All posts by John

Book reviews, Conservation

Ecology & Nat Hist 2021

Wilkinson, D.M., 2021. Ecology and Natural History. The New Naturalist Library. No. 143 in the series. 368pp. ISBN 978-0-00-829363-5  9 780008 293635.   Review.

142 titles of this esteemed series of New Naturalists Library (NNL) have never used the word ecology in the title, but it has been fundamental to the discussion of many. The book reminds me of a classic work, Ecology of the English Chalk (C. J. Smith, 1980. Academic Press, 573pp) which is much longer, and which Wilkinson does not mention; there is just one reference to chalk in the index which is surprising.  Prof. Wilkinson approaches his new book from a wide angle of interests in the living world, since he is a Reader in environmental sciences at Liverpool John Moores University, and visiting professor in ecology at University of Lincoln and honorary research fellow in archaeology at the University of Nottingham.  His published works range from bacteria to dinosaurs.  So how does he put together a book on ecology and natural history of the British Isles?  Possibly very selectively.  Indeed, this is the case, the author says that it written very much in the same manner as Prof Sam Berry in his Inheritance and Natural History (No. 61) i.e. as his final year lectures without the mathematics. Wilkinson’s book provides ‘something more accessible, while maintaining scientific rigour.’ First he describes what is ecology, so he starts the bar low. Some of his eleven chapters are on particular places such as Windermere, Peak District, Cairngorms, Wicken Fen, Snowdonia’s Cwm Idwal, Rothamsted and Wytham Woods (two chapters no less), and who would blame him, for some of these are classic sites where lots of students have worked and data for degrees have been gathered and much research material is available. There is also a chapter on Gilbert White’s swifts at Selborne,  Grime’s work on snails, but nothing on Berry’s work on small mammals or Kettlewell’s work on changing moth colours, and nothing on the flora of nunataks. Climate change figures throughout the chapters and discussions, and there are colour photographs of Bass Rock showing variable size of the gannetry.  There is a reproduction of one of Bewick’s prints in the period of the Little Ice Age of someone trudging through the snow. Change is an external factor that even Darwin acknowledged altered the ecology; then and now it still is the climate governing ecological impact. The author engages us with the way that algae and bacteria (one of the author’s favourite subjects) are part of the ecology of habitats, to this has to be considered in context of the botany of arctic-alpine habitats in Wales and Scotland, to the research plots of Wicken, where the ecology is influenced by man, to diminishing meadows. When Wilkinson is talking about invasive plant species I am reminded of Richard Mabey’s Weeds (1996, Profile Books. 324pp) which is a good in-depth read of the subject. As is customary with this NNL series of books, this volume has lots of colour photographs (generally good), references, and a general and species index. This is not a gloom and doom book (just the last chapter on man’s impact), it’s ecology to the core and a good read. It is pity that the word ‘ecology’ took so long to get its name on the front cover the New Naturalists series. At least ‘conservation’ had a head start on ‘ecology’.

Book reviews, Conservation, Insects

Butterflies of Serra Dos Orgaos, 2020

Bizarro, J. and Martin, A., 2020. A Guide to the Butterflies of the Serra Dos Orgaos, South-eastern Brazil. REGUA publications. ISBN: 978-0-9568291-2-2  389pp  Review

As guide books go, this is not one for the pocket, but this is a magnificent tome (20x24cm) which depicts in perfect colour all the known butterflies of this part of SE Brazil. It is in English, but if it were in Portugese as well it would be twice as long.

The book includes a total of 923 species of butterfly recorded to date from the Serra Dos Orgaos in the State of Rio de Janeiro.  This includes the very difficult skippers (120 species) which have only been given general descriptions. That leaves 803 butterfly species are described completely with Scientific and Common names, descriptions, similar species, distribution and ecology. There are 58 species which are listed as Threatened in Brazil, and 14 of these which are found in the area, are included too. There is so much natural habitat in the REGUA lowlands to the ridge line of the Organ Mountains (2,260 m) to be explored that many more butterfly species will be discovered. Butterfly lovers wanting to discover new butterfly species need to head for the REGUA reserve.  Also included in the book are 5 butterfly species that are waiting to be described and named, one Symmachia sp. three satyrs and one Gorgythion skipper.

The authors include Dr Jorge Bizarro with a background in medical entomology and a passion for butterflies, and Alan Martin FLS, a renowned ornithologist and professional accountant who has fully embraced an enthusiasm for lepidoptera with a background in helping some of the leading UK and global conservation NGOs.  Other publications from REGUA include ‘A Guide to Hawkmoths of the Serra dos Orgaos’ in 2011 and ‘A Guide to Dragonflies and Damselflies of the Serra dos Orgaos’ in    and ‘A guide to Birds of the Serra dos Orgaos’ in 2015. So this is REGUA’s fourth publication, a credit to their professional output.

Extensive field work carried out by the authors and their many colleagues at the field station in REGUA has enabled this comprehensive compilation of butterflies of the area. It is in an area that Charles Darwin visited, and it still offers naturalists alike the opportunity to explore, discover and describe wildlife. The illustrations in the book, some 88 plates are key to identifying the species, all reproduced in superb colour, 15 species a page, almost all mostly shot in the wild. The range and diversity is stunning, but then the quality of the hinterland of REGUA is of perfect Atlantic Rainforest, a rare and declining habitat recognised as being in the top five global biodiversity hotspots in the world; there is only 16% of Atlantic rainforest left (it used to stretch south from the mouth of the Amazon), and REGUA with its 18,000 acres seeks to conserve (and enhance with native plantings – over 624,000 trees planted to date) what is left.  Bringing back the native flora is key to supporting and expanding the potential of butterflies and moths.  The new acres of wetlands increases the biodiversity of insects across many orders of insects including lepidoptera.

The guide will be immensely useful to visitors to these neotropical tropical habitats in Rio de Janeiro state and all those who wish to start identifying from their digital images.  As stated, the book is too large to have in a knapsack (it is over 1.1kg) but a copy needs to be in all field schools, field labs, libraries and university ecology and conservation departments, as a key reference book.

There is a Glossary, Latin Name Index, additional reading and references, and the list of Threatened species. This is a remarkable compilation and sets an important milestone in butterfly research in this wonderful part of the world.

VISIT    Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu  (REGUA) https://regua.org/about-us/
 REGUA PUBLICATIONS:
 A Guide to the Butterflies of the Serra dos Orgaos, South-eastern Brazil. Jorge Bizarro and Alan Martin ISBN: 978-0-9568291-2-2  £35.00 including UK delivery
Field Guide to the Birds of the Serra dos Órgãos and Surrounding Area. Daniel Mello, Gabriel Mello and Francisco Mallet-Rodrigues. ISBN: 978-85-919157-0-5.   £21.00 including UK delivery
A Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of the Serra dos Orgaos, South-eastern Brazil Tom Kompier  ISBN: 978-0-9568291-1-5  £30.50 including UK delivery
 A Guide to the Hawkmoths of the Serra dos Orgaos, South-eastern Brazil.  Alan Martin, Alexandre Soares and Jorge Bizarro  ISBN-13: 9780956829108  £15.00 including UK delivery.
 All available from Alan Martin, Alureds Oast, Northiam, East Sussex, TN31 6JJ.

 

Book reviews, Conservation, Mitigation

Environment Act 2021

The Environment Act 2021 –  10% net gains now mandatory

(This is a preliminary review, awaiting commencement date – either from a Commencement Order, or , if not, the evening of 9 Nov 2021)

 The Environment Act 2021 was given Royal Assent on Tuesday 9 November 2021.[1]

NOT to be confused with The Environment Act 1995, especially where sections 4,5,6 on controlling pollution and ‘conserve and enhance’ are concerned.

The Environment Bill had this official long title:

‘A Bill to make provision about targets, plans and policies for improving the natural environment; for statements and reports about environmental protection; for the Office for Environmental Protection; about waste and resource efficiency; about air quality; for the recall of products that fail to meet environmental standards; about water; about nature and biodiversity; for conservation covenants; about the regulation of chemicals; and for connected purposes.’[2]

A new body will be set up called the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP).

Much of the Act is about sewage, but this briefing note is about the natural environment.

The OEP, according to George Eustice (Environment Secretary), will have five roles, which will be legally binding; these will strengthen the government’s commitment to ‘building back greener’ :

  1. The integration principle
  2. The prevention principle
  3. The rectification at source principle
  4. The polluter pays principle
  5. The precautionary principle

Further explanations of these are on gov.uk 2021[3]

If you think the last two principles are familiar, that is because they are in the 1992 Rio Declaration, of which the UK was a signatory.

Net Gain – key points[4]

  • Developments ‘Must satisfy 10% net gain in biodiversity points’,
  • Must be satisfied before planning permission is given
  • It is the duty of the LPAs to ensure compliance (expect variable uptake then!)
  • ‘The habitats created must be managed for up to 25-30 years’

Exceptions (only two)  are

  1. ‘Householder developments’.
  2. ‘Specific development on infrastructure land by providers or nationally significant infrastructure.’

Leniency is proposed for smaller sites to prevent disproportionate costs..

Net Gain delivery  – more key facts

The government requires all 35,000 developers to deliver these gains.

It estimates they they will have to pay out £900 per ha for site surveys, and £19,698 per ha for habitat creation (advised by RSPB, NT, Wildlife Trusts), inclusive of 30 years maintenance as well.

The government think net gain will help to achieve the 25-year environment plan (Defra, 2018).  They also think it will create a ‘level playing field’ for developers.

The gains have been estimated to achieve a monetary value of £1,395.7m. ‘These benefits do not fall within the 10 year appraisal period, as it is expected that developers take 20 years to create the desired habitat condition.’   So delayed monitoring will have be built into each development Site.

 It is believed that ‘29% of residential developments already deliver net gain is based on evidence that six developers have some form of habitat mitigation and creation policy.’

 The government believe that most net gains will continue to occur on site, though, off-site gains, as offsetting’ is likely to increase. This seems reasonable.

Whilst this consultant already knows some Councils who seek substantial payments of money per ha for biodiversity projects off-site the government have worked out that The assumption of the cost per biodiversity unit at £11,000 is satisfactorily supported’

                                                   

Other major changes

  • The Environment Bill ‘builds on this strong foundation, and maximises the opportunities created by leaving the European Union, underpinning our goal of delivering a Green Brexit.’[5]

If you want to know what a Green Brexit is, go to Soil Association video.[6]

  • Statutory Environmental Improvement Plans (the first being the 25 Year Environment Plan) will be created to ensure government can be held to account.
  • Local Nature Recovery Strategies will be established across England, to ‘support better spatial planning for nature recovery…’
  • Forestry Enforcement Measures will be introduced to give Forestry Commission powers to impose larger fines for illegal tree felling. (currently fines, when imposed are paltry).

            

[1] Hansard, 9 Nov.2021

[2] Gov.uk 8 Nov 2021. Environment Bill. Commons insistence, disagreement, amendments in lieu and reasons.  https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/43515/documents/910 (accessed 12 Nov 2021)

[3] Gov.uk. 2021. Press Release. From Defra and The Rt Hon George Eustice MP, dated 10 March 2021.  Consultation launches on on environmental principles.  Five legally binding principles will guide future policymaking to protect the environment. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/consultation-launched-on-environmental-principles (accessed 12 Nov 2021).

[4] Regulatory Policy Committee, 2021. Biodiversity net gain Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs RPC rating: fit for purpose.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/858037/2019.06.06_-_RPC-4277_2_-DEFRA-EA_biodiversity_net_gain.pdf  6pp. Date of issue 06.06.2019, but current and on site when accessed  www.gov.uk/rpc  (accessed 12 Nov 2021)

[5] Defra, 2021. Policy paper 30 January 2020, Updated 6 September 2021: Environment Bill 2020 policy statement Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs). (accessed 12 Nov 2021)

[6] Soil Association 2021  Green Brehttps://www.soilassociation.org/causes-campaigns/green-brexit/ (accessed 12 Nov 2021)

 

Book reviews, Conservation

The Blue Book – RoW

Riddall, J. & Trevelyan, J. 2013. A Guide to Law and Practices. 4th edition. Published by the Ramblers’ Association and Open Spaces Society.  883pp.  ISBN 8780-1-901 184-99-0    £29.95

 

Known as The Blue Book, this has been the bible for ramblers since 1983.

The book was written by two authors, John Riddall, a barrister, and John Trevelyan who worked with the Ramblers’ Association. Trevelyan had previously been heavily involved with the passage through Parliament of the Wildlife and Countryside Bill and he could see that a lot of the existing legislation on rights of way needed substantial revision. That is where The Open Spaces Society came on board as co-publishers with The Ramblers’ Association. That was the genesis of the Blue Book, which sold out in its first edition. The 4th edition of 2007 has not been revised.  Sadly John Riddall died in 2014 aged 86.

The book is a massive and weighty tome, typical of many legal books, and it has all the feel and look of legal books, with the minutiae and arguments of cases referenced galore. The book is in two parts, the first on the law and practice, the second on Acts, Regulations and Circulars, which splits the book almost in half (400 pages each). There are nine pages of legal cases and a list of law reports and 12 pages of chronological legal instruments from 1275 AD which is useful.

Not included in the book are all Welsh regulations or publications ‘where these are equivalent of those in England’. This is a pity as the equivalent Welsh regulations depart significantly from their English equivalents, with completely different on-line resources and ways of conveying information of a natural history nature and access to the countryside. Much has moved on on conservation awareness in Wales in the last few years, since the Blue Book was published.  Ecologists used to accessing English data have to re-learn the Welsh way of accessing the same type of habitats, flora and fauna but shown in a different way.

The collection of laws and guidances all in one place is an excellent idea (i.e. Part II of the book) as its provides an alternative location for the shelves of separate legal acts and laws that one might have.  As the texts have been written by these two authors, both experts in legal matters, the texts are written in a familiar legal way with references to cases throughout, and cited in proper legal fashion. So the book is not for the general public. It is perfect, even at this advanced out-of-date stage, for law students, libraries and those of the general public who wish to dip in and extract a useful statement of case to support a local action.

It is not a book to review from cover to cover, so a dip into the index is a way in. The index could have been more inclusive. There were interesting sections of the book that on searching in the index that could not be re-found. The book is a useful gazzeter to information on all issues which may arise in issues to do with footpaths, bridlepaths, obstruction, barbed wire, signage, dogs etc.  I can see people dipping in to find who has priority on footpaths (cyclists, walkers or horse-riders) or what really counts as an Ancient path (particularly with keenness amongst walkers nationwide to register walkways before 2026).

Although The Blue Book came out in 2013 it just missed mentioning The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which came out in 2012. The NPPF has been an important document in planning and is now in its July 2021 version, and its relevance to rights of way is something that could be addressed in a new edition of The Blue Book.  Even as the 2013 edition says that various matters were already on-line in 2013, there are many more laws on-line now, so perhaps there will be less call for this Blue Book in the future – and it may  go the same way as the text version of Encylopaedia Britannica – most niceties of the legal profession available with the click of a button – perhaps not all the niceties of nuances in case law  for which a real book would still be useful.  The book is good to have as a historical record, seriously and comprehensively up to date to 2013.

 

Conservation

Solar arrays – what’s the problem?

                       Solar arrays – what’s the problem?

Villagers, including ramblers, are increasingly expressing concern about solar arrays in the community. Here are the ecology issues.

But first, here is my background: I was the ecologist on 60 of the 1000 large scale solar farms in England in Wales. Locally in East Sussex I was the ecologist for the Pashley Farm (Ninfield) solar farm.

Solar Ecology Facts:

  1. All these large solar farms are becoming nature reserves in their own right.
  2. This is because they were only granted planning permission on the basis of addressing ecological planning Conditions.
  3. The Conditions were for enhancements such as ponds, beetle banks, reptile and amphibian shelters, bird and bat boxes, badger swing gates, log piles, hedgehog homes, new hedgerows, buffer zones, wildflower meadows.
  4. Note: Even without enhancements the biodiversity goes up from year one, as the solar farms are all fenced and secure and wildlife moves in naturally.
  5. Solar farms / arrays should only go on poor grade soil land, or brownfield, not Grade 1 or 2 (so as not to take away any food production). And never in protected areas such as AONBs, SSSIs or nature reserves (e.g. such as the one proposed inside the Hastings Country Park nature reserve). There are advices and codes (see bibliography).
  6. There is little adverse environmental impact from solars, as they above the ground on posts, and in many cases grazed by sheep below, so farming continues as normal.  Soil conservation is assured.
  7. There appears to be no adverse environmental impact on wildlife (birds) from ‘glare’ (see refs).
  8. Planning permission for solars is granted for 25 years in most cases (some exceptions).
  9. There is usually a Condition to restore the site back to what it was – ‘to revert it to its original condition’ (typically oilseed rape, or winter wheat); it will be a conservation nightmare as it will have become biodiverse through the conditioned enhancements.
  10. Thus solar farms are nature reserves – all 1000 of them. Fenced and secure, where wildlife thrives naturally and has been deliberately encouraged.

Access – Rambling

Solar farms are mostly not open access as they are on private land.  With the loss of the Feed in Tariff (FIT), many local authorities are maximizing their own council land, realising they could provide community electricity and sell it. Similarly, villagers are also creating their own community solar arrays. Where footpaths and bridlepaths are beside, or through, a solar farm, then this can always be accommodated in the design – creating a safe and fenced-off walkway. Remember all solar farms are dangerous ‘power stations’.  See aerial Google.maps for walkways through solar farms as in the Fareham area of Hampshire. Ecological interpretive boards were provided there to help observe flora and fauna.

Monitoring planning applications – what you can do

There is no ecological objection to solar arrays on private land – they can only be good for biodiversity especially with enhancements.

Pros:

i) clean, sustainable energy;

ii) land protected from other development for 25 years – a benefit! Solars are temporary.

Cons: eyesore??  See below – participate in the planning process

When consulting planning applications for solar arrays then it is best to:

  • Ensure that the site has a Phase 1 Habitats Survey to determine any protected species present e.g. badgers, newts.
  • If protected species present, what avoidance or mitigation is applied?
  • Ensure that application design plan incorporates each enhancement.
  • Ask for a bund to restrict visual intrusion where necessary.
  • Ask for a screening hedgerow (native species – oak, holly, field maple, hornbeam).  (great opportunity here for insisting on filling gaps in hedgerows – good for wildlife corridors).
  • Remind LPAs to have a generous buffer (e.g.10m) between arrays and protected areas such as Ancient woodland (local policies often apply), and instigate wildlife enhancements such as in 3) above.
  • Protect all single trees on site – they can be accommodated on most solar farms,
  • Ensure badger gates are incorporated where badgers are present (see 1,2).
  • Ensure developer adheres to best practices (see Biblio).
  • Does the connection to the grid go through badger setts (can be up to 1km long), or through or past protected habitats etc.
  • Ask for an Interpretive board to explain what wildlife there is to be seen.

Publications on solar arrays and biodiversity by John Feltwell (2013-2015)

Feltwell, J. 2013a.  Are photovoltaic solar arrays an influencing factor in avian mortality? The Newsletter of The Kent Field Club. February 2013. Number 77, p.18-27.

No impact on birds

Feltwell, J. 2013b Solar Farms and Biodiversity. Guest blog on Solar Power Portal. 16  September 2013.     http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/guest_blog/solar_farms_and_biodiversity_2356

                    Solar farms boost biodiversity, even make nature reserves.

Feltwell, J. 2013c Résumé of solar farms in England and Wales.  Briefing given at National Trust roundtable, 17 September 2013. http://www.solar-trade.org.uk/solarFarms.cfm

Feltwell, J. 2013d. Solar farms for bumblebees. Buzzword, The Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s  Members Newsletter. November 2013. Issue 23, p.13-14.

                   Solar farms excellent for bumblebees and other insects

Feltwell, J. 2013e. Biodiversity on solar farms – building tomorrow’s solar farms.  Solar Business  Focus UK. Volume 10 – 2013. 6-7.

                    Solar farms boost biodiversity, even make nature reserves. Solar are the new ‘fallow’

Feltwell, J. 2013f.  A comparative biodiversity study of a working solar farm and a wheat field in West  Sussex, July- November 2013. (Unpublished Report, dated 7 December 2013).

Increased biodiversity on a solar farm compared to an organic wheat field

Feltwell, J. 2014a. Solar farms: gain or grain? Solar Business Focus UK. Volume 11 – 2014. p.40-41.

           Solar farms do not take more than 0.14% away from the UK’s agricultural crops

Feltwell, J. 2014b Observations on the effects of photovoltaic solar panels on invertebrates at Ebbsfleet Farm, Sandwich, Kent 2010-2012. The Newsletter of The Kent Field Club. Number 79.

February 2014. p.4-17.  No impact on invertebrates  (there are 32,000 terrestrial inverts in Britain)

  1. E. Parker and L. Greene (with Feltwell, J. 2014c as co-contributor) BRE (2014) Biodiversity Guidance for Solar Developments. Eds. G. E. Parker and L. Greene. 9pp.

                      Essential reading for all developers and planners….  Introduction of the BMP  (Biodiversity Management Plan).

Feltwell, J. 2014d, reviewed by John Arthur LLP. Solar farms and eco-law. E-Law, Issue 84 (September-October) pp.27-30. An On-line publication by UK Environmental Law Association.       

                       An up to date résumé of solar farms and UK and EU law

Feltwell, J. BLOG on solar farms and biodiversity http://www.britishrenewables.com/landowners/blog/

13 Nov 2014 Thoughts on Biodiversity,    15 Dec 2014 Sustainable Solar Farms,     15 Jan 2015 NPPF and Biodiversity

 

Bibliography

BRE (2014) Agricultural Good Practice Guidance for Solar Farms. Ed J Scurlock, http://isea.co.com/news-docs/Agricultural-   Good-Practice-Guidance-for-Solar-Farms.pdf

(retrieved 28 Oct 2021)

Evidence review of the impact of solar farms on birds, bats and general ecology 2016 (NEER012)   file:///C:/Users/John/Downloads/NEER012%20Evidence%20review%20of%20the%20impact%20of%20solar%20farms%20on%20birds,%20bats%20and%20general%20ecology%202016.pdf (retrieved 28 Oct 2021)

       Dr John Feltwell, A Wildlife Matters Flier  dated 29 Oct 2021  http://wildlifematters.com   – free to circulate

Book reviews, Conservation, Insects

Death’s Head H/Moth … 2021

Howse, P.  2021, Bee Tiger: The Death’s Head Hawk-Moth through the Looking-glass. Brambleby Books. pp119. ISBN  978-1-908241-62-7  9-781908 24 1627  £13.99

 

                         

There have been precious few books on a single moth, with the exception of perhaps the Silk moth, Bombyx mori or one of the moon moths or emperors or some of the glamorous day-flying moths. This is not so much an entomological treatise on the Death’s head hawk-moth than a comprehensive discourse on skulls, bones and all interpretations of these patterns and messages as we may see them;  it is all in the sub-title, ‘through the looking glass’. Mimicry, which is the author’s passion, and nature’s gift, is full of visual interpretation of the dynamic living world and thus subject to vagaries in our understanding. There is a tendency to anthropomorphosise. And so it is with this hawk-moth. It is a large lumbering moth which has evolved to be a honey thief within honeybee colonies. For a large lumbering moth it must have an acute sense of smell to search out and find honeybee colonies, and as for its large size, it does need this to go deep in a hive and plunder the goods. It may of course be too big for bats to handle, as bats weigh less.  Unusually for hawk-moths the death’s head has a very stubby proboscis which it pierces the capped brood and feeds unmolested by the bees. Philip Howse, describes how the morphology of the moth, and its sounds, mimic the piping of the queen bee and it may thus sooth the behaviour of the colony.  Of the bright colour of this moth, the contrasting yellows and black we are told mimic the warming colours of wasps and hornets – more for the daytime predators, birds and reptiles than bees.  And, as for the scary death’s head, this is also for daytime predators – especially if seen from in front, rather than as we conventionally view a moth as settled or set. The classic medusa head of ancient Rome and Pompeii are invoked, especially with hair entwined with snakes. Photos of heads and skulls are shown, including Picasso’s ‘In Voluptate Mors’. Philip Howse is a poet and he publishes a few of his lines as well as many others, and cites quotations from a host of others including Homer, Faust, Proust, Jung, Darwin and more recently Miriam Rothschild who also was enthralled by the moth.  The book is relatively short with nine blank pages at the back (printing problem?) and there is a bibliography, index and glossary of 28 colour plates.   There are nine chapters, three of which are linked, the honeybees’ tale, the bat’s tale and the bird’s tale – all expressing how mechanisms have evolved in these groups over millions of years to feast and forage. The author goes to extraordinary lengths to describe the colour vision of birds and then at the end of the chapter to show how birds might view the moth. The same for the bat’s tale chapter, and exposé of the bat’s capabilities in detecting prey on the wing, all backed up with up to date technical research and discoveries.  With an exciting cover, and a good in-depth read around the subjects, this book will appeal to entomologists, naturalists and members of the general public. The author is Professor Emeritus in Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton and is the author of a number of general natural history books.

 

Book reviews, Conservation, Insects

Much Ado About Mothing

Much Ado About Mothing; a year intoxicated by Britain’s rare and remarkable Moths. 2021. By James Lowen. London, Bloomsbury Wildlife. £18.99. 384pp.  ISBN 978-1-4729-6697-1   9 781472 966971

.

We have already had a butterfly enthusiast run around Britain in a year to shoot all the butterfly species, in the name of Patrick Barkham in his ‘The Butterfly Isles’; he reviews this book on the cover as ‘Here is colour, wonder, surprise – and fun’.  Now we have James Lowen setting himself the target of chasing rare and remarkable moths around the islands, from Cornwall to the Cairngorms. Not that he is chasing all the moths – an impossible task with about 40 times more moths than butterflies.

Lowen was initially inspired to all things moths by a poplar hawk-moth which he had to hand. Most people are enthralled by the beauty and evolution of animals, and essentially this is what this book is about, it celebrates the enthusiasm that one man has for moths. James is completely moth-centric. He exudes moth enthusiasm the way other people pursue particular wildflowers, fungi, bryophytes or even tardigrades.

James is an all-round naturalist, whose grass roots were in Yorkshire which set his seed for the living world, and he has explored South America and the poles; he writes for various papers and has a number of books to his name.  His conversion to moths has been recent and profound, not least encouraged by the enthusiasm of his daughter, Maya who figures in the book, especially in the eight pages of colour photographs in the middle of book which figure 15 species of moth, but which mostly shows venues, equipment and techniques. Oh for more illustrations for a group with 2,500 species.

There are 20 chapters starting with winter-spring and ending in autumn. Although only four chapter headings give a clue about the subjects (Hawk-Moths, Kentish Glory, Clearwings and Blues – read Clifton Nonpareil), the rest are very discursive and story-like, on how a site visit was formulated, with advice from whom, how they got there, what it was like on arrival, the type of habitat and finally the exaltation of finding the target.

The book is well researched and his sorties to various far flung habitats is usually to link up with regional moth experts to explore last known locales and pabula. Local contacts from wildlife groups and from Butterfly Conservation (which also conserves moths) and RSPB (yes moths too) and national projects such as ‘Back from the Brink’ are often the source of his targets.  He has included classic lep stories and research involving Miriam Rothschild and Bernard Kettlewell and waxes lyrical about the new arrival the horse-chestnut micro. Where would he be without his treacle ropes, actinics and other entomological paraphernalia.

His writing is florid and descriptive to an intense or even excessive level; his descriptions of moths are flowery and romantic, whether it is the Old Lady, Scotch burnet, Netted carpet, Crimson underwings, Merveille du Jour or hawk-moths. In his quest to find moths James clocked up 14,000 miles over 258 days and visited 139 locations across 27 counties of equivalent.  A job well done.  But only touching the surface of moth biodiversity.

The book is ideal for general readership. A good read for moth-ers without the scientific clutter. The book will be of interest to naturalists, entomologists and lepidopterists and as a book on moths it is unique and unrivalled. There is an index, a bibliography and list of acknowledgements which runs to four pages. The cover is exciting and colourful. It’s a good book to hand, especially with the colourful and exciting cover.

From the flyleaf blurb it says…’no animal may be better placed to inspire the environmentalists of the future.’  Good luck with that then!  Moths will still continue to have a bad press (as most are brown, hairy and scary to the general public), even though they are more biodiverse than butterflies and in many cases more colourful than butterflies such as the day-fliers which James covers in his travels.  Let’s hope this book has started a revival in their fortunes.

 

Book reviews, Conservation

‘Gone’ by Michael Blencowe

             

‘Gone – A Search for what remains of the world’s extinct creatures’ by Michael Blencowe. ISBN 978-0-7112-5675-0  9-780711 256750. Ivy Press, Leaping Hare Press, 2021.   192pp

Focusing on just eleven animals, the author provides an interesting narrative on species that have now disappeared, some rather quickly since being discovered ,such is the impact of man.

The author, from the Sussex Wildlife Trust, describes the Booth Museum in Brighton where the tower clock has stopped at three minutes to midnight – a reminder of the overall global decline of nature and the little time to find a fix.

There is another Sussex connection, since the chapter on the dodo is enlivened with the author’s encounter with the world’s expert on dodos who lives in Battle, Ralfe Whistler who has various dodo artefacts.

This selection of doomed animals is just the tip of the 413 species of animals, plants and fungi lost in Great Britain in the last 200 years (quoted on page 176). This does not seem enough loss compared to the overall publicised position. The UK government admits (2021) that 14 out of 42 biodiversity indicators show a long term decline of habitats and species.

Michael has visited many other museums around the world, for instance to see the whole skeleton of the now extinct Stella’s sea cow in the Helsinki (Finland) Natural History Museum. These were huge blubbery mammals weighing several tons, floated on the surface and ate kelp. It took just 27 years between discovery to their butchered extinction.

Blencowe has visited the formidable collections of Lord Rothschild at Tring to see the two specimens of the Spectacled Cormorant, and the Smithsonian Museum, and brings the book right up to date with new discoveries in Japan on recently found bones.

Blencowe has a very discursive style of writing and puts notable events in the text as a reminder of what was happening in the world at the time of more recent extinctions. The book is incredibly well researched with every timeline explored resulting in the ultimate demise of the species. It is a revelation of man’s effect on wildlife.  There is much fascinating detail on expeditions, who ran them, what they doing, and which discoveries were made. The book will appeal to a wide readership, older children and adults, and as a definitive account of these ‘gone’ animals. It is a good book just to pick up and read a single species chapter. Excellent for a train journey.

The book is dedicated to Michael’s long-lived pet tortoise (Tootles) which leads the reader to all about the Pinta Island Tortoise (Galapagos) and the inevitable demise of famous ‘Lonesome George’ on 24 June 2012.

The book includes a world map showing where the selected species lived (Galapagos, California, Iceland, Reunion, Japan, and three in New Zealand, and two in Russia) and the positions of twelve museums (four in southern England, three in New Zealand), to visit. Surely, a bee-line will be needed in Brighton to visit the Booth Museum.

The pages are interspersed with delightful colour prints in various muted colour shades of various greens and browns by Jade Thery,  all nicely displayed on the page. There is a Further Reading section. Altogether the book is a very satisfactory good read and good to have in any natural history library.

Book reviews, Insects

Ladybird Books & App

 Three ladybird books & and a Ladybird App. – all coloured red! Two of the books are by different Helens.

 ‘Ladybirds’ by Michael E. N. Majerus. Collins, 1994. ISBN 0-00-219935-1 (originally £14.99 in pb) 367pp.

 ‘Ladybirds’ by Helen E. Roy, Peter M.J. Brown, Richard  F. Comont, Remy L. Poland and John J. Sloggett. 2012. Naturalist’s Handbook 10. Ladybirds. Revised from Majerus and Kearns 1989. ISBN 987-1-907807-0707. 9 781907 807077. Reprinted by Pelagic Publishing. £22.98 142pp

 ‘A Field Guide to Harlequins and other Common Ladybirds of Britain and Ireland.’ By Helen Boyce. 2021. Published by Pelagic Publishing. A Pelagic Identification Guide.  ISBN. 978-1-78427-244-9   9 781784 272449. 106pp.

 

‘European Ladybirds App’ v.   2021. v1.1.1(1) The app was hand crafted by Karolis Kazlauskis, and authored by a team of 14 scientists from UK, ITA, CZ, SK, BE and PT with financial support from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) and Anglia Ruskin University (Faculty of Science & Engineering). Two of the authors, Roy and Brown are co-authors of one of the books above. It is free, simple and quick to download and is conceptionally easy to use. Thirty nine species and forms of ladybird are illustrated with common and latin names. A digest on each species describes size, legs, colours, spots, plants on which it is likely to be found and and food, and habitats. After an initial registration with name and address the app knows where you are an applies a 6-figure OS map reference, and all that is required is to note which species found, in what sort of habitat (a choice is given) hit send record, adding a photo if you wish. This is a user-friendly app which you can carry on your android for field identification and reporting records.

There are other ways to record ladybirds, for instance in the long running UK Ladybird Survey via www.coleoptera.org.uk/coccinellidae) or via the iRecord app.  

 The classic and highly collectable book on Ladybirds by the late Michael E.N. Majerus stated in 1994 that there were 42 species in Britain. It remains the best original book on ladybirds. The figure is now updated by Helen Boyce’s book who states that there are now 47 species of ladybird in Britain and Ireland, but only 26 of them, now including the Harlequin are conspicuous – thus setting the scene for her book.

 The Helen Boyce book is a short but succinct book of colour photographs and explanations in double-space text for identification; the Helen Roy et al book is much longer and more of a digest and thorough scientific treatment of ladybirds with chapters on ladybirds in the environment, their enemies, variation, population and evolutional biology and identification with keys to adult British ladybirds, all adult British Coccinellidae and larvae of British ladybirds. The field and lab techniques are particularly useful. The Helen Roy book is a fair substitute, and up to date too, for the Majerus book which might be difficult to find cheaply. It is all that beginners would need to get started on ladybird identification, a good concise book.

 If you have difficulty identifying a Harlequins from other Coccinellids there is a 32 pages of subtle chararacteristics in the Harlequin book, such as i) only Harlequins have two ‘shoulder spots’, ii) they never have ‘Angel Wings’, iii) they are 5-8mm long, iv) ‘the only black ladybird that has full, round white ‘cheeks’ is the harlequin v) harlequins do not have white spots on their wing cases vi) they have ‘pinched’ dimples on the rear of the abdomens and viii) they have a lip on the elytra.  There is also a photographic guide on how to distinquish harlequin larvae from other ladybirds, and the most interesting one are the branched spines known as scoli. There are references and index in both of the more recent books.

 All readers have a an affinity with ladybirds, and after befriending an individual the question is often which species is it. Both books will help at this stage, though in the field the app is invaluable and the best choice, even though both books will fit into a jacket pocket.  The classification of ladybirds according to the number of spots is deceivingly simple, but as with many things in nature the more you look the more alternatives come forward.

 All these books are useful.  In a world before Harlequins (introduced into the UK in 2003 and spread to many areas at 100km a year) and in a world that Dr Majerus did not know about, the widespread occurrence of Harlequins introduced another level of variation amongst ladybirds, If you thought that the range of variation amongst ladybirds was great, then Harlequins are at another level. Thus the need for a book on Harlequins and how to distinguish them. This aim has been discharged well.

 Do the books have an answer to this intriguing colour variation?  Helen Roy et al say that ‘factors producing these variations are unknown in many species’. There is much discussion about genetic effects, but the environment has something to do with it too. It is ‘expected that ladybirds will be negatively affected by climate change’ and it was interesting to learn about the dark melanic forms of ladybirds, especially that ‘darker forms are associated with cooler humid climates’.  

 2-spot and 10-spot and the Harlequin are the most variable of ladybirds, and some reliance is had in the Helen Roy book of the old classification of the German entomologist who listed 119 colour forms in his research in 1926-37. By 1945 more than 200 colour forms of the Harlequin ladybird had been listed for Europe with only three in the Britain.

 The colour red has been evolved especially for aposematic purposes by these ladybirds, and also in combination with black and white, and yellow. It is as if ladybirds have cornered the red market for defence in a lively world of predators, but it is not the case. Many other insects use red for great effect.

 

 

 

 

 

Book reviews

Forager’s Garden A Locke

The Forager’s Garden, Grow an Edible Sanctuary in Your Own Backyard. By Anna Locke. Permanent Publications. 2021. 194pp. £9.95 RRP. ISBN 978-1-85623307-1  9 781856233071          

The author has a herbal medicine degree and is an expert on permaculture and has produced a fine example of an easily accessible book for beginners to grow food. The book is not about foraging about along waysides and woodlands to bring back bunches of edible plants a la Richard Mabey’s ‘Food For Free’. It is more about a wake up call to bring useful plants into the garden and let them perform, or run riot; or let them arise and colonise the garden, in a form of rewilding. Rewilding is one of three principles of permaculture and there is a small section in this book but that subject is covered elsewhere in Isabella Tree’s book on ‘Wilding’ as a different kind of feeding off the land. However, amongst the many colour photographs, and black and white artworks, there are plenty of ‘wild’ looking parts of the garden up against walls, gravelly edges, which is just what Anna proposes, willowherbs, foxgloves, apples, pears and plenty of  ground cover, no neat lawns here.  There are 15 chapters which range from wildflowers, trees, and managing the wild garden, composting, pruning and being at ease with the space; and lists and tables to consider on species selection. There are also plenty of plans for layout in small places, but the ideas can go large to fit most spaces and enthusiasms. The author’s experience of a garden designer in London brings a lot of professionism to the book, and common sense for which beginners will be grateful. There are some neat tricks for water collection and distribution for off-grid gardens, reminding me of ideas that might be found in the alternative energy site in Wales, or in drought years, or in the Mediterranean (Anna has inspiration from Sicily).  Anna Locke practices in Hastings and manages the Ore in Bloom society. There are references to local places such as the Hornsburst Wood Forest Garden and the Bohemia Walled Garden Association which show, with before and after images, how gardens can be turned round to being useful for food production. But the wild turnaround can be applied anywhere. The book is for the UK and US market and the species chosen and all the ideas are applicable both sides of the Atlantic.  I like Anna’s enthusiasm for plant guilds that naturalists would also call suites of species, or just an example of rich biodiversity where in nature everything grows together. Bringing associated species together in gardens (for instance with plug plants), or just encouraging them to find their place and spread naturally, is presumably an aim for any wild garden, except here there is a preference for food. There is no need to eat the foxgloves (steady on there – danger!) but daisies, bugle and sorrel are recommended as food.  Clearly Anna likes nature, and her acknowledgement ‘To the field that held me’ reminds me of Robert Louis Stevenson who so liked the woodlands on his camping trek through the Cevennes mountains, that in the morning he laid coins on tree stumps as a thank you for such a nice environment. I too, know that feeling. Give me a wood or meadow any day.  For those beginners who get inspired by this book, they can save themselves a lot of money by foraging in their own back yard. This book also ticks the principle boxes for ‘regenerative agriculture’ and ‘community resilience’.  If you have a very large back yard you could at least have some wild boar to do some of the hard digging for you. The book is recommended for all those would would like to live the foraging life and commune with nature.

 

 

 

 

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