They threaten our drinking water and refuse to budge. But non-lethal methods are the only advisable ways to deal with the infestation
Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter
Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community
There are eight pigeons living on my shed roof. That itself is a small victory: it has taken two years, 60 metres of anti-bird mesh, daily patrolling for and disposing of eggs and countless hours running around waving a rake to get them out of the shed. They nested in our hay, ruining the top row of bales. They pooed on everything. When we purchased this property, we inherited piles of guano half a foot deep. We haven’t yet relaxed enough to remove the drop cloths.
Now the pigeons are sitting on the eaves, clogging up the gutters (which also supply our drinking water) with poo, and pooing in the stock troughs. When my horse was hospitalised with gastroenteritis, I blamed the pigeons until my vet said that while they do carry salmonella (wonderful!), Mickey would likely be much sicker if he’d caught something from them.
Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter
Continue reading...
08/19/2024 - 10:00
08/19/2024 - 10:00
Thousands of firefighters are deployed as an all time record for acres burned – and it’s only August. Now some worry about the long months ahead
It’s still early in the wildfire season for the American west, but it’s already shaping up to be a tough and, in some cases, record-breaking year.
Oregon has seen more fire than any year on record, with almost 1.5m acres (607,028 hectares) scorched in recent weeks as huge wildfires, primarily caused by lightning strikes, have exploded across the region. Nearly 70 major fires are burning across the US this week alone, primarily in Oregon, Idaho, Washington and California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).
Continue reading...
08/19/2024 - 08:55
Exclusive: Environment watchdog advised in 2021 the material ‘should not be used broadly’, before backing away from proposals to tighten regulations
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast
The New South Wales environment watchdog warned the former Coalition state government that a widely used recycled landscaping product posed “potential unacceptable risks to the environment and the community”.
Guardian Australia revealed in January that the Environment Protection Authority had known for more than a decade that producers of soil fill made from construction and demolition waste – known as recovered fines – were failing to comply with rules to limit the spread of contaminants.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...
08/19/2024 - 04:00
With the climate changing, many species are marching towards cooler climes – but trees are being outpaced. Some ecologists say assisted movement is the answer
At the top of an ancient oak at Knepp estate in West Sussex, a white stork has made a scruffy nest. The birds made headlines in 2020 when, after an absence of centuries in the UK, the first chick hatched. Alongside bison, beavers and white-tailed eagles, the storks are one of many species reintroduced to Britain in recent decades in an effort to restore animals to ecosystems where they had been wiped out. The oak tree, by contrast, has been here continuously for 12,000 years.
But ecologist Charlie Gardner is worried one of them may not have a future here – and it’s the oak. By 2050, London’s weather could resemble that of Barcelona, with long stretches of summer drought. These ancient trees were not designed to thrive in such conditions. “More and more individual trees will die and reproductive success will fall,” says Gardner. Around the world, millions of creatures facing unprecedented temperatures and habitat loss are on the move. The climate crisis is causing a vast array of species – from algae to butterflies, woodlice to birds – to shift northwards. Species are travelling north at a median rate of 17km a decade, according to 2011 research. That average equates to 20cm an hour – two to three times faster than previous estimates.
Continue reading...
08/19/2024 - 03:24
Gusts of up to 62mph made waters around islands unsafe; and Hurricane Ernesto passed over Bermuda
Hundreds of people were evacuated as flash flooding struck homes and holiday lets in the Balearic Islands last week, with many parts receiving about 100mm of rain within 24 hours.
Heavy downpours and severe thunderstorms hit the islands on Wednesday and Thursday, bringing hail and strong winds. The local authorities told people not to leave their homes on Wednesday, when the weather was at its worst. The town of Sóller, on Mallorca, received the highest 24-hour total of 114mm, but 68mm of this fell within just one hour, with 19mm falling in 10 minutes.
Continue reading...
08/18/2024 - 23:00
While tourists flock to the Italian island in greater numbers, a water crisis is intensifying for its rural population
For the first time in four generations of his family’s farming history, Vito Amantia’s threshers have lain silent this year. The 650,000kg of wheat that his farm would usually produce in a year has been lost, parched and withered under the scorching sun and relentless drought.
“A seasoned farmer doesn’t need to check the weather forecast to understand what the weather will be like,” says Amantia, 68, who farms on the Catania plain in eastern Sicily. “Already last January, I knew it would be a disastrous year. The wheat seedlings that normally reached 80cm stopped at 5cm. Then they dried up.”
Continue reading...
08/18/2024 - 12:44
Attendees who fell ill suffered from dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke in 96F temperatures
More than 100 people were treated for heat-related illness at a Colorado airshow on Saturday, with attendees describing a lack of shade and free water on festival grounds as temperatures soared to 96F (36C) highs.
The Colorado Springs fire department said those who fell ill at the Pike’s Peak regional airshow suffered conditions such as dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke, according to KRDO.
Continue reading...
08/18/2024 - 05:00
The death of a young woman falling from the famous – and ever more popular – Half Dome in Yosemite ignites debate
In 1974, Scott Crollard, a teen on a church youth group trip, casually climbed cables to help reach the lofty summit of Half Dome, whose name describes a unique rock formation in California from which you can see the Yosemite Valley some 5,000ft below.
“I remember sitting on the edge of the lip of Half Dome with my buddy and just gazing over the edge. And when he got off, he kind of nudged me, and I darn near fell off the thing just because we were so nonchalant about it,” said Collard, now a 65-year-old retired emergency room physician in St Louis who again ascended Half Dome in 2017 with more appreciation for its magnitude.
Continue reading...
08/17/2024 - 15:00
Cattle at a Queensland feedlot were fed red seaweed for 200 days in one of the longest trials of the additive – but experts say it’s not farm-ready
Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter
Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community
It takes a tasty treat to lure a cow’s head into the narrow channel of a solar-powered contraption mounted to the back of a trailer.
Once inside, and munching away at the sweet pellet, sensors measure the potency of the animal’s methane-laden burps. By the water trough, another device calculates the cow’s weight, and over the fence tubs of feed on scales record how much it eats.
Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter
Continue reading...
08/17/2024 - 12:00
Travel companies are reporting a surge of interest in people wanting to get away from light pollution and into nature
For the campers at the Dark Skies site near the Cambrian mountains in Wales, the blackness of the pitches is an important draw.
“When people come, they are blown away by the night sky,” said Tanya Jordan, who owns the site and holiday cottages nearby. “We get people who know about it and come for that reason.”
Continue reading...