Nature in the News

magicbastarder

could be older imagery on the google source; i'm not aware of google blurring satellite imagery like that, you'd see it far more often.
also, the image quality is poorer compared to the apple one, which again might be older imaging.

to compare, try looking at the google street view imagery of the german embassy, compared to the satellite view; from a security point of view, you'd expect the satellite imagery to be more sensitive than the street view one, but it's street view in which thye offer the ability to blur the imagery:

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3106045,-6.2029578,3a,60y,320.04h,90.92t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sEV1XSv5Aj-8PjWBT8huoEQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

bkrangle

magicbastarder wrote: »

could be older imagery on the google source; i'm not aware of google blurring satellite imagery like that, you'd see it far more often.
also, the image quality is poorer compared to the apple one, which again might be older imaging.

to compare, try looking at the google street view imagery of the german embassy, compared to the satellite view; from a security point of view, you'd expect the satellite imagery to be more sensitive than the street view one, but it's street view in which thye offer the ability to blur the imagery:

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3106045,-6.2029578,3a,60y,320.04h,90.92t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sEV1XSv5Aj-8PjWBT8huoEQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Thanks for the info, I'll take my tin foil hat off so!

magicbastarder

you can see from the OSI.ie mapviewer (one of my favourite online resources in ireland) that that particular pond started to fill in sometime after 2011 or 2012. it wasn't there in 2000, but was there in 2005 - and had just started to fill in with vegetation between 2011 and 2013.

New Home

More photos/clips here.

https://www.broadsheet.ie/2019/09/23/like-the-surface-of-the-moon/

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/ecologists-outraged-as-dublin-nature-reserve-is-flattened-like-a-car-park-1.4026444

US2

Sad to see the Curlew is almost gone. I was looking enough to see one and hear one, my favorite bird.

https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1177485581418254336?s=19

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

US2 wrote: »

Sad to see the Curlew is almost gone. I was looking enough to see one and hear one, my favorite bird.

https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1177485581418254336?s=19

The full piece is here . https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0927/1078536-curlew-task-force/

Just to be clear, as the article isn't, they mean Irish breeding birds and not all Curlew. We still get many thousands wintering here every year. While the news is bad, it most certainly does not mean you won't see or hear one. In fact they are an easy bird to see and hear in Winter.

magicbastarder

Keplar240B wrote: »

I have seen this reported as 100 or 150 million ,350 million.

Whats the actual number. Who counted?

If we take 150 million its the equivalent of 0.06792 % of Ethiopia land area planted.

given a population of ~100 million. That's 1.5 trees per person.


A step in the right direction ,

Taken in the context Ethiopia explosive population growth and the destruction of its forests over last 50 years its rather meaningless.

,

BBC's 'more or less' radio show (they analyse stats relevant to current affairs, etc.) looked at this topic, raised some of the same concerns mentioned in this thread:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07lh06y

Capercaillie

Moses Faithful Slime wrote: »

The full piece is here . https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0927/1078536-curlew-task-force/

Just to be clear, as the article isn't, they mean Irish breeding birds and not all Curlew. We still get many thousands wintering here every year. While the news is bad, it most certainly does not mean you won't see or hear one. In fact they are an easy bird to see and hear in Winter.

Productivity in Curlew task force core area up to 0.8 this year. Two years ago it was only at 0.15 . 0.6 needed to maintain a stable population.

New Home

Not precisely news, but...

bkrangle

Not sure if there's any truth to this but the guy tweeting is a journalist with RTE and RTE retweeted it

https://twitter.com/conorfhunt/status/1179399808546725889

bkrangle

Videos of it now, looks like a Minke

https://twitter.com/conorfhunt/status/1179417204581916672?s=20

https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2019/1002/1080696-whale-dublin-port/

OpenYourEyes

BirdWatch Ireland have been getting a lot of reports of newly arrived, and over-flying, geese and swans this week, and the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve facebook page has been updating with new arrivals too:

https://birdwatchireland.ie/geese-return-for-the-winter/

tricky D

bkrangle wrote: »

Not sure if there's any truth to this but the guy tweeting is a journalist with RTE and RTE retweeted it

https://twitter.com/conorfhunt/status/1179399808546725889

It's been around Howth for the last few days. Probably a Minke.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

UK State of Nature Report.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49892209

Alun

tricky D wrote: »

It's been around Howth for the last few days. Probably a Minke.

Unfortunately it's been found dead.

Whale spotted in River Liffey found dead in Dublin port
http://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2019/1004/1081064-whale-dublin/

New Home

Nooo... That's a damn shame...

Kamili

Aww that is sad news. I had hoped that when it was originally spotted that this wouldn't be the outcome. Such a pity. the poor creature.

Alun

New Home wrote: »

Nooo... That's a damn shame...

The footage of it swimming around earlier in the week seemed to show it was fairly healthy so it comes as a bit of a surprise certainly. Very sad.

New Home

Could it have eaten something nasty while in the Liffey, or could pollution have harmed it? Or could it have collided with something?

Alun

New Home wrote: »

Could it have eaten something nasty while in the Liffey, or could pollution have harmed it? Or could it have collided with something?

That's what I was thinking, i.e. a collision of some sort. It's pretty busy there, shipping wise. I see they're saying they'll just leave it there and not remove it, so maybe we'll never know which would be a shame.

tricky D

New Home wrote: »

Could it have eaten something nasty while in the Liffey, or could pollution have harmed it? Or could it have collided with something?

Turns out it was a juvenile Fin.


My guess is that it got lost and hanging around these parts would not have been able to get enough food especially on its own, so starved directly to death or became so disoriented resulting in collision.

deise08

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/woodland-charity-faces-crippling-bills-as-its-forced-to-defend-personal-injury-claim-38568692.html

charity that preserves Ireland's woodlands is facing crippling legal bills as it is being forced to defend a personal injury claim in the High Court - despite the alleged accident not happening on its land.

The Native Woodland Trust is one of five groups joined in the proceedings after a woman claimed she injured herself while walking in Girley Bog, Athboy, Co Meath, in 2016.

She claims she lost her footing and fell on her right shoulder due to the "incomplete and unsafe nature of the walkway" in the bog land.

The High Court summons claims the walkway ended two metres short of where it was "designed or intended to and required the plaintiff to step off the walkway when it was dangerous to do so".

It also states she suffered a comminuted fracture, could not return to work for an extended period of time and continues to suffer from significant pain.
Linda Lawlor, one of the trustees with the charity, emailed the plaintiff's solicitors providing proof that the alleged incident didn't happen on land owned by the Native Woodland Trust. The Google map co-ordinates show the alleged accident happened 1.4km away from any land owned by the trust. She also outlined how there is no boardwalk on any land owned by the trust.

However, the charity was still joined in proceedings and now Ms Lawlor fears for its survival.

The trust relies on public donations and has had to put projects on hold due to the ongoing legal case.

Its insurance has risen from €600 to €6,500 and a reserve of €50,000 has been put aside due to the pending personal injury claim. Speaking to the Irish Independent, Ms Lawlor said she was left with no option but to go public to highlight the charity's plight.

"We're running out of options and we've found it really hard to keep going with the day-to-day business," she said.

"We rely on donations and we can't afford to be spending those on High Court proceedings when the incident didn't even happen on our land. We weren't aware of any incident until we got a solicitor's letter.

Kamili

I ws just reading that in the printed paper. Absolutely disgusting especially since it didn't even happen on their lands.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

The same warning every year and still ignored.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/1007/1081558-deer-rutting-season-selfies/

magicbastarder

Kamili wrote: »

I ws just reading that in the printed paper. Absolutely disgusting especially since it didn't even happen on their lands.

this is becoming an issue for any NGO/charity that owns land and wants to have it open to the public; public liability insurance as we all know, has gone through the roof.
given that BWI's reserve in wicklow has a raised boardwalk, i suspect they'll be keeping an eye on this too.

Kamili

magicbastarder wrote: »

this is becoming an issue for any NGO/charity that owns land and wants to have it open to the public; public liability insurance as we all know, has gone through the roof.
given that BWI's reserve in wicklow has a raised boardwalk, i suspect they'll be keeping an eye on this too.

It really is, and doesn't help when politicians think its ok to make claims like this.

There will be nothing left open in the country in no time.

New Home

I don't know how the Courts or the Gardaí or whoever was involved entertained the claim in the first place - I mean, if it didn't happen on their land, why pursuing it? It'd be like me getting my car scratched in a Dunnes car park, and suing Tesco on the other side of town! Preposterous.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

New Home wrote: »

I don't know how the Courts or the Gardaí or whoever was involved entertained the claim in the first place - I mean, if it didn't happen on their land, why pursuing it? It'd be like me getting my car scratched in a Dunnes car park, and suing Tesco on the other side of town! Preposterous.

It's a civil matter and the court will decide if any liability exists against any of the parties.

magicbastarder

not that is has any bearing on nature or the case above, but it's amazing how much people regard insurance companies like banks dishing out free money. a relative was recently involved in a low speed impact in a car, no-one injured, and when the car was taken to a (reputable!) garage for assessment, they were told it would cost €X to fix, but would charge 2x€X if the repair was being funded by an insurance claim. with no difference in how the repair was actually carried out.

Del.Monte

There seems to be an ever increasing number of people exploring the countryside who shouldn't ever leave the safety of their own homes.