GreyShuck

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Two Razorbill chicks have fledged for the first time on an island off the Northumberland Coast, conservationists have said.

Although a small number of Razorbills have been seen attempting to breed on Coquet Island since 2021, July marked the first successful fledging of chicks, the RSPB said.

The charity said the island was not an obvious choice for the birds as they usually nested on cliffs, but up to 12 had been spotted this year.

 

A nature recovery project near Hadrian's Wall aims to transform thousands of acres of farmland and forest to boost biodiversity and help farmers adapt to climate change.

Following a £750,000 grant from Defra, the Hadrian's Wall Landscape Recovery Project will reconnect habitats, supporting species like curlews, otters and water voles.

The project stretches along the wall from Greenlee Lough to Bell Crag Flow and will include more than 11,000 acres (4451 hectares) of land, an area four times the size of Kielder Water.

 

Nature lovers and conservationists were treated to a rare and exhilarating sight as a marsh harrier, one of the UK’s rarest and most striking birds of prey, was spotted.

With its wings held in a distinctive V-shape, the Harrier wheeled and soared over the industrial skyline at Seal Sands in Teesside over the last month.

The marsh harrier is the largest of the UK’s harrier species and is best known for its broad wingspan (up to 1.2 metres) and graceful, floating flight over reedbeds and marshlands.

 

The public is being encouraged to look out for the exotic-looking species of Jersey Tiger moths that have been surging in numbers.

Wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation said the day-flying moths appear to be doing well as people record butterflies they see for its annual butterfly count.

The initiative, which takes place over three weeks in summer and is currently under way until August 10, gets members of the public to spend 15 minutes recording those they see in their garden, parks or countryside.

 

After 40 years, intertidal seagrass has grown in the Helford River, marking a breakthrough in Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Seasalt’s restoration efforts.

The Helford River has seen a glimmer of green hope. For the first time in over 40 years, native intertidal seagrass has successfully regrown in its waters—thanks to the collaborative efforts of Seasalt and Cornwall Wildlife Trust, now in their fourth year of the Seeding Change Together project.

This pioneering initiative is exploring low-carbon, low-cost methods to restore seagrass habitats in Cornwall’s estuaries – ecosystems vital to ocean health.

 

Technology that monitors birdsong as part of conservation efforts is to be rolled out across Shropshire.

The Green Box Project involves recordings via wireless boxes operated by solar panel. Recordings are uploaded to the cloud, where birds are then identified by AI.

It is hoped the collected data could support conservation planning and contribute to national biodiversity databases.

 

Experts are warning of an unusually high number of jellyfish in UK seas this summer. These are the ones out there

 

A number of bioluminescent plankton have been spotted off the coast of Cornwall.

Bioluminescent plankton are small creatures floating in the sea that have the ability to emit light when disturbed by a predator or motion.

Visitors to Kynance Cove managed to catch a glimpse of the rare sight last weekend.

Thomas Winstone was visiting the area from Wales with a friend, attempting to photograph a milkyway through the "clear Cornish skies", but then stumbled across the Plankton on Sunday night.

 

A project is underway to investigate what whales are eating off Scotland’s west coast by examining the make-up of their poop! We are delighted to be part of the team - led by Dr Conor Ryan - collecting samples, armed and ready to scoop from the deck of our research vessel, Silurian. Read more about the project below…

Spirits have been high among whale enthusiasts around The Minch in recent years, as larger whale species like fin and humpback whales have been settling in the region. While the smaller minke whale has been commonly seen for many years, the arrival of their larger cousins raises questions about what is sustaining their enormous appetites.

[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 3 points 2 days ago

Looks like it will be warm but with some rain, so I'm planning to spend a while reading in the gazebo while it is raining. There is definitely something enjoyable about being outside, but out of the rain and not having to do anything.

 

The first farmer-led programme to vaccinate badgers against tuberculosis is beginning in Cornwall with an aim to prevent transmission of the disease to cattle.

The programme is significant because farmers and scientists have long been at loggerheads over the culling of badgers as a way to control TB. The three-year trial will start with 70 farms and involve farmers trapping, testing and vaccinating badgers, with training provided by scientists. An earlier pilot study of the approach showed TB rates in badgers fell from 16% to zero in four years.

TB can devastate cattle herds and more than 20,000 infected cattle were slaughtered in the last year in England. The badger cull started in 2013 and has killed about 250,000 badgers but has been highly controversial.

 

Tourist discovers ‘extinct’ jellyfish while rock-pooling in Outer Hebrides Thistle-shaped Depastrum cyathiforme was last seen in France in 1976, but has now been found on South Uist

The distinctive jellyfish was feared globally extinct after being last spotted in Roscoff, northern France, in 1976.

But a holidaymaker who was rock-pooling on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides found four of the creatures, which attach themselves to rocks rather like anemones, and took what turned out to be the first ever photographs of the species, previously only known from historic drawings and paintings.

 

A 10,000-acre estate in the Highlands has been awarded special European status recognising its genetic diversity of tree species.

Parts of the juniper and silver birch woodland at Trees for Life's Dundreggan rewilding centre in Glenmoriston have been classed as Gene Conservation Units.

A spokesperson for the conservation charity said the "unusually wet location" of juniper and the "extreme westerly location" of silver birch have helped make the tree populations unique.

[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 5 points 3 days ago

They will spread - but usually along the river catchment where they started. It would take a while for them to establish on other river systems.

However, due to the delays in legal releases, there are also quite a few illegal releases. That's not always ideal, but is probably the quickest way that they are spreading just at the moment.

[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 21 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I always heard it as trombeleese, which I imagined to be some exotic musical instrument like this:

[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm just having my breakfast. Doing that on a sunny Swiss balcony overlooking a spectacular Alpine valley would suit me.

[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 103 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Brush from an electric motor. Looks to be a new-ish one.

[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 5 points 2 weeks ago

My comment was a (half) joking one on the increase in capacity over time due to technology advance - and the bloat in software. As I recall, the early USB sticks that I had were something like 32mb - useless by todays standards. Meanwhile the increasing size of even blank .docx pages has been remarked on over the years.

[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

In my experience, they last until you look at the capacity a few years and several changes of use down the line and end up giving to someone for some weird reason with a single MS document filling it up.

[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 1 points 2 weeks ago

TV

  • Bookish - Gatiss' latest, and everything that I expected that it would be from him. Only one episode in so far. Nothing surprising or challenging, but looks like it will be cozy, camp entertainment.
  • Dept. Q - fine visual design, with the sharp dressing, colour keyed scenes and geometrical designed contrasting with Morck's up-and-dressed-what-more style. Good, engaging performances too.
  • Such Brave Girls - season two picks up from the first in the same style: holding nothing back.

but also

  • Untamed - Loads of other shows have combined spectacular wild scenery with moody murder detectives. However after 15mins of this I switched off. The six fatal words for any show: I don't care about these characters.

Film

  • The Phoenician Scheme - Wes Anderson just doing more of the same. He can be great, but this was simply sterile repetition.
  • Death of a Unicorn - comedy horror that never really takes off - or didn't for me, at least. My wife greatly enjoyed it though, so there's that.
[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 6 points 3 weeks ago

There are really only a couple of occasions when I will.

  1. When driving alone. Sometimes I will be in the mood for a podcast, but occasionally music instead. I have a single playlist of around 1600 tracks on my phone for this.
  2. When my SO and I are eating at home. We both have misophonia to some degree. In my SO's case this results in her wanting to stab anyone making chewing noises with a fork. It is slurping noises with me. To minimise the stabbing we listen to, typically, BBC R3 when eating together. Until recently we had a DAB radio for this, but reception is crap where we are nowadays, so we have a bluetooth speaker setup for our phones.
[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I was around 20 years too late.

They didn't attend mine either, as it happens, on the grounds that they too were "late" by then.

[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 2 points 3 weeks ago

It is 2.4km to my nearest shop (and most of that to reach a bus stop, as it happens). I have walked there from time to time, but I wouldn't do an actual grocery shop there anyway: we have the weekly groceries delivered.

I have brought a full grocery shop home in a large rucksack that kind of distance, and more, in the past when on holiday, but I wouldn't want to do it regularly.

I have also known a couple of other people who do that kind of distance with a huge rucksack for a monthly top up of specific things that their local shops don't carry, but they are both weird in several ways other ways. Good weird, but still weird. This is not something that the majority of people that I have known would even consider.

[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

There have, evidently, been a few of these in the past. Neither my personal phone nor my work one has ever received one though. Nor has my SO's if it comes to it.

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