Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: Maggi Young on April 02, 2014, 03:56:24 PM
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We've been sent this great link by our friend Beverley Merryfield in Canada to this article, with a great film of Hummingbirds from Vancouver Island resident Eric Pittman - please take the time to wait through the adverts to see the charming pictures of the birds, who, it has been discovered, raise four familes per year!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/hummingbird-live-webcam-takes-flight-in-b-c-1.2594969 (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/hummingbird-live-webcam-takes-flight-in-b-c-1.2594969)
for main film and the story of Eric Pittman and his study of the humming birds,
plus this you-tube live webcam :
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrM34fdmloc#t=2607412 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrM34fdmloc#t=2607412)
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Sad news out of Malta
Retweeted Chris Packham (@ChrisGPackham):
We watched 21 Montagus Harriers going to roost . They are now out with torches shooting at them on the ground - it's beyond bloody belief .
https://twitter.com/search?q=%40chrisGpackham&src=typd (https://twitter.com/search?q=%40chrisGpackham&src=typd)
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and even crazier news from Malta - Maltese want to trap 2.6 million finches
According to renewed demands made by hunters’ lobby FKNK, the federation wants the government to effect a derogation from the EU ban on trapping, so that they can take the astounding number of 300,000 Linnet, 900,000 Chaffinch, 500,000 Greenfinch, 400,000 Goldfinch, 300,000 Siskin, 200,000 Serin, and 60,000 Hawfinch over a period of two months trapping season between 7 October until 7 December – permitting a total catch of 2.6 million finches.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/lifestyle/environment/37473/muscat_considers_lifting_trapping_ban#.U1TdIPdwZEb (http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/lifestyle/environment/37473/muscat_considers_lifting_trapping_ban#.U1TdIPdwZEb)
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http://www.chrispackham.co.uk/ (http://www.chrispackham.co.uk/)
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For this very reason I have never had any desire to visit Malta. I remember having a holiday in southern Spain. I accidentally stumbled across a bloke with a caged song bird and a veritable forest of lime twigs. I stuck around and he eventually packed up and went. No birds stuck to his twigs that day. On holiday in Mallorca I could guarantee finding spent shotgun cartridges in any of the local nature reserves.
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I too was amazed at the number of cartridges on Majorca. Everywhere we stopped
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A film about last year's Maltese spring massacre. Malta - Massacre on Migration 2013 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpuHwosicNg#ws)
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I can't read this thread anymore - it makes me too angry.
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Everyone needs to watch Chris' reports. So sad. Why shoot birds and just leave them where they fall
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At least the seal kill in Scotland seems to have been called off. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-27109912 (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-27109912)
Edit: No it hasn't. They lied. They intend to continue killing seals and now they want to seize Sea Shepherd boats.
Victories are always so short lived. The seal killers Scottish Wild Salmon Company are now saying they will not kill seals while Sea Shepherd and the Hunt Saboteurs are in the port.
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Kakapo Live Nest Stream from Codfish Island: http://kakaporecovery.org.nz/meet-the-kakapo/live-nest-stream/ (http://kakaporecovery.org.nz/meet-the-kakapo/live-nest-stream/)
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A couple of insects for id.
A tiny weevil on a snowdrop leaf
A metallic blue ?fly with a yellow face found on a frit
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I know what this is :( I found one last year. Today I found 4 ( All gone now ;D)
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Roma, your weevil could be Rhynchites aequatus, which is associated with hawthorn. The other is a male saw fly Acantholyda erythocephala, which has communal web-spinning larvae among pine needles. http://bugguide.net/node/view/874098/bgimage (http://bugguide.net/node/view/874098/bgimage)
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Anthony I thought of you this morning while watching a programme about Auckland Zoo. They were relaesing NZ geckos in to display
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Thanks, Anthony
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Anthony I thought of you this morning while watching a programme about Auckland Zoo. They were relaesing NZ geckos in to display
Their gecko displays are very good. Wonder what species? They didn't seem to have any Auckland green (Naultinus elegans) or Gray's (Northland) geckos (N. grayii) on display when last I was there. The zoo is very good with much conservation work being done. Richard Gibson is curator of reptiles and invertebrates, and was head hunted for the job.
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Scotland's first sea eagle to be reared in 200 years has gone missing!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-27142843 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-27142843)
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Scotland's first sea eagle to be reared in 200 years has gone missing!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-27142843 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-27142843)
It's actually the first east coast Sea Eagle -from a nest in Fife & not the first Scottish reared bird. It has disappeared into an infamous eagle black hole in north Deeside.
Whilst very tragic the apparent loss of this landmark bird is strongly galvanizing public opinion in Scotland regarding raptor persecution.
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Whilst very tragic the apparent loss of this landmark bird is strongly galvanizing public opinion in Scotland regarding raptor persecution.
There are people, other than game keeping/shepherding fraternity, that are against these magnificent birds?
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There are two highly charged camps:
The pro-eagle group is composed of people like ourselves, members of conservation organisations such as the RSPB, lifelong wildlife enthusiasts and people with a passion for the natural world, etc.
The anti-eagle group consists of some farmers and crofters, pigeon-fanciers, many shepherds, most gamekeepers, hunters, many (game) fishermen, estate-landowners and those connected directly or indirectly in adjacent rural communities.
The vast majority of people in Scotland have no strong feelings and it is an issue that they give no thought to .......that is the problem!
Unfortunately it would seem that the anti-eagle lobby holds more sway with the popular media. There are stories of family pets being attacked, church ministers being savaged and great risk of infants and toddlers being carried away:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8718155/Sea-eagle-attacks-reverend-and-his-flock....of-geese.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8718155/Sea-eagle-attacks-reverend-and-his-flock....of-geese.html)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/9224638/British-expat-fights-off-eagle-who-tried-to-fly-off-with-dog.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/9224638/British-expat-fights-off-eagle-who-tried-to-fly-off-with-dog.html)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8738064/Sea-eagles-could-target-children.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8738064/Sea-eagles-could-target-children.html)
-I picked three quick examples from The Telegraph as it typifies these types of sensationalist article. There are similar pieces in the Sun and other popular tabloids. These types of article will clearly influence the general public despite their factual base being limited and taken out of context.
Many individuals in the anti-eagle lobby are very highly motivated and living/working in remote areas frequented by eagles they have the opportunity and the drive to illegally persecute raptors in clandestine fashion with a very low risk of getting caught.
With freedom of access for walkers across Highland estates the general public could be a powerful force in bringing such persecution to an end. However, for this to happen the public must first need to care! Fortunately this is now happening.
The east coast eagle introduction scheme has had its ups & downs but it has attracted considerable public interest. Wandering young eagles are moving around widely and are now being seen regularly by those who have had no previous interest in eagles (and have never seen a Golden Eagle). Three years ago a young telemetry-tagged Sea Eagle flew within 500m of my house! Once you see a Sea Eagle in flight it is impossible not to be impressed. The Scottish public are slowly wakening up and are finding eagles to their liking. The Golden Eagle is likely to be declared Scotland's National Bird and with the current issues surrounding the impending vote for Scottish Indepenence the persection of eagles is being increasingly frowned upon by the man and woman in the street.
If we can win the hearts and minds of the currently ambivalent general populace then raptor persecution will dramatically decline (there will always be a few nutters!)
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It's amazing the sort of nonsense that is reported in the newspapers. One assumes hiking in the hills of southern Spain near where eagles are found, and presumably have a nest to defend, would naturally be sheer stupidity and the woman and her dogs got what she (not the dogs' fault) deserved. Perhaps signs to that effect would help?
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The news over here and BBC news is giant rats the size of jack russells LOL
This week an ?Indian ?prince, while on a hunting trip, shot 2% of the worlds population of a rare bustard. He actually entered a nature reserve to hunt.
Other bird news is a migrating flock of cranes was poisoned in Serbia
"Not just raptors who suffer....a flock of 19 cranes poisoned in the fields east of the Coka (North Banat, Vojvodina, Serbia) after eating seeds of corn treated with carbofuran."