00] or to give its full name the European curlew. And they're not the Northumbrian breeding birds because the birds that breed in Northumberland and in the UK generally will spend their winters down in the southwest and perhaps even into northern Europe. Know the birds that we have here are birds from northern Scandinavia and they'll come here for the winter time. They'll spread right through east coast of UK and indeed into the west coast of the UK as [00:20:30] well. And they'll spend all their winter here and we will have something like 250 to 300 on this local estuary. It's quite a small estuary too, but they'll be feeding on the mer.

(20:42):

They'll be feeding in fields depending on how soft the substrate is. But it's quite interesting that yeah, there's these kind of curlews and you'll be familiar with them. You've heard me talk about them before. Yeah, the long build de curved and [00:21:00] they'll stand about sort of 10 to 12 inches, perhaps even 14 inches tall. Females tend to be bigger than males and they have longer bills than the males, so they'll be the big ones. But it's interesting that there are a number of species of curlews around the world. In fact, there are nine species of curlew, these long build birds and they're all kind of very similar. And the K that we have, as I've mentioned is the Eurasian or European Kew. [00:21:30] Closely related to that is the Eurasian Wimble, which breeds in Northern Europe and winters in Africa. Next along we have the Long Bill Curlew, which is almost identical apart from the length of the bill to the European one.

(21:50):

The Long Bill Curlew is found in North America and there is little whimbrel or little curlew as it's sometimes called. And again, that's another North [00:22:00] American species, very similar to the whimbrel that we have in this country. Next along is the far curlew, far eastern curlew is the bird that's found right out in Asia, but they have really long builds as well. It seems to be common denominator of this, but we do have the Ian whimbrel, which is a North American version of our whimbrele, and the taxonomist [00:22:30] will say that it's a different species. Some people think it is, people think it isn't. Then we go down to a species called the bristle side Curlew, that's a name the country with is it not? They breed in West Alaska and winter on some of the atolls in the Pacific Ocean, which is quite an amazing feat when you think about it.

(22:54):

And there are two other species of curlews which are kind of really sort of causing [00:23:00] us some real concern. Not that the other species are not causing us concern because the Eurasian curlew is under some pressure and we often hear about the dwindling numbers of the Eurasian curlew breeding in the UK and that is indeed a concern. But there are other species which are further on the brink and there's the Eskimo curlew, which is a North American species and it breeds in the far, [00:23:30] far north or it used to and the winter in South America, but there hasn't been a record of Eskimo curlew since the 1960s, and that gives you a clue. There used to be millions and millions of them. So they say reading the old texts and you think, well, what happened to them? Well, hunting for example really sort of caused an awful lot of issues for these birds and change in habitat, but hunting [00:24:00] pressure in North America has been kind of downfall of this species, the Eskimo curlew.

(24:05):

Can you imagine? And the other species of curlew that we kind of think about it is the Slender Build curlew, quite an evocative species, and I'm just reading a little kind of article or paper that's just been produced and a sad news indeed sad news because the Eskimo Curlew last sighting was in Morocco [00:24:30] was in 1984, and the sad news is this paper has produced, produced the idea that it's, it's been declared extinct. Imagine that we shall never see the like of Eskimo curlew or slender build curlew ever again because they have been made extinct. It's quite frightening when you think about it. Really in this day and age, we are losing species hand over fist and what's happening, [00:25:00] it's precious on the species. Whilst the SLE bill curlew is a bird that was kind of on the brink in modern times and it's now kind of turned up in the UK in only very, very small numbers if indeed at all.

(25:18):

There's a record back from the late 1980s, 1990s of a bird in Northumberland, but that's now been disputed and I think it's been struck off the list, [00:25:30] but yes, it's gone. Eskimo kill you, gone bristle side curlew. The bristle thighs are quite evident on this species, but under an awful lot of pressure. All of these curlew species are somewhere on the ICUN list somewhere. They're saying that they're kind of endangered and the European curlew, the Eurasian curlew is heading the same way. It's now on the red [00:26:00] data list, which we have in the UK and whilst they breed here the winter here, there's an awful lot of problems we have with them and it's mainly, mainly pressures from loss of habitat and the damp corners of uplands have largely gone and it's gone. The breeding habitat is just disappearing hand over fist. It's a real concern and it's frightening, but the sad news is all [00:26:30] these long build wading birds are on the edge. They're so specialised, they're on the edge of extinction, and as I've just mentioned, the Slender Build curlew is now officially extinct. What a sad world this is. When we think about these birds going extinct. Oh, it's kind of depressing, really Sorry about that.

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Carl Stiansen: audio: (27:00): And so here's Tom with some things to be getting on with in the garden.

Tom Pattinson: audio: (27:16):

Gosh, Carl, I'm pleased you remember the tea break. I got so carried away talking gardening, I forgot about it. Anyway, it was very nice break. Thank you. It’s ‘Jobs for the Week’ Time bulbs, [00:27:30] hippie astro, you've probably heard of hippie Astro. It's for sale at this time of year, either just by the bulbs individually yourself or buy a little package. Sometimes it makes a nice little present for someone for their birthday or Christmas. It comes in a package with a container, the compost and a large bulb. All you have to do is moisten the compost it, get into the pot and moisten it and just stand the hippie astro bulb on top and you watch [00:28:00] it grow. That's part of the fun. Put it in a well-lit window in a slightly warm room. It doesn't get too cold at night and the sensor shoot up.

(28:10):

The roots are developing all the time, of course, and this should grows and grows. It goes up like a skyrocket 30 centimetres, 35 centimetres, 40 centimetres, and so it goes on quite amazing, really and beautiful. Three lily like flowers at the top on a single [00:28:30] stem, sometimes four, and when they're faded, they last quite a while. When they fade, you just let them die down naturally with the whole of the stem, quite a thick stem, and all the goodness goes back into the bulb for next year. It's a perennial, keep it for next year. The other bulb on my mind is high sense. If you had a chance to put some down or pots them up and put 'em in the dark weeks and weeks ago to form some roots, they should be coming out of the dark now [00:29:00] because the chutes are ready to show, and you'll have those flowering just before Christmas as well.

(29:07):

You can buy them individual pots, well-rooted, just small pots with the chutes showing above ready to grow and buy them in threes or fives and get them into a bowl with some fresh compost and cover the top of the bowl with some moss. Looks very natural, and they'll come and flower in that. The mosque [00:29:30] in my case comes from the lawn because the natural lawn, it's quite tidy actually, but there's quite a bit of mosques in. I don't fight against it. The birds use it for nesting. I use it to top off the bulls of bulbs at this time of year. Moving on, I love flower arrangements and foliar arrangements, some beautiful foliar plants in the garden, some silver variated, some golden varied. There's the honorous [00:30:00] emerald and gold and emerald gaity. Both of them are varied. There's the e Agnes with the silverish tinge to the leaves, beautiful pittosporum, silvery grey and green leaves, and of course the stems of dogwood, the red dogwood and that lovely pale green, almost yellow one at times.

(30:27):

That is corn iia. [00:30:30] That's it. Yes, lovely stems to put in, coloured stems, and of course the flowers. Vi Bernard, that's the viburnum. It has white groups of white flowers in the cluster. Quite pleasant. Not much fragrance to it, but it looks good in an arrangement. Gosh, there's much, much more to try to tell you, but just try using some of the items from the garden for arrangements. [00:31:00] Bring them into the house and have some good cheer in the house as well. It's nature's planting time. Don't forget that, which means that anywhere in between now and the point of spring next year, say late March, if there's no frost, you can actually plant plants that you brought in, introduce them to your garden, and especially bare rooted plants that is digging them up without a ball of soil around the roots. Ideal time. If they come [00:31:30] from the nursery and in a package, you've ordered them by mail order, then check them to see if they're dry.

(31:37):

If they are dry, just simply fill a bucket with water in the garage, plunge them at the roots into the bucket and leave them for a day or so and then plant them when you get the time. You can also look around the herbaceous border, herbaceous bands in the border. It's a good time for dividing them up, splitting them apart, digging them up, [00:32:00] splitting them apart, replanting and making some new plants for yourself. Then of course, if you're shifting, what are two plants around too heavy to lift? Say a young apple tree in the wrong place. Then simply lay some fabric down next to it. Dig it out, drag it up out of the hole on the fabric and drag it on a sledge like fabric to the next point of planting. Whatever you're doing over the next few days, enjoy your gardening.

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Carl Stiansen: audio: (32:30): Outro: 

You’ve been listening to gardener, Tom Pattinson; and birder, Tom Cadwallender from the British Trust for Ornithology.

Don’t forget, you can listen back to all of our previous programmes via@ the Nature Garden Podcast… that’s the Nature Garden Podcast… 

I’m Carl Stiansen… thanks for listening and enjoy your gardening and time outdoors with nature, bye for now….