Nature on your farm.

kollegeknight

forgottenhills wrote: »

Surely it would be illegal for your new neighbour to let those hawk owls go free to seek prey? Local animals and birds would not have any defence against something new like that.

Well he is not supposed to let them off and is liable if they do damage, but I can’t say as I’ve never met him. Like lads with big dogs, you get good owners and bad owners. Hoping this guy will be a good one. Another neighbour races pigeons so he won’t be long laying down the law. I’ll take soft approach if one is needed.

Water John

Interesting piece on RTE News at one. It showed a vet in Mayo who had set his land as a special habitat for corncrake. In one part he had a crop of nettles. He had six males calling.
They should show it again at six.

NcdJd

Anyone know what this fella is? Never seen it before.

Lime Tree Farm

NcdJd wrote: »

Anyone know what this fella is? Never seen it before.

May be a burnished brass moth.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gails_pictures/23898604896

Water John

Here's an interesting interview with James Lovelock at 101, father of the Gaia Theory;
'James Lovelock is best known as the father of Gaia Theory, the revolutionary idea that life on Earth is a self-regulating community of organisms interacting with each other and their surroundings.'
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/18/james-lovelock-the-biosphere-and-i-are-both-in-the-last-1-per-cent-of-our-lives

Genghis Cant

Poplar Hawk Moth. Visited last night. Impressive chap.
Wingspan 65 to 90 mm. This lad was towards the top end of this.

Lady Haywire

Genghis Cant wrote: »

Poplar Hawk Moth. Visited last night. Impressive chap.
Wingspan 65 to 90 mm. This lad was towards the top end of this.

If you stuck eyes near the top he'd be a fairly good elephant lookalike.

Dinzee Conlee

Not sure you can make it out in the photo - but found a hive of bumble bees in moss out the back of the house... I strimmed it earlier and noticed there was a good few bees about all right...

And we have honey bees living in an old tree trunk out there front of the house...

forgottenhills

Water John wrote: »

Here's an interesting interview with James Lovelock at 101, father of the Gaia Theory;
'James Lovelock is best known as the father of Gaia Theory, the revolutionary idea that life on Earth is a self-regulating community of organisms interacting with each other and their surroundings.'
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/18/james-lovelock-the-biosphere-and-i-are-both-in-the-last-1-per-cent-of-our-lives

The Gaia theory must be one of the most interesting theories ever put forward about the Earth and its life systems, even if you don't buy into it.

Lovelock himself is a fascinating and incredibly important scientist//inventor that almost no one knows about. That interview with him in the Guardian that you linked is an incredible interview with someone who is one 100 years old.

Capercaillie

Water John wrote: »

Interesting piece on RTE News at one. It showed a vet in Mayo who had set his land as a special habitat for corncrake. In one part he had a crop of nettles. He had six males calling.
They should show it again at six.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0716/1153740-corncrake-farm/
Yip that's me. Link to video in main page.

Danzy

Capercaillie wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0716/1153740-corncrake-farm/
Yip that's me. Link to video in main page.

That's great to see.

Some richness of plants in the meadow.

Water John

Capercaillie wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0716/1153740-corncrake-farm/
Yip that's me. Link to video in main page.

Sorry, you're outed.
That's a lovely project. Fair play to you.

Tell me how

Capercaillie wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0716/1153740-corncrake-farm/
Yip that's me. Link to video in main page.

Excellent work. Wish many government agencies charged with protecting our natural heritage had your commitment and work ethic.

Saw a Twitter thread this morning about an area of Conservation in your own county and how efforts to renew it didn't expect much beyond some marketing and signage.

https://twitter.com/whittledaway/status/1284949120411750400

Buford T. Justice XIX

A conversation that will need to be had in the near future.
https://twitter.com/JAppliedEcology/status/1285483022343708672?s=19

Capercaillie

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

A conversation that will need to be had in the near future.
https://twitter.com/JAppliedEcology/status/1285483022343708672?s=19

So many things against the curlew, predation is a serious problem. Fragmented habitats and increased conifer plantations make them vulnerable to predation. Curlew chicks when they hatch tend to wander everywhere and you need to protect large areas for them. Early mowing of meadows are serious problem also and many fatalities that way.

whisky_galore

The predators were always there, and they have jobs to do, mopping up carrion etc, intensive farming has not. It's easy to go blasting predators and not deal with other issues.

Capercaillie

whisky_galore wrote: »

The predators were always there, and they have jobs to do, mopping up carrion etc, intensive farming has not. It's easy to go blasting predators and not deal with other issues.

Both are a problem and both issues need to be tackled. With breeding curlew on life-support intensive predator control needed now to help stabilize the population. Correction of landscape issues like afforestation, turfcutting, early mowing, drainage will all take time to tackle!

Birdnuts

whisky_galore wrote: »

The predators were always there, and they have jobs to do, mopping up carrion etc, intensive farming has not. It's easy to go blasting predators and not deal with other issues.

The link mentions "generalist" "meso" predators - these would be the likes of Corvids and Foxes that have become super abundant due to the lack of top predators like wolves and large eagles. Indeed its been estimated that the fox population is this country is about 10 times what it should be due to the extinction of these top predators. Obviously bringing back wolves is not an option giving current livestock management approaches here, but it does show how natural food chains have become seriously distorted in their absence and why intensive culling of foxes, mink, Grey Crows etc. is important in saving remaining populations of rare ground nesting birds.

Thargor

How bad is the cat problem in Ireland these days does anyone know?

Danzy

Thargor wrote: »

How bad is the cat problem in Ireland these days does anyone know?

It's ficing ridiculous the numbers

Birdnuts

Thargor wrote: »

How bad is the cat problem in Ireland these days does anyone know?

Feral cats can be an issue - but generally its near or around farmyards rather than in the types of habitat that the likes of Curlew, Corncrake etc. would be found

Asus1

Lapwing chicks,had a good few this year but had to hit the grey crows hard.Lost a good few nests to fox's until an electric fence was put up.

Asus1

Asus1 wrote: »

Lapwing chicks,had a good few this year but had to hit the grey crows hard.Lost a good few nests to fox's until an electric fence was put up.

Just replying to my own post.Any nests I found had 4 eggs but I never saw more than 2 chicks alive with adults ever.So either there was only a 50% hatch rate or 2 chicks were taken or died fairly quick.

ganmo

Birdnuts wrote: »

Feral cats can be an issue - but generally its near or around farmyards rather than in the types of habitat that the likes of Curlew, Corncrake etc. would be found

Hehe I remember reading a pair of threads about shooting cats, one in the hunting forum and the other in the A&P forum. Oh it got spicy when they crossed over.

My view is if it doesn't have a collar its feral and, around our yards, considered a pest and a disease vector.

Lime Tree Farm

Lime Tree Farm wrote: »

I thought I heard the sound of a Curlew in flight today - the call sounded like at 1.34 onwards in this video - not the full call of the migrant Curlews we hear in Winter. Native Curlews are in decline - be great if it was a Curlew call that I heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws7jH6wNKN4

Photographed 2 Curlews on the morning of 15 July, and counted 12 in flight the following morning.

Heard them calling again this evening. Just hoping that they are not early Winter arrivals.

NcdJd

Remember when growing up our area was either corn, spuds, vegetables or pasture ( livestock and equine bloodstock ). Not too far from the airport in Dublin.

Few things I've noticed over the years with regard to farming and wildlife. Timeline 25 - 30 years ago.

Fields were more often than not left idle over the winter and ploughed in spring with the exception of a small acreage for the likes of spring cabbage.
Straw was usually burnt instead of baled like it is now.
Hedges were never cut.
There was always a good "bank" around the fields.
Pigeons were shot.
Cabbage root fly was treated chemically, Dursban if i remember correctly ? used to spray it on the turnips for me father when I was old enough not to get poisoned.
Gramoxone was used to burn off weeds in alleys of drills.
Fields where livestock were on didn't get much fertiliser if any at all.
There was always huge amounts of rooks around and used to love seeing them following the plough.
Feeding soy and palm hulls coming from thousands of miles away to feed cattle was unheard of.

And with all the above practices going on we had our locality

Grey partridges and skylarks
Corncrake calling each summer.
Thousands of lapwings, plovers and curlews overwintering on the stubble of the corn fields.
Native Curlews calling regularly in the summer time.
Huge amouts of moths, bees and other insects.

Fast forward 30 years what I see around me is

The fields where the curlew, lapwing and plovers used to overwinter in is now the M1 motorway.
Grey partridges, skylarks and corncrake are long gone.
Most of the hedges are now 4 foot high. Fck all use to any wildlife no fruit or cover on them.
Straw is now the "profit"
Very few tillage fields are left idle over the winter now.
Every bit of ground is used to sqeeze as much money out as possible due to farming being less profitable and consumers wanting cheap food.
Instead of cabbage root fly being controlled chemically and the few lads out shooting the wood pigeons we now have crop protection mesh. Cost thousands per hectare, is usually .7 or 1 mm and covers 100s of acres for about 5 / 6 months making the field completely lifeless. Whatever about spraying chemicals to control pests, insects have no chance with crop protection mesh - except maybe flea beetle?
Gramoxone and Dursban are banned. I loved the smell of both. Yes even Gramoxone 100
Rooks are extremely rare where i am now, possibly due to the buzzards. All seagulls following the plough now. A couple of jackdaws were the only corvids behind mine and the neighbours.

There's a field not far from me that had a pair of breeding curlews up to two years ago.. Man I know used to take hay off it. Belongs to a golf driving range. Lad that owns the driving range expanded the range, now a very big lawn. Curlews no longer there. Nothing to do with vermin.

blue5000

whisky_galore wrote: »

The predators were always there, and they have jobs to do, mopping up carrion etc, intensive farming has not. It's easy to go blasting predators and not deal with other issues.

Mink and Buzzards are new. Last time I saw a curlew nest was in Maize stubble 20 years ago, ploughed and tilled around it and they hatched out.

Ground nesting birds are under serious pressure, not just predators, it's a long list including more intensive farming, habitat loss, perhaps food supply as well.

Global warming has affected leaf emergence and the annual explosion of insect larvae that feed on the new leaves. Birds might be hatching too late and miss the (larvae) boat.

Birdnuts

blue5000 wrote: »

Mink and Buzzards are new. Last time I saw a curlew nest was in Maize stubble 20 years ago, ploughed and tilled around it and they hatched out.

Ground nesting birds are under serious pressure, not just predators, it's a long list including more intensive farming, habitat loss, perhaps food supply as well.

Global warming has affected leaf emergence and the annual explosion of insect larvae that feed on the new leaves. Birds might be hatching too late and miss the (larvae) boat.

Buzzards are not "new" in that they were a native species which returned in the last 20 years after extinction in the 19th century. While they are mainly scavangers they do prey on the likes of young crows, magpies, rats etc. which are some of the main predators of ground nesting species, so are beneficial to the food chain in that way. Same with Red Kites as evidenced by the amount of crow and rat remains under their nests in Wicklow when researchers are ringing their fledlings(around now as it happens)

forgottenhills

Asus1 wrote: »

Sorry phone acting up was ment to show video.Please delete last few posts.Thanks.

A video of lapdancing chicks won't be allowed on here.

Oops sorry, read that wrong...

blue5000

Asus1 wrote: »

Sorry phone acting up was ment to show video.Please delete last few posts.Thanks.

Can you upload it to youtube first? Then copy and paste the link after clicking on the youtube symbol at top right corner.