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Category Archives: conservation
Snippet 16: A beautiful ‘flower’ on the Allonby shore
Tubularia: its delicate tentacles wafting in the current, its stalks swaying gently, its body glowing crimson-red despite the sediment-laden tide. It’s not a plant, it’s not a sea-weed: it’s an animal which is related to sea-anemones and jellyfish, and a … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, conservation, Marine Conservation Zone, Sabellaria, honeycomb worm, Snippets
Tagged reproduction
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The Highly Protected Marine Area of Allonby Bay: the story so far…
‘We should be excited that Allonby is the first inshore HPMA in England! It’s something to celebrate.’ Indeed it is! It was a small get-together – only five of us had come along – to discuss how much we knew … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby, conservation, Marine Conservation Zone, Sabellaria, honeycomb worm
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‘Compelling and interacting stories’: the inhabitants of a Solway smallholding
“A list of animals … could become tiresome, but it is necessary to grasp the true richness of nature. Think of it as not so much an inventory as a catalogue leading to compelling and interacting stories…” (Richard Fortey, 2016. … Continue reading
Posted in conservation, farming, smallholding
Tagged chiffchaff, eels, moorhens, pond, poplar hawk moth, rookery
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A Solway smallholding: update 2023
Six o’clock, and the rooks and jackdaws are wheeling in the darkening sky, shrieking and cawing in a cacophony of sound, their attention focussed on the garden below. The football-rattle clatter of vigilant magpies adds another layer of sound. Like … Continue reading
Posted in conservation, farming, smallholding
Tagged conservation, no-mow, pond
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A Solway small-holding: an update
I last wrote about our small-holding in NW Cumbria in May 2018, shortly after we had planted our ‘Three-score-years-and ten’ wood, including a hedge and a couple of thickets, on one of our fields. The trees have now had four … Continue reading
Posted in conservation, farming, smallholding
Tagged moths, ponds, small-holding, tree-planting
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Quicklime: Hot Mix
It’s May 2021, the latest lockdown for Covid has been eased and crossing the Border between Scotland and England is once more permissible, so I drive North to Canonbie where Alex Gibbons has his yard. I’ve known Alex since 2016, … Continue reading
Posted in coastal heritage, conservation, LIMESTONE, limestone limekilns, quicklime
Tagged clay dabbin, hot lime, lime cycle, mortar, pigments, plaster
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Grazing and Growth on Rockcliffe Marsh
“At Rockcliffe [Marsh] it’s about the birds, it’s about the saltmarsh as a vegetation community; it’s about the geological interest in the development of saltmarshes. Many other saltmarshes have been enclosed and changed because of agricultural methods, but the Solway … Continue reading
Posted in conservation, saltmarshes, wetlands
Tagged creeks, grazing, levees, sediment
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The acronyms’ stories: imagine.
‘Alphabet soup’: AONB, EMS, MPA, MCZ, NNR, SAC, SPA, SSSI – how many more of these acronyms for conservation designations can you recall? Do you know what they mean? (If you don’t – and not many people do – you … Continue reading
Posted in conservation, Marine Conservation Zone, mud-shrimps, peat, bogs and moors, saltmarshes, wetlands
Tagged acronyms, conservation designations
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SACs, SPAs, SSSIs on the Solway Firth: Learning to love the acronyms
“Think of [the list] as not so much an inventory as a catalogue leading to compelling and interacting stories.” [1] Conservation designations: their borders aren’t marked by posts or buoys, but they are marked by lines on maps, and by … Continue reading
Posted in conservation, Marine Conservation Zone, mudflats, peat, bogs and moors, saltmarshes, wetlands
Tagged acronym soup, acronyms, Marine Conservation Zone, Ramsar site
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Solway Shore-walker 