Page 51 - BR December 2023

December 2023 December 2023

BERE REGIS WILDLIFE AND a small amount of money over a short period of time to cover unexpected
expenses. They may have been refused credit elsewhere and need cash at short
ENVIRONMENT GROUP notice. In the cost-of-living crisis, more people are being forced to borrow to cover
basic living costs such as bills and food.
This Autumn may have been windy and wet at times, You may be dealing with a loan shark if:
but at the time of writing has remained very mild.
Simple evidence of this is the surprisingly high numbers • You are given no paperwork or details about the loan
of Red Admiral butterflies still flying on the sunnier • Repayments are adding up to much more than you borrowed
days. The Red Admiral is one of our more readily
identifiable butterflies being relatively large and • You are intimidated if you struggle to pay
having distinctive black, white and red markings. Some adults manage to survive
the winter by hibernating here. However, most Red Admirals migrate to the UK • They demand items like bank cards or a passport until you can pay
from North Africa and continental Europe, arriving in spring and laying eggs that Credit unions offer an alternative, ethical and safe way of borrowing for people
hatch from July onwards, with the caterpillars feeding on nettles. who may have been refused credit elsewhere. They can offer small loans at
affordable rates. Visit www.findyourcreditunion.co.uk to find one nearest to you.

Migrating Birds The England Illegal Money Lending Team work in partnership with Trading
Standards to investigate and prosecute illegal lenders and support victims. If you
Many of the birds we regularly see in the UK are migrants. think you have been targeted by a loan shark then visit the England Illegal Money
The migrant birds may be those that spend the summers in the UK to feed, breed Lending Team website www.stoploansharks.co.uk, call their 24/7 confidential
and raise their young before departing our shores for warmer winters and more hotline 0300 555 2222, or text a report to 078600 22116.
abundant food elsewhere. The sights and names of many of these birds will be
familiar to you – swifts, swallows, house martins for instance along with such as
wheatears, cuckoos, willow warblers, sand martin, blackcap, whitethroat, spotted
flycatcher and the nightingale. In all, there are about 50 bird species that come
to the UK for the summer months. Many of them are insect feeders. A notable
exception to this is the osprey – a fish eating bird.
Conversely, there are a good number of birds that spend the winters in the UK
having spent the summer breeding and feeding in more northerly artic and
tundra quarters. The most notable winter migrants are to the UK’s coasts and
wetlands, They arrive in incredible numbers – 1.5 million lapwings, 500,000 dunlin,
300,000 knot, 300,000 oystercatchers, 60,000 bar-tailed godwits, 50,000, redshanks
and 40,000 grey plovers! Other winter migrants include brent geese, barnacle
geese, pink-footed geese, bewick’s swans and whooper swans. In (or rather
above) Bere Regis during the winter months we are often treated to the sights of
flocks (or to be correct – skeins) of geese or swans flying overhead in their familiar
V shaped format. Often these skeins are heard honking before they are seen.

Winter migrants to the UK which don’t rely on our coasts and wetlands include
redwing, fieldfare, and starlings which come to join our all-year round resident
starlings. These birds typically come from mainland Europe to escape the harsher
winters there. Of course, one of the wonderous winter sights is the starling
murmarations where huge groups of starlings twist, turn, swoop and swirl across
the sky in beautiful shape-shifting clouds just before dusk, eventually roosting
together.

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