Wild flowers photographed in Marston Meadows    

 

 Wildlife 

 


Jack Straw's Lane Association
website home page

West Oxfordshire Animal Rescue
18 Sweetmans Road, Botley
Oxford  OX2 9BA (view map)

(07725) 944 397

 

Oxford Urban Wildlife Group

 

Friends of Warneford Meadow


Oxon & Bucks Mental Health Trust have requested a judicial review of the recommendation by the Inspector that Warneford Meadow should be registered as a Town Green.

 

 

Having trouble identifying birds by their song?

 

For quick identification of the song of the most common 15 UK birds, try:


BBC website with photos of garden birds and recordings of their song.

 

Another bird identification website:

Birds of Britain - web magazine for birdwatchers

 

iSpot is another website that could be useful for identifying wildlife

 

(The RSPB website is currently very slow to load)

£10m initiative to tackle bee and pollinator decline

Up to £10 million is to be invested to help to identify the main threats to bees and other insect pollinators under a major project announced on 21 April 2009.   Click here.

 

Bee venom successfully
used to fight cancer

 

The bee toxin, melittin, is carried to the cancer cells by microscopic 'nanobees' made of perfluorocarbon.  The toxin destroys cancer cells by making holes in them but does not attack healthy cells.

 

 

Fancy a modern 'beehaus'
in your garden?

 

Urban householders are being urged to consider keeping bees in their gardens, rooftops or even balconies to help protect declining honeybee populations.

Click here.

 

Bumblebee

Conservation

Trust -  click here

 

 

For information on Solitary Bees (bees that don't live in colonies - the vast majority of bees, in fact) click here.

 

UK Butterflies in decline

 

One of the UK's most common butterflies is suffering a drastic decline. See BBC report. 

 

The Butterfly Conservation site has an excellent guide to the identification of butterflies (the 'Butterflies' tab has an 'Identify a butterfly' option).

 

UK Butterflies (in association with Butterfly Conservation)  provides an equally good guide for identification.

 

 

 


Worms

One of the characters in Richard Scarry's children's books is Lowly Worm (pictured left), who sports a Tyrolean hat, and a shoe at the end of his body.  Sometimes he flies an apple-shaped helicopter (his distant relatives have far surpassed this - see end of this section). 


Worms, in fact, are anything but 'lowly' when it comes to their ecological and scientific importance.

There are 26 species of British earthworms.  The largest is 30 cm long and the shortest about 6 cm.  One group, which lives in leaf litter or compost heaps, is especially distinctive. These worms are essential for breaking down the material and turning it into compost.

 

 

Worms in compost bin

 

Some are obviously red in colour, although they can also be dark brown and the Tiger worm (Eisenia fetida) is striped.  There is more information on worms on the Buglife website.

 

Worms in Space!
On Monday, 16 November 2009, the US space shuttle Atlantis left for the International Space Station with about one million microscopic worms on board.  The worms are for experiments intended to help scientists understand why human muscles waste away in zero gravity.  See BBC news item
 

The species in orbit, Caenorhabditis elegans, has also been identified as a model for nicotine dependence, as it has been found to experience the same symptoms humans experience when they give up smoking. 

 

These worms can sometimes be found in rubbish tips, where they feed on bacteria.

 

New Marston Wildlife Group

If you would like information on the New Marston Wildlife Group, which is always pleased to recruit new members, please e-mail Curt Lamberth:
       


Members of the group receive newsletters with details of forthcoming events,  what is happening regarding wildlife locally and additional related information.  To see a sample newsletter, click here.

 

The Milham Ford Park web page has links to slideshows of some of the group's past activities in the park and to a plan of the park, with links to photos of the different areas.

Information on other past NMWG activities can be found by clicking here.
 

An excellent year for spiders

Last year's wet autumn and this year's temperate summer led to a big increase in the number of spiders, following a significant drop in 2007. 

The increase is good news for birds: "It's debatable whether some of our resident insect-eating birds, like the wren, would be able to survive the winter without a plentiful supply of spiders in leaf litter and under shrubbery", said Ian Dawson of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.


Garden Spider   Araneus diadematus

"One house spider will catch and dispose of 20 or so flies for you," said Matt Shardlow, director of Buglife

See BBC and Guardian article websites, both 25 Sept 2009.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milham Ford Park

 

 

 

For a great website for Wildlife photos and easy identification of species,
click
here

 

 

 

Oxford Core Strategy 2026 - Hearings

 

To see notes on the sessions about Climate Change and the Natural & Built Environments, click here


The Jack Straw's Lane Association endorsed concerns expressed by the New Marston Wildlife Group regarding the lack of protection for biodiversity and wildlife corridors offered by the latest version of the Core Strategy.  The JSLA comments were based on a detailed submission (about 10 pages long) on behalf of the New Marston Wildlife Group, prepared by Dr Curt Lamberth and Dr Susan Mallett, which indicated shortfalls in protection and highlighted incidences of non-compliance with current legislation. The comments form, signed by Dr Peter Sargent, JSLA Chairman, can be seen  by clicking on the two links below:

Page 1      Page 2


Oxford City Council - Core Strategy website - click here

 


Red-green Carpet Moth

Chloroclysta siterata

Jack Straw's Lane 23 10 2009

 

Despite its name, the larvae of this moth do NOT feed on carpet fibres but on various deciduous trees, especially oak (Quercus) and rowan (Sorbus aucuparia).

 

'Carpet Moths' are so-called because early naturalists thought they looked like exotic eastern carpets.


It's an autumn species, seen in September and October.  It hibernates as an adult and flies again in early spring.
 

 

British Hedgehog Preservation Society

 

For info on how to create a wildlife garden to attract birds, butterflies, bees and hedgehogs, click here

 

 

Natural England, an organisation that champions the conservation of wildlife, geology and wild places in England, has an excellent website with a search facility for plants you can introduce to your garden that benefit wildlife.

 

Environmental damage cased by modern
farming methods

A carpet of algae, fed by legal nutrients flushed into water from farms and sewage works,  has been clogging parts of the English coastline since the 1960s.  Recent tighter controls on the use of fertilisers and upgrades to some sewage works should result in a gradual improvement, but this will take at least 10 years.  See short BBC video.

 

Last updated: 17 November 2009