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         NewNews (what other people call a blog)

Butterflies should be asleep now ..

11/12/2020

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... but these two often wake up in our homes if it's warm and bright indoors.
I think it's good news that I've had more small tortoiseshells in my home this year than for several previous years.  So far, they've woken up on mild, sunny days and I've just let them out.
But it's now too cold and there aren't enough nectar-bearing flowers around for them to survive, so Butterfly Conservation has given some very helpful advice on what to do.  Go to the Wildlife Tips page for the details.
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Wild Justice

8/12/2020

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There's a lot going wrong, and a lot that could be going better.  Wild Justice don't just wring their hands, they do something.  Here are some of their ideas for what you could do, too.
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Sweeet, scary, horrific - or just plain beautiful: time to vote!

7/12/2020

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The Guardian newspaper has the People's Choice finalists for Wildlife Photographer of the Year.  Izzy Fry: you up for this next year?

You can browse all the entries and vote.
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A bit of flesh on the bones of the new agri policy

5/12/2020

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The Guardian newspaper has this piece with a bit more information about the new Environmental Land Management scheme.

If you prefer to have it straight from the horse's mouth, here's the Government's own.  Let's hope that the proposed Farming Investment Fund, 'which will support innovation and productivity.', will support the Farm Clusters Peter Thompson spoke so inspiringly about.  They say,  'This will open for applications next year and will be used to offer grants for equipment, technology and infrastructure for the future.'

Or will they come under one of the ELMS's three 'components' - 
the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Local Nature Recovery or Landscape Recovery?  All sounds a bit confusing. 
​We can but travel hopefully.  Meanwhile, it seems to me a lot of local fields are lying fallow instead of being ploughed.  Perhaps they always have, but equally, maybe they're looking after their soil.
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We can't stop talking

30/11/2020

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Go to the Talks page for news about not one, not two, but three talks  - on Birch trees, the Isle of Purbeck and organic farming.  Something for everyone and so good to have these to look forward to.
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Yes they can ...

30/11/2020

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.. that's, Can wildlife and modern farming co-exits?  Peter Thompson gave the answer as a resounding 'yes' - given the four Ps - Payments, People, Planning and Passion.  And it's happening right here on our doorstep, with farming 'clusters' which are turning away from 
ploughing on bare earth to a range of conservations measures that not only benefit farmers with increased yields, but are massively beneficial to wildlife.  

Meanwhile, try the earthworm challenge that Peter issued: take a shovel-full of soil from your own garden and see how many earthworms there are in it.  If you've got 16, you're Doing Your Bit!

Go to Talks/whatyoumissed for the full story, and links to the organisations spearheading green revolution.
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Watch where you're running

29/11/2020

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​Keep on running to stay fit - but keep an eye on the ground and you may be like Archie Thomas who found a new variety of apple when out running 'in the Nadder Valley' according to BBC and The Guardian. which also has a photo of the golden apple.

Two other media items:  one with a mix of good and bad news about farmed animals.
PicturePhoto: Abby Eaton
The other closer to home, about how you might be right if you think you've seen a swallow, as an increasing number often of juveniles, are staying put in the UK.  Not, sadly, with very good chance of making it through the winter.

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Our soil - our future

21/11/2020

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Peter Thompson's talk to over 30 members via Zoom last Thursday (19 November) really cheered me up.  Many local farmers both in the Nadder Valley and round Martin Down south of the Chalke Valley, have formed into 'clusters' to undertake wildlife, soil and water conservation initiatives on the 'landscape' scale necessary to make any significant impact.  There are now at least 140 such clusters in England.  A fuller account of this excellent talk - our first 'virtual' evening meeting (but more to come) - will follow.

But more encouragement meantime via Maggie Paul of Nadder Community Energy,  who recommended the film, Kiss the Ground, 'Narrated and featuring Woody Harrelson, it's an inspiring and groundbreaking film that reveals the first viable solution to our climate crisis.'  There's also a book, for those without Netflix.

There's a complementary film, Living soil.  made by the Soil Health Institute in the US, which is available on YouTube.

Woody Harrison who like me initially tended towards despair, concludes, ' I'm not giving up.  So you shouldn't, either.'
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Ever had to rescue a lost bee?

20/11/2020

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Picture
For several years now, I've found it's not unusual to find a lost or exhausted honeybee and have to try to resuscitate it - this one's sipping a drop of honey I put on a flower for it.  It gives me such a kick when they fly off purposefully.

The Wildlife Trusts' Action for Insects booklet is full of ideas you can work on now to help insects next summer.  It's downloadable here, one of two ideas for helping insects from the RHS in this month's Wild about Gardens bulletin.

The other is that is a good time to be planting hedges, so why not forget the yew and the box and try some from a list of the 'ten great choices of native flowering and fruiting shrubs for hedging.' 

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Feel like hibernating?  You're not alone

16/11/2020

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Picture
Chairman Peter Shallcross's monthly update includes some fascinating detail from Andrew Graham about how our native mammals and amphibians hibernate.  Even in this mild weather they're hunkering down, as I found when I began heaving bags of rubble from garden works out to my car to take to the 'dump'.  I found a toad and now feel guilty that I just had to move him, but put a big heap of 'strulch' on top of him, and will add some decorative bark to that.  

I'm very fond of my apparently several toads - I found this one in a stand-off with a large slug, detected 'heavy breathing' under strulch I'd used to compost a rose, and saw one just looking out of his splendid 'hole' - realising exactly why that favourite dish is called just that!  And I found a tiny newt in my parking bay which  I took to a neighbour who has a little pond - it went straight into a cosy crevice.

But how do these creatures get to my garden? I've found newts, toads and frogs even before that new pond was created.

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    ​The pages now display photos of fungi taken by members.  This one by Andrew Carter  - Trametes versicolour.
    Please do not eat any of them.

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    Every photograph is captioned where necessary: in the 'galleries' please click once both to open and to view this, and including the photographer unless it's one of mine. You can scroll through all the photos in a 'gallery', too. Those including 'BC' are with kind permission of Butterfly-conservation.org.

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  • Home
    • About the Society >
      • Committee
  • NewNews
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    • What you missed
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  • Open to members
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