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THE FORUM
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20-Apr-23, 08:33:38 AM
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12001
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Other Nature Related Information / Falcon Web Cams / Re: New Peregrine cam in Australia
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on: 21-Nov-11, 07:07:43 AM
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Fighter pilot unit takes falcons under its wing
BY REBECCA SULLIVAN
21 Nov, 2011 04:00 AM
THE peregrine falcon has become an unlikely Orange hero, with a remarkable story connecting the bird all the way back to a World War II fighter pilot unit.
In 2007 a pair of falcons, which are a rare sight around the central west, was seen roosting in the water tower on campus at Charles Sturt University in Orange.
A team of conservationists, which would later form the FalconCam Project, made a special nest for the birds.
In November 2008, the tower was struck by lightning, which should have destroyed the two eggs in the nest.
But three days later, by a stroke of luck, one of the eggs hatched.
The story made local television news headlines, and caught the attention of two World War II veterans.
Fred Anderson and the late Norm Williams were both original members of the 1942 RAAF 30 Beaufighter Squadron, whose emblem depicts a falcon and a lightning bolt.
Such a coincidence couldn’t go unnoticed, and the two men contacted the Falcon Cam Project, initiating a relationship that has seen the Beaufighters become the project’s main benefactor.
The National Conservation Trust of NSW is based in Orange, and is also a key supporter of the cause.
The trust held a fundraising breakfast on Thursday to launch a new high-definition camera, funded by the trust and the Beaufighters, which will provide 24-hour live-streaming and motion sensor surveillance of the four falcon nests in the region.
The project’s co-ordinator Scott Banks said the falcons have shown the same spirit and fight as the WWII fighter pilots.
“It’s a really wonderful story. This is such a great cause and we’re so grateful for the support of the Beaufighters and the trust.â€
Swift & Beau's cam
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12003
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Rochester Falcons / Falcon Watches / Twitter 2011
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on: 20-Nov-11, 05:52:51 PM
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It never made it to twitter. It's not on your twitter page.
I see it on her Twitter page and I got the tweet quite a while ago.  Me too, was waiting for it to hit the forum! |
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12006
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Other Nature Related Information / General Nature Discussion / Why not all game is fair game:
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on: 19-Nov-11, 09:47:57 PM
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How much more sustainable is it to eat game instead of normal meat?
THE DILEMMA How much more sustainable is it to eat game instead of normal meat?
Game as a foodie concept is flourishing – supermarkets now sell it. In recent years, venison, pheasant and grouse sales have risen from next to nothing to a multi-million pound market, and much of this rides on the sustainable ticket. Harvested from natural landscapes, what could seem more low impact than these wild meats?
Well, the peregrine falcon has been the canary in the coal mine, if you'll excuse the avian mixed metaphor. In the 1960s this super raptor began laying eggs with worryingly thin shells, which alerted us to the long-term effects of organochlorine pesticides (such as DDT) and put peregrine falcons on the endangered-species list. Now, according to a new study published in the journal Biological Conservation, peregrines are telling us something new: intensively managed moorland grouse shoots might look impressively bucolic, but they aren't very sustainable, at least not for the peregrine population.
By rights, UK upland grouse moors should be full of nesting peregrines, but there are hardly any. In the study, satellite imagery of strip burning (in which heather is burned to create better breeding conditions for red grouse) is plotted against three decades of peregrine breeding records. Not good. Shoots that use these techniques to encourage red grouse to flourish and to be shot for sport (and food) are accused by the RSPB of persecuting the peregrine falcons.
But we need to make a distinction between game that is genuinely harvested from the wild and farmed wild game (an oxymoron too far). The shooting industry is primarily set up for those who kill animals for sport. But they increasingly also eat them, subscribing to the quasi-ethical code: "If I can kill it, I'll eat it." Many shoots are intensively managed, meaning that the birds they produce are expensive, both fiscally and in terms of energy.
There is a clear difference between game produced for sport on upland grouse moors and game that is genuinely harvested from the wild, where the impact is a fraction of that of producing meat in a farmed environment. Anybody who sells meat should be able to tell you where it's from. Not all game is fair game.
The Guardian UK
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