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Hibernation time – a quick guide to safe overwintering for your garden visitors

Beneficial Insect Box - overwintering for ladybirds, lacewings etc.

As the days grow shorter and cooler, many animals are beginning to look for a safe place to spend the winter.

The best way to cater for most hibernating animals is simply not to tidy your garden too much – a pile of leaves at the back of a flower bed provides a great place for many insects as well as some larger animals (including hedgehogs) to bed down for the winter. However, if you would like to go a step further and provide the animals in your garden with tailor-made winter homes then NHBS can help. For insects, including many important pollinators, predators of garden pests, and species that are important food items for bats, frogs, and many small mammals, NHBS offers a range of nesting and overwintering boxes.

For popular garden visitors like hedgehogs, and amphibians such as frogs and toads please visit our amphibian and mammal nest box pages.

Bat populations have fallen dramatically in recent decades and one reason for this is the loss of suitable hibernation sites (or hibernacula). NHBS offers a wide range of tailor-made bat hibernation boxes including wooden boxes such as the Double Chamber Bat Box – and the new Triple Chamber Bat Box which we introduced last week here – as well as more durable woodcrete colony hibernation boxes such as the Schwegler 1FW.

Finally, spare a thought for those birds that do not migrate south to warmer areas. Although most of us only consider bird boxes as being useful during the summer in fact they are frequently used by roosting birds during the long cold winter nights. Putting bird boxes up in the autumn gives birds plenty of time to find them and increases the chances that your box will be used next spring.

Read our guide to choosing the right nest box for birds

Book of the Week: Primates of West Africa

Continuing our selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

Primates of West Africa: A Field Guide and Natural History

John F. Oates

What?

New volume in the Tropical Field Guide Series from Conservation International.

Why?

Full of information about the primates of the highly bio-diverse West Africa region – from the coast of Senegal to Lake Chad and Cameroon’s Sanaga River, The Primates of West Africa focuses on the Guinean Forest, one of the world’s Biodiversity Hotspots.

This compact guide is portable for field use, and introduces the region – topography, climate, vegetation, native peoples and history – as well as its primate inhabitants. Initial essays cover primate classification, evolutionary history, and the history of field research and conservation in the area, while the species accounts extend the traditional field guide format of identifying features and location to include concise but thorough information on natural history and conservation status, making this volume invaluable for the primate researcher and field worker, as well as the eco-tourist or wildlife enthusiast.

Includes full-colour plates by Stephen D. Nash, colour photographs and distribution maps for every species and subspecies.

Who?

John Oates is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Hunter College, City University of New York, where he was a member of the teaching faculty from 1978 to 2008. He has a PhD in zoology from the University of London based on studies of the ecology and behavior of black-and-white colobus monkeys in Uganda, and has had research affiliations with Rockefeller University (New York), Cambridge University, the University of Benin (Nigeria), Njala University College (Sierra Leone) and Oxford Brookes University (England). More…

Magnificent Marches – a customer reviews the latest volume in the New Naturalist series

New Naturalist 118: Marches by Andrew Allott

Reviewer: S. W. Mott from the United Kingdom

“Outstanding”

“In the early 1980s, I lived and worked in Gloucester and undertook numerous outings to the Welsh Marches to walk and watch wildlife. So Andrew Allott’s book “Marches” has been eagerly awaited. It is a superb, masterly addition to the New Naturalists series.

Here we have a comprehensive account of the region, which is meticulously researched and thoughtfully detailed. The text includes examples to illustrate the wider context and the themes of the chapters. Mr Allott makes very good use of local sources and resources for much of these, such as the charming reference to the work done by a local primary school (p.75) and other local people, communities and wildlife groups. This is absolutely the right approach as it embeds the book in the region it describes.

The book is well structured; the first chapter invites us to take a “tour” of the region’s main, distinctive topographical areas which serve as a scaffold for the following chapters, whose themes take in the unique and chararcteristic features of the Border landscape arising within the topographical areas. Mr Allott writes in an interesting and flowing style. It is well structured. His attention to detail is woven seamlessly into the overview, the carefully chosen examples serve as fascinating insights into the natural history of the region. The chapters cover the expected themes but include up-to-date analysis and review of nature conservation, farming, land-use changes and local development and management, and outline lessons learned and issues for the future. I found myself thinking that the lessons learned in the Marches region could well be applied elsewhere too!

My only niggles are in the editing of the book. Trying to fit some of the figures on to one page renders some of the detail too small to read (making it almost meaningless), or makes the use of colour-coding difficult to differentiate. There are inconsistencies too: why, for example, provide Figs 16 or 104 with a colour key, yet not Figs 81 and 82? For the latter, the reader has to wade through text which explains the colour. On p41 we have an ambiguous paragraph which, on first reading, makes it seem that a new set of semi-natural squatters have returned to the Clee Hills. I suspect that the word “vegetation” has been omitted after the word “semi-natural”! Perhaps trying to publish three New Naturalist titles a year is having a negative effect on the editing.

These small niggles do not detract very much from this magnificent account of the varied, rich and very distinctive natural history of the Marches. To try to shoe-horn this into any descriptive framework is a challenge and one in which Mr Allott has succeeded – and succeeded triumphantly.”

What do you think of the New Naturalist series? What are your favourite volumes? Feel free to share your feedback by leaving a comment – or to create your own review, click the following link:

Share your views with NHBS customers around the world – click here to create a product review

Customer reviews can be read in the ‘Reviews’ tab on each product page and a selection of reviews appears here on the Hoopoe

Book of the week: Lichens: An Illustrated Guide to British and Irish Species

Continuing our selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

Lichens: An Illustrated Guide to British and Irish Species

Frank S. Dobson

What?

New sixth edition of this essential illustrated field guide to British and Irish Lichen.

Why?

This compact, portable field guide has been updated to conform to the nomenclature of Smith C.W. et al. (2009) and more recent changes, and includes a number of species not included in that flora.

Particular features that will appeal to both field researcher and amateur lichenologist are the large number of photographs, mostly full-colour; the plentiful line-drawings, species descriptions, habitat notes and distribution maps; suggestions to to assist in separating similar species; and the retention from the previous editions of the popular generic ‘lateral key’ – which has been enlarged.

Ecologists will find reference to the effects of air pollution, broadening the guide’s appeal into conservation science, and for all readers there is a thorough informative introduction to lichens and lichenology.

Who?

Frank S. Dobson has written and illustrated many books and articles on lichenology, natural history and photography. He has lectured and run many courses on lichenology for the Field Studies Council and other similar organisations. He is an honorary member of the British Lichen Society, has acted as Treasurer, serving on the BLS Council for a number of years and was elected President for the years 1992-94. He is now retired but was professionally involved in photography for most of his working life and was on the photographic consultative committees of both Twickenham College and the London College of Printing.

Triple Chamber Bat Box available from NHBS for the first time this autumn

Introducing the Triple Chamber Bat Box

NHBS’s new Triple Chamber Bat Box is available for the first time this autumn. The new bat box has three large chambers providing its inhabitants with a huge living area (compared with most other wooden bat boxes). Consequently, they are particularly well-suited to large colonies, including maternity colonies. Most crevice-dwelling bat species are likely to be attracted including Pipistrelles, Brown long-eared bats, and Daubentons. Species which may sometimes use these boxes include other Myotis species and Noctules.

The boxes are very deep, providing the bats with a stable draught-free environment and plenty of space for individuals to cluster together or disperse, and for the sexes to mingle or separate. Triple chamber boxes have proved to be a success in the U.S. where it is thought that the extra space provided gives bats the room to interact more normally. The boxes open at the top and are 60 cm high with a small aperture at the base of the box for bats to enter and exit. They are narrow (14 cm) and can easily be hung on both trees and buildings. The Triple Chamber Bat Box is constructed from European Redwood harvested from a sustainably managed forest.

Mycologist Geoffrey Kibby on childhood discoveries, woodchip mulch, and his long time passion for the genus Russula

Geoffrey Kibby, senior editor of Field Mycology, and author of two recent best-selling photographic keys to fungi – British Boletes and The Genus Agaricus in Britain – talks about how childhood discovery in a woodland wonderland led to a life spent mushrooming…

What first attracted you to the curious world of fungi, and what are your mycological credentials?

I have been mushrooming for over 45 years; as a boy of 13 I was convalescing from some surgery and was staying in a cottage very close to the Queen’s estates at Sandringham in Norfolk. Opposite the cottage was a large area of fenced-in woodland with “Private, property of HM the Queen” on a gate. Like any self-respecting schoolboy I completely ignored the sign and climbed over the fence and into what I can only describe as a wonderland. A damp, mossy conifer wood, dripping with lichens and ferns and with fungi everywhere. I still remember the first fungus I was ever consciously aware of, a beautiful, small and intensely violet toadstool (Laccaria amethystea) and I thought I had never seen anything so amazing, so magical. I soon purchased my first book, the Observer’s Book of Mushrooms, and quickly realised that I needed a bigger book! I have been collecting and writing about them ever since.

For most of that 45 years I have been a member of the British Mycological Society and for the last 12 years have been the Senior Editor of the journal Field Mycology which deals with all aspects of mycology (the study of fungi). For about six years I lived in the USA and was at one time the President of the New Jersey Mycological Association. I have published numerous books on fungi including general field guides as well as more specialist monographs.

Your recent publications on British Boletes and The Genus Agaricus in Britian have become instant bestsellers. Who are they aimed at and what can the reader expect from them?

My specialist books are aimed at the enthusiastic amateur all the way up to the specialist – usually people who realise that the popular field guides are not sufficient to tackle some of the larger or more difficult groups of fungi. I have tried to make them more user-friendly than the traditional identification keys, often using a synoptic system whereby the reader only has to decide on 6 or 7 principal characters before attempting to key out the particular species. My keys include lots of illustrations to aid the reader in making these decisions. In some cases a microscope is required but the techniques needed are not that difficult and of course a microscope opens up a whole new world of wonderment in all areas of natural history, not just in mycology!

Generally, what part do fungi play in the world’s ecosystems?

Without fungi to digest and break down the decaying organic matter in our woods and fields the world would soon be swamped in enormous depths of fallen twigs, leaves and other debris. Most trees are dependent on fungi and form specialised symbiotic relationships with them, they cannot grow well without them and vice versa. Other fungi of course are parasitic and attack other organisms (including ourselves…) and many others have strange life cycles which we scarcely understand at all and this all adds to our fascination with them.

We’re in fungi season now – to what extent are there annual changes in the fungi ‘populations’ throughought the UK, and is there any way in which fungi acts as an indicator of wider environmental changes?

In recent years there have been enormous ‘invasions’ of new fungi and as the climate has changed we have seen corresponding changes in the way fungi behave and fruit. Our penchant for covering the world in woodchip mulch has paved the way for numerous exotic species to come into the country. Some species have spread to every British county, using this newly invented habitat, within 5 years of their first discovery, an amazing colonisation by any standard.

Increased annual temperatures are affecting the way in which fungi fruit; species which formerly fruited only in the autumn are now often fruiting twice a year in both spring and autumn. Others which were specialists in fruiting only in the spring, such as the common and deliciously edible morel have been appearing as late as November or even January!

Do you have a favourite mushroom?

Almost an impossible question to answer, but I certainly have favourite groups. The boletes have been a favourite since my childhood as they are for many other mycologists. Their large size and often bright, exotic colours are very appealing and they are relatively easy to identify also, hence my recent book on the subject. I also have a long time passion for the genus Russula, a sometimes very difficult group with around 170 species in Britain, often of very bright colours once again and very common everywhere. I am putting the finishing touches to my ‘magnum opus’ on that group as I write this.

Can you describe a particularly interesting species, or feature of a species of a mushroom found in the UK?

Many fungi form associations with other fungi, some of which we are still in the process of discovering. Many boletes for example, particularly in the genus Suillus form associations with a group of fungi called Gomphidius. Each species of bolete seems to latch onto a particular species of Gomphidius, very specific, and we don’t really know what is going on, although the best guess is that one partner is sort of hitching a ride on the other, tapping into its associate’s ability to obtain nutrient from the particular conifer with which it grows, without having to do the work itself.

There is some great photography in the keys – I guess a mushroom is a perfect still subject for the nature photographer – is photography a hobby of yours that has grown from your work?

I have been photographing for as long as I can remember and using fungi as subjects was a natural extension of this. I now teach digital photography and the use of Photoshop to enhance and edit photographs as part of adult education courses at local colleges. Fungi are ideal subjects since they don’t run away or even sway in the breeze as wild flowers do, and of course their strange shapes and colours are wonderful subjects to try and capture.

I went mushroom hunting recently and always ended up way off a positive identification. Given the dangers of mistaken-identity, what advice would you give the amateur fungi hunter?

Start small: learn to recognise the basic groups where possible, that is half the battle. Go on as many guided mushroom walks as possible and learn from experts in the field – there is no substitute for that. Field guides can only take you so far and cannot show you all the many variations that fungi are capable of. My favourite saying is that “mushrooms don’t read the books!” Meaning that they don’t always conform in size and appearance to the illustrations in the book, they vary enormously as they age. Get as many books as you can afford, each will offer some extra information and pictures that another might lack. Finally, never, ever eat a fungus you are not confident of. All mushrooms can be eaten once but sometimes not twice……the history of mushrooming is filled with people who have eaten and become very sick or even died from making an error in identification.

On which cautionary note…

Geoffrey Kibby’s keys are available now from NHBS:

British Boletes: With Keys to Species

The Genus Agaricus in Britain

Special Offer: Save £37 on the final volume of the Handbook of the Birds of the World at NHBS

The Handbook of the Birds of the World series, the first volume of which was published in 1992, has been a phenomenal undertaking, being the first project to illustrate, and provide essential information regarding, all the bird species of the world. This year sees the publication of the final volume.

Not that this is the end. Publisher Lynx Edicions have three new products planned to keep this project alive, the first of which will be a special volume about new species with a global index for the series. Keep an eye on the NHBS website for more information. Customers with standing orders for the series will receive an explanation of their options regarding these future HBW projects in their notification emails/letters for Volume 16.

HBW Vol. 16: Tanagers to New World Blackbirds is available from NHBS at a special offer price of £148 (reduced from £185) until 15th October 2011.

Sample chapter from the forthcoming Royal Entomological Society Book of British Insects

Due for publication in October (delayed from September – but it’ll be worth the wait!), here is a sample chapter from the Royal Entomological Society Book of British Insects, kindly supplied by publishers Wiley-Blackwell.

Chapter 8 – Order Odonata: the dragonflies and damselflies.

Pre-order The RES Book of British Insects today for £34.99 (reduced from £39.95).

Offer ends 31/12/2011.

New botany from Redfern Natural History – coming soon to NHBS

This Autumn sees the publication of four new books from Redfern Natural History, publishers of fantastic titles about unique flora from around the world. Author and publisher Stewart McPherson is the adventurous British geographer who is the force behind Redfern. Many of the books are written by McPherson – and his tireless and diligent approach to the fieldwork involved has led to the discovery of many new species, and the re-discovery of others which have not been seen for nearly 100 years.

Sarraceniaceae of North America and Sarraceniaceae of South America ~~will be published in October~~ are AVAILABLE NOW with A Monograph of the Genus Genlisea and The New Nepenthes to follow later in the year.

Book of the Week: The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles

Continuing our selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles

Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins and Michael Grayson

What?

Reveals the lives hidden behind the names of the world’s reptiles.

Why?

Firstly this is a beautifully produced, satisfyingly stylish book! Now the superficial is out of the way, what’s inside?

Like Bo and co’s previous efforts along these lines – Whose Bird? and the Eponym Dictionary of Mammals – the Dictonary of Reptiles explores the lives of the historical figures ‘immortalised’ in the names of the world’s fauna. Some feature more heavily than others – Darwin, for instance, appearing in the names of nine reptiles (find out more in this post featuring an extract from the book), while other folk such as Dr. Ian Earle Ayrton Kirby (1921-2006), unearther of pre-Colombian artifacts and erstwhile Curator of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Museum – have the honour of a single beastly namesake – in this instance, Kirby’s Least Gecko, or Sphaerodactylus kirbyi.

This should be an addictive book for anyone interested in the finer details of natural history, the perfect gift for the herpetologist in your life who has everything (else), and will be of particular interest to bibliographic researchers since the titles and publication dates of any known literature written or edited by the subjects is given.

Who?

Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson are the co-authors of The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals, also published by Johns Hopkins.