This is the final post in a three part series, designed to help you choose from our bestselling bird boxes. All of the boxes listed below are suitable for building into the masonry of a new build or development.
For each box we have provided a quick guide to the material that it is made from, the box dimensions and the species that it is suitable for. Follow the links provided for full descriptions, pricing and availability, or contact our customer services team to chat about finding the box that’s right for your needs.
• Made from: Woodcrete
• Dimensions: 235 x 180 x 180mm
• Suitable for: Great Tits, Blue Tits, Marsh Tits, Coal Tits, Crested Tits, Redstart, Nuthatches, Tree Sparrows and House Sparrows
So, you have the perfect space in mind for a bird box but don’t know which one to buy? No problem – this is the first in a series of three posts designed to help you make the right choice.
This article includes a list of our top 10 bird boxes for positioning on a tree in a garden, park or woodland. The following two articles will cover the best bird boxes for positioning on a wall or fence and for building into a new build or development.
For each box we have provided a quick guide to the material that it is made from, the dimensions of the box and the species that it is suitable for. Follow the links for more information about each item, or contact us to speak to one of our customer services advisors who can provide you with help in choosing the right product.
• Made from: Woodcrete
• Dimensions: 230 x 160 x 160mm
• Suitable for: Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Marsh Tits, Crested Tits, Great Tits, Nuthatches, Tree Sparrows, House Sparrows, Redstart (species depend on entrance size and shape).
• Made from: Woodstone
• Dimensions: 240 x 190 x 175mm
• Suitable for: Wrens, Robins, Spotted Flycatchers, Pied and Grey Wagtails, Song Thrushes and Blackbirds.
• Made from: Plywood
• Dimensions: 300 x 130 x 150mm
• Suitable for: Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Marsh Tits, Treecreepers, Tree Sparrows, Great Tits, Crested Tits, Nuthatches and Pied Flycatchers (species depends on entrance size).
• Made from: Woodcrete
• Dimensions: 510 x 160 x 180mm
• Suitable for: Nuthatches, Redstart, Tree Sparrows, House Sparrows, Pied Flycatchers, Blue Tits, Marsh Tits, Great Tits (species depends on entrance size).
For the past 45 years, the RSPB has been running one of the largest citizen science projects in the world, the Big Garden Birdwatch. Every January more than half a million people take to their gardens, parks and balconies to count the birds they see. This huge dataset has allowed the RSPB to create a comprehensive picture of how our local birds are faring, and to examine changes in both abundance and distribution over time.
This year’s Big Garden Birdwatch will take place from the 26th to 28th January and anyone can sign up to take part – all it takes is an hour of your time to record the birds you see in your area and send these results to the RSPB. They will then collate all of the data and publish the results in spring.
Find a good spot to watch the birds in your garden or a local park and choose an hour between between Friday 26th and Sunday 28th January.
Have fun identifying the species visiting your garden during that hour and count the maximum number of each species you see at any one time. For example, if you see a group of three House Sparrows together and after that another one, the number to submit is three. This method means it is less likely you will count the same birds more than once and makes data analysis easier. Make a note of any other wildlife that you spot as well.
Submit your results on the Big Garden Birdwatch website. Even if you don’t see anything, that’s still useful information. (If you can’t submit your results online, you can print off the form from the free guide and send it by post).
Join in the conversation on RSPB social channels throughout the weekend to see what other nature lovers are spotting across the UK and upload your own pictures and comments using #BigGardenBirdWatch
Look out for the results in April and take pride in having contributed data from your patch.
What did we learn in the 2023 Big Garden Birdwatch?
In 2023, over half a million people took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch, submitting records of more than 9.1 million birds. The most frequently reported species was the House Sparrow which received 1.4 million sightings, however counts of this bird have notably decreased by 57% when compared to the first Birdwatch in 1979. The second and third spots were held by Blue Tits and Starlings respectively.
Last year’s results highlighted the vulnerability of some of our smaller garden birds and the environments they live in. Long-tailed Tit sightings increased by 39% in 2023, however they are very susceptible to harsh weather conditions and as a result of this, population numbers have fluctuated since the Big Garden Birdwatch began. Meanwhile, Greenfinches and Chaffinches continued to be affected by a disease known as Trichomonosis, which has led to a 34% decline in UK Chaffinch populations and 65% decline in Greenfinches over the last decade. It is hoped that this year’s Birdwatch will help to give a better picture of how these population are faring a year on.
How can I encourage more birds and other wildlife to my garden?
Participating in the Big Garden Birdwatch is the perfect opportunity to observe how wildlife is using your garden and to give you some insights into how you could make your outdoor space even more attractive to wildlife.
Improving your garden for wildlife can be as simple as leaving a patch of long grass; providing native trees or plants that are good for pollinators such as lavender, buddleja and verbena; or leaving a woodpile for insects to shelter in. You can also supply nest boxes for birds, bat boxes for summer roosting bats, access panels and shelters for hedgehogs, shelter for frogs and toads, and of course bird feeders, which will bring a multitude of species to your garden.
Recommended books and equipment
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 combination of definitive text, up-to-date distribution maps and superb illustrations makes this book the ultimate field guide, essential for every birdwatcher and field trip.
RSPB Handbook of British Birds
This easy-to-use book is a complete guide to the UK’s most familiar birds and, having been revised for its fifth edition, the RSPB Handbook of British Birdsnow includes new artwork, additional rarities, extra comparison spreads and a fully updated taxonomic order, in addition to a detailed maps reflecting current UK distributions.
Europe’s Birds: An Identification Guide
Covering more than 900 species, and illustrated with over 4,700 photographs, this is the most comprehensive, authoritative and ambitious single-volume photographic guide to Europe’s birds ever produced. The images are stunning to look at, making this a beautiful book to enjoy, as well as an up-to-date and essential source of identification knowledge.
Park and Garden Birds
This newly updated fold-out guide covers the top 50 birds of gardens and parks, including ponds and rivers. Designed for speedy bird identification with living birds in the garden, the guide features beautiful colour paintings by Chris Shields. Accompanying text on the reverse side covers body size, food, key identification notes and conservation status.
Challenger Plastic Seed Feeder
This seed feeder is ideal for small spaces due to its size and is made from durable, long-lasting plastic. The feeder includes perching rings which have been designed to allow birds to feed in their natural facing forward position and is available in two different sizes.
NHBS Wooden Bird Nest Box
Installing a nest box in your garden is one of the easiest ways to support local bird populations, providing them with a warm, sheltered environment with protection from most types of predators. Our own range of wooden bird nest boxes have been custom designed and manufactured from substantial 2cm thick FSC-certified wood, are available with either a 25mm or 32mm entrance hole and can be expected to last for 5–10 years.
Discovery Plastic Window Seed Feeder
The Discovery Plastic Window Seed Feeder is ideal for those with small gardens or balconies and who are new to bird feeding. It has two feeding ports with ring perches to allow the birds to feed in a natural position and the high-suction pads securely fix the feeder to glass which offers a fantastic way to watch garden birds up close.
Hawke Optics Nature-Trek Binoculars
The Hawke Optics Nature-Trek Binoculars are great value and ideal for fieldwork. They have a shock-resistant polycarbonate body, making them robust yet lightweight, and are waterproof and fog-free. The inner-focus optical design and BAK 4 roof prism produces high resolution images and ensures no detail is lost when viewing at long or short distances, while they also have effortless focusing and impressive depth of field which makes these binoculars quick and easy to use.
Kite Ursus Binoculars
The Kite Ursus binoculars are an easy to use, entry-level pair of binoculars with all-round performance. They have been designed for everyday use and have a robust, fully waterproof housing, rubber touch points, and are lightweight and well balanced with a short hinge and a large ribbed focus wheel so changing focus is easy. As with other Kite binoculars, the Ursus also have a great field of view and, combined with their image quality, this makes them great for panning while watching fast moving subjects.
GPO PASSION 10×32 ED Binoculars
These binoculars combine a sleek design with high-quality features, including a Schmidt-Pechan prism, 10× magnification, ED multi-coated lenses and matched optics, which deliver exceptional clarity and colour transmission. They also offer a wide field of view, high edge-to-edge sharpness and a close minimum focus, which makes them unique among models in this price range, and come in five colours: green, brown, black, sand and orange.
A final vote on the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) will be taking place in the European Parliament early this year. This regulation aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss in Europe by implementing restoration measures on a minimum of 20% of land and marine areas by 2030. Specific targets to rewet peatlands and increase pollinator populations are also included in the law. Financial support for the NRL will come from funds provided by the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.
New research conducted at the Quinney College of Natural Resources has shown that Barnacle Geese have a bigger impact on Svalbard’s ecosystem than Reindeer, and that their impact is increasing over time. Since the Arctic climate is shifting faster than other places under global climate change, and Svalbard is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth, understanding the effects of these herbivore populations on ecosystem functioning is important and will allow scientists to predict how this region is likely to be affected in the future.
It is no secret that pesticides are harmful to honey bees. However, new research from the University of Illinois has provided more information on how such pesticides impact the sense of smell in bees with consequences for social signalling such as the detection of colony pheromones. This research has also shown how fungicides, previously thought to be harmless to bees, can be toxic, especially when used in combination with insecticides and adjuvants (chemicals that help the insecticide to stick to the target plant).
Flesh-footed Shearwater by patrickkavanagh via Flickr.
With climate change, Oak trees are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the Oak Processionary Moth. Image by peterichman via Flickr.
A recent audit by the National Trust has found that the weather is “causing chaos for UK flora and fauna”. A lack of reliable seasonal patterns, accompanied by extreme weather events, droughts and floods are putting a huge amount of stress on plants and animals. The National Trust say that more action is urgently required from politicians to ensure that tackling the associated biodiversity and climate crises is a priority, particularly as we enter an election year.
A Beginners Guide to Freshwater Microscopic Life is a practical, spiral-bound guide written by David Seamer which offers a fantastic introduction to the multitude of microscopic organisms found in freshwater. For those with a more specific interest, An Illustrated Guide to the Freshwater Protozoa provides an extensive review of taxonomic information and detailed descriptions of 400 genera of Amoebae, Flagellata and Ciliata, all of which have a worldwide distribution.
In 1993, David Seamer bought an old school bus and converted it into a mobile home and laboratory. Hespent the next 20 years travelling around south-east Australia and Tasmania collecting, cataloguing and drawing the biodiversity of the micro-world. David has now settled in a county town in Australia where he has access to a great range of environments from semidesert springs to alpine ponds and lakes and continues to sketch, study and identify microscopic life.
David took the time out of his busy schedule to discuss how he first got into studying microscopic life, the biggest challenges he’s had to overcome while creating these books and more.
Can you tell us about how you first developed an interest in studying microscopic life?
Ever since I was a small child, the natural world has fascinated me and my bedroom became a study place for caterpillars, tadpoles, lizards, insects of any description and anything else that I could keep in jars, boxes or old abandoned aquariums. But it wasn’t until I was about 15 and in high school that I discovered the micro-world, during a double biology lesson in which the teacher was using amoebas collected from a local pond as examples of an animal cell. While I was drawing an amoeba I noticed other ‘wigglers’ and drew them as well. After the lesson I approached the teacher and asked what these other things were. He pointed to a copy of Ward and Whipple’s Freshwater Biology and once I opened it and saw drawings of what I had seen, I was instantly hooked. I saved my money from a couple of lawn mowing jobs to buy my first microscope and it has become a lifelong passion ever since.
Which techniques would you advise a beginner in this field of study to use?
My advice to beginners is to be aware that these organisms are real creatures and should be treated with the same respect as any other animal. Collect your samples and examine them as soon as possible. Ideally, they should still be alive for once dead many of them decompose and break down very quickly. Preserved specimens often change shape and distort so live is always best. A good microscope is essential and the use of a measuring slide or an eye-piece micrometer, as well as phase contrast, is of great help. There are thousands of species so don’t try and identify organisms to that level. Genus or even family are as far down as one should go to start with.
I found it really fascinating looking at your illustrations of microbes and the incredible detail you’ve included. Can you explain the process of drawing from live microscopic observations and the challenges of this method?
Drawing from life requires patience and lots of it. Starting with basic measurements to get proportions is the first step. This illustration (see above) is fairly typical of my technique. I draw the initial outline and basic details in 2B pencil and then when I am satisfied that all is correct, I use various grades of felt tipped pens to complete the drawing. Of course one must have knowledge of the subject so as to point out specific identification pointers.
What does your essential field kit include?
My basic field kit apart from my wellington or gumboots, comprises a 30µm plankton net as seen in this photo, a basting pipette for mud surface collection, several numbered, wide–mouth jars with screw on lids, and a notebook for the recording of date, location, temperature and any other variable details – all packing into a large knapsack type bag in case a bit of a hike is involved.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome while creating these books?
The biggest challenge one faces is reference material. It is essential to get not only the identification correct, but also the internal structure of these tiny organisms. Because taxonomy is constantly changing and developing, keeping up with name changes can be a challenge. While the internet can be invaluable, it is full of incorrect information and one must be very cautious when using it.
When I started out, I was constantly frustrated by not only the lack of availability of reference material on this subject but also the language. So many books were written by scientists for scientists, or were so simple that they were pretty well useless, that finally I decided to write a number of comparatively comprehensive but simple guides aimed at the amateur, student and enthusiast. These guides have proved quite popular and have currently been despatched to 50 countries around the world.
How have environmental changes as a result of climate change affected the distribution of and variation in microorganism species?
Environmental changes resulting from climate change affect the distribution and variation of microorganisms in very subtle ways. Whilst many species are incredibly robust, others are very delicate and can easily be affected by things like water temperature. Some protists need very specific environmental conditions in order to exist. Freshwater is a fluid (no pun intended) environment and every change has its ramifications. For example, droughts can obviously dry out ponds, streams and even small lakes as well as change the oxygen levels and pH of water bodies and this can result in a change in biodiversity. Likewise, floods will have the same effect with an increase in additional nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates from farmers’ paddocks causing algal blooms.
David Seamer has privately published his collection, two of which are available at www.nhbs.com/david-seamer
This stunning photographic book, written in collaboration with penguinologist Dr Tom Hart, offers a unique view of Antarctica from above and captures the wonders of this magical place, from vast icebergs to penguin colonies in their thousands. Each chapter includes an array of incredible captioned images, taken from both land and air, and describes the resident wildlife and conservation efforts in this remote area.
Michelle Sole grew up living between the rolling hills of England and the alpine wilds of Andorra. In 2011 she moved to South Africa, spending the following six years working as a Safari Guide and nurturing her passion for photography, before becoming a photography guide on expedition ships in Antarctica and the Arctic where she continues to challenge her photography in extreme conditions today. Michelle’s thrill for adventure, nature and the outdoors is evident throughout her photography and writing, and since her career began her work has been published worldwide in papers including Africa Geographic and The Daily Mail.
Michelle recently took the time out of her Antarctica expedition to Snow Hill Island to talk to us about the inspiration behind the book, the challenges she faced photographing such a challenging environment and more.
You began getting into photography when you moved to South Africa in 2011. What encouraged you to take the leap from the sunny African plains to Antarctica, and how does photography compare from one environment to another?
I worked as safari guide in South Africa and one of my guests just so
happened to be the president of a polar expedition company and he offered
me a job! The opportunity was too good to pass up and in 2017 I started
working as a photography guide in Antarctica and the Arctic regions.
The photography varies drastically between Africa and Antarctica. In Africa
you are often hiding from the sun and in Antarctica the elements are against
you. The light in Antarctica is a lot harsher than in Africa and photographing black and white penguins on bright white snow takes some practice.
What was it that inspired you to create this book and capture Antarctica from the sky rather than focusing solely on more conventional, land- based photography?
I was approached by Dr Tom Hart from Oxford University to collaborate and
make this book. Tom had over 40,000 drone images from penguin and seal
surveys. These are used to try and gather population trends across different
locations in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. I had a similar number of
images from the ground and a collection from helicopters. The aerial shots really add a different dimension and together with the images from the ground tell a grander and more unique story of the landscapes and wildlife of this remarkable place.
Did you face any significant challenges that you had to overcome while taking photographs in such a remote, harsh and often unpredictable environment?
Yes! The weather in Antarctica can be brutal. Some days you are battered by
the winds and you can’t feel your finger tips, or you could be in a snow storm with snow collecting on the top of your camera as you shoot. I always carry a towel in my bag to protect my gear. Salt water takes a major toll on photographic equipment and throughout the years I’ve tried to salvage numerous cameras, sadly they didn’t all survive. On top of that, I am often photographing from an unsteady platform – a zodiac (a type of rigid inflatable boat) that I am driving on the ocean.
Were you concerned over any possible impacts on the wildlife that you photographed even though you used drones to capture some images?
Special permission was given to the researchers from the Penguin Watch
team to fly drones for scientific purposes to conduct penguin and seal surveys. The drones were flown at a non disturbance height. This is evident in the aerial wildlife photographs by the behaviour of the animals – the seals continue to sleep and the penguins continue to walk on their highways without so much as looking at the drone.
I was really surprised to see such a wide variety of habitats and species in your photographs as I, like many, often think of Antarctica and the surrounding areas as enormous ice-shelves rather than steaming volcanoes and vibrant pumice rocks. Was there anything that took you by surprise while you were out taking photographs for this book?
At the time of putting together this book I had six years of experience in Antarctica, so I was familiar with many of the different landscapes. However, on my first trip to Antarctica, like many others visiting for the first time, I was taken aback by the variety of landscapes on the seventh continent. As a guide in this environment, this initial wonder and surprise is something that I see in other people experiencing this for the first time on nearly every trip.
Are you currently planning to undertake any other photography projects next year that we can hear a sneak-preview about?
As I write this I am currently onboard an expedition ship south bound to the most northerly Emperor Penguin colony in the world –Snow Hill Island,
Antarctica. I also work in the Arctic each summer and spend a significant
amount of time out in Africa. Although I have no current plans to produce
books on these areas, my photography portfolio continues to grow.
One of the perks of working for NHBS is spending a few days per year volunteering for any organisation that works for the benefit of the environment. This November, I chose to venture out to a special place that ticks that box with a passion.
Proper Job helps their community recycle and re-use a huge amount of items for the home.
Proper Job in Chagford, Devon, is a registered charity that aims to protect and preserve the environment by promoting waste reduction, re-use and recycling. Its roots wriggle all the way back to 1993 when a group of environmentally conscious allotment holders launched a community composting project. They had noticed how much reusable, recyclable and compostable material was being dumped in the rural skip and started collecting anything that could be reused or recycled. In 1995, this resulted in the founding of a community business that was committed to principles of sustainability and the creation of jobs.
Fast forward to 2023, Proper Job continues to develop its operations and mission on a sizeable site, just outside Chagford. Proper Job now runs a treasure trove of pre-loved items: household products, media, building materials, clothing, tools, furniture, electrics. And, of course, the compost heap is still well alive… literally. Proper Job is closely involved with the community. Not only through opening the “Uptown” shop in the heart of Chagford town, it also liaises with other local organisations. Throughout the year Proper Job hosts affordable or free workshops, talks and community events in a bid to educate the public about the need for reducing waste and how to achieve this.
Proper Job bookshop
Helping out for a day at the Proper Job Resource Centre gave me a great chance to talk to staff and volunteers. I learned about how the site operates and its interaction with the public. I heard how the times have their signs, such as the challenges and aftermath of Covid, and how nowadays the rising costs of living seem to be leading to a greater share of customers with relatively higher income.
Proper Job’s strategic aims include four key terms: waste reduction, education, conservation, and community. These ethical values are of course all interlinked and it is commendable how Proper Job puts its energy in all these aspects. I certainly felt that the people I worked with during my day at Proper Job hold these values at heart. Nearly three decades of ongoing graft and development of this project bear testimony to the dedication of volunteers, staff and the support by the community. It’s a hopeful awareness.
Proper Job helps to make Christmas less wasteful and more affordable.
As 2023 draws to a close, what could be more pleasant than a look back at some of the books that we have read, enjoyed and recommended to our friends, family and customers over the past twelve months.
January
At the very beginning of the year, Richard Lewington treated us to a beautiful new Pocket Guide to the Bumblebees of Great Britain and Ireland. Lewington’s illustrations never disappoint and this guide was a fantastic addition to our field guide bookshelves. We were also inspired by Britain’s Living Seas. Written in collaboration with The Wildlife Trusts, this user-friendly book provides a guide to the coasts around the British Isles, as well as ideas for the alternative and sustainable management of our seas.
February
February saw the publication of Darren Naish’s Ancient Sea Reptiles in which he introduces us to these strange, sometimes monstrous, marine beasts. Edited by cave scientist and conservation ecologist Dr J. Judson Wynne, Cave Biodiversity provided us with a fascinating look at both the evolution and the conservation of subterrestrial-dwelling fauna, while Planktonium, from Dutch photographer Jan van IJken, offered us a glimpse into the unseen world of microscopic plankton via his stunningly beautiful images.
March
March offered us some truly inspiring reads, including James T. Costa’s Radical by Nature which chronicles the life, adventures and achievements of Alfred Russell Wallace, including his role in the formation of the theory of natural selection. James Nardi guided us through the innermost unseen world that trees share with a range of creatures in The Hidden Company That Trees Keep and we discovered more about the wild spaces of Britain and Ireland in Patrick Barkham and Alastair Fothergill’s Wild Isles, which accompanies the popular BBC series.
April/May
In April we were treated to more marine photography with Lisa-ann Gershwin’s Shapeshifters, which is a visually breathtaking look at 100 species of jellyfish. May saw the publication of the practical and inspiring The Book of Wilding which offers rewilding advice on a range of scales. (Read our Q&A with Isabella here). In the wake of Covid-19, we also delved into Fatal Jump from Leslie Reperant, which looks at the origins of global pandemics.
June/July
June provided us with another wonderful marine title from physicist Helen Czerski. In Blue Machine she offers a timely and elegant explanation of the ocean engine and the extent to which it impacts life on our planet. It would be remiss of us to pass by July without mentioning the publication of All the Mammals of the World. This popular and sizeable volume, as the title suggests, covers all of the mammals of the world and has something to appeal to everyone, from wildlife enthusiasts to researchers and conservationists. Following on from her critically acclaimed The Genius of Birds, July also saw the arrival of Jennifer Ackerman’s What an Owl Knows which brings to life the natural history of these incredible birds. (You can read our Q&A with Jennifer here).
August
In August we delighted in Amy-Jane Beer’s The Flow, an immersive and moving memoir which went on to win the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing in September. We enjoyed Chris Manias’ The Age of Mammals which examines how 19th-Century palaeontology revolved largely around mammals rather than dinosaurs. We were also fans of Brian Johnson’s Honey Bee Biology which provides an incredibly comprehensive and up-to-date reference guide to these fascinating and essential pollinators.
September
The beginning of autumn brought with it the publication of Peter Eeles’ British & Irish Butterfly Rarities. Immensely popular among our Lepidopterist customers, this valuable book is the first to focus entirely on the species of butterfly regarded as extinct, rare migrant or introduced. Other highlights for us from September included Guillaume Pitron’s The Dark Cloud, a sobering investigation into the impacts of digital technology on the environment, and Michael Bright’s Masterpieces of the Earth, a dazzling photographic compendium of natural wonders around the world.
October
October provided us with a couple of titles of huge interest to ecologists, particularly those involved in bat surveys. The 4th edition of Bat Surveys for Professional Ecologists from the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) provided updated and new content, including important information on the use of night vision equipment. (An interview about the book with Jan Collins from the BCT can be found here). Further practical advice on night vision survey was also found in Kayleigh Fawcett Williams’ excellent Thermal Imaging for Wildlife Applications. (Read our Q&A with Kayleigh here). Other highlights from October included Ben Goldfarb’s Crossings, which investigates the kinds of ecological devastation that roads and highways are inflicting upon our planet, as well as the photographic delights of Michelle Sole and Tom Hart’s Antarctica.
November
In November we received the first copies of Seabirds Count which provides an incredibly important insight into the seabird populations across Britain and Ireland. We also loved Neil Middleton and Stuart Newson’s Sound Identification of Terrestrial Mammals of Britain & Ireland which provides comprehensive coverage of a topic previously unexplored within the literature. (Enjoy our Q&A with the authors here). Other notable mentions this month include Andrew Simms and Leo Murray’s Badvertising, which examines the role of marketing on both the health of humans and that of the planet, plus Vincent Munier: The Monograph, which compiles 35 years of his stunning photography and expresses his unwavering admiration of the wild world.
December
We finish our yearly round-up with two fantastic books from December: the incredible second edition of the Field Guide to the Micro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland which is instrumental in making these fascinating group of moths accessible to the general naturalist. (Read our conversation with authors Phil Sterling and Mark Parsons here). Also in its second edition was Ian Newton’s The Migration Ecology of Birds, which covers all aspects of this fascinating subject in a clear and readable style.
All that remains is to wish everyone a wonderful end to the year. We look forward to sharing plenty more great reads with you in 2024.
The Winter issue ofConservation Land Management (CLM), out soon, marks the end of volume 21. This issue covers a breadth of topics, including a discussion on the implications of rewilding on Britain’s native herpetofauna, the restoration of heathland on former conifer plantation sites, the native Black Poplar in Norfolk, the exciting potential of ecoacoustic monitoring for Hazel Dormouse surveys and the impressive Eddleston Water Project in Scotland. Read a more detailed summary of the articles featured in this issue below.
Eddleston Water is a tributary of the River Tweed, joining at the Scottish town of Peebles and draining a catchment of 69km². Over the last 200 years, land-use changes in the river valley have altered how the land drains and the river itself has been straightened to allow for the construction of a road and railway. As a result, the connection between the river and its floodplain has been severed, resulting in an increased risk of flooding downstream towards Peebles and changes to in-stream habitats important for wildlife such as Atlantic Salmon, Otter and lampreys. The Eddleston Water Project was set up in 2009 with the aim of reducing the flood risk to downstream communities and improving riparian habitats while maintaining local farm businesses. Interestingly, hydrological and ecological monitoring began two years before natural flood management (NFM) measures were first implemented, and so the Eddleston Water Project has provided, and continues to provide, empirical evidence for the effectiveness of NFM. Professor Chris Spray, the Tweed Forum’s Science Manager for the Eddleston Water Project, describes the NFM interventions that have been used, such as riparian tree planting, re-meandering the straightened channel, the creation of flood-storage ponds and the placement of high-flow restrictor log structures, and the benefits that these have provided across the Eddleston catchment.
The Eddleston water Project has involved a number of natural flood management measures, such as re-meandering straightened river channels. Colin McLean.
Ecoacoustic monitoring, the use of sound to determine a species’ presence or absence, has grown in popularity, but ecoacoustic studies have generally focused on ‘noisier’ animals, such as birds and bats. If this approach could offer a viable alternative to traditional monitoring methods for other species, it could provide a useful tool for ecologists and conservationists while also being less invasive for the animals themselves. A previous article in British Wildlife magazine demonstrated that the vocalisations of small terrestrial mammals (rodents and shrews) could be readily assigned to species with careful examination of recordings and spectrograms, suggesting that ecoacoustics could offer a new means of monitoring these animals. In this article, Jonathan Down, Stuart Newson and Alex Bush look specifically at the potential of acoustic methods in surveys of the Hazel Dormouse, a protected species that has experienced significant declines in the UK. The authors conducted a field test in south Cumbria in two areas where Hazel Dormice had recently been reintroduced in order to investigate how effective two different types of acoustic recorders, AudioMoth (a low-cost option) and the Song Meter Mini Bat Detector, were in detecting the presence of dormice. Here they describe their findings and highlight both the limitations and promise of ecoacoustics for dormouse surveys.
The native Black Poplar is the rarest hardwood tree in Britain – approximately only 7,000 trees remain in Britain. Unfortunately, the population is also heavily male-biased; in the Victorian era many female trees were felled due to the fluffy white seeds that they produce, which were considered unsightly. This and the isolated nature of the remaining trees means that sexual reproduction is essentially non-existent in the wild and many individuals are genetic clones of a small number of trees. Due to their rarity, native Black Poplars have been well recorded in most parts of the country, but in Norfolk records have not been updated since a 2007 census survey. To address this, the Otter Trust launched the Norfolk Black Poplar Project to formulate an accurate and up-to-date picture of the status of the Black Poplar in the county The locations of individual trees recorded in previous surveys were updated and mapped, and cuttings were taken from each tree for genetic testing and propagation. Genetic analysis has allowed each tree’s clonal type and sex to be identified, and here Ben Grief outlines the results from this work and discusses the potential to expand the Black Poplar population in Norfolk.
The Sandlings Heaths in Suffolk, once a vast unbroken landscape, have undergone significant landscape-scale changes in the last century. The planting of coniferous plantations played a part in this, but in 2006 the RSPB entered an agreement with the Forestry Commission to manage areas of clearfell in Dunwich Forest with the aim of restoring heathland and acid grassland habitats of high conservation value (compared to the scrub and trees likely to develop in the absence of management). Here, the authors focus on three cleared areas, describing the management that has been carried out since 2008 to restore the sites to high-quality heathland and what extensive vegetation monitoring has shown regarding the habitats that have since developed.
In Viewpoint, the final article in this issue, John Baker and Jim Foster from the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust discuss the implications of rewilding for Britain’s reptiles and amphibians. The authors broadly refer to rewilding as an approach that aims to restore natural processes with minimal or no intervention, generally applied over larger spatial scales, and highlight why, particularly for our specialist and rare species, rewilding in this sense may not always be the most suitable approach.
Natterjack Toad. Jim Foster/ARC.Continued reserve management is needed to maintain specific conditions for our rare herpetofauna. Jim Foster/ARC.
In this and every issue you can expect to see Briefing, keeping you up to date with the latest training courses, events and publications, and On the ground, which provides helpful tips and updates on products relevant to land management. Other features, such as Review, which can include letters from readers or updates from our authors, also regularly appear in CLM.
CLM is published four times a year, in March, June, September and December, and is available by subscription only. Subscriptions start from £22 per year. If you would like to read any of these articles, contact info@britishwildlife.com to pre-order a copy and receive the Winter 2023 issue when it is published, in mid-December.
Beavers will return to the Cairngorms after 400 years in a bid to boost biodiversity. The new population will be established by the Cairngorms National Park authority after being approved by NatureScot, Scotland’s nature agency. Up to 15 families of beavers will be released at sites along the upper River Spey. This catchment is an ideal location for beaver translocation and poses a low risk of beaver/human conflict, according to NatureScot.
The fight to save Red Squirrel populations continues to rage across the North of England. Retired police constable and firearms instructor, Ian Glendinning, monitors2,000 acres of farmland in Northumberland and employs a range of techniques to keep the Grey Squirrels in check. Monitoring Northumberland’s Coquetdale, he has employed CCTV and traps that alert him via text and email when a squirrel is detected. Using this monitoring system, Glendinning has removed around 300 GreySquirrels which has had a noticeable impact on the Red Squirrel population, allowing their population to increase from a dozen to more than 100 over the past four years.
Policy and diplomacy
Countries are set to commit to a major phasing down of fossil fuels over the coming decades, COP28 hosts expect. The United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the UN climate change conference in Dubai, has expressed “cautious optimism” regarding the commitment. Until COP26 in Glasglow in 2021, fossil fuels were rarely mentioned in these global gatherings. Even there, the only commitment was to phase down coal. While the pledge will not mean stopping the use of fossil fuels completely, it could signal a shift towards real progress on tackling climate change.
Carbon pricing could raise the money needed to tackle the climate crisis, the IMF has told COP28. The cash could be generated by putting a price on carbon emission and redirecting the trillions of dollars currently used to subsidise fossil fuels. Traditional carbon taxes have proven to be unpopular in a number of countries but Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, has said that it would be possible to achieve similar outcomes by using a combination of regulation and reducing carbon subsidies.Studies have shown that developing countries will need more than $2 trillion a year to cut emissions and the IMF has calculated that direct and indirect subsidies for fossil fuels are in excess of more than $7 trillion.
Climate Crisis
Olive oil prices are surging due to droughts in Spain. Spain is the world’s biggest producer of olive oil, accounting for 70% of European Union consumption and 45% of global consumption. The standard assumption that one bad year for olive production would be followed by a good one isshiftingin the face of rising temperatures due to climate change. Spain has seen multiple years of drought in a short time frame, and together with higher fuel, electricity and fertiliser costs, Spanish olive oil production has suffered as a result. The price of olive oil has skyrocketed in Spain with prices in the UK and Ireland set to experience a similar surge once costs feed through to the supply chain.
Methane could be released from the Deep Ocean due to climate change, scientists have warned. Scientists at Newcastle University have shown that frozen methane trapped under the ocean is vulnerable to melting and is consequently released into the oceans and the atmosphere. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and the published report in the journal Nature Geoscience warns that vast amounts of methane stored as marine methane under the ocean could be released into the atmosphere, with the potential for accelerating rises in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.
Extinction
Plans to ‘de-extinct’ the dodo have been announced by geneticists. The audacious plan was announced by the US-based biotechnology company Colossal Biosciences which is researching methods to bring extinct species back from the dead. The company has entered a partnership with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) to find a suitable location for the reintroduction of the species. MWF approached Colossal Biosciences earlier this year about a partnership and has begun searching for the location that would pose the least threat to the survival of the dodo on the island. Colossal believes that the ‘de-extinction’ of the dodo would create ‘conservation optimism’; however, scientists have urged caution given how little is known about how the bird would interact with its environment. The full genome of the dodo has already been sequenced by Colossal. It hopes that it could then hybridise the dodo with closely related species like the extant Nicobar Pigeon, the bird’s closest living relative.
Forests of Mauritius, the proposed habitat for dodos to live. By Evgenii via Flickr.
Science and research
Birds are being lured to their deaths by artificial lights in cities, according to researchers. Using weather radar data to map bird stopover density in the United States, scientists found that artificial light is a major indicator of where birds land. Light from cities lures birds into a trap where there is less suitable habitat, less food and an increased chance of collisions with buildings. Researchers suggest that more public awareness of bird migration habits and the impact of light pollution could help to alleviate the pressure on migratory bird populations. Forecasts can pinpoint the nights which are most important for reducing light pollution.
Read the last edition of Biodiversity News covering stories about nuclear fusion technology and the pollution of England’s freshwater ecosystems.
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Kite Ursus Binoculars
GPO PASSION 10×32 ED Binoculars
In 1993, 
My basic field kit apart from my wellington or gumboots, comprises a 30µm plankton net as seen in this photo, a basting pipette for mud surface collection, several numbered, wide
This stunning photographic book, written in collaboration with penguinologist Dr Tom Hart, offers a unique view of Antarctica from above and captures the wonders of this magical place, from vast icebergs to penguin colonies in their thousands. Each chapter includes an array of incredible captioned images, taken from both land and air, and describes the resident wildlife and conservation efforts in this remote area.
Proper Job in Chagford, Devon, is a registered charity that aims to protect and preserve the environment by promoting waste reduction, re-use and recycling. Its roots wriggle all the way back to 1993 when a group of environmentally conscious allotment holders launched a community composting project. They had noticed how much reusable, recyclable and compostable material was being dumped in the rural skip and started collecting anything that could be reused or recycled. In 1995, this resulted in the founding of a community business that was committed to principles of sustainability and the creation of jobs.
