ospreys

25 years ago, a mysterious cause of eagle and osprey deaths plagued a small town in Arkansas. And in this special episode, we get to the root of it all: small unassuming weeds, also known as invasive aquatic species. In conversation with aquatic plant experts Stacy Holt Jr. and Greg Bugbee, we share what these invasive plants are, how this happened, what they’re doing in other parts of the world (like Connecticut), and ways we can all prevent them from spreading. Co-produced by our guest host, Adé Ben-Salahuddin. Listen in now!

For more information about the From Love to Action campaign, episode transcript and other resources from this episode, visit BirdNote.org.

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Bring Birds Back Special Season 5 is sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Today I am joined by Lloyd Ashley - a mental health awareness advocate, an accredited first aid for mental health instructor, lead for mental health and wellbeing for the Welsh Rugby Players Association. He is also an ex-professional rugby player,  representing both the Ospreys and Scarlets over a 10 year career.

Our conversation today delves into  the value of facilitating conversation around mental health, normalizing discussions, and emphasizing the necessity of undertaking a proactive approach, rather than reactive.

We stress the need to eradicate stigmas, especially concerning men's mental health, whilst highlighting the importance of community, togetherness, and a sense of belonging in providing essential social support.

Lloyd provides insights into the world of athlete well-being, stressing the importance of viewing athletes as individuals with fundamental psychological needs and looking beyond their athletic labels. Athletes, like everyone else, face diverse stressors and pressures, therefore highlighting the need to investing in an athlete's mental health and psychological well-being - both off and on the pitch 

Find Lloyd:

@livingwellwithlloydashley

www.lwla.co.uk

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/lloyd-ashley-living-well

Ospreys are remarkable nest builders. Many reuse their massive stick nests from the previous year, but continue tinkering with it once the nesting season begins. And the nest transforms along with the growing chicks. It’s bowl-shaped at first, corralling the young birds, but it gets flatter after the chicks hatch. By the time they fledge, it has fully flattened out.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. 

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BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

Biologist Erick Greene has been taking blood samples from Osprey chicks in northwest Montana for years. Ospreys eat fish, so toxins in the water become concentrated in their bodies. Their blood offers a window into how pollution moves through the food chain. Finding high mercury levels in Osprey chicks helped Greene trace the toxin’s source.

Hear more about how Montana’s Ospreys are persisting despite pollution on the Threatened podcast.

On today's show: 

We’re joining an amazing project that has helped Ospreys return to Northumberland… 

Tom Pattinson’s here full of sunshine enjoying some warm gardening while keeping an eye on hazards… his advice could save your life…

And... Tom Cadwallender from the British Trust for Ornithology is listening to birds and asking why do they sing?

Plus some top tips for the garden from Tom P… All coming up on Nature Garden Podcast….  All coming up on The Weekending Show…

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You can follow Tom Pattinson, Steve and Tom Cadwallender and our wonderful guests and featured flowers, birds and projects on Twitter: @gardenersradio @TheNatureGarden and on Facebook: The Nature Garden.

And you can tune in to our monthly live radio show on Saturdays at 11am on www.lionheartradio.com
Or email us: gardenersradio@outlook.com
Thank you for your support!

Music link: Gaia by Carl Cape Band on Amazon Music - Amazon.co.uk

In our season finale, Mark River interviews Quapaw Canoe Company founder John Ruskey about the natural and invasive species of plants and animals found in and along the Mississippi River and how ecological events such as the changing climate and the current trend of flooding benefits some species while harming others. Featuring "Reflections" by Mark River, "Rivertime" by John Ruskey and a special performance of the song "Muddy Water" by John Ruskey.

Roy Dennis specialises in the translocation of species: moving birds, in this case osprey chicks, from one area to another, to help grow the population. This is hands-on conservation: the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation prides itself on its direct and proactive approach to wildlife conservation.

It is year three of a five-year project, with the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, working in collaboration with the conservation charity Birds of Poole Harbour, aiming to send a total of 60 young ospreys from the Highlands of Scotland to the south coast of England.  It's not that Scotland has 'enough' ospreys and can afford to pass some on: it's more that a population at saturation point, as it is in Roy's study area, means that birds have less chance of breeding.  If some young are moved, the idea is that they will return from migration, if they survive, to find a mate in their adopted area, and have the space to breed there without undue competition from other ospreys. 

In recordings made largely as they carry out their fieldwork, Roy and his team (Tim Mackrill and tree climbers Fraser Cormack and Ian Perks) describe the privilege of working with these special creatures, and of being allowed an insight into the lives of a species which, only recently, was on the brink of extinction in the UK.    

Roy has worked in conservation all his life and has seen the osprey population grow from a single pair in Scotland in 1960, the only ones in the UK at that time, to two pairs in 1963 - a slow growth in the face of egg thieves and persecution - until now, when there are around 300 pairs in Scotland, a small population in the north of England, ten pairs at Rutland Water (where Roy carried out a translocation project in the 1990s) and a further small population which has spread from there into Wales.

Future podcasts will follow the osprey chicks' journey from Scotland to Poole Harbour, their weeks there spent 'learning' their new landscape and, once they can fly, their eventual release back into the wild.   

Music credit:  Realness by Kai Engel, from the Free Music Archive 
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/


Contributors in order of appearance:
Roy Dennis
Tim Mackrill
Ian Perks
Fraser Cormack

Producer: Moira Hickey

Ospreys Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn Host: Hazel Stark Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com. Unlike me, with my catch-and-release tendencies, ospreys live an exclusively fish-based diet, giving them their other name: ‘fish hawks.’ Everything about these incredible raptors has been optimized and specialized to pursue their piscine prey.

The post The Nature of Phenology 4/13/19 first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Good fences make good neighbors. Bad neighbors make bad fences, if they make fences at all, the bastards.