Natu ral World News from across the UK Summer 2016 Look what’s new in Sir David Attenborough opens in Hackney

A bat safari – in a punt! Ten great ways to get close to bats Rummage in a rockpool The perfect holiday pastime for all ages The science of being outdoors How nature soothes our souls and mends our cells chris granger biggest-ever youthproject Trusts embarkon T create opportunities for young people and improve and young environment for people our create opportunities Over next seven Future will the improve Bright social Our cohesion, years, thriving economy,thriving abrighter future. a ahealthy planet, theirs: rightfully take what is and step up them help to UK, across the people young 50,000 and organisations 100 together brings It projects. Future of 31 Bright consists Our partners, of eight byrun aconsortium environmental problems systemic society’s by addressing people young for of opportunities lack the Future Bright to aims Our tackle leaders. WORLD 2 NATURAL UK NEWS UK Backed by the Big Lottery Fund and Fund and by Lottery Big the Backed next generation of environmental of environmental generation next to create programme the £33m Wildlife Trustshe a are leading S u . mme r 2016 nature it has never been more important. important. more nature never it been has pressure on With increasing people. young of our resilience and inspiration creativity, the fuels programme “This Wildlife Trusts. of The CEO Hilborne, create Stephanie positive said change,” for business for choice real “Every generation has what it takes to what it to takes has generation “Every economy is a economy a is green The is a real choice for business.” for is choice areal economy green that the makers decision to show projects of the success the Future Bright will use Our time “In Fund. Lottery Big of the Chair UK Ainsworth, to agrowing economy,” Peter said skills crucial employment the developing whilst –ahealthy planet, theirs take what is rightfully people young better.” the for world our to empowered change leaders wise of courageous, to ageneration see We coin. want same of the are sides two challenges environmental and Societal

“These youth-led projects will help will help projects youth-led “These Wood (see box story, right) story, box (see Wood Young people on a straw astraw on people Young workshop at Hill Holt Holt Hill at workshop bale construction construction bale Latest UK-wide news and issues: wildlifetrusts. org/news

Four Our Bright Future projects Hackney transformed Your Shore Beach Rangers In life, it is all too easy to take things for granted. I grew up near Young people will increase some woods and was allowed to their knowledge of the venture wherever I wanted. I took marine ecosystem and be this contact with the natural world more aware of their ability as a given, running wild with my to make a positive brothers and friends. It wasn’t until my twenties contribution to the health of that I realised how lucky I had been. their marine environment. By then I was living in the most nature-deprived They will also improve their part of north London. The lifeless, closely-mown

employment prospects grass and wide tarmac paths of the local formal

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through increased life skills. wall park didn’t do it for me. I paced the streets until I

rn o C found a tiny little pocket of wild land at Gillespie Park, and would walk for miles along the canal to Bee You Camley Street Natural Park. blackbuRne house education In 2016 something spectacular changed in this

blackbuR area. A real wildlife oasis, hidden from the public Bee You will train young for nearly 200 years was opened up: Woodberry people in the art of

n Wetlands. A reservoir surrounded by reeds and e beekeeping along with

house teaching entrepreneurial skills paths where wild plants, insects and birds thrive, to help take honey and other all about 500 yards from my first flat.t I had been products to market. The there all along. But it wasn’t until London Wildlife project will help to improve Trust inspired Thames Water to open the gates local neighbourhood green and drew in Berkeley Homes and Heritage Lottery spaces and make them better Fund that everything changed. for wildlife. Local children, deprived of so much that I took for granted when I was their age, now have somewhere to play that is alive with wildlife. Now they can see herons and hear reed warblers on Milestones their doorstep. Our President Emeritus was there to hail the Milestones will help young opening of Woodberry. “It’s David Attenborough!” people to build trust and a child shrieked in amazement as the great man foster an appreciation with the environment through the walked along the path. “No-one at school will creation of community green believe I’ve seen him here!” spaces. This approach has Sir David explained that he valued this place as been shown to have beneficial much as he valued the rainforest; that he believed effects on well-being, the courtship rituals of the great crested grebe to

behaviour and social be as fascinating as those of birds of paradise; that

wt e integration. r our natural heritage was the most special inheritance we have; that everyone deserved to wiltshi know and love wildlife, and that Northeast Londoners should be no exception. Thanks to Growing Up Green , they aren’t any more. hill holt wood Thank you so much for supporting your Wildlife

holthill woo This project focuses on Trust to make such transformations possible. environmental land management and eco-

d construction, to build young people’s engagement with both their natural and built Stephanie Hilborne OBE environment. Starting in Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts Lincolnshire, it will expand into other counties, developing valuable skills for Together there are 47 Wildlife Trusts covering the UK, all a wide range of young people. working for an environment rich in wildlife for everyone, on land and at sea. Contact us on [email protected] or 01636 677711. To join your Wildlife Trust, visit wildlifetrusts.org/joinus. Natural World, The Kiln, find out more Waterside, Mather Road, Newark, Notts NG24 1WT. See all 31 projects at ourbrightfuture.co.uk. Editor Rupert Paul Layout editor Dan Hilliard Cover: Young people can get involved via the David Attenborough at Woodberry Wetlands, London. website, or email ourbrightfuture@ Photograph by Penny Dixie wildlifetrusts.org twitter @wildlifetrusts facebook.com/wildlifetrusts

SUMMER 2016 NATURAL WORLD 3 UK NEWS UK’s most-travelled dolphin? Research assisted by Cornwall Wildlife French fishermen named the ragged- Trust reveals one lone bottlenose finned dolphin Clet when he first dolphin’s incredible wanderlust followed their boats in 2008. Since then, the solitary male bottlenose has been seen as far north as the Isle of Mull, and as far west as Galway. He’s also visited Wales, the Isle of Man, Scilly, Dorset, Cornwall and Devon. His wanderings have been mapped by the Environmental Records Centre for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, working with the Sea Watch Foundation. The Records Centre is hostedThe by seas Cornwall around the Wildlife UK are Trust,home toand a has collatedhugely diverse sightings array ofover marine the speciespast including 29 species of whale, dolphin five andyears. porpoise (known collectively as Mostcetaceans) bottlenose and the dolphins second largestlive in shark socialin groups,the world and – the stick basking to ashark. home territory.Conserving They suchface mobilegrowing creatures threats fromrequires noise disturbance, knowledge and development understanding and accidentalof what species capture are there, in fishing their nets. The Trustdistributions, believes population Marine ecology,Protected Areasmigration combined routes, with breeding local actionand mortality. to reduceSadly, these historical threats records are theshow best that waywhale, to protectdolphin, highly porpoise mobile and basking species. shark populations are significantly lower than Meanwhilethey once pleasewere. They report are also any under new sightings of Clet to Niki.Clear@ CornwallWildlifeTrust.org.uk. More on cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk Surfing the Mull-to-Arran ferry. Clet’s damaged dorsal fin makes him easy to identify

Dec 2014

Clet’s travels The records centre has ust collated data on Clet from Dec 2014

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ng Spring 2011, when he was off m ela the coast of Brittany. Since Oct 2014

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n W be wandering due to hostility shaw ea Sep 2014 d i from other bottlenose r eb Showing off at Fowey, Cornwall. Clet usually dolphins. Full sightings map

, H Aug 2015 is v seems to appreciate human company on erccis.org.uk/TrackingClet Apr 2014 Nick Da

Online guide to summer wildlife Summer is the perfect time to worm, staking out a badger sett, immerse yourself in wildlife lounging with a lizard, making a – and our new ‘Top Wildlife splash with gannets, or falling n Experiences’ guide is bursting for THE fastest bird? These and with ideas on how you can do it. many more are on n ewto Puffins: simply irresistible Fancy delighting in a glow wildlifetrusts.org/lovewildlife. e ynn l

4 NATURAL WORLD SUMMER 2016 to ny ha ny Any flower that m Plant a bat attracts moths bli like this elephant n/ flpa feast! hawk attracts bats too The RHS, Bat Conservation Trust and The Wildlife Trusts have have joined forces to encourage everybody to make steps to help bats in their area. For example, planting flowers in your garden which attract night insects, such as honeysuckle, evening primrose, globe artichoke and eryngium will make the perfect bat feast! Find out how to help bats in your garden with the new FREE online guide Stars of the Night, available on wildaboutgardens.org.uk ste v e cheshi r

Farming for e wildlife

The Wildlife Trusts are setting out on a new partnership with Jordans Cereals, who have a long history of wildlife- friendly farming. Now their 42 farms, totalling 44,500 acres, will build on that heritage with advice from experts at their local Wildlife Trust, making a landscape- scale contribution to wildlife and communities. The Jordans Farm Partnership will create a model for UK farm sustainability and set new standards Under new management: for nature-friendly farming. For a chance Bubbenhall Wood Look out for our badger to win a case of Jordans granolas see logo on Jordans cereals jordanscereals.co.uk/wildlife. later in the summer Boost for in Warwickshire A crucial new purchase by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust has filled in the gap between two existing reserves to create an area of woodland and bigger than Hyde Park. “We now own or manage over 1000ha of wild space in Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull, for the benefit of people and wildlife,” said the Chief Executive Ed Green. “Linking these two patches means that the wood is now big enough for us to plan a reintroduction of dormice. In a county with not much ancient woodland that’s a big deal.” Thanks to the many donations from members and grants from funders that made the purchase possible, including National Lottery players, WREN as part m co . A brown hare on a of the Landfill Communities Fund and ae r Jordans farm in Suffolk the Banister Charitable Trust. More on ike m warwickshirewildlifetrust.org.uk

SUMMER 2016 NATURAL WORLD 5 living landscapes London’s brand new green oasis Welcome to Hackney’s Woodberry Wetlands: closed to the public for 175 years, now restored. Emma Warren visits London Wildlife Trust’s newest reserve

t’s a bright winter morning and a Wild places are important everywhere, warblers and great crested grebes. “It’s small band of Wildlife Trust but particularly in cities as Sir David like being out in the countryside,” says I members are ducking through a Attenborough said in his speech at the Terry Skippen, who has volunteered here temporary entrance to Woodberry reserve’s opening event in May. “To hear for 18 months. “It’s amazing to see all this Wetlands in Stoke Newington, London. birdsong above the hubbub of the nature and wildlife in inner London”. London Wildlife Trust’s David Mooney is traffic, to see the seasons as they pass, The £1.5m site, has been brought into corralling people through the hand- to see not just asphalt and brick and the public realm by an extraordinary made doorway – “a Harry Potter portal” concrete but reeds and willows... it is a collaboration between the Wildlife Trust, – hidden behind an advertising hoarding. necessity for all of us.” Hackney Council, site owners Thames They’re getting a sneak preview of The wildlife is as spectacular as the Water and Berkeley Homes. The London’s newest . It’s a big vista: snipe and breeding Cetti’s warblers Heritage Lottery fund pitched in £750k moment: these are the first members of (firsts for Hackney), as well as sedge to restore the coal house which is now the public to enter the site since 1833 the site’s café, and a central part of the when Victorian industrialists had the Trust’s plan to bring in a new audience. reservoir dug by navvies to sell drinking To see not There are dawn chorus walks with water to the growing local population. just asphalt breakfast thrown in, and bat evenings The view that greets the group as they with dinner. walk along the brand new boardwalk is and concrete but The Trust has invested in the cultural stunning: silvery reed beds all around the side too. The wrought iron gates were margins, spring sun reflecting on the reeds and willows inspired by Charles Rennie Macintosh’s water, and a gaggle of black-headed Glasgow School of Art and they’ve hired gulls dotted about an island made of is a necessity illustrator Celyn Brazier to create penny dixie 200 year-old silt. for all of us tapestries instead of the standard

6 NATURAL WORLD SUMMER 2016 London’s brand new green oasis Welcome to Hackney’s Woodberry Wetlands: closed to the public for 175 years, now restored. Emma Warren visits London Wildlife Trust’s newest reserve

watercolour information panels. Where is it? “We’ve gone for something unusual A 10 minute walk from Manor House because we want to attract Londoners Sir David Attenborough with David Mooney Station. 226 Lordship Road, N16 5HQ who might not normally come to a and Francisco Do Carmo at the opening event nature reserve. And we want them to in April: “This is what makes life important.”

realise that they love wildlife,” says David top pennydixie.co.uk three pics woodberry wetlands Mooney. “This area suffers from high socio-economic deprivation. There’s a Emirates stadium severe lack of high quality green space.” Francisco Do Carmo started out as a olympic park volunteer five years ago before becoming the wetland’s conservation volunteer officer. He and his team cut the reed on a four-year rotation, and last winter planted 400 metres of hedgerow all along the outer fence. They’re creating city of london a woodland trail, they built the tower of london volunteers’ hut and put up all the fencing. It’s hard graft that has attracted 220 River thames volunteers over the last two and a half years. “People come from all over London,” he says. “It’s just a special place.”

Bat detectors have revealed all three pipistrelles, Daubenton’s and Leisler’s bat

The reed cutting work party keeps the wetland from becoming a scrubland alastairmarshphotography.co.uk

The 11-hectare wetland Woodberry’s great crested grebes. “Very reserve is a huge new asset rare 100 years ago,” said Sir David. “It’s for local people and wildlife marvellous to see things getting better.”

SUMMER 2016 NATURAL WORLD 7 living seas The rocky horror show Rockpools are a vital part of the summer holidays. And that’s before you know what’s really going on in them. Jules Howard explains

Jules Howard Zoologist Jules is author of Sex on Earth: a celebration of animal reproduction juleshoward.co.uk jack perks

magine a world consumed each day providing an amazing hairdo of in a washing machine of tidal camouflage, and some of the animals, No shell is I violence, where daily battles are like the snakelocks anemone, fought over scraps of food and shelter. photosynthesise. Here, sea slugs steal safe from the Where shells, suckers and tentacles poisonous cells from other creatures and outnumber backbones. Such a place wear them on their back like armour. This pneumatic exists today. It is called a rockpool. And it is their world, not ours. And it is an crowbarring of a is a writhing hotbed of weirdness: a place interesting place indeed. where new creatures are swapped about Thrown into their twice-daily tidal starfish’s with mind-bending irregularity. maelstrom, rockpool dwellers must make Here, boneless animals such as the the most of every opportunity they get. stomach bootlace worm grow metres in length or, Their sex lives reflect that. Many, like the that pumps out special chemicals to like the velvet swimming crab, come sea slugs, are hermaphrodites, able to attract passers-by, forming a literal ‘sex armed with fierce red eyes, razor sharp put every encounter with a fellow of the train’ of up to 25 individuals. pincers and an attitude to match. Here, same species to good use. Then there Shelled creatures occupy pride of crabs decorate their shells with seaweed are the slipper limpets, an alien invader place in most rockpools. There are

8 NATURAL WORLD SUMMER 2016 National Marine The rocky Week: join in! horror show ross h o dd i n o

An entire world of tt /N

perfect greens and reds P L

To check out these Rocky Horror Shows for yourself, along with the opportunity to encounter other amazing delights, such as basking sharks, seals, dolphins and puffins, make a date for National Marine Week, which this year runs from July 23 to August 7. During that time The Wildlife Trusts will hold hundreds of events – including rockpooling – to celebrate our rich array of marine and coastal wildlife. Contact your local Wildlife Trust, or see

wildlifetrusts.org/nationalmarineweek jack perks jack

Back off or I’ll bite! An edible crab in a Cornish rockpool. Believe it or not, the barnacles are The common starfish looks harmless fellow crustaceans enough. Unless you’re a mollusc

shelled worms (bristleworms), shelled You might spot the shadows of darting tiny crustaceans (barnacles, who kick gobies or blennies, or a pipefish lying food into their mouths with their legs) amongst the weed. But most will move and shelled larger crustaceans, such as on in the next tide, to other rockpools, or the hermit crabs, locked in a ceaseless rocky reefs in deeper water. quest for ever more suitable housing. It’s not only on the rocky shore that In most habitats on Earth, a shell is a this horror show is played out. Sandy guarantee of safety. But in a rockpool no beaches hide similar dramas: cuttlefish shell is safe from the drilling mouthparts bones, necklace shells that, like the dog of the dog whelk (a monstrous kind of whelk, drill into their prey, and the dried rock snail), or the pneumatic crowbarring egg cases of sharks and rays. of a starfish’s inside-out stomach. These For me, a trip to the beach is always are deliciously nightmarish creatures, exciting: the intriguing and fascinating easily observable to anyone with a little cast of rockpools, and the delightful bit of patience or a dab of luck. Every childhood should include messing surprise of the strandline. And every tide There are some vertebrates, of course. around in rockpools. Every adulthood too brings new players and new finds.

SUMMER 2016 NATURAL WORLD 9 people & wildlife E F/istock E N DJ

A Born to be wild Our hunter gatherer past designed us to move around outdoors, in groups, with a sense of purpose. We’re still like that now, kamel which is why modern life makes us ill – and why getting back in touch with nature makes us well again. Dr William Bird reports

10 NATURAL WORLD SUMMER 2016 epression. Diabetes. Obesity. environment for which our minds As a doctor I see chronic and bodies were not designed. Ddiseases every day. They are part of modern life. And they have So, what does that mean? Dr William Bird, grown as we have become more Let’s look at what’s changed. First of MBE is an expert and more ‘modern’ – or, to put it all, we’re often isolated. Loneliness is on the effects of another way, more and more one of the chief causes of ill health in nature on health. sedentary, more disconnected from cities; its effect on the rate of heart He is founder of nature. Could this disconnection be disease is exactly the same as intelligenthealth. one of the main causes? smoking 20 cigarettes a day. We are co.uk I’m lucky enough to be editing the not designed to be lonely. Oxford Textbook of Nature and Second, we are not designed to Public Health. So I can say that some look at concrete and areas of threat. very clever people from all the top We are designed to look at nature, universities – including Stanford, and we are designed to be in touch Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, with nature. Melbourne, Brisbane – are now Third, we’re not designed to have looking very, very hard at what’s no purpose. We want to do things, actually happening to our brains and to make things, to be useful. bodies when we get disconnected If we get these three things wrong, from nature. And the results are in. we get chronic stress. Note that’s But first, let’s get the story straight. not the same thing as acute stress, which is different. We all get acute stress when we’re doing something We are not we don’t particularly like, but we designed know by the evening it will all be over. Chronic stress is when you go to sit for long to sleep and you wake up with the same anxiety, worry or fear because periods indoors things aren’t right.

looking at a Does lack of nature cause screen chronic stress? Let’s look at some experiments. And Who are we? I can assure you, there are loads of I’d like to take you back 100,000 these. years. And let’s imagine those The first one is over the page: the 100,000 years are 24 hours. city street with and without trees. It So 24 hours ago we were hunter shows how even a subliminal gatherers. Genetics were making us exposure to a picture of trees has a better and better at it, generation by positive effect on cognitive generation. And every single part of performance. So clearly it’s not just being a good hunter gatherer is our conscious side. There’s connected to the environment. something deeper in us that Then, just two and a half hours responds to the sight of those trees, ago, agriculture starts. We’re still because the people weren’t actually Children feel it outdoors – and in fact most of us are conscious that they’d seen them. But instinctively: we are still hunter gatherers – but we start that engagement was so important. designed to be to have herds and then, later still, we Another study, which has been connected to nature start growing things in the ground. repeated many times, relates green The first cities come along an hour space to depression and anxiety. Of ago. So think about those 24 hours: course the researchers have to this is just an hour. And still people adjust out other factors such as are active. Then industrialisation, two affluence and education. But people and a half minutes ago. Digital living in areas with tree cover technology, 20 seconds. showed significantly reduced And suddenly here we are, sitting anxiety and depression. for long periods, indoors, isolated, Another looked at children facing often looking at a screen. That is not significant problems in their lives, Born to be wild what we were designed to do – and and found that their stress in high Our hunter gatherer past designed us to move around outdoors, in groups, with a sense of purpose. We’re still like that now, we just can’t adjust in those 20 nature surroundings was which is why modern life makes us ill – and why getting back in touch with nature makes us well again. Dr William Bird reports seconds. So we are now in a hostile significantly less than in low nature.

SUMMER 2016 NATURAL WORLD 11 people & wildlife

This In other words, nature was helping to reduce their overall stress. makes A huge study of mortality data you looked at how green the subjects’ ill neighbourhood was. It showed that just having greenery and trees, particularly in deprived areas, reduced the health inequalities between rich and poor.

Why do we get ill? At the cell level, inflammation is the cause of almost every disease we have. It means our immune system is heating up and sending out signals. It causes all 23 chronic diseases that afflict us, including diabetes and heart disease. Chronic stress increases visceral fat – that’s fat inside your body. We all have fat on the outside of our bodies, but it’s the stuff inside that’s the dangerous bit. You can’t see it and it’s poisonous. It generates lots of this inflammation. Unfortunately the more inactive we istock Trees in deprived The science of why we all need nature areas reduce the trees even make you better at maths! health inequality Here are two pictures of the same street, one with trees added in Photoshop. The between rich researchers showed people one or other of the pictures for a short while, and then gave them a mental arithmetic test, taking 13 away from 1000 repeatedly. They recorded their and poor subjects’ success, and repeated the whole experiment many times. are, the more stressed we are and the City street without trees more we eat the wrong things, the more that visceral fat grows. Group 1 just saw this picture for a minute or so. Their scores were the lowest. Group 2 were shown the same thing, but How do we get well? with the trees below added just for a The good news is that if you become microsecond, so it was subliminal. habitually active and your stress levels They scored better. drop, then even if you don’t lose any Group 3 saw the trees normally for the weight, the visceral fat reduces. So full minute. They scored the same as Group getting outdoors and not being 2 – the people who saw the trees stressed reduces your instances of momentarily. chronic inflammation. And getting out is a lot easier when you have a purpose (see Gym v Work Party opposite). City street with trees In short: Group 4 saw the tree version too, but they 1. We are designed to be connected also had someone telling them about to nature. those trees: what type they were, what 2. When we disconnect we develop animals lived there, what their evolution chronic stress, so we eat more and was. So they got engaged and interested. exercise less. We lay down visceral fat They did the best. and damage our cells (see box on p13). 3. All this leads to chronic disease. Research by Ying-Hsuan Lin, Chih-Chang Tsai, 4. Connecting people to nature is William C. Sullivan, Po-Ju Chang, and Chun-Yen therefore good medicine. Chang. Originally published in Frontiers in Psychology 2014 n Find more information on nature and health at intelligenthealth.co.uk

12 NATURAL WORLD SUMMER 2016 who are we? This years ago makes 100k hunter you gatherers I’ve picked a date of better 100,000 years ago to keep it simple, but in fact modern- looking human hunter gatherers first emerged about 200,000 years ago

first herders Agriculture 75k began 10,000 years ago when people swapped hunting for rupert paul/BB rupert keeping herds of sheep and cattle C W T

first cities The science of why we all need nature 4,000 years ago the first cities appeared. People began to don’t sit still! gym v work party 50k specialise As you read this, hopefully your brain So we need to be active, connected to cells are whirring away. They use 20-30% nature and social. But how to get people of your energy. The rest is in your to do these things? For that we need to muscles, where the mitochondria, the have some purpose. Here’s a girl taking little batteries in your cells, are all part in two activities, and what she said. charged up, saying: “Hey! Ready to go!” How does your phone feel after a industrial CONSERVATION WORK “I met all revolution night on charge? It’s warm, because these new people; we had a real electrons have been leaking out. Exactly good laugh. We went out, we built Mechanised the same here; your mitochondria have a walkway and there was a badger production began in sett. I had no idea the badgers the late 1700s, been charged up all this time and they changed their own bedding.” can’t hold it. It’s like a cracking dam – powered by fossil heart rate bits of water flowing through the gaps. fuel and the factory 150 These little bits are called free radicals, system. Manual and they start coming out when you’re labour was still not doing anything. The longer you sit widespread 25k there, the more the free radicals come out. Soon they start to damage your mitochondria. You’ve only got 35 in each 100 cell; zap too many and the cell stops. So finally you’ve got up and started walking. The charge drops, because digital you’re using it. No more free radicals. STEP AEROBICS “Brilliant! I got my technology Antioxidants build up, you get more heart rate up to 75% of my VO2 Max. I 50 Computers have mitochondria and you clear up all the learned how to tone up my pecs. I’ve got all these exercises I can do.” been a part of daily debris in the cell. So as soon as you start life for 25 years, the activity, loads of good things happen. mins internet for 20, But if you don’t move, and sit still even 0 10 20 30 40 50 smartphones for longer, the radicals start to damage your Her gym comments were all about her ten. In terms of our cells’ ability to divide. Effectively, their body and herself. After the work party history, that’s ageing speeds up. And as the cells die she didn’t talk about herself or her health nothing they send out inflammatory agents. at all. But she actually did more exercise. 0

SUMMER 2016 NATURAL WORLD 13 great days out 10 great places to see bats The more you know about these long-lived, far-flying insect hunters, the more amazing they are. So make time to see them this summer M ats are simply amazing. atthew emerge from their daytime Take the common roosts and limber up for the Bpipstrelle, Britain’s roberts hunt. The suggestions below most widespread bat species. are some of the best, but It’s tiny enough to crawl into a your Wildlife Trust will have matchbox, but strong enough lots more if you ask. to fly hundreds of kilometres Equipment? A bat detector on a summer night, and (from £60) is nice if you can gobble thousands of midges. afford it. Or a ID chart by the Britain is home to 18 Field Studies Council costs species of bat, 17 of which about £3. Now get out and breed here. And now is a have some batty fun. great time to see these Dusk: the ideal time to see More at http://wtru.st/ bats. Or even hear them winged wonders as they places-bats

Your bat adventure starts here

Details on each of these sites are Where is it? B97 Ballymena Road Falls of Clyde Reserve, South on your Wildlife Trust’s website. Glenarm, Co Antrim BT44 0BD. 8 Lanarkshire, Scottish WT You can find that via 16th century ruined castle is a wildlifetrusts.org Browne’s Folly, Bath perfect roost for pipistrelle and 5 Daubenton’s. Natterer’s and Gwaith Powdwr, Porthmadog Has great views and 13 of the UK’s whiskered have also been seen. 1 North Wales WT 17 species, including greater Where is it? New Lanark, South Lesser horseshoe, Daubentons horseshoe and the UK’s second Lanarkshire, ML11 9DB. and pipistrelles (among others), ever recorded Geoffroy’s bat. best seen at the ‘Settling Pool’, Where is it? Above the village of Hanningfield Reservoir, marked no.2 on the leaflet. Bathford, Avon. 9Essex WT Where is it? Penrhyndeudraeth, From April to October 400-500 on A487, Gwynedd LL48 6LT. Bailey Einon, Llandrindod Soprano pipistrelle bats gather in 6 Wells, Radnorshire WT the roof of the visitor centre, in a Finemere Wood, Aylesbury Ancient woodland along the river maternity roost. Special events in 2 Berks, Bucks & Oxon WT Ithon. Watch from the bridge or July and August let you see them Atmospheric ancient woodland boardwalk to see Daubenton’s emerging – a real spectacle. with much-studied populations of bats feeding over the water. Where is it? Hanningfield Natterer’s, brown long-eared, and Where is it? 1 mile east of Reservoir visitor centre, Bechstein’s bats. Llandrindod Wells, Powys Hawkswood Rd, Downham, Where is it? Lee Rd, Quainton, LD1 5PD. Billericay CM11 1WT. Aylesbury HP18 0QN. Boilton Wood, Preston Bat Punt Safari, Cambridge Bystock Pools, Exmouth 7 Lancashire WT 10 Beds, Cambs & N’hants WT 3 The main path is a A punt-propelled safari on Hugely popular heathland, highway for bats as well the river Cam with bat grassland and lake with seven as walkers. See soprano detectors and expert species of bat, including brown and common pipistrelle, guides every Friday long-eared and Daubenton’s. noctule and Daubenton’s. evening until 23 September, Where is it? 4 miles north of Where is it? Boilton or Saturday 23 July, 30 July, Exmouth, EX8 5EB. Wood Local Nature 8 6 August, 13 August, 20

Reserve, Preston 4 August and 27 August. icture library Glenarm, Larne PR2 6HD. Tours depart just before dusk. Visit Ulster Wildlife nature P 4 7 / Grassland and semi-natural Bats are most scudamores. woodland: a beautiful reserve with common in the 1 com for timings 6 10

all of N. Ireland’s eight bat species. and tickets. kim taylor south and west 2 9 5 14 NATURAL WORLD sUMMER 2016 3 Learn to help bats Bats are under threat from lack of food and habitat, and new development. Our new action pack shows how everyone can make gardens and green spaces more bat friendly. See wildaboutgardens.

org.uk

A Natterer’s bat having a drink in a garden pond in Surrey. It’s just over two inches long, and weighs five to nine grammes

spring 2016 NATURAL WORLD 15 my green room — my wild life — Sam, Woodberry Wetlands, North London

Actor Samuel West has always been interested in wildlife, inheriting his love of nature from his parents. When he found himself in a high-stress job, walking and birdwatching in the mornings helped him to relax. Now he can be found exploring London’s special wild places with his partner and young daughter, binoculars in hand. Although a busy filming schedule and rehearsals take up most of his time, as a family they always make room for nature. The occasional foray to the North Norfolk Coast or Isles of Scilly makes a great break from ITV’s Mr Selfridge, too. Wild places bring tranquility to the busiest of lives.

Find your wild life with London Wildlife Trust. wildlondon.org.uk