Nature in the News

cd07

Another disgusting persecution of raptors in ireland. Pigeon men have been carrying out these crimes here for years and its great to see them fined for their crimes albeit these fines are nowhere near as heavy as they should have been. The judge should also have banned them from taking part in any keeping or racing of pigeons for life in my opinion.

OpenYourEyes

cd07 wrote: »

The judge should also have banned them from taking part in any keeping or racing of pigeons for life in my opinion.

I fully agree - this should be the standard when someone involved with pigeon racing is convicted of raptor persecution. Particularly when a live pigeon was used as bait - sufficient animal cruelty just in that to justify banning them!

cd07

I know, these lads are supposed to love their birds so i dont see how them tying them down smothered with illegal poison to ultimately die of poisoning themselves whilst not having any chance of escaping predation is showing any care or respect for their birds. Scumbags imo..

OpenYourEyes

cd07 wrote: »

I know, these lads are supposed to love their birds so i dont see how them tying them down smothered with illegal poison to ultimately die of poisoning themselves whilst not having any chance of escaping predation is showing any care or respect for their birds. Scumbags imo..

It goes without saying that not all Pigeon men are that bad, but there is a very very bad element in the community.

I've been told the average age of nearly all pigeon clubs gets older and older every year, with very few if any young people getting involved, so time is ticking on it as a sport.

cd07

Having been involved in pigeon racing for 10 years or more myself i used to hear of these stories regularly. That said not all fanciers share this hatred of raptors i know a few that are keen falconers themselves. The majority of them do however blame peregrines for their birds not arriving home which is just ludicrous theres a hundred other reasons for a pigeon not returning home.

cd07

OpenYourEyes wrote:

I've been told the average age of nearly all pigeon clubs gets older and older every year, with very few if any young people getting involved, so time is ticking on it as a sport.

This is very true pigeon racing will soon be a sport of the past clubs cant sustain themselves without younger members joining and its just not happening anymore.

recedite

cd07 wrote: »

Pigeon men have been carrying out these crimes here for years and its great to see them fined for their crimes albeit these fines are nowhere near as heavy as they should have been. The judge should also have banned them from taking part in any keeping or racing of pigeons for life in my opinion.

+1.
One of the convicted men is actually described as THE CHAIRMAN of the Dungarvan pigeon club. A ban for him would have sent the right kind of message.

OpenYourEyes

The Journal have posted an article about it too:

http://www.thejournal.ie/peregrine-falcon-death-2709421-Apr2016/?utm_source=twitter_self

_Tombstone_

Tiger Population Rises for First Time in 100 Years

I don't believe it...


Monkey Hunting Could Drive These Species Extinct

Thats more like it...

_Tombstone_

2 year old pic of the Amazon being burned for pasture.



http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=84403&eocn=home&eoci=iotd_title

_Tombstone_

Radioactive wild boars rampaging around Fukushima nuclear site

They're breeding like mad in the quarantine zone and have started to venture out and eating Farm Crops. They're killing them by the thousands but what to do with them. They're digging mass graves to put them in and built a 1 Million dollar special crematorium to burn them and catch Radioativtive stuff (yea right), Bores can be 100KG, they don't know what to do with them.

Del.Monte

I wasn't sure whether to post this in 'Worst Radio Ads' or here, but I suspect it might generate more interest here. The 'Artificial Grass Store' http://www.artificialgrassstore.ie/ are currently running a radio ad for their products which seem to be aimed at the domestic rather than corporate market. Apart from the product being basically the production of yet more plastic waste, the negative environmental effect of creating a desert in your garden is mind boggling. The final irony is the ad has a bird singing in the background throughout - what do the manufacturers think birds feed on? :rolleyes:

keps

England's last/only Golden Eagle presumed dead:


today's guardian


http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/14/englands-last-golden-eagle-feared-dead


quote


“We’ll wake tomorrow to a country less wild than before, nature one step further from us, one step closer to simply being a shadow of itself.”

Capercaillie

keps wrote: »

England's last/only Golden Eagle presumed dead:


today's guardian


http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/14/englands-last-golden-eagle-feared-dead


quote


“We’ll wake tomorrow to a country less wild than before, nature one step further from us, one step closer to simply being a shadow of itself.”

Ireland's Golden Eagle population will go the same way.

Stigura

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Radioactive wild boars rampaging around Fukushima nuclear site

They're breeding like mad in the quarantine zone and have started to venture out and eating Farm Crops. They're killing them by the thousands but what to do with them ....

Problematical things, pigs. Coincidentally, I was reading an American forum recently. They were saying how some, state, legislatures were basically begging hunters to kill pigs on sight, by fair means or foul. It seems they actually breed like rabbits ~ only do proportionately more damage.

Worst bit was when some straight faced, nothing in it for him, sort of government adviser came out and, basically said what the Japanese are saying;

'They're breeding faster than we can kill them. And just disposing of so many corpses is a problem in itself.'

Crafty things too. Hit them hard and they'll just go elsewhere, so there'll be a breeding nucleus left that ye'll have missed.

Wouldn't want them here, quite frankly.

cd07

Raptor persecution Scotland reporting on yet another suspected poisoning of peregrines in co. Antrim. Fantastic country we live in ....

keps

Sand Martins ( and other migrants)

Nice article in today's Guardian.


http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/17/migrating-birds-somerset-martins-swallows

(A good number of Sand Martins return every year to the same 'stone encased' nests along the Royal Canal nearby.. great to see).

keps

Dogs- strays /village dogs/street dogs



Good Article in today's NYT


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/19/science/the-world-is-full-of-dogswithout-collars.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

keps

Rare parrot - some good news.


Today's Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/21/kakapo-new-zealand-conservationists-celebrate-rare-parrot-breeding-success

keps

Cicadas back as part of 17 year cycle

Today's NYT


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/science/new-brood-of-cicadas-to-sound-siren-song-in-5-states.html?module=WatchingPortal&region=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=13&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F04%2F28%2Fscience%2Fnew-brood-of-cicadas-to-sound-siren-song-in-5-states.html&eventName=Watching-article-click

keps

As many will know Michael Viney writes brilliantly and regularly for the Irish Times


I particularly liked this superb article from last Saturday... when he featured the 'missel thrush'- a bird I have had difficulty recognising recently:):o



http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/another-life-a-tree-without-a-bird-is-only-half-alive-1.2629260

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Urban birds less chirpy.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/urban-birds-have-less-reason-to-be-chirpy-than-their-country-cousins-1.2626489

Amalgam

A review of items from regional newspapers on RTE Radio 1, Drivetime, Friday, 06 May, 2016.

Philip Boucher Hayes and Dave O'Connell (?)

The Longford Leader reporting on Pine Martins injuring and killing sheep in North Longford. Quotes from farmers and what sounds like hyperbole, about the possible risk of a Pine Martin eventually injuring/killing a child..

Direct link to the RTE audio stream: http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=b9_10567207_83_06-05-2016_

If you seek to 1 hour and 28 minutes, the item should pop up.

-or-

4shared Media Player: http://www.4shared.com/mp3/Xjqv4qATba/20160506_rteradio1-drivetime.html

I've also extracted the relevant audio and attached it to this post as a .zipped .mp3 file.

20160506_rteradio1-drivetime.zip - 672kb

20160506_rteradio1-drivetime.mp3 - 699kb - 64kbps stereo .mp3 file.

feargale

Del.Monte wrote: »

The 'Artificial Grass Store' http://www.artificialgrassstore.ie/ are currently running a radio ad for their products. Apart from the product being more plastic waste, the negative environmental effect of creating a desert in your garden is mind boggling. The final irony is the ad has a bird singing in the background throughout - what do the manufacturers think birds feed on? :rolleyes:

It's a plastic bird. They feed on plastic grass.

recedite

Amalgam wrote: »

The Longford Leader reporting on Pine Martins injuring and killing sheep in North Longford. Quotes from farmers and what sounds like hyperbole, about the possible risk of a Pine Martin eventually injuring/killing a child..

Aha... more evidence for my pit-bull hypothesis of pine marten evolution

Stigura

Amalgam wrote: »

The Longford Leader reporting on Pine Martins injuring and killing sheep in North Longford. Quotes from farmers and what sounds like hyperbole, about the possible risk of a Pine Martin eventually injuring/killing a child.

Couldn't get the audio file to open on my machine. Thanks for the effort anyway

But, pine marten killing sheep? Sure, did ye not know they have a sting in their tails that they do it with? That fact has been recognised from when pine martens used to be here. Ask any sheep farmer.

Oh, and did ye know an otter will bite ye leg and not let go till it hears the crunch of ye bone breaking? That's why otter hunters used to have a seam of charcoal sewn into the front of their boots. (Because an otter only ever bites the front of a leg. Or was that badgers? Or pine martens ... )

Anyway, I was told that by Mr Dunn. He came from farming stock so knew his stuff.

What's the other thing? Hedgehogs! Buggers suck the milk from cows when they lay down! Devious little sods! Farmers know that too.

What's brown and comes out of the back of a bull? Ask a farmer. They'll tell ye


But, seriously though ~ and my very best friends are farmers! Is that not the Longford 'Gun Club Lobby' who are simply trying to get pine martens classified as off the protected species list? I seem to recall having read of some " Councillors " that way pushing for this. More stuff for the lads to shoot at. Legally.

Nailing my own colours to the mast? I have some sympathy for them. I'm flooded with pine martens too. And I've suffered for it. However, given the option? I'd vote for just an open season.

A properly devised and appointed time window where those of us with the interest - and capability - may choose to clear our own environs of them.

Pine martens. Not Longford councillors or gun club members.

No. Really ....

philstar

pine martens killing sheep:rolleyes:

typical irish gobsh!tery

Capercaillie

Would probably take a lamb (a ewe with twins), or scavenge a dying/dead one. A adult sheep would be way too big.

Amalgam

Oh yeah Stigura, you get the feeling certain folk would love to get them off the protected list.

Here's a 4shared media player link, it should work..

http://www.4shared.com/mp3/Xjqv4qATba/20160506_rteradio1-drivetime.html


The article and coverage of it were strange, the mix up with the grey squirrels and rabbits being scarce!

..in the scheme of things, would Pine Martins predate Mink or other 'pests'?

Stigura

:eek: Lawd have mercy! That was diabolical! How could they even let that go to air?

If asked, I fear that font would even assert that they do indeed kill his sheep with the spear in their tails :rolleyes:

'Would pine martens predate mink?' Ye talking my language now, Amalgam. For some time now, I've held dear to my pet theory that the martens are indeed extirpating the mink.

Now, I haven't got a shred of hard evidence to back this up with. It's all purely down to personal observation and deduction.

See; Ten years ago there were plenty of mink here. Ye'd see them. Then, ye started seeing pine martens. More and more pine martens. (And I do mean seeing them. Not just tracks or spraint. Whole pine martens)

And now, now that pine martens are thick on the ground? We see no mink any more.

Are they predating the mink? I wouldn't have thought so. Not as in actively hunting them down and killing them. But, I'm quite sure, they are extirpating them.

And, I have a mate down country. He sees no pine martens around him. But, he traps mink hand over fist. I wonder what others experiences are of this pattern?