Eco Holidays

posted by Catherine on Apr 10

Throw out that traditional ‘city’ guidebook – write your own eco adventure guide!

We all try to make sure that we see the oldest church, tallest tower, biggest fountain or a giant shoe – but what about the landscapes surrounding us? Do you find out where the local wildlife lives? Where the local people go and relax or where the more remote landscapes off the tourist trail are?

If not – then you aren’t having an eco adventure – you are having the same ‘adventure’ as a thousand other tourists who passed by.

By finding out a bit more about your destination first, you can discover so much more when you are travelling – and will have a better eco holiday that you ever imagined.

The Landscapes:
It might sound boring to research the rock types and weather patterns of your holiday destination – but by finding out things like whether the rock is ‘hard’ (granite) or ‘soft’ (limestone) you would know whether there would be a lot a water on the surface, the likelihood of caves and what plants and animals you could see.

photo credit: DaveBleasdale

For example softer more porous rock types like chalk and limestones don’t hold water so will be reasonably dry landscapes and any water features will usually be seasonal or man-made. And this affects the wildlife and plants you will find.

Other rock types might produce totally different effects and environmental diversity – which could make for some very interesting places to visit on your vacation.

The Locations:
By looking at the niche habitats and weather patterns – you could find out where the most pleasant places to visit are.

You may well avoid India in the monsoon, and the Caribbean during the hurricane season – so why visit a desert at the hottest time of day, or a tropical coastal location before the afternoon sea breezes come in?

Locals know all the secrets to making the most of the day – so if the locals don’t go out until the afternoon – you know to copy them! What do they do instead and where do they do it?

I remember when I first went to Malta I was back in my flat by 6pm and stayed in all night as I was totally knackered from all that sun. But 1 night I needed something important, so popped back out to the shop and found the entire local population out on the boulevard socialising!

Kids on bikes, couples, babies in strollers and games of chess all going on – there wasn’t a single seat free for about 2 miles of promenade! I had wondered why the prom was so wide with so many benches when I hardly ever saw anyone there – but of course it was too hot during the day to sit in the sun!

Learning a bit more about somewhere isn’t so hard – and then you could find you get a lot more from the experience.

posted by Catherine on Apr 3

As part of the ‘Making Wildlife Watching Easy’ series, here’s a nice simple wildbird guide: How to tell the difference between Rooks and Crows.

These 2 large black (and noisy) birds can be seen in both town and countryside. They are both quite heavy-looking and are often seen in groups – usually in trees. But although they look virtually identical from a distance, they have some very different features when you look more closely.

So, what are the key features to help tell them apart?

Well, the main differences are with the beaks, the legs and their habits – the easiest to spot is that the beak of the rook is larger, has 2 colours on it (black tip and cream toward the cheeks) and looks a bit scarier!

photo credit: foxypar4

Once you can spot this – all the other differences aren’t important. However saying that, I still have a bit of trouble getting them to stand still so I can have a look!

And although pictures of them side by side can clearly show you the differences, when they are flapping about or up in the air – it really isn’t that easy first few times, so this is where you can use their behaviour to help you. Rooks are nearly always in large groups and rarely ever alone, whereas crows will often be solitary or in a small family group.

Visually, these are the main differences – and I have written them down only if they are clear differences rather than ‘a slightly rounder tail’, etc. These things should be clearly noticable with or without binoculars:

Rook – Pointy beak that has black tip and is exposed right to the eye.
Rook – Ruffled looking all over with noticable spikey head and untidy leg feathers.

photo credit: foxypar4

Crow – Shorter, more curved beak which stops at the face and with feathers on top.
Crow – Neat rounded head feathers, with neat little ‘trousers’ at the top of the leg.

photo credit: dustpuppy

Obviously there are natural variations to both birds that you can only tell through experience – for example juvenile rooks are lacking the fully exposed beak and therefore they resemble a crow from a distance.

Jackdaws and Ravens are also black and really shouldn’t be confused with crows or rooks! Both are completely different sizes and it won’t take much looking to tell them apart.

Jackdaws are considerably smaller and have an almost silver sheen to their feathers and a clear black forehead that is easy to see when they land. They also have really bright yellow eyes! They are often seen with flocks of rooks so you can compare their size.

photo credit: Maxwell Hamilton

Ravens on the other hand are huge! If you saw a raven on the ground without any scale – it would look just like a crow – however, if seen next to known plants or other birds you won’t mistake them.

They are about the size of a herring gull where as crows aren’t much bigger than a magpie! They have over a meter wingspan in flight and an obvious wedge shape to the tail too.

posted by Catherine on Mar 25

The sun is shining and the lambs are hopping round their field – or are they?

When we see little lambs bouncing around in the sun – we can only think of how cute they are. Out come the cameras and the high pitched voices as we point at them with our friends and children.

But did you know that those little sheep are fighting to keep adonis blue butterflies breeding in southern England?

How? Well, it isn’t like they are waving banners about or stopping urban development in the area – they are just doing what they do best. Eating grass.

An Easy Life:
Basically, these sheep are grazing the hillside landscapes that blanket the south of England as well as other sloping grassy surfaces around the world because that is what they are good at.

Sheep thrive in these niche landscapes due to their breeding – or our manipulation of their breeding – and so they have changed the way things look around them. And as a result of that have helped to create habitats where wild flowers and insects thrive.

But these habitats are man-made (or sheep-made) and a few years of no grazing, and all the plants, insects and birds are at risk of being lost!

Without the sheep mowing the hillsides flat – including shoots from all other plants, bushes and trees – the grass would soon become covered in scrub, brambles and gorse, which in turn would become overgrown and then allow for tree growth.

How You Can Help.
Now that farming is becoming less and less profitable, sheep farmers are limited to the amount of sheep they can keep for this valuable biodiversity control – and so flocks are getting smaller and grasslands are shrinking.

So are wildflower and insect populations.

So, when you local farm invites you inside to watch the lambs, stroke them, hold them and maybe even take a ride around the farm in a tractor – he is really asking you to help make sure that the sheep can stay.

And ultimately, he is asking you to save your local grasslands and your local landscapes.

Could you imagine your local open spaces covered in prickly bramble and spikey gorse bushes instead of fields of soft picnic-inducing grasslands?

All you have to do to help keep them that way – is to pay to go and see some cute lambs; your local species and habitat saving warriors in disguise!

photo credit: Tim Pokorny

posted by Catherine on Mar 9

Does booking an eco holiday really mean you have to pay more for everything?

We all know that you can’t find a great eco holiday package for less than a ‘short hop to the sun’ type holiday, because you are comparing 2 different things: you either want to respect the environment and the people living in it, or you want to spend as little as possible to get somewhere warm.

But if you are planning to find travel deals that can help you to plan a more independent holiday – then you shouldn’t have to pay more to get there and back for example.

If you are planning to spend 3 months travelling across Europe, or spend a year moving around South America – there is no need to pay full price for your transport if you can get it at a reduced price.

I mean why would you offer to pay full price for a train ride from New York to Los Angeles if the person behind you in the queue was only paying a fraction of that cost? There is nothing you can do to stop a company from offering a promotional rate – however you could always refuse the offer and pay full price if you want – but I’m sure nobody would really do that!

Your Long Trip:
So if you are planning a long vacation somewhere – you may still want to search for the best deals on transport, food and accommodation – so that you can travel for longer.

You will of course still have your normal eco standards, like no ‘bush meat’ or no meat at all; no consumer products from giant stores; no hotel chains; etc – but you can find the best vacation discount for whatever it is that you are looking for.

You still need to sleep somewhere, buy products, eat food and travel from A to B – so why not use the Internet to help you find what you are looking for with link-filled sites like TravelFinders.co to help you find specific travel websites that could help you.

People you meet will also have reduced prices to offer you when you arrive somewhere – maybe 1 night free if you stay a week, half price trip if you book another trip through the same agent, etc. Deals are all around us and taking advantage of them doesn’t need to go against your eco thinking.

If you saw 6 free range organic eggs for sale for half the price of another brand of free range organic eggs – I’m sure you wouldn’t opt for the more expensive ones. Same thing with everything in life.

And there may be times when you do need to book a ticket on a plane for those longer journeys or in times of trouble – so why not look for a cheap flights going the same way?

Being eco friendly doesn’t mean you have to pay more – it means you won’t settle for less than what you believe in.

posted by Catherine on Feb 16

As part of the ‘Making Wildlife Watching Easy’ series, here’s a nice simple wildbird guide: How to tell the difference between Blue Tits and Great Tits.

These 2 garden birds are both small, both love feeders, both look blue and yellow and both sing pretty songs – so how can you tell them apart?

Well the answer is ‘easily, if you know what to look for’.

So, what is the difference between a Blue tit and a Great tit?
Well, there are many differences, but the easiest thing to spot at the feeders is that the Great tit has an almost entirely black head and neck apart from a giant white cheek pouch – see below:

Once you can spot this – all the other differences aren’t so important. However saying that, I still haven’t got it spot on yet. I have to watch them for a while until I am sure.

And although pictures of them side by side can clearly show you the differences, when they are upside on a feeder with 10 other Blue or Great tits – it’s not so easy, so you can also look at their behaviour too to tell them apart.

photo credit: Mostly Dans

Blue tit on the left and Great tit on the right. Did you get it?

So, based on your observations outside – I have written down the main differences below as they are ‘clear’ differences – things that you can see in a second – rather than saying Species A has ‘a slightly bigger patch of white’, etc. These things should be obvious to you, with or without binoculars:

Great Tit – Totally black head and neck with giant white cheek patches.
Great Tit – Wide black solid line from chin to underbelly in adults splitting the yellow breast in half.

photo credit: ahisgett

Blue Tit – Light blue ‘cap’ on top of head – seperated by a white band around the head.
Blue Tit – Dark line running through the eye, with white feathers above and below it.

photo credit: chapmankj75

Obviously there are natural variations on this like juvenile Great tits don’t have the solid black chest line or bold white cheek patches, but still don’t have the dark eye stripe of the Blue tits.

What If It Looks Like A Great Tit But Isn’t Blue Or Yellow?
Coal tits are another common garden bird and can look a bit like both the Great and Blue tits, but for a few observable differences.

They have the same black head and large white cheek patches of the Great tit but have a seemingly longer flatter head giving them the appearance of having ‘no neck’. They do have a grey/blue back, but do not have a yellow chest at all, it is normally buff to brown.

posted by Catherine on Feb 8

If you see ‘poisonous’ Ragwort alongside a footpath – would you destroy it?

After all, Ragwort is known for it’s toxic nature – and is always destroyed on equestrian land and is generally unwanted on cattle grazing land and in hay meadows.

Eating it over a period of time will usually cause permanent liver damage, but this is very, very rare in reality. However, some walkers take it upon themselves to snap off the ragwort stems as they pass them by – for reasons only known to them.

However – I bet it didn’t oocur to them that the land owners or reserve wardens may in fact be actively encouraging the ragwort to grow there.

photo credit: MGSpiller

Who’s Land Is It Anyway?
Many countryside walkers assume that the land is unchecked, not cared for and little visited by the owners – but they would be wrong in nearly all cases.

All land is ‘owned’ by someone and they would either look after it themselves or have someone else look after it for them (usually with some financial incentive).

And if you studied any biology or geography in your life you would know that there is a natural pattern of succession in the plant world, starting with bare rock or dried riverbed, leading up to mature forest.

(If you are one step ahead of me now you will know what I am about the say.)

As a result of this natural pattern – if land wasn’t tended to or ‘controlled’ by somebody – then the very grassy patch or field where you just snapped that ragwort in half in wouldn’t actually be grassy – or even have any ragwort in. It would be a mature forest.

And as with your own land (generally just your garden) – even if it looks a bit messy and you are at work 5 days a week – you really wouldn’t want someone to walk through it while you were out and then take it upon themselves to cut down your only tree and uproot your rhodedenron bush.

Understand Nature’s Way:
By cutting down young or densly growing trees down to create a glade, or patch of open grass in the middle of a woodland can be a fantastic haven for dozens of butterfly and moth species – and some of them just love Ragwort!

The day-flying Cinnabar Moth (a bright red medium-sized moth) is most renowned for this association and has bright yellow and black striped caterpillars that feed on the ragwort plants. Many other moths also use the plant for parts of their lifecycle.

photo credit: MGSpiller

And strangely enough – bearing in mind how horrible the plant tastes – sheep tend to love an appetiser of Ragwort amongst their normal grasses and flowers. It is believed to kill off internal parasites for them!

Woodlands all over the country are managed to a certain extent – even though they tend to take care of themselves most of the time – but if you want to attract any birds, mammals or insects that don’t live in woodlands, then you need to cut them down.

And that is just what happens throughout the year on the very land you are walking on.

Some plants are best cut down at certain times of the year – and of course you can’t disturb a nesting bird over the spring – so rather than taking on the role of dangerous plant destroyer (ivy cutter/squirrel scarer/dead wood clearer/or anything at all that isn’t agreed in advance with the land-owner) – just walk on by.

If you have anything you would like to share with them about their land, then contact them in the appropriate fashion rather than just sabotage their property.

So, when you are out exploring the countryside – think of their trees as you would of your garden fence; their plants as you would of your rosebush; their gates as your own front door.

Would you want someone to leave your front door open, break down your fence and snap your rosebush in half?

I didn’t think so…….

posted by Catherine on Jan 23

Nothing beats actually doing something – so book yourself on a course.

If you are one of those people who says ‘oh, I’ve always wanted to do that…’ then you need to start doing them!

Sometimes they are such simple things, like going to a local castle, walking along a certain coast, climbing a certain mountain – all of which are usually free, but we never seem to fit them in, even though they are so simple to do.

Other things people might not get round to are new skills – or improving existing skills – where courses can be free, or the cost going to a great cause.

You will never learn how to identify fungi unless you get out there and actually search for them; learning bird calls is impossible without listening to the birds themselves and you certainly can’t learn how to manage a woodland, divert a stream or grow your own food from just reading a book!

Local Courses:
So, by booking yourself on to a course with a local agency, charity or organisation, you will finally get around to achieving something outdoorsy and eco friendly – and have a great time learning!

Build You Own Bug House

Here I have listed some courses and talks that I have found available in local advertisings – things that you could easily do:

Sustainable Building Talk – Local Permaculture Group:
Spend the morning listening to a talk by a leading local expert with a Q&A session – and then have a tour of an existing sustainably built and run eco house and get to see what is working where inside and outside.

Make Your Landscape Photography Come Alive – Local Wildlife Trust:
An intensive 1-day course for landscape photography for beginners and improvers. A few hours in the class room first thing to cover the basic settings, composition and equipment – then out in the field to experiment with emotion, light and adding your own style.

Basic Bushkraft – Local Independant Adult Ed Centre
Covering an array of outdoor skills – you will spend the day with adults all experimenting with basic survival skills. These skills include; green wood-working, shelter building, fire lighting, knots and cooking.

A Weekend With A View – Local Youth Hostels
Stay for 2 days at a local Youth Hostel in a picturesque location – with activites and walks planned throughout. Explore the local area and landscapes with your guide before settling down for group dinner and stories in the evening. Wake up to fresh air and a great breakfast and then head off on more adventures till hometime!

There Is Something For Everyone:
Even if none of those sound like your kettle of fish, then hunt around for other adventures to get you outside and exploring – and hopefully learning a new skill along the way.

Whether its an evening with badgers or bats, woodland or heathland ecology, an introduction to beekeeping or butterflies, or maybe rock pools, painting, basketry and bryophytes! You can always find something you like.

So, no more excuses – do what you have always wanted to do!

posted by Catherine on Jan 6

Your empty car could cause charities to lose money and reduce visitor numbers!

Thinking about what your car can do when you aren’t using it is one of the first step towards eco friendly living and the right attitude.

Anything that limits the chances of other people enjoying their day or makes them have to try twice as hard to get to where they want to go – isn’t very eco friendly.

And in the case of your car – your decisions can make all the difference.

Let’s say that you parked your car in a local viewpoint car park – but you only noticed that you were taking up just over 1 space after you had got out the car. There weren’t many other people in the car park, so would you leave it there or would you move it?

If you aren’t going to be there long, you might be inclined to leave it there – but how do you know what might happen while you are away? What if you are longer than expected or it suddenly fills up. You are preventing someone else from parking where you are.

photo credit: Blyzz

You might be having a lovely walk out there – or a delightful picnic with friends – but there could be a whole family wanting to do the same – but instead they are left in the car park staring at three-quarters of a parking space and no doubt a little bit annoyed as well!

Long Term Effects:
Yeah, that might only be a one off for you as you live close by and go there all the time – but what if that person you prevented from parking had come a long way to see your local coastline or woodlands – and they never got to see it because of your actions.

What if they were going to spend their holiday money in the area – your area? But instead they drove off to a town further down the way and spent it there. Their loss or yours?

What if the car park was a pay and display car park funding the very location you love to visit – and you just lost them some money as well – paying once but using 2 spaces and driving of another customer to boot!

And do you think those people would recommend your viewpoint to their friends back home who are planning a road trip or will they just say ‘there wasn’t enough parking’. How can they tell them about the beautiful countryside near you if they didn’t get to see it – they will just have to say how wonderful the other place they went to was instead.

Your loss again I think!

posted by Catherine on Dec 20

You can get so much more out of your travels if you are learning along the way!

Say you are volunteering at an animal sanctuary in Brazil, and wetland habitat in India or underwater in Fiji – what could be a better use of your evening than learning more about it all online?

I’m sure that you will get plenty of on-the-job training once you arrive – but you could make that 10 times more effective by studying a related course at the same time – in your own language – and possibly with a qualification at the end of it.

So not only would you come home with 3 or 6 months hands-on active experience under your belt, but also a certificate, a diploma or even a foundation degree under there too!

Why Study?
Many people have their ‘career’ qualifications and experience on the one side to pay the bills - but they often don’t get qualifications or certified experience in their passion.  That’s where short course and diplomas, etc, come in – they boost up your ‘hobby’ into an active skill.

I mean, if you love wildlife – and spend many hours reading about it and wandering through woodlands, mountains and open countryside with your binoculars - this doesn’t translate into any quantifiable experience or application of that passion.

So, if you were to apply for a job in this field - you couldn’t really use “20 years of walking outside looking at wildlife” as a qualification could you?

This is where these short courses online could come in really handy for you.  You could get an actual certificate to prove that you have the knowledge and experience in the field – which could hopefully open up a whole new window of opportunity for you.

Add this new qualification to a few months active volunteering in the field with a well-known college, institute or tour company and you could well have found yourself a new vocational path.

Extra Curricular Activity:
Many courses can also require a certain amount of practical experience and may even have many units based purely on hands-on activities like animal care, people skills or habitat management.  And no doubt you will have plenty of things to use a mini projects if you are actively working in the field.

Rather than the usual things like reporting on a local cat rescue centre, or new supermarket near you, your project could be ‘how building a school in a remote village empowers women and children’ or ‘discovering new species of reptile in the pristine forests of Papua’.

Rather than thinking of ways to add extra information to bulk your projects up to 5000 words of whatever – with all the action around you – you may have a hard job deciding what to cut out instead!

posted by Catherine on Dec 10

Have you ever seen your local woodland or riverbanks coated in the morning frost?

We all love walking in the woods, on the Downs, through the valleys, on the moors, along the coast and beside the rivers – but have you done it first thing on a winters morning?

There are some scenes you just won’t see in the normal run of things out with the kids or walking the dog – you need to make the effort to get out there really early for a people-free, wildlife-filled and weather dependant great view.

Being first up on top of a frosty hillside and seeing the low clouds rolling over the sides is priceless.  And watching herons feed in the misty waters first thing could make you see your local walk in a new light.

Local Tours:
There are always local organisations and charities offering winter walks at this time of year – and many of them are themed so you can choose the one that most appeals. 

For example some are about the wildlife, some about the landscapes and some about the history surrounding us – some are even one-offs like a festive wreath walk, where you get to cut your own holly and ivy etc, and then are helped to create your own designs for your home!

And needless to say, these walks are great in 2 main respects; the first being that they are run by an expert.  You won’t just be wandering around the usual footpaths with a group of people aimlessly – you will be led to all the main features and given specific information about plants, animals, people and the past.

These guides will be well aware of everything in local area and will be able to answer most of your questions there and then as they would have a passion for it – otherwise they wouldn’t offer to do the walk in the first place!

photo credit: maxim off

Secondly, they will be able to take you to places that you might not have been to before – such as on to private land, through farms and fields that the general public don’t have access to.  For example, there are huge areas of land that are owned by wildlife trusts which are kept free from the everyday general public as essential work is carried out or sensitive areas where animals are being surveyed/preserved/introduced.

Taking a tour with these charities or groups that have agreements with local landowners and farmers can allow you a new view of the same landscape - or access to rare or protected habitats.

Feel Encouraged:
Of course, noone really wants to get up in the dark on your day off – but if you have signed up to one of these walks or are aware of it – then you are more likely to get up and out.

The photo opportunities on these walks are huge as well as the possible wildlife sightings.  I mean you may well be there before all the morning dog walkers – so you are more likely to see some of the more shy native wildlife – and even hungry owls hunting for those few extra hours in the cold.

If you are a duvet diva – make sure you arrange to get a lift off someone or pick someone else up on your way - that way you can’t talk yourself out of it when the alarm goes off!