Make every walk a nature walk

In this finale to our Bring Back the Nature Table campaign, we celebrate winter’s most distinctive flora and fauna

It may not look as if much is happening out there, but the spareness of the season makes it easier to spot wildlife, while the vibrant hues of berries and evergreens are a splash of brilliance in the sepia-toned winter landscape.

 

 

Get out with all the family to collect some natural treasures and perhaps re-think the planting in your garden to attract more wildlife and provide structure and colour all year round.

 

Robins and holly are a classic Christmas- card combination, but holly berries provide a welcome winter food source for many birds, including thrushes, blackbirds and the overwintering redwings and fieldfares that flock in from Scandinavia and Iceland. Holly's thorny branches are also a sheltering haven when other trees are bare. "Owls in particular look for cover from the small birds that harass them," says National Trust ecologist Peter Brash.

 

As its name suggests, the holly blue butterfly also depends on this prickly Christmas favourite. "The holly blue is one of our most exquisite, jewel-like butterflies," says Matthew Oates, National Trust adviser on conservation. They breed twice a year; in the spring, the females lay their eggs on female holly flowers, and the caterpillars feed on the developing fruit. When it comes to the second brood of the year, in autumn, the female lays her eggs almost exclusively on ivy flowers, and the tiny pupae overwinter in the ivy: your Christmas garlands may well contain some holly blues waiting for the spring.

 

Ivy's unassuming dark foliage and unobtrusive flowers are crucial to all sorts of other insects, too. "Ivy flowers are the main source of nectar in autumn for a host of bees, wasps, butterflies and hover flies, moths at night and birds," Matthew Oates says. The plant also makes a cosy, sheltered roost, for birds and bats alike. Blackbirds and wintering blackcaps appreciate ivy berries, and smaller birds will creep into its foliage to seek out insects; wrens in particular love to snack on spiders.

 

As its name suggests, the mistle thrush is an enthusiastic consumer of mistletoe's translucent berries, while the plant's foliage is home to some unique insects. It is thought that six species are totally dependent on mistletoe, and two are new discoveries. The Ixapion variegatum weevil was discovered in 2000, in a National Trust orchard at Brockhampton in Herefordshire; its larvae live in mistletoe stems. The Hypseloecus visci plant bug is an even newer find, discovered in 2003 at the Trust's estates at Tintinhull and Barrington Court, both in Somerset.

 

The mistletoe marble moth is minuscule and hard to spot; it is also a very successful mimic of black and white bird droppings and so easy to overlook, but the mining galleries left by its caterpillars on mistletoe leaves are clearly visible. Mistletoe is also a des res for another species of plant bug and a jumping plant louse: all these are preyed on by the thuggish Anthocoris visci bug.

 

So, as the iron grip of winter takes hold, the familiar seasonal trio of holly, ivy and mistletoe come into their own both outside and in - just as they have done for centuries.

 

Encourage greenery in your garden

Plant a hedge: One of the main concerns in the worrying decline of garden birds is the replacement of hedge plants such as holly with panel fencing. Hedges provide both nesting sites and shelter; feeding birds can dash to safety in their branches. They have to fly up and over fences when danger threatens, making them easy prey for predatory sparrowhawks. In just a couple of years, unpromising-looking bare-root whips of native trees can make a sturdy small hedge;  in five years you will have a formidable green barrier.
Leave ivy be: Many people worry that ivy will damage walls and pointing. Research from English Heritage suggests that ivy protects old walls if it's rooted in the ground, and only causes damage if it's rooted in the wall itself: so leave alone unless there is a good reason to remove it. There is also no evidence that ivy will strangle a healthy tree.
Love your mistletoe: Found on rough-barked trees, it is often seen in apple orchards or on hawthorn and poplar. While mistletoe is a true parasite in that it feeds off its host, it does not kill the host tree. Some apple trees live on for decades with almost full mistletoe foliage. 

 

Click here to read more about the nature table campaign

 

 

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