30 Days Wild - Day 3 Alien Encounters

Ok, so its not technically day 3 anymore, but better late than never.



Saw plenty of alien species on our site visit today.

The main "invader" spotted was Japanese knotweed, a gift from our plant obsessed Victorian forbears! Nowadays we know how easily this plant spreads and how difficult it is to get rid of, as well as the impact it has on our native vegetation. It's safe to say that it has definitely outstayed it's welcome in the UK.

Still an impressive plant though, but it belongs in Japan; not Pontefract! 

Turning Japanese? - You can help find and track this unwelcome invader.

If you've got a smartphone you should definitely download the Plant Tracker app. Its a free app which makes it easy to identify, record and submit sightings of non-native invasive plant species. Fun for all the family and useful information too. Why not make "invasive plant tracking" your wild activity tomorrow?

30 Days Wild - Day 2 Birdfood Cocktail

Another indoor day for us today but, thanks to the weather cancelling our bat survey tonight, at least we've got chance to fill up the bird feeders at home.
Our little corner of South Yorkshire isn't particularly well endowed when it comes to garden birds, but that won't stop us!
First first stop for any wannabe garden birder is obviously bird feeders.

We try and tailor our home made seed mix to the tastes of our regular avian visitors:

For the sparrows,coal tit, blue tit and starlings a mix of suet pellets and sunflower seed (with and without shells).
For the goldfinches, niger seed in it's own special feeder, although they seem to prefer the sunflower hearts these days. 

For the rest; blackbirds, dunnock, collared dove, wood pigeon and the occasional magpie, they get what the others throw onto the floor!

We also put out suet balls and suet cake too which they all seem to use as a backup when the cocktail feeder runs out.

The pond seems to be a big draw for the birds too, the blackbirds particularly enjoy a bath in the shallow end.

Although it's not scientifically proven, we think we've made a difference in the last few years, the house sparrows being a fairly recent return after several years absent. We also get starlings nesting in the soffits on the front of the house; they've already had 1 brood fledge this year.

A site day for us tomorrow so hopefully we'll be able to post something a bit more out of the ordinary.

 

 

30 Days Wild - Day 1: Buzzards!

It's the 1st of June so time for our first "30 days wild" post!

We've been mostly in the office today, however on a quick drive to Leeds we couldn't help but admire (whilst giving the road our full attention!) several common buzzard (Buteo buteo) along the M1 between Ossett and Leeds.

It wasn't so long ago that these wonderful birds of prey would have been a rare sighting in these parts, having suffered from persecution, poisoning by agricultural chemicals and a reduction in their rabbit prey to Myxomatosis.

Stronger legal protection and the banning of certain pesticides has meant this species and several other birds of prey have made a real comeback in our lifetime. How long will it be before Red Kites move south from Harewood and start to become a regular sight around Wakefield and Barnsley?

30 Days Wild

Do something with nature every day for a month - should be pretty easy for us right? Think again - it has to be something different everyday - not "we did a bat survey" 30 times, which is usually what June involves for us!

This new initiative by the Wildlife Trusts aims to get us all out and about in June experiencing nature. That could mean anything from having a walk along the canal to see the ducks on your lunchbreak to going out to the woods at dawn to listen to the birds. They'll even send you a pack with loads of ideas to have a go at.

Sound like fun?

Sign up here - its easy and it's FREE!

We'll be trying to do a blog entry every day to say what we've been doing (other than 30 bat surveys!), so watch this space.

Spring mowing

We spent half of today doing some spring mowing on one of the meadows at Denby Delph, a local wildlife site which we manage for the Garganey Trust.

We'll be back with the power scythe later in the summer to do a full cut, part of the gradual process of turning this scrubby field into a diverse wildflower meadow.

Ferocious predators of the deep

Where would you find us at 7am on a bank holiday weekend? Wading around in a pond of course!

We set bottle traps in ponds overnight as part of our great crested newt surveys. Quite often these also catch other pond life, including insects.

This morning one trap contained this; an adult great diving beetle (Dytiscus marginalis) under attack by a larvae of it's own species. It really is dog eat dog in pondworld!

CSI newt

Last year Defra published guidance on using an Environmental DNA (eDNA) test of pond water for the presence of great crested newts. The guidance followed research led by the Freshwater Habitats Trust who developed and tested the technique.  This involves taking several water samples from a pond followed by laboratory testing for presence of great crested newt DNA, which should be present in the water when the newts are, or have recently been in the pond.

The Environment Minister at the time of the publication, Lord de Mauley, said;
 
“We want to remove unnecessary bureaucracy for developers while protecting the environment.  One of a number of complaints has been that concerns about the possible presence of creatures like great crested newts can hold up development.”

“This new technique has the potential to provide protection for great crested newts while saving time and money when trying to detect them.  This shows how new technology could benefit environmental conservation while also supporting growth by reducing costs for developers.”


Since the publication of this guidance the technique and its potential application to proposed development sites has been embraced by ecological consultants and there are now several laboratories offering their services facilitating the commercial use of the technique.

However, one major drawback of the technique with regards to development projects are the tight timescales involved. Sampling of eDNA can only start during what is traditionally regarded as the "peak season" for breeding great crested newts (mid-April to mid-May) and results can typically take 2 weeks to come back. As the technique can only provide an indication of presence or absence, not population size, then a positive result would require traditional surveys to be undertaken in order to gain the relevant population size class data. This data would be needed to assess the potential impact of the proposed development, which would inform the decision on the planning application, and then form the basis of an application for a Natural England development licence. Of the 6 traditional survey visits required, 3 of these would need to be during the "peak season" meaning that developers are left with two options; do these anyway whilst waiting for the eDNA results, in which case the eDNA results may become redundant if/when you detect presence by traditional means, as well as negating the potential cost savings. Alternatively the traditional surveys could be conducted, if required, the following year - in which case a positive eDNA result could result in a 12 month delay which would probably have an even greater cost implication to the developer than undertaking the traditional survey methods anyway.

So perhaps the real benefits of this new technique, from a development point of view, are for those projects which typically take several years to get to the planning stage anyway such as roads, pipelines and other large infrastructure schemes?

Newt detection - the traditional way

What the technique is well suited for is the regional or indeed nationwide survey of ponds for great crested newts. A nationwide data-set of GCN presence? - now that would be useful! So when we saw an advertisement by the Freshwater Habitats Trust for volunteer eDNA surveyors we seized the opportunity to try this new technique out for ourselves whilst 'doing our bit' for GCN conservation. Having now done the survey and sampling (which was relatively easy and made a change to be surveying during sociable hours!) we've sent our samples back to the Freshwater Habitats Trust and await the results which are due, with all of the other sites, later on in the year. We've even had a mention on their facebook page!