UK Nature and Environment

The Environment Agency has described a cyanide spill into a West Midlands canal as “unacceptable” and promised robust action if any wrongdoing is found to have occurred.

A major incident was declared after the spill of sodium cyanide into a canal in Walsall on Monday. The public have been advised to avoid about 12 miles of canals and towpaths in the area and on Thursday a UK waterways boss described the situation as “distressing” and “infuriating”.

The Environment Agency said it was investigating a metal finishing company, Anochrome Ltd, after the spill.

The British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee (BOURC) has recently [13 August 2024] announced that the British list has climbed to 641 with the addition of five species.

The first two relate to seabirds seen in the summer of 2021. Britain's first Soft-plumaged Petrel provided quite the shock when it moved along the east coast of England between Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire, and Stag Rocks, Northumberland, on 1 July. Native to the Southern Ocean, it becomes only the third record for the Western Palearctic (WP) following records off Finnmark, Norway, on 6 June 2009 – the only other record anywhere in the North Atlantic – and one off Eilat, Israel, and Aqaba, Jordan, on 25 March 1997. It is told from its close North Atlantic relatives (Fea's, Desertas and Zino's Petrels) by a complete, dark grey breast band.

Ghost Orchid has been discovered flowering in England this summer, marking the first time since 2009 that the enigmatic plant has been definitively recorded on British soil.

A single spike was found at an undisclosed site by Dr Richard Bate, a botanist who has been searching for the mysterious orchid for 30 years.

Ghost Orchid is widely thought of as Britain's most elusive plant. A long potential flowering period combined with individual plants only appearing above ground for a few days makes it a challenge to find. When factoring the high risk of slug damage, as well as the plants' small size and inconspicuousness in the leaf litter of a dark forest, it is clear why botanists consider it so difficult to search for.

The first chicks have hatched as part of a project to boost barn owl numbers in North Yorkshire.

More than 50 specially-designed nesting boxes have been installed across the Howardian Hills National Landscape in a link-up with farmers and land managers.

Conservationists from the Howardian Hills Partnership checked the boxes in July and found barn owls had already started to move in, with some also producing eggs.

• The National Lottery Heritage Fund has announced it will be investing a further £2.5m, and the Scottish Government's Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot, will be providing over £1.5m in additional support for the Orkney Native Wildlife Project in reaching its final phase of work.

• In just five years the Orkney Native Wildlife Project has removed over six thousand stoats from the Orkney Islands. This bold and innovative nature restoration project is already seeing boosts in population numbers for the Hen Harriers, Curlews, Orkney Voles and other rare and threatened native wildlife that call the islands their home.

• The project is approaching its critical final phase, having seen the stoat population grow from a first confirmed sighting in 2010 to a population that is threatening the future of native wildlife. Now, the project partners including RSPB, NatureScot and Orkney Islands Council are preparing for the final push to remove the last of the invasive stoats and protect the wildlife of the islands.

When Christina Letanka moved to Chiddingly village in East Sussex 28 years ago, insects were everywhere. “Everything was prolific when we first arrived,” she says. The kitchen used to be full of flies during the day and moths at night, swarming under the light. “Now they’ve all gone.”

Fewer butterflies, wasps and hornets dance around in the garden. “Normally everything comes out with the buddleia, but this year has been surprisingly bad – it’s dead,” Letanka says. “Is it the wet? I don’t know what’s happened. It’s been truly shocking.”

Many concerned gardeners and nature lovers in Britain have noticed fewer insects around this year. Kevin Coward has been gardening in south Manchester for more than 40 years, growing a mixture of flowers, as well as fruit and vegetables. He used to love watching butterflies over a cup of tea. “I’ve had a huge reduction in butterflies, with no caterpillars until this past week,” says Coward. “I have not actually seen any larger moths this year.” He says it is “a problem noticed by other people in my village too”.

A project to restore sand dunes in Lancashire has been hailed a success by conservationists.

Over the last 150 years, more than 80% of the sand dunes in Lytham St Annes have been lost to make way for housing and roads.

The Fylde Sand Dunes Project has been boosted by using Christmas trees and planting marram grass to bring up to 328 ft (100m) of sand dunes back to the area, said Amy Pennington, of Lancashire Wildlife Trust.

A beaver baby boom is under way across Britain this summer in places where the species had been extinct for centuries.

From Ealing in London to the Cairngorms in Scotland, and from Canterbury in Kent to the Wallington Estate in Northumberland, new kits have emerged from their lodges for an after-dark dip in the water.

At Paradise Fields in Ealing, at least two kits have appeared just eight months after the pioneering reintroduction of a five-member beaver family in an urban area. Beavers were once permanent residents of London and much of the country.

Forest cover across 200 square mile site has quadrupled from six to 25 per cent since restoration project was launched in 1991

The National Forest is celebrating reaching 25 per cent forest cover across its 200 square mile site in the Midlands, up from six per cent when the tree planting project was launched 30 years ago.

The non-profit behind the environmental initiative, the National Forest Company, announced earlier this week that more than 9.5 million trees had been planted on the former industrial and coal mining landscape.

The Wildlife Trusts take bold action to help nature adapt to climate change

A new report, Embracing Nature, published today by The Wildlife Trusts, identifies drought as the current leading threat to their nature reserves for the first time. The Wildlife Trusts, who are among the UK’s largest landowners with 2,600 nature reserves covering nearly 100,000 hectares (ha), also point to pollution, invasive species and habitat fragmentation as high risks. Drought is also considered to be the leading threat for the next 30 years, followed by other climate-driven dangers such as heatwaves and wildfires.

The report focuses on adapting to climate change and highlights that, based on a trajectory of 2°C warming by 2100, almost half of The Wildlife Trusts’ 2,600 reserves will be in areas of extreme wildfire risk, and three-quarters will see summer temperatures rising by an additional 1.5°C in the next 25 years.

• The Swift Mapper app - a citizen science tool designed to help track where Swifts are nesting and contribute to conservation efforts - has hit a milestone 100,000 records from members of the public.

• The loss of suitable nest sites for Swifts has played a role in their decline of 66% between 1995 and 2022 in the UK. But records submitted to the Swift Mapper app can be used to help inform the protection and installation of further Swift nest boxes and ‘Swift bricks’ on buildings across the UK, giving hope for the much-loved bird.

• Swifts travel more than 7,000 miles from Africa to the UK each summer, eating, sleeping, bathing and mating on the wing

Since the 1930s, the UK has seen a devastating 97% decline in species-rich grasslands, leaving only scattered fragments vulnerable to development, agricultural improvements, and invasive species. Fermanagh, however, remains a stronghold for Northern Ireland’s species-rich grasslands, making the mapping of these areas crucial for their conservation.

Over the last three years, Ulster Wildlife has surveyed 858 hectares of species-rich grassland across the county, equivalent to approximately 1,200 football pitches, through its dedicated EFS Group programme. Detailed information is collected on the location, extent, quality, and condition of the grasslands, helping to aid planning and decision-making. 60% of these areas are now eligible for agri-environment payments, potentially adding £150,000 in additional income for local farmers.

Brian Keown, who farms sheep and sucklers on 75 hectares near Garrison, is one of many Fermanagh farmers now eligible for the EFS scheme after his species-rich fields were assessed by farm facilitators from the local nature conservation charity. Brian will now work with Ulster Wildlife over the summer to develop a farm plan to manage these rare grassland habitats. This will enable him to enter a five-year agreement that offers financial incentives to manage and protect this high-nature-value land.

The Peak District National Park, renowned for its natural beauty and diverse wildlife, is facing a hidden threat - pharmaceutical pollution.

New research from the University of York and the Rivers Trust has revealed widespread contamination of rivers in Peak District National Park, with antidepressants, anticonvulsants, antimicrobials, anti-inflammatory substances, lipid regulators and diabetes treatments being detected.

The study found pharmaceuticals in river water at 52 out of 54 locations monitored across all ten national parks in England. Some pharmaceuticals were found at levels of concern for the health of freshwater organisms and for humans who come into contact with the water, highlighting the need for tighter regulation and greater monitoring of some of England’s most cherished landscapes.

The Treasury has been told not to “swallow up” millions of pounds in sewage fines amid fears the money will not be spent on ending spills.

The water regulator Ofwat handed out fines totaling £168m to three water companies last week as part of its investigation into sewage dumping and environmental damage.

Environmental groups welcomed the financial penalties, but have now have raised concerns that the Government might divert the money to other areas rather than focusing on cleaning up pollution.

This time last year, we reported that the UK was in the midst of a full-blown beaver boom. Now, in some brilliant news for the adorable creatures and wildlife fans everywhere, baby beavers (or kits, as they’re better known) have been born in London for the first time in 400 years!

Well, almost. The actual first beaver to be born in the capital in 400 years was this one in Enfield, but the newest infants are thought to be the first in urban London.

According to volunteers at Ealing Beaver Project in west London, at least two kits have been born on the Paradise Fields site in Greenford. The Eurasian beaver family was introduced to the urban wetland in October and the new arrivals prove that they’re pretty chuffed with their new home.

Eurasian Curlew are one of the most iconic birds of the Welsh Countryside. Many who grew up in the 1960s and 70s will remember them for their long bills and distinctive bubbling call. Unfortunately, sightings of curlew in Wales are now extremely rare and are likely to become even more so as the population continues to decline at a rate of 6 per cent every year.

There are a range of reasons for this decline, including but not limited to: habitat fragmentation, lack of food availability, and excessive predation. If nothing is done to help these birds, they are predicted to be extinct as a breeding population in Wales by 2033.

This may sound bleak but not all hope is lost. Curlew Connections Wales (CCW) is working tirelessly to tackle the key issues driving curlew population decline. The project is a collaboration between the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) Wales, the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape, and Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.

Found this little guy on a sidewalk in northern Germany. I have never seen one like this before. Does one if you know what he's gonna be when he's "grown up"?

Creating the right habitats with public money is helping to stop nature’s decline or even reverse it. That’s the good news from Natural England, which reports more butterflies, bees, bats and birds whizzing around the countryside after the promotion of nature-friendly farming schemes. The body, which advises the government on biodiversity, published research earlier this month showing that the environmental land management scheme (Elms), set up after the UK left the EU, has had beneficial effects.

Unlike the common agricultural policy, which mainly subsidises landowners on the basis of acreage farmed, Elms payments were designed to promote nature. Wildlife has been massively depleted in recent decades due to intensified agriculture and the use of chemicals. Measures that qualify for this new form of support include hedgerow and peat conservation, the creation of landscapes for skylarks and organic fruit-growing.

The research, which included arable, grassland and hill farmers, showed that moths, butterflies and bats have all grown more numerous in the places where farmers had adopted new methods. In total, 1,358 species were recorded. In lowland areas, the study pointed to the importance for butterflies of habitat diversity, with features including woodland and hedgerows.

Felix Lever and her father Ashley were taking part in a bit of rockpooling close to Wembury when they made the rare find: a rainbow sea slug.

The 3cm long sea slug is part of a group of marine animals known as nudibranchs – known for their soft bodies and similarity to land slugs and snails.

Felix and Ashley’s discovery of a rainbow sea slug is believed to be the first time the animal has been recorded in Devon. Only a handful of similar finds have ever been made across the UK with others being concentrated in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Brian May has continued his impassioned campaign against badger culling, branding the practice “morally indefensible” in a new documentary.

The Queen guitarist, who previously led a funeral parade through London in honour of badgers killed, and butted heads with Jeremy Clarkson over his beliefs, compared the method which some farmers use to avoid bovine disease spreading to a witch hunt.

In the BBC’s Brian May: The Badgers, the Farmers and Me, May explores what he considers the wasteful slaughter of cows and badgers, and a government policy which he feels has failed farmers.

Older trees are able to accelerate their rates of absorbing planet-warming emissions, scientists at the University of Birmingham have found.

A forest of mature oak trees was exposed to elevated levels of carbon dioxide for seven years and in response, the trees increased their production of wood - locking in the greenhouse gas and preventing it from warming the planet.

The researchers hope the study, published in Nature Climate Change, will demonstrate the importance of protecting and maintaining mature forests for tackling climate change.

Rescuers have been monitoring the sea off the Norfolk coast after a whale was spotted stranded near the shore.

The pilot whale was first seen on Sunday near Snettisham, Norfolk, and while it seemed to float out on the tide, it has come back.

The whale is thought to be a young mammal that became separated from its pod, Julia Cable, from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), said.

"If it's an animal that can be rescued, we have the right equipment - we have people who can come out and do that," she said.

Scotland's first and only remaining voluntary marine reserve is about to celebrate its 40th birthday.

Since environmentalist David Bellamy OBE officially launched Berwickshire Marine Reserve on 18 August 1984, thousands of volunteers have helped maintain the beaches and inshore waters.

A rich variety of creatures have benefitted from the extra protection along the five miles (8km) of coastline between Eyemouth and St Abbs Head.

THE introduction of measures to prevent “damaging” activities in many of Scotland’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) has “stalled”, environmental campaigners claimed.

While green groups celebrated when the Scottish Government designated 32 MPAs a decade ago in August 2014, campaigners said only around half of these initial areas currently benefit as a result of “protection from damaging fishing activities”.

Those were introduced in January 2016 – but groups including the Scottish Wildlife Trust, National Trust for Scotland, RSPB Scotland and the Marine Conservation Society now fear this process of rolling out such protections has “stalled”.