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Nature Watch

Nature Watch

Rue: a Paradox Plant

Published in Nature Watch

A plant family full of amazing magical promises!

Ruta graveolens, Humac on Hvar Island, flowering in June 2023
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Precious Birds: Saving Owls

Published in Nature Watch

The Scops Owl is a welcome visitor to Hvar Island every summer. Arriving between the middle of March or beginning of April its persistent single-note call is the hallmark of the warm season. 

Floof ready to fly...
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Birdwatching report Hvar Island: May - October 2024.

Published in Nature Watch

Reading Steve Jones' report earlier this year, keen birdwatcher Tomislav Sjekloća was inspired to check out the Dračevica pond and other parts of Hvar, and we are delighted he has shared his sightings with us.

Blue Rock Thrush near Fortica in Hvar Town
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Hvar birds, September 2024

Published in Nature Watch

In early September 2024 a birdwatching couple visited Hvar and we are delighted to report that their trip was reasonably fruitful!.

European Turtle Dove
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BATS: know, cherish and protect them!

Published in Nature Watch

In 2023 the honour of celebrating International Bat Night, which aims to raise people's awareness of the vital importance in our ecosystem, fell to the Krka National Park,which organised a superbly imaginative programme beside its exquisite Skradinski Buk Waterfall.

BATS: know, cherish and protect them!
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Orchids need care

Published in Nature Watch

Highlighting Croatia's wild orchids and the need to treat them with love and respect, the highly active and successful BIOM ASSOCIATION published an article in the spring of 2024 with a plea to pay attention to these fascinating and invaluable plants.

Orchis italica
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Orchids: Humble, Amazing, Delightful!

Published in Nature Watch

In 2023 on Hvar there were two special orchid finds by visiting experts from Zagreb, who located the endemic Ophrys pharia and the Himantoglossum robertianum.

Ophrys pharia, 'Forka'
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Re-wilding in Rovinj: success and failure

Published in Nature Watch

A visitor to Rovinj in June 2024 found much to admire in the eco-friendly Grand Park Hotel - alongside a major cause for concern.

Re-wilding in Rovinj: success and failure
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Birdwatch April - May 2024

Published in Nature Watch

We are delighted that Steve Jones paid the island a bird-watching visit this spring and has shared his sightings with us.

Bee-eater
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Eco Environment News feeds

  • Toxic Pfas above proposed safety limits in almost all English waters tested

    Exclusive: 110 of 117 bodies of water tested by Environment Agency would fail standards, with levels in fish 322 times the planned limit

    Nearly all rivers, lakes and ponds in England tested for a range of Pfas, known as “forever chemicals”, exceed proposed new safety limits and 85% contain levels at least five times higher, analysis of official data reveals.

    Out of 117 water bodies tested by the Environment Agency for multiple types of Pfas, 110 would fail the safety standard, according to analysis by Wildlife and Countryside Link and the Rivers Trust.

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  • ‘It can’t withstand the heat’: fears ‘stable’ Patagonia glacier in irreversible decline

    Scientists say Perito Moreno, which for decades defied trend of glacial retreat, now rapidly losing mass

    One of the few stable glaciers in a warming world, Perito Moreno, in Santa Cruz province, Argentina, is now undergoing a possibly irreversible retreat, scientists say.

    Over the past seven years, it has lost 1.92 sq km (0.74 sq miles) of ice cover and its thickness is decreasing by up to 8 metres (26 ft) a year.

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  • Extreme heat could lead to 30,000 deaths a year in England and Wales by 2070s, say scientists

    Worst-case scenario of 4.3C of warming could result in fiftyfold rise in heat-related deaths, researchers say

    More than 30,000 people a year in England and Wales could die from heat-related causes by the 2070s, scientists have warned.

    A new study calculates that heat mortality could rise more than fiftyfold in 50 years because of climate heating. Researchers at UCL and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine compared different potential scenarios, looking at levels of warming, measures to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis, regional climatic differences and potential power outages. They also modelled the ageing population.

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  • The Beatles to Virginia Woolf: UK tree of the year shortlist is rooted in culture

    Woodland Trust’s 10 nominees from across the country highlight how trees inspire creative minds

    A cedar tree climbed by the Beatles, an oak that may have inspired Virginia Woolf and a lime representing peace in Northern Ireland are among those shortlisted for tree of the year 2025.

    Voting opens on Friday for the Woodland Trust’s annual competition, which aims to celebrate and raise awareness of rare, ancient or at-risk trees across the UK.

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  • Step up restoration of ancient woodland before it is lost, Forestry England urged

    Campaigners say just 5.8% of irreplaceable habitat at publicly owned sites has been fully restored in 10 years

    Forestry England needs to urgently step up its ancient woodland restoration before the irreplaceable habitat is lost for ever, campaigners have said.

    Findings by the campaign group Wild Card suggest that in the 10 most recently assessed years Forestry England, which is in charge of the country’s woodlands, has fully restored just 5.8% (2,484 hectares/6,138 acres) of publicly owned plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS).

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  • Air pollution controls weaker for larger emitters, research finds

    Diesel generators allowed to emit 48 times more nitrogen oxides than gas boilers producing same amount of energy

    Air pollution controls in some sectors are much weaker than others, researchers have found.

    A recent study looked at legal requirements for nitrogen oxides. These come from engine exhausts, flues and chimneys and include health-harming nitrogen dioxide. This is a pollutant that many UK cities struggle to control.

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  • It’s 12ft tall, covered in feathers and has been extinct for 600 years – can the giant moa bird really be resurrected?

    Colossal Bioscience is adding the extinct animal to its revival wishlist, joining the woolly mammoth, dodo and thylacine. But scepticism is growing

    Standing more than three metres (10ft) high, the giant moa is the tallest bird known to have walked on Earth. For thousands of years, the wingless herbivore patrolled New Zealand, feasting on trees and shrubs, until the arrival of humans. Today, records of the enormous animal survive only in Māori oral histories, as well as thousands of discoveries of bone, mummified flesh and the odd feather.

    But this week, the US start-up Colossal Biosciences has announced that the giant moa has joined the woolly mammoth, dodo and thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, on its list of animals that it is trying to bring back from the dead. The announcement has provoked public excitement – and deep scepticism from many experts about whether it is possible to resurrect the bird, which disappeared a century after the arrival of early Polynesian settlers in New Zealand about 600 years ago.

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  • How extreme rainfall in New Mexico is linked to wildfires

    As the Texas flash flooding risk moved west, the National Weather Service pointed to the effect of burn scars from 2024

    After the extreme rainfall in Texas on 4 July, the flash flooding risk moved to New Mexico, with 89mm (3.5in) of rain falling in the Rio Ruidoso catchment area on Tuesday.

    In the town of Ruidoso, 35 homes were swept away and three people died. The National Weather Service attributed the extreme event to the wildfires that devastated the same area in 2024.

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  • One wrong move could be fatal: the divers risking their lives to save whales from ‘ghost nets’

    Abandoned fishing equipment haunts our oceans, killing coral, turtles, sharks and whales. But in Colombia’s Gulf of Tribugá, ‘guardians’ are on call to free entangled marine animals

    After a day of scuba diving, Luis Antonio “Toño” Lloreda was exhausted. Then a friend brought urgent news. “Toño, man, there’s a whale caught in a net out there.” Lloreda, 43, had freed other, smaller wildlife from fishing nets but this would be his first marine animal of such size.

    The four to five metres-long juvenile humpback, accompanied by its mother, had a net studded with hooks wrapped around its fin and mouth. One wrong move could have been fatal for Lloreda or the whale.

    Luis Antonio ‘Toño’ Lloreda holds a photo of the whale he freed from a fishing net

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  • ‘It was filthy and it stank terribly’: how Europe’s dirtiest river was brought back to life

    A €5.5bn project has transformed the Emscher from ‘the sewer of the Ruhr’ to a place where nature is starting to flourish

    Strolling beside the Emscher, the Tyczkowskis say it is the stench that they remember most about the river’s darker days.

    “The whole thing was filthy and it stank terribly,” says the couple, a retired watchmaker and tax adviser in their 80s. Were they ever tempted to take a dip? “No,” they laugh in disgust. “There were other things swimming inside.”

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