Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

1 | KESTREL On the verge By September, rough grass can be heaving with small mammals, moving unseen through the thatch of golden stalks at ground level. Some years in Britain, field voles are thought to outnumber humans. This suits kestrels, whose fortunes are tied up with those of the chubby, short-tailed rodents. Voles mean kestrels, and where they are plentiful, the dashing falcons occupy smaller territories. The birds may stay on familiar home turf all year, though others – in particular, juveniles fledged over the summer – move to fresh hunting grounds in autumn, often by the coast. Kestrels have an unrivalled ability to hang in mid-air, tilting their long tail from side to side to keep their head perfectly still as they hover over a few square inches…

CLIMATE CHANGE Amazon reaches CO2 tipping point “This is a very loud wake-up call that the onslaught on Amazonian forests should be stopped urgently.” Deforestation and fires mean the rainforest is now releasing more carbon dioxide than it can lock away. Pioneering new research has revealed that parts of the Amazon are now emitting more carbon dioxide than they can absorb, prompting scientists to call for urgent action to protect the world’s biggest tropical rainforest. Deforestation and forest fires increase emissions, and the nine-year study found that the south-east of the Amazon was the worst affected, with higher rates of tree loss and an increasing number of fires, many of which are deliberately lit in an effort to clear land for the production of beef and soy. The Amazon had…

I‘ve always been troubled by the way many conservation groups seem incapable of telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I understand that they can’t always be doom-mongers – heaven forbid their supporters might think they’re not doing enough – but why do they feel such a desperate urge to put a positive spin on everything? Anyone who believes the rhetoric that our wildlife will be just fine, despite all the evidence to the contrary, is living in a fool’s paradise. Thank goodness for the RSPB. Breaking ranks, it recently emailed its supporters with the headline: “We’ve failed. Nature’s closing down.” Admittedly, it tries to be upbeat (it’s not too late to turn things around, and all that jazz) but it is telling the truth. The…

Flowers evolved to produce nectar as an inducement to encourage insects to visit them and, in so doing, pollinate them. Hummingbirds evolved, in turn, to exploit that food source. Sustained hovering flight allowed them to access a vast range of flowers, and was an innovation made possible by the high-energy content of sugar-rich nectar. Their wings evolved to move not in a conventional up-and-down flapping motion, but instead in a figure-of-eight pattern – giving hummingbirds lift not only on the down-beat, but also the up-beat of their wings. Those wings can beat as quickly as 80 times per second and it’s the sound of that blurringly fast flapping that gives hummingbirds their name – they really do hum, sounding more like an insect than a bird. The muscles that drive…

Darkness falls reluctantly in high summer. Having hiked 20km from my home in East Devon along a rollercoaster stretch of the South West Coast Path, I follow a dusty track to a farm in time for nightfall. Green woodpeckers snigger in the nearby willow; crickets and grasshoppers sing the meadows into sunset. Finally I arrive at an enormous old stone barn, where I hope to witness the flight of one of Britain’s rarest mammals: the grey long-eared bat. East Devon is home to two of the species’ eight known maternity roosts in England. One of them is inside this barn, surrounded by unimproved grassland yielding an array of insect prey – key to the bat’s survival. I join a cadre of eight hopeful bat-watchers stationed at various points around the…

1 DO PARASITES EVER BENEFIT HOSTS OR OTHER WILDLIFE? Parasites come in diverse forms, from the galls on oak trees to the flatworms that reside in animal guts. They can be harmful, but they can be beneficial too. Many keep guts and cells healthy, protect plants, help hosts resist deadly infections, keep immune systems and ecosystems resilient, regulate populations and drive evolution. And if another species invades a host or o habitat, a parasite might even help fight it off. 2 HOW DO BENEFITS EVOLVE? A freeloader often needs to keep its host alive while it completes its life-cycle, so that it can reproduce and pass on its genes. When natural selection favours a trait in a parasite that protects its host from other invaders or provides other…

Book choice Painting a picture of the world in 10 (ish) species A thought-provoking exploration of the diversity of life on our planet – and of our own evolution and influence. THE STORY OF LIFE IN 10› CHAPTERS BY MARIANNE TAYLOR. HEAD OF ZEUS, £20 If an alien visitor were to collect 10 souvenir life-forms to represent life on Earth, which might they choose? That’s the premise of the latest book by naturalist and science writer Marianne Taylor. Each species is selected to introduce one particular element of the story of life, combining to paint a big picture of our incredible planet. It’s an ambitious concept to get your head around, but Taylor draws the reader in, not only with her species selection and detailed science, but also by means…

With towering tree trunks and a sense of space like no other woodland, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Britain’s beech woods are frequently compared to cathedrals. This overwhelming feeling of reverence is magnified by the near-permanent dusk created by the dense canopy, and the openness resulting from decaying leaves underfoot stifling much new growth. But take the time to look carefully and you’ll discover that the floors of our beech woods are home to a number of rare orchids and highly unusual saprophytes – plants that grow on decaying organic matter. At this time of year, beech woods are also popular with fungal foragers hoping to bag boletes and chase down chanterelles. Beech wood as a ‘natural’ habitat is entirely confined to southern England and Wales. The slow northern advance of…

As dawn breaks in a northern wood – one that, at first glance, doesn’t look terribly different to the deciduous woodlands of Britain – a hummingbird is stirring. The spring night here, only a few hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle, has been long and cold. It could have been fatal for a bird that weighs little more than a penny, let alone one with a metabolism as fast and specialised as that of a rufous hummingbird. Hence, he hasn’t just slept; he’s spent the night in a state of torpor. His heart has slowed from a daytime rate of 1,200 beats per minute to less than 100 beats per minute, which, for a hummingbird, is barely ticking over. His body temperature has dropped too, by some 26°C, to…

DORMOUSE Look out for telltale hazelnut half-shells that betray the presence of a dormouse. Though they also eat berries and insects, these mammals rely heavily on the fat in hazelnuts to put on weight before winter hibernation. BUTTERFLIES Small tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies are among 40 species of insect that rely on stinging nettles, on which their larvae feast. Look out for cobweb-like nests and pick only a few leaves at a time. BLOODY-NOSED BEETLE One of the UK’s largest leaf beetles feeds on the leaves of cleavers (or goosegrass) and lady’s bedstraw, two commonly foraged plants. Take care when harvesting these plant species, particularly in spring when the beetles are most active. BANK VOLE This small, mouse-like mammal hides out in dense vegetation. Just like humans, bank voles are…

NARROW-HEADED ANT One of the UK’s rarest ants is confined to one population in South Devon. Work by Buglife with Devon Wildlife Trust increased our understanding of this insect, which plays an important role in heathland ecosystems. LESSER BUTTERFLY ORCHID This beauty disappeared from more than half of its former UK range in just half a century. A Plantlife-led project will undertake habitat management and trial new techniques to help the species spread again. BLACK-TAILED GODWIT The Ouse and Nene Washes in Cambridgeshire are home to most of the UK’s 60 or so remaining breeding pairs of black-tailed godwit. The RSPB and WWT are working to create habitat for them and to reduce the risk of predation. WILLOW TIT The UK’s willow tit populations fell by 94 per cent between…

Star photo Shore thing I was recently lucky enough to enjoy a few days on the Isle of Mull. I spent most of one morning photographing this individual, watching him hunt in the kelp; he returned to shore only when he’d caught a big prey item such as a lobster or octopus. After a while, he started to groom himself and went to sleep. It was an amazing experience to watch him. Joshua Copping, Oxfordshire 1 Respect your elders While observing majestic white-tailed eagles in a Polish forest a few hours’ drive from Warsaw, I encountered this battle between an adult (right) and a juvenile (left). It is often the chest that is targeted, and down flies. Alexandre Bès, France 2 In the swim As a lifelong reptile lover, taking…

“Suddenly, the sensation of eyes fixed on me stops me dead in my tracks.” For a photographer on a wild-dog shoot, quiet, contemplative moments are rare – about as rare, in fact, as a sighting of these elusive, fast and dynamic animals of the African bushveld. Whatever the dogs do, they do with gusto and unbounded glee. Their enthusiasm for life is contagious, and I’m prepared to contort myself into the most uncomfortable positions to get the perfect shot. My ambition today is to capture the dogs hunting their breakfast at Green Pool, in Zimbabwe’s Mana Pools National Park, which means leaving camp well before dawn. My camera bag is equipped for every eventuality – though I know that in the heat of the moment I’ll just grab my favourite…

Hot pursuit A southern carmine bee-eater swoops through the miasmic heat haze shimmering above a bushfire in Botswana, in a captivating image by Hannes Lochner – Commended in this year’s Bird Photographer of the Year awards. Why risk life and wing flying so close to the flames? Because there’s rich pickings to be had – bees and other insects attempting to flee the conflagration are snapped up by this dazzling and aerobatic predator, which nests in cliffs and riverbanks in southern Africa. Hanging out Hanuman langurs take their name from the Hindu god of healing and worship, and are considered sacred by the people of Nepal, Kashmir and India, where they’re found. This mother and rather sprightly infant were spotted in India’s Tadoba National Park, a popular destination for tigers.…

Fallow deer Introduced to Britain by the Normans, this shy woodland deer is now considered naturalised here. Intermediate in size between our native red and roe species, the fallow is an elegant deer with a spotted coat and long tail. At this time of year, bucks sport a fine set of palmate antlers (shaped like an open hand), ready for the annual autumn rut. Broad-leaved helleborine This is both the largest and commonest of a number of specialist helleborines that can be found on beech-wood floors in late summer. Growing nearly 1m tall, its long, singular spike produces up to 40 green-and-purple drooping flowers, each with a distinctive heart-shaped lip. Ghost orchid Thanks to its erratic appearances and excellent camouflage, this aptly named orchid must surely be Britain’s hardest-to-find plant.…

There’s a parasitic wasp that specialises in crawling under the water to find caddis fly larva. Agriotypus armatus (adult top of inset) lays its eggs on caddis cases and the larva then hatches and crawls inside to feast on the caddis larva’s blood. When it is ready to pupate, it chews its way inside the host and forms its own pupa inside the caddis pupa, emerging the following year. Parasitised caddis have a string of air-filled silk emerging from them (bottom of inset) – it’s used like a gill by the developing wasp.…

CORVIDS ARE NO bird-brains. Recent years have seen growing evidence that ravens, rooks, crows and jackdaws have an impressive capacity for empathy with their fellow flock-members, which requires sophisticated mental machinations. Specifically, they seem able to console others following a traumatic experience by preening and other social contact. This evidence is mostly gleaned from observations of bystander birds after they witness an aggressive encounter between others. The trouble is that the bystander is likely to also have been agitated by the encounter, so what looks like consolation may be a case of self-soothing. A new study of jackdaws, published in Royal Society Open Science, gets around this problem by studying the responses of males to their mates’ being attacked on the nest while they were away foraging. The males did…

Picture rewilding projects in Scotland and you’re likely to think big and Highland. Big swathes of upland heath and bog, river and forest. Big, iconic species such as golden eagle and beaver. Big headline grabbers sparking intense debate: wolf, lynx. Big money. Big organisations. There’s no doubt that large-scale rewilding work in the Highlands has made impressive progress. Two notable examples include the rapid expansion of native woodlands at Glenfeshie in the Cairngorms and Alladale (a 2021 Springwatch location); another is the epic Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape project, a restoration of habitat covering 635km2 led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust. But the sheer size of such ventures – Glenfeshie alone spans an area larger than Bristol and Oxford combined – could appear daunting to people with more limited means.…

HAWTHORN In autumn, each hawthorn tree produces hundreds of tiny, tangy, avocado-flavoured fruits. Once deseeded they make excellent ketchup, and the pulp can be mixed with ground nuts and dried fruits, such as dates or apricots, to make energy balls. NETTLE Once blanched to neutralise their stings, nettle leaves make a pleasantly nutty alternative to spinach in cannelloni or ravioli. Large leaves can be gritty, so harvest only the top six or so from older plants. CEP (PORCINI) King of all mushrooms, the cep pops up in flushes after rain from August (occasionally earlier) to October. It has an intense musky flavour, especially when dried and rehydrated, and is excellent in soups. ROSEBAY WILLOWHERB Use this common roadside weed with purple-pink flowers to make ‘Ivan’s Tea’. Roll the leaves into…

Politics, promises and profits I sympathise with Mark Carwardine being vexed with the forthcoming UK Environment Bill (My way of thinking, May 2021). Whatever politicians may say to win votes, it appears a lot of their green promises wither or migrate when the economic realities become too much of a hurdle. No doubt more promises will be made during the IUCN World Conservation Congress this September, but what effect they’ll have is another matter. Preserving nature often comes as an afterthought, when no economic use can be made of a certain parcel of land. I live in Wales and Natural Resources Wales has had its budget cut –and many of the reserves are marred by fly-tipping. It seems to me that many people cannot or will not respect that it’s…