It’s sad to see so many horse chestnut (conker) trees affected by the leaf miner moth caterpillar (Cameraria ohridella) – it’s what causes the brown discolouration of the leaves that makes it look like autumn when it’s still summer. These tiny caterpillars burrow within the leaves, damaging them. Most of the horse chestnuts I worked […]
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Surveying water vole habitat at Frays Farm
Last month I spent a few hours with London Wildlife Trust‘s Conservation Ecologist Tony Wileman at Frays Farm Meadows SSSI, looking at water vole habitats. Water voles are Britain’s fastest declining mammal due to habitat destruction and massive predation. Everything from owls to kestrels and mustelids, particularly mink, prey on water voles. If mink enter a water […]
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