Saving England's most threatened species from extinction
Archive:
24th June 2020
Despite the problems lockdown has presented, it has led to some good news, as this blog by Mike Coates, RSPB’s Farnham Heath Warden (and star of Springwatch 2019) explains: This spring should have seen another translocation of Field Crickets to sites on two RSPB reserves, at Farnham Heath and Pulborough Brooks. Unfortunately, the Covid 19...
Read more17th December 2019
The Field Cricket project has had a good year with a record number of 337 Field Crickets recorded at Farnham Heath, making it the largest population England! This is just 9 years after they were first introduced to the site. The year started with our volunteer teams busy removing birch and bramble to keep the...
Read more30th September 2019
It was one of those typically warm and lazy evenings in June when a small collection of people set out from the Rural Life Centre near Farnham, across the heathland, with paper and pens in hand… This was part one of an evening entirely dedicated to the very rare Field Cricket – a small...
Read more22nd July 2019
Field Cricket Poem Lonely, birch tree Dead Bleached bones Wood world Shadows shift Silver-winged Midnight-armoured Front-horned God speaks in beetle - rhinoceros Charismatic microfauna Would you like to help these incredible species? There are numerous ways in which you can: Why not volunteer for Back from the Brink? Check out...
Read moreOut for the Count – A Flashback to the Field Cricket Project this June! Since joining the team at RSPB’s Farnham Heath reserve, I have been consistently amazed at the variety of heathland specialists that are on the site. I had heard of many of them prior to joining the team; Sand Lizards, Dartford...
Read more29th April 2019
For an insect that spends almost all of its time underground, the Field Cricket has an elusive charisma, on account of its evocative 'song'. A unique event will celebrate this miniature sound-maker... Field Cricket (Gryllus campestris), female nymph. Sussex, UK. April. Photographed under license on white backround in the field. In what is almost...
Read more29th January 2019
On a frosty morning, in the strange “limbo” week between Christmas and New Year, I extracted myself from the slumber of a cosy, over-stuffed and peaceful household and made the decision to blow away the cobwebs by taking a walk across my local chalk downs in Wiltshire. It’s a walk that’s renowned in the spring...
Read moreHaving heard from Sir Sebastian Anstruther about the conservation of the UK’s only indigenous population of Field Crickets at Coates Common and Lord’s Piece on the Barlavington Estate in West Sussex, here is a blog from his neighbour, Ned Mersey, who manages the adjacent piece of land - Bignor Park. Through Back from the Brink...
Read more1st November 2018
Ever wondered where the last population of Field Crickets in the UK lived? The answer is Coates Common, a privately owned site in West Sussex. After years of work to build up numbers, this became the source population for Field Cricket reintroductions, including the recent one to Pulborough Brooks. If it wasn’t for the commitment...
Read more21st June 2018
We are now into the Field Cricket monitoring period! Following the successful releases at Farnham Heath and Pulborough Brooks in April, we held a training day for staff, volunteers and students at RSPB’s Farnham Heath reserve in mid-May. We were delighted to be joined by Sixth Form students from Seaford College in West Sussex. In...
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