Oolite Bulletins

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Ah, springtime ... when the little spambots emerge snuffling from their frozen winter burrows, to pimp and peddle and squeak and die, leaving naught behind them but a small puddle of slightly soiled electrons.

Disembodied wrote:

Ah, springtime ...

'Spring has sprung, the grass is riz,
I wonder where the birdies is,
The bird is on the wing... but that's absurd,
I always thought the wing was on the bird!'

* * * * *
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Cody wrote:

Disembodied wrote:

Ah, springtime ...

'Spring has sprung, the grass is riz,
I wonder where the birdies is,

The song-birdies, all around the world, is mostly dead and gone..
Killed off by a combination of habitat destruction, pollution, global warming, windfarms and other tall man-made structures.



Google "songbird decline" for the gory details.

Please don't mention windfarms - the damn things make me angry!

Diziet Sma wrote:

Cody wrote:

Disembodied wrote:

Ah, springtime ...

'Spring has sprung, the grass is riz,
I wonder where the birdies is,

The song-birdies, all around the world, is mostly dead and gone..
Killed off by a combination of habitat destruction, pollution, global warming, windfarms and other tall man-made structures.



Google "songbird decline" for the gory details.

In the UK, they're blaming an increase in the number of Crows taking song bird eggs - and are talking about a cull - now that really makes me cross...

DaddyHoggy wrote:

In the UK, they're blaming an increase in the number of Crows taking song bird eggs - and are talking about a cull - now that really makes me cross...

So, yesterday (and the days before) we have exterminated a couple of species.

And today—really as an act of compensation only—we're going to exterminate another.

Impeccable logic.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

In the UK, they're blaming an increase in the number of Crows taking song bird eggs - and are talking about a cull - now that really makes me cross...

Yes, it couldn't possibly be anything to do with house cats, or (more likely, given no sudden rise in the number of house cats - or crows, for that matter) destruction of habitat. There are no fish in the sea? It's those darn seals to blame! Greenhouse gases building up in the atmosphere? Don't look at the poor, innocent, fossil fuel-consuming species in the mirror, no, we should blame cows and ants for farting ... I tell you, it's a miracle the ecosystem managed to survive for all those billions of years without us around to manage it properly.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

In the UK, they're blaming an increase in the number of Crows taking song bird eggs - and are talking about a cull - now that really makes me cross...

Then you'll be pleased to hear that one of the most comprehensive studies yet shows that the predator species are not to blame.. Farming practices and habitat destruction look to be the biggest culprits in the UK.

Diziet Sma wrote:

DaddyHoggy wrote:

In the UK, they're blaming an increase in the number of Crows taking song bird eggs - and are talking about a cull - now that really makes me cross...

Then you'll be pleased to hear that one of the most comprehensive studies yet shows that the predator species are not to blame.. Farming practices and habitat destruction look to be the biggest culprits in the UK.

Tht is certainly my impression. As I understand it, the use of insecticides is one of the biggest culprits, as it removes the birds' food source and obviously also has an impact on the insect population. The butterflies are probably suffering even more than the birds.

Songbirds need dense vegetation to nest in, to help protect their eggs and young from predators. This is not usually available in suburban gardens. You can help the birds in your garden by planting climbers such as ivy and honeysuckle, and dense shrubs such as hawthorn.

I'm lucky, as I have a good garden for small birds (and butterflies), but most gardens these days are far too neat and tidy.
I wish the numbers of feral pigeons and urban gulls would decline rapidly instead.

Cody wrote:

Songbirds need dense vegetation to nest in, to help protect their eggs and young from predators. This is not usually available in suburban gardens. You can help the birds in your garden by planting climbers such as ivy and honeysuckle, and dense shrubs such as hawthorn.

I'm lucky, as I have a good garden for small birds (and butterflies), but most gardens these days are far too neat and tidy.
I wish the numbers of feral pigeons and urban gulls would decline rapidly instead.

Of course what we are seeing is Natural Selection in action. The 'fussy' songbirds are suffering while the more 'broad-minded' and adaptable birds are flourishing. Granted Man's influence is a big factor here, but nature is just doing what it does at any time of environmental change. Nature is above Mankind and simply treats the affects we have on the planet the same way it treats growing ice-caps, or climate-change (natural and man-made), or meteorite impacts.
We are doubtless intefering with the planet, but we are part of nature as well. The only difference is that we are intelligent and can both make value-judgements about what we are doing, and change our actions if we deem it necessary.

Smivs wrote:

Cody wrote:

Songbirds need dense vegetation to nest in, to help protect their eggs and young from predators. This is not usually available in suburban gardens. You can help the birds in your garden by planting climbers such as ivy and honeysuckle, and dense shrubs such as hawthorn.

I'm lucky, as I have a good garden for small birds (and butterflies), but most gardens these days are far too neat and tidy.
I wish the numbers of feral pigeons and urban gulls would decline rapidly instead.

Of course what we are seeing is Natural Selection in action. The 'fussy' songbirds are suffering while the more 'broad-minded' and adaptable birds are flourishing. Granted Man's influence is a big factor here, but nature is just doing what it does at any time of environmental change. Nature is above Mankind and simply treats the affects we have on the planet the same way it treats growing ice-caps, or climate-change (natural and man-made), or meteorite impacts.
We are doubtless intefering with the planet, but we are part of nature as well. The only difference is that we are intelligent and can both make value-judgements about what we are doing, and change our actions if we deem it necessary.

Well said Smivs - it makes me smile (ruefully) when people talk about "Saving the Earth" and I think Nope, the Earth is a great big ball of rock that is pretty much indestructible. What you're talking about is saving the top level mammalian species on the planet, which isn't the same thing.

As for the Song birds thing - I own two cats - they spend most of their time outdoors (in the summer) even though they are 17 and 12 years old. I put food out on the shed roof (where the cats also sleep/sunbathe in the summer). The two family of Starlings who nest in our roof every year feed there, as do the family of Robins who this year finally started using the bird box we put up for them 3 years ago. We also have a family of Crows, Wood Pigeons and even the odd Kite who visit the shed roof depending on what I put out. From my kitchen window there is quite literally a pecking order - but all these predators and prey seem to get on with it (I just wish I had a camera with a decent lens - I could take some amazing photos!) although not necessarily at the same time!

Smivs wrote:

Of course what we are seeing is Natural Selection in action. The 'fussy' songbirds are suffering while the more 'broad-minded' and adaptable birds are flourishing. Granted Man's influence is a big factor here, but nature is just doing what it does at any time of environmental change.

I don't think 200 species a day going extinct due to the actions of Homo Sapiens counts as "natural selection"...

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Well said Smivs - it makes me smile (ruefully) when people talk about "Saving the Earth" and I think Nope, the Earth is a great big ball of rock that is pretty much indestructible. What you're talking about is saving the top level mammalian species on the planet, which isn't the same thing.

Whilst I agree with you that most humans are primarily concerned with saving their own species (and at least the "cute" animals) I can't entirely agree with the rest of your comment..

Whilst it isn't being discussed much in public, there is growing concern amongst climatologists that we are currently right on the edge of the climate 'tipping point', which is when positive feedback effects begin kicking in. (These effects are not included in any current climate models.) Once that happens, the rate of change will begin to accelerate, which we are beginning to see signs of already. Indeed, changes which were not expected to occur until mid-century are already manifesting.

It's very possible that the self-perpetuating nature of climatological positive feedback may reach a point of "runaway" climate change, continuing to snowball (pardon the bad pun) to the point of a "Venus effect" happening right here on Earth. Until recently, this was not believed to be possible on Earth, but scientists have recently changed their mind on this subject.

Yes, if humans don't make some drastic changes (much more drastic than the 'band-aid' changes promoted at the link above) pretty darn soon, we just might be looking at the literal end of all life on Earth, and the transformation of this beautiful big blue marble into a literal hell, just like Venus.