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Cemetery Wildlife October

October 29, 2021 by Helen Bovillin General, Volunteers, Wildlife2 Comments

The “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” is how John Keats described Autumn in his famous 1820 ode to this season. The cemetery has not seen any mists this month but there has been the usual Autumnal mix of rain and cold days and sunshine and warm days.Cemetery Wildlife September

Plants

Many of the plants are now bearing that fruitfulness, including the Guelder Rose shown at the start of this report. This is the season when it now becomes obvious why the Snowberry is so named, and its white berries are a good source of food for the cemetery wildlife. Please note however that they are poisonous to humans!

The Pyracantha bushes are now full of their distinctive reddish-orange berries and they look particularly striking along the grass verge on Spring Bank West. They are an excellent source of food for the many birds living in and around the cemetery.

Last month seems to have been the best one for Elderberries and Brambles, with very few ripe fruits left on the bushes. But there are still a few Brambles left, some of which are not quite ripe enough for the cemetery wildlife to eat.

The Blackthorn bushes still have a few of their dark purple Sloe berries on them, although only in small numbers as you can see here.

The Yew trees still have some of their small red berries on them. The Berberis bushes growing in various places have started to show some nice autumn colour on their leaves. They have small oval dark berries growing along the branches.

There are not many traditional-looking flowers to be seen this month other than a few Dandelions on the grass verge and small patch of Feverfew.

But the most abundant flowers to be seen this month are on the Ivy. Initially the flower heads don’t look much like a traditional flower. But when you look at them in closer detail you can see all the usual elements you’d expect to see in a flower, but just positioned differently. If in the course of writing future editions of this column I have a “slow news month” then I may use that opportunity to talk about Ivy in greater detail.

Butterflies and other insects

The only Butterflies I saw this month were a few Speckled Wood in the central grassy area of the cemetery during a warm spell earlier in the month.

There is an abundance of Ladybirds though – they can be seen just about everywhere. Some are the native British ones and some, like the one on the Feverfew photo, are non-native Harlequins.

Birds

Nesting season is now over. Some dry sunny days in the middle of October provided the ideal conditions for the volunteers to check the nest boxes to see which ones had been used. This is the second year of doing this so it was interesting to compare this year’s findings with last year’s.

A total of 41 boxes were checked and 26 of them had been used, giving an occupancy rate of 63.41%. (Last year a total of 40 boxes were checked and 24 had been used, giving an occupancy rate of 60%).

These figures suggest that this year was more successful than last year. But three of the original boxes were either no longer present or were not located. There are also 5 new boxes that were put in place too late to be included in last year’s check.

I could split the above figures according to nest box design and even down to the size of the hole in the front of the box. This would generate more statistics, some of them quite impressive, but this is intended to be just a brief overview of the volunteers’ work relating to the cemetery wildlife.

Nest hygiene

For reasons of hygiene nest boxes are always cleaned out and left empty ready for the birds to start all over again in the Spring. This is in accordance with guidelines from the relevant wildlife organisations. The nests we found were like miniature works of art, carefully built from dried hogweed stems, twigs, feathers and leaves. Most if not all of the nests contained moss which the birds can easily find on the trees and headstones.

I can’t say for definite who the occupants of the nests were but the first one was from a nest box with a 25mm hole. This would suggest it had been occupied by either a Blue Tit or a Coal Tit.

The second nest looks a lot cosier, doesn’t it? The white material appears to be artificial filling of some kind and I think the small amounts of red material are wool are from the Poppies that are attached to the small wooden crosses dotted around the cemetery. These are to commemorate the graves of soldiers from WWI and WWII.

I can’t say for definite which species of bird built this nest. But it came from a box with a 32mm hole which would allow for a slightly larger bird such as a Great Tit or even a Nuthatch. It was occupied last year too.

As mentioned earlier, the checking of the nests is not quite complete and needs a bit more work. A few additions and clarifications to our existing data could make future checking easier and the results more meaningful. Perhaps this time next year, after 3 years of checking the boxes, we will be able to publish a full report of our findings on the website.

Conclusion

October has been a quiet but colourful month for the cemetery wildlife, and the birds are becoming easier to see as the leaves start to fall. The daylight hours may be less but there is still plenty of time for a leisurely stroll. I’m sure you’ll manage to see at least one of these endearing little characters during your time here!

Helen Bovill

Helen is a keen photographer and nature lover. She spent a large part of her working life at the Land Registry. She is a member of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and various other similar organisations. Living close to the Cemetery for over 30 years she has seen the fortunes of the site fluctuate and has joined the FOHGC to make a positive difference.

Cemetery Wildlife September

September 25, 2021 by Helen Bovillin General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife2 Comments

As Summer Ends and Autumn begins we are now at that time of year when the days are roughly the same length as the nights. Cemetery Wildlife – August Well, for a couple of weeks anyway. At the time of writing it looks like this September is set to be the warmest one on record. For a few days we had temperatures in the mid to high 20s and it has been very dry with rain falling on only a couple of days. This has created perfect conditions for a leisurely stroll to appreciate the cemetery wildlife.

Birds

Not much to report this month – the birds are still around but proving hard to capture on film. The ones born this year are slowly starting to develop their adult plumage, such as this Chaffinch.

You can see the steely blue crescent starting to appear around the head, indicating that this one is a male.

The volunteers sunk a shallow dish into the ground in the Quaker Burial Ground recently and the birds seem to appreciate this. No doubt other wildlife such as Squirrels and Foxes will appreciate it too.

On a couple of days towards the end of the month I heard a Tawny Owl calling at sunset and this is very encouraging as the call seemed to be coming from the direction of the Owl boxes.

And finally, I was surprised to see a couple of Parakeets flying overhead while I was walking along Princes Avenue! They were quite high up but from their call I could tell they were Ring-necked Parakeets. It was disappointing to realise they were not headed for the Cemetery but probably for Pearson Park or East Park, where they have occasionally been sighted.

Butterflies and other insects

There are still some butterflies around including this Red Admiral on the grass verge along Spring Bank West. It is a shame that it landed on a piece of litter but this butterfly looked too perfect not to take a quick photo!

There were also some Small Whites along the verge, and a Holly Blue feeding on a Thistle.

But the butterfly most often seen inside the cemetery is the Speckled Wood. They seem to be the easiest ones to photograph because they rest mainly on leaves and remain still long enough to get a good photo.

This was taken in the recently trimmed meadow area in the centre of the Cemetery. The volunteers took care not to cut down the Teasel and as soon as the area around it was cleared the plant was buzzing with insects.

It is also that time of year when there are plenty of spiders around. One of the most common ones is the Cross or Garden Spider. It is a member of the Orb-weaving family and has a distinctive cross marking on its abdomen. Many can be found in our gardens and parks as well as in the cemetery. Look out for them and if you’re lucky you might get to see one creating its web. It’s a fascinating process.

This one has its prey neatly trussed up ready for consumption at a later date. The photo on the left shows a different spider of the same species, resting on our gardening equipment.

Also seen in the meadow area was this attractive White-lipped Snail.

Plants

There are very few plants in flower at the moment. A few Hogweed are still in flower, but most have now gone to seed – a good food source for the cemetery wildlife.

Other flowers seen this month are Feverfew, Thistle and Smooth Sow-thistle. There is also some Cyclamen in flower near the Cholera Monument, although this is not a wild flower.

Many of the plants have now started to produce berries and I hope to write in more detail about this next month.

Mushrooms

I have not found anything new this month, other than the usual very tiny Fairy Inkcaps growing in groups on the ground.

Conclusion

The cemetery is a great place to see and hear wildlife. It is a great place to remember and appreciate the lives of the people who are buried here. It is also a great place to appreciate the artistic beauty of the headstones and memorials.

Also it is a great place for photography. As we head into Autumn the changing colours of the leaves and the increasing levels of light create the perfect setting for taking photos of the cemetery wildlife. Why not give it a go and share your photos on our very popular and vibrant Facebook page?

Helen Bovill

Cemetery Wildlife – August 2021

August 25, 2021August 28, 2022 by Helen Bovillin General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife4 Comments

August was a quiet month, weather-wise, with no extremes of heat, cold or rain but with plenty of dull days. Pretty much a typical summer month in these parts! Summer Wildlife

Birds

It seems to have been a good year for the cemetery’s birds, with plenty of young ones around. All the cemetery’s Tit species have bred successfully – Long-tailed, Blue, Great and Coal (pictured above). There are some young Blackbirds around, and I saw a young Song Thrush too – its tail feathers will appear later but it is still able to fly without them.

The best, albeit brief, sighting this month was a pair of Bullfinches but I didn’t manage to get a photograph of either of them. The young Goldfinches of last month’s report are doing well and starting to feed independently.

There are plenty of Chaffinches around and these are easy to spot, especially the males with their pinkish-brown feathers. The females are much duller shades of brown and can sometimes be mistaken for Sparrows. But male and female Chaffinches have white feathers in their wings which make them easily identifiable in flight.

I find it fascinating that the males and females of some bird species have distinctly different plumage – for example, Chaffinches and Bullfinches. This is known as sexual dimorphism. Their differences are quite obvious to see. However, the differences between male and female Goldfinches are much more subtle to the point of them being almost identical. I would not be able to say with confidence what sex the Goldfinches of last month’s report were!

Butterflies and other insects

It has been a very quiet month for butterflies. One of my neighbours has a huge Buddleia in her garden which is normally teeming with butterflies in August. I have only seen a couple on it so far and this lack of activity is reflected in the cemetery. I caught brief glimpses of a few White butterflies (I was unable to tell which species) and I saw a Holly Blue flying high around some Ivy.

The most common butterfly species in the cemetery is the Speckled Wood and on sunny days there are usually a few around. They flutter around each other in the air and then spend time basking in the sun. This one was in the Quaker Burial Ground.

There are Ladybirds and Hoverflies around too but not in great numbers.

Flowers and other plants

The Cow Parsley and Wild Garlic has died back completely to the point where it’s hard to see where it once grew. Any plants now in flower that look a bit like Cow Parsley will most likely either be Hogweed, which is quite a tall plant, or the lower-growing Wild Carrot.

I struggled to find anything in flower to show you this month. The cemetery is still very green though! I did manage to find a few Buttercups, Herb Robert, Nipplewort, Great Willowherb and Feverfew. The berries are now starting to appear on the Snowberry bush but it is still in flower.

My main aim is to write about the wild flowers and plants in the cemetery. This section of the newsletter is called Cemetery Wildlife after all! But many of the trees and shrubs growing in the cemetery are there because of what was planted in the past. They have now become naturalised so I will not draw any distinctions between these and the wild flowers. Regardless of whether or not they are native, they still have value to the cemetery wildlife.

The volunteers will only be planting native species in the cemetery, such as a recently planted English Oak. Any wild flowers to be set will be native species that will blend in with their surroundings and complement what is already growing there.

The situation in the Quaker Burial Ground is slightly different because this area is owned by the Quakers under a long lease. They have requested that the Friends of Hull General Cemetery manage this area on their behalf. It is still in a conservation area where the same considerations apply with regard to the felling of trees and so on. But we have been able to set some new shrubs and plants that are not necessarily native species. However, we will also be planting some native species whenever we can.

Mushrooms

I have not seen any fresh large specimens this month, but there are still plenty of tiny mushrooms to be seen growing on the ground. Given that the footpaths are covered in wood chippings this is not unexpected!

Mammals

I have no new Fox or Hedgehog sightings to report, but there are always some Grey Squirrels around and these can be seen almost every day. There will always be someone who doesn’t like them of course. But I never tire of watching them chasing each other up and around the trees, or simply posing on the ground. And what child doesn’t love seeing them during family walks through our favourite cemetery?

The Grey Squirrel can vary in colour quite a lot – this one has a brilliant white chest and mainly grey/brown colouring. But some Squirrels can have more gingery hairs and very pale ginger chests.

Conclusion

A rather uneventful month for the cemetery wildlife, with the dull and cooler days perhaps accounting for the low numbers of butterflies on the wing. The grass verge on Spring Bank West still doesn’t contain many flowers and this will have affected butterfly numbers too. But the birds are around in good numbers. Berries are now starting to appear on the bushes so they will have plenty of food to keep them going as we head into September. Dare I say that it is starting to feel slightly Autumnal already?

Helen Bovill

Summer Wildlife

July 25, 2021 by Helen Bovillin General, Wildlife4 Comments

Summer Wildlife: July

What a month of contrasts July has been, going from torrential downpours earlier in the month to a heatwave in the middle of it!

It’s a relief to start this month’s report with some good news – Hull City Council has apologised for the cutting of the grass verge alongside the cemetery in early June, stating it had been done by their operator in error.

They do appreciate the value of such Summer wildlife habitats and as a result they are going to designate the grass verge as a ‘’no mow’’ area. This means they will only cut the grass and the plants at the back of it at the end of Summer or early in Autumn. They are also going to set some wildflower seeds in the bare area, so next year we should see some additional plants growing there as well as the usual ones.

The grass has started to grow back now, and luckily there are plenty of flowers on the Brambles at the back of the verge – an important source of nectar for Bees and other pollinating insects.

Butterflies and insects

Another quiet month for butterflies, with just a few Speckled Woods and Large Whites around. I also saw a Small Tortoiseshell, but the best sighting this month was a Red Admiral, which kept me company while I was working in the Quaker Burial Ground.

Whenever you see a butterfly fluttering nearby it’s always worth holding your arm out to see if it lands on you – this is one of the species that will sometimes do this. It remained on my hand for half an hour, presumably feeding on the minerals on my skin. (Polite description of sweat, an unlimited food source for the butterfly that hot day).

This gave the other volunteers an opportunity to observe a butterfly up close, and to appreciate the need to plant and maintain shrubs and flowers that attract and sustain them.

There were lots of Ladybirds of varying sizes and colours around. In many cases it is not easy to identify which species they are because some species have colour and spot number variations within that species.

There are around a dozen native UK species, three of which are yellow. I thought I’d found one of those, but this one is a Harlequin.

Birds

There are still plenty of fledglings or juveniles around. But sometimes it is difficult to tell which are the young ones and which are the adults because at this time of the year the adults start the process of replacing their feathers.

This can sometimes give them a rather scruffy look compared with the smoother look of the juveniles.

It seems to have been a good year for Blue Tits and Great Tits, with many of the earlier fledglings no longer being reliant on their parents for food.

There are young Blackbirds, Robins and Chaffinches around and I was lucky to have the pleasure of observing a family of five newly-fledged Goldfinches being fed by both their parents.

Juvenile Goldfinches are easy to identify because of the yellow feathers in their wings.

The black, white and red feathers on their faces come later. Both sexes are similar.

A regular visitor to the cemetery showed me some footage he’d taken on his mobile phone of a female Mallard walking through the cemetery with some ducklings following behind her! I hope they made it safely to the nearest large body of water, which is in Pearson Park.

Mallards have been known to nest in some unusual places including balconies on high-rise flats. They can then sometimes need human assistance to get them to safety.

Another bird I haven’t seen in the cemetery for a while is the Collared Dove, so I was pleased to see one this month.

Flowers and other plants

The natural dying-off of the Cow Parsley and Hogweed has continued, and some Wild Carrot has now appeared.

When fully open it looks a bit like a shorter version of Cow Parsley, but it has some feathery leaves underneath the flower head. The buds look a bit like Love-in-a-Mist buds.

Not many plants are in flower at the moment. There are the usual Buttercups, Daisies and Clover to see. There is now some Enchanter’s Nightshade, Broad-leaved Willow herb and Hedge Woundwort in flower.

Prior to the Stop Notice the volunteers had planted some species approved by the Council as being appropriate for the site in various places around the Cemetery. The Foxgloves were doing well and had started to flower but some have been pulled up and others had their flower stems broken. Why anyone would do this is beyond me.

The Stop Notice meant that the volunteers were not allowed to set any plants in the area we were hoping would become a butterfly meadow.

So rather than see them go to waste, we set the plants in two areas near the path behind Thoresby Street school. These included Sunflowers, Cornflowers and other mixed wildflowers. These spare areas of unused land are in a rather shady location but the Cornflowers are now flowering.

Mushrooms

It is sad to have to report that another beautiful specimen of a Dryad’s Saddle has been destroyed by someone. At first large parts of it had been sliced off. A few days later the rest had been removed leaving no trace of it. Vandalism? Theft? Either way this is very disheartening and disappointing, and there are no more large specimens left in the Cemetery now.

There are still a few smaller mushrooms around including these tiny Fairy Inkcaps.

Mammals

A regular visitor to the cemetery reported seeing a Hedgehog in there one evening. I know one has also been seen in some of the adjoining gardens along Welbeck Street. It would be nice to think that this increasingly scarce little animal might find a safe place to live and raise a family in the Cemetery.

One evening around sunset a group of volunteers met up to take part in a national Bat survey. While we were waiting for the bats to emerge, we caught a brief glimpse of a Fox and two cubs in the distance. We had two bat detecting devices with us, and we heard and saw a few Pipistrelles. The best sightings were just outside the boundary in Western Cemetery.

Conclusion

It has been a successful month for the birds of the Cemetery, with plenty of youngsters around the site. But in Summer wildlife can be hard to spot; there are probably many other young birds and animals I didn’t manage to see. The damage to plants and Fungi was disheartening, but the Butterflies continue to bring joy.

And after the heavy rains and high temperatures of the first half of the month, it ended with some much cooler and cloudy weather.

Let’s see what August has in store for all that call Hull General Cemetery home! Wonderful Wildlife

Helen Bovill

Wonderful Wildlife

June 25, 2021 by Helen Bovillin General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife

Wonderful Wildlife

June

It is very disheartening to have to start a report with bad news. At the start of June Hull City Council cut down the vast majority of the wildflowers growing in and behind the grass verge adjacent to the Cemetery on Spring Bank West. An important resource for pollinating insects and in turn other wonderful wildlife has thus been lost, and in the middle of the bird nesting season too.

The Council has not at the time of writing this provided FOHGC with an explanation for their actions. I also made my own complaint about the destruction in my capacity as a private individual. The Council’s last email to me said they couldn’t respond yet ‘’due to the complexity of the issues involved’’.

I took the above photo just a few days before the destruction of this attractive and important wildlife resource. The Council’s mowing also went back further than the grass verge and into the Cemetery itself. This seems to be in direct conflict with the Stop Order the Council placed on the volunteers in April.

Birds

Now that the trees are in full leaf the birds are harder to see. They can still be heard though – Chiffchaffs, Robins, Song Thrushes, Blackbirds, Chaffinches and many others’ songs filling the air as usual. I once saw a report (I can’t remember where and therefore provide a link) that birds in urban areas sing up to 20% louder than their counterparts in the countryside. This makes sense, as our birds have the traffic noise on Spring Bank West to contend with.

Some of the birds I did manage to see were busy gathering food for their chicks, many of which will now have fledged. Young Blue Tits are the same size as the adults but are a lot paler in colour. They have powder blue legs and the yellow gape is still visible at the sides of their beaks.

Butterflies and Other Insects

There were not many butterflies around this month. The ones that emerged earlier in the year will have mated, laid their eggs and then died. The period between that and the emergence of the next generation from July onwards is what has become known as the ‘’June gap’’.

There were still some Speckled Woods around though and I caught a brief glimpse of a Red Admiral. I also found an Orange-tip caterpillar. This will then pupate away from its food plant and emerge as an adult next Spring.

There are currently lots of these unusual little bugs around – they’re Ladybird larvae.

Flowers and other plants

Lots of Summer flowers are now starting to open inside the Cemetery, including a Rhododendron. Opinions are divided as to whether this is a good or bad plant to have here, but it is small and not growing close to any of the headstones. It adds an attractive splash of colour in a shaded area and provides a source of nectar for insects.

Bearing in mind the destruction of so many of the wildflowers on the grass verge, any source of nectar is more important than ever.

The Cow Parsley, Hogweed and Wild Garlic has started to die back as expected. There are plenty of smaller wildflowers now coming through including Buttercups, Speedwell, Wood Avens and Red Campion.

Some of the flowers planted by the volunteers prior to the Stop Notice are now starting to flower but I will talk about those in the next newsletter.

Mushrooms Wonderful Wildlife

Some more glistening Inkcaps were seen on a log, and I found some Common Inkcaps too.

But the best find was a beautiful Chicken of the Woods! It was the first time I’d seen one in the Cemetery but unfortunately a few days after I took the photo on the left someone removed most of it. The photo on the right shows where the brackets have been sliced off.

Another sad, selfish and disheartening act, this time by an individual. This has deprived other people of the change to simply enjoy looking at some beautiful and amazing specimens.

Mammals

A new sub-heading to reflect the very good news that the foxes have had at least two cubs!

The foxes are rarely seen during the day so one of the volunteers placed their own trail camera in a secluded position away from the footpaths. And the results were very encouraging to say the least! The camera is no longer there; this was just a quick experiment for a few nights only.

Conclusion

Overall a month of mixed fortunes for the wonderful wildlife of our favourite cemetery.

We can only hope that the Council will allow the grass verge to recover so that we can once again enjoy seeing the wildflowers, butterflies, bees and other insects as we walk past or linger to take a photo or two.

Helen Bovill

The Reduced Activity of the FOHGC during April and May

June 6, 2021 by Bill Longbonein General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife1 Comment

As everyone should know by now, there has been a complaint made about the FOHGC. The Council are therefore holding an official enquiry. As a result there has been reduced activity of the FOHGC during April and May in HGC.

Here’s a summary of the reduced activity of the FOHGC during those two months.

April

The FOHGC received a couple of donations of £100 from Facebook members. This money was to purchase plants etc. The FOHGC also purchased a third Silver Birch and planted this, along with a mix of 15 hazel, crab apple and rowan trees donated by the Woodland Trust.

Since 2019 the FOHGC have planted well in excess of 300 native trees on the site.

The buzzard appeared to have left for a while but has since been sighted several times.

Pete Lowden continues to maintain the website. Helen Bovill’s monthly nature posts have been received enthusiastically.

Hull Civic Society do not contribute any funding to the FOHGC and now no longer pay the insurance. As a result the FOHGC have acquired their own insurance at a cost of £230 per annum.

Site visit

After the recent complaint to the Council, Andrew Wilson, Jennifer Woollin and Mike Tindall, council officers, met with the representatives from the FOHGC on site for a positive meeting. The notes of this meeting were distributed separately. Hull City Council request to the FOHGC

As agreed with Jennifer Woollin, the volunteers have planted the wildflower meadow with the special EW1 seeds recommended by Jennifer. We have however been prevented from planting the butterfly garden until the review is complete. A further planting will now have to take place in the autumn. As a result, and at the request of Andrew Wilson, Open Spaces manager, the wildflowers that were for the Butterfly Garden have now been planted outside the site on the Thorseby Street cut through.

Accounts

The accounts show that we have a balance of £4,705.25, although the monies for the insurance are not deducted as yet from that figure.

The volunteers re-erected the broken fence at the rear of the Princes Avenue shops. Sadly, it looks like more rubbish is beginning to pile up at the shop’s rear.

Several species of butterfly have been noted in the cemetery by Helen Bovill, particularly on the Spring Bank West frontage.

Many bird species, including blue tits, great tits, tree creepers, chaffinches and goldcrests have been seen in the cemetery this month. A tawny owl has been seen on the site. It has occupied one of the owl boxes erected by the group. We believe it mated and two owlets were seen in April in this box. They now appeared to have fledged. Wonderful Wildlife

The reduction of the activities of the volunteers has seen an increase in the amount of anti-social behaviour. This includes a fire, theft of litter bins and a proliferation of rubbish dumped. There have been an increase of people who have volunteered to litter pick on the site.

May

A few more donations were received from Facebook members.

Research was undertaken on several of the vases/urns that were recovered from the drain shaft in the Quakers section. Particularly the one of Ronnie Jackson who was lost on the St Romanus in 1968. Andy Lister has repaired the vase and mounted it on an oak plinth. It will be presented to Ronnie’s step brother during the next couple of weeks.

An English oak was donated from a teacher at Thoresby Primary. It was planted in the Workhouse Memorial area.

The two areas near the Thoresby Street cut through were tidied and the drains were cleared.

12 headstones that failed the Safety push test were laid flat by the Council.

The Quaker’s committee have asked the volunteers to help improve their burial section.

Conclusion

That’s a summary of the activities the FOHGC have done over the last two months. Not bad is it?

Bill Longbone

Bill Longbone has had a long relationship with the Hull General Cemetery. He is an active member of the FOHGC and manages the work of the volunteers on the site. His biographical sketches of some of the people buried in the cemetery are one of the highpoints of the success of the Facebook site.

Wonderful Wildlife

June 1, 2021June 1, 2021 by Helen Bovillin General, Volunteers, Wildlife1 Comment

Wonderful Wildlife in May

This is the month when a big transformation takes place. We don’t have to do anything though – just stroll around and enjoy the wonderful wildlife in May!

May started with plenty of sunny weather although it was colder than usual for this time of the year. Towards the end of the month there was plenty of steady and much-needed rain and that transformation is almost complete. April’s small green shoots are well on the way to becoming fully-fledged leaves. Wonderful Wildlife

Birds

The big news is that the Tawny Owls have raised two babies (known as Owlets, pictured above)! I only saw them both together on three consecutive days at the beginning of the month and they proved very popular with visitors to the cemetery. The last day I saw them one was perched at the entrance to the nest box and the other was sitting on the roof. I saw them stretching their well-developed wings ready for fledging and I hope they have now done this successfully.

There is at least one family of recently-fledged Long-tailed Tits in the cemetery as I recently saw an empty nest in the centre of some Brambles. I caught up with this family just outside the boundary in Western Cemetery and counted at least ten of them in a Cherry tree.

Butterflies and other insects

Four species of white butterfly were seen in the cemetery with Large White, Small White, Green-veined White and Orange-tip flying in decent numbers whenever the sun was out. This was the dominant butterfly colour in May. Several Speckled Wood and one or two Peacock, Brimstone and Holly Blue were also seen.

Ladybirds have now emerged from hibernation and are plentiful and varied. The UK actually has a dozen or so native species with the 7-Spot being the most common. You should therefore never assume a strange-looking Ladybird is a non-native Harlequin!

Flowers

The Bluebells were in full bloom growing in beautiful carpets throughout the cemetery. Many of them are the cultivated Spanish variety, having quite upright stems and conical bell-shaped flowers. They have blue pollen and no scent.

Native Bluebells on the other hand have curved, drooping stems and narrower bell-shaped flowers with rolled back tips. They are also scented. Only Bluebells that have ALL these characteristics are true native ones. Those with only some are hybrids of the native and Spanish varieties. The ones in the Orange-tip photo are most probably native ones although it wasn’t possible to smell them to confirm this!

The Wild Garlic (also known as Ramsons) is now in full flower in several places and you can catch its distinctive smell as you walk by. These along with many other plants seen this Spring have flowered slightly later than usual.

Another white flower that can now be seen inside the cemetery and on the Spring Bank West verge is Cow Parsley. Its lush growth lines the footpaths and covers the areas further back in the centre. It provides a valuable source of nectar for butterflies and many other small insects. Most visitors to the cemetery in May, even after an absence of only a week or so, will notice the transformation straight away. This is completely natural and does not make the area ‘’overgrown’’. The sight lasts for a few weeks and then the plants start to die back, leaving seed heads that provide more food for the birds.

A similar-looking plant is the native Hogweed. It is sturdier and slightly taller than Cow Parsley and has large flat leaves. It also has large clusters of white flowers although the buds are dark pink on the outside.

There are still a few Celandines in flower. Quite remarkable considering the first flowers appeared back in January! Buttercups are now in flower and there is Hawks-beard and Common Vetch on the Spring Bank West verge.

Several plants have tiny flowers and many of these tend to get overlooked or simply dismissed as weeds. But once you know their names they stop being weeds and become wildflowers. Some of those smaller ones that can be seen at the moment are Hedge Mustard (not to be confused with Garlic Mustard, which I talked about last month), Shepherds-purse and Herb-Robert.

Mushrooms

A new sub-heading to reflect some excellent specimens that were found this month! Mushrooms and fungi can be seen at any time of the year on fallen logs and on living trees.

Mushrooms can be quite difficult to identify and can vary quite a lot between specimens. Some, like this Glistening Inkcap, deliquesce very quickly – these two photos were taken just 24 hours apart.

May has been a month of changeable weather and rapid transformation. The wonderful wildlife that lives in the cemetery has continued to thrive and new lives are being nurtured in peace and security all over the site. I hope to talk about these in the next newsletter.

Helen Bovill

Wonderful Wildlife

May 1, 2021May 4, 2021 by Pete Lowdenin General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife2 Comments

WONDERFUL WILDLIFE

Here is the latest posting from Helen Bovill of her series ‘Wonderful Wildlife’.

owl

April 2021

A rather cold month with several days starting at sub-zero temperatures. Despite the well-known saying about ‘’April showers’’ it was a very dry month with no significant rainfall. There was still plenty of warm sunshine though and the cemetery is teeming with wonderful wildlife.

Birds

This month’s star bird of prey is the Tawny Owl (pictured above). It was first photographed by a visitor to the site in late April and I was lucky to see it myself a few days later. This stunning bird is slightly smaller than a Wood Pigeon. Also seen was a Sparrowhawk but the Buzzard hasn’t been seen recently. However there have been reports of two of them flying around the adjoining Western cemetery.

I also saw a Redwing earlier in the month. It might have just been passing through but it landed in one of the cemetery’s trees so it counts!

redwing

The air is full of birdsong and the many Robins and Wrens provide some of the most beautiful woodland sounds. Another bird with a fine voice is the Blackcap. The birds’ singing reaches a peak in early May. This is why International Dawn Chorus Day takes place on the first Sunday in May. Why not get up early and have a listen?

blackcap

But it wouldn’t be Spring without the very distinctive sound of the Chiffchaff coming from high up in the trees.

chiffchaff

There are a number of Blue Tits in the cemetery and some are making good use of the nest boxes. Blackbirds, Great Tits, Blue Tits and Coal Tits are gathering nesting material (other birds’ feathers seem to be quite popular). Small groups of Long-tailed Tits can be seen darting from tree to tree and there are Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Goldcrests, Dunnocks and Treecreepers living in the cemetery as well.

blue tit

Butterflies and other insects

Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells and Commas continued to be seen. Brimstones, Orange-tips, Speckled Woods, Small Whites and Green-veined Whites also started to emerge. All have been seen inside the cemetery but the easiest place to see them is on the grass verge running alongside the cemetery on Spring Bank West.

Brimstones always rest with their wings closed and are a bright shade of lemon-yellow. The females are much paler, almost white. This is another butterfly that overwinters as an adult.

brimstone

Orange-tips started to emerge towards the end of April. These rest with their wings open as well as closed. The female lacks the orange markings. They overwinter as a pupa so this one is brand new. The markings on the underwings are actually made up of yellow and black scales – it’s just the light that makes them look green.

orange tip

Speckled Woods started to emerge towards the end of April too. They are the only UK butterfly that can overwinter as a pupa or as a later stage larva. Male and female markings have no obvious differences.

speckled wood

Hoverflies, Bees and other insects are now in abundance. Several mounds looking like miniature molehills have started to appear on the ground. These mark the entrances to the underground nests of Tawny Mining Bees.

tawny mining bee

Flowers

Celandines were abundant along the Spring Bank West verge up to mid-April. Dandelions are now in abundance there, together with Daisies and other wildflowers. These include Cuckooflower, an important plant for all life stages of the Orange-tip butterfly.

cuckooflower

Another important plant for Orange-tips is Garlic Mustard and this is now starting to flower. This seems to be its best year yet.

garlic mustard

The Celandines are now in full flower inside the cemetery and clusters of them can be seen just about everywhere. Other spring plants are now in flower including Periwinkle, Red Dead-nettle, Groundsel, Common Chickweed, Common Dog-violet and Yellow Archangel.

yellow archangel

April has been a great month for the cemetery’s wonderful wildlife and the ground is carpeted with greenery in most places. Last month’s small green shoots are turning into fully-fledged leaves. Cow Parsley and Bluebells are also starting to flower. May will be their peak month so I’ll talk about those in the next newsletter.

Pete Lowden

Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.

petelowden.co.uk

Wonderful Wildlife

April 1, 2021April 1, 2021 by Pete Lowdenin General, News, Wildlife1 Comment

2021: The story so far

January got off to a great start. The volunteers and visitors to the cemetery enjoyed some good and frequent views of a Buzzard. They’re not very common in and around Hull so to have one in the cemetery was an unexpected pleasure. It’s not known whether it’s male or female though, but it is still being sighted occasionally. February was a month of contrasts, with a week of snow and sub-zero temperatures at the start of the month. It ended with a week of sunshine and higher than usual temperatures. There was plenty of warm sunshine in March too.

Flowers

This winter was a bumper one for Snowdrops, with at least 3 different types in flower all over the site. The sunshine and higher than average temperatures during that last week of February gave the Lesser Celandines flowering in the grass verge on Spring Bank West a welcome boost. These low-growing bright yellow flowers open up in the sunshine and typically have between 8 and 10 petals although they can sometimes have as many as 12 or 13.

Lesser Celandines can also be found inside the Cemetery and these are now starting to flower, although being in partial shade they’re a little behind the ones on the grass verge and the stems of their flowers are noticeably longer as they reach for the sun.

The Blackthorn is already in flower – its white blossoms appear before the leaves do, unlike the Hawthorn which flowers slightly later in the Spring after its leaves have opened.

Butterflies and other insects

The Lesser Celandines provided a valuable source of nectar for some early butterflies emerging in late February. I counted 8 Small Tortoiseshells one day, plus a Peacock. Both species overwinter as adults in sheltered vegetation and will no doubt have been tempted out by the warm sun.

Butterfly sightings continued throughout March whenever it was sunny, with some more Small Tortoiseshells and 2 more Peacocks seen on the grass verge just before the Spring Equinox.

A Comma, another butterfly that overwinters as an adult, was seen later in March, again on the grass verge. It gets its name from a distinctive white comma-shaped mark on the underside of its wings.

There were lots of other insects buzzing around the grass verge in late March too including a Bee-fly, the first time I’ve seen one there. This small fluffy fly is harmless to humans and uses its long proboscis to get nectar from flowers. When hovering its wings seemingly disappear in a blur of movement.

Birds

There are several Wood Pigeons living in the cemetery and these can be seen every day pecking around on the ground or flying noisily in and out of the trees.

There is also a pair of resident Stock Doves and these are usually seen together, sometimes with the Wood Pigeons. Stock Doves are around the same size as feral Pigeons and sometimes hang around with them too.

The Stock Dove is on the left of the photo – its band of blue/green feathers is larger and more noticeable than on the Wood Pigeon and it lacks the white patch. The Wood Pigeon is the larger of the two species although this is not apparent from the photo.

The smaller birds have started to pair up and look for suitable nesting sites, but I’ll say more about them in the next newsletter.

Overall a very good start to the year, and with many of the trees and shrubs already showing small green shoots there is the promise of much more wonderful wildlife to come!

Postscript: Helen Bovill

Helen Bovill is a member of the FOHGC. She is a gifted naturalist and photographer. Her photographs have graced the FOHGC Facebook site for a while now. It’s with great pleasure that we now have the chance to share in her knowledge and expertise here. Helen has kindly consented to write an article every month on the broad subject of nature for the website newsletter. This is the first of what I hope will be many such articles. So sit back and enjoy.

Pete Lowden

Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.

petelowden.co.uk

Meeting with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

March 1, 2021March 9, 2021 by Pete Lowdenin Events, General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife

Follow up meeting

On the 17th February Andrew Gibson of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust met with the more active volunteers of the FOHGC. These included Bill Longbone, Karen Towner, Russell Moore, George and Chris Wilson.

The meeting was called by Andrew to follow up on the items discussed at the recent Zoom meeting. It was felt by both sides that clarification was needed and that an actual site visit would provide that.

Here are the minutes of that site visit.

Minutes

Meeting in Hull General Cemetery with Andrew Gibson YWT 17 Feb 2021

Reason for meeting: Follow up meeting from ‘Zoom’ meeting, as suggested by AG

Those Present: Karen Towner, WL (Russell Moore, Geoge and Chris Wilson part time)

Meeting:

The group took an anti clockwise, circular walk around the cemetery to identify any conflicts of interest between FoHGC and YWT, and obtain guidance.

The area behind the Princes Ave shops to be allowed to rest, establish bramble/thicket area around fox den. Maintain clearance around immediate areas of monuments as features. Possibly plant 3 or 4 of the saplings from the Woodland Trust to conceal shop area, not too close to premises. AG noted the HCC proposal to fell the 2 ash trees and will pursue separately.

Cut back some of the dense laurel ‘drug den’ area to expose the south frontage and block off access from the western side.

Keep ground ivy in the majority of the central areas, with no cutting back.

Keep the area wild where the white poplar tree was pollarded by the council, let trunk decay naturally, trim laurel around base of poplar, as trunk is also probably decayed.

Possibly plant ivy on rear breeze block wall near old chapel to cover unsightly graffiti covered wall.

Leave Dixon & other ‘soldiers’ area at rear of cemetery ‘as is’ allowing access.

Cut the green dogwood back at rear adjacent to path.

Generally leave ivy on the trees unless it is new growth on ‘specimen’ trees.

Contact council to cut back 4 or 5 established ash saplings to rear of bungalows on Welbeck St, as they could become a problem to the building fabric.

Wildflower meadow

Maintain wildflower meadow in centre, add some butterfly loving plants, as this is one of the few sunny areas in the cemetery. Extend the cutting of the brambles at the NE side and stack cuttings behind to decay naturally.

Cut back brambles near Thompson, Sahlgreen and Kemp monuments to form feature (in autumn). Stack cuttings at rear for wilding.

Possibly adopt the ‘old original path to the west side which is currently a walkway but could be kept as a ‘soft’ winding path.

Plant a few shrubs such as buddleia in eastern side of Butterfly area, and let nettles re-establish, as this area is still shady and mossy. Plant up butterfly loving plants with plug plants and seeds as proposed by Friends. Possibly plant ivy to grow up wall.

Workhouse area

Keep workhouse area as is, ensure the recently planted buckthorn, hawthorn and blackthorn are kept in check when they grow. Possibly plant holly/yew tree on hillock in workhouse area. Ensure that the brambles are not cut back too much, and place any cuttings to infill gaps as we are currently doing

Trim the raised bank on the pathway leading past workhouse section from Western Cemetery.

Clear area around specimen graves near the old horse chestnut tree, but create wild areas at rear to compensate.

Advise HCC of diseased horse chestnut near roadside near Quakers. Possible potential hazard of falling branches.

Clear area around Wilson’s/Rollits grave to form feature, but create wild area around.

Remove cuttings from around main gate area, maintain recent plantings. Keep watchful eye on recently planted Staghorn tree.

Create soft ‘grave interest’ sections along paths, but keep wild to rear.

Clear around Thos Stratten monument, request permission from HCC to remove tree that is damaging monument and has no ecological merit. Keep wild to rear.

Request permission to remove tree nr Kelly’s grave, cut back holly and soften area,

Plant established ‘defensive’ planting on SBW entrances to reduce number of access points.

Trim pyracanths ‘hard’ where over-growing pathways.

Remove rhododendrons near Gow grave.

Cut back brambles around Blundell monument and soften/wild area behind. Ensure ‘red’ dogwood and snowberry bushes are retained.

General Overview

Although Andrew stated that the only way to have a ‘true’ wildlife area is to keep humans out of the cemetery, he accepts that this is not an option. However, it is essential that there has to be a balance with the needs of historical and recreational groups.

AG used the analogy of a ‘swingometer’, whereby whenever the Friends are planning to carry out work in the cemetery we should question if we are doing it for wildlife or humans. If we find we are doing too much in either direction it can be redressed. The object is to ensure that we do things in a balanced manner.

It was agreed that we are now entering the nesting season, and the disturbing of nesting sites is not allowed. However, we can still work in the cemetery doing localized grave tending etc, with a constant concern for the wildlife implications

AG to chase chippings for paths, he also requested that we should ask HCC not to cut up logs when removing trees, leave as full trunk.

Subsequent to the meeting AG sent WL a link for plant sourcing.

Summary

It is accepted that there has to be a balance of wildlife requirements with the needs of historical and recreational groups.

We should always consider wildlife implications when carrying out any work, it is acknowledged that we can clear around graves to make ‘focus’ areas, but we should balance this by allowing the surrounding area to become a natural woodland.

Some areas can have further clearance, but it must be compensated elsewhere. Ground cover ivy and tree ivy is an important part of the woodland habitat, and should not be cleared, the majority of the monuments are now ivy free, and we can carry out maintenance of this work.

All pruning’s and cuttings should be put in large piles out of sight rather then leave them in smaller piles along the path.

WL agreed that he would prepare small ‘activity’ plan when working in specific areas, these maps would be correlated with the large ‘tree location/compartment’ map to provide overall plan.

WL 18 Feb 2021

Pete Lowden

Pete Lowden is a member of the Friends of Hull General Cemetery committee which is committed to reclaiming the cemetery and returning it back to a community resource.

petelowden.co.uk