Hana Ketley – Page 5 – Hoopoe

The NHBS Guide to UK Rails

Rails, from the family Rallidae, are small- to medium-sized birds and include crakes, coots and gallinules. They can be found in most terrestrial habitats, but the most common are marshland and dense forests. They are present on every continent except Antarctica and are generally omnivores, consuming invertebrates, fruits and seedlings. Typically, they prefer dense vegetation near bodies of water, such as lakes, rivers or swamps.

This is a large family with around 130 species. We have several resident species in the UK, as well as a number of migrants and occasional visitors. Identification of rail species relies on plumage, leg and frontal shield colouration (if present), and their calls. Binoculars and scopes are useful for spotting these features from a distance. Juveniles and chicks will often differ in appearance from adults, therefore a guide covering these life stages is also helpful.

How are rails faring?

Due to hunting, egg collection and habitat loss, many rail species have become extinct and others are endangered. The corncrake and the spotted crake, for example, are classified as Red and Amber under the Birds of Conservation Concern 4. Due to their general flightlessness, they are often heavily impacted by introduced species such as domestic cats. American mink, a nonnative and invasive species in the UK, are a particular threat to moorhen as they can be a main prey item.

Corncrakes are the focus of several conservation projects due to their Europe-wide population declines. Research has shown that increasing the areas of suitable tall vegetation, particularly in spring, autumn and mid-winter, delaying mowing and using certain mowing methods can be effective conservation measures. Up to 60% of chicks are killed by standard mowing practices, due to their flightlessness and reluctance to escape to areas already cut. Since 1992, conservation measures have been implemented on a large scale and have resulted in a partial recovery, from 480 calling males in 1993 in the UK to 1,284 in 2014. However, since 2014, numbers are declining again in Scotland, down by 30% to 870 males in 2019.

Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra)

Distribution: Widespread in England and Wales, rarer in Scotland and Ireland. Numbers are boosted by migrants during winter.
BoCC4 status: Green
Wingspan: 70–80cm
What to look for: The coot is an all-black bird with a distinctive white bill and ‘shield’ on its forehead. They have yellow and white legs with large white feet that have lobed flaps of skin, which act similarly to webbed feet to aid their swimming.

Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)

Distribution: Widespread in England, Wales, and Ireland, but less common in Scotland.
BoCC4 status: Amber
Wingspan: 50–55cm
What to look for: Moorhens have a similar appearance to the Eurasian coot, with a blackish plumage, which, when viewed close up, is actually dark brown on its back and wings with a bluer underside. However, they have a red and yellow bill, long green legs and white stripes on their flanks

Corncrake (Crex crex)

Distribution: Scarce summer breeding population, recorded in the Western Isles, coastal parts of northern Scotland, parts of Ireland and a few key areas in England.
BoCC4 status: Red
Wingspan: 46–53cm
What to look for: Corncrakes are small birds, slightly larger than a blackbird, with chestnut and dark brown wings and back, a mottled grey to buff underside and reddish-brown and white flanks. Its head is grey, with chestnut eyestripes and a chestnut and dark brown crown. Its legs and bill are pale pink.

Spotted Crake (Porzana porzana)

Distribution: Scarce, scattered pairs across Scotland and England.
BoCC4 status: Amber
Wingspan: 37–42cm
What to look for: The spotted crake is similar to the corncrake, with chestnut and dark brown wings and back and a greyer underside, but this species is speckled with white throughout and has a buff undertail. It has a similar grey head, chestnut and dark brown crown and chestnut eyestripe. Its legs are yellowish-green and its bill is a mix of orange, yellow and grey.

Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus)

Distribution: Widespread but thinly distributed throughout England, parts of Wales and Ireland. More scarce in Scotland and absent from upland areas.
BoCC4 status: Green
Wingspan: 38–45cm
What to look for: Their back and wings are chestnut and dark brown, with a grey underside and face. They have black-and-white barred flanks, a chestnut and dark brown crown, a long, red bill with a darker upper part and greyish-pink legs.

Sora (Porzana carolina)

Distribution: Occasional visitors, small number of records around England.
Global status: Least concern
Wingspan: 38cm
What to look for: The sora has a brown back marked with small black and white lines, a blue-grey underside and face, a short yellow bill with black markings at the base and yellow legs. Their flanks are barred with white and black.

Recommended books and equipment

The Corncrake: An Ecology of an Enigma

The detailed ecology of the corncrake, including many important facts about its lifestyle and behaviour, remains mysterious, even among ornithologists. This is the first full-length book to capture all the aspects of corncrake ecology and present this information to non-specialists.

Collins Bird Guide: The Most Complete Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe

With expanded text and additional colour illustrations, the third edition of the hugely successful Collins Bird Guide is a must for every birdwatcher. The new edition has an extra 32 pages allowing several groups more space and completely or partly new plates with more detailed text.

Britain’s Birds: An Identification Guide to the Birds of Great Britain and Ireland

A bestselling guide since it was first published, Britain’s Birds has quickly established itself as the go-to photographic identification guide – the most comprehensive, up-to-date, practical and user-friendly book of its kind. Acclaimed by birdwatchers of all kinds, from the beginner to the most experienced, the guide has now been thoroughly revised and updated to make it even better than before.

Rite in the Rain Side Spiral Notebook (Small)

This is an environmentally responsible, all-weather paper which will survive anything from torrential rain to extreme heat and humidity. Perfect for making notes when birdwatching.

Kowa TSN-500 Series Compact Spotting Scope

Durable, lightweight and with excellent image quality, the TSN-500 series 20-40x spotting scopes are ideal for beginners or experienced birders looking for a portable alternative to heavier scopes.

Opticron Discovery WP PC Binoculars

These have an ultra-compact design to make them among the smallest waterproof roof prism binoculars available on the market today. Great for travelling and fantastic for children as young as seven.

Bird-Spot Laser Pointer

This is a pocket-sized green laser designed for use on birding trips. Its green beam will allow you to easily point out the location of a bird to fellow observers whilst remaining safe for both the birds and the user.

Please see nhbs.com for up to date pricing and availability.

This Week in Biodiversity News – 5th December 2022

Conservation

More than 20,000 bison, in 65 herds, are now owned by 82 Native American tribes across the US. Once roaming North America’s Great Plains in the tens of millions, bison were slaughtered to near extinction by European settlers. Previously, conservation efforts for this species have excluded Native Americans but now this cultural connection is being rekindled, increasing food security, reclaiming sovereignty and improving land management.

More than 50 shark species are to be given protection from over-exploitation. Nearly 200 countries voted to add them to the list of species protected under global trade rules. This includes tiger sharks, blacktip sharks, the bonnethead and blue sharks. The two shark families, requiem sharks and hammerhead sharks, that these species belong to make up over 50% of the trade in shark fins for soup, with many species threatened with extinction. By listing them on CITES, trading products that contain these species will be much harder.

The largest-ever dam demolition will restore hundreds of miles of historical salmon habitat. Four ageing dams are set to be destroyed along the Klamath River in California and Oregon, a win for the Native American tribes and environmentalists that have been fighting for this for years. This $500 million proposal was approved in November and the project is slated to began next year, with the biggest removals taking place in 2024.

Cranes fledge young on the Suffolk coast for the first time. The RSPB recorded two successfully raised chicks at Snape Wetlands Nature Reserve by a pair of cranes. Only around 65 pairs breed in Britain each year. This is a great sign for the relatively new reserve: the original 82ha graslland was converted to wetland and reedbed between 2008-2014. The RSPB has said it will continue to manage the wetlands to encourage more cranes to breed at the site.

Common crane by Charlie Jackson via Flickr

New discoveries

A new seaweed species has been discovered more than 100 metres below the surface of the Antarctic Ocean. The red algae, Palmaria decipiens, was found by a team that included researchers from the University of Aberdeen using a remotely operated vehicle. The project, funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council, set out to clarify the maximum depths that seaweed could grow in Antarctica. Samples were collected for further examination and DNA sequencing was then used to confirm the type of seaweed.

Extinction risk

The Mount Ballow mountain frog, only discovered earlier this year, is already facing extinction, despite living in a World Heritage rainforest. Scientists have warned that the species could become extinct by 2055 due to the impacts of climate change reducing the availability of suitable habitats. These frogs are currently stranded on an ‘island in the sky’ due to habitat loss within the upland mountain rainforests of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, and occupy a very narrow niche. 91% of this ecological niche would be lost under a worst-case scenario of three degrees warming, according to lead author Liam Bolitho.

Calls for a ban on eel fishing from an intergovernmental scientific organisation are challenging the UK and EU to step up on the extinction crisis. Juvenile populations of this snake-like fish have crashed by between 95-99% since 1980. The Internation Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) now advise that fisheries catch no European eel in 2023. With the UN Biological Conference currently taking place, now is the time for European countries to make the right commitments.

European Eel by Bernard Dupont via Flickr

Climate Change

A survey has found that 80% of Scots fear climate change impacts on Scotland’s nature. The research, conducted for charities network Scottish Environment LINK, also found that pollution and ocean warming are also major fears. Just over 1,000 Scots were interviewed between 31st October and 6th November. Nearly a third of those polled stated thay were “very concerned” about the impact of climate change on Scotland, with 50% saying they were “quite concerned”. Just 14% put that they were “not that concerned”, and only 3% stated they were “not at all concerned”.

Policy

A number of MPs are backing the bill to ban trophy hunting overseas, in hopes to protect many endangered animals that are being hunted to the brink of extinction. Support currently includes the MPs for East Yorkshire, North Devon and Milton Keynes. The bill, which has cross party support, would ban British hunters from bringing ‘trophies’ of endangered and vulnerable animals into Britain. The bill has passed its second reading and it is now preparing for the committee stage of its progress through Parliament, which is expected to take place in the New Year.

Research

Tissue loss, decay and death, along with widespread coral bleaching, were reported across the northern coastline of New Zealand last year, impacting hundreds of thousands of specimens. Latest research shows that the most severe impacts on sponges occurred in areas where a prolonged marine heatwave was most intense. These organisms serve a number of important ecological functions, including filtering large quantities of water and moving carbon from the water column to the seafloor. A major loss in coral species would change the community structure of the ecosystem within that habitat, having widespread impacts on a variety of species.

Recent and Forthcoming Titles on Climate Change

Climate change is one of the most important issues of our time, with a wealth of publications released on this topic each year, exploring causes, impacts and potential solutions. In 2019, we put together this list of thought-provoking titles on climate change but, since then, many more key books have been published. In this post, we present an updated selection, including academic titles, handbooks, collaborations, introductory textbooks, children’s books and explorations of climate history.

General

The Climate Book
Greta Thunberg | October 2022
This is an essential tool for everyone who wants to help save the world. Created in partnership with over one hundred experts, including geophysicists, oceanographers, economists, psychologists and philosophers, The Climate Book compiles their wisdom to equip us all with the knowledge we need to combat climate disaster.

Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis
Alice Bell | September 2022
Bell takes us back to climate change science’s earliest steps in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to the advancing realisation that global warming was a significant problem in the 1950s. It continues right up to today, where we have seen the growth of the environmental movement, climate scepticism and political responses like the UN climate talks.

Fire & Flood: A People’s History of Climate Change, from 1979 to the Present
Eugene Linden | April 2022
This is a definitive history of the modern climate-change era, from an award-winning writer who has been at the centre of the fight for more than thirty years. Fire & Flood is a comprehensive, compulsively readable history of climate change, drawing together the elements of the biggest story in the world.

Future on Fire: Capitalism and the Politics of Climate Change
David Carnfield | November 2022
This title argues that a just transition from fossil fuels and other drivers of climate change will not be delivered by business people or politicians that support the status quo. Nor will electing green left leaders be enough to overcome the opposition of capitalists and state bureaucrats. Only the power of disruptive mass social movements has the potential to force governments to make the changes we need.

Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction
Mark A Maslin | August 2021
This Very Short Introduction draws on science from the 2021 IPCC Report, examining the evidence that climate change is already happening, and discussing its potential catastrophic impacts in the future. Mark Maslin also explores the geopolitics of climate change and the win-win solutions we can employ to avoid the very worst effects of climate change.

Other key titles include Global Warming of 1.5°C: IPCC Special Report, Nomad Century, The Atlas of a Changing Climate and Food in a Changing Climate.

Physics / Climatology

The Physics of Climate Change
Lawrence M Krauss | February 2021
This book provides a unique, clear, accurate and accessible perspective of climate science and the risks of global inaction. Krauss explores the history of how scientists progressed to our current understanding of the Earth’s climate and its future. This is required reading for anyone interested in understanding humanity’s role in the future of our planet.

Climate Change: What Science Tells Us
Charles Fletcher | December 2021
This book introduces climate change fundamentals and essential concepts that reveal the extent of the damage, the impacts felt around the globe, and the innovation and leadership it will take to bring an end to the status quo.

Greenhouse Planet: How Rising CO₂ Changes Plants and Life as We Know It
Lewis H Ziska | October 2022
Greenhouse Planet reveals the stakes of increased CO₂ for plants, people and ecosystems – from crop yields to seasonal allergies and from wildfires to biodiversity. The veteran plant biologist Lewis H. Ziska describes the importance of plants for food, medicine, and culture and explores the complex ways higher CO₂ concentrations alter the systems on which humanity relies.

Introduction to Modern Climate Change
Andrew E Dessler | August 2021
The third edition of this introductory textbook for both science students and non-science majors has been brought completely up-to-date. As in previous editions, it is tightly focused on anthropogenic climate change, concentrating on the science of modern climate change, the carbon cycle, and the economics and policy options to address climate change.

Other titles include The Climate Demon, Meltdown and Beyond Global Warming.

Advice / Handbook

Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change
Dieter Helm | September 2021
Economist Dieter Helm addresses the action we all need to take to tackle the climate emergency: personal, local, national and global. Helm argues that we, the ultimate polluters, should pay based on how much carbon the products we buy produce. The goal of net-zero carbon emissions needs a rethink and Net Zero sets out how to do it in a plan that could and would work.

The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis
Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac | April 2021
This is a passionate call to arms from former UN Executive Secretary for Climate Change Christina Figueres, and Tom Rivett-Carnac, senior political strategist for the Paris Agreement. We are still able to stave off the worst and manage the long-term effects of climate change, but we have to act now. This is a book for every generation, for all of us who feel powerless in the face of the climate crisis.

The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times
Dame Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams | July 2022
The world-renowned naturalist and conservationist Jane Goodall has spent more than a half-century warning of our impact on our planet. In The Book of Hope, Jane draws on the wisdom of a lifetime dedicated to nature to teach us how to find strength in the face of the climate crisis and explains why she still has hope for the natural world and for humanity.

What We Need to Do Now: For a Zero Carbon Future
Chris Goodall | February 2021
What We Need to Do Now is an urgent, practical and inspiring book that signals a green new deal for Britain. Drawing on actions, policies and technologies already emerging around the world, Chris Goodall sets out the ways to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in the UK.

Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World
David G Victor and Charles F Sabel | September 2022
A compelling argument for solving the global climate crisis through local partnerships and experimentation. This book explains why the profound transformations needed for deep cuts in emissions must arise locally before best solutions can be spread globally. This is a road map to institutional design that can finally lead to self-sustaining reductions in emissions that years of global diplomacy have failed to deliver.

The Carbon Almanac
The Carbon Almanac Network | August 2022
This is a collaboration between hundreds of writers, researchers, thinkers and leaders that focuses on what we know, what has come before and what might happen next. With thousands of data points, articles and charts explaining carbon’s impact on everything in our society, it is the definitive source for facts and the basis for a global movement to fight climate change.

More titles include Hot Mess, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, Food and Climate Change Without the Hot Air and Pandora’s Toolbox.

Psychology

Minding the Climate: How Neuroscience Can Help Solve Our Environmental Crisis
Ann-Christine Duhaime | October 2022
A neurosurgeon explores how our tendency to prioritize short-term consumer pleasures spurs climate change, but also how the brain’s amazing capacity for flexibility can – and likely will – enable us to prioritize the long-term survival of humanity.

How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference
Rebecca Huntley | January 2021
Why is it so hard to talk about the future of our Earth? Rebecca Huntley’s book explores why the key to progress on climate change is in the psychology of human attitudes and our ability to change. This is about understanding why people who aren’t like you feel the way they do and learning to talk to them effectively.

We’re All Climate Hypocrites Now: How Embracing Our Limitations Can Unlock the Power of a Movement
Sami Grover | October 2021
Taking a tongue-in-cheek approach, self-confessed eco-hypocrite Sami Grover says we should do what we can in our own lives to minimise our climate impacts, but then we need to target those actions so they create systemic change. Along the way, he skewers those pointing fingers, celebrates those who are trying and offers practical pathways to start making a difference.

Warning

Our Final Warming: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency
Mark Lynas | March 2021
Mark Lynas delivers a vital account of the future of our earth, and our civilisation, if current rates of global warming persist. And it’s only looking worse. These escalating consequences can still be avoided, but time is running out. This book must not be ignored, it really is our final warning.

Hope in Hell: A Decade to Confront the Climate Emergency
Jonathon Porritt | August 2021
Porritt believes we have time to do what needs to be done, but only if we move now – and move together. In this ultimately optimistic book, he explores all these reasons to be hopeful: new technology; the power of innovation; the mobilisation of young people – and a sense of intergenerational solidarity as older generations come to understand their own obligation to secure a safer world for their children and grandchildren.

Climate change denial

Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial
Peter Scott | August 2022
Climate scientist and MET Science Fellow Peter Stott reveals the bitter fight to get international recognition for what, among scientists, has been known for decades: human activity causes climate change. Hot Air is the urgent story of how the science was developed, how it has been repeatedly sabotaged and why humanity hasn’t a second to spare in the fight to halt climate change.

The Power of Narrative: Climate Skepticism and the Deconstruction of Science
Raul P Lejano and Shondel J Nero | October 2021
This examines the strength of climate scepticism as a story, offering a thoughtful analysis and comparison of anti-climate science narratives over time and across geographic boundaries. This is a book about how our society understands and interacts with science, how a social narrative becomes ideology, and how we can move beyond personal and political dogma to arrive at a sense of collective rapprochement.

Habitat / Species

Fen, Bog & Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis
Annie Proulx | September 2022
From Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Proulx comes a riveting, revolutionary history of our wetlands, their ecological role and what their systematic destruction means for the planet. A sobering look at the degradation of wetlands over centuries and the serious ecological consequences, this is a stunningly important work and a rousing call to action by a writer whose passionate devotion to understanding and preserving the environment is on full and glorious display.

Nowhere Left to Go: How Climate Change Is Driving Species to the Ends of the Earth
Benjamin von Brackel | July 2022
The lengths plants and animals must go to avoid extinction are as alarming as they are inspirational: sea animals – like fish – move on average 45 miles a decade to cooler regions, while land animals – like beavers and butterflies – move 11 miles. As even the poles of the Earth heat up, we’re left with a stark and irreversible choice: halt the climate emergency now, or face a massive die-off of species, who are increasingly left with nowhere else to go.

Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid: How the Natural World is Adapting to Climate Change
Thor Hanson | February 2022
This is the first major book by a biologist to focus on the fascinating story of how the natural world is adjusting, adapting and sometimes measurably evolving in response to climate change. Lyrical and thought-provoking, this book broadens the climate focus from humans to the wider lattice of life.

Children’s books

Climate Emergency Atlas: What’s Happening – What We Can Do
Dan Hooke | October 2020
Packed with facts and figures and more than 30 dynamic maps, Climate Emergency Atlas is clear and easy to understand, making it the perfect reference guide for all young climate activists. This unique graphic atlas tells you everything you need to know about the current climate emergency, and what we can do to turn things around.

A Short, Hopeful Guide to Climate Change
Oisín McGann | May 2021
What is climate change? How can it be stopped? And what can young people do to help the fight? Author Oisín McGann explains climate change science and encourages young people to be part of positive change by getting involved in the global movement to fight humanity’s biggest challenge. This book is also eco-friendly, with vegan inks, all recycled materials and fully recyclable – this book is part of the solution.

How to Change Everything: The Young Human’s Guide to Protecting the Planet and Each Other
Naomi Klein and Rebecca Stefoff | March 2022
This is the most authoritative and inspiring book on climate change for young people yet, discussing the effects of climate change, how young people are fighting back and how you can get involved to make the world a safer and better place. This gives a powerful picture of why and how the planet is changing, providing effective tools for action so that YOU really can make a difference.

Upcoming titles

Ecology of a Changing World
Trevor Price | December 2022
This book outlines the importance of species conservation relative to human existence. It breaks down ecological principles and explains six threats to biodiversity in terms anyone studying ecology, evolutionary biology, environmental science or environmental justice will understand. These threats are climate change, overharvesting, pollution, habitat loss, invasive species and disease, with Price offering the history, current status and economic and environmental impacts of each of these.

Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know
Joseph Romm | December 2022
This is the essential primer on what will be the defining issue of our time. Newly updated with the latest in climate science from COP26 and beyond, this third edition offers user-friendly, scientifically rigorous answers to the most difficult (and commonly politicised) questions surrounding climate change.

Outsourcing Climate Breakdown: How Rich Nations Get Away With It
Laurie Parsons | May 2023
Around the world, leading economies are announcing significant progress on climate change. World leaders are queuing up to proclaim their commitment to tackling the climate crisis. Yet the atmosphere is still warming at a record rate. Outsourcing Climate Breakdown explores the murky practices of exporting a country’s environmental impact., taking a wide-ranging, culturally engaged approach to the topic and showing that this is not only a technical problem, but a problem of cultural and political systems and structures.

You can browse our full collection of climate change titles here. We also have a number of blogs on the current challenges we face with climate change here.

Image credit: Mike Lewelling, National Park Service via Flickr

The NHBS Guide to UK Lichens

Lichens are composites of two or more different organisms, an alga or cyanobacteria living among the filaments of a fungus species. It is a symbiotic relationship where the fungal partner, also termed the mycobiont, makes up the body or ‘thallus’, and the algae or cyanobacteria is the photosynthetic partner, or photobiont, providing nourishment. There is debate as to whether this symbiotic relationship is mutualistic, where both parties benefit and neither is harmed through this interaction, or a type of controlled parasitism, where the mycobiont is ‘farming’ the photobiont for the sugars produced by photosynthesis.

There are over 1,800 species recorded in the UK, and 17,000 species worldwide. There are three main categories of lichen body types: crustose, fruticose and foliose. Crustose lichen are species that form thin, crust-like coverings that are tightly bound to the surface they’re on. Fruticose lichen form coral-like bushy or shrubby structures with a holdfast, a root-like structure that anchors it to trees, rocks or other surfaces. Foliose lichen are species that have a flattened, leaf-like thallus with an upper and lower cortex, the surface layer or ‘skin’ of the lichen, and attach to surfaces by hyphae with root-like structures called rhizines. There are other growth forms, such as leprose (a powder-like or granular appearance), squamulose (scaly), filamentose (stringy) and byssoid (wispy). These can also be divided into numerous subtypes.

Lichens are an important food source for many species, such as deer and goats, and are used as building material for birds nests. They occur from sea level to high elevations, tolerating many different environmental conditions. They grow on a wide variety of surfaces, from tree bark, leaves, mosses, rocks, gravestones, roofs, soil, bones and rubber. The general guidance for identifying lichens is to look at growth form, colour, habitat and substrate type and distribution. You should also look for the presence or absence of certain structures such as rhizines, soredia (scale-like reproductive structures), isidia (column-like outgrowths of the thallus) and apothecia (a cup-shaped structure containing asci, spore-bearing cells). A hand lens and a guide that covers other lichen species will be useful for identifying these.

Spot tests can be performed, which involve placing a drop of a chemical, such as potassium hydroxide or sodium hypochlorite, on different parts of the lichen. Any colour change, or lack thereof, can be used for identification when following dichotomous keys for lichen species. Care should be taken when using chemicals, however, particularly in the natural environment, due to the damage they can cause.

Some species are harder to identify in the field and require microscopic examination or further chemical testing. Additionally, there may be variations in appearance due to weather conditions or the condition of the lichen. Its colour can change when the lichen is wet or in poor condition, for example, or the growth form can appear different if the lichen has begun to disintegrate.

Elegant Sunburst Lichen (Xanthoria elegans)

Distribution: Widespread, but most frequently found in upland areas.
Growth type: Foliose
What to look for: This is a small lichen, typically no more than 5cm wide with lobes that are less than 2mm broad and closely pressed against a surface. Their upper surface is orange, with a white lower surface, a cortex (skin), and attached with short, sparse hapters (peg-like structures on the lower surface of lichen). Soredia and isidia are absent but apothecia structures are common.

Common Greenshield Lichen (Flavoparmelia caperata)

Distribution: Widespread, more common in the western and southern parts of England, scarce in northern and central Scotland.
Growth type: Foliose
What to look for: This is a pale grey species that turns yellowish-green when wet. The lower surface is black with a brown margin and black, unbranched rhizoids that attach it to the substrate. Its lobes are rounded, around 3–8mm wide, with patches of soredia. The lobes are often wrinkled in appearance, particularly in older specimens.

Hooded Rosette Lichen (Physcia adscendens)

Distribution: Widespread
Growth type: Foliose
What to look for: Hooded rosette lichen is a pale grey species, with lobes up to 2mm wide that are curled into a hood shape. They have cilia, thin projections from the margin of the lichen, which progress from pale to black at the ends. Soralia are usually abundant and disc-shaped apothecia can also be present. The lower surface is white to greyish. They are attached to surfaces by rhizines, which can be white to black.

Hoary Rosette Lichen (Physcia aipolia)

Distribution: Fairly widespread
Growth type: Foliose
What to look for: This species is pale, from white to bluish-grey. It has white-rimmed apothecia that have black centres. Soralia and marginal cilia are absent. The lobes also have distinct flecks of white called pseudocyphellae. It grows in well-lit habitats, usually on fences or trees, often in the nodes of branches.

Common Orange Lichen / Yellow Scale (Xanthoria parietina)

Distribution: Widespread
Growth type: Foliose
What to look for: This species is a yellow-orange coloured lichen that can appear greener when wet. It is a leafy lichen with flattened lobes that are between 1–4mm in diameter. Its lower surface is white and has pale rhizines or hapters. Similarly to X. elegans, soredia and isidia are absent but yellow or orange apothecia are usually present. There is a cortex that is made of tightly packed fungal hyphae, which can be thicker in more exposed locations and is thought to protect the lichen from evaporation and exposure.

Monk’s Hood Lichen (Hypogymnia physodes)

Distribution: Widespread
Growth type: Foliose
What to look for: The thallus is grey to greenish-grey, with inflated lobes that lift at the tips. These inflations can burst open, displaying the floury soredia inside. They may have black dots, called pycnidia, near the lobe tips. Rhizines are absent and the lower surface is wrinkled with a light brown margin, darkening towards a black centre. They may have apothecia, which occur on short stalks and have a red-brown disc.

Many-forked Cladonia (Cladonia furcata)

Distribution: Widespread, particularly in heathland, healthy turf and on dunes.
Growth type: Fruticose
What to look for: This species has an upright secondary thallus, called the podetium, which can vary from grey-green to brown. This forms loose mats, and the finer branches are erect and sharply pointed. Soredia are absent, with few to no squamules (scales). They may have small, green areolar patches set into or raised on the cortex surface. The podetia become darker brown and glossy with age. Pycnidia, the asexual fruiting bodies, are small, brown and are found on the branch tips. This species has apothecia, which are brown and occur in extended clusters at the ends of podetia.

Lasallia pustulata

Distribution: Scattered distribution, mainly in parts of Wales, south- and north-west England and scattered areas of Scotland.
Growth type: Foliose
What to look for: The thallus of this species is a pale grey or brown when dry but becomes brownish or yellowish-green when wet. It has convex pustules across its upper surface which often appear darker in colour and are covered in a powder towards the centre. The margins of this species are often ragged and can be darkened by the presence of black isidia. The lower surface can be grey, brown or black, and have corresponding depressions to the pustules on the upper surface. Rhizines are absent and this species is attached to substrate by a stalk.

Dry state: Jacinta lluch valero via Flickr

Oakmoss (Evernia prunastri)

Distribution: Widespread
Growth type: Fruticose
What to look for: They primarily grow on oak trees but can be found on the trunk and branches of other deciduous trees and conifers. This species is flat and strap-like, highly branched (forked) and bushy, forming large clumps when growing together. When dry the thallus is rough and the colour can vary from green to a pale greenish-white. When wet, they appear dark olive-green to yellow-green and are rubbery in texture.

Pink Earth Lichen (Dibaeis baeomyces)

Distribution: Widespread in Scotland and Wales, scattered throughout England, more common in the north and west.
Growth type: Fruticose
What to look for: Pink earth lichen have bulbous pink apothecia that are around 1–4mm in diameter, set on stalks up to 6mm tall, although these are not always present. The thallus can vary in colour between grey or white, occasionally with a pink tinge, and can appear greenish-grey when wet. They are coarsely granular and are sometimes covered in small, white balls up to 1mm in width, with small powdery areas.

Yellow Map Lichen (Rhizocarpon geographicum)

Distribution: Widespread in Scotland and north-west England, and the upland areas of England, Wales and Ireland. Less common in the East Midlands, East of England and the South East.
Growth type: Crustose
What to look for: This is a bright yellow to yellow-green species, with a cracked thallus, flat, black apothecia and bordered by a black line of fungal hyphae. This lichen grows in patches adjacent to each other, giving the appearance of a map.

Recommended books and equipment

Lichens: Towards a Minimal Resistance

The result of several years of investigation carried out on several different continents, this remarkable book offers an original, radical and, like its subject matter, symbiotic reflection on this common but mostly invisible form of life, blending cultures and disciplines, drawing on biology, ecology, philosophy, literature, poetry, and even graphic art.

Lichens: An Illustrated Guide to the British and Irish Species

This book provides an invaluable guide to identifying the British and Irish species both for the amateur naturalist just starting to study lichens and the more advanced lichenologist. It offers the environmentalist and ecologist a concise work of reference, compact enough to be used in the field.

FSC Wildlife Pack 20: Lichens

These colourful and widespread organisms can be seen all year round. Featuring six of the FSC’s popular fold-out charts: lichens on twigs, churchyard lichens, urban lichens 1 and 2, rocky shore lichens and lichens of heaths and moors

Each pack includes a card-sized magnifier, so you can get in even closer to the details.

Opticron Hand Lens (10x 23mm)

Observe the finer details of your specimen with this high-quality 23mm doublet lens, the most commonly recommended magnifier for all types of fieldwork.

All prices are correct at the time of posting, but may change at any time.
Please see nhbs.com for up to date pricing and availability.

Universal nest bricks

Many UK bird populations have shown a dramatic decline since the 1970s and 80s, with species such as starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), house sparrows (Passer domesticus) and swifts (Apus apus) declining by over 50%. This is thought to be due to changes in land use and agricultural practices impacting food supply and the availability of suitable habitats. Changes in architecture have meant a reduction in important nooks and crannies that are utilised as nesting sites by species such as swifts, reducing reproduction rates in urban areas.

Providing suitable nest boxes has been shown to help increase reproduction rates for many species, helping to boost populations. Stephen Fitt and Mike Priaulx, members of the Swifts Local Network: Swifts and Planning Group, discuss the concept of ‘universal’ bricks, the British Standard key requirements on the inclusion of nest boxes within housing developments and current calls for a more specific national policy regarding these features.

Universal nest bricks

A British Standard BS 42021:2022 for integral nest boxes was published in March 2022. This sets out requirements for numbers, location, dimensions, materials, entrance hole size, and an administrative process to demonstrate implementation on site. This will enable integral nest boxes to provide nest spaces for a wide variety of species, such as house sparrows, starlings, swifts, house martins, and blue and great tits.

The standard also covers nest cups for house martins and swallows.

House martin using a Schwegler swift brick by Hugh Hastings and the Duchy of Cornwall

Some species-specific integral nest boxes are quite inflexible. Sparrow terraces, for example, are rarely fully occupied and are unpopular with other species. Deep nest bricks, such as those designed specifically for starlings, could cause a swift to become trapped within it.

Although swift bricks were designed initially to allow swifts to nest, these are now considered a ‘universal’ nest brick as set out in the NHBC Foundation report: Biodiversity in new housing developments: creating wildlife-friendly communities (April 2021). Section 8.1 Nest sites for birds (page 42) states: “Provision of integral nest sites for swifts is through hollow chambers fitted into the fabric of a building while in construction. Although targeting swifts they will also be used by house sparrows, tits and starlings so are considered a ‘universal brick’.”

Swift by Simon Stirrup (Cambridge Bird Club)

The British Standard sets out key requirements for integral boxes as follows:

The number of integral boxes in housing developments – at least one per residential unit on average.
The numbers of the above installed in larger buildings – to be proportionate to the mass and design; there is not necessarily an upper limit.
In all but exceptional circumstances the entrance holes of all integral boxes should be 30mm x 65mm minimum to enable starlings to enter.
The entrance hole should be located close to the base of the box to avoid birds becoming trapped within.

This ‘universal’ nest brick concept has also been described in an article by CIEEM, which references a January 2022 paper on this subject by the Swifts Local Network (SLN).

Local policy legislation has also begun to recognise this line of thinking, for example the Westminster Environment Sustainable Planning Document (February 2022), which in particular calls for: “‘swift bricks’ within external walls…Swift bricks’ are also used by house sparrows and other small bird species so are considered a ‘universal brick’. Integrated nesting bricks are preferred to external boxes for reasons of longevity, reduced maintenance, better temperature regulation, and aesthetic integration with the building design” (Species and Habitats, page 49).

The results from Duchy of Cornwall monitoring programmes confirm that by installing high numbers (an average of one per residential unit) of “‘swift/universal boxes’ in new-build developments, approximately 50% showed signs of occupation after five years, so it is highly likely that they will all be used during the lifetime of the building(s) they are situated in.”

Swift chicks inside a ‘universal brick’. Image by Dick Newell.

Many conservationists would like to see either a numerical value in the Biodiversity Net Gain methodology for these features for wildlife, or a separate strand to the national policy requiring these to be specified. The BREEAM environmental assessment has been following a similar approach for more than a decade.

Such features are already demanded by specific policies in some Local Plans, but other plans are still being published with no such requirements.

CIEEM highlight in the June 2019 issue of their In Practice journal the value of swift bricks to a wide range of small bird species, and provide readily available best practice guidance on the implementation of the bricks, including a recommendation for one nest space per dwelling on average (in accordance with the BS 42021:2022, and following on from RIBA guidance Designing for Biodiversity published back in 2013). While some local authorities such as Brighton are implementing this guidance, others rely on numbers derived from ecologists’ and planning officers’ advice, which can be very variable.

Some developers, Taylor Wimpey being one example, are publishing their own policies for biodiversity measures such as the installation of integral nest bricks.

Defra are developing a simplified Small Sites Metric for Biodiversity Net Gain, and the consultation on this held during autumn 2021 may provide a glimpse of the future as it asks about including a value for bird and bat boxes in the metric, although this has not appeared in practice as yet.

To find out about the swift nest boxes we sell at NHBS, check out our website.

This Week in Biodiversity News – 31st October 2022

Climate Change

100 universities in the UK have pledged to divest from fossil fuels, equating to 65% of the country’s higher education sector. The Fossil Free campaign, led by students, has been active since 2013, with the first institution, the University of Glasgow, announcing its divestment in 2014. Coventry University has become the 100th. Together, the endowments now unavailable for fossil fuel companies are worth more than £17.6bn.

Key UN reports published recently are warning that the world is close to an irreversible climate breakdown. The reports state that global greenhouse gas emissions must fall by about half by 2030 to meet the internationally agreed target of limiting heating to 1.5C or below, but they are still rising. This news comes ahead of the announcement that profits from the world’s seven biggest oil firms increased to nearly £150bn so far this year.