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How do butterflies and moths travel great distances? According to an article from the BBC researchers have discovered that on those warm summer nights,there are thousands of butterflies and moths traveling in winds up to 60 mph above us. They may look fragile, but these beautiful creatures have a navigation system that makes for the right directional choice and the means to find a way to get there—fast. Now those breezy summer nights seem to take on a whole new meaning.
Posts Tagged ‘wildlife’
On the Wind and a Prayer
Saturday, February 6th, 2010The Tragedy of Taiji
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009Today I got a Facebook request to sign a petition to stop the Japanese dolphin slaughter. I signed it and put a post on my Facebook page explaining a little about the situation and asking others to sign the petition. So now what? Will this slaughter ever really end? My understanding is that in the middle of the 20th century (not a terribly long time ago), there were three coves in which a handful of Japanese fishermen drove terrified dolphins into with the intention of bludgeoning the adults to death for their meat and then taking the babies still in shock, alive as aquarium specimens. All went along fairly well (for the fishermen at least) for a very long time as there was absolutely no knowledge of this happening outside the little towns in which they took place. But, eventually the word started leaking out and a few 
impassioned people (including Hardy Jones) tried to stop it. They were unsuccessful as the Japanese government just turned a blind eye – eventually shutting down 2 coves, but tacitly permitting it all to take place for a couple dozen fishermen in Taiji, while denying it ever happened at the same time. Sadly, the images are so horrific of what takes place that most people don’t even want to know about it. It almost boggles the imagination that this kind of brutality can take place anywhere – much less against an animal whose intellectual and emotional capacities are considered to be extremely high. As a result, any groundswell to challenge this has been very slow to get started. Now that Earth Island Institute has gotten involved with long-time dolphin defender Ric O’Barry and a film called The Cove has been released about this slaughter, there is a glimmer of hope that there may be an end to it all. Will the petition help? Who knows. But maybe it’s the start of something that will finally bring to public attention and end one of the more chilling condoned animal brutality cases in contemporary times.
Photo credit: Diamond Docs
OK in the UK
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
According to a recent survey from the RSPB published on the BBC website, some of the more rare species of birds in the UK are seeing increases in their populations while some of the more common birds are seeing declines. The increased numbers of rarer species (including the Osprey and Avocet that are seen in North America as well) is great news, but the decline in more common birds (like the Swift and Starling – which is an endemic bird to the UK and not considered a pest) is a continuing saga. Much of the trouble for these common birds appears to lie in farming techniques. And, the UK has responded by trying some experimental measures in the Natural England project – giving farmers money in return for keeping some areas fallow for nesting birds and keeping some areas lively with plants that attract insects. Not surprisingly, this appears to be creating a beneficial area for birds and other wildlife like hares. And, it has captured the interest of many farmers who profess to like watching the hares boxing and the lapwings nesting sometimes a bit more than doing the plowing or harvesting. Some great ideas are also pretty simple and we can only hope that if this does work in the UK that this example of a simple and effective means to help wildlife can find its way to implementation in other countries.
Photo credit: BBC
Identifying Birds of Prey the Peterson iPhone Way
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009Migration season is in full swing for many raptors and there are hawks and falcons flying overhead – in some cases in large numbers. I love watching these 
birds during migration if for no other reason than sometimes there are huge numbers of them. I was in Panama several seasons ago and the hawks were kettling as of thousands of them flowed into a tight formation to stay over land, battling for space over the isthmus of Panama. It’s like when the 
superhighway suddenly loses a lane and all the cars back up because they have to change the traffic flow to accommodate fewer lanes. And it is a boon to hawk watchers.
Recently I was watching a trio of hawks just enjoying the currents overheard. I still find identifying hawks a challenge and so when I was creating the Peterson iPhone Field Guide to Birds of Prey (you can also use it on your iPod Touch), I wanted to have a handy guide that was easy to use and I kept in mind the things that I found helpful when trying to make 
identifications.
Mostly I see birds of prey silhouetted. When I look in bird field guides, the beautifully drawn images or well lit photos are great to look at, but in the field, they are not always as helpful. Peterson has available silhouettes for each family of raptor, so we used those to identify the family each bird is in. That generally is my first place to look – get the shape of the body and wings, and this narrows it down a lot.
Once the family is found (and they all are fairly distinct in silhouette), the next thing I look for is the overhead shape and color. We took the beautifully drawn Peterson overhead images and made them part of every individual plate for the birds for which they were available. So, you can touch the name of each bird in the family you are after and check the overhead view to see if it looks like what you are looking at – pale or dark, distinctive markings, maybe a window in the wing…things like that.
If I am still not sure at that point, even though I probably have it narrowed down to only one or two, then I touch the information icon on the app on the birds in question so I can see the text. Sometimes there is identifying information in there that is not quickly visible in the image.
A final identifying opportunity is if the birds are vocal, then I can look at the birds I have it narrowed down to and listen to each of their calls to compare. Often this is the best confirmation for me that I have the right bird. The whole process generally doesn’t take much time because it is really simple to move between birds in a family and to get information on each bird quickly by touching the buttons at the bottom of the screen. And, because the app is resident on the handset of your iPhone or iPod Touch, there is no need for an internet connection. I also always have my phone with me, so I am never without a quick and accurate identification tool 
for birds of prey.
To make it easier to learn to identify birds of prey quickly, we designed a quiz that gives you the choice of learning birds of prey either just by their sound or by sound and image. It’s a multiple choice quiz and it is fun to do and a good way to learn the different birds of prey. Even people who are not serious birdwatchers love this. Who doesn’t like hearing the calls of raptors? Some are such a surprise!
One of the cool things about this iPhone app is that not only can it help with identification, but it also helps raptors at the same time. My company, Wildtones, supports a variety of wildlife and animal charitable organizations, and we were delighted to be able to team up with our friends at The Peregrine Fund which is a leader in conservation and research for birds of prey. We donate 5% of the profits from the sale of the Peterson iPhone Field Guide to Birds of Prey to The Peregrine Fund and we hope to be able to continue to help supporting their really great work for some time.
If you have any questions or comments about raptor watching or this app, we’d love to hear from you! Oh, and BTW, no matter what iPhone or iPod Touch you have, this app will work on it.
What Happened to the Caribou?
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
To most people, Caribou may not be the sexiest of animals, and in fact, there are probably not many people who think much about Caribou at all. But since they live in fairly undisturbed areas, it came as a bit of a surprise to hear that their numbers have declined 60% in 30 years. The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting story about this issue which was discovered by scientists at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. It is a cause for concern as these are animals who have been considered irrevocably numerous and do not cross many paths with humans. Sadly, this sounds like other wildlife populations we also thought were too numerous to impact – passenger pigeons, buffalo, horseshoe crabs, bats. There seems to be a human blindness to the possibility of human impact when there are so many of a species it seems overwhelming to us. But, this latest discovery about Caribou is surprising if only because these are animals most of us would think are too far off the grid to be affected. It seems living off the grid is no protection no matter how many of you there are.
Photo Credit: Jason Witherspoon/Design Pics/Newscom
Peregrine Falcon Fledges in Boise
Friday, June 26th, 2009
The first baby Peregrine falcon in the nest closely watched by the nestcam sponsored by The Peregrine Fund has fledged! Watch lift off and the rocky moments of his first flight here:
Wildtones supports The Peregrine Fund with a donation of 5% of proceeds from the sale of our Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Prey application for iPhone and iPod Touch.
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