The BBC report that two schoolgirls have criticised a housing developer for the “devastating impact” its use of hedgerow netting is having on wildlife.
Taylor Wimpey attached netting to a hedge lining a 270-home development in Warwickshire to stop birds from nesting but did so before plans were passed.
Kyra Barboutis and Sophie Smith, who run hedgehog rescue centres, said the hibernating animals would be trapped.
Taylor Wimpey said it would now build tunnels enabling them to escape.
The TIMES reports on Michael Gove ordering the killing of sick squirrels and deer. It could be Michael Gove’s biggest and bravest mistake, they say. The environment secretary has told animal care and wildlife rescue centres that sick or abandoned grey squirrels or muntjac deer brought in by the public can no longer be released back into the wild and must be killed.
This upcoming news was raised by Nigel Palmer at his talk on Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue to our Friends of Normandy Wildlife group in January 2019. Read more on his talk here.
Photo by Denis Fournier under Creative commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode
The GUARDIAN reports that Britain’s carnivores must survive government culls, gamekeepers, poisoning, persecution and increasingly busy roads but, in modern times at least, they have never had it so good: badger, otter, pine marten, polecat, stoat and weasel populations have “markedly improved” since the 1960s, according to a new study. The otter, polecat and pine marten have bounced back from the brink of extinction, and the country’s only carnivorous mammal now in danger of being wiped out is the wildcat, with the dwindling Scottish populations hit by hybridisation with domestic and feral cats.
The Telegraph tells how grey squirrel is on the menu, as diners turn to the wild meat to help boost the number of red squirrels.
Everybody who cares about wildlife will be gathering in central London on 22nd September 2018 for the first People’s Walk for Wildlife. And we know you care about wildlife because your reading this, so please join us there.
Watch this short video for one of the most passionate and yet down to earth explanations of why we have to wake up to what is happening to British wildlife and act. Chris Packham says of our wildlife population’s downward trends “those statistics about those declines become normalised. Like it’s just another part of the conversation”.
He continues “We’re in trouble, we’re in big trouble…… It’s time for us to act. I think it’s time for us to stand up and be counted, and to ask, politely, for things to be fixed”.
Please join this polite, passive walk (it’s not a demonstration or rally) and show your concern for what is happening to our wildlife – whether your interest is for birds, hedgehogs, dragonflies, ferns, trees, fungi or any other of the diverse, beautiful and essential plants and animals that keep our environment healthy.
If your interested in going and want to travel by train with other members of FNW please let me know so we can co-ordinate travel arrangements or arrange to meet in London.
10am: Gather – Reformers Tree, Hyde Park, London
12 noon: Infotainment
1pm: Walk
2pm: Finish – Richmond Terrace
Sadly, recent reports show that British mammals and butterflies are under decline.
The Mammal Society and Natural England reported that almost one in five of British mammal species face a high risk of extinction. This was the first comprehensive review of their populations for more than 20 years. The reasons for decline include climate change, loss of habitat, use of pesticides and road deaths.
The red squirrel, wildcat and the grey long-eared bat are all listed as facing severe threats to their survival.
The review also found other mammals such as the hedgehog and water vole [Photo above by Nick Ford under creative commons
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode] have seen their populations decline by up to 66% over the past 20 years.
Meanwhile, a story in The Times tells how Defra (Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) believes a lack of management has caused butterflies to decline. Since 1990 butterfly numbers have fallen by 27 per cent on farmland and by 58 per cent in woods.
Farmland species in long-term decline include the gatekeeper, large skipper and small tortoiseshell. While the brown argus, common blue, peacock and purple hairstreak in woodlands have also declined.
While you’re out on your dog walk, cycle or stroll through the countryside you could also be helping our local mammals. The Mammal Society have launched a new app, Mammal Mapper, to record mammals sightings or signs of mammals and send them to a national database.
The app is simple to use and provides a very handy detailed guide to identifying British mammals.
Most wild mammals, including rabbits and hedgehogs, are poorly monitored. Records from the app could provide vital information about locations and population trends of our precious mammals, aiding better management and protection.
Learn more about the app here. The app is free to download and available on android and iOS in app stores now. For more information and to download from the Mammal Society website go to http://www.mammal.org.uk/volunteering/mammal-mapper/.
We are so lucky to have hedgehogs in our village, this is mainly due to the age of many of our homes meaning we have larger than average gardens that are not totally fenced in. Hedgehogs need access a range of gardens, to be able to move freely at night to snuffle in the hedgerows and under bushes.
In February and March hedgehogs will start wakening from their winter hibernation. When exactly will depend on the weather – if we have freezing temperatures they will stay tucked up in their nests. They will also wake up on warmer evenings and have a mooch around for food in the winter.
They are particularly fond of bird food, which is why I saw the first hedgehog in my garden – eating dropped sunflower hearts from a birdfeeder. Meal worms, sunflower hearts, chopped peanuts are favourites. They will also eat tinned dog/cat food (not fish based).
Never feed hedgehogs milk as it can cause diarrhea; instead provide plain, fresh water in a shallow bowl.
I leave a dish of food and water outside my french doors and enjoy watching the hedgehogs come at dusk to feast from March to November. Hedgehogs can travel 1-2 km a night during their active season.
To help hedgehogs in your garden:
· If you have a wooden fence, think about cutting a small piece out at the bottom or, as I have done, dig out soil from underneath the concrete gravel board.
· Cover drains and holes and place bricks/pebbles at the side of ponds to give hedgehogs an easy route out (yes they can swim!). Cover swimming pools overnight and when not in use.
· Check for hedgehogs before using strimmers or mowers, particularly under hedges where animals may rest. Check compost heaps for nesting hogs before forking over.
· Build bonfires as close to time of lighting as possible and check them thoroughly before lighting.
· Remove sports or fruit netting when not in use to prevent hedgehogs becoming entangled, and getting injured.
These can poison hedgehogs and our lovely song and mistle thrush as they eat snails and slugs. Try using beer traps or I’ve had excellent results with a new organic product made of recycled sheep’s wool pellets.
Why not make a hedgehog home, by leaving areas of the garden ‘wild’, with piles of leaf litter and logs? These are an attractive nest as well as a home for the invertebrates (slugs, beetles) that hedgehogs like to eat.
Making an artificial home can be as simple as placing a piece of board against a wall with some wood piled inside. Or, an upturned old plastic washing up bowl, covered it with leaves, tucked under a shrub in a quiet corner of the garden with no direct sunlight.
Hedgehogs don’t tend to like you putting nesting material inside, they like to forage and choose their own! So don’t rake up all those dead leaves or throw away dried ornamental grass cuttings, leave a pile in a corner or tucked under shrubs and they will take what they need. You can of course now buy purpose built hedgehog houses at a price!
Read also The Times’s article on How gardeners can help save the hedgehog published on 24th Feb 2018.
Please email us with your sightings of hedgehogs seen in the village at fnwildlife@gmail.com. If you see a hedgehog out during the day or a small hedgehog in the autumn (they must weigh 600grams to survive hibernation) then please contact one of our local wildlife rescue centres – Harper Asprey (01344 623106) or Wildlife Aid (09061 800132).
Hedgehog Street has been set up nationally to monitor where hedgehogs are found and they would like you to email sightings at www.hedgehogstreet.org.
Written by Angela Gray
The areas in which water voles are living in England and Wales have declined by nearly 30% in a decade, according to a new study by the Wildlife Trusts.
Alex Learmont from Surrey Wildlife Trust gave a talk to the FNW group last April about the country’s fastest declining mammal. Remember if you’d like to help search for “Ratty” in Surrey please email alex.learmont@surreywt.org.uk.
[photo © Nick Ford]
