Hare watching…
Brown Hare video
1 July, 2009 by natureheadsBat Training 18-20 Aug 2009
1 July, 2009 by natureheadsJason Ball @ Natureheads.com
Bats are amazing, and I’ve been learning more about them over the last few years. But they are a difficult group of animals to identify and understand without seriously good training and experience. So I’ve booked a place on a course this summer at Kielder.
Course details
18+19+20 Aug 2009
Fee = £375
Location = Kielder Castle, Northumberland
To book: james.alex8@tiscali.co.uk
Jim Alexander, the trainer, has run this course for 16 years – previously for the Forestry Commission, but this time independently.
Get licenced
The price is a real bargain. Training for ecology consultants is usually much more expensive, and bats are a popular target for consultation work requested by planning authorities. So your new skills will be in demand.
At the end of the course, Jim, as a Natural England licenced trainer, will endorse your licence application to Natural England. What if you are based in Wales or Scotland? That won’t be a problem.
Jim explained to me, “My trainer qualifications are accepted by all countries and I have had many Scottish and Welsh applicants on the courses over the years with no problems.”
More bat training
The Bat Conservation Trust www.bats.org.uk has places available on courses for consultants, such as Bats and Bat Surveys, Planning and Preparation of Bat Surveys, and Surveying Buildings (including bat ID).
Jason Ball @ Natureheads.com
Steel rulers for naturalists
30 June, 2009 by natureheads
Stainless steel rulers are very handy bits of kit. This year, finally, I’ve got hold of two steel rulers with the perfect design.
I’m a BTO bird ringer and carry out Barn Owl monitoring every year. The feather measurements are tricky, because ’standard’ rulers have a stub with no graduation marks, a few wasted millimetres that don’t measure anything! The stub gets in the way. I use the feather measurements to the nearest mm to match up to standardised age estimates.
My new steel rulers are specially designed, with the end clean-cut, and no useless stub!
Now I can place the ruler’s edge exactly into the unfurling part of the feather I need to get an accurate length. The same goes for measurements of anything you might encounter on field studies, such as shells, plants, small mammals, etc.
The clean-cut 30cm steel rule
The clean-cut 15cm steel rule
These rulers are perfect, and weren’t easy to find, so I got hold of more!
You can buy these from me, at a better price than you’ll see from BTO ringer sales or most biologist / naturalist equipment suppliers. I have listed these 15 cm and 30 cm steel rulers for sale on my ebay gallery.
Harlequin Ladybird invasion – nature or nurture?
30 June, 2009 by natureheadsThis week yet another press release emerged about the Harlequin Ladybird invasion of the UK, saying that 2009 is bound to favour the invader. A hot summer should extend their breeding season and enable them to thrive.
This big and tough Asian ladybird was employed in the USA as a ‘biological pest control’ against aphids - but as you might expect, things didn’t go exactly as planned. Harlequin Ladybirds do eat aphids, but they also eat a whole host of other creatures, including butterfly eggs, caterpillars and OTHER ladybirds. Back in 2004 the Harlequin Ladybird was first recorded in the UK, and it caused quite a fuss. (what they look like)
So what?
There are news stories about the invasion every year. In 2008 scientists from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University described it as ‘the most invasive ladybird on Earth’. I suspect that this year’s speculation might be a PR stunt, because the news is futile… I mean, what are we supposed to do? What action are we supposed to take? Should we write to Gordon Brown?
To get your attention the media always feel the need to make it ultra-interesting and a story about a spotty beetle is not the most enthralling topic to most people. So to make sure you take notice the newsreaders and reporters usually hint that the ’crisis’ will come sooner rather than later.
As part of the panic-raising, some articles even focus on the potential damage that we might see from ’attacks on soft fruit’ which could leave… unsightly marks. Alongside their appetite for native ladybirds, lacewings and butterfly eggs, who could love a Harlequin?
Worst of all, they might bite people. Imagine! It might get sore. OMG! Occasionally, they say. When peckish and there’s nothing in the bush. Yeh, but anyway, just imagine!
Nature or Nurture?
Did the Harlequin Ladybird get here with human help, or did they arrive on the wing? Does it matter? What if the Seven-spot Ladybird, whose range includes massive areas of the world, originated in Asia too? Would you love it less? When did it invade the isles known as British and when did it qualify as ‘native’?
If new species are a bad thing, and will upset the ‘balance’ people imagine exists in Nature, then a much greater wave - let’s call it a TSUNAMI of invaders – might be worth considering. Climate change will bring flying insects our way at a faster rate than modern naturalists have ever known. Higher temperatures, new wind currents, less frost and altered migration instincts could all add up to more new insects and spiders (SPIDERS!) and orchids (ooh nice) coming over here. From over there.
The truth is, the influence of these new ladybirds in the British context is unknown. Perhaps the harlequin will strike a big blow this year, perhaps not, but don’t we need evidence?
Be part of the learning process
Knowing where harlequins live and how fast they spread across the UK will help scientists to gain an understanding of what impact these colourful killers begin to make on the native British insect community. For instance, surveys of other ladybirds could be carried out in areas where the Harlequin is present and absent. Eventually the data might show how our native ladybirds are being affected where Harlequins move in.
The Natural History Museum set up a campaign, the Harlequin Ladybird Survey, in 2005. They would welcome your sightings.
Jason Ball @ Natureheads.com
Organism/month June 2008 – mystery beetle
22 June, 2009 by natureheads
Mystery beetle on my thumb (click to enlarge)
I see lots of mystery beetles. Sometimes they are not a mystery for long, but this one isn’t in my books at all. But it’s such a cool little creature that it should be!
Can you tell me what this is, anyone?
The camouflage is brilliant. Cryptic and it’s back end seems to mimick a head, or perhaps a broken twig. The jaws are hefty, but I suspect it’s not a carnivore.
Wee Bees (Bumblebees) campaign
20 June, 2009 by natureheadsSave the Wee Bees is a project by Central Scotland Forest to promote the conservation of bumblebees. They have some good ideas for bee fans about WHAT TO DO to help, e.g. bee-friendly gardening and farming.
Schools – please call 01501 824797 to get hold of activity packs with educational wallcharts, workbooks, stickers and other resources.
CSF said:
With only 25 species remaining in the UK, the decline is dramatic. The UK now has half the species of just 60 years ago. We’ve recently lost at least three species to extinction, and – with another seven now on the UK Priority Species list – more may follow in the near future.
Bumblebees might all look the same at first glance. But you can get an identification guide at the Save the Wee Bees web page.
Moth night at Little Hidden Farm 20 June
17 June, 2009 by natureheadsBerkshire Moth Group
Saturday 20th June 2009
Bookings essential – Tel: 01488 683253
LITTLE HIDDEN FARM
Dear Moth Enthusiast,
As a repeat of the extremely interesting and enjoyable evening that we held during the summer of 2006 we have arranged with the Berkshire Moth Group that they visit Little Hidden Farm again on Saturday 20th June meeting here between 2100 and 2130. The group comprises some most knowledgeable entomologist who will be bringing several mercury vapour lamps with which to lure their fascinating winged friends for identification and recording.
Last time we provided freshly home-baked bread and cheese and elder flower squash for punters and, of all generations, had a really enlightening evening observing a multitude of otherwise seldom seen creatures in their many hues and with such wonderful names. Having created some quite species rich habitat on the farm over recent years it was rewarding to have recorded one particularly uncommon moth.
The children were particularly excited by the event which proved a nice opportunity for Grandparents to engage in a new pursuit with the younger generation.
We do hope you might like to join us and to stay as late as your enthusiasm lasts. Pray for a nice warm evening but come well clad for the night air.
BOOKINGS
It would be nice to have some idea of numbers if you could let us know without our demanding any firm commitment. Last time we numbered about twenty.
Bill and Sue.
Tel 01488 683253
LITTLE HIDDEN FARM
Beekeeping hopefuls
14 June, 2009 by natureheads
photographer Clive Joyce
The Farming Today team has taken on a real challenge – they are going to keep bees for a year. With newly emerging disease problems and the mystery of colony collapse disorder, this is a daunting task. Oh, and they’ll get stung.
Yes, it’s only a 1-year project, which is a bit temporary in the grand scheme of beekeeping! But the sure thing is they’ll find out a bit more about bees and the marvellous ways of this super-organism.
- Read what they’re up to…
- FT beehive photos on Flickr…
- Listen to a bit of beekeeping on Farming Today
- Feed – Subscribe to “The Farming Today beehive”
Warehouse Express and Birdforum
12 June, 2009 by natureheadsBirdForum members (like me) can get some extra special deals at Warehouse Express.
Bushnell Spacemaster Collapsible
- £99. **SAVE £47, Was £146, then £109** – Click Here
Bushnell Natureview Plus 10×42 Porro Binoculars
- £89.99 -**PLUS FREE TENT** - Click Here
Canon 10×30 IS Binoculars (image stabilised)
- £329 – Click Here
Zeiss Diascope 85 T* FL LotuTec 20-60x eyepiece Angled Silver
- £1290. **SAVE £550, RRP £1840** – Click Here
Nikon Digital Attachment FSA
- £49.99. **Was £68.50, then £53.50** – Click Here
Bird Photography by David Tipling
- £13.38 – Click Here
Read the announcement by BirdForum…
If you’re a keen birder, why not join BirdForum? They’re also looking for contributors /editors too, so if you’re a nature blogger or writer, or if you’d like to share your bird photos, take a look at BirdForum (it’s free.)
Ed Will Ginger walking
11 June, 2009 by natureheadsI’ve just caught an audio glimpse of Ed, Will and Ginger, as they wandered through BBC Radio Four. I went to the BBC iPlayer to listen to Farming Today This Week (last week’s) and there they were, because the editing robots had put the end of a Ramblings programme onto the clip. Click here to hear Ed, Will and Ginger (by accident)
- Ramblings Series 12: Episode 3 Clare Balding walks in Wiltshire with ‘modern-day Troubadours’.
BBC Radio 4, broadcast on 6 Jun 2009
Facebook group > Ed, Will and Ginger a-walking-o
