“Gone Fishing” is an expression we use here in Australia to let people know that a business is closed for a period of time while the owner takes a break.
I’m off for a bit – “Gone Fishing”. Cheers,
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The photograph is of a pelican near Ingham, North Queensland, taken September 29, 2008.
This is a Tawny Frogmouth chick that fell out of its nest and ended up on the slasher the other day. Its mum did a great job and it fledged successfully, to our great relief.
The Tawny Frogmouth is fairly common and “nests” at our place every November. The nest however is virtually non-existent but they mostly use the same dubious spot each year so the eggs and chicks [1-3] live on the verge of oblivion.
We usually get a couple of families.
They have very soft, penetrating, low frequency calls which sound like a distant power house … ooom, ooom, ooom.
It’s great to lie in bed and listen to them.
They’re better than cats at cleaning up rats and mice and are absolutely ghost-like in silent flight.
The lapwings pass, mince through the grass,
The frogmouth chicks look down
And teeter on oblivion,
While mother wears a frown.
Jim Inglis
Australia
WHEN news headlines simultaneously suggested that both warm weather and cold weather might adversely affect frog populations, there was some mocking from climate change sceptics. [1, 2]
But given the extraordinary impact of the pathogenic fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, on frog populations worldwide, and the pathogen’s apparently relatively narrow temperature optima, a small change in temperature may have a significant impact on local frog populations. [3]
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1. Climate threat to Nordic amphibians, January 23, 2009, http://www.norden.org/webb/news/news.asp?id=8358&lang=6
2. Cold weather hits The Lizard wildlife, January 10, 2009,
http://www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk/news/cornwall_news/4036969.Cold_weather_hits_The_Lizard_wildlife/
3. Threat Abatement Plan, Infection of Amphibians with Chytrid fungus resulting in Chytridiomycosis, Australian Department of Environment and Heritage, 2006, http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/tap/chytrid.html
“In culture B. dendrobatidis grows slowly at 6°C, develops most rapidly at 23°C but dies if kept at temperatures above 29°C.”
Picture of the Giant White-lipped Tree Frog via Neil Hewett. http://www.ccwild.com/index.html
The following picture of a female ‘black’ satin bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus, was taken in Katoomba on January 31, 2009, by Jennifer Marohasy.
By one estimate, for every acre of rain forest cut down each year, more than 50 acres of new forest are growing in the tropics on land that was once farmed, logged or ravaged by natural disaster. Read more here in the New York Times. This good news was reported eight years ago by Marc Morano, Read more here.
And also here.
AT his popular New York Times blog, environmental journalist Andrew Revkin asks the question “Can a scientists be a Citizen, Too?” But what Mr Revkin is really asking is: should scientists become involved in advocacy?
Mr Revkin provides the case of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies Chief, James Hansen, as a specific example and suggests that because the issue of global warming has such “big consequences for society” Dr Hansen is almost obliged to become involved in politics.
I disagree.
In the following note, Mr Coleman goes on to explain that reporting on global warming at Mr Revkin’s newspaper, The New York Times, is unfortunately more advocacy than journalism.
“DID advocacy Journalism first get out of hand during the civil rights movement or the Vietnam war? It seems to me it began to sweep the newspapers and TV in the 1960’s and hasn’t been arrested since. I have little expectation that in the difficult times reform will take hold, but I will here and now hope for it.
[Read more…] about No Balance in Environmental Reporting at The New York Times: John Coleman
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
Read more
