UK Nature Blog

Where did all the garden birds go?

I have passed comment a few times over recent months about the lonely existence of my bird feeders this winter. There have been plenty of similar mumurings from other sources and the BBC picked up on it afresh today. Basically the birds are probably happily noshing down in the countryside since it's been so mild. A very cold week has just begun so it will be interesting to see whether that makes any difference.

Big Garden Birdwatch - right now!

I've been remiss and failed to notice that the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch was happening this weekend, though it got plenty of mentions in the news today. The light is fading on Saturday but if you can find an hour on Sunday then settle down and watch the birds for an hour.

Full details at the RSPB's website, complete with downloadable recording sheet. The mild weather might mean there are fewer than usual in the garden, as the birds are happily surviving in the countryside without needing our feeders.

300+ uknatureblog followers on Twitter

Recently UKNB racked up its 300th Twitter follower and is already up to 312 after a strong surge in the last week. Sign up to receive a tweet every time an article is posted: http://twitter.com/#!/uknatureblog.

And feel free to use Twitter to get in touch with comments and photos.

Autumnwatch starts tonight!

As I mentioned once before Autumnwatch is nearly upon us. In fact as I write this it's a mere 15 minutes away, so settle down with your beverage of choice, watch the end of Gardeners' World and prepare to manage with Kate Humble.

I wonder if this year's unusual weather will mean that they're got some unusual stories as a result.

Extreme weather tricks UK flowers

I've noticed a resurgence in many flowers in my garden, with a healthy crop of new leaves and flower spikes pushing up from the lupins that I only cut back a few months ago, expecting them to lie dormant until the spring. I'm not the only one noticing this, with the BBC posting an article and a separate video on the topic. It's fair to say that it's been an odd year weather-wise with extreme heat in May, a lacklustre 'summer' and now heat again as we head towards October.

Apparently we're also in for a colourful Autumn more generally, as the weather patterns should result in vivid leaf colours, which are already apparent in many cases.

Autumnwatch: Strachan + Packham dream team

Autumnwatch returns to our screens from Friday 7 October at 8.30pm on BBC Two. The big news this time around is that Kate Humble is no more and will be replaced by Michaela Strachan, hence reforming the Really Wild Show dream team with Chris Packham. I fully expect Terry Nutkins to get involved next year! Martin Hughes-Games reprises his role as the likeable layman - kind of like Alan Davies on QI.

The live shows will be coming from the National Arboretum at Westonbirt for the first four weeks, then the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Slimbridge reserve for the final four.

More information courtesy of the BBC.

iPhone game - Honey Tribe: Colony Collapse

I was recently approached by the maker of an iPhone game asking if I'd like to review it here. Having played it intently on the train over the past few weeks, I can thoroughly recommend it and can confirm that it's definitely relevant to a nature blog!

Honey Tribe: Colony Collapse (iTunes link) is a delightful tale of a drone bee asked to save a colony suffering from colony collapse disorder. The game is a side scroller as our hero tries to collect pollen whilst evading many and varied threats. I was a bit confused at first that you can only control his movement up and town (touch to flap wings) as it wasn't completely obvious, but once I'd figured that out I was fine. A lot of its appeal is courtesy of its simple control scheme combined with fast pace and increasing challenges, making it easy to get into but hard to put down.

The graphics are hand drawn with a homespun charm and the music's apparently very good too but I didn't have headphones so I played it with the sound off! Woven into the game is an evolving story of the challenges faced by the hive, laced with facts about bees and their world. It's appropriate and fun for any age but children might especially like it and learn a little something too.

At £1.49 I recommend it. More information on iTunes app store or via the Honey Tribe website. A free LITE version is also available if you just want to give it a go.

Pro Dono - meet your heroes

An interesting non-profit organisation was brought to my attention recently, called Pro Dono. They have a very simple premise - pay to meet your heroes (out of a bunch they have on their roster) and said hero donates that money to a cause of their choice, minus 7% admin fee from Pro Dono, but hopefully plus gift aid - so adding up to more than you actually paid. You can do whatever you want with said hero, as long as they're up for it.

They have 85 admired public figures lined up, raising money for 75 charities. Several of these are wildlife specialists such as Johnny Kingdom, the wildlife filmmaker, Sue Flood, a specialist in polar and marine environments, and keen birdwatcher and columnist Simon Barnes, who is raising money for the World Land Trust. I recently finished reading one of Simon's books on birdwatching as it happens - which I should blog about another time.

Our Rivers survey

The Our Rivers campaign is running a national survey about local rivers. The survey is online and only takes a couple of minutes to complete (I just did so).

If you've not come across this organisation before, which I hadn't, they were apparently formed in 2009, led by WWF-UK, RSPB, the Angling Trust and the Salmon and Trout Association. They are on a mission to take up the slack left by the government in its ambitions for Britain's rivers.

Nature is worth billions to UK

The BBC has an article detailing a new report that attempts to put a price on the head of nature in the UK. A ridiculous undertaking you may think, but it finds that nature is worth "billions" to the UK and that simply living near to a green space is worth £300 per person in health benefits.

This sort of thinking may help our green (and other non-concrete-coloured) spaces to stand up and be counted when developments are being considered. Before this landmark report 'environmental impact' would be somewhat grudgingly considered because it's generally felt to be the right thing to do, but now there's some more weight and specific understanding behind the need for nature and its value to all of us.