Nature notes: Moths! Ants! Bees! Wet Wipes!

I've been enjoying some beautiful pictures from around the local area while sitting in my garden watching fledglings learn to negotiate the world.   Find out which Tottenham resident named the clouds,  what else paid my kitchen a visit this week, and much more...

Local Nature News

Tottenham Wildlife

The lovely Twitter account of Ranger Hyde, the ranger at Tottenham Marshes has been sharing some Park Positive images of Tottenham Marshes, including this snap of the cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort.

Follow the account on Twitter here

Click on the hashtag #tottenhammarshes for more wonderful wildlife moments. 

I’ve Looked at Clouds From Both Sides Now

A very comprehensive post from the Lordship Rec Hub, written by Joan Curtis,  on Luke Howard, Tottenham’s Namer of Clouds taking in history, natural history and art history as well as two stunning shots of Lordship Rec by Wendy Charlton.

Click here to read the post

The Happy Man Tree May Yet Be Saved

News this week from Woodberry Down that the Woodberry Down Phase 3 has gone back to planning and there is a hope that, by redesigning the scheme, the tree can be given a place in the new plan. 

Meanwhile as The Happy Man pub, next to the tree, is being demolished this week, fears for the roots of the tree caused by heavy machinery have been raised. Lawyers are currently working on how to safeguard the tree. 

Wood Green Community Gardening

Grow N22 shared this lovely little pic of the wildflowers they are growing outside the library in Wood Green this week.

Queens Wood Oaks

I moved this discussion to its own thread so that it could be updated more easily.

Read statements from Haringey Council who the campaigners acknowledge are in an impossible position and the response from a botanist to the claims by AXA and the council that are being made on the new thread here.

Re-Wild the WaterWorks Meadow

Grassroots collective, Save Lea Marshes who have no official funding need help to protect and enhance the Waterworks Meadow in East London as a re-wilded site for Nature. They want to collect all the data they can about the wildlife that calls this site home. To do this, they are trying to raise funds to commission ecologists to carry out extensive surveys of the area and use the findings from the surveys to re-design the site to maximise its potential for wildlife and  experience wildness on our doorsteps. 

Find their CrowdFunder here

Nature Notes

Noisy roads and their effect on birds

Great Britain has a lot of roads and a lot of vehicles, 40 million to be exact and a very dense road network with a total length of 247,000 miles. Apart from the obvious problems of congestion and safety for humans, a less considered problem is just how much the noise, pollution and collisions may affect the local bird populations. While pigeons and crows seem pretty immune, more sensitive species struggle to cope with the challenges roads present.

Could there be a link with declining populations of birds and increasing vehicle use? The University of Cambridge set out to research the possible link and some of their conclusions are summarised here

Where have the garden birds gone?

You may have started to notice that your gardens and mornings are a lot quieter since the Summer Solstice. Maybe your bird feeders don’t get emptied quite as quickly as in the Spring.

In my garden, there are still fledglings and rather exhausted looking parent birds chasing around after them but it won’t be long before the nesting season is past and the only birds you’ll see mooching about the garden or park are wood pigeons and magpies.

No need to be concerned though as they are off seeking the natural abundance of berries and fruit that are beginning to appear on the trees and bushes plus feasting on the smorgasbord of insects that are now out and about, including our old friends the flying ants.

They’ll be back as soon as the days get colder and the food scarcer, brightening up those winter mornings for us. 

Read more about birds in late summer on the Bugwoman blog, an excellent local blog about the Natural World

Why Flying Ants are a Very Good Thing

The annual swarm may seem a bit annoying to some people, but the tunnelling activities of the ants play a vital role in improving soil quality.

Plus their swarming events also provide a vital food resource for many species of birds. Swifts and gulls can often be seen feeding frenziedly from rising swarms of ants.

Here’s a blog from the NHM telling you everything you ever wanted to know about Flying Ant Day. It really should be something we look forward to witnessing every year rather than being annoyed about it.

Plastic Pollution in the Thames

A depressing report from Thames 21 was published this month which highlights just how much work there is to do to tackle plastic pollution in the Thames. 

Findings include:

• Plastic wet wipe products are the most common item recorded on the tidal Thames foreshore in London. These products are physically changing the shape and sediment type of the foreshore across six sites.
• Single-use plastic items make up 83% of all counted items on the foreshore (excluding glass fragments)
• Just five items represent nearly two-thirds of all lightweight identifiable plastic found, more than 64% of the total. These are: food wrappers, cotton bud sticks, drink bottles and their lids, cups and takeaway containers.
• A total of 97,019 drink bottles were recorded and removed between April 2016 and December 2019.
• Water bottles represent almost half of all the drink bottles found in the Thames.

How we managed to get ourselves into this state in such a short space of time is quite incredible. Many of these products barely existed 25 years ago and the problem is now being exacerbated by discarded single use masks and gloves which are finding their way into our waterways and onto our seas. It makes for a grim read but there are things that can be done including responsible disposal of our products, avoiding single use products where possible and only flushing the three Ps down the loo (pee, poo, paper). Read the report findings here

ID That Bumblebee on your phone

I often find it quite hard to remember which bumblebee is which but now I can double check using the Bumblebee Trust’s new app.

The free ‘What’s that Bumblebee’ app also lets people bring  a three-dimensional bumblebee to virtual life in the user’s own garden or living room, for studying in detail and with the option of capturing images to send to family and friends. People are being encouraged to share images from the app on social media using the hashtag #whatsthatbumblebee.

The app makes it easy for bumblebee-beginners to identify which of the UK’s most common eight species of these important pollinating insects may be buzzing around their garden or local park.

In total there are 24 bumblebee species in the UK, but the most common ‘Big 8’ that people are most likely to see in their garden or park are the Buff-tailed bumblebee, Common carder bee, Early bumblebee, Garden bumblebee, Heath bumblebee, Red-tailed bumblebee, Tree bumblebee and White-tailed bumblebee.

What’s That Bumblebee offers a brief description of these eight species, and allows users to compare similar species side-by-side.

The app is available for Apple and Android, and works on compatible phones and tablets. It was developed by the Trust, with National Lottery Heritage Fund support.

Find out more here

Finally 

Another gorgeous visitor to my kitchen, this Jersey Tiger Moth stopped by for a rest on the cupboards

Have a good week and don’t forget to count the butterflies