nigelswift
|
Re: The Pagan 'problem'
Sep 20, 2010, 06:45
|
Hi Chris, there are lots of suppliers on the web e.g. http://www.wwb.co.uk/shop/index.php/cPath/79 which will supply you by post and there are entomology shows you can get stuff from - including pupae and larvae if you fancy trying to produce your own stock and releasing them.
You can get amazing exotic species too but try to avoid being the man that let some go and changed the environment!
|
moss
|
Edited Sep 20, 2010, 09:05
Re: The Pagan 'problem'
Sep 20, 2010, 08:04
|
|
nigelswift wrote: Hi Chris, there are lots of suppliers on the web e.g. http://www.wwb.co.uk/shop/index.php/cPath/79 which will supply you by post and there are entomology shows you can get stuff from - including pupae and larvae if you fancy trying to produce your own stock and releasing them.
You can get amazing exotic species too but try to avoid being the man that let some go and changed the environment!
Of course when you start trying to recreate the 'garden of Eden' again, knowledge is absolute, there must be enough wild plants for bees, butterflies and insects over a good range of time, I suspect we are lucky in Britain that there is still enough wildlife corridors and hedges to support insects.
Strangely most of our megaliths are in or on 'barren deserts' when you look at the moors or high places - they are after all situated on, or near to rocks....
|
nigelswift
|
Re: The Pagan 'problem'
Sep 20, 2010, 11:32
|
True, though some sites are butterfly hotspots due to the particular regime run by English Nature. Silbury and White Horse Hill/Uffington come to mind.
Silbury is particularly precious nature-wise as it's been studied for so long and is the only place where a uniform exposed slope extends around 360 degrees [That's another reason not to go galumphing up it of course ;) ]
|
tiompan
|
Edited Sep 20, 2010, 13:04
Re: The Pagan 'problem'
Sep 20, 2010, 12:01
|
|
nigelswift wrote:
Silbury is particularly precious nature-wise as it's been studied for so long and is the only place where a uniform exposed slope extends around 360 degrees [That's another reason not to go galumphing up it of course ;) ]
Youv'e no seen the "Five Sisters " o' Livvy and numerous other bings .
http://blueskyscotland.blogspot.com/2009/12/leven-seatshotts-bingbinny.html
scroll down .
|
StoneGloves
|
Re: The Pagan 'problem'
Sep 20, 2010, 13:31
|
|
No, that's not how we do things ! The habitat must be consistent and volunteer groups, such as Butterfly Conservation, BugWatch, and pond groups, inform us of declining trends. My target species is the Small tortoiseshell, principally, and brown butterflies, generally. Small success, in one year, at the present site (my allotment). As butterflies build up, obviously centred on my garden, so does the resentment from other male gardeners (they mainly want to kill me). It's all conservation and the same rules apply. There are some very important SSSIs on the chalk and the alkaline landscapes and species are those, arguably, under greatest pressure, due to acid rain, fertiliser, clearance, monoculture, drought etc, etc.
|
nigelswift
|
Re: The Pagan 'problem'
Sep 20, 2010, 17:40
|
|
Ah but they're obviously photoshopped. ;)
|
Littlestone
|
Re: The Pagan 'problem'
Sep 20, 2010, 21:48
|
Yes, re: - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8102739.stm
"The large blue butterfly has made an astonishing comeback following re-introduction efforts, scientists say.
"The butterfly was declared extinct in Britain in 1979, but large blues were imported from Sweden in the 1980s by conservationists. There are now more than 30 colonies, with a rough estimate putting the total number of large blues at about 20,000."
|
nigelswift
|
Edited Sep 21, 2010, 08:23
Re: The Pagan 'problem'
Sep 21, 2010, 07:22
|
|
StoneGloves wrote: No, that's not how we do things ! The habitat must be consistent
Yes, but it's how I do things! I can't see how releasing a few hundred that feed on plentiful plants like nettles and grass can do anything but good. Not that I'm decrying the more organised programs. It's all about environment of course. This is interesting, from Natural England http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/about_us/news/2010/160910.aspx
They (like English Heritage) are about to be decimated. No votes in butterflies - or archaeology.
|
StoneGloves
|
Re: The Pagan 'problem'
Sep 21, 2010, 09:34
|
|
Sorry to be pedantic - but those grasses and nettles are no longer common - that's the essence of the problem. Not in the city, anyway, where the grounds keepers have found a way to cut or spray the nettle patches. And they've gone, in a matter of two years, here. English Nature/Natural England are spudoomered. Their publications - often free - were stupendous. I've been in a couple of them! But they were riddled by cronyism and hampered by lack of practical experience/fieldcraft, at least in my upland area, where there were many SSSIs. In one of the SSSIs a prominent long cairn was ground for roadstone - they county archaeologist only visited afterwards - and my complaint, as far as Martin X, the then chief executive, was rejected. And then I found the road didn't have ordinary planning consent. I was hoping the conservative government would strengthen wildlife protection - dismantling it seemed to be labour policy - but they're just going to stuff it some more. We weren't doing that much, twenty years ago, but we were leading the world. Not any more!
|
nigelswift
|
Re: The Pagan 'problem'
Sep 21, 2010, 10:59
|
|
A lot of NE staff have been culled already I believe so they're very stretched and with worse to come. Ditto EH of course. Most farms are now in NE schemes - which means most archaeology as well as wildlife, but I understand the archaeology takes only a small portion of their attention - their Head isn't an archaeo. Add to this the fact the schemes are all financed by means of payment of European money to the farmers - which must amount to squillions of Euros. If that stops, and we're no longer paying farmers to leave field margins or to avoid ploughing barrows.....
|
