UK Fungus Day is an annual celebration of our fungal world, offering something for everyone. Alongside the many UK-based groups, museums, universities and research centres offering a chance to join fungus walks, view fungi collections and visit exhibitions of the latest fungal science and technology, UK Fungus Day invites everyone to join in, delve deeper and learn more about fungi through art and performance, crafts and creations, online talks, quizzes and competitions.
As 90 per cent of the habitats that waxcaps thrive in have been destroyed over the past 70 years, The Yorkshire Post finds out why an area in Calderdale is akin to the Amazon for these ancient fungi. It’s a little known fact, but Yorkshire is one of the best places in the world for some of the world’s rarest mushrooms, and October 5 is UK Fungus Day, the National Trust is taking the opportunity to shout about those which can be found at its site at Hardcastle Crags in Calderdale. Around 120 species of ancient grassland fungi, often known as waxcaps, can be found in pastures around West Yorkshire.
www.nts.org.uk
Nestled in the Cairngorms, Mar Lodge Estate National Nature Reserve is one of Scotland’s most ecologically diverse areas. It has been in the care of the National Trust for Scotland since 1995 and has played host to a series of remarkable projects in conservation and biodiversity. It was thanks to a significant contribution of over £10 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, along with support from private donors like the Easter Charitable Trust, that the Trust was able to secure this magnificent estate. The property covers more than 29,000 hectares of astonishing Scottish landscape: heather-covered moorland, Caledonian pine forest, towering mountains and the Quoich wetlands. Its acquisition marked a turning point for our charity, enabling us to launch large-scale conservation and restoration projects to safeguard the estate’s landscapes and biodiversity for future generations. Furthermore, a portion of the funding was set aside as an endowment to fund long-term maintenance and support ongoing conservation efforts. As we now approach the National Lottery’s 30th birthday, we are grateful that we were one of the first organisations to receive funding of this nature from the National Lottery. Since the first draw in 1994, over £49 billion has been raised for good causes and awarded through more than 690,000 individual grants. Thanks to National Lottery players, support has been given to a vast array of projects, ranging from strengthening local communities and powering sports teams to unlocking creative talent and supporting environmental projects such as those at Mar Lodge.
East Sussex Wildlife Trust has identified Rye Harbour Nature Reserve as one of the key areas in its blue carbon mapping project. Blue carbon is a concept within climate change mitigation that refers to biologically driven carbon fluxes and storage in marine systems. A spokesperson for the wildlife charity said: “In Sussex, our key areas of work in relation to blue carbon include Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, where we are working to protect approximately 26 hectares of vital saltmarsh habitat.
www.dorsetecho.co.uk
A POD of dolphins were photographed playfully swimming off the Dorset coast. Don Williams, a Dorset Camera Club member, was sailing along the Dorset coast with City Cruises Poole, when he came across the photogenic creatures. He was driving the Solent Scene towards Swanage Pier as the dolphins glided alongside the vessel. The dolphins are believed to be bottlenose dolphins.
www.woodlandtrust.org.uk
A petition calling for stronger laws to protect important trees like the Sycamore Gap is tantalisingly close to its 100,000 target, says the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity. A year after the Sycamore Gap trees's devastating overnight felling at its famous Hadrian's Wall location, a rallying cry for people to back the Woodland Trust's Living Legends campaign – demanding legal protection for the UK's oldest and most special trees – has been issued. More than 95,000 people have already pledged their support, and Trust head of campaigning Adam Cormack says passing the 100,000 mark is a "significant milestone" at a time when tree protection laws in England are under review and a new Tree Protection Bill for Northern Ireland will be out for consultation later this year.
Those looking out across the moor in West Yorkshire these days will see clough valleys studded with pale green tree tubes, each housing two-year-old saplings – a whopping 65,000 new trees that have been planted this year. In 20 years, it is expected these trees will have grown into montane woodlands full of oak, birch, hazel, rowan and holly, creating wildlife-friendly corridors through the cloughs across the moor, boosting biodiversity and helping to mitigate the effects of climate change. They represent the first stage in Landscapes for Water, a joint project for the National Trust and Yorkshire Water – the region’s two biggest landowners - that will plant an estimated 300,000 trees over 5,500 hectares of the South Pennines in the next four years.
www.carbonbrief.org
The UK will miss the UN’s deadline to publish a new national plan for how it will address nature loss ahead of the COP16 biodiversity summit in Colombia this month, Carbon Brief understands. At COP15 in 2022, countries agreed to submit new national nature plans – known as “national biodiversity strategies and action plans”, or NBSAPs – “ahead” of COP16, which will take place in Cali from 21 October to 1 November. In December 2023 at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, the UK pledged to publish its nature strategy by May of this year – and even organised a launch event at Wicken Fen nature reserve in Cambridge for that month – before a change of government in Scotland forced a postponement.
www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk
Our wetlands are wonderous places – so precious for our wildlife and spellbinding for our senses at any time of year. Each one is different – a floodplain, a remnant of a huge marsh or fen, a wild oasis reclaimed for nature from industry – but each of these delicate ecosystems needs protection and careful management to support the abundant life that depends on it. Wetlands are designed to soak up and hold water, releasing it much more slowly than a flowing river or stream would. This means they are important flood defences which can absorb excess rainwater and surface water during periods of wet weather, storing it and letting it trickle out slowly to prevent flash flooding. Our wetlands are also vital for our wildlife: 40% of the world's species rely on wetlands in some way. Yorkshire’s wetlands are both ancient and new; some are historic remnants of a wilder landscape, now surrounded by urban sprawl, whilst others are reclaimed from industry, representing a new start for nature and wildlife.
www.bbc.co.uk
The Great Western Community Forest (GWCF) is celebrating its 30th year after it was originally founded in 1994. GWCF covers an area of 39,000 hectares (more than 168 square miles) stretching from the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty to the River Thames. Community forests are spread across a mix of community woodland, private woodland, on-street, urban woodland, wooded habitat corridors and hedgerows. The aim of the forest is to connect communities to green spaces, promote biodiversity, improve flood defences and reach 30% tree cover across the GWCF area.
www.theboltonnews.co.uk
People are being urged to record hedgehog sightings to help save them. The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester, and North Merseyside is asking people to record hedgehog sightings to "Help a Hog" this autumn. Hedgehog populations have been declining in the UK, but gardens could provide a refuge.
www.theguardian.com
The amount of land that is protected for nature in England has fallen to just 2.93%, despite government promises to conserve 30% of it by 2030, new data reveals. Campaigners are calling for a “rapid rescue package for UK nature”, as government delegates head to Cop16, the international nature summit, which will take place from 21 October in Colombia. They intend to ask other countries to stick to ambitious nature targets. The commitment to protect 30% of land for nature by 2030 was made in 2020 by the then prime minister, Boris Johnson. But according to a report by Wildlife and Countryside Link, the amount of land in England that can be said to be effectively protected for nature has fallen to just 2.93%, while the amount of sea protected is at 9.92%.
Wiltshire Wildlife Trust has issued an urgent appeal to help save critically endangered rare bats inhabiting Green Lane Wood Nature Reserve in Trowbridge. The trust needs to raise £2,000 to unlock a £20,000 grant to help save a breeding roost of rare Bechstein’s bats in the wood. The Bechstein's bat is one of the UK’s rarest bats, found in parts of southern England and south east Wales. It is found almost exclusively in woodland habitats. The destruction of ancient mature forests, along with intensive woodland management practices, has led to a decline in its numbers.
www.bbc.co.uk
Almost £130,000 could be spent by an Essex council on creating wildflower grass verges. The plan is set to be agreed by Rochford District Council on Thursday, following a trial at the Turret House open space between Hockley and Rayleigh. Councillors said it would result in highway verges looking better and being more eco-friendly for plants and wildlife.
A new project by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) is underway to translocate black grouse from their stronghold in the North Pennines to the North York Moors to expand their range and help them to recolonise areas where they have not bred for nearly 200 years. Black grouse are red listed as a species of high conservation concern. In England, they are now largely restricted to the North Pennines, which includes parts of County Durham, Northumberland, Cumbria and North Yorkshire. Here, numbers remain broadly stable, fluctuating between 1-2,000 displaying males over the last 25 years. The North York Moors have been selected following landscape-scale habitat improvements on the fringes of moorland managed for grouse shooting. This has included the removal of conifer woodland and restoration to bog, heath and scrub woodland, moorland grasslands being managed more extensively and bracken control restoring bilberry and heather moorland. There have been sporadic sightings of black grouse in the North York Moors, but there is no record of them breeding here since the 1840s.
www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk
Bugs Matter, led by conservation charities Kent Wildlife Trust and Buglife, is one of the UK’s few long-term citizen science surveys of flying insect abundance, generating critically important data. This year saw greater participation than ever before, with a total of 8,850 journeys made, covering over 250,000 miles. Lots more people joined in the survey too – 188 new participants joined the effort to provide crucial data on flying insect numbers. Citizen scientists in England recorded the greatest number of journeys (7,501 journeys), followed by those in Scotland (737 journeys), Wales (367journeys) and Northern Ireland (220 journeys).
www.bbc.co.uk
Guernsey and Herm are experiencing a decline in wildlife species and habitats, according to the first State of Nature report by the Nature Commission. Commission CEO Jessi Jennings said the report helped understand the state of the islands' habitats and species. The report also highlighted trends in the abundance and distribution of habitats and species where possible, she added. Ms Jennings said the report highlighted the lack of data collection, and how the States of Guernsey, businesses and the general public needed to help "enhance and protect" the environment.
www.bbc.co.uk
A two-year project across three counties has uncovered more than 1,300 hectares (3,271 acres) of previously unknown ancient woodland. These are woods that have persisted since 1600, packed with a range of forest-loving plant life, fungi, insects and micro-organisations, making up some 2.5% of UK land (609,990 hectares or 1,507,318 acres), external. The project was run by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. The total area of ancient woodland in the area is now known to be 12,552 hectares (31,016 acres).
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By that age, I was into my third long-term job (> 5 years) and had had upwards of 16 short term ones - multiple part time ones at once, or some just for a few weeks or a couple of months here and there between the long-term ones etc.
48 doesn't seem that unlikely - nor even an indicator that they will not be staying put for any length of time unless your job is a shitty one with a high turnover anyway.
Around 70 endangered crayfish have been found dead in Northumberland, the Environment Agency has said. An investigation has now been launched by the organisation into the deaths as the species is the only native freshwater crayfish in the UK. The fish were found dead along the River Wansbeck - one of the last strongholds for the species.
www.heritagefund.org.uk
New support for local authorities and community organisations to improve access to green space within our urban neighbourhoods. Everyone feels the benefit when nature is part of our daily lives. Evidence shows it makes us healthier, happier, more connected and more resilient. But years of squeezed resources and competition for urban space means nature, green areas and historic parks have been neglected or lost from many neighbourhoods. Our new strategic initiative, Nature Towns and Cities, aims to enable 100 places across the UK to transform access to green space in urban areas and bring nature closer to home for us all to enjoy. It is backed by a partnership between us, the National Trust and Natural England, working closely with NatureScot, Natural Resources Wales and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
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Not quite a scrotum pole, but there is certainly an interpretation of this statue of Cybele where what we are looking at are not multiple breasts, but actually the scrota of her eunuch priesthood.
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I think that the closest that I had at school was the library. Even decades later I am still happy when surrounded by books.
Otherwise, somewhere green: walking in woodland or sitting by a stream always improves things.
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I'd not encountered Bloody Knuckles before, but we did have the card variant when I was at school - the trick being to get a new pack, flex it a little and push the card so that all the edges are available to strike the knuckles in rapid succession. I was extremely good at it, as i recall, both in inflicting and (particularly) withstanding the pain.
We knew this game as Scabby Queen. Evidently there is an actual card game called that, it seems, with the knuckle skinning merely the end result. We did not bother with the game part (or even know about it) - just the knuckle skinning.
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- Kaos - I've only seen the first ep so far, but it looks to have promise.
- Le Bureau de Legendes - this French spy series has a slow and meandering start but picks up over a couple of episodes and the initial time with the characters pays off.
- Pine Gap - After the first couple of episodes, I'm struggling to care about the characters - and am caring a LOT about the absurd lack of a Faraday cage around the main building which would have prevented the main plot point in the first place. It is only miniseries, but I doubt that we'll finish it unless it picks up a lot and gives me a reason to get my disbelief suspended again.
- Slow Horses - the third of the spy tales that we are following at the moment and by far the most fun and engaging. Season 4 is as good as ever, and Oldman's Lamb is wonderful.
- Carol and the End of the World - a low key, introspective little exploration of self-discovery and where you find value and it's really quite charming.
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Thanks for this one - an atmospheric landscape!
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Thanks for these. Very autumnal!
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You'll have take it up with the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project then.
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I've had the same number for 24 years now. I have only ever had a handful of spam calls in total over that time.
I probably get one a month or so on my work number.
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Basically all of them.
A quick skim shows me that the only people who have called me this so far this year are:
- Doctor
- Dentist
- Sister
- Wife
- Close friend
I expect that this would be much the same for last year too.
I have no reason not to speak to any of these.
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Some great shots here - thanks for submitting!
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More appropriate to early April than early September, I think, but I'll allow this one.
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Doctor who (2005) s01e07 - Kronkburgers on Satellite 5 in the opening scenes.
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Looks like it:
with most of our woodlands, we will be hosting year-round volunteering and community events, enabling people to enjoy, learn about, and connect with nature," Tom shares. These events will offer opportunities for people to get involved in the project, whether through tree planting, wildlife monitoring, or participating in educational programs.
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