Nature Notes: Moths! Coots! and The Big Heat!

Viewing the weather forecast this weekend, I must admit my heart sinks that we may face another weekend of litter, noise and anti-social behaviour but more than that it's up to all of us to make sure that the most vulnerable to heat are safe and kept well.

So this week, I've focused on heat and litter (what's new?) but also I'd encourage you to keep your eyes open for the small things around you and don't forget to put some water out for the birds.

Local Nature News

New History of Alexandra Park Now On Sale

The Friends of Alexandra Park have published a new history of the park, written by Laura Mazur, which is now available via their website. It features chapters on the park’s wildlife as well as exploring the history of the site and its future. 

To purchase the book, click here

Edmonton Incinerator Expansion “fundamentally unjust” say residents

Ever noticed that when a facility that is likely to have a detrimental effect on the surrounding area is built, it never seems to end up in a nice leafy suburb but more often than not is constructed in a place of high deprivation? 

Take incinerators, for example. They are three times more likely to be built in deprived areas.  Unearthed, the investigative arm of Greenpeace, found that areas in the top 20% for deprivation host nearly one-third of the waste incinerators in the UK. The richest, least ethnically diverse areas are home to less than 10% of incinerators, which, with recycling rates falling and rubbish being generated at an alarming rate, are increasingly being used to deal with the UK’s waste. Where these incinerators end up is a social justice matter as much as a climate one.

So, of course, *our* nearest one is in Edmonton, one of the poorest areas in the country, where 65% of the residents are from ethnic minority backgrounds and air pollution already breaches legal limits. Incinerators generate noise, pollution and traffic. Residents have had enough and are trying to Stop Edmonton Incinerator. 

Read more about their fight here

How Lammas Day “Rioters” secured land in Hackney for the public

Lammas Day is August 1st, a traditional festival linked to our agricultural past. Lammas Lands were fields that were held in common, their use granted to everyone to cut hay and graze animals. Leyton Marsh was one such place, so there was uproar when the East London Water Company laid a railway track across Leyton Marsh to transport coal to their pumping engines on what is now the Clancy Docwra site. 

Find out what happened and how the lands were secured for the commons by the combined efforts of local Working Men’s Clubs in this article in the Hackney Citizen

Weekend Plant Sales at Wolves Lane

A reminder that while Wolves Lane itself remains closed the weekend plant sales have re-started on Saturday and Sundays from a table by the gate. Find out more here 

Take your litter home

Sorry (not sorry) but I’m not going to stop banging on about this. 

As another hot weekend beckons (more on that below), we can expect people to flock to our green spaces. During May this year, Haringey Council dealt with nearly 50 tonnes of rubbish and litter from parks alone - this is double than last year in May, the equivalent to filling two twelve metre shipping containers - and the weight of nearly 7 male African elephants! 

This comes at a tremendous cost. Half a million is spent each year on just clearing the parks, if this gets worse then they will either have to find more money from somewhere else, or, more likely the parks will remain uncleaned and feel unsafe and unpleasant. 

They are not asking for anything that can’t be achieved:

• Never leave anything behind when using the parks
• If you have rubbish, put it in the bins provided
• If they are full, take it home with you and dispose of it through your household waste service.
• Never put rubbish next to a bin in a park – this is likely to be blown around the park or pulled around by animals. It also takes more time to clean it up, and costs more money
• Try and cut down on your disposable waste. If bringing food or drink to the park, use reusable containers or refillable water bottles

Read more about the council campaign to stop the litter tsunami here

Purple Hairstreak at Ally Pally

Spotted at the bottom of the South Slope by Stephen Middleton, click through to see his photo

Nature Notes

Heat is dangerous

As we face another sweltering weekend, it’s easy to believe that this is something to look forward to as the media illustrate their stories of the heat with families on beaches, girls in bikinis frolicking in fountains and ice cream smeared toddlers in the parks.

The truth is these high temperatures are extremely dangerous to older people, people with chronic conditions and the very young and, even those in apparently good health need to follow some basic advice about staying hydrated, avoiding drinking too much alcohol and not going out in the hottest part of the day.

If these kinds of temperature become the norm, as is looking increasingly likely, the impact on global death rates are likely to dwarf those caused by infectious diseases, moreover, the people who have done the least to cause climate change are the ones who will almost certainly suffer the worst. 

We can mitigate the effects if we act now, but while the media continue to portray hot days as something fun and a boost to ice cream sellers then we may not act in time. 

For more on the study behind the headlines, click here

And please follow this excellent advice from Haringey Council about staying safe in the heat.

Moth Magic

You may have noticed a few more day flying moths about recently, including the Jersey Tiger, the Silver Y, the Cinnabar and the very striking Six Spot Burnet. 

Six Spot Burnet at Railway Fields, 2017

Do you know why birds avoid eating this moth? The clue is in its food plant. Find out all about the six spot here

While you’re moth spotting, don’t neglect the smaller moths like the beautiful, dainty and very common Mint Moth which you’ll find anywhere where there’s a clump of mint!

Mint Moth in the garden, 2020

Urban botany

The lockdown was a time for some people to find time to connect with the Spring time in their neighbourhood. It’s easy to think when you live in the middle of a city that there’s nothing much to see but as this lovely essay  by Lucy Jones illustrates when you change your focus there’s a wealth of life right under your feet.

Believe it or not, one of my favourite places to do some urban botany is WIghtman Road where I often find plants in gardens, tree pits and in the cracks of the pavement.    

Charlock on Wightman Road

Black Birders Flock Together

The image of the bird watcher as middle-aged, white usually male and encased in green from head to foot may be a bit unfair but there is perhaps an element of truth in it all the same. 

Many people of colour, especially the young, feel uncomfortable or even unwelcome in natural spaces and feel excluded from environment and conservation jobs and activism. 

One group of North Londoners aim to change that and have created a birdwatching collective called Flock Together.

Read how they set the collective up, what they do and what they hope to achieve in the future here 

Finally 

I spotted this week that the female coot is back on the New River Nest so I’ll be keeping an eye on it in case we get more chicks, although it has to be said that coot parents can be brutal

Coot on the New River

Have a good week and don’t forget to pick up your dry cleaning