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Nature Watch

Bee-Eaters, one of Hvar's prime attractions

Published in Nature Watch

Bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) are brightly coloured, exquisite birds. On Hvar they appear every summer, and are highly prized by bird-loving visitors to the island.

Bee-Eater in flight.
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Nature Watch, May 2018

Published in Nature Watch

Steve Jones, ever on the watch for birds, has some exciting sightings in May. 

Roller (zlatovrana)
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Birdwatch March-April 2018

Published in Nature Watch

Steve reports from Dol on the unsettled spring weather, and the welcome bird arrivals on Hvar: March and April have continued to bring the species in and as at April 24th I have seen 77 species with possibly two or three unidentified.

Spring-time and the Golden Oriole is back.
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Birdwatch, January - February 2018

Published in Nature Watch

Well as I type this on March 1st looking out at my bird feeders amidst heavy snowfall, the birding calendar tells me Spring is on its way.

Kingfisher, January 2018
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Birdwatch & Insects, Autumn-Winter 2017

Published in Nature Watch

Steve Jones rounds off the year, puzzled by the absence of some birds he expected to see.

Common Scarlet Darter Dragonfly
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The Bee Hotel: Encouraging Wildlife in our Garden

Published in Nature Watch

Having offered hospitality to a young swallow family earlier in the year, Marion and Zzdravko decided to extend their facilities to welcome bees. It turned out to be a very rewarding learning experience!

Honey bee
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Birdwatch, August - September 2017

Published in Nature Watch

Well summer is over, birding-wise, and during the last three months, hopefully, birds have bred successfully on the island. I have certainly seen evidence of this, particularly recently, with good numbers of House Sparrows all around. Also frequently during the summer months I have seen birds carrying food to nests.

Two Storks holidaying in Jelsa, September 2017.
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Birdwatch, June - July 2017

Published in Nature Watch

The summer months were intensely hot. By June 12th there was very little about. On a trip to the pond that morning I found that the biggest area was about to evaporate later that day– there was a tiny little pool with the remaining fish all gasping. Equally I saw a Cormorant, probably stocking up with an easy source of food.

Scops Owl
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Storks visit Jelsa!

Published in Nature Watch

On September 17th 2017, two storks touched down in Jelsa.

Storks in Jelsa, September 2017.
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Nesting swallows: good luck promised!

Published in Nature Watch

Marion Podolski has the good fortune to have swallows nesting in her doorway in Vrboska on Hvar. Exciting and fascinating!

Barn swallow singing
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Birdwatch, May 2017

Published in Nature Watch

After a brief absence from the island, Steve Jones caught up with the bird activities in May. Lots of early-summer action going on!

Purple heron
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Birdwatch, April 2017

Published in Nature Watch

Steve Jones reports from Dol.

Wood sandpipers by the pond.
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Birdwatch, March 2017

Published in Nature Watch

An active month for Steve Jones. An unexpected turtle appears, and interesting birds are coming and going on Hvar!

Turtle
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Birdwatch, February 2017

Published in Nature Watch

Steve Jones' bird sightings in February 2017. Happily, gaps are being filled!

Great Tit: more in evidence a year ago.
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Birdwatch, January 2017

Published in Nature Watch

Steve Jones has had a great start to the year!

Goldfinch
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Eco Environment News feeds

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    Far more must be invested in adapting to warming, says new global commission that aims to rebuild political will after US withdrawal from Paris agreement

    Far too little is being done to protect people from the heatwaves, storms and floods being supercharged by climate change, according to a high-level international commission. It aims to rebuild the political will to act that was damaged when US president, Donald Trump, rejected the global Paris agreement.

    The Global Commission on Adaptation is being led by Ban Ki-Moon, Bill Gates and Kristalina Georgieva, CEO of the World Bank. It involves 17 countries including China, India, South Africa, Indonesia, Canada and the UK.

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  • Scottish Power shifts to 100% wind generation after £700m Drax sale

    Big six energy firm drops fossil fuels for generation and say cheap green energy is the future

    Scottish Power has ditched fossil fuels for electricity generation and switched to 100% wind power, by selling off its last remaining gas power stations to Drax for more than £700m.

    Iberdrola, Scottish Power’s Spanish parent company, said the move was part of its strategy to tackle climate change and would free it up to invest in renewables and power grids in the UK.

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  • UK restaurants and cafes bin 320m fresh meals a year, data shows

    Almost 900,000 unsold meals are chucked out a day, according to food waste app Too Good To Go

    Almost 900,000 perfectly edible, freshly prepared meals end up in the bin in the UK every day, new figures reveal, because they haven’t been sold in time by restaurants and cafes.

    This means that more than 320mmeals are thrown away by British food establishments every year – enough meals for everyone in the UK five times over, according to food waste app Too Good To Go.

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  • I was arrested for direct action against fracking. This is too important to stand aside | Esme North

    As a trained paramedic I understand emergency situations. In the face of catastrophic climate change, protest is a moral obligation

    I was arrested yesterday for blockading Cuadrilla’s fracking site at Preston New Road in Lancashire for more than 12 hours. It was the first day of fracking after a seven-year delay due to earthquakes, powerful local opposition and legal challenges.

    As a trained paramedic, I have a good appreciation of emergency situations. Climate change is the biggest emergency of them all. I join more than 350 people who have been arrested for disrupting Cuadrilla’s site in Lancashire over the last two years. People driven to take such action range from local councillors to faith leaders, students to grandparents. In the past fortnight, three people were sentenced to up to 16 months in prison for climbing on top of lorries that carried key fracking equipment.

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  • I’ve seen the Antarctic’s untouched beauty. There's still time to protect it | Javier Bardem

    The ocean is threatened by climate change, pollution and fishing. I urge world leaders to agree to establish a sanctuary

    I thought it would be cold. Not just cold, but colder than anything I had experienced in my life. I had visions of bedraggled explorers in blizzards with ice-covered beards.

    But standing there, in the bright Antarctic sun, watching creaking blue icebergs, penguins bursting in and out of the water, I felt utterly content in this glistening wilderness.

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  • How to beat air pollution? Stop burning the fields

    Instead of contributing to smog by burning stubble, farmers are learning that waste products can be turned into profit

    Deep breath. Autumn in India is smog season, the worst time of year for some of the world’s most polluted cities.

    There’s a reason for this. In addition to everyday problems such as traffic, industry, domestic cooking and road dust, this is the time of year when farmers set fire to their post-harvest fields. It’s called “stubble burning” – a cheap and easy way to deal with crop residue that needs clearing for the next planting season.

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  • Invasion of the ‘frankenbees’: the danger of building a better bee

    Beekeepers are sounding the alarm about the latest developments in genetically modified pollinators. By Bernhard Warner

    The spring of 2008 was brutal for Europe’s honeybees. In late April and early May, during the corn-planting season, dismayed beekeepers in Germany’s upper Rhine valley looked on as whole colonies perished. Millions of bees died. France, the Netherlands and Italy reported big losses, but in Germany the incident took on the urgency of a national crisis. “It was a disaster,” recalled Walter Haefeker, German president of the European Professional Beekeepers Association. “The government had to set up containers along the autobahn where beekeepers could dump their hives.”

    An investigation in July of that year concluded that the bees in Germany died of mass poisoning by the pesticide clothianidin, which can be 10,000 times more potent than DDT. In the months leading up to the bee crisis, clothianidin, developed by Bayer Crop Science from a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, had been used up and down the Rhine following an outbreak of corn rootworm. The pesticide is designed to attack the nervous system of crop-munching pests, but studies have shown it can be harmful to insects such as the European honeybee. It muddles the bees’ super-acute sense of direction and upsets their feeding habits, while it can also alter the queen’s reproductive anatomy and sterilise males. As contaminated beehives piled up, Bayer paid €2m (£1.76m) into a compensation fund for beekeepers in the affected area, but offered no admission of guilt.

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  • Peruvian villagers face murder and intimidation from land traffickers

    Invaders continue to seize land within the Chaparrí ecological reserve, one of Peru’s most biodiverse forests

    Shortly after sunset, along an isolated stretch of highway leading out of a dusty hamlet in northern Peru, a band of five weary farmers clad in reflective neon vests and armed with traditional whips made of bull penises set out on a solemn march.

    The Ronderos – self-governing peasant patrols – are resuming their nightly rounds five months after the brutal killing of their lieutenant governor, Napoléon Tarrillo Astonitas.

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  • Nine activists defending the Earth from violent assault

    On a planet of billions, nine represent the strong minority battling murder in the global corruption of land rights

    Individually, they are stories of courage and tragedy. Together, they tell a tale of a natural world under ever more violent assault.

    The portraits in this series are of nine people who are risking their lives to defend the land and environment in some of the planet’s most remote or conflict-riven regions.

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  • Colombian activists face 'extermination' by criminal gangs

    Nearly two years after the signing of a historic peace agreement, violence in the country continues

    Enrique Fernández cannot remember the last night he slept peacefully.

    He is tall and heavyset, and does not look like someone who scares easily, but as he sits in his humble rented home in western Colombia, his eyes dart nervously from left to right, scanning for any threat.

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