Mothing madness!

Sometimes the best way to acquire knowledge is not by reading from a textbook, like I've been doing for the past 4 or so months during my AS exams, but rather through experience. 

My moth ID skills were very poor, and still are, but they are improving. Instead of learning from my field guide I decided to curve round the obstacle of pricey moth traps by building one myself! It's not perfect, having made it from bits and bobs I found in our garage, but it's a start. I set it up for the first time a few nights ago in my wildlife garden - the overgrown vegetation providing shelter for the moths, luring them closer. There was an element of risk with the trap as hot bulbs, paper (which I used to construct the funnel) and rain don't usually mix well, but the results, clear to see the next morning, made it all worth it!

The basic principle of the trap is that the light attracts the moths, which collide with the three acrylic panels, falling down through the funnel into the box, where they rest on the egg boxes (which are said to represent tree bark) until the morning. This design is often used in Heath traps, but over the next few weeks I'm going to experiment with the other styles. 

Female Oak Eggar   |   Lasiocampa quercus

Swallow-tail Moth   |   Ourapteryx sambucaria

Ghost Moth   |   Hepialus humble

Other species I've trapped over the last few nights include: Common Emerald, (7) Drinker Moth, Garden Pebble, Large Yellow Underwing, Riband Wave, Single-dotted Wave and a few other micros I'm yet to identify.

Even though the trap is evidently working there are a few small adjustments I need to make to increase the yield, such as deepening the box and narrowing the funnel preventing escapees. Below is a table illustrating the species I have caught, with the columns representing different factors - family name, common name, latin name, frequency, observed or trapped, the date of capture and the specific location. 

Please keep an eye on my blog over the next few weeks for more moth updates, a blog about my day out with Springwatch at RSPB Minsmere and news about my up and coming trip to Sri Lanka!

Spring Update!

I've been completely inundated with AS exams recently, having just come out of my penultimate exam. Even though this has meant I've been less active with blogging, I've still managed to keep my projects ticking over! 

Out of my 6 bird boxes, only one is occupied this year, with a pair of Great Tits. Sadly I don't have a camera fitted in this bird box, and as I didn't want to disturb them whist next building I thought it would be best to let them be, and not attempt to install a camera. However last year I managed to capture the story of Great Tit pair, from the initial nest box inspection right the way till the chicks fledged the nest - some images I captured are shown below. But the discovery of a Blackbird nest, in a dense hedge at the back of our garden, made up for the lack of bird box occupants! I quickly fitted a webcam to a branch overhanding the nest, allowing me to observe the action from my laptop with the help of a very long extension cable! 

The Great Tit family...

And the Blue Tit family...

The Blackbird laid a total of 4 eggs before she began incubating. It was around 7 days into the incubation process - about half way through - when the nest sadly got predated. As I was using my laptop to monitor this camera I couldn't record 24/7 so I don't know what predated the nest, but my guesses include magpie, crows or brown rat. Here are a series of pictures documenting the short-lived story of the Blackbird nest!

In other news - three of my wildlife images have been displayed in my school biology building, including the modest blue tit, the timid mountain hare and the inquisitive grey seal. I've designed information pages to display alongside these images explaining how I captured the images and general information about the species featured. I'm hoping these displays will attract and inspire other pupils, especially the lower years, to read up about our natural world, and perhaps even to have a go at wildlife photography themselves! 

Another exciting new project of mine is the possible introduction of meat-free Monday every half-term at my school. This is only an idea on the drawing board at the moment, but a trial was ran two weeks ago, with a vegetarian lunch and tuck shop. This idea was brought about with the help of Eco Club, addressing the issue of animal agriculture, and it's affect upon the environment - climate change, pollution, deforestation, species extinctions etc. A blog post will be coming shorty regarding this controversial issue. The trial seemed to go down as well as can be expected at an all boys school, with many positive comments being made by both students and teachers. 

Thank you for reading. Sorry it's a short post but I don't have much time on my hands!

   

Loughborough Grammar School's Eco Revolution

In the last few months I, along with others, have been encouraging a green revolution at my secondary school. We now have a fully functioning Eco Club, having just installed a huge wildlife pond, and are currently planning PSHE sessions for next half-term regarding the environment. Our first newsletter will be issued to all students, parents and teachers in the next few weeks, revealing the schools amazing bio-diversity (including a badger family) and the sustainability issues we are trying to address. Our already existing 'Beast Club' and 'Bee-keeping Club' are still continuing to run, attracting dozens of pupils from all year groups. And finally, over the past few months (and the next few) some of our school assemblies are going to be/have been environment themed. I was asked by the head of Sixth Form if I'd like to write a piece in which could be read out in one of these assemblies. Of course I accepted and here it is! Hopefully it will be read in front of the school (that's nearly 1000 students and teachers) in the near future...

"When I think of the environment many words spring to mind: bio-diversity, habitats, climate, food chains, wildlife…

Quite simply, the natural world is incredible –

•  The largest animal in the world, the blue whale, can produce a call so loud it can be heard hundreds of kilometres away. 
• Elephants can smell water from 20km away, even if the water is still in underground stores.
• One species of penguin “propose” to mates by giving them a pebble – the female then selects the male depending on the pebble’s shape and colour.
• If a rope 2 inches thick was made using the silk of the Darwin’s bark spider it could theoretically stop a Boeing 747 in flight, which has a top speed of 988 km/h. 

Unfortunately habitats are being destroyed, wildlife is declining, climate is changing, bio-diversity is being lost and food chains are being disrupted. I don’t want anyone getting overwhelmed or depressed but facts are facts. In the past 40 years alone we have lost 50% of our wildlife populations worldwide. To put that into context…the earth is 4.6 billion years old. Let’s scale that down to 46 years – the human race has been here for 4 hours. Our industrial revolution began 1 minute ago. And in the last 10 seconds the other animals that we share the planet with have halved in population size, whilst our population has grown to 7.3 billion.

One of the most devastating wildlife declines has been that of the African Elephant. This is a species that has roamed the earth for 55 million years, but, to the actions of a small few, is set to be extinct in just 11 years. Why? Because their ivory tusks, designed for fighting off male rivals, are now more valuable on the black market than both gold and cocaine. The demand is so high that an average of 96 elephants are illegally killed in Africa every day. By the time the year 7s are 22 years old, probably just finished at university, Africa will be devoid of wild elephants. One of the world’s most iconic species, proven to be as emotionally developed as humans, gone forever, unless we change our ways quickly.

You may be thinking: Why does it matter? Will this really affect me? Why should I care? Not only does every species on this planet have the right to be here as much as any other, but without a healthy environment everything suffers, including us.

Here’s a fact for you: The price of our natural world, and the services it provides, is an estimated £40 - £60 trillion per year. An example of this is the humble honeybee, whose services of pollination value at £1.2 billion annually. Without honeybees 2/3^rds of our fruit and veg would be gone from out plates. And like the honeybee every species on the planet has a particular function, and an individual position on the food chain. If one species is removed, breaking the chain, everything and everybody is affected.

This is what I’d like you to take away with you today – we need nature to survive. Don’t have the attitude that the environment is replaceable by technology. Don’t allow the so-called hippies with their compost heaps to get bad press just for trying to make a positive change. Don’t judge a stereotype, and never think that somebody else will sort it out.

Many often see conservationists as the enemy – property developers just see them as another thing to bulldoze, and the majority label them as tree-huggers with dreadlocks and a resistance to showers. But is it so wrong for someone to be trying to restore the natural balance between humanity and the environment? At the end of the day it’s as much for our sake and theirs. These problems won’t sort themselves out. It’s up to everybody to make a change. Older generations can’t rely on younger generations to sort it out, and younger generations can’t blame older generations for the mess we’re in. If you only take one thing away from this assembly, make sure it’s respect for our natural world, and those trying to protect it.   Thank you."

2015 Wildlife Highlights

This is the first time I've done a summary blog about my year's wildlife highlights but, having read other wildlife enthusiasts' blog posts, it seems like a easy way to convey my interests and projects to new readers. So, 2015 has been a BUSY year, with GCSE's taking up a lot of my free time - but somehow I managed to top last years 34 blog posts with 37 this year! Over the year I've met up with many fellow wildlife lovers, including Kate Macrae (aka WildlifeKate), Jack Perks, Sorrel Lyall, and many more, especially at this year's Birdfair. My bird box projects in my patch are gradually getting more and more ambitious, with five broods fledging throughout the breeding season. I'm going to go through each month to ensure I don't miss too much out…

January 

This year was the first time I took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch ran by the RSPB. I spent exactly one hour, between 8am and 9am, recording all the species which visited my patch at any one moment. I recorded 11 different species, with an estimate of 88 individuals, most of which being wood pigeons! To take the investigation a step further, I asked a friend in the suburbs of Nottingham to take part in the bird watch, allowing me to compare the two sets of data. The rural location (my patch) received a higher amount of individual visits, 88 compared with 50, but the same amount of species diversity - both locations had 11 species visit in the hour duration. I uploaded the graphs I made illustrating this data onto my Twitter (in February)…and of course, where graphs go, Chris Packham follows! 

February 

This month was relatively quiet, however I did have the opportunity to join Jack Perks at Attenborough Nature Reserve for a photography workshop. We spent the day exploring the reserve, photographing kingfishers, great crested grebes, oystercatchers, and some very tame robins! It was lovely to meet Jack and chat about our similar interests; we've bumped into each other various occasions since. 

March

The month of my birthday. Not only did I receive some fabulous wildlife-related gifts, including a Bushnell trail camera, I also journeyed to Staffordshire to meet with Kate Macrae at her incredible wildlife patch, packed with cameras to film any wildlife spectacle which takes place. Her patch is so inspiring, and I left at the end of the day with so many ideas for my own patch that my brain could have exploded with excitement! Her latest project is building an artificial badger sett at a site in Worcestershire which I'm incredibly envious of…

April

The real beginning of spring in my patch. The nest boxes are becoming occupied, and there is a certain atmosphere created as new life begins in it's various forms. Two of my nest boxes (both with cameras installed) were being used - one by a blue tit couple, and the other, a great tit couple. Here is an extract from my 14th of April blog post describing last year's bird box project: '...but I have also got an exciting new bird box this year, which is homemade. A Blue Tit pair has been building their nest in this box which I am thrilled about. One of the pair has very distinct black markings on its face, possibly caused by loss of feathers, or something similar, allowing me to identify it individually. This bird box has got a glass back, and is mounted on my shed. This lets me get incredibly close to the action.'

May

The month of my Silver DofE Expedition, Wildlife Magazine excitement and the peak of the breeding season. Firstly, my expedition took me, and a group of school friends, to the Brecon Beacons national park for a 3 day expedition. The terrain was tough, and the gales were strong, but overall the experience was very enjoyable, with ample wildlife seen along our 60 km route. During the month I met up with fellow enthusiasts at an exhibition in Nottingham, displaying the work of the year's students - those doing the Biological photography and imaging course at Nottingham university. The event was very inspiring, with Kate giving a talk during the evening. 

I woke up one morning with fabulous news that I was the BBC Wildlife Magazine's blogger of the week, having posted a blog illustrating my latest project: a 'spy in the pod' style Mallard camera! The contraption was remote controlled, had a Gopro mount for close up shots both above and below the surface, and an external microphone. I have experimented with it multiple times since, but I'm still reining the design!

May, in my patch, is the busiest month regarding breeding birds. During the month the eggs were incubated, the eggs hatched, the chicks developed and the chicks fledged. To see my full blog post click here.

June saw the beginning of the #30DaysWild challenge ran by the Wildlife Trusts. This challenge encouraged members of the public to do something 'wild' every day of June. This could include going on a woodland walk, picking fresh flowers from the garden, going on a bug hunt, building a den etc. What did I choose to do?

Made a hedgehog ramp to assist the passage of hedgehogs throughout my patch. 

Took some snaps of garden mushrooms using a homemade photography booth.

Made some mint tea using fresh mint leaves from the garden!

In June I also began my 'Want to help nature?' blog series where I gave tips about how to encourage and sustain wildlife in and around your patch. This was well received with lots of good feedback! Anyway, that's it for this blog post. The review of months July - December will be up shortly, including TV appearances, work experience tales and global rallies in aid of elephants!

The Gift of Vitamin N - Billy Stockwell

Welcome to our 2015 Advent Calendar series (#AFONAdvent)! For each day in the lead-up to Christmas, we have a post from an A Focus On Nature member on this year’s Advent theme: “The Gift of Giving”. We hope that you enjoy the series and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

When I was debating what specific theme to talk about in this advent series I realized that, in many respects, our relationship with the natural world is actually very much like Christmas. You all know how it works…Christmas is not so much about giving or receiving, but more of an equal exchange between friends, which brings happiness to both parties. This is the kind of relationship which conservationists, like myself, wish to see around the world, with the human race and Mother Nature living side by side, as friends. We give to her just as much as she gives to us. It’s a balance. It’s a compromise. And it’s one of the foundations to happiness.

But sometimes it’s much harder than you may think, and many of our actions, when reviewed more broadly, often have a certain irony hid amongst the efforts of goodwill. For example, is chopping down a tree, displacing its resident wildlife species, okay if it’s being made into a bird box? Or is buying a 5p plastic bag acceptable if the proceeds are funding marine conservation work? You see what I mean? Sometimes you need to resolve the initial problem before throwing money at a solution, or at least a combination of the two.

Anyway let’s get back to the Christmas theme! I’m going to be talking about what nature does for us – it’s affects on our health and our emotions. We all know the economic benefits of our natural world, with it’s services estimated to value at £40 – £60 trillion per year, but how often do we consider it’s vital role maintaining our health? Not enough.

Vitamin N(ature) – a combination of fresh air, muddy hands, grazed knees and rosy cheeks. The numbers of studies investigating the health benefits of exposure to nature have been increasing recently, possibly due to more focus on preventing illness as appose to curing them. There is only so much medicines can cope with, and most of the time the best solution is dealing with the root cause, rather than using temporary solutions to mask the problems. But what does nature do exactly? Humans have been around for thousands of years, so why the need for change?

I’ve got some figures for you, which have taken a while to work out, so please have a read! So, the earth has been around for an estimated 4.6 billion years. If we scale that down to 46 years, the first forms of life began to evolve 38 years ago, the first forests began to sprout 140 days ago, the first mammals were born 73 days ago and our species was created just 1 hour and 40 minutes ago. However millions of years of evolution were discarded roughly 1/2 a second ago, when humans locked themselves indoors, with solid walls separating them from their origins. Such a dramatic change in an equally drastic time frame can’t be good for the functioning of our species, as individuals and a collective.

The benefits of nature are irreplaceable by technology. It has been proven that time spend amongst trees reduce blood pressure, stress levels and likelihood of depression. Why? Because humans evolved amongst nature and therefore this is where our bodies and minds work best. The exact scientific reasons explaining this are few and far between, but the evidence is clear to see. My own theory is that when time is spent in nature, our animalistic instincts are triggered by our surroundings, resulting in more brain activity being focused on survival, rather than modern day stresses. This deflection of negative energy, if repeated at regular intervals (visiting local natural areas often), can have lasting affects, including an increase in creativity! The natural world can provoke all sorts of emotions, and it’s interesting how the different seasons, types of weather patterns, types of habitats and presence of biodiversity can influence are moods greatly. If you’ve been watching The Hunt, like I have, you will also know that the natural world can get you on the edge of your seat with anticipation, fear, and excitement! But I guess the dramatic music does contribute to those feeling too. The natural world is incredible, so get out this winter and experience it firsthand.

For Christmas this year, don’t buy your friends and family natural health products, bird boxes, or unnecessary technological items. Get creative. Why not treat them to an outward-bound experience? Or a tree to plant in their garden? Or a day hiking in your local national park? Even if they are not ‘that sort of person’ get them outdoors. You’ll be surprised about how quickly they will fall in love. And hopefully in return Mother Nature will hold back the rain, and we’ll all be able to enjoy a white Christmas.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

David Cameron take a stand, no more IVORY in this land!

On the 3rd of October I joined thousands on the streets on London for a rally concerning the relentless ivory trade. Marches were taking place all over the globe, in a total of 140 counties. In London 96 people were dressed in elephant costumes, representing the number of elephants killed each and every day in Africa by poachers, fuelling terrorist and criminal gangs. This saddening statistic reveals that if this massacre continues, the African elephant species will be extinct in just 11 years - with the last individual falling at the bloody hands of humanity on the 12th of August 2016.

Photograph not mine.

We wanted to show David Cameron that we want the legal trade in Ivory in the UK banned. We're fed up of seeing it on antiques roadshow! The legal ivory trade, especially in China, has been concealing the illegal ivory trade for decades. Some may argue that banning the legal trade in ivory may not reduce poaching but with such a drastic decline, drastic actions need to be taken. In my opinion having any form of ivory product on display - legal or illegal - makes it seem desirable and acceptable; two words I would not associate with the massacre of gentle giants. It is also very hard to accurately age a piece of ivory, resulting in a complete reliance on it's easily faked paperwork, allowing illegal ivory to slip through the net.

The rally was also concerning the use of rhino horn for medicines, especially in Asia. Similar to elephants, rhinos are in serious trouble from poachers. Using the information available to me it appears that governments in Asia aren't pulling their weight to crack down on and punish ivory and rhino horn users and dealers - hopefully Prince William's recent correspondence with President XI and the people of China will have a positive impact.

Wildlife photographer or the year image

The rally began in Cavendish square, continued through Regents Street (past Hamley's where they had elephants on display in support!) and finished on Downing Street where the speeches began. The chants for the march were all prescribed on chant sheets, with my personal favourite being 'David Cameron take a stand. No more ivory in this land!' Dominic Dyer and Nicky Campbell both gave very powerful speachers, and even Ricky Gervais gave some words of support through twitter. To finish off the day a letter was delivered by four representatives from the rally to David Cameron regarding all the issues which we had addressed during the day. I don't know whether to feel optimistic or pessimistic. Part of me thinks that things are heading in the right direction, with lots of recent media and news coverage about the problems elephants and rhinos are facing, mainly due to Prince William's involvement. But is this really enough? Nearly every day the internet reveals yet another story of sadness...40 elephants poisoned with cyanide within two weeks, national park rangers killed by poachers, Asian elephant population declining because of calve kidnapping for the tourism trade...the list is endless.

Photograph not mine.

The thing that probably upsets me most is that elephants are incredibly intelligent and social creatures. I know it shouldn't matter how intelligent an animal is, but it does make you sympathise more with the victims. If you're interested in the intelligence of elephants watch episode one of 'Animals in love' - a series investigating not just love, but the extent to which other species experience emotions previously thought to be only present in humans.

Things you can do to help

- Most importantly, never buy a ivory or rhino horn product, regardless of the credibility of the seller.

- Spread the word to your friends and family, urging them to go ivory (and rhino horn) free!

- Donate to organisations such as 'Save the Elephants' and the 'Born free foundation'.

Thanks for reading!

Is there hope for the future?

 On the 11th of October five young wildlife enthusiasts, including myself, joined in union to deliver a very important message - one of both hope and pessimism, joy and sadness, but most importantly the younger generations connectivity (or lack of) with our natural world. We were there, at the Wildlife Trust's Brandon marsh reserve, to record a podcast with Talking Naturally's Charlie Moores, which would form part of the Every Child Wild campaign. After the huge success of the 30 Days Wild campaign, achieving thousands of supporters, lots of media coverage and even mentions on Springwatch, I was very much looking forward to being part of this new campaign.

Left to right: Sorrel Lyall, Alex White, Nathan Bach, May Rose-craig and myself.

I was extremely excited for the day, if a little nervous too.  I'm sure that the other four naturalists, including Sorrel Lyall, Mya Rose-Craig, Alex White and Nathan Bach were feeling just as positive as myself. On arrival to the reserve we were greeted by Emma and Adam from the Wildlife Trusts, both of who were incredibly welcoming and put our nerves at ease effortlessly. The weather outside was lovely and we all wanted to get out on the reserve, but first we had to get cracking on the task in hand! Charlie Moores, the co-founder of the Birders Against Wildlife Crime organisation and host of the Talking Naturally series, was going to be leading the discussion, asking questions and throwing new ideas into the mix. He began by giving each of us microphones and running through the style of questions he would be asking. We had a very informal discussion for about 10 minutes to settle our nerves, and get us into the right mindset for discussion. Right then - introductions made, water drank, nerves settled...and so we began!

And with the "camera rolling" the discussion commenced. The range of topics covered was immense, but all fell back to the same fundamental message regarding the disconnection between today's younger generation and nature. I don't want to disclose too much about the content of the podcast as you'll find out when you listen to it in a few weeks time, but questions ranged from 'what is nature?' to 'do you think politicians should be more active in the fight to get young people interested in wildlife?' - the questions were challenging, but not in a ''I don't know what to say' way, but more of a 'I have too much to say!' way, which I suppose is a good thing! There were lots of good points made during the recording sessions, including the idea of an annual podcast by different young naturalists each year. I thought that this was a really great idea, as it would not only connect those that are interested in nature already, it would also louden the volume of young, inspiring voices around the UK – enthusing others and building up confidence. We recorded for a total of around 1 hour 30 minutes with two breaks, allowing us to indulge in the delicious lunch we had provided. All was vegetarian, making Emma and I (the two veggies) very pleased. To finish I had the chocolate cake, which was amazing! (So if you’re heading to Brandon Marsh anytime soon I would strongly recommend it)

After all the hard work by everyone we took the last half hour or so to explore the surrounding nature trails and take a group photo allowing us to remember what an amazing day we had. I'd like to speak on behalf of all five of us to thank Charlie, Adam, Emma and all the staff at Brandon Marsh for their contributions to the day. I hope that you all enjoy the podcast, which is due to be published at the beginning of November so keep your eyes (and ears) out!