Herm Island’s Britain In Bloom entry to be helped by Lloyds TSB staff

May 10th, 2013 by Lloyds TSB Offshore Ltd

LLoyds TSB staff plant trees during their ‘Day to Make a Difference’ in Herm in 2012 (click image to expand – image courtesy of LLoyds TSB)

Lloyds TSB staff will be helping Herm with its entry into Britain in Bloom’s Champion of Champions competition.

In recognition of its consistently high standards in the overall Britain in Bloom competition, Herm has been nominated for the Champion of Champions category along with four other communities across the British Isles.

The island’s gardening team, headed up by Brett Moore, is busy preparing for the arrival of the judges later this summer and after a successful volunteering day in Herm last year, Lloyds TSB is sending a team of staff from Guernsey and Jersey to help with the preparations.

“The Day to Make a Difference initiative is one in which the whole of the Lloyds Banking Group takes part and is our way Continue reading

Guernsey’s Insurance Corporation Conservation Awards entry deadline is 28 May 2013

May 9th, 2013 by Insurance Corporation Conservation Awards

Please click image to download Guernsey Conservation Awards 2013 entry form as a PDF file to your computer

Guernsey schools and environmentally friendly islanders have until 28 May 2013 to get their entries in for this years’ Insurance Corporation Conservation Awards.

The event, which is in its 23rd year, is staged to fund projects designed to protect the island’s green spaces and natural habitats.

The winner of the main award could win a cheque for £2,000 to help fund their endeavours while the winning school will be awarded £1,000 over three years.

A tree-planting project in local schools won the award for 2012 and was organised by the Guernsey Society of the Men of the Trees. Continue reading

Common whelk ‘sea wash balls’ on the Guernsey shore

April 30th, 2013 by Richard Lord

A litter pick-up on the sea shore of Champ Rouget, on the path north of the Chouet tea rooms, Vale found eight ‘sea wash balls‘ from the common whelk, Buccinum undatum, three ray (rajidae) mermaid’s purses (egg case), and one cuttlebone from Sepia officinalis.

Eight ‘sea wash balls’ from whelks, three ray egg cases, and one cuttlebone were found during a beach clean on the sea shore at Champ Rouget, Chouet, Vale, Guernsey on 28 April 2013 (click image to expand)

A similar beach clean on the same stretch of shore on 17 February 2013 revealed only three mermaid’s purses and no whelk ‘sea wash balls’.

The common whelk, Buccinum undatum, usually lives on a sea floor of soft sediment. It is one of the larger marine snails in British waters.

Male and female whelks copulate between October and May depending on location in British Isle marine waters, and eggs are deposited in capsules that are glued together to form ‘sea wash balls’. These can be up to 50 cm by 25 cm Continue reading

MARPOL must ban discharge at sea of polyisobutylene which is killing European sea birds

April 24th, 2013 by Alderney Wildlife Trust

Guillemots, Uria aalge, washed up on Vazon beach on Guernsey’s west coast on 26 January 2003 due to their plumage being covered by oil (click image to expand – ©RLLord)

On 22 April 2013 the Alderney Wildlife Trust recovered a dead Guillemot from Braye Harbour in Alderney.

This is the first bird recorded in the Channel Islands that is believed to have been killed by Polyisobutylene (PIB).

The discovery of this bird occurred at the same time as it was announced that over the previous seven days one thousand seabirds with PIB on them had been found dead on the south-west coast of England.

A dead guillemot which was recovered from Braye Harbour, Alderney on 22 April 2013 (click image to expand – image courtesy of the Alderney Wildlife Trust)

Nineteen species have been recorded as having been affected by this pollution incident so far with the hundreds of birds found dead and dying along the coast including large numbers Continue reading

Earth Day is celebrated on 22 April

April 22nd, 2013 by Kars4Kids

A History of Earth Day by Kars4Kids (click to expand – image courtesy of Kars4Kids.org)

Earth Day, which was established in 1970, occurs on the 22 April each year.

Kars4Kids, which recycles cars, has produced a timeline showing the history of Earth Day and lists some of the activities people and communities engage in during the annual celebration.

Is a society guided by sustainability still possible?

April 13th, 2013 by Island Press

(click book cover to go to publisher’s website)

In today’s society, the word “sustainable” has become practically meaningless, with most sustainable products just a step less bad than conventional alternatives.

Because of the power of “sustainababble,” the world has largely ignored the rich spectrum of political, cultural, and technological changes that would set us on the path to a truly sustainable future.

Although the science of sustainability is clearer than ever, we still face the question of whether transforming our society into one guided by sustainability is even possible.

This new volume of State of the World 2013 — which features contributions from experts at the Worldwatch Institute as well as from environmental thought leader David Orr, freshwater Continue reading

Floral Guernsey’s Spring Festival Week begins on 20 April 2013

March 31st, 2013 by Floral Guernsey

Floral Guernsey’s Spring Festival Week returns on Saturday 20 April 2013 with a diverse programme of events running throughout the island until Monday 29 April.

The initiative, aimed at all gardeners and budding botanists, features a number of guided walks, open gardens and talks from experts including award-winning landscape designer Cleve West, who will deliver an RHS Growing for Success talk, ‘From Spuds to Chelsea’, at Les Cotils, St Peter Port, Guernsey on Wednesday 24 April 2013.

(Cleve West, former long jumper, passionate vegetable grower, and one of Britain’s leading garden designers after winning the top award at RHS show two years in a row, will give a presentation at Les Cotils on 24 April (click image to expand – image courtesy of Floral Guernsey)

Continue reading

Neonicotinoid & mite pesticide used together adversely affects bee brain

March 30th, 2013 by University of Dundee

honey bees at the entrance to a hive (click image to expand – ©RLLord)

Two studies have highlighted a negative impact on bees’ ability to learn following exposure to a combination of pesticides commonly used in agriculture.

Scientists found that the pesticides, used in the research at levels shown to occur in the wild, could interfere with the learning circuits in the bee’s brain.

They also found that bees exposed to combined pesticides were slower to learn or completely forgot important associations between floral scent and food rewards.

In the research paper ‘Cholinergic pesticides cause mushroom body neuronal inactivation in honeybees‘ published on 27 March 2013 in Nature Communications, the University of Dundee‘s Dr Christopher Connolly and his team investigated the impact on bees’ brains of two common pesticides: pesticides used on crops called neonicotinoid pesticides, and another type of pesticide, coumaphos, that is used in honeybee hives to kill the Varroa mite, a parasitic mite that Continue reading

Beachcombing discoveries on Bailiwick of Guernsey sea shores

March 4th, 2013 by Melanie Broadhurst

The Alderney sea shore showing the strand-line (click image to expand – ©Melanie Broadhurst)

Exploring the strand-lines of the intertidal shore provides an excellent insight into the rich marine life of the islands of the Bailiwick of Guernsey.

Strand-lines occur at the upper-most part of the sea shore, which marks the very edge of the sea.

A variety of marine life debris is left behind from each incoming tide, which can give beachcombers (a person who searches/ combs strand-lines) a different, yet exciting find, on a daily basis.

Beachcombing hunts are particularly interesting during spring tides, and during winter periods, when storms are more frequent and intense, leaving behind a wide range of marine Continue reading

RSPB Guernsey Group slide show on British Columbia 13 March 2013

February 25th, 2013 by Events

(click on image to download the flyer as a PDF file to your computer)

The RSPB Guernsey Group invite you to a slide show on British Columbia beginning at 8 pm on Wednesday 13 March 2013 at La Villette Hotel, St Martin.

The ticket price of £5.00 includes coffee or tea and biscuits.  The price for RSPB members is £4.00.