Nature lover and litter picker.
Bangor, County Down
Joined March 2010
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Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
Tuesday 13th October 7.30 to 9pm Ulster Museum; also zoom ([email protected] if not a BNFC member)
"Exploring Ireland's Marine Life: A close-up look at the major marine groups" Dr Christine Morrow, lead scientist, Marine Biodiversity Data Portal - NI.
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
In 1967 Britain had more electric vehicles on its roads than every other country on earth put together, and they were all delivering milk.
There were tens of thousands of them. The milk float: open sided, battery under the floor, top speed of about 15 miles an hour, and a whine you could pick out in your sleep. It was charged overnight at the depot and was back there by lunchtime.
It carried glass bottles. Each one was collected from your step the next morning, washed and refilled. A bottle went round like that 20 or 30 times before it broke. The foil cap went for scrap. There was no other packaging.
The milk had come from farms within a few miles, through a local dairy, and was on the step before 7.
So here is what the country had. A zero-emission delivery fleet. Reusable containers with a return rate any modern scheme would kill for. No plastic. A supply chain you could cycle the length of. A man who noticed if an old lady's bottles were piling up, and knocked.
It was dismantled in about 15 years, because a supermarket could sell milk a few pence cheaper in a plastic jug as a way of getting you through the door.
Every piece of that system is now the subject of a government target for 2040.
It was running in 1967, silently, in the dark, and nobody thought it was worth a mention.
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
We are alive for < 0.00002% of the time life has existed on Earth and we know and see so little of the life that is present with us. I try to show you some of the life that few people will ever see. The marine plankton are the most important creatures on the planet and some of the most exquisitely, beautiful too. @zeiss_micro @natgeo
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
Go for a swim in the sea, or sail upon it, and these amazing, microscopic, out of sight, creatures will be all around you. Called the plankton they are Ocean Drifters and they support the whole marine food chain. But, unnoticed, did you ever give them a thought? Watch Ocean Drifters and let David Attenborough tell you more about them youtu.be/ziGtmjiUlJQ?si=9N1q… @natgeo @zeiss_micro
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
Those that have them don't want them
Those that want them can't get them
57 active house martin nests jet washed off one house
Estate agent pays €8,000 after House Martin nests power-washed off Laois house
leinsterexpress.ie/news/crim…
#housemartin #Delichon #Delichonurbicum
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
The most terrifying thread you’ve ever read
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
What a shameful spectacle 👇 #litter #LeaveNoTrace
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
Saturday 15th August: Geology and Orchids at Killard - joint with @geol_soc
Leaders: Jake Dalzell and Karen Parks. BNFC members only. Not a member? Join at bnfc.org.uk/membership-a... and contact [email protected]
ALT Killard fowers
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
Do you agree?, with 'my take' on modern scientific publishing.
Is scientific publishing 'bust' ?
A problem today that is two-fold (perhaps more-fold) is the volume of literature produced and sorting the wheat from the chaff, especially for the public but also for scientists. I think this problem stems from the annual staff appraisal process (scientists needing to justify themselves and compete for their promotion/job security) and the rise of electronic media.
In the old days (halcyon days?) the amount of science that could be published was limited by paper/print costs, library shelf space and library budgets. The number of papers was limited by competition for space and financial budgets. Then, along came the electronic PDF and space, as a constraint, became unlimited.
While traditional journals that published in print maintained paper publications, they maximised the papers published by limiting the word count and shunting much of the content into online supplementary materials. New online only journal titles, without a print copy, proliferated in abundance.
The number of papers that could be published has consequently, bloomed, to coin a planktonic phrase. Scientists could raise their profile and/or improve their annual performance appraisal by publishing more stuff.
An incidental price paid is that the refereeing process is now severely, overstretched with the volume of papers now being submitted, with an inevitable knock on for quality; there are only so many experts in any field and their time is limited.
Many of the traditional/high impact factor journals that started decades ago are behind pay walls, so the paper is costly for the public to read unless the author pays a fee for Open Access. This prevents ready access to science by the public. While pay wall papers can always be obtained by e-mailing the corresponding author, the public often don't realise this or, it's a step too far for what may be just a casual interest. However, the new e-journals all tend to be Open Access and, while still requiring a fee to publish, paying to get your paper published is a small price. Science published in Open Access e-journal is therefore readily accessible to everyone online and it is especially, 'in the public's face''.
I receive regular e-mails from new e-journal titles begging me to submit a paper and I assume am not alone. I received one yesterday and I 'looked the journal up'. One paper I chose at random took 12 days to review and just two weeks to publish from the date of its initial submission. A time schedule like this would make a traditional journal priding itself on rigorous peer review and rapid publication, blush.
It becomes very difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff. I now find that I have to personally 'review' or referee every paper that interests me before I trust what is written, irrespective of the journal. It must be impossible for the public who want to learn about a subject.
Is this a problem, or have I written heresy?
(I can make similar arguments about research proposals where the arrival of the PDF allowed for an expansion of bureaucracy and a similar stressing of the refereeing system as proposals submitted also burgeoned in number as 'to submit proposals' looks good on the APR, irrespective of success; of course, success is even better. When proposals had to be photocopied by hand and distributed to referees and committee members by post it served as a limit on the number of proposals and the amount of verbiage requested.)
A picture of a plankton sample from a diatom bloom is attached.
@natgeo
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
This plastic toy building brick was found in the stomach of a Sable Shearwater chick on Lord Howe, a remote island located off the east coast of Australia. It was discovered by scientists at @AdriftLab, a research group focused on seabirds and marine plastics. The brick isn’t Lego – in fact we’re not sure what brand it is – but it was among 246 pieces of plastic the ~90-day-old chick had consumed.
“The chick had failed to fledge (i.e., was not able to depart the island) and was very emaciated,” said Dr Jennifer Lavers, who has been studying shearwaters on Lord Howe Island with her colleague Dr Alex Bond, Principal Curator in Charge of Birds at Britain’s Natural History Museum, for the last two decades. “The plastics in its stomach accounted for 5% of the chick's overall body mass.”
Research by scientists at @AdriftLab has revealed that Sable Shearwaters are among the most plastic-contaminated species in the world. Having so much plastic in their stomachs can be a death sentence for the shearwaters, as it leaves no room for food. “The adult shearwaters fish plastic out of the ocean and unknowingly feed it to their chicks,” explained Dr Lavers.
For those not familiar with Lord Howe Island, it’s a small island in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. The island is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is home to about 44,000 Sable Shearwaters, which nest in burrows.
The third picture here shows a healthy Sable Shearwater chick, not the one that had consumed 246 pieces of plastic.
Picture copyright: Dr Jennifer Lavers at @AdriftLab
ALT Picture shows 246 pieces of plastic that had been ingested by a Sable Shearwater chick
ALT Picture shows a plastic toy building brick being held in a hand against a cream fabric background
ALT Picture shows a healthy Sable Shearwater chick, not the one that had consumed the 246 pieces of plastic
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
A 10-year French experiment just showed that farming without pesticides is actually possible.
INRAE (France’s national agriculture research institute) ran nine different pesticide-free cropping systems across real farms — mixing long rotations, cover crops, biodiversity, and smart soil management. The results? In many cases, yields were close to (or even matched) conventional systems, and some were economically viable with the right marketing and crop diversity.
It wasn’t perfect — weeds were a challenge in some spots — but it proves pesticide-free isn’t just a dream. It’s technically and economically doable under the right conditions.
This is encouraging. We keep hearing that we have to choose between food production and protecting the environment, but studies like this show there might be smarter paths forward.
If we can grow food with far fewer chemicals while keeping farms profitable, it could be a game-changer for soil health, biodiversity, water quality, and long-term food security.
What do you think — could we realistically move toward much lower-pesticide farming at scale, or are there too many obstacles?
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
Posting this again as it is nesting time. Dogs on leads near breeding areas - PLEASE 🙏🙏
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
Today I stumbled across a 'wild' corner of bushes in Regent's Park. It's home to Blackcaps, Blackbirds, Robins, Song Thrushes and much more.
We need more of these 'messy' corners, enhancing ecosystems' resilience and reconnecting us with urban wildlife (and they look nice too!).
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
"Don't Kill the Krill". I've just been the Guest Lecturer on an Antarctic - South Georgia cruise. It resulted in this song with some wonderful passengers calling to STOP krill fishing. (The WWF has called for a moratorium on krill fishing wwf.org.au/news/2025/wwf-cal…) Creative credit: Mark and Anne O'Reilly.
@Aurexpeditions
@wwf @natgeo
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
A tragic destiny and our shocking legacy. The microfibres from our plastic clothes end up among the plankton. @NatGeo @zeiss_micro
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
Forgive us our trespasses…
Sandwiched between the North Circular & the housing estates of Ilford lies a rare & precious jewel: the largest tidal reedbeds in London. However, they are in a bad way: smothered in plastic & rubbish swept in by the tide & with invasive species encroaching further every year. They are owned by public authorities (mainly @TfL) who have done absolutely nothing to care for them in decades & wont even let our volunteer run charity, the River Roding Trust, take responsibility for them & provide public access, at no cost to TFL.
Local river guardians have decided that we will not allow this precious natural place to die through neglect, & so this weekend we hopped the river wall & trespassed onto this land, to care, protect & restore it in the face of the failure of the landowning public authority to do so themselves.
We combed through the reeds & removed dozens of bags of rubbish coating the area, cut back invasive species & replaced them with native trees, & removed old tree guards from saplings that had been planted long ago & forgotten about. Whilst we managed to care for a few hundred metres of the reedbeds, there remains much to do over the remaining months of winter. There is something powerful about local communities acting, without permission or official sanction or funding, to care for nature when the government bodies that are supposed to do so have failed.
The amount of litter found on the shores of one small section of Strangford Lough is crazy at the moment.
A lovely morning to join fellow @ANDborough #BeachCleaners for a clean-up of Cunningburn, Strangford Lough. 13 bags of litter + large items lifted from the coastline. Lots of plastic products removed #LeaveNoTrace 🚮 #LoveWhereYouVisit 🏖 #ConnectWithNature 🦆🪸 🐠🦀
ALT Photo of Ruth, Lesley, myself, Jim and Ann with 13 bags of litter plus larger plastic items lifted from the shoreline of Strangford Lough
ALT Underwear removed from the hedge on the shoreline
ALT A montage of items of litter lifted today
ALT Before and after photos of an area where we litter-picked
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
So Southern Water’s toxic plastic beads have now made it all the way across the English Channel.
Can someone explain to me, exactly what the hell does a water company have to do to loose their operating licence?
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
Southern Water haven't just polluted English beaches, their toxic beads have made it across the Channel to Northern France, I am told. This from a beach at Wissant
Lesley Crawshaw retweeted
My report from last night's meeting in Rye about the catastrophic biobead spill
- Thought to be 650 million toxic beads littering the coast
- They have spread to many beaches & a nature reserve
- EA looking at upgrading to a category 1 pollution event
theguardian.com/environment/…
