Glis glis

I’m extremely worried about our “environmental” secretary:

‘No proof’ organic food is better

That’s got to be one of the most inappropriate, vague and unsupported statements ever! Organic food is not just about possible health benefits, it’s about environmental benefits (you’d think that the environmental secretary might bear that in mind). In the UK, a country so pressured for space, it will never be viable to have 100% organic farming (anyway, DEFRA’s environmental stewardship schemes will have a wide-ranging positive effect if managed properly), but organic farmland habitat is hugely important to so many declining species. Unlike the health aspect, there’s plenty of scientific evidence for that. There’s a good review of all the relevant scientific studies by Hole et. al. (Biological Conservation, 2005).

As with a lot of things, food production is a highly complicated issue with lots of interlinking factors to take into account; Food miles, small vs. commercial farms, sustainability of food, packaging, fair trade, genetic engineering, land use… And organic farming is definately not perfect (toxic chemicals can still be used, albeit as a last resort). I personally think that support of small, local farms is important, and that organic vegetable box deliveries solve a lot of problems, helping to support recycling and organic, local farms.

An amusing capture, but also very a nicely executed photo =) By mikede1973

Perfection! By Chi Liu

An unbelievably beautiful landscape photo by CharlieBrown8989

I recently discovered that drawing in ink is very satisfying – here’s a peacock sketch I’m quite pleased with:

Hurray! The Brent geese are back! =D

We watched the first episode (Born of Fire) of BBC’s new series on Galapagos the other day… I don’t think I’ve said “wow” so many times since Planet Earth was on XD

I’d never quite realised that marine iguanas can actually stay underwater for up to half an hour to eat the algae – and the images of them battling the gigantic powerful waves and ‘playful’ sea lions were stunning!

And albatross courtship is always very endearing =’) Click on the picture below for a lovely BBC video clip =)

A wonderfully sweet image, though it might not be obvious until you read the title… By the fantastic Michael Poliza

Simple yet brilliant! By tarotastic

The classic ‘dew on a spider’s web’ but better =) A very beautiful, calming image. By catmadogma

Alarm sounded for farmland birds
Widespread farmland species including the skylark, grey partridge and bullfinch are continuing to decline…

I think that DEFRA’s newly introduced Environmental Stewardship scheme could well settle down and produce results over the coming years – small changes in farmland habitat management can make a big difference (see Kemerton Conservation Trust).

I look forward to Fridays, when I actually get time to browse Flickr – so here’s some of my Flickr favourites… with apologies to Jo for the unintentional plagiarism (always Google before you go ahead with an idea!)

How can you resist clicking on this one?! By adampsyche

The most beautiful cat portrait I’ve seen =) By Kurt Schlatzer

Gloriously vivid HDR! By ojaipatrick

We had the loveliest time on Sunday – it was a gloriously sunny day so we went wading in the River Otter, and saw lots of fab creatures =D We kicked up tiny little flatfish, eels and scary huge fish =) Also saw an elephant hawkmoth caterpillar, golden-ringed dragonflies and stunningly vivid, irridescent blue and green demoiselles… =D

It’s great how the simplest things can be so enjoyable! =’)

Recently, Tom and I were discussing swan species we’d seen, and I dug out some photos of a pair of swans I’d seen in Solihull in January 2006. I realised I hadn’t ever identified them, so with help from Tom and nice people on Flickr I found out. It seems that they were hybrids – Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) x Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus). Apparently these are quite rare – shame I didn’t have the knowledge to appreciate it when I saw them in real life!

There aren’t many photos of them around, so I thought I should add mine to the world =)

More:
Synchronised swimming with some mallards
Twin hybrids