Wildlife March 2010

[Maggi Young]

Even more astonishing! What other creatures mate at speed?

Questions like that are designed to lure me into trouble 

I was going to reply, "the ones who look least satisfied" but perhaps I should take a leaf out of Fred's book and keep 

 

[annew]

About 150 frogs in the pond today, and spawn at last. It seems the harsh winter hasn't affected our local population.

[mark smyth]

Wild Jouneys - Did you see the whale jumping!? How does a giant of the sea jump so high?

[Anthony Darby]

I'm finding frog spawn in and around Dunblane now.

[Lesley Cox]

This may be carrying political correctness to a new high, as I heard this morning that a group of American Indians are to visit New Zealand to apologize to our salmon, that they (their ancestors) were removed from North American rivers eons ago and sent here, presumably other places as well. The delegation having apologized, plans to take back to North America, some eggs so that they may be re-established in the home of their forebears.

[mark smyth]

Sounds like a great idea, Lesley.

[Tony Willis]

This may be carrying political correctness to a new high, as I heard this morning that a group of American Indians are to visit New Zealand to apologize to our salmon, that they (their ancestors) were removed from North American rivers eons ago and sent here, presumably other places as well. The delegation having apologized, plans to take back to North America, some eggs so that they may be re-established in the home of their forebears.

Sounds just like another excuse for a free trip at taxpayers expense

[Anthony Darby]

I hope they enjoyed the trip and that the fishy descendants don't end up in the stomachs of the three bears!

[Lesley Cox]

We saw them last night on the telly news. Seems the US govt dammed the Sacramento River at some stage and the salmon couldn't get to the sea and died. Or maybe couldn't get BACK FROM the sea, and died without spawning. Anyway our Fish and Game Soc are going to supply salmon eggs as soon as the US paper work is sorted out, so they can be reintroduced, with appropriate ladders or whatever. Sounds like a good idea, just the apologizing that sounded odd but if it keeps everyone happy, why not?

[David Nicholson]

This may be carrying political correctness to a new high, as I heard this morning that a group of American Indians are to visit New Zealand to apologize to our salmon, that they (their ancestors) were removed from North American rivers eons ago and sent here, presumably other places as well. The delegation having apologized, plans to take back to North America, some eggs so that they may be re-established in the home of their forebears.

Sounds just like another excuse for a free trip at taxpayers expense

A beautifully worded cynics response-couldn't have put it better myself

[ashley]

Wild Jouneys - Did you see the whale jumping!? How does a giant of the sea jump so high?

Some stunning photography alright, but practically devoid of content    A wasted opportunity.
Unfortunately RTÉ is not alone in opting for TV-Lite.  Recently even the BBC seems to have dumbed down its wildlife programmes and concentrates instead on endless close-ups of the presenter/intrepid explorer/expert rather than the location, fauna & flora.  Are our attention spans really so short now that only footage & babblings of a 'celeb' can engage us? 
Just as long as nobody interferes with my off-switch

[Anthony Darby]

I'm afraid that much of the populous only works at reflex level with an attention span shorter than the average item of noise that rejoices in that glorious oxymoron "pop music".

[Ragged Robin]

Two days after the rain we had sun and violas (from last year) opened out and provided an early drink for the first butterfly and a hungry bee on March 22nd.

The Small Tortoiseshell butterfly ( Aglais urticae ) looks in good shape 

[Anthony Darby]

Lovely to see the small tortoiseshell. I think this will be a good winter for hibernating butterflies as it is the mild damp winters that kill them. Interesting bee Robin. Looks rather like Osmia rufa?

[Ragged Robin]

Anthony, I couldn't believe that a butterfly would appear so soon after the cold but I was thrilled it made a pit stop in our garden as no other flowers around yet.  The bee is really cute, they were on the lavender last year, I think, and the colour is bright tan almost orange - thanks for the ID