Shorebirds, the World’s Greatest Travelers, Face Extinction

A worldwide catastrophe is underway among an extraordinary group of birds — the marathon migrants we know as shorebirds. Numbers of some species are falling so quickly that many biologists fear an imminent planet-wide wave of extinctions.

A common snipe caught in an illegal net. Thousands of shorebirds
 like this one are entangled this way along the coast of China.

These declines represent the No. 1 conservation crisis facing birds in the world today. Climate change, coastal development, the destruction of wetlands and hunting are all culprits. And because these birds depend for their survival, as we do, on the shorelines of oceans, estuaries, rivers, lakes, lagoons and marshes, their declines point to a systemic crisis that demands our attention, for our own good.

No doubt you’ve seen some of these birds while on vacation at the beach, skittering back and forth along the cusp of waves as they peck with their long beaks for tiny sand flies or the eggs of horseshoe crabs. They can seem comic in their frenetic exertions, tiny Charlie Chaplins in bird suits.

But these birds are remarkable in ways that defy not only belief but scientific understanding: They are, by far, the planet’s most extraordinary global travelers. Worldwide, about 70 shorebird species travel from the top of the world to its very bottom and back each year. The smallest weigh barely an ounce. Each species has its own story, but in every case these annual migrations are among nature’s most epic dramas.

Read the opinion piece from The New York Times - “Shorebirds, the World’s Greatest Travelers, Face Extinction.”

Learning about the indicental stuff that's critical to our wellbeing

Understanding and combatting climate change hinges on use have a firm grasp of nature’s infrastructure.

Well, we need to understand many things, but what can appear almost incidental in nature is critical to our broader wellbeing.

Those in northern Victoria will have the chance this weekend, Saturday, November 19, to learn about paddock trees and their importance to bats, birds, and insects.

The free twilight field day is being organized by the Strathbogie Ranges Catchment Management Network on a property on Longwood’s Oak Valley Road.

Speakers at the field day will include Lindy Lumsden, of the Arthur Rylah Institute; Cathy Olive and Kim Wilson from the Euroa Arboretum; Beatrix Spencer from the University of Melbourne; and Janet Hogan and Bertram Lobert from the Strathbogie Ranges CMN.

Promoting the event, the CMN said: “Our remnant paddock trees are like post offices, bank branches, and schools. They are vital to the health of our communities, they provide and/or nurture the wealth of our land and they are disappearing all too quickly.

“This field day is a unique opportunity to understand more about paddock trees, the role they play in our landscapes and how they interact with other elements or our natural systems, such as insects, birds, and bats,” they said.

People eager to attend should contact Michael Spencer via email or via SMS at 0439 381 144.

A barbecue will be provided and more details about the venue will be available upon registration.

If the birds are in trouble, so are we - Roger Tory Peterson

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he late Roger Tory Peterson was an American naturalist, ornithologist, artist, and educator, and was held to be one of the founding inspirations for the 20th-century environmental movement.

In 1934, Peterson published his seminal “Guide to the Birds”, which was the first modern field guide. It sold out its first printing of 2‚000 copies in one week, and subsequently went through a further six editions.

Peterson, who done more than anyone else, it has been claimed, to create public interest in living creatures, has won every major American award for natural science, ornithology, and conservation, and has had The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History in Jamestown, New York is named in his honour.

He said:

“Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are

in trouble, we know we'll soon be in trouble.”

'Bladeless' wind turbines welcomed by biggest critics

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 more efficient and less intrusive wind turbine design has been welcomed by two of the UK industry’s biggest critics and government regulators.

Bladeless wind turbines are
reshaping the debate.

A new bladeless wind turbine that promises to be more efficient, less visually intrusive, and safer for birdlife than conventional turbines has been welcomed by two of the UK wind energy industry’s most vocal critics.

The RSPB and the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), which have both expressed concerns over the impacts of industrial-scale windfarms on the landscape and wildlife, said the new turbine was encouraging news for birds and had the potential to open up more urban environments to the sector.

The streamlined design contains no contacting moving parts, making it virtually noiseless and less prone to vibration. Vortex Bladeless, the turbine’s Spanish developers, hopes these advantages could finally help usher in a viable consumer wind power market.

Read The Guardian story - “Can bladeless wind turbines mute opposition?”

Once it was for the birds, but now we can fly by the sun

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Solar Impulse 2 - helping us
 fly like birds.

lying anywhere was once only for the birds, oh how things have changed!

Now we can fly anywhere we want, pretty much whenever we like, but that very activity has worsened circumstances that led to an ambitious adventure to circumnavigate the world in a solar-powered plane.

That adventure is well advanced not “Solar Implulse 2” is presently on the  most ambitious leg of its knowledge-building journey.

The ABC reports - “Sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 plane begins ambitious Pacific Ocean leg of round-the-worldvoyage” – on the latest exploits of this revolutionary solar plane

The complex conversation about climate change adaptation

The conversation surrounding adaptation to climate change is a complex, almost, as the difficulty itself.

Some exploring adaptation processes are often accused of playing into the hands of the “business as usual” proponents.

The adaptation advocates reply, however, that what they are doing is not supporting “what is”, rather working on preparing us for “what will be”.

An example of that was discussed in the Los Angeles Times in a story headed” “Scientists race to develop farm animals to survive climate change”.

The scientists have been seeking out birds, poultry, able to survive and reproduce in a hotter climate.

The work, apparently genuine in intent, has been claimed by some as nothing more than allowing for the continuation of industrial and mechanized for system.