Echoes in the Mist

This is a Eurasian pygmy owl video from Sweden. I was privileged to see that species in Finland.

This is another Eurasian pygmy owl video from Sweden.

This is yet another Eurasian pygmy owl video from Sweden.

As October slips away I have made as many attempts as possible to get out and enjoy local birding highlights and have managed to do so alongside a local bird ringer. The opportunity to see even the common birds very close up even briefly is not to be missed and gives benefits outside of the scientific ones . The first foray took place near one my local  WEBS sites and soon produced a range of small wild wonders with snappy blue tits, grumpy wrens and gorgeous goldcrests.

Only close up do you get to see the orange hues that splits the male from the female goldcrest

As well as the opportunity to see the birds close up there is also the chance to tell with some certainty if they are this years birds and get an idea of how good a breeding season it has been and it…

Diwali is the day when we harvest the results of our hard work blessed with wealth by Mother Lakshmi. We pray to Her with gratitude and ask the gracious Divine Mother to shower Her blessings in abundance for the coming year, give us the intelligence to use our wealth in the right manner and give us the heart to share it generously with our fellow beings. – Swami Tejomayananda

In India, festivals are not only known for the celebrations and festivities, but also for their spiritual significance, inspiring us to raise the standard of our life. Rather than merely exhausting ourselves physically and mentally, they purify the mind, enabling us to face life with more enthusiasm.

And with Diwali here, let us take a closer look at the great significance it has.

Diwali is a contraction of the word “Deepavali” which means a row of lights or a billion lights. As…

By Alaa Elassar, CNN

Updated 4:30 PM ET, Sat October 19, 2019

Thousands of wild turtles were being captured and sold illegally in Florida.

(CNN)Two men have been charged for poaching thousands of Florida turtles and
selling them illegally, according to the
<https://myfwc.com/news/all-news/turtle-traffic/> Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission.

The “charges represent the state’s largest seizure of turtles in recent
history,” the FWC said in a statement on Friday.

More than 4,000 turtles comprising a range of native species were illegally
captured and sold over six months, the commission said. The turtles were
worth $200,000 on the black market.

“The illegal trade of turtles is having a global impact on many turtle
species and our ecosystems,” said Eric Sutton, the FWC’s executive director.

Two suspects have been charged for smuggling thousands of turtles and
selling them illegally.

After receiving a tip in February 2018, the FWC launched an…

“Due to the large-scale deforestation, there has been a significant drop in the amount of rainfall received.” –  Prof Subimal Ghosh, IIT-Bombay

Deforestation and conversion of forest land to crop land has weakened the monsoon in India, a study by a team from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay has found.

The team from the Interdisciplinary Program in Climate Studies of IIT-B studied recent changes of land use and found that rainfall received in the North-Eastern and North-Central India has reduced owing to the destruction of forests.

“Due to the large-scale deforestation, there has been a significant drop in the amount of rainfall received,” said Subimal Ghosh, a faculty member associated with the study.

“Forests are deep-rooted and have more leaf area index (an indicator of plant canopies). They facilitate more recycled precipitation, a source of rainfall,” he said.

Ghosh said the conversion of forests to crop lands, particularly…

This 3 June 2012 video from Borneo says about itself:

Danum Valley – The Legend of the Spectacled Flowerpecker

The story of the one and so far only sighting of what’s believed to be a new species of bird. With one of the three people who saw it.

From the Smithsonian Institution in the USA:

First scientific description of elusive bird illuminates plight of Borneo’s forests

Scientists document new species with eye toward the fate of a shrinking forest biodiversity hotspot and its inhabitants

October 17, 2019

Scientists with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and collaborators surveying the birdlife of Borneo have discovered a startling surprise: an undescribed species of bird, which has been named the Spectacled Flowerpecker. While scientists and birdwatchers have previously glimpsed the small, gray bird in lowland forests around the island, the Smithsonian team is the first to capture and study it, resulting in…

Purple Honeycreeper (male), Trinidad

Trinidad is not the most popular island in the Caribbean. Many people have never even heard of it. But for those of us who embrace the glory of the natural rainforest and all the creatures who live in it, it is a paradise.

Here are some of my favorite winged creatures, found while spending a week on this small island eight miles (12 km) off the Venezuela coast. Trinidad Wikipedia.

A visit to the Caroni Swamp yielded many thousands of scarlet ibis. They flock to this protected swamp at night to roost. We sat in a boat and waited for them as the sun set.

Scarlet Ibis, Caroni Swamp, Trinidad

Caroni Swamp, Trinidad

In the rainforest, nectar-drinking birds like hummingbirds and honeycreepers were plentiful.

Tufted Coquette hummingbird, male, Trinidad

Green Honeycreeper, male, Trinidad

We were fortunate to see the rare oilbirds. There are only a few…

This video from England is called Excerpts from a month in front of a European Nightjar nest in the Forest of Dean in 2018.

From Lund University in Sweden:

The moon determines when migratory birds head south

October 16, 2019

A new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that the presence or absence of moonlight has a considerable bearing on when migratory birds take flight in the autumn.

Together with colleagues at the Department of Biology at Lund University, Gabriel Norevik studied European nightjars (Caprimulgus europaeus) and how the lunar cycle and moonlight affects the departure time when the birds start their three-month-long migration flight to areas south of the Sahara.

Using miniature data loggers, the researchers charted the activity of 39 European nightjars over a one-year period. The results show that the birds are more than twice as active in their hunt for insects during moonlit nights…