NORFOLK COAST GUARDIAN 2021 HABITS


CUT CARBON, SAVE OUR COAST


Give nature a helping hand – join or help


organisations like the RSPB, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Norfolk Rivers Trust and others (see partners list on page 39)


Adults may reach over 12 cm from the tip of the rostrum (snout) to the telson (tail plate), but more often are less than 10 cm. Females develop a broader abdomen, which accommodates the


brood. The abdominal appendages of the female are more hairy than those of


the male and are used to support the


mass of eggs, which is glued to them after laying. A ‘berried’ female white-clawed crayfish overwinters with her eggs glued to the underside of her abdomen.


ISSUES Water pollution from roads, farming chemicals and sewage; intense competition from non-native species signal crayfish, and disease.


WHAT YOU CAN DO Support organisations like the Norfolk Rivers Trust in their work to conserve and restore freshwater habitats; take care not to contaminate rivers with litter or chemicals. To avoid spreading crayfish plague, eggs, seeds, killer shrimp and other uninvited guests check, clean and dry your kit if you are moving between watercourses to fish, canoe, paddle etc. CHECK kit for creepy crawlies CLEAN kit in Virkon/hot water DRY kit for at least 48 hours www.nonnativespecies.org/checkcleandry


Barbastelle Bat. Hugh Clark


HABITS They are fast, agile flyers and specialist foragers in a range of habitats, swooping to drink from ponds or lakes. In summer they often emerge early from their daytime roosts to forage in the dark zone amongst trees until open area light levels have fallen to those existing under tree canopies; then they may forage in quite open areas. Baby bats are born in July in the maternity roost; during this time males tend to live a solitary existence.


ISSUES


The Barbastelle bat is one of the UK’s rarest mammals, with estimates of between 5,000 and 10,000 individuals, and there are only five known maternity roosts. Norfolk is one of this species strongholds. The extensive loss of deciduous woodland in the UK may be a significant factor in the rarity of this species. Use of artificial fertilisers and pesticides reduces insect diversity and may lead to indirect poisoning of bats, and pesticide run-off in water can severely disrupt aquatic insect abundance. Bats foraging over wet meadows mostly prey on micromoths, therefore measures to improve the quality of water meadows for the benefit of micromoths will provide better foraging opportunities for barbastelles.


WHAT YOU CAN DO Inform yourself about bats and their needs, and follow guidance about external lighting to protect bat prey such as moths.


NORFOLK WILDLIFE TRUST CONDITION CHECK ‘Paston Hall’s 15th century Great Barn on the north-east Norfolk coast is the only known maternity roost in a building. The roost is protected and a working group has been set up to monitor the population. This population is close to the coast and often forages along the sandy cliff-tops nearby. The species favours pastoral landscapes with patches of deciduous woodland and bodies of water. The bat has declined in recent years due to a reduction in insect prey, loss and disturbance of roosts and fragmentation of ancient semi-natural woodland. In Norfolk a major road building scheme threatens an important population in the Wensum Valley.’


5 WHITE CLAWED CRAYFISH


Chalk stream rarity


HABITAT Lives in inland rivers, so will help habitat conservation in inland and agricultural areas; is under threat – Norfolk Coast chalk rivers are some of last remaining sites for this species. Conservation will benefit a wide range of habitats and species in rivers.


NORFOLK WILDLIFE TRUST CONDITION CHECK ‘In Norfolk the white-clawed crayfish have been found in the Wissey, Glaven and Wensum rivers, the latter being a Special Area of Conservation for this native crayfish. The larger non-native signal crayfish can out compete and even attack our white-claw crayfish, but the biggest problem is that it carries a fungus (Aphanomyces astaci), commonly known as crayfish plague, which does not affect them but can be lethal for the native species. Following recent outbreaks local warnings have been given to all water users on the River Waveney in nearby Suffolk, regarding this crayfish plague. The Environment Agency is advising the public to clean any equipment with disinfectant, bleach or anti- fungicidal products. There are a number of breeding programmes around the country, and with better water quality and a greater understanding of the threats to white- clawed crayfish, it is hoped their decline can be reversed.’


NORFOLK LIMERICKS by R.H.Sykes


A whirl of pink-footed geese Descended at Holkham to feast When they all started honking The noise was quite stonking But they soon crammed their beaks full of beets.


A slick Barbastelle from Paston Was looking for something to snack on Just a few rapid clicks And he was licking his lips Ah, the wonders of echolocation.


The white-clawed crayfish in the Glaven Are creatures who are well worth saving They live out their dreams In sparkling chalk streams So please do not disturb their haven.


ON THE WING by Alison Dunhill


Beard of stars, star-beard, Barbastelle, a little white beard distinguishes you from Pipistrelle and Daubenton or Serotine. It sprouts under your face’s dark brown fur. This face is a corbel to fend off evil spirits taken from the west portal of Chartres. An ageing ET with a tiny squashed nose, black, round shiny eyes and enormous white-edged ears, which are needed for echolocation, your tracking of nocturnal insect life. This combination of fur and wing disturbs like good Surrealism. Your tessellated wings in outstretch are so fine, they must have inspired Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome, or at least the umbrella. And yes, you are a quadruped: your front and rear stump-limbs elongate elegantly into two rapturous wings, which are huge in proportion to your kind-of-cosy furred body. The three gently angled divisions of each wing are surfaced in honeycomb mottling. The only mammal to fly. This is, after all, a miracle.


WHITE-CLAWED CRAYFISH by Phil Hawtin


Easy to imagine a Disney-like dance of joy to the revived rhythm of the river with the waving of weed, slur of gravel moving gently in our increasingly sweet flowing waters with impediments like mills reduced.


Crayfish dance involving bronze carapace, abdomen, centipedal movement of walking legs, swimmerets, much waving of white under-sided claws, antennae.


Hiding under stones daytime to emerge at night to sashay, eat omnivorously.


But this is not how species fade away — Invader, signal crayfish, is bigger, muscles in on the dance floor taking habitat and food and carries within its shell a virus that, only to the native counterpart, is deadly.


THE CRAYFISH MOTHER by Alanna Shaikh


The crayfish mother, protecting her young to adulthood, takes a number of steps: Overwinters with eggs glued to her abdomen, hides from predators in cool safe mud When the eggs are hatchlings, clinging to her, she digs out from the burrow They follow her for two moultings then as adults they swim free in the river


The human mother, protecting her young to adulthood, does something similar: Restricts screen time, ensures good nutrition Requires exercise and education and hygiene When they’re ready, she forces them out of the burrow hoping they’ll swim free in the river


There are differences, of course Invertebrate, vertebrate Literal and metaphorical rivers The plague that crayfish risk was introduced by humans The plagues that humans risk were not in fact introduced by crayfish but also by humans Our spinal cord bears additional agency


I might be jealous of the mother crayfish Her maternal decisions are simple, based on body shape wide abdomen with hairy growths is just right to hold hatchlings and eggs My own decisions are more complex— attempting to protect not just my own offspring but the crayfish babies too, and the fish and the herons that eat them


I can’t exactly say it’s unfair I do, after all, have a spine


ACT FOR NATURE 7


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40