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After her sister died, Victoria Bennett left Cumbria for the remote Scottish archipelago, where she learned to go with the ebb and flow of life
It was during her first winter in Orkney that the nature writer Victoria Bennett experienced the joy of baying into the sea during a storm. “There’s something very physically releasing about howling,” she says. “It’s quite animalistic and powerful.” On a stormy beach, when waves are crashing on the rocks, “you can really let rip”, she says. “The sound just disappears.”
Until that moment, Bennett had been struggling with her decision to move to the remote archipelago off the north coast of Scotland. “I was beginning to feel like I was in a fight against the sea, and against the weather.”
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Heatwaves reach 45C across India as unseasonably cold weather affects parts of central Canada
Widespread heavy rain is sweeping over southern China. By Wednesday, rainfall totals are expected to exceed 100mm across many parts of Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces, and in some areas as much as 150-200mm.
As a result, the Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the Ministry of Emergency Management have been holding meetings with meteorological and hydrological departments to emphasise the importance of reinforced patrols and emergency responses to mitigate against the probable flooding that the intense rainfall is expected to bring. In particular, reservoirs with known safety concerns must remain empty during the period, as well as through the coming rainy season.
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Stevenage, Hertfordshire: Thanks to Andy, who scrabbles around on the pavement, we know that pigeons are just for starters
Andy and I meet by the trolleys in Asda car park. As we head towards Vista Tower in the town centre, he tells me about the new peregrines: VDT, a male born in Hemel Hempstead in 2023, and his mate, VSR, a female born in Andover in 2024, both named for their Darvic ring codes. It’s an encouraging development as they are the first pair to establish a territory here during the breeding season, though Stevenage does have resident peregrines in winter.
We start poking about in pavement cracks and drain grates under the 50-metre-high tower block where the peregrines often feed. I spot scurvy grass, buck’s-horn plantain and some matted clumps of fluff; thankfully, Andy’s an expert at reading the remains. He pulls out cinnamon and white scapular and secondary wing feathers of an ash-red feral pigeon; then a cluster of ivory feathers with dark brown barring, plucked from the vermiculated flank of a male teal – evidence of the peregrines hunting waterbirds by night.
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Prendwick, Northumberland:On a crisp, cold walk, I’m reminded that winter still clings on, and that familiar constellations are far from alone
The red sun rising over the radar station on Alnwick Moor picks out the tall shape of a hare at our end of the meadow. It lopes forward a little way – forever appearing, as hares always do, to be on the brink of a forward roll – and then pauses, sits up and shakes the dew from its front paws.
A nearby pheasant lets rip a choked cock-crow. Both of these animals are game, here in England (as is the red-legged partridge, toiling tortoise-like through the weeds at the meadow bottom).
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Researchers find ‘alarming’ effect on fertility across global species from simultaneous exposures
Simultaneous exposure to toxic chemicals and climate change’s impacts likely generates an additive or synergistic effect that increases reproductive harm, and may contribute to the broad global drop in fertility, new peer-reviewed research finds.
The review of scientific literature considers how endocrine-disrupting chemicals, often found in plastic, coupled with climate change’s effects, such as heat stress, are each linked to reductions in fertility and fecundity across global species – including in humans, wildlife and invertebrates.
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Exclusive: As countries meet at key climate crisis meetings, Australia’s Chris Bowen says war underlines need to move away from fossil fuels
The fallout from the Iran war is driving countries to boost homegrown energy reliability and opens an opportunity for progress on clean generation at the next UN climate summit, says the lead negotiator at the talks.
Chris Bowen, the Australian climate change minister and new president of negotiations at the Cop31 conference in Turkey in November, said the energy market disruption should be seen as a global fossil fuel crisis – the second in four years, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – and it was having an acute impact in Asia.
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Early birds were like ‘T rex reincarnated’, says scientist who believes avian skulls offer insight into dinosaurs’ behaviour
T rex is often depicted as more brawn than brains, but now scientists are hoping to probe just what was going on inside its head, drawing on findings from another kind of dinosaur: birds.
Scientists have previously found some species of bird not only make and use tools, but are able to plan ahead and show basic forms of empathy – with laboratory tests suggesting emus can recognise other birds might have different experiences to themselves.
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The bizarre vertical flight pattern has long puzzled experts but new research reveals why it may play a crucial role in the insect’s survival
On a spring evening along the banks of the River Thames, thousands of mayflies can be seen engaging in what may be one of the world’s oldest dances. In the fading light, the males make a steep vertical climb, flip over and float back to Earth – wings and tail outstretched in a skydiving posture so as to drop slowly through the sky.
Mayflies are among the world’s oldest winged insects, emerging roughly 300m years ago – long before dinosaurs walked the Earth. Even the Mesopotamian poem the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest pieces of literature, makes reference to the short-lived mayfly. Over the epochs, the insect’s basic design has changed very little compared with the fossils of their ancestors.
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Surface ripples known as cat’s paws, caused by turbulence cascade, show where wind is – and were once seen as lucky
On a windy day, the surface of a lake is not a continuous pattern of ripples but instead marked with patches of disturbance, as though a giant cat were patting the water. These surface patterns, known as cat’s paws, are caused by turbulent airflow in the atmosphere.
Wind is caused by changing pressure at different spots on Earth’s surface but does not simply rush in a single mass from one place to another. The chaotic nature of the airflow, with slight differences between adjacent sections, breaks it up and splits out smaller swirls. This continues with large eddies breaking down into smaller ones, which break down further, a process known as turbulence cascade. At the lowest level, we get cat’s paws – which are usually a few metres across and last a few seconds.
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Politicians, children and Māori groups gathered in the Wellington banquet hall to see in the flesh the success of efforts to protect country’s national bird
When five kiwi were presented to a crowd of 300 people gathered inside the banquet hall of New Zealand’s parliament, there was an awe-struck intake of breath.
As handlers moved through the group, cradling the whiskery birds, people looked on, spellbound. Some grew teary, and one boy, who noticed a soft brown feather drift to the floor, scooped it up, as his mother urged him to keep it safe.
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