{"id":3932,"date":"2020-11-29T09:31:11","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T09:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/?p=3932"},"modified":"2021-01-05T14:53:35","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T14:53:35","slug":"misty-morning-and-glimmers-of-hope-for-nature-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/?p=3932","title":{"rendered":"Misty morning and glimmers of hope for nature conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today during my regular lockdown walk the early morning mist added another visual permutation to a now very familiar landscape.\u00a0 A background of electricity pylons and other urban paraphernalia, together with the busy M1 motorway were magically masked away.\u00a0 Suddenly a mature common ash tree (see attached photo) stood proud of all the urban tangle albeit for a short while only, but perhaps just long enough to give a glimpse back in time to its early life when the future of this species was more assured.\u00a0 Sadly, this arboreal, landscape and wildlife treasure is threatened by ash-dieback.\u00a0 This is a highly infectious fungal disease originating in Asia and first recorded in England in 2012, although it may have been in the UK since 2002.\u00a0 The fungal spores can spread in the wind and also by human transportation, especially by unknowingly moving infected young plants ready for planting elsewhere.\u00a0 Current estimates suggest we may lose around 50% to 80% of the UK\u2019s ash trees in the next few years.\u00a0 At the moment scientists are working to discover genes with resistance to ash-dieback and this may offer glimmers of hope for ash trees in the future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"ash<\/a>

ash tree at Brandy Carr<\/p><\/div>\n

Much more heartening this week on the same walk has been the sighting of a tree sparrow.\u00a0 This is a very scarce bird although there has been some signs of a recovery in the UK in recent years.\u00a0 It has a brown cap and black cheek spots, unlike the house sparrow.\u00a0 See attached grab photograph taken at Lindale Lane, Wrenthorpe.<\/p>\n

\"tree<\/a>

tree sparrow at Lindale Lane Wrenthorpe<\/p><\/div>\n

On 24 November 2020\u00a0 I watched two red kite methodically surveying the fields between Wrenthorpe and Brandy Carr and Kirkhamgate.\u00a0 This species almost became extinct in the UK, but has now made an incredible comeback thanks to reintroduction programmes and legal protection.\u00a0 See attached photo taken from my image stock.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/a>

Red Kite<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today during my regular lockdown walk the early morning mist added another visual permutation to a now very familiar landscape.\u00a0 A background of electricity pylons and other urban paraphernalia, together with the busy M1 motorway were magically masked away.\u00a0 Suddenly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,18],"tags":[460,459,458,57],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3936,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3932\/revisions\/3936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wakefieldnaturalists.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}