Worth going full screen and with the sound on to get the full benefit. Happy Friday.

By Ruth D'Alessandro, The Wildlife Gardener

Yikes! The Wildlife Gardener nearly trod on a large nymph on the side of the pond today. Carefully noting where it was so I wouldn’t crush it under my waders, I carried on with my late summer task of removing the choking blanket weed that seems to fill the pond overnight if left unchecked. At this time of year the pond has fewer inhabitants, the departed leaving ghostly remains of their time in the nursery:

This is an exuvia. It is the dry leftover casing (exoskeleton) of a dragonfly nymph when the dragonfly has emerged and flown away. There were lots of them in the pond.

I finished my slubbing, and my thoughts turned to lunch. Before I clambered out of the pond, I had a brief look around to see where the large nymph I had so nearly flattened had gone. I expected it to have plopped back into the pond. Then I noticed a strange green and black creature on a buddleia stem by the pond...

Read the rest...

On the day when it was announced that Buckinghamshire and Nottinghamshire are both investigating selling off their country parks; it's good to know that the EU are using our taxes wisely by producing public information films such as this:

Actually, as a non-smoker and keen beach user myself, I'm entirely in favour of the sentiments expressed. But please, EU, next time get a native English speaker to translate the very few lines of text involved.

If you're not familiar with the Canadian Wood Spider - as I wasn't - you might want to view this informative video about it, and some interesting experiments it has been used in. You'll need to hear the commentary to appreciate it.

Still, that spider looks awfully familiar...

New minister Francis Maude was anxious to start early with some tough action, so in June he announced a bonfire of the existing 820 government funded websites.

The review... will aim to shut down up to 75% of existing sites and then look at getting the remaining sites to cuts their costs by up to 50% and move onto common infrastructures.

I reported on 30th June that the full list of which websites the government department DEFRA intended to close had already been revealed. The priorities seemed a little odd: is http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk/ really to be closed, whilst http://www.lovechips.co.uk remains? Apparently so. Now the Ranger has been researching this issue further, with some interesting results.

Read the rest...

Hey, park managers! Want a share of 125,000 Euros? Obviously, you do. So check out the Phillips Livable Cities Award.

The award has three categories:

• Well-being Outdoors: initiatives that will help citizens feel safe in public spaces or help create city identity and foster a sense of belonging;
• Independent Living: initiatives that will help the growing number of elderly people living alone to feel secure and comfortable in a city, with appropriate access to healthcare;
• Healthy Lifestyle at Work and Home: initiatives that will support a healthy body and mind, whether through a person’s surroundings or via other essentials such as exercise, sleep and diet.

The main award of 75,000 Euros is for the best idea submitted in any of the three categories. There will also be two awards of 25,000 Euros each for the best submissions in the other two categories.

The awards are open worldwide (hoorah!) but only to individuals, community or non-governmental organisations and businesses (boo!). But I'm sure most parks managers will have a very enthusiastic 'Friends of...' group, won't you?

So get thinking! Deadline: October 28, 2010.