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Nature in the News

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  • #782
    marlin vs
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,632 ✭✭✭marlin vs


    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/chile-whale-stranding-337-sei-whales-found-dead-off-patagonia-beyond-ordinary-1530142


  • #783
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,080 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    'An Aberrant Robin in Devon'

    An article (with pictures) of a very unusual looking Robin, found in the UK.

    http://birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=5384


  • #784
    keps
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,324 ✭✭✭keps


    Painted Bunting


    Today's NYT

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/nyregion/painted-bunting-bird-making-rare-brooklyn-visit-adds-color-to-a-dreary-day.html


  • #785
    Capercaillie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    Shell have nearly finished repairing the SAC blanket bog at the Corrib gas terminal.


  • #786
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,080 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    'Hen Harriers leave farmers on Pigs back'

    http://connachttribune.ie/hen-harriers-leave-farmers-on-pigs-back-456/


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  • #787
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,080 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    Wind farm in Tipperary mountains with 16 turbines gets go-ahead

    Court told 400 acres of hen harrier foraging would be lost and its existing habitat would be permanently and irrevocably destroyed

    http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/wind-farm-in-tipperary-mountains-with-16-turbines-gets-go-ahead-1.2455123#.VmIc6kETbZU.twitter


  • #788
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,989 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    OpenYourEyes wrote: »
    Wind farm in Tipperary mountains with 16 turbines gets go-ahead
    Good news. I can't stand these nimby's who buy a house in a rural area because they want to live the green lifestyle, and then drive around all day in a 4wd jeep. They oppose renewables in their own backyard on environmental grounds, but think nothing of heating their house with oil fired central heating and big coal fires.
    ...the Paris 2015 conference could help double the current market in the next 15 years.“These new renewable energy targets send strong signals to energy markets and investment circles,”Assuming these proposed clean energy plans are achieved, total annual renewable electricity generation will increase by nearly four times between now and 2030. This increase is equivalent to all of India’s current energy demand.
    source


  • #789
    Jayzesake
    Closed Accounts Posts: 392 ✭✭Jayzesake


    recedite wrote: »
    Good news. I can't stand these nimby's who buy a house in a rural area because they want to live the green lifestyle, and then drive around all day in a 4wd jeep. They oppose renewables in their own backyard on environmental grounds, but think nothing of heating their house with oil fired central heating and big coal fires.
    source

    There is no point at all in moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources that sacrifice the natural world. That is hardly 'sustainable', to use the catch-phrase bandied about so much these days.

    Yes, we need to move away from fossil fuels toward renewables urgently (to put it mildly), but that must not become a carte blanche to allow further damage to already depleted natural ecosystems. The news in OYE's link is evidence of exactly that approach.


  • #790
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,080 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    recedite wrote: »
    Good news. I can't stand these nimby's who buy a house in a rural area because they want to live the green lifestyle, and then drive around all day in a 4wd jeep. They oppose renewables in their own backyard on environmental grounds, but think nothing of heating their house with oil fired central heating and big coal fires.
    source

    I fully agree with you about NIMBYs and windfarms, but that being said this article states that:
    The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and an inspector on behalf of An Bord Pleanála had both recommended permissions be refused.

    So that makes me concerned that this might actually genuinely be a windfarm that should not have gone ahead unfortunately.


  • #791
    Zoo4m8
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,003 ✭✭✭Zoo4m8


    recedite wrote: »
    Good news. I can't stand these nimby's who buy a house in a rural area because they want to live the green lifestyle, and then drive around all day in a 4wd jeep. They oppose renewables in their own backyard on environmental grounds, but think nothing of heating their house with oil fired central heating and big coal fires.
    source

    Indeed, and I can't decide whether it's fortunate or unfortunate that I won't be around to witness the clamour to embrace nuclear energy when the lights start to go out, when fine sentiments about ' sustainability ' and the environment will be trampled in the rush to make sure that we continue to enjoy winter temps of 20degrees plus in our homes and that there will be a plentiful supply of energy when we plug in the electric car that we are told we will all be driving in the not too distant...

    On a lighter note , a good friend who lives in a remote town at the end of a (dirt) road in Canada was home recently, in a discussion on lifestyles in the bush he remarked that not only did they have nimbys but notes as well.. Not Over There Either...he explained, :)


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  • #792
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,989 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    I have not looked into the detail of this, but I see that ABP approved it. Whatever the inspector said, it was not agreed with by the board. There seems to have been some "point of law" involved.
    Local politicians often influence officials in govt. departments unduly in these matters, such that not enough cognisance is taken of the bigger picture.


  • #793
    Jayzesake
    Closed Accounts Posts: 392 ✭✭Jayzesake


    Zoo4m8 wrote: »
    ...and the environment will be trampled in the rush to make sure that we continue to enjoy winter temps of 20degrees plus in our homes...

    It's important to remember that this is only one possible scenario, or choice. Another is that we collectively begin to realise that by destroying the natural world we are also destroying ourselves, and start to factor that fundamental understanding into everything we do.

    I also have dark moments when I feel there's little hope that the latter will happen, but five minutes (or five seconds) in a wild place is always enough to remind me why giving in to despair is not an option.


  • #794
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 52,256 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    the first thing the department should have done in the case of the illegal turf cutting would be to make proper insulation and stoves a condition of the 'reward' given to the turf cutters. how much ****ty fuel (which turf is) would you need to heat a badly insulated house using open fires?


  • #795
    Capercaillie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    magicbastarder wrote: »
    the first thing the department should have done in the case of the illegal turf cutting would be to make proper insulation and stoves a condition of the 'reward' given to the turf cutters. how much ****ty fuel (which turf is) would you need to heat a badly insulated house using open fires?

    Contractors cutting the turf are the driving force behind the opposition to turf cutting in SAC's. They are making a fortune with all cash in hand dealings. Michael fitzmaurice TD is a turf contractor hence his strong opposition to any agreement. Ming flanagan's brother is also a wealthy turf contractor.


  • #796
    Capercaillie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    recedite wrote: »
    Good news. I can't stand these nimby's who buy a house in a rural area because they want to live the green lifestyle, and then drive around all day in a 4wd jeep. They oppose renewables in their own backyard on environmental grounds, but think nothing of heating their house with oil fired central heating and big coal fires.
    source
    Hem harriers breeding in that area, though outside a SAC. The permission should have been refused.


  • #797
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,080 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    magicbastarder wrote: »
    the first thing the department should have done in the case of the illegal turf cutting would be to make proper insulation and stoves a condition of the 'reward' given to the turf cutters. how much ****ty fuel (which turf is) would you need to heat a badly insulated house using open fires?

    I think there was a localised trial along these lines, but not sure what ever came of it. Compensation on offer is good - many happy to take it; those that are left, as Capercaillie says, are strongly influenced by turfcutting contractor propaganda. I'm sure some of those that are left are genuine in their opposition, but dealing with those people made harder by the TCCA et al. unfortunately.


  • #798
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,989 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    Capercaillie wrote: »
    Hem harriers breeding in that area, though outside a SAC. The permission should have been refused.
    Every possible windfarm site is going to have some bird present in the area.
    And some birds will get caught in the turbine blades. But most won't. We don't stop roads being built because some animals get hit by cars.

    You hear a lot of nonsense from anti-wind farm Nimbys such that they don't actually produce any power. If you want to see the actual data, click here.

    So, this morning I see Ireland getting about 40% of its electricity from renewables. Looking at the interconnectors, I see power being imported from Scotland to Ireland, and simultaneously exported Ireland to Wales. That's because wind farms are big business in Scotland.

    I would rather see that % of renewables production increased, and see us export power to Britain as an ongoing source of revenue. That 40% renewable power is substituting fuel from unsustainable sources. Buying oil from the arabs and burning the bogs seemed like a good idea in the past, but its not the future.


  • #799
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,080 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    recedite wrote: »
    Every possible windfarm site is going to have some bird present in the area.
    And some birds will get caught in the turbine blades. But most won't. We don't stop roads being built because some animals get hit by cars.

    Some bird present yes - birds of very high conservation concern, both here and in the UK - no! Windfarms don't get stopped or objected to by conservation bodies because of chaffinchs or blackbirds, just where rare species will be impacted.

    And the concern for Hen Harriers is as much if not more about the loss of habitat (foundations, tracks etc, vegetation clearance) to put in the windfarm as it is about collision risk.

    I completely agree about the misinformation spread by NIMBYs, but you've gone too far the other way!


  • #800
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,080 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    Country matters: Finding balance to save endangered eagles

    http://www.independent.ie/life/country-matters-finding-balance-to-save-endangered-eagles-34262486.html


  • #801
    Capercaillie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    http://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/A%20Framework%20for%20Corncrake%20Conservation%20to%202022%20(Nov2015).pdf
    A Framework for Corncrake
    Conservation to 2022


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  • #802
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,989 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    OpenYourEyes wrote: »
    Country matters: Finding balance to save endangered eagles

    http://www.independent.ie/life/country-matters-finding-balance-to-save-endangered-eagles-34262486.html
    Why are there so few hares and grouse in the Irish mountains?
    I don't think the sheep are directly to blame for this. I have a feeling there are just too many trigger happy humans roaming around.
    Its ridiculous that the eagles are living on crows and badger cubs. They shouldn't even be hunting at the same time as a mainly nocturnal mammal is out and about.


  • #803
    Capercaillie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    recedite wrote: »
    Why are there so few hares and grouse in the Irish mountains?
    I don't think the sheep are directly to blame for this. I have a feeling there are just too many trigger happy humans roaming around.

    http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/Default.aspx?tabid=136
    A good link to main causes of declines of grouse. Hunting not one of them. A couple of gunclubs doing good work on Red Grouse conservation in Ireland, Notably Boleybrack gun club.


  • #804
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,989 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    Nothing in that article seems like a plausible explanation to me.
    The main difference between Ireland and Scotland is in land ownership.
    In Scotland there are vast estates being run for the benefit of toffs and rich tourists. Shooting is rigidly controlled, and professional gamekeepers look after the grouse.
    In Ireland a lot of the equivalent landscape is commonage, and the shooters are "the plain people" of the countryside. And as we all know, the plain people will only obey the rules if they think somebody is watching them.

    It could be something to do with the ravens as well. They are pretty high up the food chain, and when they run out of dead sheep to eat they could be in competition with the likes of eagles for small mammals.
    Still, I think there should be more mountain hares around than there are.


  • #805
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Hare numbers are not down due to hunting but due to habitat loss. No hunting anywhere near here but numbers are down in the past 20 years, in line with the rest of the island. That said the population is holding at around 7.66 per sq km , although surveying is difficult and sometimes conflicting.


  • #806
    Capercaillie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    recedite wrote: »
    Nothing in that article seems like a plausible explanation to me.
    The main difference between Ireland and Scotland is in land ownership.
    In Scotland there are vast estates being run for the benefit of toffs and rich tourists. Shooting is rigidly controlled, and professional gamekeepers look after the grouse.
    In Ireland a lot of the equivalent landscape is commonage, and the shooters are "the plain people" of the countryside. And as we all know, the plain people will only obey the rules if they think somebody is watching them.

    It could be something to do with the ravens as well. They are pretty high up the food chain, and when they run out of dead sheep to eat they could be in competition with the likes of eagles for small mammals.
    Still, I think there should be more mountain hares around than there are.
    Everything in the article is plausible. You can't have grouse if the habitat is rubbish. Rubbish habitat is mostly what we have!


  • #807
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,080 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    Capercaillie wrote: »
    Everything in the article is plausible. You can't have grouse if the habitat is rubbish. Rubbish habitat is mostly what we have!

    In terms of upland specialists, apart from Red Grouse and Mountain Hares we have very few and I don't know of any that are doing well - some are getting close to extinction in Ireland. What do they all have in common? It's not that they're all shot, it's that they share the same habitat! And that habitat in terms of vegetation especially, is far removed from what it would have been 50, 100 or 100+ years ago.


  • #808
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,989 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    There are huge areas of mountain moorland, and most don't get burned. If that's what grouse like, then they have it.
    If there is enough grass for sheep, why not hares?
    There is some other factor playing out here.


  • #809
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,989 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    Moses Faithful Slime wrote: »
    Hare numbers are not down due to hunting but due to habitat loss. No hunting anywhere near here but numbers are down in the past 20 years, in line with the rest of the island. That said the population is holding at around 7.66 per sq km , although surveying is difficult and sometimes conflicting.
    Where did you get that figure from? Certainly not in the Wicklow mountains. There are loads of deer and sheep, but hardly any hares. The habitat has not changed in 20 years.
    Maybe we need bigger, and more badass eagles. The golden eagles in Mongolia will take deer and foxes :pac:


  • #810
    Capercaillie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    recedite wrote: »
    There are huge areas of mountain moorland, and most don't get burned. If that's what grouse like, then they have it.
    Where is that? Vast areas of old heather not really of use for Grouse.
    Grouse like a mosaic of heather (old heather for nesting, young heather for feeding). On Scottish estates they have rotational burning which gives optimal habitat coupled with intensive predator control. We don't have that management anywhere (on an intensive scale).


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  • #811
    Capercaillie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭Capercaillie


    recedite wrote: »
    Where did you get that figure from? Certainly not in the Wicklow mountains. There are loads of deer and sheep, but hardly any hares. The habitat has not changed in 20 years.
    Maybe we need bigger, and more badass eagles. The golden eagles in Mongolia will take deer and foxes :pac:

    Different subspecies from Mongolia.


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