#721: Get your Grubby Guide

Via Tom Morgan Jones, who illustrated the Mission:Explore books that we worked on together.

He has now worked with NatureScot on a Grubby Guide to nature. It can be downloaded from this link. ) PDF download

It's part of their Wildly Close work.

I've previously blogged about how useful the NatureScot materials will be for those teaching GCSE Natural History.

#720: Plastic grass

One threat to biodiversity in urban spaces is the current penchant for artifical grass

A Guardian piece on the plastic grass that can be found in many areas. Although it only makes up a small percentage of garden space, that's still a lot of plastic.

One possible activity for students would be to hunt out such examples in the local area and put together a short leaflet which can outline the issues of this material.

#719: The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)

The latest in a series of posts on organisations which aim to protect some aspect of Natural History, and who may be connected with the work of some schools.

The British Trust for Ornithology is the UK's leading charity working with volunteers to improve our knowledge of birds through monitoring and research.

Birds are a way in to exploring a number of habitats and require particular habitats to thrive: giving them a food supply and place to live.

They are also likely to be seen on any school site through the school year.

The BTO website is here.

I live in Norfolk and have long been familiar with the BTO observation point at Holme Beach.

#718: Whipple Museum, Cambridge

Another possible place to visit for fieldtrips. 

We will add this to the list of possible places to visit with students which 

The Whipple Museum is in Cambridge.

There's also a great display of globes for the geographers...

#717: Norfolk Rivers Trust

I mentioned before about the Norfolk Rivers Trust.

It's important that if you are thinking of teaching the new specification when it emerges that you are seeking help from appropriate organisations to develop the skills that are required.

Your local organisations will be great sources of information.

The Norfolk Rivers Trust is my local Trust.

They have a page for each river in Norfolk.

Mine is the River Nar.

#716: Hedgehog Street

When was the last time you saw a hedgehog?

This website wants to know..

We know hedgehogs are in trouble. We’ve lost a third of all our hedgehogs since the millennium.

Hedgehogs love gardens, and fortunately there are around half a million hectares of garden in the UK. We know what hedgehogs need to survive in gardens.

Hedgehogs need access to lots of gardens to survive, so we are encouraging everyone to cooperate.
Our Hedgehog Champions

That’s where you come in. More than 100,000 Hedgehog Champions are registered on this website, forming a vibrant and enthusiastic community. Champions help us make a real difference for hedgehogs all over the country.

#715: Board Games - a way in to exploring ecosystems

Board games are having a moment. There is a growing number of board games, and outlets. Ely High Street has a new board games shop called Odyssey Games, which has a good collection of games of different formats. There are also board game cafes where people gather and play games as a collaborative way to spend the evening.

Some games are made available on Kickstarter / crowdfunding sites. One of them is called Gamefound. Retailers such as Zazu Games do a roaring trade in board games.

Some are card based. Others have vast numbers of components and come in very chunky boxes. 

My Facebook page currently has regular ads for a new board game called 'Arctica'. It reached its $50 000 goal in just 20 minutes.

It sounds like it might be a useful resource for exploring changing ecosystems in Polar regions - for Natural History but also KS3 geography as well.

Other board games that might be of interest for Natural History / ecosystems include:

• Ecosystem
• Cascadia
• Canopy
• Mycelia
• Wingspan
• Forest Shuffle
• Meadow
• Photosynthesis
• Biome

Another option is for the students to develop their own board / card games with a Natural History theme.

Any board games that I've missed out? 

Which ones do you think have actual potential to become real classroom resources or extension activities to embed knowledge about how ecosystems function?

#714: ALAN is a real problem

ALAN is Artificial Lighting at Night (ALAN)

It creates an ever-increasing threat to wildlife. Light pollution has increased so much from residences, public infrastructure, and industrial activity, that 80% of the world population live under skyglow and nearly every European cannot experience a natural night sky.
Invertebrates can be especially affected by ALAN, including their feeding, migration and dispersal, predator avoidance and reproduction. These impacts can potentially have sustained consequences on insect diversity and the ecosystem services that they provide. Globally 64% of invertebrates live partially or wholly at night, and they face a particularly great threat from light pollution.

Lighting is needed in many instances for road and pedestrian safety, but excessive light pollution can, and should, be reduced. National light pollution metrics and targets are the key to changing direction.

Source: https://www.wcl.org.uk/we-need-to-talk-about-alan.asp

#713: Eels

I work in Ely - a city named after eels, and with a cathedral whose construction was partly funded by the sale of them. They used to be plentiful but now they are in steep decline.

This BBC article traces the epic journey of the European Eel.

It looks at the work of the Somerset Ely Recovery Project.

European eels begin life in the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda and drift 5,000km (3,106 miles) to Britain in an "epic" journey marvelled at by experts. But due to changes to their habitat and migration routes, the species is now classed as critically endangered, with about 90% fewer compared to the 1980s.

Campaigners say the eels have been suffocated by water engineering, while the Environment Agency said it was working with partners to improve fish passage at more than 100 migration barriers.

Activists say for the eels, it is crucial more action is taken to improve their journey routes to save them from extinction.

One group, based in the West of England, is also hoping to boost people's knowledge of the creature in a bid to reverse its decline.

#712: The Biodiversity Issue

Last weekend's Observer had a special issue of The New Review section.

I'm just catching up with its contents..

It contains a range of interesting contents which would be of interest potentially for topics which are likely to appear in the GCSE Natural History.

They include an interview and 8 new poems from Poet Laureate Simon Armitage (a geography graduate).

The poems are about wildlife and animals.

There's also a piece from Simon Barnes, and another from Katherine Rundell - the best-selling author. 

Image: Alan Parkinson

#711: New Royal Entomological Society HQ

Via LinkedIn

I was interested to see the dramatic and very nicely laid out new HQ and library of the Royal Entomological Society. 

This has been set up as a destination for people - including members - to come and learn more about insects, which is a good use of a HQ: to open it out more as a museum and living space.

710: River Trent - from source to sea

A lovely new film from the Wildlife Trusts.

The immersive 'A River Speaks' explores the cultural significance of rivers across the UK and the growing pressures they, and the communities who live and work alongside them, face. 

Voiced by Line of Duty actor Vicky McClure, this film gives a voice to our wonderful rivers. The film follows the River Trent from source to sea, showcasing the conservationists, farmers, schoolchildren and communities working to restore its health and reconnect people with the river.

#709: FSC's Biodiversity Shorts

Biodiversity Shorts are a series of webinars that delve into a range of natural history topics, with live discussion and tuition from an expert tutor. All webinars will be hosted on Zoom, and they will be approximately one hour long, including time for questions from participants.

Find out more here.

#708: Natural History Playlist #6: Appalachian Spring

Originally written for a Martha Graham ballet.

A wonderfl evocation of landscape....

One of the finest pieces of music ever composed.... and one I could listen to any time...

#707: A requiem for Sycamore Gap

Robert MacFarlane has finished work on “The World Tree”, the libretto for a long choral work originally inspired by the felling of the Sycamore Gap Tree.

Matthew Whittall and Robert Macfarlane’s large-scale choral work The World Tree traces an arc from the Ice Age to the present day from the perspective of a single tree, and stands as a powerful statement against humanity’s callous exploitation of nature.

The CD came out on Friday this week....

In 2025 Robert MacFarlane  wrote:

My text is currently being set to music by the Finnish-Canadian composer Matthew Whittall, and will have its premiere in Finland in November this year, performed by the @helsinginkamarikuoro and conducted by Nils Schweckendiek. We expect it to travel subsequently, including for performance on or near Hadrian’s Wall itself.

In the text, I pull the temporal lens right back to the re-beginning of trees and forests at the end of the Pleistocene & the beginning of the Holocene: the first movement is called “Glacial Maximum”. I am interested as much in the longue durée of human-forest relations in Northern Europe as in the acute intensity of the Sycamore Gap Tree’s felling, and the outpouring of love, grief & anger it prompted. The final movement, which borrows its title from the great Ursula Le Guin, is called “The Word for World Is Forest”, and imagines a future forest flourishing on the uplands where that one tree once stood.

Between these two movements come eight others with titles such as “Wildwood”, “Song of the Axe” and “Pollen: a Polyphony”. Matthew is working at white-hot intensity on the score as I type, and the early music I am hearing from him is extraordinary.

And Whittall said:

“I didn’t want to produce simply yet another contribution to the climate debate. 

My original idea was to write some kind of nature-related work, a setting of an original English text, and back in 2019 I contacted the English writer Robert Macfarlane, whose natural-philosophical works I have long admired. To my great excitement, he was keen on the idea of a collaboration, but then the pandemic came along and a whole array of other things got in the way too, and when we eventually returned to the idea in 2023, the iconic Sycamore Gap Tree on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, England, had recently been illegally felled by a pair of eco-vandals. In light of this, it felt logical to let the piece form a kind of requiem for the tree in particular and man’s often destructive relationship with nature in general. 

When Macfarlane showed me the first drafts of the text, we quickly realised that the overall piece needed a deeper approach, even if its central idea remained the same.”

#706: Voles

From the recent newsletter from the Norfolk Wildlife Trust.

"Thanks to £25,000 funding from Natural England, we’re embarking on a research project in partnership with Norfolk Rivers Trust that holds the key to a brighter future for Norfolk’s water voles."

Water voles were once commonplace throughout Norfolk’s waterways but suffered a dramatic decline in the last half of the twentieth century. A major factor in this was predation by mink, a species which has now largely disappeared across Norfolk. This gives us a unique opportunity to return the species to its former glory throughout Norfolk’s waterways.

After first discovering where small populations of these furry, river-dwelling species currently live within the Wensum and Yare rivers, we’ll identify where new water vole habitat can be created to help the isolated populations reconnect with each other.

Our research will inform a series of actions for land managers and decision-makers living and working along the rivers. We’ll offer guidance and workshops, bringing communities together to help the charismatic species flourish throughout the county once again.

#705: Timeline

From the Cambridge OCR Hub.

Still quite a few unknowns...

#704: Rebecca Solnit piece

Meditations in an Emergency is the website where author Rebecca Solnit shares pieces and essays.

In a recent piece, Solnit writes a letter from a hot planet.

#703: Animals on banknotes

Following a public vote, which attracted over 2 million votes in total, four animals have been selected to appear on English banknotes. The bumble bee got the most votes.

UK wildlife on England’s banknotes, from the Bank of England.

The Atlantic puffin, barn owl, buff-tailed bumblebee and European hedgehog will represent UK wildlife and feature as the central images on our next series of banknotes.

The decision comes after nearly 500,000 people responded to a public consultation asking which native wildlife they would like to see on our banknotes. They chose from a shortlist of 18 options across three categories – mammals; birds; and amphibians, insects and fish – developed in collaboration with a panel of UK wildlife experts.

The Bank used the feedback from the consultation to decide on the four animals, one for each denomination of banknote. The selected animals meet the Bank’s objectives for a distinctive set of banknotes that can support counterfeit resilience and are representative of the UK.

The barn owl (Tyto alba), buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) and European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) were the most popular animals in their respective categories. The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) was selected because it was the most popular marine animal. The inclusion of a marine animal will add variety to the series, making the denominations easier to distinguish and will provide an opportunity to celebrate the British coastline.

The decision on which animal will feature on which denomination will be made in due course and announced closer to launch. While the selected animals will feature as the central imagery for the next series, the banknotes will also feature other elements from nature to complete the designs, potentially including other shortlisted animals. The next series will continue to include a portrait of the monarch.

It takes a number of years to design, test and print banknotes, to make sure they are high-quality, resilient and accessible. The expectation is, therefore, that the first denomination from the next series will be launched over the next few years.

#702: Drought

Drought is a threat to many native species and is therefore connected to natural history.

Droughts are defined differently depending on location.

From the DEFRA website.

There isn’t a single definition for drought so whilst it’s caused by a period of low rainfall, the nature, timing and impacts on people, the environment, agriculture or business will vary.

Some droughts are short and intense, caused by a hot, dry summer. Others are long and take time to develop over multiple seasons due to low amounts of rainfall accumulating.

The main types of drought, which may occur separately or together are:

• Agricultural drought – when there isn’t enough rainfall and moisture in soils to support crop production or farming practices such as spray irrigation.
• Environmental drought – when lack of rainfall has a detrimental impact on the environment and ecology.
• Water supply drought – when a lack of rainfall leads to concerns from water companies about supplies for their customers.

The Summer of 2022 saw a prolonged drought, which had a great impact on grass everywhere. 2026 was worse....

Grass is at least fairly tolerant of drought as it grows in a particular way which means it is often protected from threats such as drought and fire.

Other plants are perhaps less tolerant, and it was a struggle to keep some plants alive.

Image: Alan Parkinson