Eco Hvar

Bird Watch early January 2016

Steve from Dol reports:

Blue tit. Photo Steve Jones Blue tit. Photo Steve Jones

I have been out bird watching a couple of times but a little disappointing. Made the mistake of going out on the 6th January.

Hunters everywhere and not a bird in sight. Came over on the back road from Vrbanj to Jelsa yesterday as the land promises much but once again very quiet. I managed to get two poor pictures of the Hooded Crow, both these and Buzzards are very flighty. Even photographing from the car they take flight at the slightest movement.

My Blackbirds which I thought were nest building due to all their activity are not. I noticed yesterday morning that 4 males were all eating the berries on the ivy on a ruined building next door.  My garden list for 2016 stands at 7 species which have touched down, my garden in the UK would generally hit 15 species by January looking back at the last 2 years, I am putting this down to just natural food sources. I keep looking for Brambling here amongst the Chaffinch but it's just wishful thinking it seems.

Steve Jones, Dol 9th January 2016

Crows on posts. Photo Steve Jones

Comment from Eco Hvar

Sundays and Wednesdays are hunting days during part of the winter - roughly October 15th to January 15th, although the dates may be subject to change each year. Officially hunting should stop at 2pm, maybe 3pm (it seems to vary according to who you ask), but the hunters sometimes stay out longer, at least round here. Very tedious, as I have to go down to my field to feed the dogs in the afternoon, and it's a bit scary. I don't think I look like a rabbit or pheasant, but I'm wary in case they shoot on sound rather than sight, especially if they've had a few rounds of wine with their lunch!

Dol: roadside herbicide. 6th January 2016. Photo Vivian Grisogono

Your garden birds may be suffering rather than simply dining elsewhere. I was in Dol on Wednesday, dining at the (extremely fine) Stančić restaurant, and saw that just outside their property someone has sprayed Cidokor (Roundup) liberally over some fields of vines and olives, also over a bit of land on the edge of the woodland abutting the road. Presumably the last bit was to use up what was left in the spray canister. Any birds around during the spraying would have been poisoned at least to some degree, their habitats and ground feeding possibilities eliminated.

Herbicide in Dol, 6th January 2016. Photo Vivian Grisogono

Sadly, the spraying has started early this year, possibly because of the fine weather up to New Year. We (Eco Hvar) are organizing a seminar in February about organic agriculture, with the aim of pointing up the hazards and detriments of pesticides, and the alternative ways of controlling unwanted plants and insects which are more environmentally friendly. The message will take a long time to percolate through.

VG 9th January 2016

For more of Steve's beautiful nature pictures, see his personal pages: Bird Pictures on Hvar 2017, and Butterflies of Hvar

Related items

back to top
You are here: Home Nature Watch Bird Watch early January 2016

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Energy crisis: why ‘keep calm but cut down’ may be a better message for Labour

    Government keen to avoid panic as oil price surges, but perhaps households need advice on reducing consumption

    Labour ministers asked in recent days about the looming energy crisis sparked by the Iran war, including Keir Starmer himself, have essentially stuck to that reassuring wartime slogan: keep calm and carry on.

    “I think people should go about their lives as normal, knowing that the government is taking action to bring energy bills down,” James Murray, the chief secretary to the Treasury, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday.

    Continue reading...

  • UK’s smallest bird of prey among 200 species at risk of extinction, study finds

    Merlin could disappear in worst-case scenario, with British isles facing ecological ‘point of no return’

    The merlin, Britain’s smallest bird of prey, is one of more than 200 species that will become extinct in the UK if action is not taken to curb emissions and unsustainable land use, a study has claimed.

    According to the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), there is a 20-year window in which decisions on climate and land use will determine the fate of dozens of Britain’s native species.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Guano is far more than just droppings’: scientists uncover the secrets of bat poo in Gorongosa park

    The more than 100 bat species living in the Mozambican reserve’s labyrinth of caves play a key role in maintaining a fragile ecosysytem that benefits wildlife and people

    • Words and photographs by Kang-Chun Cheng

    After wriggling gingerly into a damp, cool cave, Raúl da Silva Armando Chomela waits for his eyes to adjust. Donning latex gloves, a helmet fitted with a headlamp, and a mask to protect his lungs from fine particles and bacteria, the molecular biologist from the Mozambican port city of Beira gazes into the shadowy recesses for signs of bats.

    He has spent two years in these claustrophobic spaces studying the winged mammals and their excrement. “Guano is far more than just bat droppings,” he says. “If I had to describe it in one word, I’d say ‘ecosystem’.”

    Continue reading...

  • Painting eyes on takeaway boxes can stop gulls stealing chips, study shows

    Research from the University of Exeter find that the method could help reduce thefts by as much as 50%

    Gulls thrive on snatching chips from unwary beachgoers, but now research shows that painting a pair of eyes on takeaway boxes could put gulls off, reducing thefts by as much as 50%.

    Laura Kelley, from the University of Exeter, and colleagues presented herring gulls with tempting takeaways at a number of seaside towns in Devon and Cornwall. When faced with a choice between a box with eyes painted on it and a plain box, the gulls were slower to approach the box with eyes and less likely to peck at it. And the findings, which are published in Ecology and Evolution, show that the effect is sustained, with gulls remaining wary of the boxes with eyes on them, even after repeated exposure.

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: It is our duty to delight in the dandelion | Josie George

    Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire: These early spring bloomers are a favourite of mine, a model of nature’s generosity, yet so often ignored

    The drier days of March are always marked by the hum of dutiful grass-cutting on our urban Midlands housing estate, and so I know I will have to look to the gutters and pavements to spot my favourite spring flower. Sure enough, the first one I see is blooming in a crack beside a crumbling wall on the busy main road. I can’t help but let out a joyful shout, leaning down to cradle its fierce lion head in my fingers. Hello, dandelion, how I’ve missed you!

    Perhaps it’s being a wheelchair user, closer to the ground than most, that has given me a special place in my heart for them, or perhaps it’s because I’ve always felt like a weed myself, inconvenient and growing in the wrong place. Either way, I have long been kindred spirits with keen-eyed toddlers who love to carry them in their fists. I’ve often joked that my bridal bouquet will be dandelions, please. I can honestly think of no finer flower. Why? Because there is no better example of nature’s generosity than a dandelion.

    Continue reading...

  • More drilling in North Sea ‘not the answer’ for UK energy security, say former military leaders

    Government told to focus on transition to mix of wind, solar, tidal and nuclear energy

    More drilling in the North Sea would do nothing to improve the UK’s energy security, former military leaders have said, as a new analysis finds no fossil fuel importer is safe from chokepoints in the global supply chain.

    The government should focus on a rapid transition to a mix of wind, solar, tidal and nuclear energy to ensure the UK’s future security, the former military leaders told the Guardian, as well as a programme of energy efficiency and a “major renewal” of the electricity grid.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘A national scandal’: trawlers scour seabeds of supposedly protected UK waters

    ‘Precious ocean life is being pushed to the brink,’ say campaigners, arguing that overfished marine areas are ‘protected only on paper’

    Almost 40% of England’s seas are designated as marine protected areas. Their purpose, the government says, is “to protect and recover rare threatened and important marine ecosystems … from damage caused by human activities”.

    And yet in the four years to 2024, trawlers using vast nets, including those that scour the seabed, caught more than 1.3m tonnes of fish within them, according to official figures that campaigners say show they are “little more than lines on a map”.

    Continue reading...

  • Not if, but when: how Spain’s coastal towns are preparing for tsunamis

    In the holiday hotspots of the Costa del Sol, the risks are rarely mentioned. But in neighbouring Cádiz, the country’s first tsunami-ready town is leading by example

    Even on a wet, wintry day in Málaga, the Mediterranean looks benign. But only 25 miles (40km) south-west of its port, where half a million tourists disembark from cruise ships into the Costa del Sol each year, lies a system of tectonic plates and faults that fracture the seabed between Spain and north Africa.

    Earthquakes are routine here. They are mostly too small to notice but sometimes strong enough to rattle glasses in cafes on the seafront. In December, a tremor with a magnitude of 4.9 off the coast of Fuengirola triggered more than 40 calls to Andalucía’s 112 emergency line.

    Continue reading...

  • Highland cows – how these unlikely social media stars were forced into hiding

    After being pushed to ‘distress’ by people trying to film and take selfies with the cattle in Kent, the fold has had to be taken away from public view

    Name: Highland cows.

    Age: More than 1,000 years old.

    Continue reading...

  • Invisible plumes and ‘terrible pollution’: the reality of the US gas sites rated ‘grade A’

    Exclusive: Guardian investigation into reliability of methane certification issued by MiQ reveals weakness of voluntary model

    A rapidly expanding certification scheme run by a UK nonprofit and used by major gas companies may be understating the actual methane emissions it purports to certify, a Guardian investigation has found.

    BP, ExxonMobil and EQT are among the producers that have turned to London-based MiQ to demonstrate that their US-produced natural gas complies with the European Union Methane Regulation, or EUMR, which aims to curb energy-related emissions.

    Jess Staufenberg contributed additional reporting to this piece. The investigation was supported by Journalismfund Europe and Gas Outlook.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.