Ban Mountain Hare culls for three years, urge Scottish wildlife organisations

A group of ten high profile wildlife and conservation organisations are calling on the Scottish Government to impose a three year ban on all Mountain Hare culling on grouse moors until safeguards are in place to inform sustainable management, and to meet our international conservation obligations.  
 
The Mountain Hare is Britain’s only native hare and plays a vital part of the complex ecosystem of Scotland’s uplands and moorlands, including acting as an important source of prey for Golden Eagles, one of Scotland’s most famous birds. 
 
Mountain Hares are often found in good numbers on grouse moors and are protected against indiscriminate methods of killing under the European Union’s Habitats Directive. The Scottish Government has a legal duty to maintain their population in a state of good health. However, mountain hares are now routinely culled on a large scale on many grouse moors in Scotland. This practice has developed relatively recently in the belief that it protects Red Grouse against the tick-borne louping ill virus, despite the lack of scientific evidence to support this claim. 
 
Duncan Orr-Ewing from RSPB Scotland, one of the organisations calling for the ban, said: “Mountain Hares in their white winter coats are one of the most iconic species in Scotland. At present very little is known about their current numbers and population trends. We also don’t know what impact these large scale culls are having on Mountain Hares’ wider conservation status, which could mean that the Scottish Government may be in breach of its legally binding international EU obligations to this species.” 
 
Mountain Hares are thought to spread slowly from one area to another and so culls may have significant detrimental impacts on local populations of hares. In some areas it has been shown that the culls are leading to severe population declines of Mountain Hares, and potentially even local extinctions. 

Mountain Hare – Andrew.

In December 2014, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) – along with other partners – announced the beginning of a three year study to trial methods of measuring mountain hare numbers to better inform their monitoring, how to assess their population status, and identify appropriate management measures. As part of this, SNH called for a voluntary restraint of large scale mountain hare culls on grouse moors. 
 
Simon Jones from the Scottish Wildlife Trust added: “Mountain hares are important to Scotland both culturally and from a conservation perspective. We, along with the other organisations are calling for a three year ban, to allow time for all those involved to take stock of the longer term impacts of large scale culling. Once the results of the study have been published we will then be able to identify the best ways to monitor mountain hare populations and measure the impact that management is having on their conservation status. We believe that grouse moor managers have a duty of care to these important mountain hare populations. The unregulated and seemingly unsustainable culling that is endemic on many grouse moors is a threat to these important populations.”
 
As a next step to this call, a number of the organisations involved plan to ask for a meeting with Scottish Government and SNH officials in the coming weeks to discuss the issues surrounding Mountain Hare management and the proposed ban on mountain hare culling on grouse moors.

The 10 organisations calling for the three year ban are:
 
·         Highland Foundation for Wildlife
·         John Muir Trust
·         National Trust for Scotland
·         RSPB Scotland
·         Royal Zoological Society of Scotland
·         Scottish Raptor Study Group
·         The Scottish Wildlife Trust
·         The Cairngorms Campaign
·         The Mammal Society
·         The Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group

Wind Chaser

It is one of the greatest and least known urban wildlife spectacles in the world. For a few weeks every February, Yelkouan Shearwaters pour between the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, funnelling up the Bosphorus. The Bosphorus cleaves Istanbul in two — the dividing line between Europe and Asia — through one of the world’s great cities.

NatureGuides recently intercepted the spectacle in the company of the Yelkouan Shearwater Project team.

Yelkouans, from the Turkish for ‘wind chaser’, used to be an almost mythical subspecies of the Manx Shearwater, before being split with (and then from) Balearic Shearwater. Its status outside of the eastern Mediterranean and Black sea is poorly known. It has been claimed from Britain and Ireland but never accepted by any of the relevant rarity committees.

Its status is complicated by identification issues. Appearing somewhere between Manx and Balearic Shearwaters, the video shows some of the key features: the feet projecting beyond the tail tip and the dark axiliaries in a white underwing. It also shows the variations in colour due to light, shape due to angle, and their curious habit of lifting their heads.

Tree Bumblebees Keep Increasing

The remarkable spread of the Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) carries on at pace, recent survey work by BWARS has revealed.

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Bombus hypnorum © Max Whitby/NatureGuides

Since its discovery in 2001, at Landford in Wiltshire, it has spread throughout England and Wales, and was first found Scotland in 2013. Five years ago a BWARS survey mapped Tree Bumblebees as present in 200 grid cells. The 2014 survey found that number had risen to 1167.

Against the backdrop of catastrophic bumblebee declines, this rare positive news is certainly something to celebrate.

View the 2014 map for Tree Bumblebee here. Find out more about the BWARS Tree Bumblebee survey here.

Merry Christmas

The latest Christmas video from NatureGuides supposes a revolutionary taxonomic change. Perhaps Steller's Eiders aren't sea ducks after all, but actually a species of little swan...

With apologies to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Georg Wilhelm Steller.

Merry Christmas.

Embrace spiders this Halloween

Halloween is here, and according to the RSPB, it happens to be the best time of year to see some of Britain’s biggest spiders. With so many benefits to nature and your garden, it’s time to start to embrace our eight-legged friends rather than be running scared.  

There are some 650 species of spider in Britain totaling more than 750 million spiders crawling around our homes, gardens and countryside. Luckily, some of the frequently seen spiders are actually quite distinctive and are at their biggest right now, which means larger and more obvious webs – perfect for Halloween. 

Wasp Spider © Stephen Menzie

Venture into your garden and it’s more than likely you’ll come across the appropriately named garden spider. With a distinctive white ‘cross’ marking on their back, they help us by trapping or grabbing millions of insects each year, many of which are pests to crops and us. The females will have grown particularly large this time of year and create magnificent orb webs slung between vegetation. 

Other creepers that may be lurking behind the fireplace, under the sofa or in the bath include the giant house spider, its smaller cousin the house spider, and the spider that you’d have seen hanging upside down in its web in the upper corner of your rooms; the daddy long-legs spider. These spiders are wonderfully effective predators. Although no threat to us, they consume around 700,000 tonnes of invertebrates every year, which is a colossal amount of food. 

“If you were the size of a fly, sure, you’d have every reason to be afraid – very afraid – of spiders.” said Adrian Thomas, the RSPB’s wildlife gardening expert and author of RSPB Gardening for Wildlife, “But they really are one of the wonders of the natural world and are more afraid of you than you are of them. They might cause you to shudder, but the real nightmare would be a world without them.”

So why not make your garden spider friendly to help give your Halloween decorations a more lifelike feel this year. Leaving pot plants on their side to create a sheltered micro-habitat or creating a dead log pile will encourage more wildlife into your garden and create a perfect home for nature.

Garden Spider © Stephen Rutt

If you’re after a spider with a little more charm than the one living down your plughole, then it’s worth visiting an RSPB reserve this Halloween. The ladybird spider, known for its bright red and black markings on the mature males, is extremely rare but can be round on the RSPB’s Arne nature reserve after a reintroduction project in 2011. Its open heathland and old oak wood make Arne the perfect spider habitat, and is home to 240 species of spider. 

Another fascinating spider found in the UK is the raft spider, which is one of the two largest spiders in the country. Raft spiders are semi-aquatic and live around acidic bogs and in wet grassland, especially where there are small pools of water. 

Adrian Thomas added: “The ladybird and raft spider are only two of the many fascinating spiders that we have living in the UK, but there are so many more. Spiders are one of the few kinds of wildlife that we can easily get close to and one we should all embrace more. They are amazing animals and live fascinating and useful lives.”

There are many chilling Halloween themed events at RSPB reserves all over the country this half-term, where you’ll be able to learn and be spooked by all kinds of eerie wildlife. To learn more about these events and how you can give nature a home visit our website – rspb.org.uk.

Raft Spider (video still, Sweden) © Max Whitby

New caddisfly species discovered in Scotland

A new species of flying insect has been discovered for the first time ever in Scotland on RSPB Scotland’s Insh Marshes reserve in the Highlands.

Molanna angustata is a small pale brown type of caddisfly with long antennae that lives in lowland lakes, ditches, ponds and canals.

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Molanna angustata © Graham Calow - www.naturespot.org.uk

RSPB Scotland Trainee Ecologist, Genevieve Dalley discovered and identified two male individuals from a moth trap while visiting the reserve in Kingussie in search of freshwater invertebrates.

M. angustata is fairly widespread across lowland England, up to the Lake District and Yorkshire, and in Wales. However, it has never before been found in either Ireland or Scotland, until now.

This particular species has a rather complicated lifestyle. The larvae live in water, where they create a protective case to live in out of tiny sand and stone particles, sticking them together with silk to make a tube.

When they have transformed to a winged adult they chew their way out of the case and swim up to the surface where they eventually fly away. However, this does have to be done quickly or aquatic predators, like fish, will eat them.

Genevieve Dalley, Trainee Ecologist at RSPB Scotland, said: “It is fantastic to have discovered this new species, especially since it is the first ever record of its kind in Scotland. Insh is a beautiful rare habitat which has avoided much of the damage and disturbance other wetlands have succumbed to, meaning insects like this caddisfly can live out their complicated lifecycle without disturbance.

“However, there is still a lot of work to be done if we want to fully understand this interesting little creature. We don’t know why it’s never been found in Scotland before – it could be that the species is starting to move north or it could be that this type of caddisfly has simply gone unnoticed until now. There is a Scottish alter ego to M.angustata called Molanna albicans, so it is possible that some angustata have been mistaken for albicans as they look the same. It is important to know the distributions of insects like this as they can be good indicators of large scale changes in climate or habitat. It would be good now to check other sites with similar habitat to Insh to possibly fill in any gaps, although that does have a slight air of looking for a tiny brown needle in a huge haystack!”

July's Office Mothing

You’ll be surprised what you can find if you stick a light in a box and leave it outside overnight. Even in the middle of greyest West London you can turn up pearls, tigers and hearts.

Jersey Tiger f. lutescens (left) and the standard form of Jersey Tiger.

Here are our hauls over three nights:

29/07/2014

Riband Wave f. remutata x1

Jersey Tiger x3

Codling Moth x2

Light Brown Apple Moth x2

Least Carpet x1

Straw Dot x4

Bright-line brown-eye x1

Uncertain x1

Camararia ohridella (Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner) x2

Common Rustic/Lesser Common Rustic agg. x2

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing x1

Mother of Pearl x1

Cydia splendana x1

22/07/2014

Codling Moth x1

Light Brown Apple Moth x9

Camararia ohridella x1

Heart & Dart x2

Least Carpet x1

Light Arches x1

Crassa unitella x1

Scoparia sp. x1 (probably Eudonia mercurella - a particularly dark scoparid with a whitish 'x' mark in the trailing corner of the forewing)

Caloptilia sp. x1

Cydia splendana x1

13/07/2014

Chrysoteuchia culmella x5

Epiphyas postvittana (Light Brown Apple Moth) x7

Ruby Tiger x1

Camararia ohridella (Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner) x4

Pleuroptya ruralis (Mother of Pearl) x1

Dark Arches x1

Endotricha flammealis x1

Plutella xylostella (Diamond-back Moth) x1

Bucculatrix thoracella x1)

Scoparia sp. x1

Ruby Tiger

Beyond identification, I’m finding increasing enjoyment in the names of moths: the overly cautious Uncertain, the double hyphens of Bright-line Brown-eye and the apparently oxymoronic Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing are among my favourites.

/SR

Birding Dordogne on the iBooks store

We're pleased to announce that David Simpson's Birding Dordogne 2nd edition is available now for Mac and iPad on the iBooks store in both English and French.

The updated second edition details three new areas as well as updating sites covered in the first edition. The English-language version can be downloaded here and the French edition here. Perfect for a summer holiday!

Rare Dragonfly Spreading In the UK

Norfolk Hawker is a rare and protected species of dragonfly in the UK. As its name implies, it was previously confined to Norfolk and a few sites in neighbouring Suffolk. This year Norfolk Hawkers have been sighted in new locations in Kent, spread across four different 10km squares. The British Dragonfly Society (BDS) first recorded two separate Norfolk Hawkers from Kent in 2011, with a further report in 2012. Last year a female was observed egg-laying in a dyke at Westbere Lakes. This year there have already been sightings of at least 10 individuals at the same site. Norfolk Hawkers spend the first two years of their lives as larvae in the water, so this indicates the species could have been breeding there for the last two years.

Norfolk Hawker ©NatureGuides

In the past Norfolk Hawker was mainly associated with Water Soldier, with females laying their eggs into the plant’s stems. Now expanding populations are increasingly using other habitats. The British Dragonfly Society’s Conservation Officer, Claire Install says ‘this is great news for a rare species that is under threat from sea level rise in its traditional UK strongholds. Hopefully by expanding its range to new areas, the Norfolk Hawker has improved its chances of survival. We are hoping that the species will continue to breed successfully at new sites in both Cambridgeshire and Kent to secure its future in Britain.’

Norfolk Hawkers are large, gingery-brown dragonflies with bright green eyes, clear wings and a small yellow triangle on the abdomen. One other species, Brown Hawker, is similar but is darker, with blue dots down its sides and brown tinted wings.

Norfolk Hawker ©Stephen Rutt

The recently published Atlas of Dragonflies in Britain and Ireland by the BDS shows how several species, including Norfolk Hawker, have expanded their ranges in recent years. Many have moved northwards and westwards, with many more consolidating their previous ranges. Much of the recent expansion is attributed to climate change, but a few species are also declining in the UK.

Norfolk Hawkers are on the wing until early August, so the BDS is keen to hear of any further sightings. Reports can be made by visiting the ‘latest sightings’ or ‘recording’ pages on the BDS website (www.british-dragonflies.org.uk) or you can contact the BDS via Facebook (British Dragonfly Society) or twitter (@BDSdragonflies).

***

The Atlas of Dragonflies in Britain and Ireland is a magnificent tome and an essential reference work. It is the culmination of five years of hard work from our friends at the British Dragonfly Society, and can be purchased for £32 from their website: http://www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/content/home-page-dragonflies-section

Beginner with dragonflies? Now is the perfect time to download our Dragonflies and Damselflies of Britain and Ireland app for a summer of odanate fun.

/SR

Mothing

The quickest way to catch a lot of exciting moths is to not invite me. It's enough of a struggle against nights that plummet to nearly freezing, have too little cloud (or too much) and the street lights of west London. But we go regularly anyway and all sorts of exciting beasts are caught when I can't make it; and not a lot of anything when I can. My bad luck is something spectacular; it is it's own law of nature.

We trap in Perivale wood, a members’ only reserve run by the Selbourne Society; wedged in between Central Line, suburban housing sprawl and the Grand Union Canal: the hazy area where London fades into the old Middlesex. Ancient woodland still exists behind a locked gate and high fence, and bluebells proliferate amongst the undisturbed tangle of oaks. Tonight we were to set up five moth traps. The skinner trap is my job to assemble: five slats of flimsy wood, clear Perspex, a heap of egg boxes and — minding the exposed nail — a blindingly bright light bulb on a bar of wood. 

The next morning dawned deepest blue. At five am the jet contrails are vivid white scars, blushing as the sun hits them. The wood is a murky grey of bark and shadow and cold at this hour. The first trap is opened: the egg cartons examined and the corners inspected. The verdict: no moths caught.

It was the same with the second trap. The third trap produced a Shuttle-shaped Dart, a blonde-bodied brown moth that looks as odd as its name. A luminous yellow Brimstone and an Angleshades were lurking in the fourth trap. Angleshades is a common moth that's shaped like peeling bark and coloured like a dying leaf but manages to be much brighter and prettier than that suggests. It has a habit of spending days in visible locations, but also unexpected ones: the underside of my can opener in my first week at university was a particular head-scratcher.

As lovely as they are, they're not the sort of moth that drags you out of bed at five am on a Saturday. Not that there are many that are my friends would point out. But that is because they haven't seen Lime Hawkmoth, and that was what was nestling in the middle of the final trap. It is spectacular: not just worth getting out of bed for, but for all of those unsatisfactory sessions and time spent agonising over identification guides. It is a giant among moths, several Angleshades across in width and wearing a military camouflage (if you squint a bit) across its broad wings. It's astonishing to think that moths this spectacular are common in London but so rarely get seen without a trap. And even more amazing to realise that adult Lime Hawkmoths’ biological curiosity is that they lack developed mouth parts and only feed when they are caterpillars on the lime trees that line London’s streets.

Does this signal a change in my luck with moths? I hope so. It’s not long before we go again and I have my greedy eyes set on more hawkmoths…

/SR