Birdwatch, May 2019

Spring-time report from Steve Jones of Dol.

Black-Winged Stilt Black-Winged Stilt Photo: Steve Jones

For the latter part of April and early May I was in the UK so undoubtedly I missed some accurate dating of arrivals and potential sightings. That said on arriving back it was clear that Turtle Dove had returned as had the Red Backed Shrike. With the Red Backed Shrike I am little disappointed in the returning numbers, particularly near Dol. Last year I knew of three nests and certainly two nests had fledged young, one of which was in my garden. I assumed they would have returned but no evidence of that. I have seen two or three pairs around Dol but nowhere close by that I am aware. The bird box I made a few years ago was occupied with Great Tits, they laid ten eggs that had just hatched before I went to the UK, as I reported in April. I was afraid I would miss them, but when I came back there were five birds that had reached fledging stage, and they left the box on 11th May.

Inside the nesting box. Photo: Steve Jones

On Sunday May 12th the heavens opened, a neighbour recorded 110mm of rain. Clearly this made up for the lack of Winter rainfall. On May 13th I had never seen the pond so high and indeed with continuing poor weather throughout the rest of the month the water levels have remained so high apart from Grey Heron and passing Swallows, Swifts and Martins, nothing else has been there. This may prove interesting later in the season when birds pass by returning to their winter destinations.

Flooding! Photo: Steve Jones

 In addition to the pond being full it also flooded nearby fields and this has proved to a great source of species for many days. On the 13th I had never seen so many Swallows and Sand Martins, I would suggest up to about 200 birds constantly flying over picking up insects lying on or over the water. Amongst them were Yellow Wagtail and occasional Linnet. 

Waders needed! May 14th 2019. Photo: Steve Jones

May 15th brought in two Terns which were new to me and obviously a new sighting for the island. I am afraid I don’t have have decent pictures in flight which enabled me to identify the birds initially – these were White Winged Black Terns.

White-Winged Black Tern. Photo: Steve Jones

As the fields were so flooded I had to wade out 200-300 metres and at times water just below the tops of my wellingtons – the things we do for a record!!

Wetland, 14th May 2019. Photo: Steve Jones

These had gone by May 17th only to be replaced by four Black Winged Stilts. Not a species new to me but a new species for me to record on the Island, although there had been a sighting in Soline/Vrboska as I recall in 2016.

Black-Winged Stilt. Photo: Steve Jones

Also on May 17th a returning Black Headed Bunting, this is always one of the last birds to arrive. I am still not 100% sure that they breed here although I seem to see at least one every year, sometime I might only see it one time though. This year I have been fortunate that it was singing quite near the airfield and didn’t seem to mind me too much.

Black-Headed Bunting. Photo: Steve Jones
In addition to the Black winged Stilts which stayed for about four days were a few small waders. I identified four as Little Stints but there was another which was new to me and I had to ask help with the ID of this but three colleagues all came back with Curlew Sandpiper. As you can see not the greatest picture to work from. Although the flood waters still remain quite high the birds seem to have moved on except for three Little Egrets and Two Grey Heron.
Curlew Sandpiper. Photo: Steve Jones

May 21st brought in another species for the year which was the Squacco Heron, once again it found the water but probably not enough food to keep it going for very long. It stayed for around four days and whilst it wouldn’t tolerate me wading in the water too close to it, I managed to get a few pictures.

Squacco Heron. Photo: Steve Jones

May 24th brought another new species for the year. Not great pictures, but enough to identify the Red Footed Falcon.

Red-Footed Falcon. Photo: Steve Jones

Well as you can see quite a busy month, you can clearly see the results of the heavy rainfall. The last few days I have spent some time trying to track down a Cuckoo. In my patch I am hearing at least two males calling and probably three. In recent days I have heard a female on a couple of occasions. I am still at a loss as to what the host bird would be; Nightingale, Sardinian Warbler, Sub-Alpine Warbler or Corn Bunting perhaps?? I really have no idea but Sub-Alpine is definitely the most common of those species. It won’t be long before the Cuckoo depart but as to finding a potential host bird feeding a young Cuckoo is incredibly difficult. For those of you who don’t know Cuckoo, although I suspect most will know it’s call I have one very poor picture to leave you with taken on May 29th after 45 minutes of tracking it down.

Cuckoo. Photo: Steve Jones

My thanks to Jon Avon, Mike Southall and John Ball for ID on Curlew Sandpiper.

Already the calls on the ground in the day are starting to go quiet. However if people are interested in listening to the dawn chorus they seem ot be most active at about 04:40 hrs at the moment.

As always if anyone wants to forward sightings or even pictures I can be contacted through the web site or at Ova e-mail adresa je zaštićena od spambota. Potrebno je omogućiti JavaScript da je vidite.

© Steve Jones 2019.
For more of Steve's nature pictures, see his personal pages: Bird Pictures on Hvar 2017Bird Pictures and Sightings on Hvar 2018, and Butterflies of Hvar
Nalazite se ovdje: Home Novosti iz prirode Birdwatch, May 2019

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Labour politicians warn former PM had boosted Tory and Reform climate sceptics on the eve of local elections

    Tony Blair has been forced by Downing Street to row back from his criticism of the government’s net zero strategy after furious Labour politicians warned he had given a boost to Tory and Reform sceptics on the eve of the local elections.

    Climate experts also accused the former prime minister of granting political cover to fossil fuel interests and weakening momentum behind the UK’s legally binding target to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

    Continue reading...

  • Government to press ahead with net zero plans as Keir Starmer rejects Tony Blair’s criticisms of climate policy

    Almost all new homes in England will be fitted with solar panels during construction within two years, the government will announce after Keir Starmer rejected Tony Blair’s criticism of net zero policies.

    Housebuilders will be legally required to install solar panels on the roofs of new properties by 2027 under the plans.

    Continue reading...

  • A restoration project at Sharpham near Totnes aims to tackle the loss of the natural world while helping people build mental resilience

    Two landscapes separated by a wide sweep of river tell a story of change. On one side is traditional farmland, close-cropped grazing, uniform grasses, neatly tended hedges and a sparsity of trees, a farmscape ubiquitous across England. On the riverbank opposite, rougher, less uniform grasses grow unevenly between trees, thistle and brambles, in a chaos of natural disorder swaying in the breeze towards the reedbeds below.

    The land on the Sharpham estate side of the River Dart used to be a mirror of the traditional farmscape on the opposite bank. It hosted a non-organic dairy farm and a vineyard, within a tightly controlled 18th-century heritage landscape of deforested parkland.

    Continue reading...

  • The celebrated presenter warns of ‘modern day colonialism at sea’ as he highlights the destruction caused by overfishing and bottom trawling

    When David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II documentary aired eight years ago, its impact was so strong it was credited with bringing about a revolution in the way people use plastics. Now film-makers are hoping he can do the same for other destructive environmental practices that the world’s best-known living naturalist describes as “draining the life from our oceans”.

    The industrial fishing method of bottom trawling is the focus of a large part of Attenborough’s latest film, Ocean, which airs in cinemas from 8 May, the naturalist’s 99th birthday. In a remarkably no-holds-barred narrative, he says these vessels tear the seabed with such force “the trails of destruction can be seen from space”. He also condemns what he calls “modern day colonialism at sea”, where huge trawlers, operating off the coasts of countries reliant on fish for food and livelihoods, are blamed for dwindling local catches.

    Continue reading...

  • A warming tundra has seen unexpected shifts, raising the alarm about fragile ecosystems and those who rely on them

    Scientists studying Arctic plants say the ecosystems that host life in some of the most inhospitable reaches of the planet are changing in unexpected ways in an “early warning sign” for a region upended by climate change.

    In four decades, 54 researchers tracked more than 2,000 plant communities across 45 sites from the Canadian high Arctic to Alaska and Scandinavia. They discovered dramatic shifts in temperatures and growing seasons produced no clear winners or losers. Some regions witnessed large increases in shrubs and grasses and declines in flowering plants – which struggle to grow under the shade created by taller plants.

    Continue reading...

  • Aluminium emissions from satellites as they fall to Earth and burn up is becoming more significant as their numbers soar

    Right now there are more than 9,000 satellites circumnavigating overhead, keeping track of weather, facilitating communications, aiding navigation and monitoring the Earth. By 2040, there could be more than 60,000. A new study shows that the emissions from expired satellites, as they fall to Earth and burn up, will be significant in future years, with implications for ozone hole recovery and climate.

    Satellites need to be replaced after about five years. Most old satellites are disposed of by reducing their altitude and letting them burn up as they fall, releasing pollution into Earth’s atmosphere such as aerosolised aluminium. To understand the impact of these growing emissions from expired satellites, researchers simulated the effects associated with an annual release of 10,000 tonnes of aluminium oxide by 2040 (the amount estimated to be released from disposal of 3,000 satellites a year, assuming a fleet of 60,000 satellites).

    Continue reading...

  • The plastic particles are everywhere – here’s what to know about what to avoid, whether they ever leave the body and what to do about plastic pollution

    Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic.

    Continue reading...

  • Conservation groups count glow-in-the-dark caterpillars and chrysalises which are hard to spot in daylight

    Nature lovers have been enjoying using UV torches to discover the vivid fluorescent colours of plants and animals at night for a few years now.

    Now lepidopterists have realised that UV torches provide a highly effective new way to find and count rare and elusive butterflies.

    Continue reading...

  • Joshua Bonnetta spent 8,760 hours recording a pine – then honed it down into a four-hour album full of creatures, cracking branches and quite possibly the sound of leaves growing

    What does a landscape sound like when it’s not being listened to? This philosophical question was a catalyst for film-maker and artist Joshua Bonnetta, who has distilled a year of recordings from a single tree in upstate New York – that’s 8,760 hours – into a four-hour album, The Pines. As Robert Macfarlane writes in his accompanying essay, The Pines is a reminder of the natural world’s “sheer, miraculous busyness”, its “froth of signals and noise”. It is rich with poetic meaning, and resonant amid the climate emergency.

    “It started as a personal thing,” Bonnetta explains from his studio in Munich, where he relocated from the US in 2022. For over 20 years he has made sonic records of places as private mementos, but recent experiments with long-form field recording led him to push himself “to document this place in the deepest way I could”. On a residency in the Outer Hebrides between 2017 and 2019, Bonnetta made the sound installation Brackish, a month-long continuous radio broadcast from a weather-resistant hydrophone – an underwater mic – by a loch. “I started to leave the recorder for a day or two, then it just got longer,” he says. “Amazing things happen when you’re not there to interfere … This allows you a different, very privileged window into the space.”

    Continue reading...

  • Climate experts say warming atmosphere from climate change could fuel severe freezing rain and ice storms like the one that hit the upper midwest last month

    Winter has been slow to release its icy grip from the upper midwest this year, and in northern Michigan, its effects will be keenly felt for months, perhaps years.

    A devastating ice storm that hit late last month has left an estimated 3m acres of trees snapped in half or damaged from the weight of up to an inch-and-a-half of ice across the northern part of lower Michigan.

    Continue reading...

Novosti: Cybermed.hr

Novosti: Biologija.com

Izvor nije pronađen