Building on farmlands - good idea?

To: Owen Paterson, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 

To persuade the Government to rethink the idea that building housing estates on farmland is a good idea. With an increasing population surely it would be best to put our efforts into providing an efficient food supply.... Would it not also be better therefore to help our farmers to create this 'efficient' food supply and to also help wildlife, to assist with our own health and well being? 

Building housing estates could have a detrimental effect on our wildlife. With the removal of hedgerows within farmlands, pesticide use and intensification which have already had a big effect, building more houses would just make this 10x worse.

If you feel as strongly about this as I do, please sign the petition: Petition

Back to some level or normality.

As I've mentioned the dissertation is finished, although I have other assignments to do, the dissertation was the 'biggy' and having that completed is a big relief.

I've been to my local bird club the last few days to have a break and to enjoy the wildlife around me, and here are a selection of my photographs:

Water Rail

Long Tailed Tit

Chaffinch

Cormorants

It's been a long time

It has definitely been a long time since I updated my blog. To be honest I've not had much time to do any photography because I've been so busy with University. I've therefore not updated my blog as much as I didn't want to burden you all with unnecessary stuff because I'd rather focus the blog on my journey in the natural world.

University is going well though on the other hand.  I am a bit stressed right now but it is my final year so it's bound to be, just got my dissertation handed in so that is a might relief. The dissertation was thoroughly enjoyable and it has definitely given me an insight into the career I would like to go into.

The results showed that there was more diversity in the barn owl's pellets in a 1km radius when most of the agricultural land was under 'plus' stewardship (i.e. higher level, higher level + Entry level etc) which was expected. Although in a 2km radius of the pellets location more diversity occurred in 'total' stewardship (i.e. the total amount of stewardship that weren't plus).  
 
Barn owls also tended to consume bigger prey stewardship in land under less stewardship.

Since my dissertation was handed in I've been out and about enjoying the snow and taking photographs of the natural world around me, and I'll sort this photos out in due course and will get them posted on here today (hopefully!).

Thank you all!

P.s. A positive bit of news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21329015

The year of the Waxwings

It looks like it's going to be another fantastic year for waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus), the majority of which are being observed in Northern and Eastern Britain but I've been fortunate to have them on my local 'patch'. I therefore treasured the opportunity to photograph them.

Observant waxwing

Flock of Waxwings

Waxwing on 'look out'

The Waxwing gets its name from 'bombycilla' meaning silk tail, and 'garrulus' meaning chattering, babbling and noisy. The meaning of garrulus came from (BOU, 1915) who states: "applied by Linnaeus to the Waxing because of its fancied likeness to a Jay".

Help Save out Seas: Petition Fish

To those of you who are aware of the petition created by the Wildlife Trust's, and have signed their petition thank you, to those of you that aren't aware I will explain.

The Wildlife Trust's are trying to put pressure on the UK Governments to create Marine Protected Areas (MPA's) and they're calling on us to try and help with this and to make it happen. The sea life around the UK is amazing, people think that you have to go abroad to see colourful reefs, turtles, and whales but this simply isn't the case, they can be found here, around the British Isles.

2013 is when the first MPA's should be established under the Marine Act of 2009 but this cannot happen without the help of you and I. The Wildlife Trust are asking the Government to place the MPA's correctly and to therefore help where nature conservation is required, to support the declining species and to mange our seas with adequate regulations and controls. 

To make sure the Government are taking note the Wildlife Trust has set up this petition: Petition Fish. 

If you think our seas should be protected sign the petition and make sure the Government listen! 

Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)

Hoverfly Helophilus pendulus

Spent an evening at the local 'insect patch', if you've not already gathered, this reserve is fantastic for insects. The photograph above is of the Helophilus pendulus hoverfly. This hoverfly is one of the 4 commonest hoverflies which are all related. They can be distinguised by having a yellow and black striped thorax and their pale hind tibia.

Palm oil flowchart

Those of you who follow my blog on a regular basis know my views on palm oil, those of you that don't, well.... palm oil has big impacts on the environment and is unfortunately in most products that we use on a daily basis and I do all I can do to reduce my intake of it. The flowchart below caught my eye and sums up where palm oil comes from and where it ends up!

Spring displays

To my readers: I'm spent a bit of time drawing this while watching Wimbledon the other day, I hope it is of use to you. I took the design from RSPB's Birds magazine and thought it was quite useful.

The drawings are of breeding displays of the 5 breeding species of larks and pipits that can be seen in the UK.

Pipits have a parachuting display where the bird rises to the air and then descends rapidly back to the ground whereas larks have a more elaborate and looping display and tend to fly higher than pipits.

A piece of summer

It finally felt like summer was here last week but it didn't last long, a day or so and that was all. The clouds and the rain have been at the forefront, is climate change to blame here?

While the sun was out a few pairs of Common Blue Damselflies Enallagma cyathigerum appeared so I took the opportunity to photograph them:

Common Blue Damselflies

North Norfolk holiday 12-18th June 2012

A thoroughly enjoyable week in North Norfolk in the middle of June, knocked up a fair few species of birds, but there were a shortage of insects most likely due to the dreadful weather conditions that the whole country had to embrace for months on end.

Species seen:
Reptiles:

• Adder Vipera berus 
• Common Lizard Lacerta vivipara  

Male Common Lizard

Butterflies:

• Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas 
• Speckled Wood  Pararge aegeria 
• Swallowtail Papilio machaon ssp britannicus 
• Wall Brown Lasiommata megera

Swallowtail

Birds (heard only):

• Green Woodpecker Picus viridis
• Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur

Birds (seen)
(There are 88 altogether but I'm just going to name a few):

• Barn Owl Tyto alba 
• Cettis warbler Cettia cetti
• Common Buzzard Buteo buteo 
• Common Crossbill Loxia recurvirostra 
• Curlew Sandpiper Calidris ferruginea  
• Dunlin Calidris alpina
• Dunnock Prunella modularis 
• Firecrest Regulus ignicapillus
• Gadwall Anas strepera 
• Grey Heron Ardea cinerea
• Little Egret Egretta garzetta
• Little Tern Sterna albifrons 
• Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus 
• Mediterranean Gull Larus melanocephalus 
• Nightjar Carprimulgus europaeus 
• Song Thrush Turdus philomelos 
• Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia 
• Woodlark Lullula arborea
• Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella 

Male Reed Bunting

Juvenile Bearded Tits

  Mammals:

• Brown Hare: Lepus capensis
• Chinese Water Deer Hydropotes inermis
• Common Seal: Phoca vitulina
• Fallow Deer Dama dama 
• Grey Seal Halichoerus grypus 
• Water Vole Arvicola terrestris  

Chinese Water Deer

  Insects:

• Black Tailed Skimmer Orthetrum cancellatum
  
• Blue-Tailed Damselflies Ischnura elegans 
• Common Blue Damselflies Enallagma cyathigerum 
• Four-spotted Chaser Libellula quadrimaculata
• Glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca 
• Norfolk Hawker Aeshna isosceles 

Four-spotted Chaser

Glow-worm

Plants (currently trying to learn these):

• Deadly Nightshade Atropa belladonna 
• Giant Hogweed Heracleum mantegazzianum 
• Orange Hawkweed (Fox and cubs) Hieracium aurantiaca
• Oxeye Daisy Leucanthemum vulgare

Red-footed falcon at Willington Gravel Pits

I want to begin by saying I'm not a twitcher, I don't collect sightings of rare birds, destroy habitats and distress the bird. To me the main focus is the welfare of the bird. A couple of years ago I was on the east coast and a rare bird turned up and as I was already there I decided to take a look. I saw the bird but was astonished at the levels people were going to in order to photograph the bird, people were flushing the bird out in order to see it, as soon as they saw it they dashed off, I assume to find another rarity. I was appalled, these people don't seem to have a lot of respect for the wildlife around them, if any at all!

To the title of this post and the red-footed falcon Falco vespertinus. At the beginning of June a red-footed Falcon was seen at Willington Gravel Pits in Derbyshire, it's not too far from where I live so off I went. The usual scenario arose, I arrived and it wasn't there, about 15 minutes later the bird arrived. It was a bird I'd never seen before and was truly magnificent and a real beauty.

The red-footed falcon is most commonly seen in eastern Europe, but from time to time they do appear in Great Britain.

Unfortunately this photo isn't great but was the only decent one I managed to take on the camera I had at the time.

Red-footed falcon

Bempton Cliffs (28th May)

I'm trying to get up to date with my photographs, I've been quite busy recently with one thing or another, but finally University is over for 4 months so I have time to take photographs and wildlife watch, alongside doing my dissertation.So I'm back tracking on some of my photos and placing them on here.

So, on the 28th May, I went to Bempton Cliffs to see the seabirds there, there were the usual puffins Fratercula arctica, guillemots Uria aalge, fulmars Fulmarus glacialis and kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla.

Unfortunately due to light conditions and the weather conditions I didn't take a lot of photographs, but the one below stood out to me: a lonesome guillemot in what looks a desolate landscape.

Guillemot

Whisby Nature Reserve (May 21st)

A first for me today: a beautiful nightingale! A friend managed to record the song on his dictaphone and it's a bird song I could listen to forever.
Besides the nightingale there were plenty of common terns Sterna hirundo and black headed gulls with chicks.

Common Tern

Short-eared Owl

Another evening out on Beeley Moor on Tuesday, this time things got better. Fleeting glimpses, then the pair disappeared, eventually the decision was made to go home, and there was one of the owls sitting on a post about 10 meters away.

Short-eared Owl

Short-eared Owl

Short-eared Owl

New look

I figured it was about time to upgrade how my blog was looking, so I changed its appearance. I decided I wanted to put more of an emphasis on my photographs and the old look didn't really show that too well. I hope you all like it.

Short-eared Owl

Short-eared Owl

I've seen Short-eared owls Asio flammeus on Beeley Moor before but have never had the opportunity to photograph one.

I was running out of hope especially because the battery in my SLR was flat and I hoped the bird would not land anywhere which would have made a good photograph. I was leaving the moors when I saw the bird siting on a fence post for about 15 minutes and I realised I probably wasn't going to get a better opportunity to photograph such a magnificent bird. Clambering into the boot of the car (I couldn't get out the car because this would have scared the bird) and using my Canon powershot, I managed to get this photograph through the sun roof.

Rain has been disastrous to birds

The rain that most of the country had over the past 2 weeks has had a disastrous effects on birds. Ground nesting birds nests and breeding grounds have been destroyed. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has written an article which can been seen here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17966324.

In Nottingham the peregrine falcon family lost 3 of their 4 chicks to the prolonged and heavy rain last week, which caused much upset to a lot of people. The remaining chick is doing well though on the other hand. A family of peregrines in London seemed to cope a little better than the family in Nottingham, but their nest is sheltered.

Ogston Reservoir (my local bird club) had many nesting pairs of lapwings which due to the rising water levels in the reservoir have unfortunately been lost. On the other hand there have been rumors that Severn Trent have let water from Carsington Waters into Ogston, they know birds breed by the edge of the reservoir so why do it?

A beautiful lacewing

Lacewing (Chrysoperla canea)

Orangutans killed in forest fires

I use Twitter, but not for saying what I'm doing every minute of everyday, I use it to find out what's happening in the environment around the world. I only link up to environmental bodies and post about environmental issues.

One Tweeter this morning has posted a news article which some of you may find distressing, I know I did! The first sentence hits home: "Wildlife experts warn that in as little as just a few weeks, the rare Sumatran Orangutans could become extinct." 

There's only one species to blame here and that's us! 

I have 'blogged many times about palm oil, but it's something I believe we should all know about. You may think there's nothing we can do about it, but there is....if we all change our lifestyles, the products we buy from the supermarkets, there may be a chance that we can help this threatened species. 

To recap on the effects of palm oil; thousands of hectares of land are destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations, thus leaving orangutans and other species, trapped and dead. 

Palm oil factories are being accused of intentionally setting the forests on fire. The orangutans are then being forced into moving to less suitable forests, but the palm oil factory workers are apparently chasing the orangutans back into the fires when they're trying to move to safer grounds away from the fire. The bad news doesn't stop here unfortunately, factory workers are also being accused of paying poachers to kill the orangutans because they are destroying the young palm trees.

If this is the case what on earth has this world come to? Whether the palm oil factory workers are definitely doing this, they are still causing the orangutans habitat to diminish. What are your opinions on this? 

(*This blog article was written in reference to the following news article: http://www.nodeju.com/20617/hundreds-of-orangutans-killed-in-forest-fire.html*) 

There are ways we can help to protect this magnificent species, and that is to look at the products we buy on the shelves. There are numerous websites that provide lists of products that do not contain palm oil so why not try these:

Palm oil alternatives 01

Palm oil alternatives 02 (You can download a palm oil free shopping list from here too!)

WWF's Earth Hour

So, it's that time of year again, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is asking as many people all over the globe to turn off their lights for one hour. The point of this is "about people coming together to put the focus on this brilliant world we all share – and how we need to protect it. Not just for an hour a year, but every day." You can click on the link below to watch a video on this fantastic event. I've signed up, are you going to?

Earth Hour UK video