Jump to content

The Wildlife (and Gardening for Wildlife) thread

elsiegee40

By elsiegee40
in General Chat

 Share

Recommended Posts

6Foot2

6Foot2

Posted
Posted

Link: Large heath butterflies return to Manchester after 150 years [The Guardian]

 

4799.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&

 

Large heath butterflies are returning to peatlands in greater Manchester 150 years after they went locally extinct.

 

The acidic peat bogs and mosslands around Manchester and Liverpool were home to the country’s biggest colonies of large heath butterflies – known as the “Manchester argus” – but numbers plummeted as land was drained for agricultural land and peat extraction.

 

Conservationists from Lancashire Wildlife Trust are now looking to reverse the fortunes of this rare butterfly by restoring a 37-hectare area of peatland between Wigan and Salford where they have recreated habitats of sphagnum moss, cross-leaved heath and hare’s-tail cottongrass on which the butterflies depend.

 

Last summer, staff collected six female butterflies from a population at Winmarleigh moss near Garstang and took them to Chester zoo. The caterpillars spent winter feeding on cotton grass and 45 hand-reared pupae are now being released on to a secret site where they will be kept in protected tents while they emerge from their pupae.

 

Conservationists are going into the tent to check them two or three times a day, releasing any butterflies as they emerge.

 

Heather Prince, who is part of Chester zoo’s invertebrate team, said: “Breeding and rearing butterflies in an incredibly delicate process that requires a fine balance of conditions at each part of their life cycle. Countless hours have been spent inside our specialised breeding centre nurturing the tiny eggs, rearing the larvae and caring for their host plants as well as monitoring their final pupation period.

 

“It will be incredibly rewarding to see large heath butterflies fluttering around in their new home – a place where they’ve been missing for more than 100 years – and know that we’ve contributed to preventing their extinction in this area.”

 

The butterflies rarely fly more than 650m from where they are born so were unlikely to colonise the area alone. Alan Wright, communications manager at the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, says he hopes there will be a good colony here in the next 10 years.

 

He said: “In Victorian times there were literally thousands of these butterflies in the mossy areas around Manchester. This reintroduction part of a wider effort to get native wildlife back in the right areas … It just seemed right that if we could get Manchester’s butterfly back to the mosses that’s something we should do. Everyone here is absolutely over the moon about this.”

 

Peat extraction means these boggy areas are up to 20 feet lower than they were a century ago and this reintroduction is part of a bigger project to restore greater Manchester’s heavily degraded wetlands. Other species set to be reintroduced include bog bush cricket, white-faced darter dragonfly and carnivorous sundew.

 

The 2019 State of Nature report found 41% of UK butterfly species had declined with one in 10 at risk of extinction. Jo Kennedy, a project coordinator at Lancashire Wildlife Trust, said: “Across our region we have lost 98% of our lowland raised bogs, creating a huge hole in our biodiversity. To function as a healthy ecosystem, we need a tapestry of different and connected habitats each supporting a variety of plants and animals.”

 

There are a few isolated populations of large heath butterflies remaining in England and Wales and larger populations in Scotland.

 

This follows the successful reintroduction of large heath butterflies to Heysham Moss in Lancashire between 2014 and 2016, and conservationists are now planning to reintroduce the butterflies to Risley Moss in Cheshire.

 

The butterflies rarely fly more than 650m from where they are born so were unlikely to colonise the area alone. Alan Wright, communications manager at the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, says he hopes there will be a good colony here in the next 10 years.

 

He said: “In Victorian times there were literally thousands of these butterflies in the mossy areas around Manchester. This reintroduction part of a wider effort to get native wildlife back in the right areas … It just seemed right that if we could get Manchester’s butterfly back to the mosses that’s something we should do. Everyone here is absolutely over the moon about this.”

 

Peat extraction means these boggy areas are up to 20 feet lower than they were a century ago and this reintroduction is part of a bigger project to restore greater Manchester’s heavily degraded wetlands. Other species set to be reintroduced include bog bush cricket, white-faced darter dragonfly and carnivorous sundew.

 

The 2019 State of Nature report found 41% of UK butterfly species had declined with one in 10 at risk of extinction. Jo Kennedy, a project coordinator at Lancashire Wildlife Trust, said: “Across our region we have lost 98% of our lowland raised bogs, creating a huge hole in our biodiversity. To function as a healthy ecosystem, we need a tapestry of different and connected habitats each supporting a variety of plants and animals.”

 

There are a few isolated populations of large heath butterflies remaining in England and Wales and larger populations in Scotland.

 

This follows the successful reintroduction of large heath butterflies to Heysham Moss in Lancashire between 2014 and 2016, and conservationists are now planning to reintroduce the butterflies to Risley Moss in Cheshire.

elsiegee40

elsiegee40

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Checked our trail camera and we definitely have 2 hedgehogs visiting :)

 

I have referred the markings on the back end of the bigger one to my colleagues at the rescue. Hopefully it isn’t mange

 

  • Thanks 1
VeryPC

VeryPC

Posted
Posted (edited)

IMG-3022-edit.jpgIMG-3023-edit.jpg

Had the pleasure of watching our baby bluetits flying the nest this weekend.:o

 

I couldn't believe how up close and personal they got while I was just sat having a cupper! I pray they come back next year as it's been amazing to watch and maybe this time I'll install the camera into the box before I put it up and they start nesting!

Edited by VeryPC
  • Thanks 2
hardtailstar

hardtailstar

Posted
Posted
[ATTACH=CONFIG]58195[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]58196[/ATTACH]

Had the pleasure of watching our baby bluetits flying the nest this weekend.:o

 

I couldn't believe how up close and personal they got while I was just sat having a cupper! I pray they come back next year as it's been amazing to watch and maybe this time I'll install the camera into the box before I put it up and they start nesting!

 

A few of my friends have had blue tits in their gardens too and commented on how close they got too.

 

Ive only ever seen one in my garden.

  • Thanks 1
VeryPC

VeryPC

Posted
Posted
A few of my friends have had blue tits in their gardens too and commented on how close they got too.

 

Ive only ever seen one in my garden.

 

One of them flew straight at me while I was stood next to our gate and another flew straight out of the nest onto the washing line where I'd pegged some washing out!

 

They are unbelievable creatures and the difference between how cautious the mother and father is compared to the babies is crazy. I suppose they have never seen humans before so i'm glad there first experience was with me.

6Foot2

6Foot2

Posted
Posted

https://youtu.be/F88_69Pacw0

 

UPDATE 29 May 2020...

 

These chicks are not far off fledging. Most of them look ready to go in about a day or two.

 

Names of the chicks: Spring, Ostara, Litha, Summer, Mabon & Yule. Given by some of our regular viewers :)

 

UPDATE 12 MAY 2020...

 

We have a unique situation where there are 2 females sharing the same nest box and a male that is feeding both of them. Only one of the female's has laid eggs but the other female is acting like they are her eggs too. The second female can often be seen sitting directly on top of the mother who laid the eggs.

 

It is normal for a single male to raise multiple broods with multiple females, but not inside a single nest box.

  • Thanks 1
elsiegee40

elsiegee40

Posted
  • Author
Posted

We have finally witnessed what we have suspected for a for a few weeks... two magpies cooperatively hunting starlings.

 

My fat feeder is hung from an apple tree on the boundary. One magpie spooks them from the neighbours garden side so the starlings escape toward our house/conservatory. One starling inevitably hits a window and the other pounces on the stunned bird. Then almighty squawking starts because the starling isn’t actually injured and if it’s lucky it escapes. One or two haven’t.

elsiegee40

elsiegee40

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Today’s shift feeding baby birds at the rescue hospital was one of the best.

 

How often do you get up close and personal with a Great Spotted Woodpecker... let alone 8?!

Adjustments.JPG

 

We rarely get these in as nestlings, so getting to feed them is unusual. They do like to wander up your arm and round your back, so I spent a fair amount of time dangling food in tweezers over my shoulder trying to persuade them to come within my reach :D

  • Thanks 4
Ditto

Ditto

Posted
Posted
Today’s shift feeding baby birds at the rescue hospital was one of the best.

 

How often do you get up close and personal with a Great Spotted Woodpecker... let alone 8?!

[ATTACH]58255[/ATTACH]

 

We rarely get these in as nestlings, so getting to feed them is unusual. They do like to wander up your arm and round your back, so I spent a fair amount of time dangling food in tweezers over my shoulder trying to persuade them to come within my reach :D

I can think of no bird more suited to the 'punk' era than this:)

  • Thanks 1
6Foot2

6Foot2

Posted
Posted

 

The Springwatch live wildlife cameras are bringing you the best of spring 2020! We're live from The Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the UK. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature.

 

Watch from 12pm-6pm BST, today until Friday 12 June. Watch all their wildlife cameras 24 hours a day until 12 June on the BBC Springwatch website: http://bbc.co.uk/springwatch

 

Link: Springwatch 2020 - BBC

  • Thanks 2
Pink_Panda

Pink_Panda

Posted
Posted
no photos as yet, but a little rabbit has turned up in our garden for the last couple of days, must have squeezed through gaps in the fence. If there's one good thing in this whole mess that's 2020, then it's that the wildlife seems to have been thriving around me, and I'm in a position to see it as I'm working from home !
  • Thanks 3
StevieM

StevieM

Posted
Posted
Today’s shift feeding baby birds at the rescue hospital was one of the best.

 

How often do you get up close and personal with a Great Spotted Woodpecker... let alone 8?!

[ATTACH]58255[/ATTACH]

 

We rarely get these in as nestlings, so getting to feed them is unusual. They do like to wander up your arm and round your back, so I spent a fair amount of time dangling food in tweezers over my shoulder trying to persuade them to come within my reach :D

There is a pair nesting in the just park down the road from me. Yesterday, I spotted a young one (lots of red on the crown) at the bottom of my garden, tentatively tapping away at the wooden post that supports my washing line.:)

 

I went to get my camera, but the battery was flat - as was the spare. I tried taking a picture with my school iPad, but it was rubbish. :(

  • Thanks 1

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


×
×
  • Create New...