So here is a first shoot for BBB09. Literally, because this is the opening for the hunting season, and shots were echoing from everywhere in the landscape. Hmm, bioblitzing is a dangerous activity in Fall!
So our first spot is a hedged farmland area in French Brittany near the town of Feins (in the heartland, not the coasts). I was hoping for swampy places, as my map (well, dating back from the early 80’s though) had swamp symbols on that place. Instead, I got wet meadows but that’s for a good start. Much less muddy.
Satellite map, if you’re curious.
Let’s go quickly for the trees. Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur), Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa), and Black Poplar (Populus nigra) were dominating the hedges (well, both in abundance and height, see picture above). There were many other shrubs and small trees nevertheless, most bearing fruits or nuts, such as Common Hazel (Corylus avellana), Midland Hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata), Wild Rose (Rosa canina), and a few Wild Cherry trees (Prunus avium) here and there…
Other commonest include various field grasses that I didn’t even thought of determining, the common Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum) spreading in dense patches, Blackberry (Rubus, probably some fructicosus thingie) and since we are in Brittany, plenty of Common Gorse (Ulex europaeus) though none were flowering, along with undetermined species of Genista.
Now that’s spelled out, I guess we have at least 80% of individuals met during the walk… Let’s turn to the rarest now… But before that, let’s have a look at a local agricultural practice that has interesting consequences on the landscape.
We’re in a country with a dense hedge web, and even if field management evolved in the late decades with intensification of agriculture, many old trees still stand in between. During the middle ages, land was not owned by those who planted and cultivated it, and property rights included trees around the fields. On the other hand, people were in need of wood during winter. They thus obtained the right to cut branches on trees in hedges, so that trees were not killed and houses can stay warm during the bad times. It evolved into the generalization of shredding, resulting into typical (but unnatural) regional tree morphology. The practice is still in use today…
Birds were particularly quiet, but I’ve seen classics like the European Robin (Erithacus rubecula), the Winter Wren (Nannus troglodytes), Rook (Corvus frugilegus), and a few gulls (Larus fuscus) fleeing the shores to overwinter in fields. Let’s expel the other vertebrates quickly too:
The latest was clearly looking after any beast that’s big enough to interest his master. I really was fitting into its search model, for it stopped its race and pointed at me. Fortunately for me, I wasn’t fitting into the model for the hunter…
Now the arthropods. Hum, not that many here. Dipters mostly… (in abundance decreasing ranking!):
And also numbers of mating pairs of the Common Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria). If you wonder where, see the vertebrate section above.
While we’re still listing insect, I’ve seen (but not photographed here) Vanessa atalanta and Inachis io. But these butterflies and good at fly and flee as soon as something big is approaching. Model search is just like the dogs one, except that they often flee at sight, and the size treshold is much smaller.
Easier were caterpillars. At this place, I’ve seen this one, apparently feeding on Rumex sp. It seems like it belongs to Euproctis chrysorrhoea or some related Lymantriidae.
Finally, here are the flowering plant species that punctuated the trail… A lot, but Seeds Aside is a plant blog so I guess this was expected!
And because I keep trying to find their IDs, here are two very nice flowers. I can’t wait too long though, and once again I’m not well equiped with identification guides, and even google can’t help this time (the Linaria just below might be L. repens, though there are some small morphological differences that might make the difference…). Here they are:
Another Blogger Bio Blitz 2009 post is coming soon, at another place (about 30 kms East of these hedge edges & meadows, in the Couesnon valley). Keep in touch!
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Interesting – although I know the practice, I was unfamiliar with the term “shredding”. Coppicing and pollarding I know. But I didn’t know the term shredding…
Hum, I think it is not completely covering the concept actually. But I was clearly stuck with the French word (émonder), which is rare enough to be excluded from translation dictionnaries. Wikipedia links from “émondage” to “shredding”, and I eventually decided to let it go…
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Hello,
I deeply enjoyed your blog: https://seedsaside.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/bbb09-feins-hedged-farmland/
It came to my mind, how to easily identify the species you were unsure, or that you did not know, or to check whether you identified the species correctly.
There were too species that you did not identify to species level. Because of lack of photos of leaves and other details, the following use of NatureGate, is only directional.
(1) “Linaria, unidentified species (my fault, for it is common)”
This Linaria is very easy to identify without knowing that it is Linaria by using NatureGate Online Service based on patented method and system for species identification.
(1) connect to http://www.naturegate.net
(2) using German (soon this species page is also translated into English), clicking a couple times, and you’ll get the result:
(3) Linaria repens
(2) Unidentified Ranunculaceae flower.
is very easy to identify this specimen without knowing its family or Genus, just using observable characteristics:
1) yellow corolla,
2) radiate corolla
3) five petals,
4) size of flower 10 – 30 mm,
5) leaves
6) the result: Ranunculus, e. g. Creeping Spearwort (Ranunculus reptans)
Unfortunately, you do not have good enough photos of leaves to more accurate identification. This leads to suggestion: Please, take always photos of both general habitus and details like flowers, leaves, edge of leaves etc.
Best wishes
Mauri
Becoming blogger based on your inspirational example
Mauri Åhlberg Ahlberg FLS
Professor of Biology and Sustainability Education
http://www.helsinki.fi/people/mauri.ahlberg
http://www.naturegate.net
Hello. Thanks for your help in identification.
It’s always difficult to go through identifying species which you never seen before if you do not have good keys at hand. I did the work through spotting a group and then refining with google. Clearly not the way to follow, but on the other hand I only had little time to give to the exercise… Knowledge of good internet resources is indeed great, I hope the English version of the suggested site is coming soon…
When I deal with a complex and quite species rich group of taxa like Ranunculaceae are, I lazzily acknowledge identification will be difficult based on a few pictures only, and I readily accept the limits… Until I really need to go to species level ID… :)
The identification is really didactic and nicely designed. That’s a good one!
Hopefully some day there will be a worldwide species databank able to get down each living species, isn’t that the utlimate goal? :)
[…] a sampling of old French cultivated potato varieties, then does more conventional bioblitzing in a hedged farmland area in French Brittany (noting a possible case of spider kleptoparasitism along the way) and near the Couesnon river, […]
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