The Hide (chat thread)

V_Moth wrote: »

Nice, but there are plenty of records of Comma from Carlow.

I'm well aware of other records in Carlow but this was the first time it has been recorded in Ballon.

I just had a Pheasant fly over the back garden! That's the last thing I ever expected to see from here.

^^^^

Had one solitary Siskin on the peanuts on Saturday, first one I've seen in the garden all Winter/Spring.

Just watched a Hooded Crow trying to dislodge a Wood Pigeon off it's nest to get at the squab. It failed this time but no doubt will be back. Squab is only a few days old.

Sitting on the daughter's patio about 6pm on Saturday evening when the wife said "what's that?" pointing to a very large raptor just after passing directly overhead about 200 feet up.

No binoculars to hand unfortunately and my aged eyes couldn't make out markings against the bright sky but it had to be an eagle - much, much bigger than a buzzard with which I'm familiar. Short tail compared to wingspan so I suppose it was a white tailed eagle. It was still visible over a mile away!

It was flying westwards about 3 miles to the SW of Kiltimagh in Mayo.

Was talking to NPWS ranger today. He said that a huge amount of Hen Harrier breeding areas have been destroyed by the widespread illegal fires. They are doomed:(
Also said that the amount of scrub removal and hedgerow removal is worse than in the 1970's. Payments to farmers whose land has been burned illegally will only be deducted unless farmer has been caught lighting the fire. No-one has been caught so farmers will get their payments.

Capercaillie wrote: »

Was talking to NPWS ranger today. He said that a huge amount of Hen Harrier breeding areas have been destroyed by the widespread illegal fires. They are doomed:(
Also said that the amount of scrub removal and hedgerow removal is worse than in the 1970's. Payments to farmers whose land has been burned illegally will only be deducted unless farmer has been caught lighting the fire. No-one has been caught so farmers will get their payments.[/

As hedgerow removal is banned unless replaced in another area on the farm and as it's straightforward to identify the landowner I assume he has identified and reported the culprits?

Zoo4m8 wrote: »

As hedgerow removal is banned unless replaced in another area on the farm and as it's straightforward to identify the landowner I assume he has identified and reported the culprits?

I hope so. But people can remove a mature bio-diverse hedgerow and replace it with with a less diverse hedge (usually in another area) that will take years to become any use to wildlife.

Jayzesake wrote: »

You don't seem to understand the meaning of the word "wildlife". It is not just birds, insects, mammals and so on, it means all wild life, including plants, trees, etc.

Has it occurred to you that the very trees, shrubs and ground flora that have become "overgrown" - and that you want to remove - are mostly wildlife themselves? (I.e. most of them weren't planted or put there by us; they self-seeded and grew there unaided.)

It is beyond me how some people can persist with the utterly absurd notion that wildlife "needs" us to manage its habitats for it. Yes, alien invasive species that we have introduced do sometimes need control; yes, species that we have exterminated do sometimes need reintroduction, but otherwise habitats are generally best left alone. "Overgrown" simply means uncontrolled by us, i.e. that whatever wildlife is present has been left to its own devices.

Do we need to "manage" the Amazon or Congo rainforests, or the Great Barrier Reef, to make them suitable for wildlife? No, we need to stop damaging and interfering with them. Pure and simple. Hedgerows may be a far less natural habitat, but for many species they are a last refuge, so if we are genuinely concerned about wildlife, the same applies.

Ask yourself how wildlife ever survived for 100s of millions of years before we came along to manage things for it.

"You don't seem to understand the meaning of the word 'wildlife'" hmm, impressive..attack is the best form of defence..:D
I must apologize , as we are constantly exhorted to defend and maintain our hedgerows as important havens and corridors for wildlife, I mistakenly assumed that everyone would know that that was the form of wildlife in question.
Also impressive how a large natural landscape on the other side of the world is the same as our largely man made one here..
Where did I say that I wanted to remove trees etc? And of course a lot of hedgerows are man made and inmo have to be managed accordingly, 1, to maintain their original function and 2, to function as the wildlife habitats they have become.
By all means allow hedges to evolve naturally but over time they will no longer be what folk get so upset about when they are removed or neglected to the point where they don't support the flora and fauna that they have evolved to support.

Capercaillie wrote: »

You're a farmer and you know how things work. Look at the widespread illegal burning of scrub this year (700% increase compared to last year). Do you think that anybody is going to be investigated seriously? No they won't. People take out hedges (often "wild" biodiverse hedges) and replace them them with hedges which are often worthless (cut two feet too ground). It takes years for a hedge to mature and in the meantime there is substantial net loss in wildlife habitat. The amounts of hedges that are being "tidied" up, mature trees cut to stumps and "wild" branches remove. Neat and tidy and near worthless to wildlife. Even legal scrub removal is encouraged by DAFM/IFA, farmers are getting cut on the BFP if they don't remove scrub.

Habitat protection legislation is widely ignored in Ireland. Cutting of hedgerow year along roads after March 1st for example. It is widely not enforced. Cutting of turf in Raised bog SAC's. the gardaí look and do nothing!

As for the NPWS worker I did not interrogate them to whether the people removing hedgerows were reported, so maybe you should retract your statement.

As for this comment:

Overgrown hedges compare to the "neat and tidy" are vastly superior in the majority of cases.

Firstly I comment on what I know about, hedgerows, I know absolutely nothing about illegal burning ( apart from the fact that if one lights a garden or farm fire here there is hell to pay..) there is no scrub burning here since the local estate gave up burning their uplands some years ago, likewise I know nothing of illegal turf cutting so again I consider I'm not qualified to comment, so I'm not going to..
There is no need to keep alluding to the fact that a new hedge will take some years to mature, we're agreed..and at least a new hedge is better than no hedge.
Coppicing of mature trees like hawthorn , hazel etc allow hedges that have become open thicken up and provide cover and shelter once again and the removal of wayward branches that impede ever larger machines that inhabit fields nowadays, does no harm.
Where on earth did I say ' neat and 'tidy' I hate 'neat and tidy' !..there seems to be a campaign to put words in my mouth.. My hedge rows here are high and sprawling with a large amount of tree variety and I'm very proud of them..and they all share on thing in common , there is not a gap anywhere, just a continuous corridor all through the holding.
Why on earth would I retract my statement? Why did you not interrogate the ranger? If our ranger came out with a statement like that I'd be dying to know who or how many had been prosecuted .. Though as our man can barely be bothered to get himself out and about I won't be holding my breath.

Zoo4m8 wrote: »

Why on earth would I retract my statement? Why did you not interrogate the ranger? If our ranger came out with a statement like that I'd be dying to know who or how many had been prosecuted .. Though as our man can barely be bothered to get himself out and about I won't be holding my breath.

I'm getting a lot of advise from my NPWS ranger/farm planner as regards Corncrake cover crops, technical help, fertilser application rates, spraying techniques, contacts and predator control. He seems like an honest hard working lad. I take what he said at face value. It would be a bit ignorant to start interrogating him after all the help I am getting.

One of the Ravens came out over the garden today. It glided all the way over from the nest, and was just about over roof height when it reached the house. It circled around once, either looking at me looking at it, or checking out the cat which was sprawled out at my feet, dead looking!