Life.
Its what, I suppose, makes wildlife so fascinating. We are excited
and inspired by all the different, amazing, fascinating and unique
ways that evolution has taken living organisms in. Some adaptions
in living things are simply breathtaking in their evolution
therefore it is not hard to be amazed by them.
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| Grimley - Pre-sunrise |
An
example of an evolutionary adaptation that I find fascinating is
migration. The fact that a bird, at a given moment at the end of
summer, will embark on a journey of 1000's of miles to a location
that it has never been to. They have no idea where they are going
they just follow their natural instincts that are dictated to them by
their genes. The whole point of this process is ultimately survival.
If they were to stay in the cold harsh condition of the north they
would die, so they follow the food and fly south where it is warmer.
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| Swallows about to Leave |
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| Swallows |
Well
it happens to be that time of year when migration is happening. The
species that have been enjoying our wonderful abundance of insect
life, long (sunny) days and breeding lots are currently leaving.
Many like the swift have left (I saw my last on 25th
August). Others like the Swallow and House Martin are getting ready.
It is great because you can see them lining up on electrical wires
getting ready to go south to Africa.
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| Spotted Flycatchers About to leave for Africa |
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| Waders on Migration |
Waders,
however, are often the first bird's that you start to see passing
through on their long journeys south. In fact this autumn migration
can start as early as July. As a result there is always a bit of
excitement as to what you might see coming through. This autumn I
have already seen quite a few rare waders. This highlight being a
Baird's Sandpiper spotted at Upton Warren.
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| Baird's Sandpiper - Record Shot - Upton Warren |
The
Baird's Sandpiper is a bird that summers in the north of north
america and winters in Argentina. It has clearly been blown off
course as it took its amazing journey south to Argentina. As I said
migration is an amazing adaption that provides the birds with a way
of survival through the harsh winter. Unfortunately for this
individual it might prove disastrous, unless it can get back on
course. However, it has provided some interest from a large number of
birders.
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| Birders watching the Baird's Sandpiper - Upton Warren |
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| Dunlin and Little Ringed Plover - Grimley |
Even
at Grimley we have had some good waders through this autumn,
including some long staying greenshank. However, perhaps what has
caused the largest interest is a species that at first glimpse you
might not get too excited about and that is blue-green algae. First
of all it is not exactly a species in fact they are a whole phylum of
bacteria or correctly called cyanobacteria. They obtain their energy
through photosynthesis, a bit like the plants only different as they
are not plants. They are prokaryotic. This means their cells are very
different from most living things like us, birds, insects, plants
etc.
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| Blue-green Algae |
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| Spotted Redshank - Wader On Migration |
At
first thought they might seem to be a little dull, I mean they don't
do a lot. They just sit in the water carrying out photosynthesis and
multiplying. And the way they do that is not even interesting as all
they do is grow and then split in two. They have indeed evolved a way
of life that is hard to get excited about. However, scratch beneath
the surface of their history and perhaps we might be a little more
thankful for their existence. They are possibly the sole reason we
have oxygen in our atmosphere at all!! Without them there would be
not oxygen. That means no humans, no birds, no insects, no plants, no
fish, non of the vast and interesting life that we get so fascinated
by. They are the sole reason life was able to evolve in the way it
has to produce the amazing diversity and complexity that we all enjoy
today; and indeed evolve to produce you.
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| Cynobacteria |
They
are quite amazing really. What they do is very simply carry out
photosynthesis, this is done in folds in their outer membrane (not in
chloroplasts like green plants). The overall product of this process
is oxygen and glucose. The best bit is they can do it in low levels
of oxygen. If we go back 2.5 billion years, when they first evolved,
there was no oxygen in our atmosphere. These, or their very similar
common ancestors, evolved and went about photosynthesising and
growing and splitting and photosynthesising and growing etc etc and
slowly but surely changed the atmosphere on the whole planet. Thus
making it possible for more complicated life forms to evolve, like
the Baird's sandpiper and us.
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| Hobby in a Tree. Shortly Heading to Africa |
They
are a very diverse group of living organisms although most of them
are this rather beautiful blue/green colour. Unfortunately a few of
them will do some rather unpleasant things, like produce toxins are
a by-product of their metabolic process. These toxins can have
devastating consequence for other life.
