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Countryman
Diary - June 2007
The time has come for me to tell you about
the birds and the bees… no need to curl up with embarrassment,
it’s about the facts of life for the humble bee and how
eyeing up the birds could help solve a mystery. Although the
sight and sound of bumblebees, droning methodically from flower
to flower, is a quintessential part of a summer’s day,
many species appear to be in decline, their distributions contracting
rapidly. At the same time, a number of species (including one
recent coloniser from France) are expanding and researchers are
keen to find out the extent of such changes.
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BCT) has
now teamed up with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to
help discover more about Britain’s bumblebees and by enlisting
the help of birdwatchers BCT hope to track the changing fortunes
of these endearing creatures.
There are surprisingly few bumblebee recorders
and our knowledge is lacking in some areas so the BCT hope the
16,000 participants in the BTO/CJ WildBird Foods Garden BirdWatch
programme will help out. These observers spend time each week
primarily recording the birds that use their gardens but more
recently have started contributing records of other animals,
like mammals, amphibians and butterflies – so why not bumblebees?
To help Garden BirdWatchers identify the fourteen
species of bumblebee most likely to occur in gardens, the two
organisations have produced an identification chart. Mike Toms,
Garden BirdWatch organiser, says: “We’re delighted
to be able to help. Gardens are an important habitat for wildlife
and, on average, provide far more flowers than agricultural land.
This makes them ideal places in which to monitor the changing
fortunes of our more widespread bumblebees.”
There are twenty-five native species of bumblebee
in Britain and Ireland. Three species have already become nationally
extinct and five others are now designated as UK Biodiversity
Action Plan species, in recognition of their precarious status;
four others are scheduled for inclusion.
If you want to find out more about how you
can help with this survey, please send off for a free information
pack from Garden Bumblebee Pack (BTO), Freepost, IH2784, Norfolk,
IP24 2BR. Alternatively, send your name and address details to
gbw@bto.org or phone 01842 750050.
If you need to know anything about the other ‘birds
and the bees’ I suggest you ask someone aged under fourteen.
Crucial to snake’s head
A little known site in the heart of Oxford
is home to a massive population of a rare but iconic wildflower
which used to be abundant in Britain – the snake’s-head
fritillary. This petite, purple and white flower carpets the
Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust’s nature reserve
at Iffley Meadows during April and the beginning of May. Each
year, looking like a scene from a crime scene drama, trust members
and volunteers slowly inch along in line, counting every flower
they see.
The results are now in for this year’s
survey and they confirm the good news that there are over 42,000
plants on site. When the trust took over management of Iffley
Meadows in 1983, numbers of this flower were a mere 500 plants
as the site was being grazed all year round by cows. But, due
to BBOWT’s careful management and controlled grazing, numbers
shot up to over 65,000 plants at their peak – a huge success
story.
Debbie Lewis, BBOWT’s biodiversity survey
officer, says: “Iffley represents a rare type of floodplain
meadow which used to be widespread, but is now nationally declining,
so BBOWT’s management over the last twenty-five years has
been, and still is, crucial to its success.”
Tawny’s great escape
Inmates at Channings Wood prison watched in
amazement as crows launched a mid-air attack on a tawny owl.
The crows gave no respite as the owl clung desperately to the
perimeter fence. Concerned prisoners managed to scare off the
crows and the exhausted owl fell into the prison grounds. The
bird (pictured) was placed in a towel-lined box and Julie Matthews,
assistant conservation officer at the Barn Owl Trust, called
at the prison to collect it and make a note of exactly where
the bird was found.
“Unlike barn owls, that have large home ranges, tawny owls are very territorial,
spending the whole of their lives within a relatively small area of woodland,” explained
Julie. “If a tawny owl recovers it’s very important that we’re
able to release it back within its own territory.”
Following a thorough health check, treatment
for shock, a good meal, and a night under a heat lamp, the owl
had a special surprise in store for staff at the trust the next
morning – it had laid an egg. Once the owl and the staff
had got over the shock, the owl was ringed and successfully released
back at the prison. Hopefully it will now be reunited with its
mate and be incubating eggs.
To support the trust telephone 01364 653026
or visit www.barnowltrust.org.uk
Successful invasion
The RSPB’s flagship nature reserve, Minsmere
on the Suffolk coast, is celebrating sixty years of saving some
of the country’s most endangered birds from extinction.
The site, which is a haven for a stunning array of plants and
animals, was first leased to the RSPB in April 1947, the same
year that four pairs of avocets – extinct in the UK for
100 years – were found breeding there. Ever since, Minsmere
has provided a lifeline to birds on the brink of disappearing
from the UK.
The flooding of East Anglia’s coastal
marshes to hinder the expected German invasion provided an ideal
habitat for the avocet.
Diary dates
I’ve recently made my first visit to
Dumfries and Galloway (more next month) and can recommend a host
of activities for all the family organised for the D&G Arts
Festival throughout May and June. For details contact Gracefield
Arts Centre, 28 Edinburgh Road, Dumfries. Tel: 01387 260447 or
log onto www.dgartsfestival.org.uk
There’s a special open day at the National
Trust’s Collard Hill in Somerset on Sunday 24 June when
visitors should be able to catch a glimpse of Britain’s
rarest butterfly, the large blue, which was declared extinct
in 1979. A major conservation project, which began in the ’80s
has subsequently created sites across the South West and the
butterfly is flourishing again. Collard Hill is one of eleven
large blue sites in England but it’s the only one that
is fully accessible to the public.
It’s difficult to pick a village festival when there are
so many, but anyone in the South Downs should head along (22-24
June) to Tillington, near Petworth, to celebrate amongst other
things the 200th anniversary of the church’s unusual and
distinctive Scottish Crown which has featured in paintings by
Turner and Constable. Lots of community-led activities plus a
parade by the Horse Guards of the Household Cavalry. Details
on 01798 345150.
Paul Jackson |
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