An early moth came to the light in Loughor. In spite of the claim that the cold winter had delayed the flowering of many plants, in Swansea, Hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta), Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) and Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) were all in bloom.
At the National Wetland Centre Wales, the Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) were scrapping. The Ne-ne (Branta sandvicensis) had produced four goslings.
The first female flower of the Hazel (Corylus avellana) and Forsythia were out in Penclacwydd. There was also evidence of the current local obsession with grassland fires (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8557019.stm). The people who set them often claim they are only attempting to remove undergrowth of gorse and bramble (controlled fire can be helpful in e.g. heathland management to prevent transition to woodland). Fire crews and property-holders often complain about the danger to individuals, agricultural animals and property. What often appears to be forgotten is that the timing of these fires could have a very negative impact on emerging insects, amphibia and reptiles in this location.
It has been claimed (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/07/extinction-species-evolve) that human impacts are generating a wave of extinctions of species worse than that evident when a collision with a large meteorite seemingly accounted for most of the dinosaurs. The basic problem is said to be that the changes put in train by our species are so fast that animals and plants cannot evolve fast enough to deal with them. Some of the recent 'good news stories' in conservation seem to carry the seeds of their own destruction. For example, a pride of 16 lions in South Africa is threatened with destruction because the owners of their reserve cannot afford the meat to feed them (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/08/game-reserve-lions-face-death). Mountain gorillas in the Congo are said to receiving new help (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/08/mountain-gorillas-drc-congo-virunga) after the impact of war in the region but I am a bit dubious about attempting to reconstitute a complex gorilla society with a juvenile pair of animals.
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I notice from the news that they have decided not to heed my advice about the potential dangers of attempting to biological control Japanese knotweed by using an alien psyllid insect(http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/mar/09/moth-kill-knotweed). The psyllid is not a moth (it's more closely related to greenfly and scale insects and we know how good they are for plants!). Even more scary is the fact that the sap-sucker (which it is hoped will stick exclusively to knotweed) is being used to introduce a fungal pathogen to the target plants. I appreciate that Japanese knotweed is a very serious alien problem itself, causing lots of damage (especially around the Swansea area) but approximately 50% of attempts at biological control have produced real problems. Horrors include the introduction of the diurnal Mongoose to Hawaii in an attempt to control nocturnal rats in Sugarcane fields leading to the decimation of endemic ground nesting birds. The Cane toad, in turn, was transported to Australia to deal with a damaging beetle in the same crop but ended up killing many unique reptiles and mammals. I appreciate that these are 'old news' and that things are better planned nowadays but I feel that it is very difficult to prevent agents escaping from trial areas. It is also hard to predict precise impacts of these alien agents in the real world. I do hope that my fears are unfounded.
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It must be spring, the buds of the Horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) are bursting in Loughor! Also invaded by a large Bumble bee (Bombus terrestris). On the Gower, fires were burning in the undergrowth and the lambing was well underway.
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