The Guardian writes on new research revealing the differences between urban and rural bumblebees.
“Urban bumblebees have better access to food, allowing them to produce more offspring. Bumblebees are important pollinators, but face threats including habitat loss, climate change, pesticide and fungicide use and parasites.
Now researchers say that bumblebee colonies in urban areas not only produce more offspring than those on agricultural land, but have more food stores, fewer invasions from parasitic “cuckoo” bumblebees, and survive for longer.”
[Photo by Jice75 under creative commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/]
Feeding our garden birds can provide vital energy resources for our feathered friends, but we are also responsible for making sure it doesn’t have unexpected harm. The BBC report on research by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) on the risks of disease in wild birds from garden bird feeders.
ZSL and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) recommend:
- Do keep feeding your birds, especially in winter, but just be aware of the risks and how you can minimise them
- Clean bird feeders regularly
- Rotate feeding sites to avoid build up of droppings and/or regurgitated food
- If you notice a sick bird (e.g. unusually fluffed-up plumage and lethargic):
Learn more about what you can do to help Normandy’s wildlife.
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 email@example.com.
[photo © Nick Ford]