WE have been on boat journeys to the Farne Islands simply off the Northumberland coast many occasions. Within the spring and early summer season the cliffs are coated with breeding sea birds: guillemots, razorbills, shags, cormorants and kittiwakes. There are estimated to be 200,000 of them, nesting on even the tiniest ledges.
Arctic terns, on the midpoint of their annual migration to and from the Antarctic, a spherical journey of about 31,000 miles, nest on the tops of the islands. They’re aggressively protecting of their eggs and younger, and can dive-bomb any potential predator.
Puffins nest in burrows.
Because the customer boats method the islands dozens of gray seals pop their heads out of the water to look at, as if the journeys are laid on for his or her leisure.
At low tide they haul out on the rocks.
It’s an exquisite journey, and till this yr guests had been in a position to land on a few of the islands and wander round (being suggested to put on hats as safety in opposition to the terns). This summer season, nonetheless, the islands had been closed at the start of July as a result of a lot of birds had been discovered lifeless. Rangers in full hazmat have been accumulating them and the overall of corpses has handed the 5,000 mark, with many extra presumed to have fallen into the ocean.
The reason is given by the Nationwide Belief, which owns the Farnes, and the RSPB is that there’s an outbreak of a sort of avian flu which normally impacts home poultry. That is additionally being blamed for clusters of untamed chicken deaths elsewhere in Britain. It is a typical newspaper article, revealed within the i on August 23.
It says the illness is being unfold by migrating wild birds. However is that this the entire fact?
Arthur Firstenberg is a campaigner who believes that electromagnetic radiation used for cellphones is accountable for a variety of ills. He’s the founding father of the marketing campaign group Mobile Telephone Job Drive.
In an article on his group’s web site he describes the devastation of a 7,000-strong breeding colony of Sandwich terns (which migrate from South African and India) on the Dutch island of Texel this summer season. You possibly can learn the entire piece right here, and this image accompanies it.
The very first thing that strikes me is that the lifeless birds look as if they’ve dropped from the sky. Avian flu causes birds to be unwell for a while earlier than demise and in my very restricted expertise unwell birds and animals have a tendency to search out shelter and conceal out of sight.
I don’t declare to be an knowledgeable in these issues however Firstenberg makes a number of fascinating factors in his article. Texel is on a busy waterway and 4G is utilized by transport. The invention of the primary lifeless terns on Texel coincided with the set up of 18 new 4G antennas to 2 cell towers within the terns’ nesting space. In a single day these elevated the variety of frequencies emitted from 5 to 11. There are additionally a complete of 105 4G antennas inside seven miles aimed straight on the space.
Firstenberg asks: ‘Had been Texel’s Sandwich terns already in dangerous form from all of the radiation they’d been uncovered to in the previous couple of years? And did the sudden enhance in each the variety of antennas and the variety of frequencies lastly kill them?’
On the reverse finish of the Netherlands, at Waterdunen, one other colony of Sandwich terns collapsed this summer season. Once more the world is on a busy transport route, with 318 4G antennas together with 46 added in April, Might and June.
But – and that is the possibly important bit – 20 miles from Waterdunen, at a location with not more than 35 4G antennas aimed toward it, two added since April, a colony of Sandwich terns thrived and raised their younger. No lifeless birds had been discovered.
Firstenberg data an analogous scenario in France, the place a colony of Sandwich terns close to Calais was virtually worn out concurrently dozens of latest 4G and 5G antennas had been added. (Firstenberg says 4G is worse for birds because the radiation is subtle, whereas 5G radiation is aimed toward straight at particular person mobiles.) In the meantime the most important colony in France, in a location virtually freed from electromagnetic radiation, had no illness this summer season.
He writes: ‘Based on the chicken conservation organisations, chicken flu is so contagious that it spreads amongst Sandwich terns throughout Europe in a matter of days, but it’s so non-contagious {that a} small colony of terns 20 miles away escapes scot-free. Chook flu travels from one finish of the Netherlands to the opposite in a number of days, however not between two Dutch colonies 20 miles aside, and never between the 2 largest colonies in France?’
He additionally factors out that in a long time of monitoring, chicken flu has by no means been recorded earlier than in Sandwich terns anyplace on the planet, and hitherto it has all the time been a winter illness, by no means affecting wild birds in spring and summer season till this yr. He agrees that PCR testing has proven the presence of a chicken flu virus referred to as H5N1 in corpses, however questions the validity of a take a look at which proved {that a} papaya fruit had Covid-19.
I attempted to search out out whether or not there are 4G towers close to the Farne Islands, however this info shouldn’t be simply accessible. I contacted Arthur Firstenberg, who instructed me: ‘I did look into the chicken deaths on the Farne Islands. There are cell phone masts on the islands. And they’re used intensively as a result of they lie in a closely used deep water transport lane (ships crusing down the North Sea from Edinburgh).’
As I say, I’m not an knowledgeable, however nor are most individuals. I discover the proliferation of those sources of radiation with none kind of session or info fairly disturbing.
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I’m happy to say that I’ve observed extra butterflies over the previous couple of weeks. Two summers in the past there have been lots however final yr hardly a one. It was not trying nice this yr till not too long ago, and on Friday for the primary time in two years I noticed two small tortoiseshells on the identical time on considered one of my miniature buddleias.
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Sheep of the week
It is a Whitefaced Woodland ram. It is without doubt one of the largest hill sheep and originated within the Pennines on the borders of Derbyshire and Yorkshire. Its ancestor was the Linton sort of mountain sheep, now referred to as Blackface, with Cheviot and Merino utilized in its growth. It was initially known as the Penistone sheep after the South Yorkshire city the place it was first recognised as a separate breed.
The wool is finer than that of many different hill breeds, and in the 1800s it fashioned a significant a part of the English wool provide. The inhabitants declined within the 20th century and by 1980, there have been solely 14 flocks of Whitefaced Woodland left. Confronted with the potential disappearance of this breed, the remaining farmers established the Whitefaced Woodland Sheep Breeders Group in 1986. Since then, the breed has come again from the sting of extinction. Nonetheless, whereas it’s now fairly common in its dwelling space, it’s nonetheless listed as susceptible with the Uncommon Breeds Survival Belief.
Rams are mated with smaller hill breeds to provide greater lambs with out shedding any hardiness, and the breed is ready to thrive on poor high quality vegetation. Each ewes and rams are horned with rams having heavy spiralled horns. The tail is normally left undocked, particularly in rams.
Here’s a video of a laid-back chap at a present. I believe this will qualify as ‘sluggish TV’.
You possibly can learn extra in regards to the breed on the The Whitefaced Woodland Sheep Society (a minimum of you possibly can when you have super-sharp eyesight – they’ve chosen a microscopic sort face for the positioning).
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Wheels of the week
It is a 1958 Austin Cambridge A55 Mk 1. The Cambridge was produced by the Austin Motor Firm in a number of generations from 1954 to 1971. The A55 Cambridge was launched In January 1957 to exchange the A50. Based on the proprietor’s particulars on the windscreen, it has a high velocity of 70 mph and does 0-60 in 31.8 seconds with a gasoline consumption of 34 mpg. It offered for £870 (£14,300 now) together with taxes of £291 (£4,780).
Some 154,000 had been produced earlier than it was changed by the Mark II, designed by Pininfarina of Turin, in 1959.
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FINALLY, a reminder that reader Kathy Nel (‘linuslimmy’) is collating anecdotal proof about chicken and bug numbers, both will increase or decreases (and even static). Ship your feedback and observations to this handle: missingcritters@yahoo.com. Should you go away a remark beneath the road, we’d like a geographical location to have the ability to use it.
