Just heard something on the radio and now I’ll never be able to look at a Mallard without thinking ‘there’s another one wearing a dog mask’.
Great.
just a normal mallard…until….
Taken from ubersuper.com
Sorry everyone.
Just read this sad article about the sharp decline in UK (and presumably Ireland) of Greenfinches due to trichomonis.
Greenfinch. Photograph: Mark Hamblin/Getty Images/Photolibrary RM
Greenfinch populations in central England dropped by one-third within a year of the emergence of a new disease, a study said today…. Read rest of article from the Guardian here.
This article has been copied from The Guardian 19th Aug 2010.
Man JAILED for over 2 years after being caught with 14 eggs – worth £70,000 – strapped to his chest at Birmingham airport. Apparently he strapped them to his chest to keep them warm, what a thoughtful chap…
Two peregrine falcon chicks. Fourteen eggs were snatched from nests in Wales by Jeffrey Lendrum. Photograph: Owen Humphries/PA
A businessman was jailed for 30 months today after he admitted trying to smuggle rare peregrine falcon eggs to Dubai.
Jeffrey Lendrum, 48, was caught with 14 eggs strapped to his body at Birmingham international airport on 3 May after he was spotted acting suspiciously by a cleaner. He had wrapped the eggs, worth £70,000, in socks before taping them to his chest.
At Warwick crown court today, Lendrum, of Towcester, Northamptonshire, admitted one count of trying to export the eggs illegally and a second charge of stealing them from a nest in south Wales.
The court was told the 14 eggs were destined for falconries in Dubai, where breeders will pay thousands of pounds on the black market for eggs snatched from the wild.
Lendrum has previous convictions in Zimbabwe and Canada for stealing rare eggs and once abseiled from a helicopter to reach a remote nest.
A former member of the Rhodesian SAS, the businessman developed dare-devil techniques, once abseiling off a cliff to reach a nest, while on another occasion he lowered himself from a helicopter in Canada to reach his prize.
Investigators said today it was the such first case in the UK for 20 years.
He was caught when a cleaner working in the Emirates airline’s business-class lounge spotted him dashing in and out of the shower. When she went to investigate, the shower had not been used and she called in counterterrorist officers, fearing the defendant had a sinister purpose.
The court was told there were only 1,400 breeding pairs of peregrine falcons in the UK and the birds were regarded as one of the most endangered species.
Jailing Lendrum, Judge Christopher Hodson said: “These were eggs you had removed from the wild in Wales and you would have reduced the number of these high-level endangered species in the wild, birds which enhance the attraction of the countryside to all.
“I quote the words of a lord justice of appeal [Lord Justice Sedley] when he says, ‘Environmental crime, if established, strikes not only at a locality and its population but in some measure to the planet and its future. Nobody should be allowed to doubt its seriousness or to forget that one side of the environmental story is always untold.’”
Apparently this blog got a mention in the Irish Times Review today?
I know I had a photo published in the Wildlife supplement of the Irish Times on Friday (small Brent Geese photo on page 11 !)
That's my photo of the Brent Geese in Crumlin in the Irish Times yesterday.
It was for an article written by Éanna Ní Lamhna on Urban Habitats.
but a friend has just texted me saying I’m mentioned in the weekend review aswell?
I’ve been out in Wicklow all day – so didn’t buy any papers.
Is it really sad to cycle to the garage at 10pm just to buy the Irish Times to see what they said?
<cycles to garage and back>
Well I just got the article and it’s actually not about this blog at all.
Two women called Catherine Redfern and Kristen Aune have written a book called ‘Reclaiming the FWord: The new Feminist movement’ and Anthea McTiernan has written a review of the book for the Irish Times.
I get a mention in the book! and so a mentionin the review for a project I set up a few years ago called ‘Magical Girl’, a project I set up as a reaction to and for a lot of things. Mainly that I was going to lots of gigs and seeing loads of lad bands and no female bands and when there was an amazing female band, I didn’t feel there was enough respect for them, and why weren’t there that many female bands anyway and blahblahblah…
So, I set up ‘Magical Girl’ in an attempt to provide a space for female musicians who hopefully would appreciate a space which was really safe and pro-female. I felt it was also good for the female bands to have a gig organised by a female promoter who’d make sure the bands got a good venue and good vibe for a decent gig, a space I felt wasn’t all that available in Dublin. I ran the project for just over a year and we saw bands from Ireland, the UK, Canada and America all wanting to play ‘Magical Girl’ gigs in the upstairs of Conways pub on Parnell St in Dublin. The feedback I got from the female bands and from the people who came along to the gigs was really good, it was a great time.
I also ran a few workshops and did this thing where I compiled (with permissions) a cd of all the Irish, UK and American independent female bands around, copied the cd x 100 and then got a group of women together to make 100 different cd covers for the cd’s. We then all set a date when we’d give out all these cds to the girls who hung out at Central Bank in Temple Bar, with the message ‘start your own band’ there’s not enough female music out there’.
Setting up Magical Girl seemed to strike a chord with a lot of people and my photo appeared in the Irish Times as one of several ‘political activists’ to watch out for in 2009 (or something like that).
It was kind of unfortunate that I stopped putting my energy into that project but it just became exhausting and seemed so time consuming – I ended up with little time for myself – so I just stopped.
If you find yourself doing something which you’re not really enjoying anymore it’s time to stop right?
So anyways, that’s why I get a mention in the Irish Times today, because I’ve got a mention in a book called ‘Reclaiming the Fword’ an attempt to re-claim Feminism … I’m pretty chuffed! and will obviously buy the book now 
)
The Siobhán mentioned is me, except I've never called myself an anarchafeminist. Feminist, definitely, anarchafeminist, not really.
The text on the right was the start of an inlay I wrote for the 100 cd's. It was pretty heartfelt and went on for Ages - all about the state of manufactured women in manufactured music and how this consumerist, corporate approach to music was stopping women and men being Real. The knock on of this cd project was that women in Cork and Manchester heard about it and decided to do the same thing in their cities.
So there you go, in the Irish Times twice over the weekend – both for things which I did out of a love at the time.
Whether it goes recognised or not – always make sure your life has something of what you love doing in it.
You’ll be happier for it and so will the people around you because of it.
It’s a win, win.
And you might even get a mention in a book!
Big up to the 2 dublin based feminist organisiations, Lash Back and RAG, who also get a mention in the book.
To read the full book review click here.
Reclaiming the F-word: The new Feminist Movement by Catherine Redfern and Kristen Aune (2010).
I’m sorry, did you just say you’ve laid poison down in a field?
The penguin obviously hadn’t seen James Pembroke’s footage of why Norwegian Farmers don’t poison their White-tailed Sea Eagles, they find that the Sea Eagles help them rather than threaten them.
This next video shows how another Norwegian dairy farmer started to make his living through being a Sea Eagle guide to tourists.
Thanks to James for this footage.
Extra video showing Allan Mee bring eagles into Kerry airport, the Farmer’s protest and the subsequent Eagles laying dead, poisoned.
James has put music which says ‘It’s Alright…’ but clearly the wrong song has been used in this case – because everything is Not alright.
Image taken from Irish Times report 08/05/2010 Copyright, Golden Eagle Trust/Valerie O'Sullivan
Aren’t they amazing them Farmers/Gun Clubs who are STILL Knowingly leaving out poison and playing their Moronic war against the re-introduced Birds of Prey in Ireland.
They must think they can do what they like and get away with it, oh that’s right, they can and they are.
Deliberate or accidental? It’s nearly irrelevant because it’s all amounting to the same thing.
It was sad news again today when I heard on the radio that a third White-tailed Sea Eagle has been found dead in less than 4 weeks, again poisoned (apparently a couple of days ago) and again in Beaufort, along the River Laune in Co Kerry. There’s a possibility it fed from the same poisoned carcass the other two poisoned eagles fed from last week.
I’m sure them poisoners are beating their chests and drooling in celebration. Gross.
Thankfully, Alan Mee (I just heard him on the radio) says that Norway is still going to keep going with the 5 year re-introduction project but there’s no doubt that any more of these poisonings will bring the project to its knees.
I say thankfully because I would hate to see the Eagles being withdrawn from Ireland – what type of fkn message would that send to other countries about the state of this ‘green, caring’ country? These few people who are still laying out poison are selfish bastards who are ruining the hard work of so many thousands of people. What’s even more Stupid is that they’re also selfishly ruining their own futures and the future of all those Irish farmers who would never dream of leaving out poison.
Would you like to buy an Irish lamb from a field that’s been laced with poison? No? It was only a little bit of poison we left out, I’ll sell you it cheap? Still no? Ok, I’ll put it back with all these others we’ve not been able to sell.
That’s going to be the situation if this continues.
There are rumblings now that the re-introduction projects should be stopped immediately and the birds of prey should be given back to the donor countries (Norway and UK) so that no more eagles are needlessly killed here in Ireland and the growing media attention of these poisons doesn’t do even more damage to Ireland’s already suffering Agri-business.
Lorcan O’Toole, (Golden Eagle Trust and Irish Raptor Study Group) wrote an excellent piece on the Golden Eagle Trust website a few days ago about the poisoning in Ireland.
Amidst the frustration he’s obviously feeling, Lorcan urges us to focus on the positives,
‘The survival rates of the established adult Golden Eagles in 7-8 territories in Donegal is good – clearly showing poisoning no longer occurs in these areas. But the worry remains that the poisoning of wandering Golden Eagles remains unchecked outside these core areas.’
but, he argues that,
‘Unless we can find an agreed outcome to the issue of Fox and Crow control and the protection of newborn lambs, illegal poisoning will continue…
The stain on the green image of the Irish Agri-Food Sector will grow and the potential for local promotion of unspoilt landscapes in the Northwest will be lost…
and politicians and statutory authorities need to address the matter and find an agreed approach and enforce it vigorously.’
However, when he writes about ‘Dr Poison’ who is believed to be the farmer who poisoned Conall, the Golden Eagle Chick on Truskmore Mountain you’re left wondering if anything will ever get through to such morons…
‘The Golden Eagle chick was found poisoned on Truskmore Mountain in mid February and ‘Dr Poison’ in Ballintrillick has since poisoned a Raven in nearly the exact same spot. He must feel totally immune from the Irish authorities – with no pressure brought to bear on his Single Farm Payment. Yes, the proof is scarce and his boasting about poison is inadmissible. One local lady reported her dog was poisoned with Strychnine in January 2010. She believed the poison was thrown into her enclosed garden where her two young children play. Just imagine if the children had picked up and discarded the poisoned bait and then later licked their fingers laced with Strychnine. This is the attitude and mind set of poisoners – ‘they are right and do not tell them what they may or may not do on their land or commonage’.
For Lorcan’s full piece on Golden Eagle Trust’s website click here.
So back to the White-tailed Sea Eagles in Kerry.
Out of the 55 released in the last 3 years, 14 have been poisoned and maybe a couple more which haven’t been recorded yet, which leaves 40 or so of the White-tailed Sea Eagles ..
But importantly this poisoning is now the 8th poisoning of the 15 older birds, the ones who are close to breeding age, so this means that Ireland is only left with 7 Sea Eagles who have the potential to breed.
From another excellent piece written (I’m not sure who wrote it) on the Golden Eagle Trust’s website on 4th May 2010, it seems that the poisons Alphachloralose and the illegal Carbofuran are still being used for these killings.
However it is hoped that soon this will finally have to stop by law,
Although the use of poison on meat baits for the control of crows was banned in 2008, the use of meat baits to kill foxes is still permitted under current regulations (Protection of Animals Act 1965). This loophole has allowed the continued use of poison and continue to pose a huge threat to our native birds of prey. However, an amendment to the Wildlife Act which will outlaw all use of poison on meat baits is imminent.
(For the full article click here.)
So will this be the last poison?
That’s up to those mindless pricks leaving the poison down in the first place and them giving up this pretence that they weren’t aware of the existence of Birds of Prey in ‘their’ area..
Well excuse me, but if I’m hearing or reading about all these poor poisoned birds and I work in an office in Dublin, I think it’s highly likely that those working in the countryside 24/7 are also very aware of what’s happening, wouldn’t you think?
So their excuse for laying down poison?
There is none.
Unforgivable.
***The Irish Times have just written a report on this latest poisoning
For the full article in the Irish Times 11/05/10 click here.***
Futher Reading.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0503/poisoning.html (May 3rd 2010)
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0403/eagle.html (April 3rd 2010)
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0327/redkites.html (March 27th 2010)
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0302/eagle.html (March 2nd 2010)
Hope is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—
And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—
I’ve heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.
As a female who’s interested in birds (yes, the irony is acknowledged) little did I realise that the three years I spent studying Feminist theory as part of my degree 20 years ago would be ignited again by birdwatching.
Birdwatching at an amateur level is largely female. In the birdwatching night classes I’ve been to, about 90% of the class has been female. A lot of women seem to come along because of a love and fascination with the birds they’ve seen in their gardens, it’s always been cool to see so many other women interested in the subject, yet when it comes to birdwatching at a more advanced, professional level, the % of female involvement drops to, I’d say to maybe 2%? I’d be happy to be told I’m wrong here.
Childcare I’m sure is the main reason. You can’t spend days traipsing around with telescopes and cameras out in the hills or on the coast every weekend when you have children to look after – and it is still, largely the norm that the responsibility of looking after children falls at the feet of women. Whether by choice or a reluctance to conflict with the social norm this fact results in very few women being birders at a top level, very few women writing bird guides and very few women teaching us about birds.
Given the lack of females at top level, the knock on effect is that we’re left with a very male dominated ‘professional’ birdwatching world.
When I first started birdwatching I saw a female Bullfinch on her own. As far as I knew I’d seen a small greyish magpie. I didn’t know what the bird was and the basic field guide I had at the time only provided a photo of the male Bullfinch. Why hadn’t they included the photo of the female? When you’re just starting out birdwatching all the birds seem alike and I didn’t know a finch from a crow so to work out which bird I’d seen from an invisible photo was impossible – and it was invisible because it was the female. Have you ever seen a bird guide which provides a photo of a female bird with the reasoning that the male bird looks very similar so no reason to include an extra photo? No. It’s always the female bird which is ommited. Read = Females birds are so unimportant they’re not even worth bothering about - so why include a photo of them?
Ever noticed that the bigger photo, first picture is always of the male bird? Read = Again, the male of the species is way more important, bigger, more colourful, more interesting. Click on image 2, or squint at the smaller picture if you really want to see the female species.
Female wildfowl are often earth or grass coloured. If they are to sit on eggs and protect their chicks they have to be camouflaged to hide their existence from predators. This camouflage will ensure the continuation of the species yet in bird guides and common birding the female birds are often described as Dull, Dreary, Brown and Boring!
It’s true that the male of the species is highly colourful and beautiful to look at and it can often be easier to tell the species by identifying the more identifiable male first and then the female – but even so, the choice of terminology used for both females and males is telling of a world which continuously seems to want to remind us of how important males are and how unimportant females are.
Female Mallard. Dull? Brown? Boring? Or beautifully camouflaged? Picture taken from Wikipedia
I don’t believe that this will ever really change so I don’t get loudly angry about it – waste of energy.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not angry at the men who are professional birders, their knowledge is invaluable – they have have taught us a lot.
I’ve learnt so much from the two teachers I’ve had (Eric and Richard) and I’ve been lucky that they’re both sound guys.
But it would be nice for there to be more balance and respect shown to the female of the species so that the issues, like the ones I mentioned above, wouldn’t happen at all.
So I wanted to post this on International Womens Day as my shout out for the Female Birds.
Female of the Species – I never think you’re dull or boring or worthy of the constantly smaller, secondary picture in the field guide books!
And if I ever write a field guide (which isn’t likely, but in my head I might..) I’ll refer to you with the respect you deserve and to readdress the balance I’ll give you the first and bigger picture on every page 
Happy International Women’s Day – March 8th 2010.
International Womens Day flags all along the Liffey, Dublin
June 2007 - 15 White Tailed Sea Eagle chicks arriving first class from Norway to Kerry airport -They are met by a protest from farmers who don't want them back in Ireland
Excerpts from article by Anne Lucey, The Irish Independent.
Tuesday June 19 2007
FARMERS are in a flap over the return of the White-tailed Sea Eagles to Ireland after an absence of 100 years. In Farranfore, outside Kerry Airport, 100 local sheep farmers gathered to protest about the new arrivals. They fear the eagles will prey on their lambs.
The eaglets travelled in their own special covered cages in the first-class cabin of an Air France City Jet flight to Kerry Airport direct from Trondheim, Norway, where they had been taken from the wild.
The 15 eaglets, which can grow up to 100cm (3.3ft) long with a 250cm (8.3ft) wingspan, range in age from four to nine weeks.
Eagles were hunted out of extinction in Ireland over 100 years ago. But now Kerry has its white-tailed eagles, Donegal boasts golden eagles, while Wicklow will soon have its own birds of prey – the Red Kite. In about five weeks, the first of the eaglets will be released into Killarney National Park.
Dr Mee displayed an eight-week-old female for the cameras. About the size of a well-fed turkey, the all-black bird will develop its distinctive white-tipped feathers in about five years.
Mayor of Killarney, Sheila Casey, greeted their arrival, along with Killarney town clerk Michael O’Leary and several tourism representatives and representatives of the NPWS. The town council and local tourism has heavily sponsored the project, believing it will attract extra visitors to Killarney.
However, IFA Hill Committe chairman Mr O’Leary said he had no doubt the eagles would take lambs. One farmer he spoke to on the Isle of Mull had lost 28 lambs out of a flock of 130 ewes. He said he was “very disappointed with the NPWS” because they had not consulted properly with farmers and they had not included them in their management scheme.
Original Independent article found here
Scarily less than 2 years later,
March 2009, 22 months after their release 7 of 35 Eagles have been found dead - killed by poison. Photo (c) Valerie O'Sullivan
Excerpts from artcle by Kevin Hughes, The Corkman.ie
THERE’S less than 10,000 left on the planet and that population is constantly under threat from gamebird shooting, egg thieves and even wind turbines. In Kerry, a county that prides itself on being close to nature, the White Tailed Eagle is being poisoned, at a frightening rate.Seven are now dead: five poisoned and two suspected of same. There’s one missing in Kilgarvan and project co-ordinator Alan Mee says that’s suspicious too.
That’s almost 25 per cent obliterated in just 22 months. While there’s still a shaky thumbs up at ground level from the Scandanavian co-ordinators, the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management is still to confirm its continued support for the project. Deaths due to natural causes are expected in the first few years and therefore, based on numbers alone, the project is still on track. Further murders, though, will sound the deathknell.
Sustainability is key. Eagles don’t start breeding until they are fiveyears-old and, even then, the maximum is one chick every two years. It took a decade to successfully breed in Scotland meaning that the birds that have escaped poisoning in Kerry may have to survive until at least 2017.
Communal scavengers, if certain farmers continue to openly lace sheep carcasses with poisons, these birds will continue to die in twos and threes. Despite EU directives, Irish law has no enforcement when it comes to the indiscriminate use of poisons such as Carbofuran, Alphachloralose and Nitroxynil. Farmers have a right to protect their livestock from foxes, carrion crows and even stray dogs but it is the inept methods used by a small handful that’s the problem.
Citing several cases where stray eagles are alleged to have killed several lambs on the Isle of Mull, Kerry’s IFA chairman Pat O’Shea admits he too was opposed to the project but has learnt to deal with it.
“We were opposed to the eagles coming in but they have landed and we have to live with it,” he stated this week.
“We should, of course, be allowed to use poisons for foxes and are legally entitled to. I know of farmers who stay up all night to mind their sheep. If we banned the poisoning, all of the sheep will be gone and lands won’t be grazed. “But,” Mr O’Shea added, “I don’t condone any farmer who is poisoning illegally”.
To date, no lambs have been killed by White Tailed Eagles in Kerry. More significantly, no lambs have ever been reported as killed by eagles in Norway, where some 3,000 breeding pairs and two million sheep co-exist. Meanwhile, The Golden Eagle Trust claims that lamb losses incurred on Mull amounted to less than two per cent, with many killed by other predators and subsequently scavenged by the eagles.
15 chicks were transported by plane from the fjords of Norway and released in Kerry on June 18, 2007. Twenty more were released last year.
Golden Eagle chick found poisoned on the Sligo-Leitrim border 18th Feb 2010. Photo (c) Lorcan O'Toole
I saw this item on RTE news last night and it’s in all the papers today.
This article is taken from todays Irish Times, Weds 3rd March 2010.
The Golden Eagle Trust has appealed to farming organisations to tackle the issue of illegal toxin use, following confirmation that a ten-month-old Irish-born golden eagle chick was poisoned in the northwest.
Named Conall, after Tír Chonaill (Donegal), the chick was born and reared in a Donegal eyrie last year, and had spent the last four months wandering around Yeats country, on the Sligo-Leitrim border. The bird was one of four fitted with a GPS satellite tag, and had his own blog on the Golden Eagle Trust website.
Two of four golden eagles fitted with satellite tags have now died of poisoning – the first just a year ago in west Donegal before the lambing season.
A total of nine birds of prey – comprising White tailed eagles, golden eagles and kites – have been killed by toxic substances in the last two and a half years.
The bird was found dead on Truskmore mountain, behind Ben Bulben on February 18th, and results of toxicology tests released by the trust yesterday have confirmed that he died after ingesting nitroxynil, poured over the fleece of a stillborn lamb. Nitroxynil is found in Throdax, used to treat liver fluke in livestock.
Lorcan O’Toole of the Golden Eagle Trust said yesterday new-born lambs are not treated for liver fluke, and it is illegal to use such an animal as poisoned bait.
Details have been given to the Garda in Sligo, and Mr O’Toole said that no local farmers in the Glencar waterfall, Lough Gill and Gleniff area had any new-born lambs outdoors.
Conall had been in “excellent” health, and children had been following his movements on the website, Mr O’Toole said. He estimates that between 20 and 25 golden eagles are still alive, of some 53 eagles released and three born in the wild.
“We found this bird because of its tag, but we fear that there may be many more poisoned, which means this project is in serious trouble,”he said.
Article taken from The Irish Times, Weds 3 March 2010
Sad to read the biography of poisoned Conall here
The blog kept on Conall’s movements here
A more indepth article is found on the Golden Eagle Trusts website.
Very sad news.
I also read an article in the Independent which included a suggestion from Gabriel Gilmartin (President of Irish Cattle and Sheep Association) that there needs to be better communication between the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the farming community about the location of the birds of prey.
“I live near Truskmore Mountain and I never knew there was an eagle there. As far as I knew the eagles were in Glenveagh National Park in Co Donegal. I believe if farmers were made aware that an eagle had come into the area they would be more careful,” he said.
There may be some truth in that, so maybe it’s not all doom and gloom.
Here’s hoping it wasn’t really some fuckwit who thought that the paltry amount he’d get for his lamb at market was worth more than the life of this beautiful bird and worth more than all the hard work done by so many people to help Conall’s healthy re-introduction into Ireland.
ADDED** Thurs 4th March 2010.
I didn’t realise that it was completely illegal for farmers to put down poison of any description AT ALL, EVER.
I also didn’t realise that the IFA held a protest when the Eagles first arrived into Ireland in 2007 and that no statement by the IFA has been issued against the poisoning of Conall 3 weeks ago.
Got this info from chats in Eric’s class last night.
Scarey.
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