my local patch and wildlife - Ian McDonald

[ian mcdonald]

Bags of sphagnum plugs waiting to be planted.



Sphagnum plugs recently planted.

Birds seen were, kestrel, stonechat, teal, mallard, reed bunting, marsh harrier, wren, robin, fieldfare, redwing, blackbird, buzzard, goldcrest, blue tit, long tailed tit, starling, crow, wood pigeon, pink footed geese, grey lag geese, snipe, water rail, barn owl, short eared owl, pheasant, bullfinch, wigeon, shoveler, great tit, great spotted woodpecker, jay and magpie. Also seen were three roe deer and a fox.

[Robert]

Hi Ian,

Thank you for the informative posting. I appreciate the time you took to answering some of my questions regarding your “patch”. Your answers to my questions helped me acquire a greater degree of clarity regarding the processes and long-term objectives at your “patch”. With some clarity on my part, I find your postings much more interesting and easier to follow.

I also have a great deal of admiration toward your long-term dedication to our “patch”. We need more concerned and motivated people like you on this planet. Thank you for your efforts and dedication. 

[ian mcdonald]

Thanks Robert. I am not a trained naturalist. Anyone with a love of wildlife can go to their local area and observe plants and animals going about their daily business. If people are not able to get far outdoors they can also record the wildlife that visit their gardens, if they have one. Putting out food and growing plants that are useful to all members of the wildlife community is a great start to building knowledge. Also important is the publics determination not to allow the destruction of the countryside for the profit of the minority. I think, as I,m sure many people do, that their local site is a special place. My local site is under constant pressure, even from those who are supposed to be responsible for protecting our wildlife and habitats. Destruction is only possible if the general public don,t care what happens to habitats. Good hunting on your quests.

[Hoy]

I am also reading your postings, Ian. It is very interesting. Your flora and fauna is somewhat similar to ours here. Now it is a kind of "war" going on. The demand for "clean" energy has prompted building of wind turbines. And people have been aware that the turbines (on land) need a lot of space including roads. So now remote areas previously not of interest for the industry are proposed for building turbines. The increasing number of electric vehicles in Norway (approaching 10% of the total) demand "clean" energy which doesn't exist. People seem to believe that electric cars do not emit CO2 or other pollution. They do not consider the necessary mining industry to extract the rare earths and the energy needed to charge the cars.

[ian mcdonald]

You are right Trond. My local "patch" is surrounded by wind farms, making the area look like an industrial landscape. I think that wind farms should be erected where the electricity is needed i.e. london etc. (Hyde Park).  I take photos. that do not show the monstrosities. If people like the look of wind farms why don,t they have them in their areas? The fact that these sources of energy are needed is well known? I wonder if the wind does not blow near the large cities that need more electricity. Better planning of the locations of these structures is needed.

[Robert]

Ian and Trond,

You both bring up some interesting and important points. Here in California we also have a campaign to adapt and switch over to electric vehicles. I too question where the electricity will come from to power all the proposed electric vehicles. At this time, so-called “green” and renewable sources of electricity seem unrealistic, as a primary power source for the millions of proposed electric vehicles and the remaining electrical needs of California. I do not see how a large consumption of fossil fuels can be avoided to both produce electricity and maintain the production and infrastructure of electric powered vehicles. CO₂ diffuses quickly through the atmosphere, so sending it somewhere else does nothing to ameliorate global atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. Then there is the issue of the rapid expansion of the electric power grid. This too will require fossil fuels both to produce and accomplish. And what about our recent and chronic electric power outages in Northern California? One is not going to be driving their electric car very far if the electric grid is down and they have not been able to charge their electric vehicle. In addition, there is the issue of energy return on energy invested. How efficient will this be? As you can see, for me there are many unanswered questions regarding electric vehicles and how they will truly reduce carbon emissions here in the state of California. I do believe that some effort should be made to ameliorate the carbon issue, but currently the solution has the appearance of more of a money making scheme and a “look good” propaganda campaign.

In California, electric wind turbines cause the death of unknown numbers of wild birds each year. California was once a major migration flyway for birds. Now we wonder where the birds have gone, we just do not see them any more. Globally, wild bird populations are dropping at an alarming rate. The causes for this are many, however electric wind turbines are certainly contributing at least a small portion to the global decline in wild bird populations.

On the positive side, I agree with Ian 100%, the positive actions of concerned citizens (and hopefully eventually a large portion of the population) is most likely the only way positive change will be accomplished. The “Save the Earth”/ ecology action of the late 1960’s and 1970’s was nothing more than a now long gone fad. It is only those truly committed to living consciously and deliberately on the Earth to the best of their ability that continue and persist to today. It seems very important that concerned citizens continue despite seemly having to go it alone and swim upstream against a very strong current. The purpose of “business as usual” is to make money and maintain the status quo. Its track record for altruistic change is extremely poor. It is not realistic to expect anything other than superficial meaningless change from “business as usual” and a continuation of how it has been running the planet for, at least, the last 4 to 6 thousand years.

[Hoy]

Birds are a big problem. Here one wind farm alone has killed 100 white tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) in a few years and many other birds.

https://www.tu.no/artikler/faktisk-no-100-havorner-funnet-drept-av-vindturbiner-pa-smola/475269

[ian mcdonald]

The grey, wet weather continued this week. On tuesday the sun came out about 30 minutes before it set. Today the visibility was so poor that the scarlet caps on Cladonia turned out brown on the photos. On tuesday we saw 7 marsh harriers circling to the east of us. We only walked a short distance on both days due to the threatening rain clouds. I think that this year will be the wettest on record in our area, which is normally fairly dry. Walking along one track we saw a small dark fox, possibly a vixen. Three roe deer were also seen. My colleague spotted a tree creeper searching for insects at the base of a small birch tree. Pink footed geese are still arriving but in lesser numbers. Goldcrest are more easily seen now that the leaves have fallen. Snipe can be heard calling from areas of cottongrass tufts. On tuesday a light- coloured female marsh harrier was seen perching on a tree overlooking one of the pools. Barn owl and short-eared owl were seen as it was getting dark. A large gathering of starlings (murmuration) was seen displaying in the distance. My colleague thought he had seen two cranes in the mist. This would be a late record for the site. The raptors were flushing good numbers of fieldfare from their evening roosts.







The light coloured female marsh harrier, the females on site are usually darker brown.



The sun came out just in time to set.

[ian mcdonald]

The Cladonia spore capsules look brown in the poor light. There are two species in the photo.



A tiny yellow fungus beside an old log.



The water in this ditch is much higher than normal, with water starwort and possibly Glyceria fluitans.



Greasy tough-shank, Collybia butracia?



Birds seen this week were, marsh harrier, robin, stonechat, kestrel, grey lag geese, snipe, pink foot geese, tree creeper, goldcrest, crow, pigeon, long tailed tit, blue tit, teal, wren, fieldfare, sparrow hawk, barn owl, short eared owl, reed bunting, mallard, redwing and starlings.

[ian mcdonald]

I have found out that the brown colour of the capsules on post 713 is due to the lap-top and not the camera. I have down-loaded a true colour photo. on my old computer and the capsules are red. I don,t know why the lap top sees the colour as brown. On my old computer the colour is red but on the lap top it is brown, looking at the forum site. What colour do members see?

[Maggi Young]

I take  it  you  mean these, Ian    - "The Cladonia spore capsules look brown in the poor light "   ?
On my laptop they appear orange.    I  presume  individual machine  settings  vary ??

[David Nicholson]

Orange on my iPad too.

[ian mcdonald]

I have just taken three photos. of a red subject with the camera. I used different settings on the camera, allowing for "close up" settings which I used for the Cladonia. All three pictures are red on the camera and lap top. I don,t know why the Cladonia should appear as a different colour. Another mystery.

[Hoy]

On my Mac they appear red-orange so I didn't quite understand what yo talked about

Maybe I see that colour because I am used to see them red! Like this:

[David Lyttle]

I have just taken three photos. of a red subject with the camera. I used different settings on the camera, allowing for "close up" settings which I used for the Cladonia. All three pictures are red on the camera and lap top. I don,t know why the Cladonia should appear as a different colour. Another mystery.

Hello Ian,

Very much enjoy your visits to your "local patch". Always lots of interest there. the question of the orange Cladonias has intrigued me - they should be the beautiful red colour shown in Trond's photo. I have taken the liberty to download your photo and play with it a bit as I thought your white balance settings might be wrong. No joy there which leaves the camera. Very unlikely as it's a fairly capable model Your laptop might be the problem but my screen via the world wide web displays your Cladonias as orange and Trond's as red so unless your photo processing software is doing something bizarre there is unlikely to be a problem there. However cameras do not always see the same colours that the eye sees. Here is my explanation. The photo was taken with flash. We see red Cladonias because they reflect red light therefore Cladonias that are orange are not reflecting red light. Red light is absent or in short supply because the flash does not supply enough red light. If this is so you should be able to test it by re-photographing your Cladonias with the flash turned off. For my own photography I only use flash as a last resort as I consider it gives an un-natural colour rendition to the subject.

A photo from my "local patch" taken a couple of days ago ISO 5000 f11 1/40 sec hand held. Modern dSLRs have amazing capabilities. The orchid is Earina mucronata an epiphytic orchid that grows on trees.This photo was taken under trees in low light.