Join the Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend

Bowdleflode News No. 33 – February 2021

From January 29—31 twitchers (bird-watchers) can take part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, the world’s largest wildlife survey.  Wildlife watchers are invited to spend an hour each day taking a note of the birds visiting their garden and outdoor spaces and to submit notes, photos or footage online.  Last year an impressive 7,200 people contributed to the project.

House sparrows were the most spotted bird in Oxfordshire in 2020 – despite the fact that they are in national decline – followed by blue tits and starlings.  Blue tits are common, thanks to people putting out food and putting up nesting boxes.  They are on the rise nationwide. Other birds in the top 10 in 2020 were goldfinches and long-tailed tits.

For many people, garden birds provide a vital connection to the wider world and bring a lot of joy.  Lockdown brought few benefits, but the last year has either started or reignited a love of nature for many.  By taking part in the Birdwatch you are helping to build an annual snapshot of how birdlife is doing across the UK.  The data collected by the survey aims to show how they have fared since the project started more than 40 years ago.

New species at Marwell Zoo 

Marwell Zoo in Hampshire recently welcomed a group of bantengs to the zoo! Keepers report that Dewi, Anisa, Jin and Henky are settling in well.

These fascinating herbivores are found throughout the tropical forests of Southeast Asia.  They are often mistaken for domestic cattle because they’re very similar in size and in their general impression.  In fact they are everything domestic cattle aren’t!

Banteng are one of the few remaining species of totally wild bovids in the world.  The behaviour of the banteng is unique because they spend the majority of their time in dense remote forests.  They emerge at night and in the early morning, to forage on grasses growing at the edge of the forest or in glades. They are incredibly elusive and very rarely sighted.  Classed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, there are thought to be less than 8,000 left in the wild.

The Mangrove Miracle

Mangrove swamp from the air

It’s no secret that the forests of the world have been under pressure from human activities for some time now. We tend to only think of tropical forests, like the Amazon, as bearing the brunt of the impacts of deforestation and other drivers of forest clearance. But there is another forest type that has been subject to more degradation and destruction than any forest type on Earth over the last 50 years: mangrove forests.

Flooded mangrove swamp

Mangrove roots