Forestry
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Red Legged Partridge - Alectoris Rufa aka French Partridge
The red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) is a gamebird in the pheasant family.
It is sometimes known as French partridge, to distinguish it from the English or grey partridge.
This partridge breeds naturally in southwestern Europe (France, Iberia and northwest Italy). It has become naturalised in flat areas of England and Wales, where it was introduced as a game species, and has been seen breeding as far north as Cumbria and eastern Yorkshire and the western Isle of Man. It is replaced in southeastern Europe by the very similar rock partridge (Alectoris graeca). It is a non-migratory terrestrial species, which forms flocks outside the breeding season.
This species breeds on dry lowlands, such as farmland and open stony areas, laying its eggs in a ground nest.
The natural range of the red-legged partridge is France, Spain and Portugal. However, it was introduced from France to Great Britain in the 18th century, and has since become an important gamebird there. As it is a mediterranean species, it thrives in hot, dry areas with sandy soil. The ability to breed two clutches simultaneously has led to it being extensively reared in captivity, and released for shooting. The breeding of chukars (Alectoris chukar) and red-legged/chukar hybrids is prohibited, due to its impact on wild populations of red-legs. The red-legged partridge is believed to be in decline across its range.
Red Squirrel - Sciurus Vulgaris
Highlands, Scotland.
The red squirrel is found in both coniferous forest and temperate broadleaf woodlands. The squirrel makes a drey (nest) out of twigs in a branch-fork, forming a domed structure about 25 to 30 cm in diameter. This is lined with moss, leaves, grass and bark. Tree hollows and woodpecker holes are also used. The red squirrel is a solitary animal and is shy and reluctant to share food with others. However, outside the breeding season and particularly in winter, several red squirrels may share a drey to keep warm. Social organization is based on dominance hierarchies within and between sexes; although males are not necessarily dominant to females, the dominant animals tend to be larger and older than subordinate animals, and dominant males tend to have larger home ranges than subordinate males or females.
Red squirrels that survive their first winter have a life expectancy of 3 years. Individuals may reach 7 years of age, and 10 in captivity. Survival is positively related to availability of autumn–winter tree seeds; on average, 75–85% of juveniles die during their first winter, and mortality is approximately 50% for winters following the first.
Although not thought to be under any threat worldwide, the red squirrel has nevertheless drastically reduced in number in the United Kingdom; especially after the grey squirrels were introduced from North America in the 1870s. Fewer than 140,000 individuals are thought to be left in 2013; approximately 85% of which are in Scotland, with the Isle of Wight being the largest haven in England. A local charity, the Wight Squirrel Project,[26] supports red squirrel conservation on the island, and islanders are actively recommended to report any invasive greys. The population decrease in Britain is often ascribed to the introduction of the eastern grey squirrel from North America, but the loss and fragmentation of its native woodland habitat has also played a role.
In January 1998, eradication of the non-native North American grey squirrel began on the North Wales island of Anglesey. This facilitated the natural recovery of the small remnant red squirrel population. It was followed by the successful reintroduction of the red squirrel into the pine stands of Newborough Forest. Subsequent reintroductions into broadleaved woodland followed and today the island has the single largest red squirrel population in Wales. Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour is also populated exclusively by red rather than grey squirrels (approximately 200 individuals).
Redstart (M) - Phoenicuros Phoenicuros
The common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), or often simply redstart, is a small passerine bird in the redstart genus Phoenicurus. Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, (Turdidae), but is now known to be an Old World flycatcher (family Muscicapidae).
Common redstarts prefer open mature birch and oak woodland with a high horizontal visibility and low amounts of shrub and understorey especially where the trees are old enough to have holes suitable for its nest. They prefer to nest on the edge of woodland clearings. In Britain it occurs primarily in upland areas less affected by agricultural intensification, but further east in Europe also commonly in lowland areas, including parks and old gardens in urban areas. They nest in natural tree holes, so dead trees or those with dead limbs are beneficial to the species; nestboxes are sometimes used. A high cover of moss and lichen is also preferred. They also use mature open conifer woodland, particularly in the north of the breeding range. Management to thin out the trees is thus favoured.
In England, where it has declined by 55% in the past 25 years, the Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant (EWIG); as does Natural Englands Environmental Stewardship Scheme. It is a very rare and irregular breeding bird in Ireland, with between one and five pairs breeding in most years, mainly in County Wicklow.
It is a summer visitor throughout most of Europe and western Asia (east to Lake Baikal), and also in northwest Africa in Morocco. It winters in central Africa and Arabia, south of the Sahara Desert but north of the Equator, from Senegal east to Yemen. It is widespread as a breeding bird in Great Britain, particularly in upland broadleaf woodlands and hedgerow trees, but in Ireland it is very local, and may not breed every year.
The males first arrive in early to mid April, often a few days in advance of the females. Five or six light blue eggs are laid during May, with a second brood in mid summer in the south of the breeding range. It departs for Africa between mid-August and early October. It often feeds like a flycatcher, making aerial sallies after passing insects, and most of its food consists of winged insects. The call is chat-like and the alarm a plaintive single note, wheet, like that of many other chats.
The male’s song is similar to that of the Robin, but never more than a prelude, since it has an unfinished, feeble ending.
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Waldwirtschaft
February 2023 - Ferenberg-Bantigen BE, Schweiz
Mamiya 7II, 4/80 mm, Kodak Tri-X 400, D-76 (1+1)
Print auf Fomatone 132 mit Moersch ECO 4812
Selentonung MT1 1+9, 1:30 min
Mountain homeland
Neukirchen bei Altmünster, Oberösterreich
1999
Noblex Pro 6/150 UX, Kodak CN 400
Lithprint auf Kodabrome II RC
SE5 1+15, +3 f-stops, 5 min
Catechol/NH4Cl 8+10+800, 1 min
Nothing to pick up at siding 4 on this morning as 301 passes by with loads lifted from siding 6. Light drizzle for a change.
8:04am
March 26, 2017
Inside the Oslo Town Hall
Oslo City Hall is a landmark building in Oslo and Norway.
The architects of the building, Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson had a clear idea of ​​what they wanted the building to represent, and artists such as Edvard Munch, Henrik Sørensen, Alf Rolfsen and Per Krogh have helped to underpin the architects' vision.
The main hall was decorated by two famous Norwegian artists: Henrik Sørensen and Alf Rolfsen.
In one of the frescoes, the pillars of Norwegian identity are represented—fishing, forestry, and industry—flanked on either end by explorer Fridtjof Nansen and playwright Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, both of whom won Nobel prizes.
The mural on the east side of the wall displays the history of the Nazi occupation
Not mist but a controlled burn by forestry workers from a nearby conifer plantation that had been felled. An area that I'd visited numerous times over the years and from which I'd managed some lovely pictures, but nothing stays the same and I'd always known it was plantation and would be felled at some stage. Poignant all the same and although "my area" was closed due to the works this adjacent area had smoke drifting through which was backlit creating this mist-like effect and seemed to be a fitting finale.
A reworking of an earlier image. Sadly, I suspect this lovely historical relic was damaged or lost some months after the shot was taken, in the bushfires of December 2019.
Beckdale is a lovely forestry walk from the town of Helmsley in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, England.
Walking through Little Wittenham Wood with Damain Ward we came across a wonderful collection of trees on the edge of a clearing where there had been some forestry work. It is a managed wood, so there are always piles of logs kicking around. The trouble was the head high deer fence that run round them. So lifting the tripod up and thankfull for my new wireless shutter release I grabbed some frames and this is the result of two of them stitched together. I liked the way the main tree seemed to be moving into the clearing to see what had been done, with a hint of sadness.