Saving special places

Butterflies and bobbins around Morecambe Bay

2013-05-13T16:23:12Z

Spring is slowly taking hold around Morecambe Bay, but as temperatures drop and the rain blows in, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Even on a rainy day there are some special places to explore with signs of spring and hopes for a sunny day. Last week on such a rainy day I was lucky enough to head up to High Dam - which is a few miles inland from the coast of Morecambe Bay and a short trip from Windermere, to see if we could find the home of some of the rare butterflies found around Morecambe...(read more)

History should tell us something

2013-05-11T15:58:48Z

Roughly once a decade airport planners cast their eyes east of London into the marshes and wetlands of the Thames Estuary. In some sort of grotesque bring-forward diary the arguments for (largely its not somewhere else) and the arguments against (communities wiped out, landscapes re-modelled with massive losses of nature’s homes and an assault on our surviving natural world, huge an unpredictable flooding risks around the coasts of the South East, entirely predictable risk of bird-strike ....(read more)

Redstart Ramble

2013-05-10T13:30:56Z

Sherwood Forest is a special place with a wealth of special wildlife. The redstart is an iconic bird of Sherwood Forest – more widespread and numerous in upland areas, it is on the edge of its eastern range in the Midlands here in Sherwood Forest. Redstarts are summer migrants, about the size of a robin, but slimmer with a red tail, which is obvious when seen and they have the habit of frequently flicking their tail. Its name means red tail as ‘start’ derives from ‘steort’...(read more)

Dawn Chorus at Sherwood Forest NNR

2013-05-03T16:20:00Z

Sunday 28th April - 5am in the main car park of Sherwood Forest NNR and 10 people had gathered for a dawn chorus walk with Claire Watson, Nottinghamshire County Council ranger, and me. The early birds singing in the dawn chorus were blackbirds , robins , wrens , and great and blue tits . Blackbirds have a rich, lusty song often with a chuckle at the finish as though they’re pleased with that particular performance. The robin’s is more refined – chamber music rather than the full...(read more)

A swift decline and an Easter Extravaganza

2013-05-01T17:44:00Z

The annual Easter craft fare came to the grounds of Wollaton Hall and deer park , Nottingham on the 29th-30 th March, hosting a wide range of stalls and displays from local craftsmen and women throughout Nottingham. From cakes, to knit wear, bird boxes, candle makers and of course, who other than.......... the RSPB! It’s not very often you see a number of garden birds, such as chaffinches & blue tits, foraging alongside the site of a brown long eared bats and water voles in a great hall...(read more)

Visitors go wild for Morecambe Bay

2013-05-01T09:09:00Z

I've been working around Morecambe Bay for just over a year now, looking at ways nature organisations can work with tourism businesses to promote the nature of the Bay area. This is part of the Morecambe Bay Futurescape programme. One of the first things I did was get together a band of volunteers to help me carry out over 400 visitor surveys last autumn. We spent time talking to people at different places around the Bay to find out why they came to the area and what they did whilst they were...(read more)

The Inner Forth Landscape what now? Let me explain.....

2013-04-29T10:42:00Z

Hello from a very sunny (for the moment) Skinflats nature reserve. We have a bit of a treat today, it's the first Futurescapes guest blog! This has been written by Kate Fuller of the Inner Forth Landscape Initiative, a project which is delivering parts of the Inner Forth Futurescape, plus a lot more........ actually I think I'll leave it to Kate to do the explaining, enjoy!! Hello I’m Kate Fuller, the Inner Forth Landscape Initiative (IFLI) Community Engagement and Projects Officer...(read more)

(Don't) blame it on the weatherman

2013-04-24T09:30:14Z

Every year my colleague Rolf (Williams – Kent Communications Officer) gets the plum job of soaring 1,000ft up above the Thames Estuary in a micro-light. In his words this is “ a privileged, if precarious, position from which to visit the whole of the Greater Thames Futurescape, viewed from the birds’ perspective”. Fortunately, with the power of the digital camera we too can sample a bird’s-eye view of this spectacular landscape, here is RSPB Northward Hill (North...(read more)

Cliffe Pools – nature magnet

2013-04-17T08:27:43Z

Press reports have picked up on the abundance of birds that called RSPB Cliffe Pools nature reserve home this winter. Over 10,000 black-tailed godwits (like the three in the picture below) have been setting records for this North Kent coastal wetland which is threatened by a proposal to build a four-runway hub airport on the Thames Estuary. For these godwits international travel is their route to survival – these birds will be heading north to nest in Iceland. Loss of wetlands along their...(read more)

Dungeness – a successful nature reserve

2013-04-10T19:35:12Z

A few hours ago I sadly posted this blog , setting out our initial reaction to the shocking news that the proposal to extend the famously unsuccessful Lydd airport’s runway has been approved. I also had to tell my 8 year old son who has come to love Dungeness. His face fell – but he rallied to say ‘don’t worry no one will want to fly from there’. And if history is any guide, he may well be right. I hope he is, otherwise a future of creeping development, a tsunami...(read more)

Today’s decision to extend Lydd airport is wrong

2013-04-10T17:51:22Z

Today’s shocking decision to approve an extension to Lydd airport in Kent is the latest stage in the sorry saga of attempts to develop the site. We’re very disappointed at the news and are profoundly concerned for the future of one the UK’s most important and iconic wildlife sites. The decision goes against the wishes of local people who, in the only formal referendum on the issue voted 2 to 1 against the airport’s plans. The RSPB’s Conservation Director, Martin...(read more)

Protected areas are stepping stones for survival

2013-04-10T08:17:57Z

This blog is filled with the stories of special places for nature. It makes sense to indentify those sites that most important for particular species and ensure that they are effectively protected. But what happens if the species that depend on particular sites move their distribution in response to changing climate conditions, for example? This is an important question as we plan strategies to give nature room to adapt to a changing climate. Richard Bradbury from our Conservation Science team...(read more)

A Welcome Guest!

2013-04-02T14:28:00Z

Avocet!! Right here on the Skinflats reserve , an avocet!! Amazing! You can probably tell I am a little excited (hence all the exclamation marks) but at the end of last week I got a glimpse of a bird that I have never seen before and certainly did not expect to see right here on the River Forth! Granted, the sight of an Avocet may be a regular experience if you live in areas such as Morcombe Bay (another fantastic Futurescape by the way) but here on the Forth we very rarely get a glimpse of...(read more)

Songs, Signs and Signals

2013-03-29T23:00:43Z

In a few short weeks nightingales will return. They are not amongst our earliest summer migrants so there is still time for the cold that is currently strangling spring to relent. Fewer nightingales will jug, jug, jug their songs into the night in fewer places than ever before. In common with many long distant migrants they are in trouble – the plight of all these global travellers is going to be a major theme in nature conservation over the years to come. But for nightingales heading...(read more)

Kenya’s Dakatcha Woodlands reveal its hidden nature

2013-03-28T20:30:02Z

Here’s some great news for Easter. Kenya’s Dakatcha Woodlands have featured on this blog over several years – and we’ve followed the campaigning of Nature Kenya and local people to protect the woodlands and seasonal wetlands. The area has been at threat of damage and loss from the headlong rush to develop sources of biofuels. I’ll let Nature Kenya’s Fleur Ng’weno take up the story. Dakatcha Woodland Conservation Group and Nature Kenya are happy to report...(read more)