Wasing's February Nature Notes

 

Wasing Estate holds many incredible wildlife habitats that make every fishing trip inspiring and enjoyable. Whether it’s beautiful plants and trees or wonderful bugs and birds, there’s always something going on. Understanding the fish’s natural environment is a key part of being a successful and happy angler, studying the aquatic environment and the countryside around the lakes and rivers, might even lead to a few more fish on the bank.

Although the winter of 22/23 has been bitterly cold at times, there are many interesting signs of the approaching Spring at the fisheries. Most of the lakes and rivers on the estate have a wide variety of trees in bloom and leaf during the Spring and Summer period, but there is one tree species that is crucial to the fisheries that is in full flower right now, the common alder. As a waterside specialist, the alder provides important anchorage with its roots for the banks of our lakes and rivers, preventing erosion while also providing food for birds and insects, and indirectly for our fish stocks. The alder is one of only a small number of tree species that have flowers in bloom at the same time as still carrying last year’s fruit.  

The photo below shows both male catkins and female flowers (the small red brushes), and the seed cones are from last year’s flowers.    

 

 

The male catkins produce wind-blown pollen to fertilise the female flowers, which develop into seed cones during the spring and summer. The seeds are a very important food source for 2 bird species that visit the fisheries as winter migrants, the siskin and redpoll. 

Of more interest to the angler is the alder fly which has an important aquatic larva stage, providing food for many fish species. The predatory larva lives in the silt in our lakes and rivers, and at the same time of year as the alder tree is in flower, crawls out of the water in the hours of darkness and up the banks to find a quiet spot to pupate. I often find the larvae crawling around on my bivvy groundsheet after dark at this time of year, this is an inspiring and hopeful sign that Spring is just around the corner.

The photo below of an alderfly larva below was taken on our Cranwells just after 9 pm.

 

 

Keeping in touch with the natural world while out wishing is eye-opening and adds another layer of enjoyment to angling.

- Jock The Wasing Bailiff