Seeing the Changes 618

On the banks of the River Loughor, at Bynea, there was Sea aster (Aster tripolium), actually with some of the outer, purple petals still attached. There was also Glasswort (Salicornia europaea).

The Fall and Fall of the Water Vole

Yet another study confirms that the UK population of Water voles (Arvicola terrestris) continues to plummet (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/06/water-vole-population-slump). This
 present account suggests that numbers have declined by a further 20 percent and lays much of 
the blame at the door of the alien North American mink (they seem to find Water voles both 
delicious and easy to catch). I suspect that the picture is more complex as habitat degradation 
must play a role and there are other carnivores out there including Grey heron and otters.

Seeing the Changes 617

It's an excellent year for fruit and in Bynea there were masses of sloe, the berries of the Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa). A good year for gin?

Moths or Tree?

My Silver birch has an infestation of Buff tip moth (Phalera bucephala) larvae. I like the tree but I also like the moths!

Seeing the Changes 616

In Bynea, Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica), Britain's most hated alien plant, was in flower.

Lake District Down the Plug Hole?

There is a somewhat jaundiced article by George Monbiot (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/02/lake-district-wildlife-desert-blame-wordsworth) on yet another application from the Lake District to be granted UNESCO World Heritage Status. His basic point (for which I have a deal of sympathy) is that agriculture (in this case sheep farming on the hills) has largely created a 'wildlife desert' (although even 'deserts' benefit certain species). The sheep have certainly denuded the location of its original trees and most substantial plants (actions that would certainly make the area uninhabitable for many animal species).  Monbiot freely admits that the Lake District is associated with some of the early enthusiasms for  environmental issues but feels that the pastoral enthusiasms of Wordsworth and Ruskin were a result of looking at this world through rosé-tinted spectacles in their times. Hill farming, he points out, requires big subsidies and limits the numbers of people required (perhaps not wholly a bad thing?). Granting the location World Heritage Status would probably further fix things in aspic?

Ocean Hiatus

There is news (http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/how-the-pacific-has-put-global-warming-on-hold-but-not-for-long-8788403.html) that global warming is occurring somewhat more slowly than anticipated by the computer models. This is thought to be due to the deep oceans absorbing some of the heat. The effect is, however, only likely to act for a short time and the precise consequences to climate change of changing the temperatures of deep waters are distinctly uncertain. I suspect that enthusiasts for non-renewables will try to use this information to deny that there is any real problem.