BCT Big Bat Skills Workshop 2021

On Friday 12th February the Bat Conservation Trust held their Big Bat Skills Event, which was run online via Zoom and breakout sessions. We were lucky enough to attend several sessions including the Introduction to Kaleidoscope for Bat Analysis run by Wildlife Acoustics – where we learned more about the many uses of Kaleidoscope software, Titley Scientific’s session on their product range and Anabat Insight software, Thermal Imaging by Dr Kayleigh Fawcett Williams and Emergency Bat Care for Ecologists by Maggie Brown. We cover a couple of these in a little more detail below.

We joined the session on thermal imaging run by Dr Kayleigh Fawcett Williams to learn more about how this equipment is being used in ecological consultancy. Most participants were new to thermal imagery, so Dr Fawcett Williams walked us through the basics. She explained that thermal imaging works by picking up thermoelectrics from the environment – infrared radiation, meaning that it is not at all invasive to the animals as the scopes emit no light (as opposed to night vision cameras that use infrared to light up the subjects).

Dr Fawcett Williams went through the benefits and applications of thermal imaging, and provided this helpful link to a copy of her Thermal Imaging: Bat Survey Guidelines published in association with the BCT.

The benefits of this survey method were explained, including: ability to use at all times of day and for long durations and cost effectiveness due to lack of man power needed. Thermal imaging can reduce the risk of false positives when it comes to identification of species and also provide a wider picture of landscape or infrastructure use by illustrating patterns of activity. She also highlighted that it is good for multidisciplinary work (e.g. for firms that work with engineers) as it has a range of applications that are not just ecology based.

Dr Fawcett Williams explained the difference between using thermal imaging as a survey ‘aid’ – assisting normal survey work, with live results, usually with lower end equipment; and using it for the entire survey ‘method’ – where higher accuracy is needed and results are analysed at a later date. When surveying for bats, Dr Fawcett Williams recommended using static detectors alongside thermal imaging but noted that the thermal imaging devices have a much longer detection range than static detectors and will pick up more than the static detectors. It is also vital that the time stamps of both devices are lined up so that they are able to be used in unison.

She also made sure to comment that thermal imaging devices cannot see through solid objects but pick up heat patterns which can often be things other than your target species (such as moisture). Thermal imaging is designed to be used for active animals and is therefore not recommended as a replacement for surveys such as internal roost surveys, especially as thermal imaging devices cannot pick up torpid bats.

It was then time to move onto the next session: Emergency Bat Care for Ecologists by Maggie Brown. This session focused on what to do if you came across an injured bat during an ecological survey.

She explained that bats are protected by law and that while only licensed individuals should be in contact with bats, first aid is considered emergency care and so this can be administered without a license. That being said, you will need to be able to justify any contact you have had with a bat so she strongly suggested that you keep records of the encounter.

Reasons that you would have to perform emergency care for bats were covered, such as when the individual is:

  • Exhausted or disoriented
  • Trapped and prevented from returning home
  • Too badly injured to fly and return home
  • Disturbed or have lost their roost
  • A flightless baby and has little or no fur; undeveloped wings but oversized thumbs and toes
Helpful equipment in an emergency bat care kit

She covered how to know when a bat needs food, how to feed them and how to recognise and deal with dehydration. Great emphasis was placed on the fact that you should always wear gloves for any contact with bats due to the potential risk of them having a strain of rabies (EBLV), and that for this reason some vets may refuse to treat them. It is very important to recognise how much care you would be able to provide yourself and when it is best to pass the care onto a long term bat carer or enlist the help of a vet.

If you think that you may end up in a situation where you need to administer emergency bat first aid, I would highly recommend attending one of Maggie Brown’s very informative sessions and, when possible, formal training.

The BCT website is also a useful resource, offering advice on emergency bat care and providing information about the opportunities available for those looking to volunteer.

Overall, the day was very interesting and educational, and it was nice to see such a range of skill sets attending the workshop as well as the enthusiasm shared by all.

You can stay up to date with upcoming BCT events by signing up to the BCT mailing list.

Bloomsbury Wildlife: Publisher of the Month for March 2021

Bloomsbury Wildlife is home to many of our most knowledgeable, eloquent and passionate nature writers. Naturalists, ecologists and academics alike are sure to find something engaging among their extensive range of natural history titles. Alongside the excellent and rapidly growing  British Wildlife Collection and the beautifully illustrated and meticulously researched Wildlife Guides, they also offer fantastic nature writing and practical advice on how to make a garden more wildlife friendly.

NHBS are delighted to present Bloomsbury Wildlife as our Publisher of the Month for March.

We have special offers across a large selection of their most popular titles, so now is the perfect time to browse their books.

Heathland
By: Clive Chatters
Hardback | March 2021 | £29.99 £34.99
This brand new addition to the British Wildlife Collection celebrates the vulnerable heathland landscape of the British Isles.
Read our author interview here.
Volume 10 in the collection, Butterflies, is due in April

 

Field Guide to the Caterpillars of Great Britain and Ireland
By: Barry Henwood, Phil Sterling, Richard Lewington
Paperback | March 2020 | £29.99 £34.99
This beautifully illustrated addition to the Bloomsbury Wildlife Guides covers caterpillars of the moth and butterfly species most likely to be encountered in the British Isles.

 

The Brilliant Abyss
By: Helen Scales
Hardback | Due March 2021 | £13.99 £16.99
Tells the story of our relationship with the deep sea – how we explore and exploit it. Helen considers humanity’s advancing impacts on the deep, including mining and pollution, and what we can do about them.

 

The Pocket Book of Bird Anatomy
By: Marianne Taylor
Flexibound | May 2020 | £12.99 £15.99
This excellent RSPB guide to bird anatomy looks at the avian body, system by system, and studes how it evolved and how it functions.

 

The Missing Lynx
By: Ross Barnett
Paperback | July 2020 | £8.99 £10.99
Palaeontologist John Russ explores the animals that disappeared from Britain after the last Ice Age, and the potential for reintroduction.

 

Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland
By: Steven Falk and Richard Lewington (Illustrator)
Paperback | Feb 2015 | £29.99 £34.99
A beautifully illustrated and comprehensive introduction to bee classification, ecology, field techniques and recording. Includes a full glossary and information on how to separate the sexes and distinguish bees from other insects.

Bats of Britain and Europe
By: Christian Dietz and Andreas Kiefer
Paperback | Sept 2018 | £23.99 £29.99
This concise and definitive guide presents all 45 bat species that regularly occur in Europe (of which 17 are known to breed in the British Isles)

 

The Butterflies of Britain & Ireland
By: Jeremy A Thomas and Richard Lewington
Paperback | June 2014 | £19.99 £24.99
Provides comprehensive coverage of all our resident and migratory butterflies, including information on recently discovered species.  This definitive book on the subject includes detailed distribution maps.

Field Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and Europe
By: Klaas-Douwe B Dijkstra, Asmus Schröter and Richard Lewington
Paperback | Oct 2020 | £19.99 £24.99
Hardback | Oct 2020 | £33.99 £39.99
Fully revised, the second edition of this guide features updated taxonomic and distribution information, as well as five new species discovered since the first edition in 2006.

British Moths: A Photographic Guide to the Moths of Britain and Ireland
By: Chris Manley
Hardback | Due June 2021 | £37.99 £44.99
The most comprehensive collection of photographs of British moths ever published. This third edition has been significantly expanded so that it includes all species on the British list.

Browse all Bloomsbury Wildlife books at NHBS

All prices are correct at the time of this article’s publication.

Wilding for Conservation: new series in British Wildlife

In a short space of time rewilding has grown to become a powerful force in conservation. The idea of giving nature the freedom and space to forge its own path is not just inspiring, but also raises deeper questions about our relationship with the natural world and how we best serve wildlife and ecosystems through a period of enormous challenge for conservation. To explore these and other aspects relating to rewilding, British Wildlife is launching a new series: Wilding for Conservation. The series started with two articles in the February issue, along with an editorial in which Series Editor Rob Fuller and BW Editor Guy Freeman explain how they hope to contribute to the discussion on rewilding and its role in conservation in Britain. An abridged and edited version of the editorial is included below.

The February issue of British Wildlife

Letting nature take back control

Deceptively simple in essence, rewilding resonates with something latent in many of us – a longing for a wilder world. It has captured the imaginations not only of conservationists, but also of landowners, policy-makers and, especially heartening, many young people too. Enthusiasm abounds for the idea that natural processes can be harnessed as solutions to some of our biggest environmental challenges, including climate change and biodiversity loss. Rewilding has rapidly become a central element in this ‘new’ thinking, with many believing that it offers a fresh start for what they see as an ineffective conservation movement presiding over catastrophic declines in nature. But what exactly is rewilding, and what is it not?

Rewilding emerged in the 1990s as a predominantly North American movement, but became strongly embedded in British conservation consciousness somewhat later, partly aided by the publicity surrounding several pioneering projects, such as Oostvaardersplassen, Ennerdale and Knepp. The publication of Feral by George Monbiot in 2013 undoubtedly also helped to fuel interest. In a remarkably short period of time, rewilding has spawned several conferences, bewildering numbers of papers and articles, several influential books and new organisations, notably Rewilding Europe and Rewilding Britain, founded in 2011 and 2015, respectively.

Interpretations of exactly what rewilding means have proliferated and often ranged far from the original concept. Most advocates, however, would seem to argue that it embraces natural processes without defined outcomes, and ideally operates over large tracts of land. In Britain at least, the enthusiasm for rewilding has met with some scepticism, even among conservationists, which may reflect disquiet about the absence of targets, a perceived threat to what has been achieved in the past, or simply confusion over what all the noise is about. One can legitimately ask whether the ideas are actually new or novel. Approaches guided by natural processes were being promoted long before rewilding became mainstream, while the merits of non-intervention versus habitat management have been discussed for decades in British conservation circles. What distinguishes the rewilding ideas that emerged in North America, however, is their focus on wild land on a grand scale, allowing the unhindered movement of animals, including large predators and their prey.

Discussions of rewilding in more heavily modified European landscapes quickly become entwined with questions of what can be classed as ‘natural’, the extent to which we should attempt to re-create historic environments, and the desirability and ethics of using species introductions to try to replicate processes that existed in the past as opposed to allowing ecosystems to develop a new kind of naturalness. Working to create wilder places for both people and nature is an admirable direction for conservation in Britain, but, given the constraints and small scale of many initiatives, ‘wilding’ perhaps captures their essence better than rewilding could.

Existing conservation approaches have not been able to prevent widespread declines in biodiversity over recent decades, although without them things could have been far worse. Some argue that rewilding (or wilding) is a way to set nature on a better course in our islands, but how can we be sure of this? There are severe limitations on land availability for conservation, especially in the lowlands, and the benefits from rewilding may not become apparent for many years. Are we approaching a point at which we need to rethink what kind of nature and wildlife we want?

British Wildlife has effectively been contributing to the ‘wilding debate’ through articles going back to a time when the ‘R word’ was unheard of on this side of the Atlantic. Notable early contributions include two from 1995, one vigorously challenging priorities in British conservation and arguing that greater attention be paid to more natural vegetation, and a second far-sighted article which echoes this from a different perspective and reads like a blueprint for much contemporary wilding. A special issue in 2009 was something of a milestone, containing a set of articles on naturalistic grazing and rewilding, stimulated by Frans Vera’s ideas about how large herbivores shaped pre-Neolithic landscapes. Topics tackled more recently include the nature of past landscapes, the definition of naturalness itself, reintroductions, natural regeneration of woodland and wilding in farmland landscapes.

Over the coming months, British Wildlife will be exploring the many facets of rewilding as they relate to conservation in Britain through a new series, ‘Wilding for Conservation’, a title which, we hope, captures the wide range of approaches to letting nature take back control. We start things off in the February issue with two pieces, one expounding a pure approach to rewilding , the other looking at relationships between traditional conservation management and rewilding . The series will examine some of the questions about rewilding raised in this editorial and bring ideas contained within the expanding scientific and cultural literature to a wider audience, while providing examples of what is happening on the ground in the UK and elsewhere. We hope that readers find the series to be thought-provoking and inspiring.

Articles in the Wilding for Conservation series will appear intermittently through 2021 and beyond. Individual copies of the February issue of British Wildlife are available to buy through the NHBS website, while annual subscriptions start from just £35 – sign up online here.

NHBS In the Field – Bushnell Prime Trail Camera

Bushnell is a renowned brand amongst trail cameras having been used and trusted by specialists and naturalists for decades. The Bushnell Prime is a new camera at the lower price end of the Bushnell range, however boasts good specifications and is great value for money.

How we tested

We placed the camera attached to a wooden post that was facing a known deer track on some scrubby land facing into hedgerows, using the included buckle strap. If you were worried about security, a cable lock such as a Python Mini Lock is compatible and can be threaded through the specific lock hole.

For the first set up we tested the Bushnell Prime trail camera by taking photographs with the following settings:

Mode: Camera
Interval: 5s
Additional set: on
Image Size: 24Mp
Capture Number: 1 photo
Video Size: 1280×720 at 30fps
Video Lengths: 10s
Sensor level: Normal
Field Scan: Off
Flash Mode: Auto
Video Sound: On
Time Stamp: On
Camera Mode: 24hrs

Upon checking the camera footage we realised we had angled the camera too high given the sloping ground. However, we were still surprised at the lack of photographs despite the poor angle. We decided to increase the sensitivity of the sensor from Normal to High and placed the camera lower down on the post (the Prime user manual recommends placing the camera at a height of 1-1.5m but take into consideration your surroundings and target species).

We also decided to put some cut up apples out in front of the camera, that way we would know if there had been any animals feeding that had been missed by the trigger. This new position proved successful so we kept the camera in that position for subsequent tests. For each test session the camera was left for at least 2 days and nights.

After successfully capturing some photos, we changed the settings to record video (Mode: Video) with the above settings but keeping the sensor on High.

What we found

The weather was not good when the camera was set to take photos, and when raining and foggy the photos did look a little hazy as seen in the below images but are still certainly clear enough to identify fauna. It is worth noting that where the camera was situated does often get engulfed in clouds.

However, when there was no cloud bank, even on a dull day the photos were bright and crisp as you can see in the below photos. We were particularly impressed by the close focus as many trail cameras are not designed with close focus in mind and the Bushnell Prime trail camera’s manual recommends that your target monitoring area be no closer than 3m to the camera. Although the bait was put further than 3m away, the animals certainly ventured closer to the camera.

That being said, my preferred photos from the Bushnell Prime trail camera come from dusk and dawn, when the camera is still using the IR flash but there is some natural light illuminating the subject, as seen below.

For our video testing we had slightly better weather though it was still not bright. We again found that the dawn lighting gave the best footage. We were impressed with the quick trigger speed for footage of a rabbit running across the field of view, not having made it halfway before the video started recording. It was clear from the video footage that the deer did notice the glow from the IR flash on the camera but this did not seem to stop them (or any other animals) from frequenting the area. The audio captured was also good, and bird song was picked up in many videos even with howling wind at times. You can see a few of the many video clips we caught in the compilation below.

For all the footage captured, we were pleased that we did not have any false triggers despite having the camera on the highest sensitivity level, meaning we did not have to trawl through lots of empty scenery photos but we did get lots of positive captures. During our testing sessions the majority of the fauna seen were large deer that you would expect the trigger to pick up but rabbits, foxes and birds were also captured low in the grass showing that the smaller fauna would also trigger the camera sensor.

Our opinion

The manual is well laid out and easy to follow, explaining each of the setting options. However, this camera is designed to show 3 basic menu settings (Set Clock/Mode/Interval) so that if you do not want to change any of the more complex settings they are not visible to confuse you. If you would like to fine tune the settings further (as we did) you simply choose to put on the “Additional Set” options which makes the full range of settings visible. This is a great feature for those who don’t need or want to get too technical. You can even simply change the mode (camera or video) by pressing the up arrow without even having to enter into the main menu.

The menu on the camera is easy to work through. It is noteworthy that the manual does mention not to switch between On and Aim (set up mode) modes on the power switch but to always go from On straight to Off (bypassing Aim) as going from On to Aim can cause the camera to freeze. If this does occur it is easily remedied by turning the camera Off then back to Aim mode.

We did miss not having an aiming screen when setting up the camera. However, as we were just using the camera for casual viewing it did not cause any significant issues, especially as the trail camera has an aim and motion test where a red light will flash to let you know that the sensor is being triggered (note this red light does not light up when the camera is in On mode) so we felt confident that we would catch any passing animals even if we could not see what the image area would be.

The bracket on the rear of the camera means that, when strapped to a tree or post, it grips the surface well, making it more stable. It also has a ¼-20 tripod mounting connection.

The bottom loading battery tray makes replacing the batteries in the field easier than old Bushnell models. It has a click mechanism that stops the tray falling out when ejected. This is a great feature to prevent dropping batteries but can be a little stiff to release the battery tray completely.

A potential downside is the lack of a hybrid mode meaning the Bushnell Prime trail camera can take either video or still images, but not both at the same time. However, for naturalists this shouldn’t pose much of a problem. The Bushnell Prime trail camera has other useful settings such as two programmable fieldscans (time lapse) modes.

In general we found that the video captures seemed of better quality than the images, though both were good quality, especially taking in consideration the price point. We started the testing with 6 new lithium batteries and after 2 weeks of constant use in the field, and during cold weather, there was no sign of significant battery depletion.

The Bushnell Prime trail camera provides a great starter trail camera for naturalist or general fieldwork, covering all the basics (and more if wanted), with the price point (currently under £140) lending well to having multiple cameras deployed at once.

The Bushnell Prime is available on the NHBS website and is also available as a starter bundle which includes 8 x Lithium AA batteries and a 32GB SD card.
To view the full range of Bushnell cameras, along with other ranges of trail cameras, visit www.nhbs.com. If you have any questions on camera trapping or would like some advice on the best camera for you then please contact us via email at customer.services@nhbs.com or phone on 01803 865913.

Author Interview: Clive Chatters, Heathland

Heathlands are so much more than simply purple carpets of heather. They are ancient landscapes found throughout Britain that support a complex network of inter-related species and an immense diversity of habitats. They also possess a unique human history defined by the struggle between pastoralism and the competing demands of those who seek exclusive use of the land.

 

Photo by Catherine Chatters

In this latest addition to the British Wildlife Collection, Clive Chatters introduces us to Britain’s heathlands and has kindly taken some time to answer some questions concerning this important habitat.

 

 

Heathland might mean different things to different people; how did you go about defining ‘heathland’?

Heathlands defy ready definition. The diverse places that we call heaths are cultural landscapes which are overlain with the language of ecology. It is unnecessary to reconcile these different perspectives as both traditions offer a path to understanding what makes our heathlands special.

Heathlands are one of a handful of British landscapes that have been recognised by English- speaking people for as long as we have had a written history. Sadly, many of the places that early ecologists were describing had already been depleted of much of their diversity and wonder.

This book seeks to challenge those narrow definitions and to promote an understanding of heathland that would be familiar to our forebears, as well as respecting the experience of modern people whose livelihoods are bound up with the heath.

Literature and historical accounts have addressed heaths: these landscapes can also be found in literary works, in poems and romanticised histories. When did their ecological value start to be recognised?

There is a remarkable body of literature surviving from medieval England, with many references to heathlands. Narrative poems that pre-date the Norman conquest give us an indication of how heaths were viewed by Anglo-Scandinavian story-tellers.

Heathlands at the end of the Tudor period were places where people could gather on the margins of settled society and by the seventeenth century there are the beginnings of natural histories that go beyond the enumeration of commonable livestock or illusory wild beasts. The antiquarian John Aubrey gives an account of a lichen heath in his Natural History of Wiltshire. Herbalist, Thomas Johnson published two accounts of the flora of Hampstead Heath, which include over 120 flowering plants. By tabulating a sample of these records, and ordering them by habitat association, we can gain an insight into the character of a Southern Heath in the early seventeenth century.

Throughout history there has been people who have valued heaths as a source of their livelihood. It was not until the early twentieth century that ecologists started to describe heaths and then it took many more decades before their importance to nature conservation has been expressed by conservationists. In the meantime, we have lost so much of the diversity and wonder in British heaths. What my book sets out to do is explore those riches and consider what has sustained them, where they persist.

What are your primary hopes and fears for the long-term future of Britain’s Heathland?

It is not inevitable that the catastrophic losses of the recent past are the destiny of our remaining heaths. Whilst there are still significant challenges to overcome, we know enough about these habitats to secure their place in the countryside of the future, as an integral part of British culture and home to a wealth of species that occupy ecosystems of immense richness.

If we are to rejuvenate heathland as a commonplace element in the British countryside, then we need to be comfortable with knowing what successful rehabilitation looks like. The wildlife of our richest heaths is the fortuitous by-product of millennia of pastoral farming. Over the span of human history, it has been pastoralism that has provided continuity for ecological processes pre-dating agriculture and reaching back into evolutionary time.

If we are to have working heathland landscapes, with all the advantages they bring, then the pastoralists will need to be properly funded and rewarded.

A successful heathland needs to have scale. Heathlands are landscapes that can be remarkably robust in delivering the multiple objectives that we ask of them, but they must be measured in multiples of square kilometres rather than in tens of hectares. We need not be shy about seeking to create a new generation of heaths that are large enough to serve the needs of nature alongside the ambitions of the modern age.

Heathlands are so much more than ‘just’ heathers: could you summarise their importance for a diverse range of fauna and flora?

Heathlands are a great deal more than just carpets of heathers. A heathland landscape can embrace habitats as diverse as rocks and lakes and bogs, even temporary stands of arable and wartime concrete. The component habitats of a large functioning heathland are naturally dynamic, with species dependant on all sorts of habitat formations, from bare ground to the decaying of cowpats. The great antiquity of heathland ecosystems is reflected in the network of interdependent species, many of which are associated with large herbivores, fire and occasional gross disturbance of the soil. Whilst charismatic birds and reptiles have traditionally claimed the limelight, the biological wealth of the heath is better expressed through its invertebrates, lichen and wildflowers.

Until recently, the State implemented conservation initiatives; this is no longer the case and the withdrawal of central government from practical conservation management has placed greater demands on the work of local government. Has this had a significant impact for heathland?

Heathlands are not capable of sustaining ever-intensifying levels of recreational use, no matter how benignly intended. There are numerous examples of habitats that have been degraded and species that have been lost through the complex interactions of wildlife and informal recreation. Our affection for heathlands is no safeguard against them being loved to death.

Dogs, for example, are ecological proxies to natural predators but are present at much higher densities than would occur in the wild. And large heathland ponds are frequently developed for recreation with dire consequence for wildlife.

It is reasonable for people to expect a choice as to where they can go in the countryside; regrettably, in some heathland regions, the heaths are not used for recreation as a matter of choice but because they are the only greenspaces that are available.

This is your second book in the excellent British Wildlife Collection series; the other being Saltmarsh. After all the work researching and writing that and now Heathland what is next for you? Are there plans for further books, or maybe a well-earned rest?

There are germs of ideas for future writing which I hope will take shape in the next few years. Books are daunting ventures; ‘Heathland’ summarises forty years of study and took three years to write, maybe next time I’ll look at something a little simpler.

Heathland
By: Clive Chatters
Hardback | March 2021 | £27.99 £34.99

In this latest addition to the British Wildlife Collection, Clive Chatters introduces us to Britain’s heathlands and their anatomy.

Most of our heaths are pale shadows of their former selves. However, Chatters argues, it is not inevitable that the catastrophic losses of the recent past are the destiny of our remaining heaths. Should we wish, their place in the countryside as an integral part of British culture can be secured.

All prices correct at the time of this article’s publication.

 

 

The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2021

The 29th-31st January marked the 42nd Big Garden Birdwatch. This citizen science survey asks members of the public across the UK to count the numbers and species of birds that land in their gardens in a one hour period. In 2020 almost half a million people took part and 7.8 million birds were counted.

This year, the RSPB launched the Big Garden Birdwatch Live to run alongside the counts. A full weekend of live events including interviews and Q&As with Nick Baker, Chris Packham and a host of RSPB staff members. Bird feeders from nature reserves around the country were live streamed throughout.

At NHBS more of us than ever decided to take part and record the species that visited our gardens. Some of us were luckier than others; with weather warnings across Devon it was a wet and windy weekend. Despite the conditions we were treated to some wonderful sightings and as a group spotted 23 different species.

Overall a much higher number of pigeons and corvids visited our gardens than in previous years, as it seemed these larger birds were the least phased by the rain. Long-tailed tits and blue tits were the most highly spotted passerines.

See our results below:

Nigel

Nigel’s three children assisted with his survey and helped identify a great range of species.

Image by Nigel Jones

3 Blue tits
3 Tree sparrows
2 Carrion crows
2 Blackbirds
2 Dunnocks
2 Long-tailed tits
1 Coal tit
1 Great tit
1 Robin
1 Wren
1 Magpie
1 Woodpigeon

 

Catherine

Blackbird by Catherine Mitson

Catherine had a quieter hour, but still counted 3 species, all of which were in last year’s top 10!

1 Blackbird
1 Great tit
1 Woodpigeon

 

Angeline

Angeline’s dog Freya must have brought her some good luck! She was treated to 12 species including a nuthatch and firecrest, two fantastic sightings.

Image by Angeline Rietveld

4 Long-tailed tits
3 House sparrows
2 Magpies
2 Great tits
1 Firecrest
1 Robin
1 Blue tit
1 Nuthatch
1 Carrion Crow
1 Blackbird
1 Dunnock
1 Chaffinch

 

Rachel

Magpie by Rachel Ud-din

Rachel had the highest number of house sparrows – the species that took last year’s national top spot

8 House sparrows
2 Feral pigeons
1 Common gull
1 Magpie

 

Phoebe

Phoebe’s family had the highest quantity of birds visit their garden, an impressive 26 individuals. Her sister Amabel even managed to take this beautiful photo of a Great spotted woodpecker.

Woodpecker by Amabel Jeffries

2 Blackbirds
8 Long-tailed tits
5 Blue tits
2 Chaffinches
2 Coal tits
2 Nuthatches
2 Great tits
1 Woodpigeon
1 Dunnock
1 Great spotted woodpecker

 

Oli

Pigeons by Oliver Haines

Oli’s garden seems to reliably attract corvids and pigeons, as he counted very similar numbers to his 2020 survey.

3 Woodpigeons
2 Carrion crows
2 Jackdaws
1 Robin

 

Antonia

Antonia was treated to a large flock of jackdaws. She also saw a grey wagtail – a species more fond of riverside habitats, although they do tend to venture further during the winter.

Robin by Catherine Mitson

10 Jackdaws
2 Blue tits
2 Magpies
1 Robin
1 Goldcrest
1 Grey Wagtail
1 Blackbird

 

Gemma

Jackdaw by Oliver Haines

Living in the centre of town led to my own list being dominated by relatively urban species.

11 Feral pigeons
5 Herring gulls
2 Carrion crows
2 Jackdaws

 

Across our 8 gardens we counted a total of 117 birds across 23 different species.

Have you taken part in the Big Garden Birdwatch? Don’t forget to submit your results by the 19th of February here.

The CIEEM Awards 2020

CIEEM (the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management) is the leading professional membership body in the UK, representing and also supporting ecologists and environmental managers. Here at NHBS, our core purpose is to support those who strive to understand, protect, and conserve the natural environment. And so, we are thrilled to partner with CIEEM and to support the 2020 CIEEM Awards.

The CIEEM Awards is a wonderful celebration of those working tirelessly within the environmental sector, and this is a fantastic opportunity for the individuals, projects, businesses and organisations making significant contributions to the natural world to be rightfully recognised for their efforts.

Image by CIEEM

As a supplier and manufacturer of wildlife, ecology and conservation equipment and books, we are proud to be sponsoring two categories: Small-Scale Nature Conservation and Large-Scale Nature Conservation. We recognise the value of both small-scale initiatives as well as regional and national projects for studying and improving all aspects of the natural world. Other categories include Project Mitigation (Large-Scale and Small-Scale), Stakeholder Engagement, Member of the Year, NGO Impact, and many more. You can find out more about each Award here.

“We are delighted to have NHBS sponsoring our ‘Best practice’ award for our 2020 awards event. We at CIEEM are extremely grateful for the ongoing support that NHBS provide and look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.” – CIEEM

Congratulations to all the individuals and organisations nominated for this year’s CIEEM Awards – we wish you all the best of luck with your endeavours during 2021.

NHBS In the Field – Echo Meter Touch 2

First released in 2017, the Echo Meter Touch 2 (EMT2) and Echo Meter Touch 2 Pro (EMT2 Pro) from Wildlife Acoustics are highly popular bat detectors for naturalists and professionals alike. By plugging the units directly into your phone or tablet, your device is transformed into a fully functional, full spectrum bat detector. The free Echo Meter app (available on the App Store and Google Play Store) allows the user to watch live, real-time sonograms as bats pass above.

The EMT2 Pro can be purchased as either an iOS model (with a lightning connector) or an Android model (with a USB-C connector), but the EMT2 is now only available as an Android model. We highly recommended checking the list of compatible devices on the Wildlife Acoustics website before purchasing your EMT2 (see compatibility of phones and tablets here for Android). This list is not exhaustive and is continually updated as further models are tested.

When using in conjunction with an Android device with a USB-C connector, an adapter will be required. As of 2021 these are now included for free with all Android Echo Meters, an addition we are sure will be greatly appreciated by customers going forward.

The EMT2 Pro is very similar to its counterpart, however additional features and a higher quality microphone make this option more suitable for professional ecological surveys and acoustic analysis. Adjustable gain (Low -12dB, Medium or High +12dB) is one particularly helpful addition. For a full break down of the differences between the EMT2 and the EMT2 Pro please see Wildlife Acoustics’ comparison page.

We plan to further test and compare the EMT2 and EMT2 Pro for a future post. On this occasion we only tested the EMT2 – but the set up and use is fundamentally similar for both models.

How we tested

During August 2020 we took several EMT2 units to a nearby woodland to survey for the presence of bats. The Android units were used in conjunction with a Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 (requiring the micro USB to USB-C adapter) and the iOS units used with an iPhone SE 2020.

The EMT2 is incredibly lightweight and small, weighing just 20g and measuring 48 x 35mm. Supplied in a small pouch, the detector is perfectly pocket-sized. For peace of mind, we connected a keychain to the pouch to keep it safely clipped to the inside of our bag.

Set-up was incredibly easy; we simply downloaded the free application, plugged in the device and immediately began recording. It is worth noting that, when plugging the EMT2 into the phones without an adapter, the phone cases had to be removed in order to allow proper connection.

We made sure that the Trigger Minimum Frequency was set to 12kHz, the level recommended by Wildlife Acoustics in order to stop noise recordings while not missing any species of bat. On the ‘Auto ID Selection’ tab, we chose the correct region and country allowing the impressive auto-ID feature for UK bat species to be enabled (see video below on how to change these settings).

The EMT2 then automatically recorded any bat activity detected above 12kHz and applied a suggested species identification based on the waveform and frequency. The app offers several ways to share these recordings, but we chose to directly plug our phones/tablets into a computer to transfer the files directly.

What we found

The Echo Meter is incredibly intuitive and easy to use, so certainly suitable for beginners and professionals alike. Any questions or issues can easily be resolved via the User Manual, found under the Information tab on the app and offered in English, French and German. Personally, we preferred this digital option rather than having to flick through a paper copy during a dark evening survey. However, copies of the user manuals can be found here, for those who would prefer to print a hard copy.

The on-screen live sonograms were particularly impressive and allow surveyors to get an idea of the potential species present while still in the field. While waiting for the bats to emerge, we enjoyed watching the calls of birds and crickets (see our blog post here on monitoring Orthoptera using bat detectors) – an unexpected advantage of the EMT2. It is certainly understandable why the EMT2 is so often used for community engagement at bat walks and BioBlitzs around the country.

We found that, for the species common in our area, such as Common Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus), Soprano Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) and the Noctule (Nyctalus noctule), the auto-ID feature appeared mostly accurate. Although, on one occasion before dusk we found that a bird call triggered a Common Pipistrelle identification. It is important to note that no Auto-ID feature can be 100% accurate, and Wildlife Acoustics make it clear that users should always manually verify the identification.

The automatic triggered recording worked very smoothly and did not appear to miss any bat activity. Despite this, it was reassuring to know if we noticed something we wanted to record, we also had the option to manually trigger recording – another feature that would be useful if wanting to listen to non-bat species. Each recording was GPS tagged, a neat feature that tracked our transect throughout the evening. When sorting through recordings, the option to sort by species was helpful to move noise and ‘No ID’ audio clips.

The only limitation we found with the EMT2 is how quickly our batteries drained. This is of course not a fault with the EMT2 itself and is to be expected with continual recording, but it is worth considering your phone or tablet’s battery life may impact your use of this detector.

Overall, the Echo Meter Touch 2 is a fantastic detector that is very affordably priced for the number of features it offers. The free app is continuously updated, and newly developed species classifiers added.

Common Pipistrelle (left) and Soprano Pipistrelle (right) recorded and identified on the Echo Meter app.

The Echo Meter Touch 2 and Echo Meter Touch 2 Pro are available from the NHBS website.

Visit nhbs.com to view our full range of bat detectors. If you have any questions about our range or would like some advice on the right product for you, then please contact us via email at customer.services@nhbs.com or phone on 01803 865913.

Author Interview with Jeff Ollerton: Pollinators & Pollination: Nature and Society

Professor Jeff Ollerton is a researcher, educator, consultant and author, specialising in mutualistic ecological relationships – in particular, those between plants and their pollinators. Now one of the world’s leading experts on pollinators and pollination, he has conducted field research in the UK, Australia, Africa, and Tenerife, and published a huge body of ground-breaking research which is highly-cited and used at both national and international levels to inform conservation efforts. Jeff currently holds Visiting Professor positions at the University of Northampton in the UK and Kunming Institute of Botany in China.

His recent book, Pollinators & Pollination: Nature and Society, provides a hugely informative yet accessible look at the ecology and evolution of pollinators around the globe, and discusses their conservation in a world that seems to be stacked against them.

In this article we chat with Jeff about his background, the book and the future of pollinators in an increasingly changing climate.

Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to write Pollinators & Pollination: Nature and Society?

Where to begin? Like lots of ecologists my interest started with natural history as a kid: poking around in rock pools, looking under stones, keeping tadpoles in jars, collecting fossils, the usual stuff that most people grow out of. I was born in Sunderland, close to the shipyards and coal mines that provided employment for most of my family. The grasslands and scrubby areas that developed on bombsites and after slum clearance were where I ranged free: my wildlife playground was the result of industrial development and decline. I also learned a lot from my dad who was a keen gardener, and plants have always been a passion. At school I didn’t do well – “easily distracted” said my reports – and only passed one A level (Biology). That was enough to get me into an HND in Applied Biology at Sunderland Polytechnic, then onto the second year of a BSc Environmental Biology degree at Oxford Polytechnic. My dissertation supervisor was Andrew Lack and he convinced me that I should apply for a PhD with him, looking at the pollination ecology, flowering phenology, and reproductive output of grassland plants in colonising and established grasslands. That was completed in 1993 (by which time the institution was Oxford Brookes University) and I went off to do some travelling and field work in Australia, funded by some small grants. When I got back I applied for numerous postdoctoral positions but the first job I was offered was a lectureship at Nene College of Higher Education in Northampton. At the time it was predominantly a teaching institution but they were keen to develop their ecological research. I originally planned to be there for a couple of years and ended up staying for 25! By that time it had transitioned into the University of Northampton. Throughout all of this the main focus of my research has been the ecology, evolution and conservation of plant-pollinator interactions, with field work in the UK, Africa, South America, and Asia. That’s a huge field of study, ranging in scope from molecular ecology to animal behaviour to agriculture and government environmental policy. A few years ago it struck me that there was a need to bring together these different strands into a single, coherent book that presented a state of the art account of why all of this was important, how the different topics fitted together, what we had learned so far after a couple of hundred years of research, and where the gaps and scientific disagreements lay. The result was Pollinators & Pollination: Nature and Society.

While it’s evident that habitat destruction and fragmentation have a huge role to play in the decline of pollinator species, you also state that rising temperatures may be a more significant factor, particularly for species such as bumblebees. Given the continual, and some may say unstoppable, rise in global temperatures, are you hopeful in any way for the future of pollinators?

Well, first of all, I certainly don’t think that climate change is unstoppable. We know what needs to be done and we know how to do it, though it’s not easy of course. But, yes, we are already seeing the effects of climate change on pollinators, particularly in relation to range shifts as insects move northwards in the northern hemisphere. Bumblebees are a particular concern because on the whole they are adapted to colder temperatures. However most other bees are adapted to warmer, drier conditions, and they may benefit from moderate climate change. The problem is that we simply don’t know enough about the natural histories of most of the 20,000 or so species of bees to say. Our knowledge of most of the hundreds of thousands of other species of pollinators is even less well developed. But I do have some optimism that pollination services to most plant species will be maintained under moderate climate change because we know from experimental work that we’ve carried out that the majority of interactions are relatively generalised and interchangeable: a range of pollinators can pollinate most plants, and vice versa. It’s the more specialised interactions that are likely to be less robust to climate change, especially in places like South Africa where I have been fortunate to work. The key to conserving pollinators, as it is for all biodiversity, is creation, restoration, linking-up, and protection, of natural habitats. As I argue in the book, we have to go far beyond “planting for pollinators” and putting up a few bee hotels if we are serious about conserving pollinators in our rapidly changing world.

While professional scientific research, alongside informed policy change, will obviously be key in directing the future of pollinators around the world, you also mention the importance of amateur naturalists and citizen scientists in collecting data and providing some of the legwork behind sustained long-term studies. What advice would you give to a non-professional individual who wishes to get involved with pollinator conservation? (eg. volunteering, donating to charities/organisations, lobbying for policy change etc.)

Yes, all of what you list there is important, and I would add that individuals can do a lot by thinking carefully about what they plant in their gardens and how they manage them (i.e. not using pesticides) and lobbying local councils about how parks and road verges are managed. They could also get involved in initiatives such as the UK Pollinators Monitoring Scheme. Similar schemes have been set up in other countries. Adding observations to iRecord is also important.

When hearing about the decline of pollinators, many people (fuelled by frequent media stories) will immediately be fearful about the future and security of our food production. Is there a valid reason for concern, and are there any precautionary steps that you believe the agricultural industry should be taking to deal with a potential collapse in pollinators?

First of all, I don’t think that pollinators are going to disappear from agricultural landscapes completely, that’s hugely unlikely. But there are a couple of things that should concern farmers and governments. There’s growing evidence that the yields of some crops, in some places, are limited by availability of pollinators, and that’s likely to get worse if pollinator populations decline. We also know that there are crops which, although they can self-pollinate, produce a higher quality of fruit or seeds if they are outcrossed by pollinators. So there’s a clear financial benefit for farmers to take pollinator declines seriously. Globally, most of the staple crops are either wind pollinated grasses (rice, wheat, etc.) or are propagated by tubers (potatoes, yams) so food security in terms of populations starving is unlikely to be a consequence of pollinator decline. However most of the fruit and vegetables that provide the essential vitamins and minerals in our diets need pollinators either for the consumed crop or, as in the case of onions, for the seeds that produce the crop. So food security in the sense of having a healthy diet is definitely something that we should take seriously. Things that farmers and the agricultural industry should be doing include the obvious such as restoring and creating natural habitat on their farms, not over-managing grasslands and hedgerows, and reducing the amount of biocides that they are using.

I discovered lots of interesting things from your book that I previously didn’t know – such as the fact that there are pollinating lizards! In all of your years of study, what is the most fascinating fact that you have learned about pollinators?

Oh, wow, that’s a tough one! Every research project that I’ve undertaken has turned up new information and observations that have intrigued and excited me, and even blown my mind. That’s one of the reasons why I do what I do, there’s so much still to discover. I estimate that we’ve got some kind of information about the pollinators of only about 10% of the 352,000 species of flowering plants that there are in the world. Even in Britain and Ireland the reproductive ecologies of most of the plants have hardly been studied. So there are always new things to discover. Citing a single fascinating fact is difficult, but if I had to choose one it would be the calculation that I made for a review article in 2017 when I worked out that as many as 1 in 10 insect and vertebrate species may visit flowers as pollinators. That did astound me and I had to double check my maths!

2020 was a year that was largely dominated by the Covid-19 crisis, a fact that you touch on briefly in your book. How has the pandemic affected your working life and, as a researcher who relies on time spent in the field, how have you dealt with the challenges of lockdown and restricted movement?

Ughh, yes, it’s been difficult. I was supposed to take a group of students to Tenerife in April for our annual field course and that had to be cancelled. It’s the first year since 2003 that I’ve not made the trip and it curtailed some long-term data collection that I’ve been undertaking. Perhaps the universe is telling me that it’s time to publish the data….? But on the plus side, once we knew that we’d be in lockdown for some months, I sent out an email to my network of pollination ecologists to suggest that we use the time to collect data on flower-pollinator interactions in our gardens. The response was phenomenal! It’s generated over 20,000 observations from all over the world. We’re writing up a paper describing the data set at the moment and we will make it freely available to PhD and early career researchers who were not able to collect data last year and whose funding and time are limited.

Finally, what are you working on currently, and do you have plans for further books?

So back in October I stepped down from my full-time professorship to work independently as a consultant ecological scientist and author – my new website has just gone live in fact: www.jeffollerton.co.uk. Although I will miss teaching students, I really needed some new challenges and wanted to work more closely at the conservation and advisory end of the field, and start to make more of a difference on the ground. I still have a Visiting Professorship at Northampton where I’m completing some externally funded projects and supervising a couple of PhD researchers. And I’ve recently been appointed Visiting Professor at the Kunming Institute of Botany in China where, vaccines willing, I will be spending part of the summer on a climate change and pollinators project. As for further books, yes, there are another three that I want to complete in the next few years. I’m talking with Pelagic at the moment about the next one and they are interested, but I’d like to keep the topic hush-hush for now – I’m referring to it as “Project B”! But it does deal with pollination, I can tell you that.

Species Recovery Trust: Q&A with Dominic Price

The Species Recovery Trust is devoted to preventing the loss of some of the rarest plant, insect and animal species in the UK, with their primary aim being to remove 50 species from the edge of extinction by 2050. With a team of highly skilled conservationists and passionate volunteers, the Species Recovery Trust has been doing targeted recovery work for the past 10 years, and many species are now showing an increase in their population numbers for the first time in decades.

Dominic Price

We spoke to Dominic Price at the Species Recovery Trust about how the trust is working to save some of the most endangered species in the UK, some of their success stories, the challenges they face as a charity with COVID-19 and how you can get involved and support their work.

 

 

Could you introduce the Species Recovery Trust to us and summarise your main goals as a charity?

The Species Recovery Trust was founded in 2012 with the goal of saving some of the UK’s most endangered species. We cover a small number of species but base our work on a 30-year workplan, allowing us to plan work decades ahead, and start these species on the long and often slow road to full recovery. Our broader goal has been to develop the most cost effective way of doing this long term work, generating as much of our funds as possible through our own commercial activities (training and consultancy)   which would allow us to de-couple from the larger funding streams and sustain the work, however bleak the funding climate may become.

One of your main aims is to remove 50 species from the edge of extinction in the UK by the year 2050. How did you choose which of the 900+ UK species that are currently under threat were the most critical to focus on?

With some difficulty! In essence we started with the IUCN red list and worked our way down from the top. It soon became clear that with certain species, like Atlantic Halibut, we were unlikely to be able to do much from our bases in the English countryside, so we started to focus in on terrestrial species with a limited distribution, and by researching the ecology for those we could see which species were likely to respond well to the sort of onsite habitat restoration work we specialise in. There was obviously a fairly significant political element, in not wanting to tread on any toes of people who were already carrying out established work. So there was much dialogue with other small NGOs and from there discovering the main species that have fallen through the gaps of others work. We currently work on 22 species and have three in development, so still have vacancies for another 25!

There were times when it can be deeply depressing looking at the Red List, with the sheer amount on there, but we knew we would always be a small player and it was just a case of picking a handful and then making sure we did the best possible job to save them, while trying not to feel too despondent about the current mass extinction and the number of species likely to be caught up in that.

What key environmental policy changes do you think would have the biggest impact on preventing species extinctions in the UK?

After 20 years of working in the sector I’m not the biggest fan on policy changes. When I started, the Biodiversity Action Plan (UKBAP) was the big driver. Borne out of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit it was an ambitious and hugely exciting bit of work to be involved in. It then started to become clear that the vast majority of targets would be missed, but instead of examining why this happened and putting more resources into it, it was left to quietly die a death, and over the years has been replaced by a whole new raft of policies and goals. I know there’s people doing amazing work in Whitehall to keep lobbying and campaigning for better policies, but I feel for us as a charity the most meaningful work we do tends to be out in the field, with either a quadrat or a pair of loppers. It’s important to keep your eye on the bigger picture, but sometimes the best place to be is very much on the coalface in the exact location where these species are dying out. This has been also been a personal decision for the members of the team, as we all feel we’re at our best doing fieldwork and not stuck behind a computer!

The work of the Species Recovery Trust is obviously ongoing, but what would you consider to be your biggest success story so far?

Heath Lobelia Site

When we started working on Starved Wood-sedge there were just 32 plants at two sites left in the wild. I had previously been involved with this species through Plantlife’s Back from the Brink programme and knew how perilously close we were to losing this plant from the UK (it went extinct in Ireland in the 1990s and is not faring too well  in Europe). After eight years we now have four sites, and over 330 plants – it is still not ‘saved’ but it’s well away from the brink of extinction. Another great moment was when we took on the management of the last known site in Hampshire for Heath Lobelia. We spent three days with work groups clearing scrub off the site, thinking the most likely scenario was to repair the habitat with a view of one day re-introducing plants, and the following summer 660 plants came up where the seedbank had been regenerated. Sadly, following this disturbance the population has dropped back down to 40, reminding us that a species conservationist’s work is rarely done!

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected individuals, communities and organisations in a myriad of unforeseen ways. How have you been challenged this year and how have you coped with these challenges?

One of our strengths as a charity has been that we draw over half our funding from running training courses. It’s the best money as we can spend it on what we want when we want with no deadlines or funding reports, and if you book onto one of our courses your booking fee could be put to use within a week hiring contractors to manage a site, or paying the mileage for a volunteer to monitor a network of sites. We did have a contingency fund in case one year we couldn’t run as many courses, but never predicated a scenario where we had to cancel every single one of them, so this has obviously hit us hard. However, we are extremely lucky in that when we set the charity up we always tried to keep our running costs to virtually zero; we already all work from home and all of us do other jobs alongside our work for the trust, so in 2020 we were able to effectively batten down the hatches and with the additional help of the amazing furlough scheme we have managed to stay afloat. We’ve also had some incredible support from charitable trusts like the Halpin Trust and Hennock Law Trust, which has been a lifeline in these difficult times.  But at this time no one is sure if training courses will be able to happen in 2021, and there are now so many charities desperately competing for the remaining funding sources, so uncertain times lie ahead.

Are there different ways that people can get involved with and support the Species Recovery Trust? (e.g. options for those with spare money but little time and vice versa).

We are always looking for species monitors – people who take on a site, preferably close to where they live or go on holiday and can do species counts for us each year, and lots of people gain a huge amount of satisfaction of being the person to keep these sites going. If you purchase a copy of the Field Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes (and the hopefully forthcoming Field Guide to Bryophytes) 100% of the profit goes directly to our work. Alternatively, if you’re feeling generous you can sign up as a paid supporter (there’s a free option too) and you’ll get updates of all our work, as well as knowing your money is going straight to saving some of our rarest plants and animals.

You can find out more about the Species Recovery Trust from their website and by following them on Facebook and Twitter.