BBC reporting

[jall55]

Do you have your ponds fenced to stop otters from getting to the ducklings?
I've watched otters hunting ducklings on Scoulton mere, which is an SSSI, they are quite something to watch when they are hunting, quite relentless. Not a single duck in residence by the autumn.

Very luck really - our ponds are not on watercourses
Our couple of small lakes are just from modest streams / brooks

 

[devon deer stalker]

On top of that we have road run off which is quite polluting.

When the A30 was constructed mid 70's Exeter to Whiddon Down pollution traps/dams were supposed to have been created, it never happened, so all the crap enters the feeder streams, including many years ago a milk container tipped over, milk is one of the worst things to enter a river.
As you say it isn't rocket science, but a combination of problems.....are rivers are fecked...unless action is taken on many levels.

 

[devon deer stalker]

Very luck really - our ponds are not on watercourses
Our couple of small lakes are just from modest streams / brooks

Otters travel, I saw one a long way from a stream travelling when I was out after a fox in the spring, and one was run over on the A30 near me last month, no substantial streams nearby.

 

[Bo Diddley]

Very luck really - our ponds are not on watercourses
Our couple of small lakes are just from modest streams / brooks

As dds has said above, otters don't need a lovely big river to use as a highway, the smallest ditch will do nicely, and I have seen them with the thermal at night traveling across an open field to get to the village green pond, no fish left in there at all, and the local tame Moorhens are hanging on by their proverbial fingertips. All the village garden ponds for miles around me have been cleaned out if they don't have electric or an otter-proof fence. You must have a low density of otters in your neck of the woods.

 

[Drum123]

Our farm is in HLS - we have flower margin galore- more wild bird plots and pollen plots than you can shake a stick at - clearfelled 100 acres thats now acres and acres of bluebell and then fox glove - small ponds and pools - traditional hay meadows - numerous hedges and coppice BUT this year there are less insects than last - a lot less

Why - no idea - but i have hardly seen a wasp ! The one thing that has done well though is the meadow butterflies

Must be localised variations on this , upper Wensleydale was very poor last year for insect life , this year is much healthier. Which is a welcome bonus for the grouse. They suffered badly last year in the first few days of life due to lack of food.

 

[shakey jake]

other than honey bees and lesser house flies, insect life seems very low here. only the odd butter fly. 30 years ago buddleja was called butterfly bush, lavender hummed with bumbles not now.
i dont think farmers today can be to blame, maybe residue from years ago but modern chems arent persistant.

 

[AGR]

other than honey bees and lesser house flies, insect life seems very low here. only the odd butter fly. 30 years ago buddleja was called butterfly bush, lavender hummed with bumbles not now.
i dont think farmers today can be to blame, maybe residue from years ago but modern chems arent persistant.

You don't think the prolonged cold spell last winter affected some insects? We often say that we need a cold winter to kill off this and that, maybe that's what happened. We certainly lost a lot of plants we didn't expect too.

 

[Basil H]

Jake, just google "neonicotinoid persistence". Think again.

 

[bluesako]

some scumbag tosser firm in manchester dumped a load of toxic shite in the river mersey which killed thousand,s of fish all the way down to warrington the media said the fish died because of hot conditions and climate change what a load of crap so easy to blame climate change. bs.

 

[shakey jake]

Jake, just google "neonicotinoid persistence". Think again.

had a breif read, have neonics been reclassified? i was under the opinion they had been withdrawn from agricultural use. i still use them against ants and im fairly sure they are still used in pet treatments.
the half life in soil is upto 1000 days must be coming to an end soon.
they may well have been an issue but shouldnt still be knocking all insect life back

 

[shakey jake]

You don't think the prolonged cold spell last winter affected some insects? We often say that we need a cold winter to kill off this and that, maybe that's what happened. We certainly lost a lot of plants we didn't expect too.

i dont know what has caused the drop but cold could be a factor. dont think we had a long cold.spell this winter

 

[jall55]

As dds has said above, otters don't need a lovely big river to use as a highway, the smallest ditch will do nicely, and I have seen them with the thermal at night traveling across an open field to get to the village green pond, no fish left in there at all, and the local tame Moorhens are hanging on by their proverbial fingertips. All the village garden ponds for miles around me have been cleaned out if they don't have electric or an otter-proof fence. You must have a low density of otters in your neck of the woods.

Yes we dont have any - also very few mink - Our problem is bloody badgers !

 

[Basil H]

Neonics are, broadly, banned. However there is once again this year a derogation in respect of thiomethoxam in respect of sugar beet cultivation.
There is a lot of sugar beet grown.

 

[AGR]

i dont know what has caused the drop but cold could be a factor. dont think we had a long cold.spell this winter

Well we did! Along with several days of biting cold winds, and that's in sunny Devon!

 

[User00035]

Came back today from a week in Scotland to 12 degrees in the house. Had the fire lit tonight.

 

[Dunwaters]

i dont think farmers today can be to blame, maybe residue from years ago but modern chems arent persistant.

They absolutely are, its not just pesticides its monocultures, highly intensive farming and lack of biodiversity leading to no food and no place to live for wildlife.
We’ve lost 90% of our insects over the last 30 years or so, with the insects gone so are the bats and the swallows.

 

[Mickeydredd]

I watched an otter chase a young rabbit all over Glencorse golf course many years ago

 

[MagicLantern]

Aerodynamics?

That was my thinking as well.

 

[Jura]

We’ve lost 90% of our insects over the last 30 years or so,

Yep, back in the day we used to scrape them off our car windscreens and headlights.

 

[Dunwaters]

Yep, back in the day we used to scrape them off our car windscreens and headlights.

Back in the day we used to hang strips of sticky paper from the lampshades and you could still find yourself munching a few flies with your jam sandwiches.