Wild flowers photographed in Marston Meadows
Wildlife
Last
updated: 24 May 2012
Their Spring (No. 93) 2012 Newsletter (Pages 5-7) has a really good article about Oxford's Botanical Garden.
Oxfordshire Nature Conservation Forum
West Oxfordshire Animal Rescue
18 Sweetmans Road, Botley
Oxford OX2 9BA (view
map)
(07725)
944 397
Having trouble identifying birds ?
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.
And if you're interested in the song of some more unusual birds, click here
British Garden Birds - advice on feeding birds
Another bird identification website:
Birds of Britain - web magazine for birdwatchers
20-20 SITE new - gives exceptionally clear details and photos of trees
British Trees website After selecting the type of tree from the column on the left, click on the illustration that will appear to get details.
British Wildflowers This index has links to some excellent photos to help identification.
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.
Elizabeth Barrett has a wonderful website of photos to help with identification of species - click here
Invasive species
Japanese Knotweed
Fallopia japonica / Polygonum cuspidatum /
Reynoutria japonica
The invasive root system and strong growth of Japanese Knotweed can damage foundations, buildings, flood defences, roads, paving, retaining walls and architectural sites. It thrives on disturbance and the tiniest piece can regrow. In 2004, a DEFRA review of non-native species policy stated that a conservative estimate for the costs involved in eradication would be £1.56bn.
Invasive
species are one of the biggest problems in conservation
today; introducing something new to an ecosystem can
have devastating consequences.
See BBC article 24 May 2012 . This applies to deep-sea exploration and also our local environment - see
Non-native species cost British economy
£1.7
billion a year
UK government to
reconsider use of
nerve agent pesticides
Sir Robert Watson, Chief Scientist at the Department of the Environment, has announced that DEFRA will look at recent research results on the effects of neonicotinoids on bees' resistance to disease.
At present, DEFRA does not consider these pesticides pose an unacceptable risk to honey bees but Sir Robert stated: 'We must look at this in real detail to see whether or not the current British position is correct or is incorrect'.
See articles in The
Independent,
31 March 2012 and
30 March 2012
Wildflowers and Pollinators
England and Wales lost 97% of their wildflower meadows between 1930 and 1980 (see Royal Horticultural Society website, 10 April 2012).
Modern agricultural methods and the development of green spaces are having a damaging effect on pollinators, on which 35% of the world's crop production depends.
In the BBC 2 series, 'Bees, Butterflies and Blooms', Sara Raven promoted her campaign to make Britain's green spaces - urban and rural - more pollinator friendly. To see clips from all three episodes, click here.
Foxes
The BBC Nature website has a great video of a fox in the Yellowstone National Park, USA, catching a mouse hiding 6 ft beneath the snow. Click here
Changes to
UK Butterfly Species
between 1995 and 2009
 |
Data collected by
the public through
Butterfly Conservation
and the Centre
for Ecology and Hydrology show that nearly
three-quarters of the 59 species of butterflies
that breed regularly in the UK have declined in
numbers and over half of them have seen a
reduction in their distribution across the UK.
|
|
Brown Hairstreak -
population down |
|
|
Even the smallest of the declines were significant, with an 8% drop in numbers of the widespread Meadow Brown and Orange-tip, although the Large Blue, once near extinction, achieved one the rare increases - up by 271%. |
|
|
Small Tortoiseshell -
population down |
How
to attract (desirable) wildlife
to your garden
See BBC Nature UK article
How to help wildife,
even if your garden is minimal
See BBC Nature UK article
Turtle
Doves:
90% drop in numbers
since 1970s
One cause of the fall in
their numbers is the disappearance of their main food
source.
See BBC article,
13 May
2012
British
Hedgehogs
are disappearing
In the 1950s there were about 30 million of them. In the 1990s the figure had dropped to about 1.5 million and now the hedgehog population is estimated at only a fraction of that.
See Oxford Times article, 16 Feb 2012.
And visit
www.hedgehogstreet.org
British Hedgehog Preservation Society
For info on how to create a
wildlife garden to attract birds, butterflies, bees and
hedgehogs, click
here
Pond Conservation
Do you have a garden pond?
If so, please dispose of your pond waste with your garden waste in order to protect the environment. 'Be plant wise' is the message from DEFRA.
Not-so-welcome wildlife
Plant pests - threats to
food security.
BBC News article 9 Nov 2011