This video from England says about itself:
Marshside RSPB Reserve, Lancashire, September 2009
Golden plovers like the mild weather of this winter in the Netherlands; according to Ecomare museum on Texel island.
If winter in the Dutch Wadden Sea region is cold, like in 2010 and in 2011, then usually only a few hundred golden plovers stay there. The other golden plovers fly further south.
However, this winter, 21,000 golden plovers were counted there.
This video about mute swans is called Baby swans (cygnets) hitching a ride off mum (Part 1 of 2).
And here is Part 2.
From Wildlife Extra:
Power line research to reduce risks for tens of thousands of swans and geese
Power lines a major threat to swans and geese
September 2013. The safety tens of thousands of swans and geese in the UK could be improved by new research into collisions with power lines, which started this week with the installation of more than 150 special bird diverters in Lancashire.
Power lines are most common cause of death for swans
Flying collisions are the most commonly recorded cause of death for swans, whose size means they have poor manoeuvrability in flight. Bird diverters are special attachments to the lines that help make them stand out to birds in flight.
For the first time, a partnership between Electricity North West, Lancaster University and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), is studying the efficiency of different types of diverter, alongside agricultural, weather and landscape factors which affect birds’ flights. The study area around WWT Martin Mere in Lancashire is the winter home of 30,000 pink-footed geese and 2,500 whooper swans and has been identified as a sensitive area for collisions.
Dr Eileen Rees, Head of UK Waterbird Conservation for WWT, said: “Tens of thousands of migratory geese and swans make the UK’s wetlands their winter homes. Collisions with power lines are a major cause of death for them, so WWT is delighted to be working with Electricity North West to make Lancashire, and the UK as a whole, a safer place for them.
“Through this innovative partnership we aim to gather evidence for solutions that work in our modern landscape. As well as reducing the risk to swans and geese, the results of the study should help electricity suppliers throughout the UK provide their service with fewer unnecessary interruptions.”
Steve Cox, future network manager for Electricity North West, said: “We hope that the diverters and our subsequent research will go on to help birds and electricity customers across the UK.
“By working closely with WWT Martin Mere we discovered this was a sensitive section of the network as it was located in a known flight path and we are delighted to be able to help protect these wonderful birds.
“By limiting the chances of any collisions, the special diverters will also reduce any possible impact on customer power supplies.”
Dr Ian Hartley, a Senior Lecturer at the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University and a behavioural ecology expert, said: “This is a great opportunity and we are very pleased to be working with new partners on a project of such high calibre which is going to have a large impact on the area around where the geese and swans winter. One of our Master’s students will work on the project for a year and our input will be to add knowledge on the analysis and geographic information systems aspects.”
Throughout this winter, the study will closely observe the flight behaviour of geese and swans in and around WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre. It will determine the importance of features, such as tree lines, the choice of crops and the wind direction on the birds’ choice of flight line and height.
See also here.
This 2016 video is called Leucistic redshank at Isle of Sheppy by the bridge, Kent UK.
From Wildlife Extra:
Unusual redshank seen in North Wales
February 2013. One of our readers, Dennis Bannister, recently sent us this unusual looking redshank that he spotted in North Wales.
Leucism (or Leukism)
Leucism is a very unusual condition whereby the pigmentation cells in an animal or bird fail to develop properly. This can result in unusual white patches appearing on the animal, or, more rarely, completely white creatures.
Albinism is a different condition. The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is that in albinism the eyes are usually pink or red, and albinism affects the entire animal, not just patches.
This occassionaly causes very excited biologists to think they have discovered a new species, when in fact leucism is the cause of the unusual markings they have seen.
This video is about normally coloured redshanks in Lancashire, England.
This video is called A small flock of Ringed Plover on the shore of the Lancashire Coast.
Today, again where the Baillon’s crakes nested last year.
Two little grebes close to the reed of a canal bank.
This time, not just mallard ducklings, but also at least three gray lag goose couples with goslings.
A Canada goose sitting on its nest.
Cuckoo flowers flowering.
Gadwall. Shovelers.
Male and female teal.
Edible frog sounds.
Two ringed plovers and a redshank on the big mudflat.
The number of black-tailed godwits at the northern lake has increased again, there are about thirty now.
Three barnacle geese land between gray lag geese and Canada geese.
Shelducks. Egyptian geese.
On our way back, snake’s head fritillary flowering along the bicycle track.
From World Science:
Now downloadable: “music” of the stars
Aug. 13, 2006
Courtesy Sheffield Hallam University and World Science staff
Ancient Greeks thought planets and stars were embedded in vast crystal spheres that hummed as they spun around the heavens, giving off what the ancients called “the music of the spheres.”
It was a beautiful idea, and wrong.
But not totally wrong. There are no crystal spheres; but as astronomers found out in the 1970s, “the sun and other stars do actually ‘sing,’” said astronomer Donald Kurtz of The University of Central Lancashire in Preston, U.K.
The eerie tones are now downloadable:
Downloadable star sounds
» HR3831, discovered by Kurtz, a new class of star with a powerful magnetic field. It pulses every 11.7 minutes.
» Xi-hydrae, an old star in the constellation Hydra. It is 130 light years away and 60 times brighter than the Sun. Its sounds, which have been featured in club music in Belgium, are reminiscent of African drumming.
» A “white dwarf” or dead star 50 light years away, also in Centaurus
» The first piece of music composed for stellar instruments: the slowly-building Stellar Music No. 1 by Jenõ Keuler and Zoltán Kolláth.
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