Nature in the News

Del.Monte

But will anything be done apart from the ritual hand-wringing by various bodies?

cd07

Del.Monte wrote: »

But will anything be done apart from the ritual hand-wringing by various bodies?

Doubtful. It will be spoken about for a week or two and then be forgotten like every other raptor persecution incident here and in the uk.

I have been told first hand by some farmers and game club members what they'd 'like' to do to buzzards. At the end of the day they're narrow minded, uneducated ignorant idiots

magicbastarder

my own father in law has returned from the clay range full of nonsense about buzzards; probably the closest i've come to a full blown argument with him. usually i just mentally close my eyes and let it wash over me.
this time though, it was a) the return of the buzzard is the reason for the decline of songbirds, and b) buzzards are not native precisely because they were, but were hunted to extinction, and returned of their own accord.

this is a man who prides himself on hating farmers 'because they don't care about nature'.

New Home

It's not news-news because the article is from 2018, but I hadn't come across it before.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/08/scientists-spent-years-plan-import-wasp-kill-stinkbugs-then-it-showed-its-own

In Southern Europe it's wiped out 80% of the soy crops in one single year. Fruit and vegetable crops are severely damaged (way more than is shown in that picture) and they invade houses to the point of clogging flues and vents.

Boardnashea

https://afloat.ie/marine-environment/marine-wildlife/item/46337-orca-killer-whales-spotted-in-strangford-lough-video

Keplar240B

https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2020/0525/1141491-coillte-forests/

Coillte has announced that all nine of its forests in Dublin are changing to non-commercial recreational use.

The move means an end to commercial operations in the woods and will result in more bio diverse and climate resilient forests.

Karen Woods, Director of Operations for Coillte Nature, the non profit arm of the forestry company, told RTÉ News that there will be no more planting, in Dublin, of Sitka Spruce the dominant species in Coillte's plantations.

It will gradually be replaced by native species including many more broad leaf varieties. Clear felling large areas will be phased out and replaced by a system called continuous cover.

Saudades

Keplar240B wrote: »

Karen Woods, Director of Operations for Coillte Nature, the non profit arm of the forestry company, told RTÉ News that there will be no more planting, in Dublin, of Sitka Spruce the dominant species in Coillte's plantations.

The Director of Operations for Coillte Nature is called Karen Woods? - brilliant

SnowyMuckish

Keplar240B wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2020/0525/1141491-coillte-forests/

Fantastic news, people are slowly beginning to understand the value of our natural native species and their impact on biodiversity. Another small step in the right direction!

SnowyMuckish

Saudades wrote: »

The Director of Operations for Coillte Nature is called Karen Woods? - brilliant

There are so many hilarious surnames, I once heard of a boat engine sales man called Flood and a solicitor called Lawless. Should have a thread of its own in AH :pac:

whyulittle

Birdwatch Ireland PRO is called Niall Hatch.

Mr Crispy

Nominative determinism, for those interested.

Good news about Coillte's move re: native woodland. Hopefully it's just the beginning.

OpenYourEyes

whyulittle wrote: »

Birdwatch Ireland PRO is called Niall Hatch.

BirdWatch has also had staff with surnames Crowe, Tallon, Finch and Wing in the recent past...

magicbastarder

my brother's friend is a garda and works with a chap called ******** carr.
garda carr.

OpenYourEyes

A big report on Ireland's Countryside Birds was published recently - see below for some details and links:

https://birdwatchireland.ie/milestone-publication-on-the-status-of-irelands-countryside-birds/

SnowyMuckish

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

A big report on Ireland's Countryside Birds was published recently - see below for some details and links:

https://birdwatchireland.ie/milestone-publication-on-the-status-of-irelands-countryside-birds/

Seems overall positive? I didn’t read it in a lot of detail just had a quick scan of the graphs. Has there been an increase of people participating over the years? Would that have an effect on the upwards trends?

OpenYourEyes

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

Seems overall positive? I didn’t read it in a lot of detail just had a quick scan of the graphs. Has there been an increase of people participating over the years? Would that have an effect on the upwards trends?

There are definitely positives to take away from it, but the Yellowhammer bit at the end is important. A lot of species are stable over the last 20 years (i.e. lifetime of CBS), but they're at a fraction of the numbers/distribution they were a few decades previous - so that's important context for a lot of species that are habitat-specialists.

The analysis methods take into account varying levels of surveying etc, so that has no real affect on the results.

Alun

http://tippfm.com/news/animal-welfare/rescue-dog-poisoned-knockmealdowns/

I'm a volunteer with SARDA so this is really upsetting for me personally. Probably the same poison as that responsible for all the BOP poisonings.

New Home

The culprits should serve a jail sentence and be fined through the nose. Despicable people.

magicbastarder

the article is unclear if bonnie survived?

Eddie B

https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/scientists-warn-bird-feeders-to-be-cautious-of-new-pneumonia-like-virus-discovered-in-european-birds/

Tiercel Dave

magicbastarder wrote: »

the article is unclear if bonnie survived?

".....the foothills of the Knockmealdown Mountains near Clogheen. Sadly Bonnie passed away a few days later....."

magicbastarder

damn, i somehow missed that.

Mickeroo

What are these thicks even trying to achieve? It's the same type of morons who set fire to the countryside in the middle of a drought no doubt.

Eddie B

What I can't understand, is where are they getting their hands on such poisons in this day and age? Or has it been sitting on a shelf for ten years or more

Alun

The thing is, it's not an isolated incident. While the BOP poisonings make the headlines, there are also numerous reports of pet dogs being poisoned in the same way all over the country. What makes this worse though is that this was a dog being trained to potentially save someone's life.

New Home

Eddie B wrote: »

What I can't understand, is where are they getting their hands on such poisons in this day and age? Or has it been sitting on a shelf for ten years or more

Anywhere. Rat poison, for instance. Causes internal haemorrhages. Vile, vile stuff. They hide it in chunks of meat or in meatballs. They might not have meant to poison that specific dog, they might have left that bait out for some poor fox ("vermin") or some other animal. Still, lots of animals, both pets and wildlife, are affected. Like I said, this should be tackled seriously.

Eddie B

New Home wrote: »

Anywhere. Rat poison, for instance. Causes internal haemorrhages. Vile, vile stuff. They hide it in chunks of meat or in meatballs. They might not have meant to poison that specific dog, they might have left that bait out for some poor fox ("vermin") or some other animal. Still, lots of animals, both pets and wildlife, are affected. Like I said, this should be tackled seriously.

How much of your average rat poison bait would a dog need to take to kill it though? Something tells me this was no rat poison.

New Home

Not much at all. It's really lethal. Even snail poison causes a lot of harm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodenticide

Some rodenticides are lethal after one exposure while others require more than one. Rodents are disinclined to gorge on an unknown food (perhaps reflecting an adaptation to their inability to vomit), preferring to sample, wait and observe whether it makes them or other rats sick. This phenomenon of poison shyness is the rationale for poisons that kill only after multiple doses.
Besides being directly toxic to the mammals that ingest them, including dogs, cats, and humans, many rodenticides present a secondary poisoning risk to animals that hunt or scavenge the dead corpses of rats.

ZX7R

magicbastarder wrote: »

the article is unclear if bonnie survived?

It's stated in the article that Bonnie passed away a couple of days later.

Alun

Link to FB post from SARDA Ireland

I don't think the poison involved has been identified yet, but I'm sure it's being investigated thoroughly.