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Week 2 for the killdeer nest in mulch. This mama's wise choice is working well for her. She kept silent & didn't do a broken wing dance when I walked by. She did stand up so I was able to see all 4 eggs under her. No 2nd parent that I've seen at this location.
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferous)
My photos can also be found at kapturedbykala.com
With a half-hitch, the winch was secured.
Sarasota (Sarasota Bay), Florida, USA.
5 October 2019.
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Venice, Italy. The locked gate seems inappropriate. At first it appears that the Madonna and Child are prisoners. Instead the gate merely prevents tampering with the small shrine, meaning that the objects have some intrinsic value to its creator.
From Blond Amsterdam.
Texture by Karen Kleis secure.flickr.com/photos/hollykl/22512096507/in/dateposted/
How secure is this slope?
That's a question with a price of one life. For a week after the last snowfall, it was avalanche danger 3, but it regressed now to danger 2. So, it SHOULD be good.
It is never trusting to see that is nobody else on the mountain. But the avalanche conditions were very secure. No risk ! This snow was in fact fully ice crusted and this is probably the reason why the mountain is so empty : difficult snow ! Very fast with a dangerous tendency to block any turning attempt with skis.
There is also a satisfaction to achieve difficult turns and be able to go, even if is not easy.
The Menindee Lakes is a natural series of lakes that fill with water when the Darling-Baaka River floods. In the 1960s, a series of engineering projects augmented the Menindee Lakes, allowing water to be directed into the lakes and held back or released. This ensured a reliable water supply for the city of Broken Hill, the township of Menindee and secure supply of water for the Lower Darling River and supply to South Australia.
The Menindee Lakes system provides important habitat, nursery and recruitment for native fish, such as the Murray Cod and Golden Perch. It is important habitat for a huge variety of native and migratory bird species. The Menindee Lakes system is vital to the communities of the Far West, providing recreation and amenity, as well as attracting tourism, recreational fishing, horticulture and viticulture.
The Darling-Baaka River is central to the cultural, spiritual and economic lives of the Barkindji people.
The health of the Menindee Lakes and the Darling-Baaka River are intimately linked. The lakes fill from the Darling-Baaka River and water stored in the Menindee Lakes keeps the Lower Darling flowing during dry times. The Great Darling Anabranch is a series of ephemeral creeks, billabongs and lakes that wind their way to the Murray River to the west of the main Darling-Baaka River Channel.
Irrigation expands:
There has been a rapid expansion of irrigation along the rivers in the Northern Basin of the Murray Darling Basin, particularly cotton. Irrigation of cotton has expanded by 4,000% since the 1970s. In 1971 Australia grew 81,000 bales of cotton. By 2012 Australia grew 5.3 million bales. Irrigation dams - Wee Waa
Much of the cotton is grown along the rivers of the Murray Darling in very large irrigation enterprises, with most of the cotton grown on tributaries of the Darling-Baaka River.
Large private storages were built to hold water and other structures were built to capture flood waters. Water licences and water sharing plans allow irrigators to suck huge quantities from the tributaries of the Darling-Baaka even when flows are modest.
The result has been that low and medium flows have virtually stopped flowing down the Darling-Baaka River. Only the largest floods that cannot be captured upstream, or specially protected environmental flows, now make it down to the Menindee Lakes and Lower Darling-Baaka River.
An easy target?
After the Millennium Drought exposed just how over-allocated the river systems of the Murray-Darling Basin were, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was agreed between the Commonwealth and the states. The Plan aimed to make the Murray-Darling Basin system more sustainable by returning more water to the rivers through buying back water licences and other measures to recover water for the environment.
Menindee Slogan Bus:
The irrigation industry views the water flowing into the Menindee Lakes as wasteful and unproductive (not growing crops). They would prefer water to be taken from the Menindee Lakes to meet the targets under the Basin Plan rather than for the irrigation industry to be compelled to use less water. The industry points to the volume of water that evaporates from the Menindee Lakes each year as a key reason to reduce the amount of water flowing into and being stored in the lakes. The amount of water that evaporates from shallow private storages in equally hot and dry climates is rarely mentioned.
Scientists and environmentalists view the water that flows down our rivers, fills wetland and billabongs, and spills over floodplains as highly productive for nature and vital for sustaining complex ecosystems that have evolved over eons. These flows are also vital for replenishing underground aquifers and for sustaining downstream communities and Indigenous cultures.
Some politicians view the Menindee Lakes as an easy target. The population around Menindee is sparse, without much economic or political clout. The birds, fish and wildlife can not vote, lobby or protest. Taking water from the Menindee Lakes system is seen as politically easier than seeking to recover water from loud, well-connected and politically savvy irrigators. The location of the Menindee Lakes in a remote part of NSW that is out of sight and out of mind for many citizens located on the eastern seaboard also makes it hard for the issue to gain political traction.
A plan to decommission the Menindee Lakes:
After the Menindee Lakes filled from a major flood event in Queensland and NSW 2012, they were rapidly emptied by the Murray Darling Basin Authority and the NSW Government. Usually the lakes would hold water for many years after they filled, but by 2014 they were emptied. As a consequence, Broken Hill was in danger of running out of water and the government announced a plan to drill bores to supply the city with low-quality bore water. Locals were outraged at this plan and were concerned that the Menindee Lakes had been deliberately drained so quickly as part of a plan to justify the decommissioning of the lakes.RIP Menindee Lakes
Another flood filled the Menindee Lakes in late 2016, but again they were rapidly drained, almost inexplicably into a flooding river. By then end of 2017 they were again dry just as drought started to bite and Broken Hill was facing another artificial water shortage.
Flush with cash from privatising the electricity networks, the NSW Government spent $500 million building a 270 kilometres water pipeline from the Murray River at Wentworth to Broken Hill. This ended the city’s reliance on the Darling-Baaka River and Menindee Lakes for water supply. Cotton Australia applauded the construction of the pipeline saying in their Annual Report, "The pipeline is a win for the community, the environment and irrigating farmers, and a solution Cotton Australia and its allies have long lobbied for." Meanwhile the local community was concerned that the pipeline would allow the NSW Government to decommission the Menindee Lakes without worrying about Broken Hill's water supply.
Sure enough, plans to reconfigure the Menindee Lakes are back on the table as a project to 'recover water from the environment' under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan's Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism. The NSW Government wants to save up to 100 gigalitres of water each year by reducing the volume water stored in Menindee Lakes by up to 80%. A range of proposals have been put forward for consultation.
The Darling River Action Group has labelled the plans as 'ecological genocide.' They strongly oppose the huge reduction in habitat that will occur if reconfiguration plans go ahead. They worry that changing the times between and length of inundation in the lakes will have a major impact on fish breeding and birdlife. The Barkindji native title holders are also strongly opposed to the plans, with significant concerns about the impact on their culture, community, environment and sacred sites.
Fish kills and dry rivers and lakes:
Fish Kill Menindee In the teeth severe drought, predictions of environmental catastrophe on the Darling River came true as millions of fish floated dead on the surface. Hot weather and a lack of flows led to a blue-green algae bloom that stripped the water of oxygen when it died, suffocating many millions of fish along a length of the Darling-Baaka River. Images of giant Murray Cod many decades old floating on the surface of a stagnant, bright green river shocked Australians. If water had been stored in the Menindee Lakes, a flow of water in the Darling-Baaka River could have been maintained and millions of fish and other creatures would have survived. It was noted that the very large mature Murray Cod that had died would have survived numerous previous droughts, so what had changed?
A report by the Australian Academy of Science concluded:
The conditions leading to this event are an interaction between a severe (but not unprecedented) drought and, more significantly, excess upstream diversion of water for irrigation. Prior releases of water from Menindee Lakes contributed to lack of local reserves.
A small flow in mid-2019 led to a partial revival of the Darling-Baaka River and water in the upper lakes of the Menindee Lakes system. However, the Menindee Lakes and Darling-Baaka River face three major threats:
1) The proposed re-configuration of the Menindee Lakes system;
2) The continuing overallocation of water extraction licences in the Northern Basin of the Murray-Darling system;
3) The extent and proposed licencing of floodplain harvesting, which is capturing huge quantities of water before it can even reach the waterways of the Darling-Baaka River.
Source: Save Menindee Lakes (www.savemenindeelakes.org.au/the_history)
Two girls pose in front of the White House, with a rifle-toting uniformed Secret Service officer in the background
If you're a bus enthusiast a stroll down Edinburgh's Annandale Street or if you're in Birmingham, Miller Street, can bring out something new and the other day was no exception. Lothian are now more seriously into their program of securing a substantial electric fleet and further 'hybrids' have now arrived. These are in a more traditional version of livery, with more gold added (why not!), however still missing from the interesting design is red - a piping of which adorned Edinburgh's last substantial eco-friendly fleet - the old trams! I believe this fleet, SK67 FLD etc, will be named 'Lothian Electric' no doubt 'Transport for Edinburgh'will be added at some place on these machines.
The new arrival comes well secured on a Volvo transporter, and brought to mind the now old song 'Hitchin' a ride' by Vanity Fair which became popular in 1969 - a long time before electric buses were dreamt about! It also brings to mind a question for Edinburgh's councillors who at this time are thinking of continuing a tram line into Leith for what they believe will be a huge sum of £165 million - and that just for the civils. Wonder if they know the price of these new buses as the roads the buses will use are already there!
Walking on the walls of the Grade I Listed Lincoln Castle, in Lincoln, Lincolnshire.
Lincoln Castle was built during the late 11th century by William the Conqueror on the site of a pre-existing Roman fortress. The castle is unusual in that it has two mottes. It is only one of two such castles in the country, the other being at Lewes in Sussex.
When William the Conqueror defeated Harold Godwinson and the English at The Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, he continued to face resistance to his rule in the north of England. For several years, William's position was very insecure. To project his influence northwards to control the people of the Danelaw (an area traditionally under the control of Scandinavian settlers), he constructed a few major castles in the north and midlands of England. It was at this time major castles at Warwick, Nottingham, and York were built. After gaining control of York, the Conqueror turned southwards and arrived at the Roman and Viking city of Lincoln.
When William reached Lincoln (one of the country's major settlements), he found a Viking commercial and trading centre with a population of 6,000 to 8,000. The remains of the old Roman walled fortress located 60 metres (200 ft) above the countryside to the south and west, proved an ideal strategic position to construct a new castle. Lincoln represented a vital strategic crossroads of the the same routes which influenced the siting of the Roman fort: Ermine Street, Fosse Way, Valley of the River Trent, River Witham & Lincolnshire Wolds
A castle here could guard several of the main strategic routes and form part of a network of strongholds of the Norman kingdom, in Danish Mercia, roughly the area of the country that is today referred to as the East Midlands, to control the country internally. Also (in the case of the Wolds) it could form a centre from which troops could be sent to repel Scandinavian landings anywhere on the coast from the Trent to the Welland, to a large extent, by using the roads which the Romans had constructed for the same purpose.
Work on the new fortification was completed in 1068. It is probable that at first a wooden keep was constructed which was later replaced with a much stronger stone one. To the south, where the Roman wall stands on the edge of a steep slope, it was retained partially as a curtain wall and partially as a revetment. In the west, where the ground is more level, the Roman wall was buried within an earth rampart and extended upward to form the Norman castle wall.
The castle was the focus of attention during the First Battle of Lincoln which occurred on 2 February 1141, during the struggle between King Stephen and Empress Matilda over who should be monarch in England. It was held but damaged, and a new tower, called the Lucy Tower, was built.
Lincoln Castle was again the site of a siege followed by the Second Battle of Lincoln, on 20 May 1217, during the reign of King John in the First Barons' War. This was the period of political struggle which led to the signing of Magna Carta on 15 June 1215.
As in Norwich and other places, the castle was used as a secure site in which to establish a prison. At Lincoln, the prison Gaol was built in 1787 and extended in 1847. Imprisoned debtors were allowed some social contact but the regime for criminals was designed to be one of isolation, according to the separate system. Consequently, the seating in the prison chapel is designed to enclose each prisoner individually so that the preacher could see everyone, but each could see only him. By 1878 the system was discredited, and the inmates were transferred to the new jail in the eastern outskirts of Lincoln.
Information Source:
Secure Airparks are now operating at Edinburgh Airport with a new Wright Streetlite. SN15ABX is seen here heading back towards its car park after a run to the airport. 03rd June 2015.