Sea eagle attacks reverend and his flock....of geese

God may have made "all creatures great and small" but one leading churchman admitted yesterday he had been left traumatised by Britain's biggest bird of prey after it attacked him and killed one of his geese.

The Very Rev Hunter Farquharson, who breeds and shows birds as a hobby, returned to his cottage to find his prize-winning goose Beatrice dead, and a white-tailed sea eagle perched on a fence post nearby.

The giant raptor, with a wingspan of up to 8ft, was one of 16 released recently in the east of Scotland as part of a controversial reintroduction programme.

Mr Farquharson, Provost of St Ninian’s Cathedral in Perth, said he was "horrified" to find the goose, worth about £300, "ripped to shreds".

He went inside to phone the RSPB, a partner in the reintroduction project, but then heard a "terrible noise" as the eagle chased his champion gander Bertie.When he tried to intervene the raptor jumped on his back, tearing his shirt, leaving a 4in wound below his shoulder and cutting his head.

Mr Farquharson said: "It was very, very frightening. The geese have been traumatised by it. They have not laid since. And I'm traumatised too. I'm 6ft 5in, but it was such a shock."

When the young eagle tried to fly away it bumped into a shed and he managed to trap it by throwing wire netting over it while it was on the grass.

RSPB staff then came to his cottage in Abernethy, Perrthshire, and took the sea eagle away before releasing it to the wild again.

It was the second time Mr Farquharson's birds had been attacked by young sea eagles. Two years ago four of his bantams were killed.

He now believes they should not be reintroduced to Scotland, particularly in a populated part of the country.

Dozens of birds have been released in previous years from Wester Ross in the north west Highlands, but the RSPB is now feeding Norwegian chicks in enclosures in Fife, an hour's drive from Edinburgh, before releasing them in the east of the country. The bird involved was freed ten days ago.

"This part of the world is far too populated to be releasing sea eagles," said Mr Farquharson. "I have nothing against sea eagles at all. They are magnificent birds but around here there are far too many people and domestic animals.

"If this had been a dog that attacked livestock or a person, the dog would have been destroyed.
"But the RSPB has been quick to point out that these eagles are protected and that to harm them may result in a custodial sentence."

A spokesman for RSPB Scotland said the incident on Friday was regrettable and it would be visiting Mr Farquharson again to ensure his birds were safe.

He added: "In our experience sea eagles will only defend themselves and attack humans if they feel cornered and threatened. The sea eagles just introduced are young and naive birds.

"There are a tiny number of incidents of this sort every now and again, but these birds will soon disperse as they grow in confidence and wish to explore the wider countryside.

"It is worth noting that when this first happened with Mr Farquharson in 2008 we visited his property and afterwards paid for the installation of heavy nylon netting affixed to fence posts driven into the ground so that the poultry pen and all Mr Farquharson's birds were safe from predation.

"When we visited again on Friday it was apparent that, for whatever reason, these measures were no longer present.

"It is of course unfortunate that the bird scratched Mr Farquharson, but we believe it was simply trying to escape and resist capture."

Sea eagles were persecuted to extinction in the early 20th century and the first attempt to bring back the species began with a release project on Rum in 1975.

The scheme has previously been criticised by farmers and crofters in the west Highlands who claim they have lost hundreds of lambs to the sea eagles. There are now more than 50 breeding pairs, mostly in the north of Scotland.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8718155/Sea-eagle-attacks-reverend-and-his-flock....of-geese.html

Peculiar geese deaths baffle wildlife officials

Ailment afflicting birds around Lake Erie
By TOM HENRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Several dozen Canada geese along western Lake Erie's shoreline have recently died or are presumed dead while others have become so sick they cannot hold up their heads, fly, or maintain control of their motor functions.

State wildlife investigators are stumped, awaiting word on tests that a national wildlife laboratory in Wisconsin has been doing on some of the dead birds.

"They will fall out of the sky and have trouble staying upright," said Dave Sherman, a biologist at the Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station the Ohio Department of Natural Resources operates in Ottawa County.

Symptoms began manifesting themselves first with mallards about two or three weeks ago.

"Now, it's mostly geese we're seeing," he said.

The bulk of the problem appears to be in the Oregon area, Mr. Sherman said, in the vicinity of open water near FirstEnergy Corp.'s coal-fired Bay Shore power plant, where birds typically congregate this time of year.

The plant's warm-water discharge often keeps that part of the lake from freezing.

But the problems are not limited to that area.

Mr. Sherman said some of the sick or dead geese have been found as far east as Vermilion, Ohio, which is halfway between Sandusky and Cleveland.

Four were recently found on a thawed part of the Maumee River near downtown Perrysburg.

Cody Klima, Ohio DNR wildlife officer, said he has picked up about two dozen goose carcasses over the past couple of weeks.

He also said he's taken that many sick birds or more to Nature's Nursery in Whitehouse and Back to the Wild in Castalia, Ohio, two facilities that attempt to rehabilitate injured wildlife.

Officials at those facilities have not had much success with this outbreak.

Many of the sick, injured, or dead geese are inaccessible because warming temperatures have made the ice too dangerous to traverse.

"I'm guessing some of them are drowning," Mr. Klima said. "They lose their coordination and flip upside down."

He said he has been getting about a dozen calls a day from area residents reporting new sightings or seeking answers about birds they've seen.

"They're throwing their heads back. They're losing all balance and literally almost all back-somersault and have a seizure," according to Laura Zitzelberger, operations director at Nature's Nursery. At least eight or nine of about a dozen geese that were brought to Nature's Nursery either died or had to be euthanized.

Two ducks and one of the geese that exhibited symptoms appear to have recovered. Another goose is struggling, she said.

At Back to the Wild, 18 of 23 geese dropped off for treatment have died, nearly all within the past three days, said Sarah Langdon, Back to the Wild supervisor.

Of the remaining five, three are "acting like normal geese again" and may be released soon, she said.

Seventeen of those 23 injured birds were brought in from the Bay Shore plant area, she said.

Chris Barry, a Perrysburg engineer, said he has seen three carcasses and a sick goose on the Perrysburg side of the Maumee River since Saturday. He said they were only 20 to 30 feet from the shore, but the ice was too dangerous to walk on.

"They're at the edge of the ice," Mr. Barry said, referring to an area near Water and Pine streets in Perrysburg.

The sick bird "was floating in a tiny patch of open water," Mr. Barry said.

"It didn't have much strength left," he said.

Anyone who sees geese acting strangely can contact the Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station at 419-898-0960 or the ODNR office in Findlay.

http://beta.toledoblade.com/local/2011/02/18/Peculiar-geese-deaths-baffle-wildlife-officials.html

Polar bear threat to Solway geese

Polar bears have been eating thousands of eggs after becoming stranded

23 August 2010

An Arctic expedition has confirmed fears that polar bears are preying on the eggs of barnacle geese who migrate to the Solway Firth each winter.

During a recent trip, scientists discovered evidence of bears eating thousands of eggs.

The bears have turned to the eggs after being stranded on land in the summer months as a result of diminishing ice.

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) is concerned bird numbers could be devastated if the situation continues.

Zoologist Brian Morrell, of the WWT Wetlands centre at Caerlaverock on the north Solway coast, recorded the increased polar bear activity while monitoring a barnacle goose colony on the Arctic island of Svalbard as part of an expedition organised by Jouke Prop and a team from Branta Research from Groningen in the Netherlands.

He said 10 polar bears were seen roaming the colony, with one bear eating more than 1,000 eggs at one sitting.

Of more than 500 nests on the island, fewer than 40 were successful and most of them had very small clutch sizes of only one or two goslings.

Mr Morrell said: "The geese are very long-lived birds and ironically their survival rate is increased if they don't actually breed, especially the females.

"But if their breeding continues to be affected in this way the population will quickly age, which threatens its stability and the future conservation of this bird which is very special to WWT."

The entire population of Svalbard barnacle geese winter on the Solway Firth and return to breed in the Arctic each summer.

Last winter only half the expected numbers of goslings were seen as the flocks returned to the Solway and it is thought the situation may be similar this winter.

Ironically, Svalbard barnacle goose numbers have increased from 300 to more than 30,000 thanks to conservation efforts over the past 60 years.

As increasing numbers of polar bears forage on the islands, researchers hope the geese will adapt in time to reduce the damage to the total population.

Mr Morrell added: "Some of the goose colonies in Svalbard use cliffs to nest. Although that has its own problems for fledgling chicks, it does put the nests out of reach of marauding bears.

"It seems this will eventually be the only breeding strategy left to the geese."

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4348728589329576621
(Submitted by Mo Holkar)

Lookout for Kingfisher - Wildlife of Oxford Canal

10:28am Thursday 11th February 2010
By Peter Barrington

Walkers on the towpath of the Oxford and other canals are being asked to log their sightings of kingfishers in a national survey beginning in March.

Kingfishers have been chosen as the special focus of the overview being taken by volunteers for the British Waterways seventh annual survey of wildlife on canals, rivers and reservoirs.

Mark Robinson, national ecology manager for British Waterways, said: “We want to find out if kingfishers have been affected by the severe winter we have been having this year. In the 1960s we had a particularly hard winter and the population of kingfishers declined by about 80 per cent.”

Kingfishers are vulnerable as they are on the “amber” list of the traffic-light system run by the Conservation for Concern organisation, which gathers information from the British Trust for Ornithology and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and other sources.

Birds at the greatest risk are on the red list and those found more commonly across the country are on the green list.

Kingfishers are found by canals and rivers and rely heavily on clean water. Their presence gives a fair indication of the health of the ecology on a particular stretch of water.

“While kingfishers like a waterway with a flow such as rivers, they are also found on canals. At first, canals might not appear to move, but they do have a flow created by the operation of locks, the passage of narrowboats and other boats.

“And there are some canals, like the Oxford, that have stretches of canal and river running together. The River Cherwell flows into the Oxford Canal at several points,” said Mr Robinson.

Kingfishers sometimes prefer to nest in burrows that they have excavated in the banks of rivers, which can be higher or more extensive than canal banks.

They are found nesting in canal banks and British Waterways has a conservation project to build an artifical bank for kingfisher burrows and nests on the Kennet and Avon Canal in Wiltshire.

In the 2009 survey, kingfishers were recorded at Oxford and Abingdon on the River Thames, which is not managed by British Waterways.

The particular focus of last year’s survey was the bumblebee. Although there are 25 species of bumblebee in Britain, three have become virtually extinct.

Bumblebees were logged seven times on the Oxford Canal at Napton and, incidentally, an otter was recorded on the Oxford Canal at Heyford.

Nayna Wood, national press officer for British Waterways, said: “Bumblebees were chosen because bees in general have been having a difficult time recently. Bumblebees are on the endangered species list.

“They are wild as opposed to the honey bees we see at beehives. Bumblebees will nest in many places including old logs and also in the beams of lock gates.”

Although the results of the survey are not scientific, they give a broad indication of the spread of bumblebees across the country.

Altogether in the 2009 survey bumblebees were logged 1,664 times and came sixth overall behind the familiar birds found on canals, with mallard ducks coming top with 7,037 sightings, followed by Canada geese at 2,550 and swans at 2,402 sightings.

The value of the survey is found in the fact that British Waterways manages 2,600 miles of canals, several rivers including the Severn and Trent and 92 reservoirs.

“One of the things that excites me about canals is that they are excellent corridors for wildlife.

“Canals are green corridors that enable wildlife to move about and canals go straight into urban landscapes as well as the countryside,” said Mr Robinson.

Apart from birds and mammals the canals are important in helping bats to feed.

Bats can often be seen swooping over open water to catch midges and other insects.

“Quite a lot of two-winged insects are classified as dipterans, which means they have a partly aquatic life cycle,” said Mr Robinson.

He felt the annual surveys were important to British Waterways in indicating what wildlife lived in and around the canals.

“We need to know what protected and more common species we have, as we have such a large network to maintain. We have about ten ecology officers in the field nationally and their role is to ensure we do not harm any species or habitats when we are carrying out repairs,” said Mr Robinson.

He added that the idea of asking the general public to take part in the survey meant they would have a larger cover than if they relied solely on staff. “We hope people will take part when they are walking the dog along the towpath or are out for a leisurely stroll.

“The survey runs from the end of March to October when the weather is generally better and people are out and about,” added Mr Robinson.

In addition to the survey, a photographic competition is being held.

Last year, the subject was photos of bumblebees but this year the subject is wildlife in general.

More information and survey forms can be downloaded from the end of March at www.waterscape.com0/wildlifesurvey

Printed leaflets will also be available at waterway events and attractions.

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/5001571.Look_out_for_kingfisher/

Mouse nest found on policeman's filthy desk

Exterminators called in to deal with an infestation at a police station found a mouse nest on a messy desk.

Published: 9:21AM GMT 05 Jan 2010

Pest controllers were called to an office in Kennington, south London, used by weapons and technology experts at the Metropolitan Police after reports of 'mice everywhere'.

According to internal police reports, a family of mice even set up home in one police worker's desk - burying themselves in his paperwork.

The report reminds workers of 'the Met's clear desk policy' - meaning everything on your desk must be filed away by the end of each day so cleaners can do their jobs.

It states: "Employees came across a number of mice at a police building.

"Action was taken to remove the mice from the premises and there have not been any sighting of mice since."

A spokeswoman for the Met said that the 'paperwork home' set up on one desk by mice consisted of 'paperwork that did not relate to operational police matters'.

"Some of the desks were so messy it was a wonder anyone could find anything," said one officer.

"It got to the stage where mice droppings were found on desks and that's when everyone thought 'it's time to do something about our desks'.

"That's when one guy found a mouse nest in his paperwork. It's fair to say he was a little embarrassed."

Lambeth cops spend more than £25,000 on vermin exterminators last year, including £4,299 to get rid of 'unwanted birds' and £12,018 on 'rodent or mammal extermination'.

The sum also included £108 for 'getting rid of geese', although a police spokesman could not shed any further light on this particular expense.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6935222/Mouse-nest-found-on-policemans-filthy-desk.html

Duck-feeding fine dropped

See original story here.

Metro Ireland, 19 November 2009, p9.

Duck-feeding fine dropped

See original story here.

Metro Ireland, 19 November 2009, p9.

Young mother fined for feeding the ducks

Click to enlarge

Metro, 13 November 2009, p31.

Young mother fined for feeding the ducks

Click to enlarge

Metro, 13 November 2009, p31.