Archives for March 2011

Your fantastic spring images are now flooding in to the Springwatch photo group... we can barely keep up!

This week's Flickr favourites is dedicated to some of the shyer subjects of your wild photography. Here's to the inhabitants of nature's nooks and crannies!

Adder © Lindsay McCrae

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The weather's been glorious and the migratory birds have been making the most of it, according to Paul Stancliffe at the BTO. The settled conditions and resulting light winds have meant, in his words, "it has been all systems go." Here are some of the spring bird migration highlights of the last week.

Wheatear 265 © Jim Bevan

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All our UK wildlife sources are buzzing about beetles today as Buglife launches its Oil Beetle Hunt. We've picked out a few other beauties for you to look for this weekend.

Oil beetle © Dominic Greves

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However you choose to mark it, spring is officially here. We're past the first of March, the equinox has happened and the somewhat arbitrary 21st marker was yesterday. For me though, spring is when the chiffchaffs start singing. And boy have they started singing...

Chiffchaff © Chris Berry

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It’s nesting season but not all of our birds are busy building. The only bird of prey still in decline in the UK, the kestrel doesn’t build its own nest. Instead it will take over old nests from other birds or use suitable sites in trees, on cliff edges or even in man-made structures.

City church kestrel © Dave Grubb

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Spring moves quickly. It only seems like yesterday that the snowdrops were peeping up. The daffs have long since arrived. Now it's time for the bumblebees and the butterflies.

Queen buff-tailed bumblebee © Robert Wright

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The results of the first nationwide survey of UK amphibians and reptiles tell a depressing story. Adders, slow worms, common lizards, common toads, common frogs, great crested newts and grass snakes are all in decline. The only surveyed species doing well is the palmate newt.

So to help us appreciate the beauty of these wonderful but often forgotten creatures here's a selection of our favourite amphibian and reptile photos from the Springwatch photo group. It's been open a mere week and already there is a cracking selection of amphibian and reptile shots sent in for 2011. Although no newts yet!

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Yesterday a 13m sperm whale died after becoming stranded on a beach in Kent.

Beached sperm whale at Pegwell Bay © Richard Kinzler

The last few years have seen a few incidents like this around the UK. A 10m long sperm whale washed up in Lincolnshire in 2004, a bottle-nosed whale became stranded in the Thames in 2006, and a humpback whale was found dead in the Thames in 2009. It's very difficult to tell the real cause of incidences like this but the million dollar question is, are we to blame?

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We're more than happy to bang on about what to do to make your garden wildlife friendly (here, here and here for example). But equally important is what not to do.

A report published this week from Plantlife has found that alien plant species are a big threat to our native wildlife. They cost more than £1.7 billion a year to clear up and affect some of our most beautiful landscapes, including the Lake District.

Weed it out: The water primose is one of the worst offenders (photo copyright: Trevor Renals)

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