Nature in the News

recedite wrote: »

Agreed, but then lambs are also like that. Much tamer than wild deer fawns.

This summer, new light-weight GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) data loggers have been used to track Barn Owls in Ireland for the first time, revealing amazing detail on their foraging behaviour and providing insights on previously unknown aspects such as precisely which habitats birds use or avoid, how birds respond to poor weather, how much time they spend in farm yards, flight height and speed.

Until now, our knowledge of an individual's movements has been largely confined to the nest site. Nest cameras and nest visits and observations at the nest provide useful information, but once the owls head off to hunt we were, literally, in the dark.

Another Life: When snails and slugs scrape supper off a fox’s dropping

Dogs are catching ‘lungworm’ from molluscs infected with the potentially fatal Angiostrongylus vasorum. So many Irish foxes are infected that our pets are at serious risk

Sat, Aug 20, 2016, 05:00

Woodville56 wrote: »

Sure the local councillor's bit of radio airtime will go down well with his " constituents" round Drumlish and its environs. Sadly there are no credible local advocates for the pine marten in the area to refute or contest Mr Brady's hearsay nonsense.
Councillors countrywide are parochial creatures and will say and do whatever sounds good locally. Pity Councillor Brady wouldn't devote his energies to the real local issues rather than scapegoating pine martens on the basis of innuendo and tall tales/ gossip. I've had interactions with Co Councillors from time to time, most recently having been castigated by one for asking him to support the banning of jet skis and power boats on a lake with breeding lapwing & redshank on its margins, together with a breeding Black Headed Gull and Common Tern colony. His response was that water sports was important for tourism and businesses in the area and that " the birds could look after themselves " - the nearest local "business" is a pub that opens at night time only, long after the jet skiers have headed back to the towns and cities where they came from !
Sadly, neither the the local Heritage Officer wasn't supportive either , didn't even bother responding to my emails !

Help is being sought from the public following the discovery of three protected birds of prey, killed by poison in a field in Cappakeel, Emo over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

A member of the public first found two birds dead in suspicious circumstances.

Staff from the Dept of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the National Parks and Wildlife Service then visited and found another dead buzzard and the remains of a woodpigeon nearby.

A man found beaten to death in a remote part of the Dublin Mountains was a high profile conservationist and gardaí believe his murder is linked to one of the campaigns he was involved in.