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Fri, 24 Sep 2021
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Half the trees in two new English woodlands planted by jays - study

Patrick Barkham
The Guardian
Thu, 17 Jun 2021 09:09 UTC
jay bird

A jay (Garrulus glandarius), a large colourful bird of the crow or corvid family pictured in the UK. Photograph: Gillian Pullinger/Alamy
More than half the trees in two new woodlands in lowland England have been planted not by landowners, charities or machines but by jays.

Former fields rapidly turned into native forest with no plastic tree-guards, watering or expensive management, according to a new study which boosts the case for using natural regeneration to meet ambitious woodland creation targets.


Comment: Yeah, nature has some experience in this area.


Instead, during "passive rewilding", thrushes spread seeds of bramble, blackthorn and hawthorn, and this scrub then provided natural thorny tree "guards" for oaks that grew from acorns buried in the ground by jays.

Comment: Another study showed the surprising role of ants in distributing wildflower seed. Evidently nature has its own tried and tested methods for rewilding and regeneration. However, there are methods of land management that show humans can facilitate nature's processes so as to reap the maximum benefits, for all, with minimum damage, and in a much shorter period of time; but the complexities and synergies in which nature operates are still very poorly understood by mainstream science:

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Binoculars

Wrong place, wrong time: Snowy owl sticks around for summer in Wells, Maine

DIEGO LASARTE
centralmaine.com
Wed, 16 Jun 2021 13:28 UTC
A snowy owl flies over Drakes Island in Wells on Wednesday. Snowy owls are common in the area in winter, but are very rare at this time of year.
© Ben McCanna
A snowy owl flies over Drakes Island in Wells on Wednesday. Snowy owls are common in the area in winter, but are very rare at this time of year.
Perched high above a quiet beach scene, a snowy owl has been drawing a steady stream of birders, wildlife photographers and interested onlookers to the Drakes Island community in Wells for the past month.

"They're not usually here this late. The latest I had seen one before was early May," said Bryan Isaacs, a birder of more than 30 years who drove to Wells from New Hampshire on Wednesday to get a glimpse. "This is so rare."

The owl spends most of its day sitting on chimneys and poles in the neighborhood, its stark white feathers making it easy to spot. According to the beach volunteers working at Drakes Island, the bird-watching community has given the owl the nickname "Snowball."

Connor Hood, a beach monitor for the town of Wells, said he, too, was surprised by the owl's late stay but welcomed the excitement that it has brought to the beach community.

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Bug

'Apocalyptic': Waves of spider webs blanket Australia after floods

Sushmita Panda
Sputnik
Wed, 16 Jun 2021 08:09 UTC
Waves Of Spider Webs
© REUTERS / CAROLYN CROSSLEY via FACEBOOK
A rare phenomenon of spiders forming cobwebs is happening in several parts of Australia right now. Tens of thousands of spiders have taken over entire regions and the sight is enough to scare anyone.

Several parts of Australia's Victoria are enveloped with blankets of spiderwebs after flash floods destroyed the nests and habitats of many small creatures like Spider.

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Binoculars

Rare Egyptian vulture is spotted on the Isles of Scilly, UK - first time in 150 years

SAM TONKIN
Daily Mail
Wed, 16 Jun 2021 12:33 UTC
Rare sighting: An Egyptian vulture, considered endangered worldwide, has been seen in the UK for the first time in 150 years

Rare sighting: An Egyptian vulture, considered endangered worldwide, has been seen in the UK for the first time in 150 years
They are known for applying brightly-coloured mud to their faces 'like make-up'.

But now a rare Egyptian vulture, considered endangered worldwide, has been seen in the UK for the first time in more than 150 years.

The bird of prey, also known as 'the pharaoh's chicken' because of its links to ancient Egypt, was spotted on the Isles of Scilly in what has been described as a 'once-in-a-century' sighting.

It is thought it may have come from northern France and became confused while migrating.

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Attention

Sharks bite 12-year-old boy, 71-year-old man in Volusia County, Florida

Adrienne Cutway
Clickorlando.com
Mon, 14 Jun 2021 12:20 UTC
shark
Two shark bites and a drowning were reported at Central Florida beaches on Monday, according to Volusia County Beach Safety.

Both shark bites were reported in New Smyrna Beach under red flag conditions. One involved a 71-year-old Jupiter man who was in knee-deep water with his boogie board when a shark bit his right foot. He was treated on the scene and released.

The second bite occurred when a 12-year-old Cocoa Beach boy jumped off his surfboard and into waist-deep water. The boy was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center as a trauma alert to be treated for a bite to his right calf, officials said.
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Doberman

7-year-old boy mauled to death by 5 dogs in Marion County, South Carolina

Tonya Brown
wpde.com
Mon, 14 Jun 2021 10:52 UTC
dog attack
Carnell Jackson said he prayed that his 7-year-old son, Shamar Jackson, would live after being mauled to death by dogs Sunday at Wilbur and Cleo Roads in Marion County.

"I was just like, 'Lord just let him live, breathe into his lungs, but he had lost a lot of blood," said Carnell Jackson.

Marion County Sheriff Brian Wallace said, "It appears the small child was mauled by dog(s) while walking in his neighborhood with his brothers who were able to escape. The investigation continues and we are actively seeking the dogs and their possible owner."

Officials said Marion County Animal Control removed five mixed breed adult dogs from a home in the area after the attack.
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Doberman

Toddler falls from home window, mauled to death by family's 2 pit bulls in New Jersey

JON HAWORTH
6abc.com
Sat, 12 Jun 2021 10:29 UTC
PIT BULL ATTACK
A 3-year-old boy has died after falling out of a window at his family home and being mauled to death by the family's two pit bulls when he landed in the backyard.

The incident occurred at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Thursday in Elizabeth, New Jersey -- about 6 miles south of Newark -- when police say the boy somehow managed to fall out of a window, landed in the backyard of the family home and was subsequently and savagely attacked by the family's two dogs, according to New York City ABC station WABC.

Neighbors say that the mother immediately reacted and went to rescue her son but that it was a horrendous scene as she tried to pull the dogs off of the little boy.

"I saw the mother, she was full of blood in her hands, her shirt," neighbor Maria Rocha told WABC in an interview after the attack. "And I was like, 'what happened?' so I came here because it was full of police and she told me, 'My baby, my baby, I went to the bathroom and my baby fell out the window.'"

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Attention

Lobster diver survives being swallowed whole and spat out by Humpback whale off Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Hugo Daniel
inews.co.uk
Sat, 12 Jun 2021 11:07 UTC
Michael Packard got caught in the mouth of a humpback whale for 30-40 seconds before escaping (Photo Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images)
© Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images
Michael Packard got caught in the mouth of a humpback whale for 30-40 seconds before escaping
A US lobster diver thought he was going to die after getting caught in the mouth of a humpback whale before it surfaced and spat him out.

Michael Packard, 56, was diving off Cape Cod in Massachusetts on Friday and about 45ft below the surface when he found himself inside the closed mouth of the giant creature.

He spent 30-40 seconds inside it before escaping "very bruised" but otherwise unharmed.

Describing the terrifying ordeal the diver said he "felt this huge bump, and everything went dark" and initially thought he'd been attacked by a shark but then realised he couldn't feel teeth.

It then dawned on him he was in a whale's mouth. He told the Cape Cod Times: "I was completely inside; it was completely black.

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Binoculars

Wrong place, wrong time: Sulphur-bellied warbler turns up for the first time ever in UK - 4,000 miles from normal range in Asia

Paul Sims, James Somper
The Sun (UK)
Thu, 10 Jun 2021 17:23 UTC
Sulphur-bellied Warbler on Lundy Island

Sulphur-bellied Warbler on Lundy Island
TWITCHERS hired boats to take them to an island — after a rare bird flew 4,000 miles to spend summer in Britain for the first time.

One handed a skipper £1,000 to ferry him to see the revered sulphur-bellied warbler, which had come all the way from Tibet.

Some skived off work and paid £120 an hour to hire vessels, while another drove five hours overnight.

Snapper Ashley Howe was among the few who made it in time to Lundy off Devon on Tuesday.

He captured stunning pictures of the brown and yellow bird before it flew off.

He tweeted: "Mega Views!! Sulphur-bellied Warbler on Lundy Island this evening. First for Britain."
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Attention

2 tourists injured in Mexico crocodile attack


whdh.com
Wed, 09 Jun 2021 13:18 UTC
CEOC
Two British women are recovering from a crocodile attack in a lagoon along Mexico's southern Pacific coast, an official said Wednesday.

The two women, apparently sisters, were visiting the Manialtepec lagoon near the surf and beach destination of Puerto Escondido in the state of Oaxaca when the attack occurred late Sunday, according to Said Silva, the head of the local civil defense office.

The lagoon is known for its stands of mangroves and for brackish waters that turn bioluminescent at some times of the year.

Silva said witnesses told officials that the two Britons were swimming when one was attacked by a crocodile. The second woman was injured trying to assist the first.
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