The EU is apparently very miserly when it comes to protecting wildlife, spending a mere 0.1% of its budget on nature protection, leaving the threat of extinction hanging over a large number of species and habitats.  Read more here…

Dormice in the UK are under threat, and in a bid to increase populations a number are being released in a secret location in Warwickshire.  A few interesting facts about dormice and a very cute picture are included in the article.

Another and, arguably, less cute reintroduction story that has been widely reported on is the release of smooth snakes on the moors in Devon where they used to live until about 50 years ago.  These non-venomous snakes are, at the moment, limited by suitable habitat to lowland heaths in Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset and Surrey.

You may also have heard the sad news that a Golden Eagle that had been fitted with a tracking device enabling its journeys to be followed over the internet by swathes of bird lovers has been found poisoned.  The poisoning of birds of prey is still a problem, although this eagle may have been killed by poison left by a gamekeeper for other birds of prey such as hen harriers, white tailed eagles or buzzards.

This is where we could have a serious problem. Rapid change shortens the time scale, but if species and their habitats are allowed to move: to cooler areas as ambient temperatures rise, or salt marsh moving inland as the coast erodes, they can buy time for natural selection to have an effect. Unfortunately human activity is so widespread that we can block such progressive change with our constructions, such as highways, cities, and dams.

Our species is enhanced by rich biodiversity; think of how our food is produced, and where many medicines are sourced. It’s clear we need to adopt a more holistic approach to the natural world: it’s essential it becomes an integral part of our lives.

This imperative is reflected in a change in the way conservation is being approached, as noted on Page 5 of Living landscapes: A call to restore the UK’s battered ecosystems, for wildlife and people, published by The Wildlife Trusts.

To recreate genuine living landscapes, we need to embrace this approach:

• Move from dominators and controllers of nature to
  appreciators and influencers of nature;
• Move from nature as special interest to nature as
  providing our living conditions – locally, regionally and
  globally;
• Move from a situation of nature in boxes to nature in the
  neighbourhood and nature in the landscape.

Everyone has a part to play in this kind of strategy, so when considering flood defences, coastal erosion projects, transport systems, or even paving your garden, please consider the impact on our living landscapes.

The damselfly lays it eggs in or close to water and these hatch after about a month. The nymphs then remain in the pond for one to two years before crawling up a convenient piece of vegetation and emerging from their larval case (exuvia). I think we have had at least 10 emerge from our pond in the last month. Here’s a picture I caught of a damselfy as it was emerging.

The damselfly then has to sit there as it pumps fluid to its wings and dries out before it can fly off. The time taken for this depends on the weather and one I was watching took about 3 hours in early May, but about half that time a couple of weeks later.

Damselflies are much smaller than dragonflies, and sit with their wings held in to their long slim body (thorax) unlike dragonflies which are much larger and wider and who hold their wider wings out.

Large Red Damselfly

This is a large red damselfy (which I think is the species that emerged from the pond in early May). Unfortunately they only tend to live for a few weeks so enjoy them whilst you can. Can you think of a better reason to put a pond in your garden than to see these fantastic creatures close-up?

For a great introduction to dragonflies and damselflies see the Leicestershire and Rutland Dragonfly Group website.

Until I read a recent article in the British Wildlife Magazine I didn’t know anything about polecats (or even realise they existed in the wild), so here are a few things I have learned:

They are native and were reduced to small groups surviving only in Wales, in no small part due to persecution by farmers and gamekeepers.

They are now spreading north and east, although their range appears to be limited by the major conurbations of the north-west and the midlands.

Polecats are relatives of ferrets, and there has been reduction in the purity of the polecate genes by some interbreeding with ferrets.

Polecats are about half a metre long (similar in size to ferrets), they have dark fur, lighter fur on their faces and dark noses (ferrets tend to have pink noses).

Unfortunately the polecats are often killed on the roads.

They manage better in the wild than ferrets as they are good hunters (ferrets were bred to be rubbish at catching their prey) and are thriving on the increased population of rabbits in the wild (currently standing around 45 million).

The good news is that it is thought that they (or possibly the otters) are having an adverse effect on mink which are starting to hunt during the day.  So, in the world of doom and gloom with everything seeming to be labelled a ‘crisis’ it appears there is some good news out there (unless you are a rabbit, frog, ground nesting bird…Oops, I think I am going off them a bit!).

For more information about polecats see the report from the Vincent Wildife Trust or subscribe to the excellent British Wildlife Magazine.

Four types of field margin are defined by the UK Biodiversity Partnership and the UK Government in Action plan for Cereal field margins.

• A ‘Wildlife Strip’ 6m wide adjacent to a cereal crop, together with a.1 m ‘Sterile Strip’ between the wildlife strip and the crop. The wildlife strip is cultivated once a year but not cropped; the Sterile Strip is maintained so as to prevent aggressive arable weeds spreading into the adjacent cereal crop.
• A ‘Conservation Headland’ either 6m or 12m wide forming the outer margin of the crop and separated from an adjacent field boundary or other vegetation by a.1 m Sterile Strip. The Conservation Headland is cropped with cereals but is managed with reduced inputs of pesticides so as to favour wild arable plants and invertebrates.
• A combined wildlife strip and Conservation Headland, separated by a Sterile Strip and managed as described as above.
• Game crops, stubble or grassland fallows lying between annually cropped land and the field boundary.

According to their figures such land could be very significant, more than compensating for the lost set-aside.

The margins of cereal fields could be managed in ways which would benefit wildlife, without having serious detrimental effects on the remaining cropped area. Estimating average national field size to be 12 ha suggests that there are about 400,000 km of cereal field edge in the UK. If all such boundaries included a 6m managed margin, some 200,000 ha of land would be brought into sensitive management (600,000 ha at 12m width).

It seems to me that this approach could be far more useful than its predecessor: a network of margins could link the whole countryside with designated nature reserves and urban spaces. These are exactly the type of ‘green corridors’ that a landscape ecology approach requires.

However, this idilic concept may be limited by the use of non-organic farming methods on the main crops. What about the traditional meadow required for many wildflower species? Find out more about the benefits of this system for birds and small mammals at the RSPB. Buglife, in association with the UK DEFRA, further discuss of the pros and cons, especially for insects.

The reintroduction of species has been the subject of controversy, this seems to be more the case with mammals than in the bird world which has seen reintroduction programmes for red kites and ospreys in the last decade.  This will be the first reintroduction of a mammal in the UK, and has followed a lengthy period of preparation and research.

Although some people seem concerned about the effect reintroducing these creatures will have on the environment, they are being settled in areas that they used to inhabit (unlike the ospreys at Rutland Water), and will bring benefits to the environment.  It seems to me that the planning for this was probably more in depth than that for new houses on flood plains and many of the other project we carry out which are detrimental to the natural processes which keep the environment balanced.

The full article can be found on the BBC website.