Natur Cymru

Issue 35

Brown Hairstreak butterflies in Wales

Butterflies are day-flying, visually striking insects that you can’t miss. Or are they? Hairstreaks are hard to observe, and it has taken much dedication by a group of volunteers to find out more about the rarest of the four species of Hairstreak in Wales, the Brown Hairstreak. The result has been a breakthrough in our knowledge of where they are and efforts to manage their blackthorn habitat, as RICHARD SMITH and RUSSEL HOBSON describe.

Summary

Transition Network logo

Transition Wales

If we think about it, most of us feel somewhat apprehensive about the future, knowing that we face an energy crisis when oil starts to run out, and that natural resources are finite but they are being exploited as if they will last for ever. What’s to be done about it? A new movement is finding a way to bring local communities together to find their own answers to sustainable living, as HUW JENKINS reports.

ECN monitoring (c) CCW

Environmental monitoring on Snowdon

Long-term monitoring at the Environmental Change Network site on Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon began in 1995. After 15 years recording, ALEX TURNER considers what has been found and what the future of monitoring here might hold.

Detectives at work (c) Alastair Robertson

Inspired by Nature competition winner

Extract from a Victorian Diary

RICHARD BIRCH has brought to our attention the following document; the remarkable powers of observation and deduction revealed therein are of lasting interest to the naturalist.

Mynydd Illtud, Brecon Beacons (c) Harold E. Grenfell

Brecon Beacons - New Naturalist

Author of Gower, the highly regarded New Naturalist about his former home patch, JONATHAN MULLARD has embarked on a second New Naturalist, this time on the Brecon Beacons. Here he describes the mountainous region which is his subject, and invites readers to contribute their own experiences of natural history in the Beacons.

Cottongrass (c) Mike Alexander

Making monitoring count

The National Trust is the largest landowner of important wildlife habitat in Wales, but managing this huge resource is not as straightforward as it might seem. Monitoring can be a huge help if it is tied into the practical management of the land, as SARAH MELLOR explains.

Ringlets (c) Jim Asher/Butterfly Conservation

Agri-environment scheme breaks up

Schemes like Tir Gofal, which pay farmers to maintain and increase the biodiversity of their farms, have not solved the problem of biodiversity loss, but they have been an important step in the right direction. Now all the gains may be at risk with the ending of Tir Gofal, and the introduction of a new, amalgamated two-tier scheme called Glastir. SIMON SPENCER reports from a farm in mid-Wales.

Kingfisher (c) Arfon Thomas

Inspired by Nature runner up

The Art of seeing kingfishers

CHRIS KINSEY delights with a personal account of getting to know kingfishers.