The Nature Blog

photo credit: raneko

Like many animals, common frogs exist in a range of different colour forms. Typically green or brown in colour, one also may see bright yellow/green versions and also some orange/red specimens.

Nobody seems totally sure whether this is due to genetic variations or differences in habitat or diet but I think the picture above illustrates the point well where a red female can be seen mating with a more standard coloured male.

Note that according to Froglife, the conservation charity, red frogs are not too unusual and some females reportedly *turn* red during the breeding season for whatever reason.

Red Common Frog Seen In Scotland Recently

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photo credit: Darius Baužys

I just received a flyer from Butterfly Conservation (of which I am a member) with some pretty stark news. Butterfly Conservation runs the largest butterfly recording scheme in the world – a project that is essential for conservation monitoring.

Unfortunately it seems that Butterfly Conservation, like so many other charities, has been severely hit by the recession and they are finding a potential shortfall of £75,000 from their financies this year.

Clearly, this is pretty serious and I’m sure as a reader of this website you’d want to know about this. Luckily, helping Butterfly Conservation is easy.

Please take just 2 minutes to click on the following link and make a donation of whatever you can afford, no matter how small. You can donate as little as £1 and as much as you like. So go on, make a difference today.

Click here to support Butterfly Conservation.

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photo credit: law_keven

If you’re a wildlife fanatic and spend some of your time in the great outdoors enjoying all the plants and animals it has to offer, were you aware that your activities could be put to excellent use by a range of scientists? Many biologists rely on the observations of people like you and me to help them understand the conservation of Britains nature.

The following list, while not exhaustive, lists a huge number of wildlife surveys you can get involved with if you have the interest. Please feel free to add any that we have omitted in the comments section at the end. Lastly, as always I have tried to link to the specific page that relates to the survey rather than the homepage of the various organizations to try and make your research just that little bit more speedy.

• Beewatch
• Big Garden Birdwatch
• Breeding Bird Survey
• British Waterways (Newt And Bat Monitoring)
• Butterfly Monitoring Scheme
• Dragonfly Recording Network
• Golden Great Nut Hunt (Dormice)
• Goose And Swan Monitoring
• Harlequin Ladybird Survey
• Hogwatch
• Living With Mammals
• Mammals On Roads
• National Amphibian And Reptile Recording Scheme
• National Bat Monitoring Program
• National Otter Survey
• Natures Calendar
• Nest Record Scheme
• Orchard Survey
• Scarlet Malachite Beetle Survey
• UK Glowworm Survey
• Wetland Bird Survey

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• RT @BBCwildlife: Cuttlefish lays eggs on seahorse http://bit.ly/bPevf7 #
• RT @Natures_Voice: Big Garden Birdwatch – 530,000 participants saw 8.5 million birds of 73 species in 280,000 gardens http://ow.ly/16UWvz #
• RT @greenfudge: Britain’s beaches littered with plastic http://bit.ly/9Qemnf #
• Anyone else get caught in that torrential rain yesterday? The footpath I was on looked more like a river! Disappointing. #
• Photos Of Rare Cloud Formations – http://goo.gl/3gg5 #
• Impressive Giant Sequoia Photo – Has To Be Seen To Be Believed – http://goo.gl/wbry #
• RT @BarnOwlTrust: Check out the Barn Owl Nestcam – http://bit.ly/chPTfs #
• RT @worldlandtrust: Birds getting smaller as the world warms up: http://ow.ly/1s0Pe #
• Statistically, snow is more likely at Easter than Christmas – http://goo.gl/9Umr #
• RT @conservationmag: Adding forest patches to oil palm plantations doesn't do much to protect threatened birds: http://tinyurl.com/ybsslex #
• RT @chatterbirds: RSPB nature centre badly damaged by fire http://www.chatterbirds.com/news.aspx?RAND=539 #
• RT @lastnature: amazing photos of insects covered in morning dew!!! http://bit.ly/cn1ifC #
• @bugboybaker Got a nice chunky adult Red Knee (B.smithi) and some adult lead insects here… in reply to bugboybaker #
• RT @WildlifeDaily: #wildlife – British conservationist was shot dead during monkey study in Ecuador http://ow.ly/16VKFu #
• Grest BirderS Resource – http://www.collinsbirds.com/ #
• RT @BirdGuides: Exhausted Polar Bear washed up on Isle of Mull – http://bit.ly/cCCmmV #
• Anyone else think the "polar bear on Mull" story might be an April Fools joke?! #
• Loving this sunshine and blue sky today… Makes a change from all the rain lately… #
• RT @PlanBee1: Keep a look out next week for tweets on our wildflower seed giveaway! #
• @RSPCA_official – I use Twhirl to keep track of my Twitter feed so never see your Twitter background. in reply to RSPCA_official #
• Anyone else loving the change of clocks? Light till almost 8pm at the moment = lots more chances to see wildlife. #
• Happy Easter everyone #
• Most beautiful ladybird photo ever..? http://goo.gl/8SHR #

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photo credit: sarniebill1

Edinburgh Botanical Gardens claims to be the oldest botanical garden in the UK and is well worth a visit at any time of year. Strangely the main gardens themselves, whilst small in comparison to Kew, are free to visit though a small entrance fee is payable to access the glasshouses.

As a side note the temperate glasshouse, pictured above, is a stunning building well worth a look and containing a range of the hardier exotic plants of display together with a good number of orchids. Note, incidentally, the angle of the sign on the right-hand side to give you an indication of the wind when I was there! The following photo is of the inside of this house with some of the flowering orchids showing down the right-hand side of the picture.

I visited recently and in addition to the standard bulbs in flower at this time of year I was pleasantly surprised that a visit in late March should be such a pleasant one.

The rock gardens in Edinburgh Botanical Gardens seemed very attractive and well worth a visit irrespective of season with all their conifers and evergreen shrubs. Furthermore the alpine house, with it’s collection of troughs, had numerous plants in flower even at this time of year.

Not only are the botanical gardens worth a visit in terms of the plants on show but it also seemed a haven for wildlife in the city. As well as a pond bulging from frogs and their resultant frogspawn I saw a wide variety of birdlife. Most interesting of all was the heron I saw very close up (but couldn’t get a good picture of) which was feasting on frogs.

The heron was catching them without any problems and after a bit of bashing them around they were swallowed whole. Not “nice” perhaps but certainly interesting and it made me think how much the herons must benefit from this glut of food after such a hard winter.

The only real disappointment for me were the aquariums on display at the gardens. Whilst the numbers were limited I was somewhat disappointed with the general condition of the tanks which looked like they needed a good clean.

Apart from this I would recommend a day out at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens should you visit the city. Bring your binoculars with you and I’m sure you’ll have an enjoyable day.

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