Sept Experts

This months Star Question is...

"Recently whilst doing my usual lunchtime walk - I came across some council workmen huddled around some long grass. they were all pointing at something lying motionless on the ground, when I eventually arrived at the scene I looked down to see an unusually large snake. The snake was of course a grass snake which I think had been killed by their machinery? I was amazed how large it was a good 3/4 feet long and with a girth like a coke bottle. It was an amazing array of dark stripes and beautiful green patterning. (How large can grass snakes grow, and have you heard of their swimming antics) whilst fishing early one morning have seen one slightly smaller in size swim by my rods and across to the other bank. An amazing animal and one which you would not necessarily place in the British countryside... as it really looked tropical?"

Roman Ladd - West Sussex

Our Expert Says...

I consulted with my colleagues at Sussex Wildlife Trust about your question, to let them know about the sighting.  It is a shame that the snake you saw had been killed.  Although grass snakes are found throughout England and Wales their numbers are thought to be declining due to loss of habitat.  Grass snakes are by far the longest of the three species of snake native to Britain.  Typical adult length is about one metre (three feet) however they can reach well over 1.5 metres (five feet).  Although background colour varies from olive-green to brown, or even grey, grass snakes always have a yellow and black ‘collar’ behind their head and black bars running down their sides.  You are actually most likely to spot a grass snake in or near a pond, using their excellent swimming abilities to help them hunt for amphibians and fish.  Grass snakes are non-venomous and extremely timid, they will move off quickly when disturbed or will feign death if cornered. 

"Is image stabilization really necessary for Wildlife Photography and Videography?"

Myles Paul Storey - Malaysia

Our Expert Says...

Image stabilization is not necessary for wildlife photography but is something I would strongly recommend. More often than not, because the subject is a fair distance away, you will be using a high magnification lens and you will need to use a monopod/tripod to keep the camera still enough not to record the movement of your hand. If you decide to hand-hold the lens you will need to use a high shutter speed to combat your hand movement, this would normally be the same as the focal length of your lens i.e. 1/300th of a second or above for a 300mm. As this is not always possible at low ISO settings, you or the camera will need to use a higher ISO setting and this will reduce in increased noise which will lower the quality of your images. Using a lens or camera with image stabilization allows you to use much lower shutter speeds with hand-held photography enabling you to use lower ISO settings and create higher quality pictures. A word of warning though, image stabilization cannot freeze the motion of a moving object in low light conditions.

'I was visiting my son in Derbyshire last summer when we saw a bird of prey hovering. My immediate thought was that it was a kestrel, but when I looked through my glasses it appeared to "bulky", and far too large for a kestrel, and it had definite "owl" features. I have been told that occasionally short eared owls hover. I am certain this was not a kestrel, could it have been an owl, this was about 2 o'clock in the afternoon.'

Our Expert Says...

The kestrel is the master at hovering and is known in parts of the UK as the windhover. That said, buzzards, red kites, harriers and some owls can be seen hovering, albeit more briefly than the kestrel. The barn owl is possibly the best known for this behaviour, it is an amazing sight to see a barn owl silently beating its wings whilst it focuses down on the ground below before launching talons first at the ground. However, the short-eared owl can also hover in a similar way in its hunting behaviour. They are an open country species often seen over grassland where voles are common. They are also very active during daylight during the winter months so I think that it is very possible this is what you saw.

'For the second year in a row we have been visited by a wild barn owl. We believe this is unusual behaviour due to were we live, in the middle of a very big housing estate. Is this unusual? I do rescue birds of prey and have 3 barn owls of my own, so is it possibly looking for a mate or is there a decline in the wild? How bad are barn owl numbers? There is also the possibility that this could be an escapee but I have had no phone calls from raptor rescue or the independent bird registry people, who send me out on a recon. Is this a "call of nature" or " the plight of a barn owl"? I don't suppose a camera person and infer red camera are available, are they? So far we have had different opinions from different people, please advise. p.s. this barn owl is here until 6.30 in the morning. '

Our Expert Says...

It is very rare for a wild barn owl to be seen away from rural areas, both because of food availability and suitable undisturbed nesting sites. Having said that, there is a small handful of reports of captive barn owls attracting a wild bird into built up areas, although there is no record of these birds subsequently breeding there. The wild barn owl population is in the range of 3,500-4,000 breeding pairs.

'We have got bees in our tit box. This year we did not have any tits in the box which has not happened since we had the box but now all these bees have moved in I did not think it would be big enough what can we do to move them on?'

Our Expert Says...

I assume you have Bumblebees in your nest box (nests of escaped honey bees are rare and tend to be in larger cavities).  There are 24 species of Bumblebees in the UK: the size of the colony varies between Bumblebee species, some have around 300 hundreds of workers at their peak and would probably not fit into a nest box, while several Bumblebee species have smaller nests with 50-100 workers.  Bumblebee colonies are annual and the nest is completely vacated around September or October.  As it is already August I think you are best being proud of having helped raise a colony of beautiful pollinators this year.  You can clean out the nest over the Winter so that the box is available for new inhabitants next Spring.