Iridescent Clouds

Michael Leighton of Low Hutton captured these beautiful images of iridescent clouds on Tuesday 2nd February

Michael says:

I took them on Tuesday morning at sun rise and later on in the day at about 15.00

The effect is called cloud iridescence and is produced by high winds causing the water vapour in the cirrus clouds to freeze in small droplets and the sun light refracting through them.

Many thanks to Michael for sharing these remarkable pictures of a rare phenomenon!

© 2015 www.huttonsambo.com

Kirkham Weir and Sluices Options Appraisal Project

Kirkham Weir and Sluices Options Appraisal Project

The Environment Agency has established a community engagement group and Huttons Ambo Parish Council will be represented. The group’s purpose will be to agree the options to be assessed and to gather information from the local community on these. The first meeting is likely to be in late January 2016.

If you’d like to find out more or have any initial views that you’d like the group to consider, please contact:   

Rona Charles

c/o: parishclerk@huttonsambo.com

© 2016 www.huttonsambo.com

Huttons Ambo Parish Council helps combat alien invaders!

Huttons Ambo Parish Council helps combat alien invaders!

The Chairman and Clerk to Huttons Ambo Parish Council, Andy Dorman and Jem Charles, have enabled one of the worst infestations of Giant Hogweed on the River Derwent to be controlled. By helping the East Yorkshire Rivers Trust’s Derwent Restoration Officer, John Shannon, find and then treat the plants with herbicide, it is hoped that this invader will have been halted in its tracks.

Giant Hogweed is a native of the Caucasus Mountains, introduced into Western Europe in the nineteenth century as a garden plant. It really is a giant, reaching over 3 metres/ten feet in height and doubtless made a very impressive addition to Victorian gardens. (See pictures) Unfortunately it has escaped and in the wild has three major drawbacks: its sap can cause serious skin burns by making it very sensitive to sunlight, its seeds enable it to spread rapidly and its huge leaves smother native plants. The plant has become a serious invader of riversides and canals, damaging the native flora, and stories of burns to people encountering the plant are common every summer.

John Shannon & Giant Hogweed (c)

In Huttons Ambo parish there is a large patch of Giant Hogweed growing next to the River Derwent.  It is down river of the low village and well beyond easy access, which is fortunate as far as public safety is concerned, but has enabled the colony to spread apparently unnoticed for several years and makes its control difficult.  Enter the Parish Council!  Last month Andy and Jem alerted John and were able to take him to the precise spot by boat, loaned by kind permission of the owner, Richard Hopkinson.  After struggling through dense riverside vegetation, the party reached the first of the offending hogweeds and John got to work with his specialist equipment – a stem injection kit that ensures no weedkiller can reach any other plants or the river itself. 

Treating Giant Hogweed (c)

This would be important on any river, but is particularly vital here where the Derwent is so valuable for nature conservation. This classic lowland river with its diverse flora and fauna is not only a site of Special Scientific Interest (national importance) but also a Special Area of Conservation (European importance).

 A second visit a week later confirmed that most of the injected plants were clearly affected by the herbicide and any that had been missed could be tackled.  Next year the team plans to return to ensure that any new recruits are also killed before they can set seed and infect another stretch of this beautiful river.  John commented  "All credit to yourselves for alerting me to the problem and the partnership working has ensured that this potentially dangerous plant is now on our radar and will be addressed until we eradicate it even if this takes several years."

Giant Hogweed one week after treatment (c)

 Finally, the importance of vigilance by everyone who lives and works in the parish was highlighted when Andy was told of three more Giant Hogweed plants in a remote spot some distance from the river. There was no time to lose, as mature plants are setting seed now, but quick action by the Parish Council meant that within twenty four hours the plants had been injected by John. Another potential colony stopped in its tracks!

Jem Charles

© 2015 www.huttonsambo.com

Shooting Stars - See The Perseid Meteor Shower on Monday 12th August/Tuesday 13th August

Meteor (probably not a Perseid) & comet Hale Bopp
Credit: Your Humble Editor

All around the globe keen star-gazers are gearing themselves up for a special annual event. No, it's not the Huttons Ambo Produce Show, splendid as it is: it's the Perseid Meteor Shower.

What in tarnation is that, I hear you cry? Well, every year the earth passes through a thin trail of dust and rocks left  in the wake of a comet (which goes by the unlikely name of Comet Swift-Tuttle).  Like all comets, Swift-Tuttle is a poor driver: it cuts across the orbits of the planets and as a result we cross its dust trail every August. This shower of gritty dust is moving pretty fast: when it hits the atmosphere its doing 60 kilometres per second. That’s 37 miles per second in old money. Call it 130,000 mph.

The result is near instantaneous vaporisation of the dust. Each particle hitting the atmosphere produces a brilliant streak of light that we call a shooting star.

Perseid Meteor over the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope. 

Credit: ESO/S. Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard)

There are many annual showers of shooting stars but the Perseid shower is without a doubt the best and most spectacular of them all. The shooting stars are fast, brilliant white and they often leave a faint smoky trail behind them that fades in a second or two. Occasionally one will burst into red fragments and very rarely you might have the good luck to see a fireball – a brilliant shooting star as bright as a firework rocket.

As I write (8th of August), we’re already in the edge of the dust stream, if you go out tonight, after dark, you might see one or two bright shooting stars coming out of the North East. But Monday and Tuesday nights are Jackpot nights: we hit the centre, near enough, of the dust stream. If you go out on the nights of the 12th or 13th you might see shooting stars arriving at the rate of one a minute. But if you want to do that you need the advice of an old hand, fortunately I am here to help you:

• First of all the sky has to be dark and free from clouds. Get away from street lights – not a problem in Huttons Ambo – but you may want to switch off any security lights temporarily or go to a part of your garden where you won’t trigger them.

• You need to find a spot with a view of the North East - but Straight Up will do in a pinch.

• Wait until at least 1045pm, the sky needs to be properly dark.

• Wrap up warm. I can’t tell you how important this is, even a balmy August evening can turn pretty cold by 11pm.

• Ideally, to avoid getting a stiff neck, lie on a sun-lounger, facing North-East/East.

• Now your eyes need at least fifteen minutes to get properly dark-adapted. I really mean that, fifteen honest minutes, not three minutes of muttering “I can’t see anything” and then going back inside to catch up on the East Enders. This is better than East Enders. So switch off your torches, relax and see how many stars you can count over the next fifteen minutes.

• Once you've become dark-adapted, give me another fifteen minutes of honest sky-watching and I promise you that you’ll see at least half a dozen brilliant and fast shooting stars.

• Bonus points for the dedicated: if you really persist, say for an hour or so, you might also see some faint shooting stars coming from the South. There are at least two other weaker shooting star showers active at the moment, one of which has a reputation of producing the occasional spectacular fireball.

What if it’s cloudy on the night? Well the shower splutters on over the next couple of weeks, so don’t think these nights are the only time to see them, you can look out on other nights but you’ll have to be patient – the rate of shooting stars falls off quite quickly after the 13th.

Good hunting!

All material © Philip Stone 2013

HIMALAYAN BALSAM

Himalayan balsam is on the move again! 

This beautiful but domineering plant is re-appearing in many of the spots in and around Huttons Ambo where it flowered last year. If you were one of the many volunteers who pulled balsam last year, I hope that you notice that there’s not as much showing now!

However, please don’t rest on your laurels – it takes a few years of pulling in the same place before no more seedlings come back. Now is an ideal time to start pulling again (or for the first time!), because it’s starting to come into flower but isn't setting seed yet. Here are a few points to remember.

•       Check the land manager doesn’t mind. The Huttons Ambo Estate has said it’s happy for people to pull balsam along rights of way. 
•       Make sure that you can pull the plant up safely You will make more progress if you choose a small isolated patch 
•       Pull along the edge (or edges) of a patch, in particular where it will push the plants back from their most likely route of spread (e.g. watercourse, road or other right of way)
•       Persist with a particular patch, rather than dipping into different areas each time
•       Follow the guidance in the box below.

You will make more progress if you:

•            Choose a small isolated patch
•            Pull along the edge (or edges) of a patch, in particular where it will push the plants back from their most likely route of spread (e.g. watercourse, road or other right of way)
•             Persist with a particular patch, rather than dipping into different areas each time
•             Follow the guidance in the box below.

For further guidance, see http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/learning/focus-on/focus-on-himalayan-balsam

A Waxwing Year? The Return of the Bohemian Chatterer

Waxwings, AKA Bohemian Chatterers, at the Village Hall, Huttons Ambo

I was walking past the village hall when I heard a high pitched trilling sound and saw a small flock of colourful birds in the trees next to the village hall. At first I thought they were jays, but jays are skittish woodland birds and these seemed quite unafraid. In fact they were brave enough to wait while I fiddled around and changed lenses and took a few pictures.

A bit of research immediately showed them to be Waxwings. Waxwings aren't native to Britain: they breed in arctic and subarctic countries but in certain years when their population exceeds the local food supply then they migrate to Britain, in search of their favourite food, rowan and hawthorn berries.   These occasional invasions are known as 'Waxwing Years', the earliest on record was in winter 1679-1680 and the biggest on record was in 1965-1966 when it is thought 11,000 waxwings may have arrived in Britain.

Waxwing in flight, showing yellow fringe to tail and waxy red blobs at the tips of flight feathers (upper wing)

Waxwings are attractive little chestnut coloured birds, with a quirky little crest of feathers, a yellow fringe to their tails and little waxy red blobs at the tips of their flight feathers.  Their official name is 'Bombycilla garrulus' but they also go by the delightful moniker of 'Bohemian Chatter', because of the chattering noise they make in the breeding season.

The birds here in Huttons Ambo and elsewhere in Yorkshire have probably flown over from Finland and are making a temporary stop before moving further inland in search of winter berries, so make the most of your chance to see them.

Sources:
Field Guide to the Birds of Britain, Readers Digest
RSPB Bird Index


All material © Philip Stone 2012

St Mark's Flies

St Mark's Flies

Near the end of April and the beginning of May, on those warm sunny days that punctuate spring showers, the country air is filled with large glossy black flies. These ferocious looking creatures drift in the air above the hedgerows, trailing their legs in a most menacing manner but zooming off suddenly if approached. In fact they are completely harmless and simply looking for a mate.

AKA Hawthorn Flies

They are known variously as St Mark’s Flies – because they emerge around St Marks Day (April 25th) – or as Hawthorn Flies because of their predilection to group over hawthorn bushes in hedgerows.

This year (2012) they must have had a hard time of it, for despite fine weather around Easter, the last several weeks have seen rain of almost biblical proportions and they have had few sunny days to fly and breed. Like mayflies, their adult lives are short, they will survive only a couple of weeks and will die soon after mating, however their eggs will hatch into grubs which live in the soil for years, until they emerge again in early May for a few brief days in the sun.

All material © Philip Stone 2012