Fat balls, horses, 5th place, lucidity, bat faeces, neonics and cockroaches.

Mark 22 Comments
By Шатилло Г.В. (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
By Шатилло Г.В. (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
  • it seemed like spring for a few days last week and two sand martins were seen on Saturday in the Nene Valley, but on Sunday morning I awoke to find a layer of snow on my car.
  • this is an interesting study which tells you that what you are doing with your fat balls may be having less impact than you think …
  • in Saturday’s Times, apparently Simon Barnes referred to this very blog as ‘one of the more lucid conservation blogs’ (one of? one of?) whilst mentioning the e-petition on licensing grouse moors (which has now passed 3000 signatures)
  • in the latest issue of British Birds, Fighting for Birds is listed as the 5th best bird book of 2012 – buy yours here!
  • a couple of questions and answers from last Thursday’s questions in Parliament:

Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con): Do Ministers consider it acceptable that a number of historic English churches are being made unusable as a consequence of bat faeces and that mediaeval wall paintings and other historic monuments are being irretrievably damaged as a consequence of bat urine? Churches are not farm barns. They are places of worship and should be respected as such.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Richard Benyon): I entirely agree with my hon. Friend and share his intense frustration. I am glad to say that we are moving forward with one church in Yorkshire, where we think we may have found a resolution, and some churches in Norfolk. It cannot have ever been the intention of those who imposed this directive on us to limit the ability of people to worship in a church that has been there for centuries.

Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green): Last week the Secretary of State said that he was keen to delay European Union proposals to protect essential pollinators from neonicotinoids until new British field data were available. At the very same time, his own chief scientist was telling members of the Environmental Audit Committee that those same trials had been deeply compromised. When will the Secretary of State stop prevaricating and implement a moratorium on the use of neonicotinoids without further delay?

Mr Paterson: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for making the position clear. There have been a number of reports based on laboratory data. I have raised the issue with Minister Coveney, who has the presidency of the European Union, and had a meeting with Commissioner Borg about it only last week. We have asked them to wait until the data from our field trials have been analysed. We are fully aware of the strength of feeling that the hon. Lady represents, but there are also people who believe that these materials are not damaging. What is absolutely critical is that we do the right thing for bees, because they play such a fundamental role. There is no point in removing one product if it does not actually hurt bees. What we really need to do is look at how we can promote bee health, because it is so important to all plant life.

  • did you see Prince Charles on Countryfile last night? What did you think?
  • “We are a bit like cockroaches after a nuclear war, just a bit less smelly, we are made of sterner stuff.” may be the most sensible thing that a LibDem has said about nature for a while.  Vote Cockroach! may be the LibDem cry at the next general election.
  • I saw my first garden siskin of the winter yesterday
  • please add your name here to those of other Europeans worried about farmland biodiversity
  • I enjoyed listening to George McGavin and Max Barclay as I drove home on Saturday morning – etymology and entomology
  • for the rest of this week I will be at Cheltenham racecourse – blogging opportunities may be reduced through lack of internet connection, levels of champagne consumption and the need to study form.  However, the environment will take a rest, a back seat, and a breather whilst I lose myself in the total irrelevance of which horse can run around in circles faster than the others.  If you find a blog here from Tuesday-Friday its subject will be National Hunt racing.
By Nilfanion (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
By Nilfanion (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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22 Replies to “Fat balls, horses, 5th place, lucidity, bat faeces, neonics and cockroaches.”

  1. “It cannot have ever been the intention of those who imposed this directive on us…”
    A rather disappointing use of language here by the Minister, suggesting that he considers the protection of bats in general to be an unwelcome imposition.
    I don’t know how widespread problems of the extent suggested by Tony Baldry actually are but I believe that most churches do not suffer to anything like the extent described. Natural England has published guidance on how to manage problems with bat droppings and urine in churches and this does include last resort measures of exclusion and deterrence of the bats where problems caused are unacceptable and other methods inappropriate. This clearly indicates that the law – as it is implemented – is not intended “to limit the ability of people to worship in a church that has been there for centuries”.
    It is a great shame that the Minister responsible for biodiversity could not bring himself to state why bat protection is important, to make clear that in most cases bats cause no problems by their presence in churches and that in the few cases where they do, the law does provide flexibility to find acceptable solutions.

    1. Jonathan – thank you. I’m not sure what the Minister meant by ‘those who imposed this directive on us’.

      Bats are protected by the Wildlife and countryside Act 1981 – one of the major achievements of a Conservative government.

      Bats are also protected by the Habitats Directive, drafted by Stanley (sire of Boris) Johnson (see Fighting for Birds page 88) who was a Tory MEP and approved by the Conservative government of John Major. Has this government got so into the habit of blaming everything on their predecessors that they can’t remember that past Conservative governments actually did do great things for the environment (including bats)? Or have I misunderstood?

  2. Genesis 1:21 – ‘And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good’. With the exception of bats it seems…

  3. With regards to the bat issue, it’s probably the most useful a chuch has ever been and don’t even get me started on why it should be respected!

    As to the e-petition on licensing grouse moors, call me naive, but I just can’t figure out why the number of signatures is so low. There seems to be so many people who feel so strongly about this issue but feel helpless when it comes to trying to combat this industry but when we have a chance to all come together and try no-one seems to bother. In these days of social media sharing nothing stays hidden for long and I am very certain a lot more people than 3000 have seen this, so what is going on? I mean even if one tenth of us RSPB supporters signed it, it would have over 100,000 signatures now!

    1. Sam – thank you for your comment. early days for the e-petition but I tend to agree with you.

  4. Caroline Lucas: “When will the secretary of state stop prevaricating”
    Mr Paterson: “Not today, or anytime soon. We may in fact need a bee cull following reports of ruined picnics and persistent irritating buzzing.”

  5. As a football fan like horse racing it is not wrong to take your mind away for a while and forget about all the problems the world seems to have but sadly you soon come back to them a specially as money and high finance is always close by. Take the churches and land that often goes with it [not always grave yards!] should they not be free for the communities that have used them for centuries to take over and run. Then they could save the bats and have community bee hives, solar panels, allotments etc!

  6. It is not just politicians any more. I have always believed that the police have a part to play in the protection of our environment whether natural or built. My local Police Commissioner referred to the environment in his draft plan when he sought “more Custody Visitors who undertake regular inspections of the custody
    environment”. This is the only time the word environment is mentioned in the whole document. I have just sent in my comments. If the police cannot be guided towards the environment as having any priority in their role whether it is wildlife crime or simply creating that feeling that lowers the fear of crime, then how are they expected to see the relevance of harriers and birds of prey going missing let alone protecting bats in churches (and that was needed in this county on one occasion).

  7. HI Mark this fat ball work shows a need to open a can of mealworms so to speak. Pity they did not take it further see the following links. http://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/Botanic/Page.aspx?p=27&ix=2844&pi..
    http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/news/exotic_tress_affect_breeding.html
    To stimulate further discussion here are a few initial thoughts i had drafted to a gardening friend but have not had time to research further:

    It would seem to suggest that the tit population overwintering in towns is unnaturally high, due to our feeding. Combined with our provision of nest boxes which probably provide more hole nest sites than occur “naturally” in such locations. The great tits apparently do not successfully provide recruits to the population. I guess the underweight blue tits can eventually top up on feeders. This seems to support what I think I read was the RSPB position (at least with tits) that the countryside population excess restocks the towns and cats have no overall effect on the population. Which on the face of it sounded like a stance taken so as not to alienate their cat loving supporters.
    It would be nice to know how tits work out the area of nest territory to defend. Maybe someone knows something from the Oxford work in Witham wood.
    Yes it would be nice if our gardens and towns were all native species but that is not what they are about. Anyway I thought the crisis with global warming for tits was that the blue tits chicks development due to nesting date and their preferred chick feed of oak caterpillars development were getting out of phase. So anything that is not an Oak wood is bad for them.
    The use of Wiken fen as a comparison seems a bit selective as I thought wetland was a much better source of insects than a dry Cambridge Parkland whatever it grew.
    I just wondered what other info is out there.

  8. I thought Countryfile was excellent last night. I think that the environment has a great friend and champion in Prince Charles. He seems to work effectively at all levels, from laying a hedge to adding his weight and influence to environmental issues. I certainly think that potentially as Head of State he will be fighting for nature more than most.

    1. The fat ball and blue tits scenario : I cannot see how this research can have been carried out in a way relevant to normal situations. After all blue tits feed on many other things than fat balls and also these fat balls contain much more than fat alone. As vitamin E is a requirement of egg production and vitamin E cannot be produced by animals within their bodies it is obvious that plant material need be consumed as well. Sunflower seeds are rich in vitamin E and most people who feed fat balls also feed sunflowers. A better scenario would have been to see if supplementary feed ing of fat to an already varied diet would help egg production which I am pretty well sure it would. Blue tits would be unlikely to consume fat balls if they had a detrimental effect on breeding success.
      The question about bats in churches discussed by the present government can only result in a cull being carried out!! Already here in Cumbria we have heard that a cull of 28 goosanders will be carried out on the River Derwent in Cumbria. This is possibly the total breeding population of this river. The problem with such a cull especially if carried out by the fishermen will be that it will be impossible to monitor the numbers killed. Will the government next call for a cull on ospreys because they also feed on fish ?
      Prince Charles is a great conservationist who is often unfairly maligned by many. I just wish he would come and teach Cumbrian farmers how to lay a hedge properly instead of in the lazy north cumbrian method that is used at present whereby a good wildlife hedge is decimated see here http://www.solwaycoastaonb.org.uk/hedgelaying.php

  9. “the intention of those who imposed this directive on us”

    http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/3/11/kremlin-watching.html

    in particular, Mike Jackson @11.21

    re Booker – I am searching evilBay for s/h generators so that I can go on working when the electricity rationing starts. Could be sooner than anticipated because the amount of wood fuel needed by Drax won’t last long and coal-burners are being shut down and the gas-burners need supplies from unstable regimes which are more likely to sell to the Chinese anyway and then we will be reliant on tidal which we don’t have, a small amount of hydro- and the futile windmills which were only producing 0.04% of our demand last week.

    Last week’s RBS ATM hiccup was just a canape. The main course is in the kitchen and it’s much later than we think.

  10. Huh, just when you think there isn’t another animal/creature for the government to target…bats! “Churches aren’t barns” really, so how come when a church is closed it’s turned into a house more often then not! Four churches near me 3 converted for housing and 1 is being used as a nursery school/community hall (like that one though) As for barns, sadly they can’t support bats as most of them have humans living in them these days!!
    I did watch Countryfile and there was one comment Prince Charles made about wildlife/enviroment and OUR relationship with it that gave me hope, but then I realised two things 1) Great PR team 2) What power does the monarchy have anyway? and apart from the cringey’ness of the presenters I came to watching the programme hoping to hate it but liked it (good PR team) though again there was comments about TB that raised my eyebrows but sadly he didn’t elaborate on the point (good PR team..again) overall I agree with Mark G has said, but can we trust/believe in it, remember Sandringham and the Hen Harrier??

    1. Talking of bats – Mrs C sent me to the naughty room after about 2 minutes of PoW’s Countryfile last night because she wanted to watch it in peace. There is a splendid piece about it at The Daily Mash. “Presenters Matt Baker and Julia Bradbury looked uncomfortable as the Prince bowed to a hawthorn bush and winked at a squirrel.”

  11. Hi Mark, great blog.
    Just one thing regarding the bats. Does Sir Baldry not realise that if his farmer friends hadn’t converted their ‘farm barns’ into des-res’ and holiday homes, the bats wouldn’t be in the churches.

  12. “historic English churches…medieval documents and other historic monuments…”?

    Riggghhhht.
    We’re talking history are we?
    Very good.
    Shouldn’t we, in that case, consider ALL history, including natural history?

    The “historic” churches, documents and monuments have been here a dozen hundred years or so – as a penitent nod to the invisible supernatural beings “we” decided to prostrate ourselves in front of, at the time.

    The supernatural bats, on the other hand, have been around for dozens of millions of years…

    They’ve moved into our belfries primarily as these structures are ideal habitats for them – and also as a result of their ancient roost sites (large gnarled trees etc) being felled or falling down, to make pews or pulpits, possibly.

    You know, I’d always thought of myself as a liberal atheist (live & let live, yadda yadda yadda) but more and more now I seem to be becoming a hard-line.

    I’m just getting bored of all the religious hand-wringing (and bell ringing for that matter).

    Without, I hope, sounding too much like Viz’s “Mr.Logic”: an opinion (or belief) based on logical inconsistencies (or indeed devoid of logic) deserves little respect.

    I say lets de-establish the church – a boys club (let’s face it) of fairy tales which was designed by a few mortal men up to 2000 years ago, in order to keep themselves and their kind “in power”.

    It’s completely irrelevant and somewhat embarrassing these days (some might say far worse than that).

    And by the way…take your (stinking) bishops (who we didn’t vote for) out of our Parliament too.

    Yes.
    I guess my days of liberal atheism are behind me now.

  13. Mark, One extra comment, having just come back from probably a last view of smew this spring. I was on the edge of the Cotswolds and it was bitter. If you are going to Cheltenham in this temperature, best of luck.

    1. Julian
      I wasn’t talking about coppicing but the north cumberland method of hedgelaying whereby it takes around 5 years before you have a good wildlife friendly hedge once more

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