Liam Cook

A fruit tree does better with a good plant community around it 🍎🌼 The right companions can attract pollinators, support beneficial insects, and improve the soil over time.

Red squirrels are nearly extinct in parts of the UK, but a predator may help bring them back. Pine martens were once nearly wiped out from England and Wales. Grey squirrels, introduced from North America, spread through those predator-poor woods and helped push native red squirrels toward the edge. But where pine martens recover, something strange happens: grey squirrels decline and red squirrels return. The reason is fascinating. Red squirrels evolved alongside pine martens, so they recognize the danger. Grey squirrels didn’t, so when pine martens are nearby, reds get cautious. Greys keep acting like nothing changed. This is not a magic fix. Greys can still persist in towns and cities, and pine marten recovery takes years. But the lesson is powerful: Sometimes the best way to repair an ecosystem is to bring back the native species we removed.

Fresh water muscle, which is likely to be a fresh water pearl muscle due to its kidney shape ? at an undisclosed site in Scotland, if this is pearl muscle it’s critically endangered in the UK with a strong hold in the area, I’m led to believe with @NestingUpNorth

Nightingales are at risk....😡👇Come on @HomesEngland why here? A wildlife charity is objecting to plans for 450 new homes due to concerns they could threaten resident nightingales. Homes England's proposals is for land next to the Chattenden Woods and Lodge Hill Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) says the area is the most important nightingale site in the UK and is home to more than 1% of the country's population which could be disturbed by humans and pet cats if the plan is approved. Homes England said extensive surveys had allowed it to understand how future impact could be avoided and its plan had been shaped in consultation with ornithological experts. A spokesperson for the developers said: "They [the proposals] are evidence-based and designed to minimise risks to nightingales, with clear measures in place to mitigate any impacts. "As part of our long-term commitment to nature-positive objectives, the plans include significant improvements to nightingale habitat across the wider Lodge Hill estate." Concerns about the impact housing could have on nightingales in the area were also raised in 2013, and they were flagged again 10 years later. The RSPB says nightingales usually return to the same place to nest every year and nest on, or near, the ground so their eggs and young are at higher risk. It added that the UK's population of nightingales had already suffered a 41% decrease between 1995-2023. Read more here: bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

Do you ever feel like you’re being watched? 😂🐮 Our cows always think we have goodies for them 🥰🐮

PLEASE SHARE......THIS IS WHAT DWR CYMRU ARE DOING TO OUR RIVER Location is bottom of car park at Llanrwst library heading towards Gowers Bridge

North Yorkshire butcher Luke Swales is using social media, livestock markets and a farm-to-fork approach to champion British farming and reconnect consumers with where their food comes from. 🇬🇧🥩 Taking on his family farm and building a growing following online, he believes bringing in the next generation is vital. READ MORE: ow.ly/fgQp50YUhtp

#wildlife #nature the #common #newt #staffordshire at #Newborough

'Morris dancing brings people together in music, movement and community... It's here to stay!' GB News' @AnnaRileyNews speaks with dancers with the Greater Yorkshire Morris as they prepare their traditional celebration of the arrival of summer.

I keep getting messages from people saying they can’t find the birdcam in Home Bargains. My mistake it is from @bmstores Still showing as £25 bmstores.co.uk/products/camer…

A goat will eat: - Bramble - Gorse - Thistle - Nettle - Ivy - Knotweed - Rhododendron suckers - The bark off any sapling within reach We currently spend about £450 million a year in the UK on contractors with strimmers, herbicides, and machinery, doing exactly this work to a worse standard. A goat does not invoice.

Grouse moor management, in numbers. 🌿 Environment: - 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon stored in UK peatlands - eight years of national emissions - 860,000 acres of high-value upland habitat actively conserved - Curlew raise 4x more chicks on managed moors (1.05 fledglings per pair vs 0.27) - 80% of successful hen harrier nests are on driven grouse moors. English numbers up 1,150% since 2016 - a 200-year high 🚜 Rural economy: - £1 million of private capital invested in our moors every week - £3.3 billion GVA from the shooting sector. £9.3 billion in wider activity - 173,000 full-time-equivalent jobs supported nationwide - £500 million in conservation work delivered annually, free to the taxpayer 🚒 Wildfire frontline: - Saddleworth 2018 released 40,000 tonnes of CO₂ - Fuel loads quadruple under abandonment - Burn-to-rewet cuts methane emissions by 95% This is what active stewardship looks like. Read more on our website.

Walking away from our moorlands is not a nature-based solution. It is a recipe for disaster. 🌿 The myth: passive rewilding prevents wildfire. The reality: when management stops, vegetation fuels increase four- to six-fold within 15–20 years. The result is "Fire Highways" - corridors of fuel that turn small fires into megafires. 💧 The "just rewet it" argument collapsed at Danes Moss. The largest lowland raised bog in Cheshire - a wet environment - saw 2,500m² burn because the unmanaged surface vegetation dried in summer heat. 🔥 Science points to hybrid restoration: - A controlled cool burn strips combustible canopy - Drains are then blocked to raise the water table - Peat-forming mosses recover safely - Methane emissions fall 95% versus rewetting alone At the 6,000-acre Langdale Moor wildfire, gamekeepers, farmers and the local "Farmy Army" prevented total catastrophe. Nature-based solutions only work when guided by human hands. Read more on our website.

Today I did another bird walk around the farm, I saw, or heard: Cuckoo Magpie Jackdaw Crow Raven Buzzard Jay Blackbird Songthrush Mistlethrush House sparrow Robin Dunnock Wren Goldcrest Goldfinch Greenfinch Chaffinch Siskin Reed bunting Yellowhammer Skylark Meadow pipit And…⬇️

Will high pressure return this week? Or is it staying mixed? Here is the week ahead forecast ⤵️

If you were a gardener hoping for rain, you can thank me! Our new garden hose arrived yesterday, and the heavens opened almost right away. Some new birds were the perfect backdrop for a late breakfast this morning.

Ne'er cast a clout till May be out! Turning colder for a time this week, so some extra layers may be needed 🧥

Our Homebargains £25 birdcam has to be one of our best garden buys. This is our footage from this morning. The starlings are stuffing their faces - this is why I have to top up the worms twice a day! The robin collects worms to feed his female which is very sweet.

Defra should carry out a nationwide release of Pine Martens. A predator that is extremely difficult to escape from for grey squirrels. Where they have been released in Ireland, they are annihilating the greys. The red squirrels are returning because they can escape the Martens.

Lovely little Leveret on the woodland floor this morning 🌅 quick photo and moved away to let it be 🐰Co Durham