BBC Wildlife - UK (2021-12)

66 BBC WILDLIFE December 2021

Fickweiler says that changes in behaviour

during the COVID-19 pandemic led to double

the usual numbers of visitors to Somerset

Wildlife Trust reserves, including many

young families. “It put a lot of pressure on

our sites,” she says. “The people who came

out often weren’t countryside savvy. That’s

probably not such an issue if you’re going

to a park.”

Education is key, Fickweiler says. “There

are many ways to experience nature without

picking bits of it up and carting it off. Sitting

still, observing, listening, using guides,

learning names... there has to be a balance.”

S

ince 2018, Plantlife has

promoted a wildflower-picking

code of conduct. In a blog

about its annual Great British

Wildflower Hunt, a family-

friendly survey launched each spring, the

organisation said: “Many of us are unsure

what’s okay and what’s not and so err on the

safe side. Plantlife’s new code of conduct

shows us that wildflowers don’t have to be

out of bounds – and out of our lives.”

The guidelines, based on more detailed

ones drawn up by the Botanical Society of

Britain & Ireland, include never picking

wildflowers on reserves or uprooting whole

NATIONAL TREASURES

10 most amazing objects to find in Britain

Jay wing

feather

This small feather, a

greater covert covering

the base of flight feathers,

is from a Eurasian jay’s

wing. Its fabulous blue is

an optical illusion created

by the feather structure

not by pigment.

Cuttlefish

bone

Not really a bone,

but the skeleton-like

internal structure of this

cephalopod. The marine

treasures wash up on

beaches around the UK,

looking like tiny white

surfboards.

Conker

Everyone’s favourite

autumn game, conkers

was first recorded being

played on the Isle of

Wight in 1848. The spiky

green case is the fruit of

the horse chestnut tree

and the shiny brown ball

inside is the seed.

Oak marble

gall

Like a miniature cratered

planet, this weird growth

appears on oak trees

when a gall wasp injects

them with chemicals. The

galls were ground up to

make ink, used to sign the

Magna Carta in 1215.

Spider silk

There are seven different

types of silk produced

by spiders, used for all

sorts of purposes, from

transportation to nesting

or trapping prey. Some

spider silk is five times

stronger than steel of the

same diameter.

Forest schools first

arrived in the UK

in 1993 and have

grown in popularity

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