The Starling Nursery

So, Spring is running about a month late in the UK and all the animals and plants are in a mad scramble to produce their offspring. None more so than our local starlings. Once a common bird, the UK starlings are now in decline. All through the long hard winter we have tried to help keep our little local flock going and in the last few days they have rewarded us by bringing their newly fledged offspring into our small garden.

There have been young starlings everywhere and in the warm sunshine they like to do nothing better than bathe - and they bathe and bathe until they empty the bird bath and the two auxiliary bowls that we have put out.

The youngsters, as you can see below, lack the dark plumage and bright yellow bills of their parents. Instead they are pale brown, with a lighter patch around their eyes and speckled breasts. They are also a little silly... and don't show the necessary fear of human beings; they don't fly very well and one or two even got too wet to take off.

Their parents are shoveling food into their mouths although the fledglings are also increasingly foraging for themselves and the whole flock has gone through thirteen balls of fat and several shovel-loads of grain just today. The only down-side to all this activity is that they are very noisy. There are contact calls and begging calls going on from dawn to dusk. Scream, scream. scream!

But the flock - if they can keep the silly fledglings protected - has the chance to double in size.

Anyway, here they are.

'Feed me!'

Bath time

One bedraggled fledgling.

Summertime! Ham Wall - booming bitterns and calling cuckoos.

It's no good. I have tonnes of work to do but the sun is shining and it is a holiday weekend.

So a quick expedition to the RSPB reserve at Ham Wall a little west of Glastonbury follows.

Even before I have the car door open, I can here the cuckoo calling and then, a little later, that other rare bird, the bittern, is booming from deep in the marshes.

Mute swans with their seven cygnets and Glastonbury tor behind. 

One of the main drains.

The bittern drifts along the reed bed

Somewhat battered peacock butterfly

May blossom (Hawthorn)

Later: marsh harrier soar overhead; crested grebes and coots mind their nests; and crested grebes abound. There is plenty of other birdlife. Its a wonderful place on a sunny day, part of a series of linked reserves on the marshy lowlands of the Somerset levels.

More on Ham Wall here.

Time to put my summer hat on and... go back to work.

Conservation News: Action from the Palace on wildlife trade, India Bans Dolphinaria, sad news for UK wildlife and an entangled whale

There is a lot of interest in the media today in the UK surrounding a meeting in London which has the support of Prince Charles and Prince William and which concerns the mounting problems related to wildlife trade.

The conference is at St James's Palace and delegates will be told that trade in wild animals and their parts and products is being driven by international organised criminal networks and, in some cases, terrorist and rebel militia groups.

There is more information and a video about the meeting on the Skye news site here. 

India has just announced that it has banned the keeping of dolphins in captivity and in its reasoning points to their recognition as non-human persons. See the discussion of this on the WDC blog here.

This makes India the second country to decide not to host any dolphinaria; the other being the UK

UK wildlife are sadly in decline - see BBC news here.

And finally the sad story of a whale that was disentangled but did not survive: here.

Falmouth: the Whalers, Moby Dick and Wind Turbines

That's Falmouth in Massachusetts USA!

So, we just had a marine debris workshop hosted by the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and most workshop participants stayed in Falmouth, which is just a few miles north of the village of Woods Hole.

In the 19th century, both towns were deeply involved in  whaling. Woods Hole still has a large stone building on its main street - the Candle House - where sperm whale oil was rendered into candles. It the one remaining remnant of a small village that ringed the town's Eel Pond and supported the whaling industry.

Candle House

Falmouth has a series of buildings and gardens that form a museum complex known as the 'Museums on the Green'.  One of the things focused on here in the museum displays is  the lives of the local whaling families.

Falmouth also has many beautiful wooden-clad (or clap-board) buildings that were originally built and maintained by the town's wealthy whaling families. On the white sandy beach one stone remains with a plaque on it which mark the habour where the whaling vessels once docked. It was destroyed by a storm.

Try Pots for boiling down whale blubber to extract oil - in the garden of the  Museums on the Green

Falmouth expanded during the period of 'Yankee whaling' when sperm whales - because of their rich oil content - were the main prize and the whaling crews traveled all around the world in search of them. A whaling captain and his crew at this time would have been away from home for years on end. Some Captains took their wives and children with them and some babies were also born on these expeditions to these families..

I found a fascinating booklet in the town museum dedicated to telling the story of one Falmouth whaling family - the Lawrences - authored by Mary Malloy (with the assistance of 16 college students) and available from the Falmouth Historical Society. The booklet is called Whaling Brides and Whaling Brothers and it gives a remarkable insight into a unique way of life that was neither seen before nor since.

In the 1850s, when five of the Lawrence brothers were at sea, they and the other whalers of this New England region, were hunting their quarry mainly in the Pacific and Indian oceans and their average voyages lasted 46 months.

Yankee Whaling involved harpooning the whale with a simple barbed harpoon from a relatively small rowed boat (usually somewhat smaller than the whale). The harpoon trailed a rope attached to the boat and once the slack was played out the boat would be pulled at speed through the water in what became known as the 'Nantucket sleigh ride' (after the major whaling port of Nantucket). The exhausted and wounded whale was eventually usually finished off by lancing it and the poor animal's blow would turn red with blood confirming to the whalers that they had breached its vital organs. It was a bloody and risky business and is well described in Herman Melville's classic book, Moby Dick.

An audio version of Moby Dick has recently become available with actors (including Tilda Swinton and Benedict Cumberbatch) and other famous folks (like David Cameron) reading the chapters. You can find it here:  The Big Read - Moby Dick

The whaling families left behind them a pretty and prosperous town. All the Lawrence brothers but one, who died in Valparaiso in 1855,  eventually came home safely to retire to land-based activities but not before they had spent the better part of their lives at sea.

The last whaling boat to leave Falmouth returned to Woods Hole in 1864.


Now if you open the local paper the main issue for the locals is no long where are the whales (although whale-watching is a major occupation in both nearby Province Town and Plymouth), but what to do about the wind turbines that have been built on the edge of the town - which have become very unpopular.

And now the 'quarry' for Falmouth's entrepreneurs is more terrestrial: the tourists that will soon come to town this summer. But the whaling heritage is not forgotten and the Falmouth museum is currently showing a new and vibrant exhibition of plates made by local students showing whaling scenes and illustrating this important part of their town's history.

Palmer Street, Falmouth 

Marine Debris - The Fifth Strand

During the marine debris workshop at Woodshole, participants were invited to view the host - Michael Moore's - autopsy facility where he examines stranded cetaceans. 

Now I know some of you may find this macabre but if you would like to know what a state-of-the-art facility large enough to cope with quite large whales (e.g. pilot whales) looks like, pan on down.

Michael Moore and a long thin strip of baleen plate from a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale  (Michael is on the right).

Marine Debris - The Fourth Strand

Nancy Wallace, the Marine Debris Programme (MDP) Director and Division Chief, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), provided one of the key note presentation in the opening public seminar of the Woods Hole/IWC marine debris workshop.

Nancy Wallace

Here is a excerpt of some of what she said in providing an introduction to the issues arising from marine debris in the world’s oceans. The MDP was formed in 2006 after passage of the US Marine Debris Research, Prevention and Reduction Act. 

Marine debris is a global problem, and it is an everyday problem. There is no part of the world that is untouched by debris and its impacts. It is pervasive, it is an eyesore, and it harms our natural resources. Marine debris is a threat to our environment, navigation safety, the economy, and human health.

A major marine debris issue, one that has a profound impact on natural resources is derelict fishing gear. Discarded nets, rope, and monofilament fishing line will continue fishing even as they drift through the ocean. They can entangle animals, maim them, or prevent them from hunting food. Lost or discarded traps and pots can continue to entrap animals for years after they are lost adding to resource and economic losses.  Both primary sources and secondary sources of plastic are another major issue related to marine debris. Plastics can be ingested by marine life and can lead to starvation and death. There are also many questions related to the chemical impacts of plastics and research is underway to address these.

A majority of marine debris can be prevented but some cannot. Natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2009 tsunami in American Samoa and the 2011 tsunami in Japan are examples of events that led to substantial amounts of debris entering the ocean.

While there are many challenges related to marine debris, there are also many efforts to reduce the impacts. The NOAA Marine Debris Program has established a presence throughout the United States and formed partnerships with local organizations to carry out removal and prevention projects.  There are research projects underway to address the impacts of microplastics, derelict fishing gear and economic impacts of marine debris. Examples of these projects can be found at www.marinedebris.noaa.gov.

Marine debris is a global problem and solutions must be at the global level. Two years ago, NOAA, the United Nations Environment Programme, and stakeholders from all over the globe came together to draft the Honolulu Strategy, a global strategy for reducing marine debris. 

You can find the strategy HERE.

Marine Debris - The Third Strand

I will populate this a little further when I get a chance in the coming days but here, for the record, is a list of speakers and presentations from the public seminar held on Monday. These were key note presentations/scene-setters for the workshop which is now ongoing here in Woods Hole.

Michael Moore, the Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution welcomed everyone.

Michael Moore

An Introduction to the work of the International Whaling Commission on environmental issues. Simon Brockington, Executive Secretary, International Whaling Commission

Simon Brockington

Marine Debris in our oceans – an overview. Nancy Wallace, Marine Debris Programme Director and Division Chief, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Director Wallace speaks about the albatross chick known as 'shed bird'

All the little bits of plastic found in the chick after she died - the story of the picture can be found here

Whale entanglement: detection and impacts. Michael Moore, Director Marine Mammal Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Whale entanglement: scope and response. David Mattila, International Whaling Commission

Microplastics – Cristina Fossi, University of Siena

Closing the loop: Repackaging plastic debris as a hazardous substance. Mark Browne, NCEAS, University of California

Questions Arising – Mark Peter Simmonds and Sarah Baulch, Environmental Investigation Agency

And the day concluded with a panel discussion featuring all the speakers.

Panel discussion

Woods Hole is the home to some amazing marine research - see below one of their famous deep sea research vessels,  the Atlantis, the capsule from 'Alvin' the famous underwater vehicle and Alvin's replacement peeking out from its bay on Atlantis.

One of the Wood Hole research vessels - The Atlantis -the big A frame at the back allows the deployment of manned and unmanned submersibles

The old capsule in which people used to descend to great depth  in the  famous submersible Alvin

Alvin's replacement peeking out from its bay  on the Atlantis

Marine Debris - Second Strand

Where: Woods Hole and the neighboring Town of Falmouth, Massachusetts, USA
What: the IWC Workshop on Marine Debris - see Link here - tomorrow
Images: Just a few from the locality this sunny Sunday afternoon.

The American Robin

 Blossom on a fine old cherry tree on Palmer Avenue, Falmouth

Just outside Woods Hole - nest platforms have been constructed for ospreys.

Same Osprey takes wing.

Whale and Dolphin News: May

There have been a couple of significant developments on the whale and dolphin front these last few days:

Firstly, it has been announced in Iceland that they will resume their take of fin whales this summer. This is after a break of two years.

Here it is reported in the Icelandic press: Iceland Review. And you can see one of the whaling vessels being made ready here.

Secondly, after a long wait, the findings of the investigation into what caused the UK’s largest mortality of dolphins which occurred in June 2008 have just been made public in a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal by a long list of authors: The paper is in an open access journal which means it can be freely seen by all and you can find it here.  

This has been a major issue in the UK and the results were also reported in the media; including here in the Daily Mail. 

Marine Debris - The First Strand

A while back I promised I would post something on marine debris. This is where it starts!

Our wasteful habits, and especially the ways in which we treat our wastes, are impacting even the furthest reaches of the oceans and the animals that live there. Even oceanic islands far from big cities have their shorelines corrupted by piles of marine litter; much of it is high-persistent plastic and all of it has the capacity to harm wildlife. National Geographic provides a nice little primer on marine debris here. 

You will probably have seen distressing images of birds, turtles or seals ensnared in plastic rubbish and whilst the scale of entanglement and the threat that this brings are unclear, it is reasonable to assume that tens, and maybe hundreds, of thousands of animals are being impacted each year. Incredible numbers! Added to these sad visions of our casual cruelty are equally shocking images of the biggest animals of all the great whales towing fishing netting; their swimming impaired and often with terrible wounds.  

Sadly, we know that entanglement in plastic wastes and lost fishing gear often brings prolonged suffering. It is a welfare problem on a massive scale and it goes on largely out of sight.

Marine litter comes in many forms, from derelict fishing net to small plastic pellets.  The smaller pieces may be ingested and this now brings a new concern about plastics both clogging the guts of those animals that eat it and also carrying toxic chemicals into their bodies.

The only good news is that this growing problem is one that we can all help to address. Whilst scientists are working diligently to better understand how litter is distributed around the oceans and identify the hot spots and key sources, we can all reduce, reuse, recycle, and participate in local beach or stream cleanups. If we each do a little, together we can make a big difference. 

Coming up is a public seminar on Marine Debris organised under the auspices of the International Whaling Commission. This will be held at the Woodshole Oceanographic Institution in the US. Details can be found here:

I am attending and will report back here and I will also provide link to some other sources of information on this issue.

My own review on what is know about marine debris and whales and dolphins can be found here: Cetaceans and Marine Debris: the Great Unknown.