Helping tackle the War On Wildlife
Yesterday we wrote a post looking at Nesting Birds and the Law. We wrote it because at this time of year there are often problems with developers/gardeners trimming or removing hedgerows that may contain nesting birds. Today, writes Charlie Moores, we received news of the destruction of a 40 foot mature hedge in Belfast’s award-winning Wildflower Alley…
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Here’s a relevant question for the springtime: did you know that it is illegal – ie it is against the law – to disturb nesting birds or to remove any nests that are being used? That includes the birds and nests in our gardens, the birds that are nesting precisely where developers want to build new houses, and the birds that may try to nest on those (and our) houses too. If the answer is ‘No’ or even ‘Yes…but I’m not sure of the details’, hopefully this post will help.
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A positive story for a change – and one that may have gone under many people’s radar : a planned ‘luxury’ golf course development on Coul Links, a beautiful, natural coastal dune system to the immediate south of Loch Fleet National Nature Reserve in East Sutherland, Scotland, has been refused. Why, writes Charlie Moores, was the development turned down so late in the day? Could the government in Scotland understand that the public are just fed up with our most precious places being threatened by developments that benefit so few but whose losses are felt by so many…
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Blog by Paul Sterry: This article is the second in a series of three that scrutinises the effects of changing farming practices and urbanisation on wildlife and biodiversity within the Borough of Basingstoke. Much of the farmland that immediately surrounded pre-WW2 market-town Basingstoke has long-since gone, destroyed by urban expansion. That which remains in the Borough has lost most of the value it once had for wildlife: despite being green to the eye much of it is little better than concrete, bricks and mortar in terms of the biodiversity it supports. So, what’s left for wildlife in 2020?
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Just what kind of waters will our not-so-distant relatives soon find lapping around their ankles? Our once pristine seas are rapidly resembling a microplastic cocktail blended with a large shot of fertiliser and sewage. We’ve given the worst areas names. All of which, writes Charlie Moores, means catastrophe for marine wildlife and seabirds.
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Vultures have a bit of a poor reputation. They’re often thought of as little more than dirty scavengers with ‘faces only a mother could love’, typically photographed with their heads stuck inside a corpse or fighting over dead or dying animals. The reality, though, is more nuanced. And, as Charlie Moores writes, they are now one of the most threatened groups of birds on the planet.
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