Nature in the News

recedite

Its a very poor photo, but most grazing animals are countershaded, ie darker back and lighter belly, which is a camouflaging pattern to counteract the effect of sunlight and shade. Badgers are low to the ground and mostly nocturnal, and don't need countershading.
I've often seen deer legs left behind by hunters near to vehicular access points of forests. This is so they can fit the carcass in the boot of a car.
Leaving the skins at the side of the road is unpleasant but IMO unless you are a vegetarian, you can't really complain about people eating game. Its organic and its free range.

junospider

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

Care to elaborate on how you came to that co

nclusion?[/Q Look like sika deer skins to me.badgers look a uniform grey apart from the head which is not in the photo,also I can understand why someone would skin deer and take away the meat but why would anyone skin badgers,leave the skin and take away the carcase?

Zoo4m8

fryup wrote: »

skinned Badgers in Co Tipp

why would they do such a thing?? is it to scare off other Badgers?? or was the fur left behind by mistake? is badger fur valuable?

Sika deer skins. Alarmist, misinformed journalism, unfortunately becoming more commonplace IMO, particularly in 'local' papers.

An Fhuiseog

Zoo4m8 wrote: »

Sika deer skins. Alarmist, misinformed journalism, unfortunately becoming more commonplace IMO, particularly in 'local' papers.

I think the person who found the pelts was letting his imagination run away with him;he said he saw a badger weeks before finding the pelts and put two and two together!

I've attached an image of a Sika deer pelt below(not a great pic.) and think it looks remarkably similar to the pelts shown in the earlier post:

philstar

i would have thought deer pelts would be alot bigger??

the images in the article seem to match the size and colour shading of an adult badger

An Fhuiseog

philstar wrote: »

i would have thought deer pelts would be alot bigger??

the images in the article seem to match the size and colour shading of an adult badger

Like most here,I prefer to see my wildlife alive and kicking and as much as it pains me to show the images attached below,I think it shows a great difference between an adult badger pelt and that of a Sika deer:

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

We more or less knew this but nice to see the sciences behind it .



http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0115/498072-birds-aviation-nature/

Capercaille

http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/365040-farming-to-save-the-fat-man-?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=News
New research showing how Corn Bunting can hopefully be saved from extinction In the UK. Too late for our extinct Corn Bunting in Ireland though.:(

V_Moth

Rockabill tern wardens featured in quite a few newspapers in the last few days:

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/no-man-is-an-island-except-if-you-get-new-400-a-week-bird-watching-job-30187333.html

https://news.google.com/news?ncl=da_kzz6uVFALnIMeh7dz4vc0z3_sM&q=rockabill&lr=English&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YpBOU4n3H6ze7AaDq4CgDg&ved=0CCwQqgIwAA

Having done a season out there, it is definitely not a job for the faint hearted!

red_bairn

V_Moth wrote: »

Rockabill tern wardens featured in quite a few newspapers in the last few days:

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/no-man-is-an-island-except-if-you-get-new-400-a-week-bird-watching-job-30187333.html

https://news.google.com/news?ncl=da_kzz6uVFALnIMeh7dz4vc0z3_sM&q=rockabill&lr=English&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YpBOU4n3H6ze7AaDq4CgDg&ved=0CCwQqgIwAA

Having done a season out there, it is definitely not a job for the faint hearted!

My mate got the job and will be on the Late Late tomorrow. Briefly.

OpenYourEyes

red_bairn wrote: »

My mate got the job and will be on the Late Late tomorrow. Briefly.

And I got the other wardening job! I hope your mate is as nervous about being on tv as I am!

Capercaille

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

And I got the other wardening job! I hope your mate is as nervous about being on tv as I am!

Excellent stuff Open your eyes! Helping protect probably the most important sea bird colony in Ireland. A great honour. I was on the island two years ago for a day, a great experience. keep us updated on the terns progress through the season. With your enthusiasm for wildlife you will do a great job.

bing3

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

And I got the other wardening job! I hope your mate is as nervous about being on tv as I am!

Best of luck OpenYourEyes. Hope you can get some kind of internet connection and keep us all updated.

V_Moth

Well done OYE (and redbairns friend)! You can look forward to three months of this:



(Yes that is me:))

bing3

V_Moth wrote: »

(Yes that is me:))

Nice patterning on the jacket:D but two baseball caps. Is it that cold out there?

V_Moth

bing3 wrote: »

Nice patterning on the jacket:D but two baseball caps. Is it that cold out there?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5aS_NNJ6L0

:eek:

OpenYourEyes

Thanks guys! We'll have some internet, so we hope to do a blog about it throughout the season - and I'll hopefully have some extra pictures and updates to share here too!

whyulittle

How did the TV appearance go last night? Missed it I'm afraid.

red_bairn

whyulittle wrote: »

How did the TV appearance go last night? Missed it I'm afraid.

The lads did well. You can properly catch them on RTE Player..

Capercaille

red_bairn wrote: »

The lads did well. You can properly catch them on RTE Player..

what programmer is it on?

red_bairn

Capercaille wrote: »

what programmer is it on?

Here it is [54:10]

trebor28

Springwatch back on May 26th

OpenYourEyes

Attempted poisoning of Peregrines in Dublin this week:

http://t.co/ILD5z8cNbE

Bsal

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

Attempted poisoning of Peregrines in Dublin this week:

http://t.co/ILD5z8cNbE

:mad: simple as

whyulittle

Rare bumblebee rediscovered after 88 years

A rare bumblebee species not sighted since 1926 has been recorded in a park in Rathfarnham, Dublin. Eddie Hill, a gardener at St. Enda’s Park and avid bumblebee recorder for the National Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme, spotted the unusual looking bees feeding on flowers last week within the grounds of the park. Having sent photographs and sent two specimens to the National Biodiversity Data Centre, ecologists Dr. Tomás Murray and Dr. Úna Fitzpatrick confirmed that it was the rare Southern cuckoo bumblebee, a species not recorded in Ireland for 88 years.

More at biodiversityireland.ie

recedite

Fair play to that man for spotting the cuckoo bees.
They have an interesting life cycle

Like other cuckoo bees, it’s unusual in the sense that it doesn’t make its own nest, but invades a host bee’s nest, kills the queen, then uses the host workforce to rear its young.

I wonder does that mean that the host colony would run out of workers, and then collapse, around the time the young cuckoo bees move on to somewhere else?

Birdnuts

whyulittle wrote: »

Rare bumblebee rediscovered after 88 years



More at biodiversityireland.ie

Thats a great find - I'm a huge fan of bumble bees, must brush up on my id skills though

magicbastarder

spread of the white toothed shrew:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-27975546

on what basis is the claim "the ecological impact of these alien species is likely to be far greater than, for example, the grey squirrel" made?
he is also referring to the bank vole.

red_bairn

Oh the dietary issues.

http://www.rte.ie/news/player/2014/0623/20603331-rockabill-castaways-enjoying-summer-experience/#page=2

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Always something new to marvel at -
http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0627/626863-new-mouse-like-mammal-discovered-in-africa/