Ottawa river

Last week I was invited over to Ottawa in Eastern Canada to photograph Great Grey Owls which this year have moved further south than normal. Such population eruptions occur maybe once a decade, so I had to go. I was on one of the last planes out of London Heathrow as a snow blizzard covered the runways.  Within a few hours of landing we were walking alongside the Ottawa river in search of the elusive owls.

Great Grey Owl scans the woodland floor for small mammals

Great Grey Owl

Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire all have a share in the realm of a great forest in the making, the national forest. When visiting this realm do not expect to wander for hours and hours in the shade of great trees, as you might expect in Epping or the New Forest, where you are totally surrounded by nature.

Pollarded Beech in the ancient forest of Epping

Walking through the National Forest is a  completely different experience, a place to simply enjoy yourself in a whole variety of ways.

Every turn could bring an unexpected surprise, be it wildlife, archeological, geological or artistic. The National Forest is not just a forest, it is a fusion of english life intertwined between trees.

A week or so back we visited the new National Cycle centre at Hicks Lodge, near to Moira. I was birdwatching as usual, but was just as happy to see a whole variety of people enjoying themselves in the countryside in their own way.

Newly opened in the autumn of 2012, the National Cycle centre

No matter where you go in the National Forest there are ample signs and information boards to tell you about the area.

Staffords Wood is close to the delightful village of Melbourne, a community established on its expertise at market gardening.

I go to the Staffords wood area to check on some rare trees, Black Poplars. There can be few people who do not like trees, if fact I believe absolutely everyone loves trees. So to finish this blog I will let you into two small secrets  of the National Forest, ‘How to walk on ‘GOLD’ and to find a tree that almost ties itself into a KNOT’ ?

To walk on 'gold' is to visit a Larch wood in the late autumn after a severe frost, a transitory event but magical when discovered.

Well not quite a knot but almost.

Is this a tree or the biggest 'tree-swing' in the world. The Beech trees on Beacon Hill are magnificent, to visit them is to visit a 'home of Ents'.

More stories about t the National Forest in future blogs or for more images visit my website Websterswildshots

Look on the underwing, bottom left for the little white comma , which gives this butterfly its name.

Red Admiral butterfly

I am very fortunate to live in the Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, Charnwood Forest is itself part of the National Forest.  In the National Forest there are countless nature reserves and areas accessible for people to walk. In May of this year  I was near the centre of the National Forest at Moira.  I was photographing a female Orange Tip butterfly, the split second I took the photograph a male flew into shot – how lucky can you get !

A male Orange Tip butterfly flies in to an awaiting female.

With such a great start to the butterfly year I was expectant for more.  Not so, the weather has been awful. Butterflies need sunshine and warmth, this is the ‘elixir of life’ for butterflies, only this enables them to fly and fly they must, to find a mate.  The only butterfly that has done well this year to my knowledge is the Meadow Brown and on a local nature reserve, the Lea Meadows in Ulverscroft valley, Meadow Browns have been abundent.

Meadow Brown butterfly

The Lea Meadows nature Reserve, owned by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust http://www.lrwt.org.uk/  is a meadowland site. But its special in that it has not been ploughed since medieval times and neither have any agrochemicals been applied.  In consequence the 30 acres of meadows are full of wild plants, many species of which used to be common but are not these days. The conservation of such sites are vital to butterfly populations.

Lea Meadows nature reserve, Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire

During the year I lecture and talk to many groups and societies and without exception people love to hear about butterflies. Seeing a butterfly can have the same effect on people as hearing a bird sing.  It can remind us that the simply things in life are often the best.

Mostly Oystercatchers being forced by the incoming tide off their feeding grounds.

Tens of thousands of waders were present and many people had come to witness this great wildlife spectacle.

And this is what these birds

The rally demanded more evidence-based policy and the need for the government to drastically reconsider some policy changes to the Fisheries Act and the closure of the Experimental Lakes Area.

Couple this with the muzzling of government scientists and you have a host of issues that makes you question our democracy.  This rally was the largest of the year on The Hill, with an estimated 2000-5000 people… and all this by a bunch of geeks who would gather be in the lab, not talking current affairs.

 No Science. No Evidence. No Truth. No DEMOCRACY.

Media quality downloads. Use the password: evidence

Want do we want, evidence based policy. When do we want it, after peer review!

 Science under the Harper Government is dieing a death of a thousand cut. Science is under attack.

Organisers of the Death of Evidence Rally said the event captured the mood of scientists and the public. Evidence is needed to make good decision for Canada. The Harper Government ignore evidence and cutting funding to cheap, cost effective, well performing research projects. Is this the start of something new? Has Harper awoken a sleeping political force? What is known is that Harper political messaging an oiled machine. But if numbers speak louder than words, maybe scientists can change our political landscape…

Cork Oak Forest from Paula Webster on Vimeo.

Cork forest landscape

The regions of  Southern Spain and Portugal where  Cork Oak forests dominate the landscape are rich in both culture and wildlife and the Websters Wildshots team of are making a film about it.

Growing and harvesting cork is an ancient agricultural system and the surviving forest habitat contains an unsurpassed wildlife, much of which has since disappeared .  Recent decades have seen world prices for cork plummet as plastics and metal screw tops are now the material of choice for many brands of wine.  Not that they are better materials, a quality cork stopper reigns supreme for the task of stopping bottles and is still used exclusively by French champagne producers.

The art and craft of making corks

In order to combat this demise the  regional government has established a cork research centre, called a subberoteca, whose aim is to help and advise the cork growers as to the best way to manage their cork forests and when is the optimum time to harvest their cork.

This image shows cork samples hanging up. Each line of samples represents the reference collection of one grower and is used to determine the quality of their crop.

Subberoteca

A National Park has been established to conserve the fragile cork forest ecosystem as well as the cultural traditions which underpin area. The national park is called the Alcornocales, the Spanish name for the Cork Oak.

Alcornocarles National parkThe Websters Wildshots expedition vehicle was able to penetrate some of the vast Cork Oak forests. The national park is a great step forward towards the conservation of the habitat Overlooking the Alcornocarles National park, southern Spain

European Bee Eater

and insects such as this amazing Rhinocerous beetle.

The Rhinocerous Beetle is a rare insect and only found in Europes ancient forests.

Cork Oaks are managed organically, the rural communities which depend upon the continual use of corks, especially for bottling are rich in tradition and culture.  The wildlife that depends upon Cork Oak forests is among the finest anywhere in Europe.

In a Spanish restaurant expect the best wines to come from bottles that have corks.

we can all help by only buying wine that is stopped with a real cork. This campaign has had a recent boost by an article in the Daily Mail.

London is as far north as Newfoundland, and they have icebergs floating by most of the year !  So forget the rainy days, the UK has mild weather and this is as great for the wildlife as it is for those of us who live here.

Waves roll in from the atlantic to the West Wales coastline.

The reason for this beautifully mild climate is the Gulf Stream, this carries warm water from the Caribbean northwards to the coasts of the UK.  The Gulf Stream originates from the warm surface waters of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico; and the North Atlantic Drift propels it northwards towards Greenland and then southwards where it nurtures the coasts of  Norway and the entire western coasts of Britain and Ireland.  This ‘marine motorway’ has many benefits, it brings unusual species from southern waters northwards as well as enabling nutrient rich waters from the Arctic to flow southwards.   

One of these species is a very special bird. Its difficult to imagine half a million birds, but that is the number of Manx Shearwaters that follow the ocean currents from Brazil to the UK every summer to breed.  These ‘oceanic swifts’ follow the gulf stream and nest a few remote islands off our west coast in the summer.

Manx Shearwaters

 The best place to see these birds is off the coast of Pembrokeshire in West Wales, especially the area of sea between the islands of  Skomer and Skokholm. These islands are managed by the  South and West Wales Wildlife Trust and boats to the islands and cruises to see the Shearwaters are oparated by Dale Sailing.

Designed to weave and glide effortlessly over the wave tops, Shearwaters are clumsy and therefore vulnerable on land so they will only visit their nests at night and ideally those nights when it is misty and especially dark.  Their chief predators are the Greater and Lesser  Black-backed Gulls which ambush the birds at night as they come onto the island, where they nest in the darkness of underground burrows..  By walking around the nest sites on mornings following dark nights, dozens and sometimes hundreds of carcases can be found.   However the nesting densities are so great that such predation does not affect the overall population and such natural selection could be viewed as beneficial.   

 Future blogs will highlight more about the UKs brilliant wildlife.

In recent weeks their has been so much rain that two weeks after the first severe downpours started, the water is still running down the lanes and filling the streams that run through the Charnwood valleys. This is the Ulverscroft brook which bisects the Lea Meadows , which is one of the nature reserve gems owned and managed by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.

This rain was much needed as we have had two very dry winters.  Rain is welcomed by all wildlife and none so more than the plants.

In nearby woods the Bluebells are at their best. No matter what the weather, rain will never spoil the magnificence of a Bluebell wood and

are many such woods in the National Forest.

A bluebell wood, one of many in the National Forest.

On the days when the sun shines, butterflies make the most of this blue bonanza of fragrance.  Butterflies such as the Green-veined White, Orange Tip and Brimstone .

According to the British Butterfly Conservation Society, despite the good start in March, much of this spring from April into May has been poor for butterflies.

The reason for this is that butterflies need warmth from the sun to power their wings for flight, given a little sunshine and butterflies will fly and fly as often as they can, for there is no time to loose, looking for a mate.

This latest documentary follows the skiing adventures of Richard Webster and Geoff White as they battle to ski 180 km over two days, as part of the Canadian Ski Marathon (CSM).

This epic xc ski event sees skiers -of all abilities- pit themselves against the elements of winter.   The two days of skiing is split into 10 stages. A stage can vary in its distance and terrain. Skiers new to the CMS might choose to ski just a few stages a day, whilst the seasoned skier might attempt the entire route. Whatever distance a skier might aim for, there is a common bond between all: I love the outdoors during winter and buckets of camaraderie!

Here’s a selection of photos from Canadian Ski Marathon.

You might even be in one of the photos! If you see one you like, you can buy a print online !!!