Scientists find cocaine in shrimps in Suffolk rivers

Scientists found cocaine in freshwater shrimps when testing rivers for chemicals, a study said.

Researchers at King's College London, in collaboration with the University of Suffolk, tested 15 different locations across Suffolk.

Their report said cocaine was found in all samples tested. Other illicit drugs, such as ketamine, were also widespread in the shrimp.

The researchers said it was a "surprising" finding.

Professor Nic Bury, from the University of Suffolk, said: "Whether the presence of cocaine in aquatic animals is an issue for Suffolk, or more widespread an occurrence in the UK and abroad, awaits further research.

"Environmental health has attracted much attention from the public due to challenges associated with climate change and microplastic pollution.

"However, the impact of 'invisible' chemical pollution (such as drugs) on wildlife health needs more focus in the UK."

The study, published in Environment International, looked at the exposure of wildlife, such as the freshwater shrimp Gammarus pulex, to different micropollutants.

Continued

Project to save rare species in unique Brecks landscape

PUBLISHED: 14:20 15 August 2018 | UPDATED: 14:20 15 August 2018

Simon Parkin

Straddling the Norfolk and Suffolk border, The Brecks is one of the most unusual lowland landscapes in the UK and one of its most important areas for wildlife.

The unique landscape that developed from an ancient landscape of sandy, chalky soils, shallow rivers, open heaths, sheep walks and medieval rabbit warrens covers 1,000 sq km and is home to more than 12,800 species.

Comprising conifer plantations and large fields edged with lines of crooked pines, rare species include birds such as the nightjar and woodlark as well as 65% of the UK’s stone curlews.

Now a new ambitious project that aims to help restore and protect its at-risk wildlife and habitats will be launched this weekend at Brandon Country Park.

Shifting Sands is one of 19 projects around the country under the umbrella of the collaborative Back from the Brink programme which aims to save some of the nation’s rarest wildlife.

It will work with volunteers and partner organisations in Norfolk and Suffolk to restore more than 15 areas of grass heath recreating the open, sparsely vegetated conditions required by many birds, reptiles, plants and insects that live or breed there.

Natural England’s project officer for Shifting Sands, Phoebe Miles, said: “The Brecks is a very special landscape that is home to over a quarter of the UK’s rare and declining species, but it needs our help. Over 75% of its grass heaths have been lost in the past century.”

The project will directly benefit 14 vulnerable and endangered species including woodlark, the wormwood moonshiner beetle, its food plant Breckland wormwood and prostrate perennial knawel - a small plant that exists nowhere else in the world.

Ms Miles said heaths for hundreds of years were home to rabbits that proved great habitat managers, but they are now in sharp decline.

“We aim to boost rabbit populations on these heaths so that rare plants and their associated insects can re-colonise the more open, rabbit-disturbed ground,” she said.

Read on http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/environment/project-launches-to-save-rare-species-in-unique-brecks-landscape-1-5652955

Fox and hedgehog captured eating together on webcam

24 May 2014 Last updated at 08:26

A fox and a hedgehog have become unlikely mealtime companions.

The animals have been captured sharing food on webcams set up by wildlife enthusiast Jason Alexander, at his home in Rushmere St Andrew, Suffolk.

"You naturally think the fox will see the hedgehog as prey, so I was surprised to see them feed side by side," Mr Alexander said.

"I think there have been several of each using the feeding stations. They seem to tolerate each other."

Mr Alexander, 43, has been adding to his collection of webcams over the past two years and now has about 30 - monitoring nest boxes along with visitors to his garden's feeding stations.

A log with unsalted peanut butter spread on it has also proved popular with animals

He said the hedgehogs feed about 10 times a night, and are most likely to be joined by a fox between 01:00 and 03:00.

"One of the first things I do each day is to sit with a cuppa and take a look at the footage from the night before," Mr Alexander said.

"I've got another hedgehog in a box. Her behaviour has changed recently and she's building a nest - I'm hoping it's a pregnant female."

Suffolk Wildlife Trust says that foxes "generally don't pose a threat to hedgehogs, but aren't completely benign".

Continued

Squirrel found 'nesting' on sheep in Suffolk

The squirrel was found in the thick fleece on one of Elizabeth Dilworth's sheep at her Suffolk home

A baby squirrel was found "nesting" in the thick woollen fleece of a sheep in Suffolk, its owner said.

The squirrel was in the neck area of a domesticated Herdwick sheep in Capel St Mary, near Ipswich.

The sheep's owner took the squirrel kitten to the Wildlives rescue centre at Thorrington near Colchester.

Centre owner Rosie Catford said: "We've had a lot of young squirrels in, but we've never heard of anything like this."

'Something moved'

Liz Dilworth, a primary school teacher in Stratford St Mary, said she found the squirrel when she was checking the collar of her sheep Max.

"Something moved in the wool on his neck," she said.

Read more

Humpback whale spotted off Suffolk coast

A humpback whale was seen near Dunwich in Suffolk in what is believed to be the first sighting of the species in the county.

A humpback whale was spotted off the Suffolk coast just five days after one of seen from Norfolk.

The huge creature was first spotted about a mile offshore last Monday by staff at a wildlife reserve near Dunwich, in what is believed to be the first ever sighting of a humpback in Suffolk.

Another humpback had been seen about two miles out to sea between Winterton and Horsey in Norfolk the previous Wednesday.

Staff at the RSPB’s Minsmere reserve filmed the whale as it stopped to feed on fish in the shallower waters before swimming north.

Video

Hedgehogs given GPS 'backpacks' to boost survival rates

Hedgehogs which have been nursed back to health are being fitted with GPS "backpacks" to find out how they go on to survive in the wild.

The 24 hedgehogs, cared for at Shepreth Wildlife Park in Cambridgeshire, will have their movements tracked.

The animals will be released in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire on Wednesday.

Rebecca Willers, chairwoman of Shepreth Wildlife Conservation Charity, hopes the study can eventually boost survival rates of rehabilitated hedgehogs.

The £150 devices weigh just over 1.8oz (50g) and have been designed for the project by Dr David Wallis of Ecometry Technologies.

Continued

Hoo: Tails and manes cut from ponies in latest attack targeting horses

Horse owners are once again being warned to stay alert after two ponies had their manes and tails cut off.

It is the latest in a number of similar incidents in which animals have been targeted.

The most recent happened at a farm in Hoo, near Wickham Market, between 9pm on Saturday, August 17 and 7am the following day.

A spokeswoman for Suffolk police said because horses were left in open fields it was sometimes difficult to catch offenders in the act.

However she urged anyone who spotted any suspicious activity to report it immediately.

“It is quite likely that in most cases a vehicle may have been used to get to more rural locations,” she said. “In this incident it looks like someone had their headlights on.

“We would urge anyone who sees any suspicious behaviour or spots anything out of the ordinary to alert police and take details of any vehicles involved - particularly a registration number.”

In May, hair was shorn from a horse in Wildmere Lane, Beck Row, while five animals were targeted at the same address the month before.

Continued

Do we need to cull 50% of UK's deer?

Deer do need controlling? 50% seems a very high estimate. 

Scientist claims there are more deer in the UK than at any time since the Ice Age
March 2013. Current approaches to deer management are failing to control a serious and growing problem, according to new research by the University of East Anglia.

Roe & Muntjac
Researchers drove more than 1140 miles at night and used thermal imaging and night vision equipment to quantify the population of roe and muntjac deer in a unique study spanning the border of Norfolk and Suffolk. The results show for the first time that present management efforts are not enough to stop populations spreading out of control.

There are more deer in the UK than at any time since the ice age. In the absence of natural predators, populations are continuing to expand - causing a serious threat to biodiversity, as well as road traffic accidents and crop damage.

Breckland
The research team investigated the numbers, sex ratio and fertility of roe and muntjac deer across 234 km2 of forested land and heathland in Breckland, East Anglia, to measure the effectiveness of deer management. It is the first time that such a landscape-scale study has been carried out in Europe and the first time that control efforts have been compared to known numbers.

Deer ‘pushed out'
They found that while deer management appeared to control numbers at a stable level, this was only because thousands of deer are ‘pushed out' to the surrounding countryside each year, helping drive the further spread of deer.

Wildlife Extra asked UEA about the results of this 'pushing out', and whether other areas would be the same so Breckland would also be importing deer.

Read on:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/deer-cull013.html

Fens are rare wildlife 'hotspot', a new report finds

The Fens are home to 25% of Britain's rarest wildlife and 13 globally rare species, according to a new report.

Researchers from the University of East Anglia studied over one million records collected by scientists and amateur enthusiasts that date back to 1670.

The Fens Biodiversity Audit details evidence of 13,474 species of plants, insects, birds, fish and mammals.

The area covered 3,800 km sq, spanning the Fenlands of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.

Christopher Panter, an ecologist from the school of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia and one of the authors of the audit, commented: "One of the most surprising things was that, despite it being a very large area, most of the area was previously unrecorded."

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/20225243

Woodbridge: Farmers claim playing music to their pigs helps them grow

We know that talking to plants is meant to help them grow.

But now farmers claim playing music to their animals helps them thrive.

A survey carried out by RSPCA Freedom Food found that 70% of farmers in the east of England play music, radio or sing to their animals because it keeps them calm and settled.

The theory is backed up by research carried out at Essex-based Writtle College which suggests that playing a radio tuned into a pop music or chat station can have a positive effect on sow and piglet behaviour, by increasing sow suckling and making them more playful.

Suffolk pig farmer Mark Hayward of Dingley Dell Pork in Woodbridge has taken it one step further and has his own house band the Broadside Boys, which plays live music to his pigs.

He said: “We often sit on the hay bales, singing and strumming to our Freedom Food pigs and i’m convinced they love it. And when the bands not playing we have music on all the time, coming from the tractors or my truck.

“It’s really important to be relaxed and calm around farm animals because they respond to your mood and in turn become more chilled out too. Music and also talking to our animals is a key part of that. I chat away to my breeding sows all the time, although the piglets are often too busy to stay still long enough to listen.”

The survey found that Radio 2 was the most popular station choice to play to animals, while six farmers said they sing hymns, Rugby songs and Bon Jovi tracks to their animals.

RSPCA farm animal scientist, Dr Marc Cooper, said: “Chatting to farm animals may sound daft but there is a clear welfare message behind Freedom Food’s survey. The farmers said that their animals are more content, relaxed and calm when they interact with them in this way. Like our pets, farm animals are intelligent, sentient beings and respond well to positive interaction.”

Here’s a list of pig farm favourites:

Brawn to be Wild – Steppenwolf

Twist and Snout – The Beatles

Swilling Me Softly – The Fugees

When the Going Gets Trough – Billy Ocean

Trotter round the Clock – Bill Haley & The Comets

For Pork Pies Only – Sheena Easton

Love is a Boar – Barbara Streisand

Lucy in The Sty with Diamonds – The Beatles

Chop in the name of Love – The Supremes

We have all the Swine in the World – Louis Armstrong

From Rasher with Love – Matt Munro

The Loin Sleeps Tonight – Tight Fit

Bacon the USSR – The Beatles

Gammon Baby Light my Fire – The Doors

http://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/woodbridge_farmers_claim_playing_music_to_their_pigs_helps_them_grow_1_1413292

Dormouse discovery at Alton Water is good news

Golden brown with thick furry tails, these tiny creatures are known to be living in woods nearby, but this is the first time their presence has been recorded at the reservoir itself.

Last summer distinctive nibble marks on a hazelnut found at Alton Water suggested that endangered dormice had ventured into the Anglian Water nature reserve. Now researchers are proud to confirm these endangered dormice have officially moved in!

Together with the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Alton Water volunteers put up monitoring nest tubes after the first signs were found. They later found dormice in three of them, with nests in a further six.

To the surprise of researchers, these tree dwelling mammals even appear to have crossed the busy A137 to reach scrub and woodland habitats around the reservoir.

Over the last century our changing habits have led to the destruction and neglect of the woodlands which these beautiful creatures used to call home.

Dormice are tree-dwelling mammals which are generally reluctant to cross open spaces so as woodlands have become more fragmented their population has suffered. This has caused a drastic decline in the dormouse population to the point where they are now 
so rare they are considered endangered.

Simone Bullion, senior conservation advisor at the Suffolk Wildlife Trust said: “This is a very exciting discovery and one that should provide considerable new habitat opportunities for dormice in this part of Suffolk.

“Future monitoring work will help secure the long term future of this very scarce species.”

The initial survey was deemed such a success that enthusiastic Alton Water volunteers are now planning to build and put up more than 50 permanent nest boxes as part of a 10-year national monitoring scheme administered by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species.

This scheme will allow staff at the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and Anglian Water to see how far dormice have ventured into the site and how their population fares in future years.

Elusive, beautiful rodents with big black eyes, dormice have their name from the Latin dormire which means sleepy. This is no understatement; they can spend up to three quarters of their lives asleep! Dormice hibernate from October to March, spending their days in silent slumber.

So, unlike Alice in Wonderland who was lucky enough to have tea with a dormouse at the Mad Hatter’s Tea party, you are unlikely to ever see these attractive creatures in the wild.

But just because you might not see them, doesn’t mean their arrival at Alton isn’t great news.

Dormice are sometimes known as a ‘flagship’ species, which means that if woodlands near you have dormice then the habitat is also a place where many other creatures will thrive. This is promising news for many of the other animals Anglian Water aims to protect and help with its Biodiversity Action Plan

Promoting biodiversity (the variety of life on Earth) is a priority at Anglian Water and the company spends over £500,000 a year on improving its sites for wildlife. 
This latest success is further encouragement that the work being done is creating results.

At other Anglian Water reservoirs visitors may now be lucky enough to see osprey, barn owls and other rare creatures.

Simon Waters, Head Warden at Alton Water said: “It is fantastic news that we have discovered dormice here at Alton Water, particularly given all the hard work our staff and volunteers have put in recently to make this part of the site more inviting to plants and animals.

“Now we know they are here we will be able to manage the site accordingly and make sure Alton Water continues to be an inviting habitat for this nocturnal mammal.

“This may include introducing more hazel and honeysuckle, two of the plants Dormice are particularly fond of when creating their nests.”

http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/features/dormouse_discovery_at_alton_water_is_good_news_1_1210112

Dormice found on Suffolk reserve for the first time

Rare discovery at RSPB nature reserve

January 2012. A sleepy surprise has been discovered at an RSPB nature reserve.

For the first time in the wildlife charity's forty-year ownership of Wolves Wood in Suffolk, signs of the rare and elusive dormouse have been found.

Mark Nowers, the warden at RSPB Wolves Wood, said: "This is absolutely fantastic news, which has come out of the blue as a survey in 2004 found no evidence of these creatures. Since then the habitat, both in size and quality, has been improved, clearly to the dormouse's liking."

Liz Cutting, the licensed dormouse-surveyor who made the discovery, said: "Dormouse can live at very low densities and are often difficult to locate. The discovery of dormice at Wolves Wood is testament that if you have a solid block of well-managed woodland with plenty of suitable habitat, dormice will respond."

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/suffolk-dormice.html

1000 Sandwich terns settle at Minsmere

Hundreds of threatened Sandwich terns nesting at Minsmere - But why?

June 2009. For the first time in more than 30 years, hundreds of threatened Sandwich terns have settled to nest at Minsmere RSPB nature reserve, on the Suffolk coast, joining record numbers of gulls to provide a spectacular sight and sound for visitors.

It is not known why the terns have suddenly returned to Minsmere, but as they arrived late, it suggests they may have moved from a site elsewhere, possibly in North Norfolk, following some unknown disturbance.

Nest in large colonies

Like most terns, Sandwich terns nest in large colonies. Their chosen nest sites, usually on coastal lagoons, islands or beaches, are easily disturbed, leaving colonies vulnerable and threatening the future of the entire UK population. Many colonies also relocate due to changes in fish populations, assuming they find somewhere else with suitable habitat and enough fish.

Mix with Black-headed gulls

Adam Rowlands, Senior Site Manager at Minsmere, said, "Sandwich terns are known for nesting among large colonies of black-headed gulls, where they benefit from the extra protection offered by the gulls against larger predators, especially big gulls. It is no coincidence that the terns have returned to Minsmere, with record numbers of black-headed gulls on the Scrape.

1700 pairs on the scrape"Minsmere's Scrape is a true seabird spectacle this year, with 1100 pairs of gulls, nearly 400 pairs of Sandwich terns and 190 pairs of common terns - the most since 1974. The sight and sound are superb - as many people who watched Simon King at a large tern colony in North Wales during the recent Springwatch series will recall. If you're lucky you might even spot a rare roseate tern or Mediterranean gull among them."

First time since 1978

Sandwich terns regularly bred at Minsmere until 1978, but only a handful of pairs have nested since then, until now. Suddenly, during the last two weeks, more than 1000 terns have arrived en masse on the Scrape, and nearly 400 pairs are now starting to nest on the shingle islands.

Little tern

Unlike their larger cousins, it looks like being a poor year for the scarce little tern, as only two or three pairs are nesting on the beach at Minsmere. After a good season last year, it appears these tiny seabirds have relocated farther north, with some nesting on the shingle beach between Dunwich and Walberswick, and good numbers settling within the main colony on Great Yarmouth's North Denes.

Adam Rowlands continued: "There are few more spectacular sights and sounds in the natural world than a large colony of nesting seabirds. The air almost echoes to the raucous calls of gulls and terns as adults return from fishing trips offshore clutching prized fish and sandeels for their mates, and later for their chicks. Why not visit Minsmere during the next few weeks to witness this spectacle for yourself?"

Sandwich terns
Sandwich terns are the largest species of tern nesting in the UK, being marginally smaller than the familiar black-headed gull. They have shaggy black crests and very pale grey wings, but are otherwise white. Their black beaks have a distinctive small yellow tip. There are about 12500 pairs at various colonies around the coast. Up to 750 pairs nested at Minsmere form 1965 to 1978, but apart form 23 pairs in 1995 there have only been occasional nesting attempts since then.

Sandwich terns are on the amber list of birds of conservation concern. This is due them having undergone a moderate (i.e 25 - 50%) breeding decline since 1969, and a localised distribution with more than half of the UK population found at 10 or fewer sites.

other terns
Common terns, often known as sea swallows, are smaller, with a black-tipped red bill and black cap, but lacking the shaggy crest. They usually nest in smaller colonies around the coast, and also at gravel pits and reservoirs inland.

Little terns are tiny, barely larger than a starling, with bright yellow bills and a white forehead in front of their back crown. Only about 2500 pairs nest in the UK, exclusively on shingle beaches. The largest colony is in Great Yarmouth's North Denes.

All terns are summer visitors to the UK, and may be seen from April to September. They winter at sea in the southern Atlantic or off West Africa. They catch fish by diving into the sea from a height of several metres.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/minsmere-terns009.html