Ringing Hadeda ibises of Cape Town, South Africa


This is a hadeda video.

From the Cape Argus in South Africa:

South Africa: Researchers Ring City Hadedas in Search for Secrets of Their Success

March 30, 2007

John Yeld
Cape Town

Talk about an exclusive fashion statement! About 32 youngsters are strutting their stuff in Cape Town, sporting exclusive jewellery – rings that are all the rage.

Exclusive and a fashion statement if you’re a bird, that is, and in particular if you’re a young Hadeda Ibis.

This large, raucous, and unmistakable species is a relative newcomer to Cape Town.

The birds are naturally most common in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal and were first recorded in the Western Cape in the early 1980s, but by the end of the decade had established themselves firmly in the city.

Researchers Res Altwegg and Doug Harebottle, at the University of Cape Town’s Avian Demography Unit, have been trying to understand this migration and last year appealed to human residents to help them find the Hadedas’ nests.

Harebottle said the Hadedas, whose loud “Ha-ha-hah” or “ha-de-dah” reverberates through the suburbs – usually at first light as they leave their night roosts – normally breed from late July to November.

Large trees, such as pines, are often used as nest sites, although these birds also use small trees or bushes on islands in wetlands, and they are also known to nest in suburban gardens that have suitable trees.

“Hadeda numbers have been on the increase in the Cape Town Metropole since their arrival 20 years ago. But why have they become such a successful species here and in perhaps many other cities in South Africa?” said Harebottle.

Scarlet ibis: here.

New wasp species discovered on Table Mountain, South Africa


Pycnostigmus hoerikwaggoensisFrom the Cape Argus in South Africa:

South Africa: New Wasp Species Creates a Big Buzz

March 30, 2007

John Yeld
Cape Town

It’s a case of “Latin meets Khoisan” with the formal description of a new wasp species found on the Table Mountain chain.

The parasitoid wasp has been named Pycnostigmus hoerikwaggoensis in honour of Table Mountain National Park’s Hoerikwaggo hiking trail network, between Cape Point and the city, which is currently being established on the mountain.

Appropriately, details of the new species were released today to coincide with the formal opening of the second overnight camp on the five-night, six-day trail option, at Silvermine.

The first camp to be established, at Orange Kloof above Hout Bay, has already proved a hit and is fully booked at weekends for months to come.

A Khoisan [see also here] word, Hoerikwaggo means “mountain in the sea” or “sea mountain”, and it was the indigenous inhabitants of the Cape‘s name for Table Mountain.

The wasp was named by Simon Van Noort, curator of entomology at the natural history division of Iziko-South African Museums.

The discovery of the insect, on Constantiaberg, was made by Van Noort in 1994, but it was only recently that he was able to investigate it scientifically and conclude that it was a new species.

And he has literally thousands of other wasp specimens preserved in jars of ethanol on a multitude of shelves in a cold-room at the museum – including others from Table Mountain and elsewhere in the fynbos system, as well as many other places in Africa – that are all waiting to be scientifically described, identified and named.

“The scary thing is that we may be losing species to extinction faster than we can describe them,” Van Noort said.

The newly described species was originally collected as part of a project to document wasp species richness in what is formally called Mesic Mountain Fynbos, the dominant vegetation type on Table Mountain.

Van Noort explained that his description of this species had been undertaken in collaboration with Matt Buffington of the US Department of Agriculture, and that together they had described seven new wasp species in the sub-family Pycnostigminae.

See also here.

“The dating and analysis of archaeological material discovered at Border Cave in South Africa, has allowed us to demonstrate that many elements of material culture that characterize the lifestyle of San hunter-gatherers in southern Africa, were part of the culture and technology of the inhabitants of this site 44,000 years ago,” said Dr Lucinda Backwell, a senior researcher in paleoanthropology at the Wits University’s Bernard Price Institute for Paleontological Research and co-author of both papers: here.

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Ethiopian helicopter down in Somalia


This video is called Bush, Iran and Somalia.

From Al Jazeera:

An Ethiopian helicopter has been shot down in Mogadishu, as fighting continued for a second day in the streets of the Somali capital.

One Mogadishu resident was reported on Friday as saying the helicopter was still burning after it went down in a residential area near the airport.

Gunfire has also been reported near the presidential palace.

“The helicopter looked like a ball of smoke and fire before crashing,” said Ruqiya Shafi Muhyadin, another resident who saw the helicopter roll over in the sky before crashing.

It reminds one of “Black Hawk Down“.

Not the anti Somali racist Hollywood war propaganda movie; but the reality, when US troops withdrew from Somalia after much bloodshed.

Update: here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

Political trials in Ethiopia: here.

US construction workers boo Republican Iraq war propaganda


This video from the USA is called Cheney: I never linked Iraq with 9/11. Oh really?

During the Vietnam war, United States construction workers, nicknamed “hard hats”, deservedly or undeservedly, had a reputation of supporting that war.

Well, today, with the Iraq war, even Fox News of super warmonger Rupert Murdoch (see also here), has to admit that construction workers’ views on George W. Bush’s war are rather different.

From Think Progress blog in the USA:

Boehner booed by construction workers’ union

Fox News tells the story:

House [Republican] Minority Leader John Boehner was booed on Wednesday at a construction workers’ union legislative forum for saying the United States needs to fight the war in Iraq or face terror attacks at home.

“Who doesn’t believe that if we just pull out of Iraq and come home that the terrorists won’t follow us here and we’ll be fighting them on the streets of America?” Boehner, R-Ohio, said to members attending the AFL-CIO’s Building & Construction Trades Department’s legislative forum.

Apparently, most in the crowd don’t believe it.

Boos from the audience grew louder as Boehner continued, “This is a, ladies and gentlemen, this is a serious fight.”.

Just like with Merle Haggard, people that the media might expect to be pro Iraq war, do not live up to that expectation; certainly not if the discredited old 9/11-Iraq connection lie is wheeled out by Bush supporters like Boehner.

Update June 2009: In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) pinned the blame for his party’s current failures on the Bush presidency: here.

Vincent van Gogh at Second Life


Self-portrait by Van Gogh

Paintings by, and information on, famous artist Vincent van Gogh, are now also at Internet site Second Life.

It is said there are plans to add more there on Vincent van Gogh in the future.

Van Gogh’s last landscapes: here.

Picture gallery Dresden in Second Life: here.

Psychotherapy and Second Life: here.

Ugandan army accused of massacring children


Karamoja in Uganda

From AMERICAblog:

Children massacred by Uganda army according to report

by Chris in Paris · 3/30/2007 02:52:00 AM ET

The Bush-friendly government often struggles with the truth, so groups such as Save the Children might be more reliable sources than government and military leaders:

Ugandan army raids in the country’s troubled northeast killed up to 66 children who were shot or crushed by armored vehicles and stampeding animals, aid workers said Friday, citing witnesses.

Children’s rights charity Save the Children said it has met with 256 people who reported the deaths during raids by the Ugandan People’s Defense Force on a cattle ranch in Karamoja on February 12.

“Reports of children being killed in indiscriminate, illegal and inhumane way is absolutely devastating.

Such allegations must be fully investigated and those involved brought to account,” said Valter Tinderholt, country director of Save the Children in Uganda.

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Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos on the brink in Australia


This video from Australia is about Yellow-tailed black cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus funereus).

From Wildlife Extra:

The future of Eyre Peninsula’s population of critically endangered Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos is looking grim after one of the species’ worst breeding seasons in almost a decade.

Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH) Threatened Fauna Officer Ms Sarah Way has estimated that only 10 to 14 Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos remain on Eyre Peninsula.

‘The drought has worsened the plight of these birds, which were already under considerable pressure following the 2005 Black Tuesday bushfire that burnt though the cockatoo’s core breeding area,’ said Ms Way.

‘Food resources for the cockatoos are scarce, with Hakea plants regenerating after the fire yet to produce edible cones for the birds.

August 2011: A recent census of Southern Australia’s vulnerable yellow-tailed black cockatoos has found a 2,030-strong population across the Mount Lofty Ranges and Fleurieu Peninsula: here.

Black-billed Amazon Amazona agilis in Jamaica: here.

Canberra Botanical Garden Facing Severe Droughts: Water and Cash: here.

Rare giant mollusc found in England


Fanshell

From Wildlife Extra:

Rare giant mollusc found in Salcombe Estuary

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) has received a report from Devon of one of the UK’s rarest and most threatened marine creatures, the fanshell (Atrina fragilis).

This giant, but elusive mollusc – like an enormous mussel but growing to more than a foot long – is one of just fifteen live specimens known to MCS around the entire United Kingdom.

The fanshell was found on the 21st March, in a seagrass bed in the Salcombe-Kingsbridge estuary in Devon by University of Plymouth staff and students, and local naturalists.

More fanshells found: here. Near Ireland: here.

Seagrass in Balgzand, The Netherlands: here.

Mussels in the Dutch Wadden Sea: here.

Ospreys back in Britain after spring migration


Osprey

From Wildlife Extra:

First ospreys arrive back in the UK.

It’s raining ospreys as they arrive at Rutland Water, Glaslyn and the Loch of Lowes within 2 days of each other.

There is an osprey webcam at Naardermeer nature reserve in The Netherlands.

However, it is not certain yet that the birds will breed there this year.

First Glaslyn osprey chick of 2009 hatches: here.

Osprey sound: here.

Bird migration in North America: here.

Bird sounds: here.