FRIENDS OF BEDFORD CEMETERY NEWS PAGE

WORK NOW COMPLETE AT FOSTER HILL ROAD CHAPEL.

The work to replace the smashed windows and stained glass in the chapel is now finished. The Borough Council spent considerable time and effort to locate craftsmen able to replace the damaged stained glass panels. The entire panel of each window needed to be removed and taken to the contractor's workshop to enable the delicate replacement of each piece of damaged glass. The work was painstaking, especially the need to ensure existing glass was not damaged when hot work to lead was needed. The repaired panels have been reinstalled and are now protected by polycarbonate sheets which should prevent further damage.

The Borough Council have also started work inside the building replacing the ceilings in both Vestry’s damaged following the theft of lead flashing. The ceiling panels in the old crematorium chapel are also to be replaced where required.

Finally, those of you who attended events last winter will remember the electric heaters which almost kept us warm. This winter they will not be needed; a new central heating boiler has been installed.

A MONTHLY ACCOUNT OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CEMETERY
by Brian Anderson.

The Cemetery in May 2009

In May spring merged imperceptibly into summer. There are now so many plant species in flower that no more than a flavour can be given without providing a long and rather boring list. Lesser Celandines are now replaced by two species of Buttercup. The Violets are in seed but a similar colour can be seen in the ground flora as Ground Ivy spreads. There are four species of Crane’s-bill (wild geranium) in flower. A number of the pea family is in flower: Lesser Trefoil, Common Vetch, Red and White Clovers and Bird’s-foot Trefoil (the food plant of the Common Blue butterfly caterpillar). The Mint/Deadnettle family is quite well represented with Red and White Deadnettles, Bugle, a few early Self-heal and Ground Ivy (which the Anglo-Saxons called ale-hoof and used for flavouring beer). The meadow areas are studded with large numbers of Ox-eye Daisy, perhaps the archetypal flower of early summer. Or is it Dog Rose in the hedges?

Around the middle of the month I heard and then saw a family of Long-tailed Tits. The young must have fledged and flown fairly recently as the parents were still feeding them. Young Chaffinches are being fed too – the young make a curious rocking motion from side-to-side to stimulate the feeding instinct in the parents. On the 29th (at 4.30 am!) we were woken by a Cuckoo calling from close by in the Cemetery.

There has been quite a lot of discussion in the media about the problems of our bees. Most of the focus has been on the Honey Bee but all our bees face some degree of threat. It is nice, therefore, to report on instances of good bee numbers. The Early Bumblebee (the scientific name Bombus pratorum is more frequently used) has been seen on Clover on most days. They are especially fond of Cotoneaster, but this occurs rarely in the Cemetery although is found in abundance in the surrounding domestic gardens, attracting large numbers of these bees.

A long dry spell in mid to late May was broken with heavy rain on the night of 25th – 26th May: our garden rain gauge, just 20 metres from the northern edge of the Cemetery, showed 6mm. The following morning paths in the Cemetery were heavily populated with snails, largely Garden Snails but with a fair number of Brown-lipped Snails Cepaea nemoralis. My personal name for them is “Humbug Snail” due to their creamy-brown ground colour with thin dark stripes. I suspect they do not taste of sugar and peppermint.

I had the pleasure of conducting my spring wildlife walk round the Cemetery on the 24th. We saw the second Common Blue of the 2009 season and I asked the group a question: “The male Common Blue is a vivid pale blue on the upper wings – yet there is no blue pigment – how is this done?” One person had the right answer. Do you know? Answer next month!

Continuing the theme of butterflies, all the species seen last month were also seen this – and we can add the Common Blue to the list. As I write this, word arrives from the web that a potentially huge migration of Painted Ladies is underway. So far I have seen four in the Cemetery and about ten in the surrounding area. Regular recorders have been asked to estimate the speed and direction of flight. For those of you with a knowledge of physics that means velocity, doesn’t it? So far, all those I have seen in uninterrupted flight were moving north or north-east at about 10 metres per second. The remainder paused to take nectar from flowers.

Dragonflies are starting to appear. Neighbouring gardens with ponds are seeing good numbers of Azure and Large Red Damselflies. I saw one Broad-bodied Chaser female in the Cemetery this month.

The Cemetery in April 2009

In April spring really got into its stride, aided by the weather which has been significantly warmer and sunnier than the 1991 – 2000 average Below average rainfall doesn’t seem to have had any deleterious effects on the wildlife. Cow Parsley flowered, giving the familiar white foamy effect along many hedges. Jack-by-the-Hedge (or Garlic Mustard) flowered too, offering a food plant for the caterpillars of both the Orange Tip and Green-veined White butterflies. The female Orange Tip (she has no orange tips on the forewings – this is confined to the male) generally lays no more than one egg per plant as the caterpillars are cannibalistic. The eggs are easy to spot as they are orange, about 1.5 – 2mm long and laid near the flower head. Later in the season, the caterpillar mimics the seed pod of the plant and is quite well concealed. See below for details of a new project.

Cowslip and Primrose came into flower, together with hybrids of the two (some forms being called False Oxlip). It was my observation of these species many years ago that led me to conclude that the concept of “species” was much less fixed than taxonomists were prepared to admit as these plant hybrids can cross and back cross with each other and their parent stock.

Hawthorn or May came into flower too. Most people will be familiar with the phrase “Ne’er cast a clout ‘til May be out”. There is no agreement as to what this means. Is May the month or the tree? Is clout referring to clothing or the soil turned by the plough?

Bluebells added colour in many places, both the English form with slender stem and flowers depending from one side, and the Spanish form, most more robust with flowers all round the stem. And some hybrids here too!

All the trees are now showing leaves and Horse Chestnuts have the impressive candelabra of white flowers – the pink variety is usually a little later. The Elms have finished flowering and are covered with pale green seed cases.

Blackbirds and Blue Tits have been feeding young (unfledged I presume as I haven’t seen young birds). A pair of Magpies and a Carrion Crow were squabbling over a nest site – an incident remarkably similar to one described to me by our Treasurer Margaret a year or so back.

The largely good weather has brought out butterflies with Large, Small and Green-veined Whites, Orange Tips, Holly Blues, Peacocks, Red Admirals and Speckled Woods putting in an appearance this month. Towards the end of the month I was contacted by Butterfly Conservation to ask if I was interested in joining a new project. Some of you know that I do a transect walk weekly through the Cemetery to record butterfly numbers (a transect is a fixed route with defined recording rules). The new project involves recording numbers of the Orange Tip larval host plants in flower (Lady’s Smock and Garlic Mustard) in each section week by week. This should produce phenological (biological response to seasonal change) data showing whether climate change is affecting the normal synchrony between the availability of the flowering host plants and the readiness of the female butterfly to lay eggs.

The Cemetery in March 2009

March ran true to form – wind, rain, sun, hail, frost and warm days! March is also the month when things start to happen very quickly, especially with the plant life. Horse Chestnut “sticky buds” opened and the leaves began unfurling, Elms were flowering and the Hawthorn buds burst. Wild Primroses, Ground Ivy, Red Deadnettle, Wood Anemone and Dog’s Mercury all came into flower. Cow Parsley put on about 20cm of growth; Lords-and-Ladies pushed up their leaves, some with spathes ready to unroll; Jack-by-the- Hedge showed its new leaves and a few Cowslips were in bud.

The first butterflies appeared on sunny days about halfway through the month – Green-veined White, Brimstone, Red Admiral and Comma. The last three spend the winter as adults – not strictly hibernating but in a condition called diapause. The Green-veined White emerges from its pupa in the spring.

We’re still a little way off the classic “Dawn Chorus” period but standing quietly in the Cemetery still produces quite a concert! I did this around the middle of the month for about five minutes and was treated to the rapid complex songs of Wren, Dunnock and Robin; the more liquid contributions of Blackbird and Song Thrush: the rather monotonous tones of Chiff-chaff and Great Tit; the cooing of Wood Pigeons (like a foretaste of summer); the raucous calls of Carrion Crows and the laughing “yaffle” of the Green Woodpecker. I’d be glad to be able to say I heard the Mistle Thrush too but that was on a different day. Apropos Song Thrushes – they are sometimes mistaken for Nightingales but a Song Thrush always repeats the notes and phrases of its song, often up to four or five times.

March was also the month when I heard the unearthly mating calls of the Foxes – quite unnerving in the middle of the night!

If you have any interesting wildlife records from the Cemetery, I’d be happy to receive them. Send me (Brain Anderson) an email. ba@hep.ucl.ac.uk

The Cemetery in February 2009

This month saw the heaviest and longest-lasting snowfall for nearly a couple of decades. In some parts of the Cemetery it was over 200mm deep. This severely restricted the early spring observations I normally make for the National Phenology Network. Now the snow has gone (except where people have made a giant snowball near the gatehouse) and observations can start in earnest.

Snowdrops are flowering quite widely and I note that the Cemetery has several varieties in different locations. Also in flower are Winter Heliotrope and a few early Daffodils.

Blackcaps and Chiff-chaffs are about (warblers that always used to fly south until we started having mild winters) and the Song Thrushes and Tawny Owls are getting more vocal.