[Thank you Bobbie and Aafke....I'd like to stay and keep posting but I'm off to babysit the kids. Thanks again.]

Thank you Bobbie and Aafke....I'd like to stay and keep posting but I'm off to babysit the kids. Thanks again.   

First things first, Guys! Have a good one!!

Slainte!
Bobbie

[Gee, I wonder!]

  MISSISSIPPI - A dead sea turtle lies on the beach in Pass Christian. Researchers from the Institute of Marine Mammal Sciences from Gulfport, Miss., collected a number of dead turtles and will examine them to determine the cause of death.  Gee, I wonder! 

Cause of death? Greed. Stupidity.

B.

     Happy 30th Anniversary Donna & Ed!   

  Isn't it Great?   

Well done, Donna and Ed... The next 30 will be a Breeze...

Slainte!
Bobbie

Bobbie..wow...2 great cams. I can actually view them  The Robin's are very up close and fun to watch. Thanks bunches 

Yaaaay! Glad you like them. SO different from the Big Guys/Girls. Don't they look all toasty and warm!

Slainte!
Bobbie

If anyone wants a change of scenery, here is the link to two nest sites in Dublin - for the European Robin and the Blue Tit. Great fun to watch these little guys. This site is a favourite of Irish school kids who may be getting their first Up-Close-and-Personal look at wild things... I will be interested in reading what anyone has to say...

http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/index.html

Slainte!
Bobbie

(PS - I am now using Baby Mac (the laptop, as opposed to Big Mac... and I can get that super video of the Bathing Beauty - yaaaaaay!

This brings to mind something that so often happens when I have watched a wildlife programme... splendid locations, amazing creatures and habitats, so much to learn, so much to see. Then suddenly, the narrator says: "But..."

And this, I know, is the time for me for switch off. Because I know I am now going to hear something I do not want to hear... and about which I can do absolutely nothing.

Orang-utan conservation? We will now look at the loss of the forests so big business can plant palm trees for palm oil. Atlantic salmon? We will now see how river pollution and illegal drift nets are stopping them from reaching the rivers of their birth to spawn. Recovery in raptor numbers? We will now hear about the re-introduction of DDT...

You name the species or the habitat - I can give you the "But..."

Meanwhile... what can I do? No herbicides or pesticides in my garden? Leave the wild bit alone in case a hedgehog wanders in...?

So small. So sad.

B.

6:26 pm

Archer Out!
Beauty In!

Found it! He's Doin' the Time Warp!!  bguitar

"It's just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right
With your hands on your hips,
You bring your knees in tight..."

Slainte!
Bobbie

  Imitating humans...

Ok,  I'm going to try to behave here, but!    I'm speachless!     Someone add this to the "best of" list!   

Right, now I really can use my Rocky Horror Show quote: "DAMMIT, Janet!"

Donna, trust you to find this... :

(Still trying to figure out how I can include "Doin' the Time Warp", but something is bound to occur, now that we remain in the Silly Season...)

Slainte!
Bobbie

Good piece and various links in The New York Times today...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/us/01gulf.html?pagewanted=1&ref=todayspaper

Bobbie

Apropos... from a very small experience in a very small spill off Ireland's east coast (no oil spill is ever small, of course) long ago, most experts agreed that trying to clean and rehabilitate injured wildlife was next to impossible. Perhaps there are better methods now, but as birds try to preen away the oil, I think they only succeed in ingesting even more. I can't even look at the otters... and I did not recognise the gannet, so black were its feathers.

This quote from the BBC today:

"BP's chief executive Tony Hayward is flying to Louisiana later to personally oversee the emergency clean-up operation."

So. There we are. Did it take him a week or more to find a mop and a bucket?? They should haul his sorry butt out to the wetlands to have a look at the effect this is having on breeding species. Not to mention the human misery. Make you want to drive right past BP petrol stations???

B.

A long one, this, so it's better to give the link, esp for the maps which show the spread.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10093904.stm

What one does, I just don't know. Devastating for everyone and everything.

Bobbie

Thanks for the posts on the gyrfalcons, Donna and Justsea - the description of those ancient nests kinda sounds like our garden shed...

And would I be that guy in the photo way up there, checking the nest??? I think not!!

 

Slainte!
Bobbie

[World's 2010 nature target 'will not be met']

World's 2010 nature target 'will not be met'

By Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News

Threats to biodiversity, such as habitat loss, are still on the increase
The world's governments will not meet their internationally agreed target of curbing the loss of species and nature by 2010, a major study has confirmed. Virtually all species and ecosystems show continued decline, while pressures on nature are increasing, it concludes. Published in the journal Science, the study confirms what conservationists have known for several years.

The 2010 target was adopted in 2002, but the scientists behind this study say implementation has been "woeful".

"Our analysis shows that governments have failed to deliver on the commitments they made in 2002," said research leader Stuart Butchart, from the UN Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (Unep-WCMC) and BirdLife International.

"Biodiversity is still being lost as fast as ever, and we have made little headway in reducing the pressures on species, habitats and ecosystems."

Unep chief scientist Joseph Alcamo added: "Since 1970, we have reduced animal populations by 30%, the area of mangroves and seagrasses by 20% and the coverage of living corals by 40%. These losses are clearly unsustainable."

Growing gap
The study combined more than 30 indicators of how species and ecosystems are changing. These encompass plants and animals from land and sea. Very few of the indicators gave any hint that biodiversity loss was decreasing at all.

Meanwhile, measures of threat - such as loss of habitat, climate change and colonisation by harmful non-native species - were virtually all increasing. Policies to restrict the threats to biodiversity are simply not up to the job, the authors argue.

"Although nations have put in place some significant policies to slow biodiversity declines, these have been woefully inadequate, and the gap between the pressures on biodiversity and the responses is getting ever wider," said Dr Butchart.

While about 12% of land is now under some kind of protection, not all of it is effectively managed. And less than 1% of the world's oceans is protected.

'No excuse'
Conservationists hope that laying the sheer scale of the issue before governments will induce them to take tougher steps in the near future.

"We can no longer use the excuse that we don't know enough about the loss of diversity of life on our planet," said Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy head of the Species Programme at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). "The role of governments is paramount; but the magnitude and rate of loss of biodiversity means that everyone, from individuals to businesses, must act now to save all life on Earth before we reach breaking point."

Governments will review their failure to meet the 2010 target, and probably set new ones, at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) summit in Nagoya, Japan, in October.

New targets are likely to be directed at stemming the threats to biodiversity, such as unsustainable agriculture, pollution and the growing scale of cities and transport networks.

"World leaders faced the economic crisis head on," noted Simon Stuart, head of IUCN's Species Survival Commission. "We need that same level of investment and commitment for the environment."

Before she slipped to outside she obtained from to the running stud, whereupon they both in obscurity disappeared...

I bet that's not a bad translation -- probably that's exactly what happened.

I must dig out a book I got about the Coto Donana in Southern Spain when we were doing some exploring there. I bought it specifically because of its hilarious translation into English. Translation notwithstanding, if anyone ever wants a springtime surge of birding, head straight there... or Majorca... Hmmmm - that has me thinking... We could all shoot down, have a splendid week of birding... and still be back in time for the hatching!

Slainte!
Bobbie

[Tomorrow they say in the high 80's, maybe 90. Man, where's the]

How handsome is that BLUE stork. First I heard of one. Thanks Bobbie and enjoy your "freezing" holiday weekend. 

Tomorrow they say in the high 80's, maybe 90. Man, where's the snow? 

High 80s? Are you actually trying to make me cry?!