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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

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  1. C

    Natural England is throwing bat conservation under the bus

    This highly relevant to anything involving the Bat Conservation Trust. They've built their empire to a large extent on the government bat advice contract, which funds the National Bat Helpline. The vast majority of calls to the helpline are requests for 'bat care' involving rehabilitation of...
  2. C

    Natural England is throwing bat conservation under the bus

    You may be surprised, but I agree with virtually everything you've said - the question is where to pitch a compromise between the interests of humans and those of wildlife. My advice to the cathedral was that there was no need to assess the normal run of activities within the cloister, which...
  3. C

    Natural England is throwing bat conservation under the bus

    I think you're letting Natural England off the hook here. They want you to think there's nothing they can do in order to deflect blame onto the politicians, but the powers required have been there for over forty years. Section 9(4)b of the Wildlife & Countryside Act says that it's an offence...
  4. C

    Natural England is throwing bat conservation under the bus

    Happy to oblige (attached)
  5. C

    Natural England is throwing bat conservation under the bus

    Wow - very quiet. Not like the good old days!
  6. C

    Natural England is throwing bat conservation under the bus

    I've just posted a statement from Natural England on Log in to Facebook, which sets out in detail their position on the (lack of) legal protection for bat swarming sites. Natural England are relying on this to discourage the police from prosecuting cases of disturbance. Who needs the...
  7. C

    Natural England is throwing bat conservation under the bus

    Seasonal swarming is a crucial component of the annual life-cycle of temperate zone bat species, and the underground sites and built structures where it occurs can be visited by tens of thousands of individual bats, which can travel 60km or more from their home roost. The Wildlife & Countryside...
    • CPBell
    • Thread
    • Replies: 13
    • Forum: Bats
  8. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    Anyone who's read enough of this thread will be aware that I first became interested in sparrows while working at London Zoo, which had the last large sparrow colony in central London - about 150 of them. It's recently become apparent that the population has grown considerably over the last 5...
  9. C

    RSPB/BTO Ghana Project

    Evidence is mounting that declines in trans-Saharan migrants are occurring primarily among species with two salient characteristics, which are that they winter at relatively southerly latitudes within Africa, and that they’ve been unable to advance their northward migration schedule as spring...
  10. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    Anyone looking for ideas for Chrissy presents could do worse than consider ‘Sparrow’ by Kim Todd, published earlier this year, not least because it gives an even handed account of opinion on the cause of sparrow decline. She recites the gospel according to Vincent, as approved by the Holy Church...
  11. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    Interesting observations about wet feathers and predation risk - I can vouch for the fact that juvenile starlings take a hammering from Carrion Crows in London, where the latter are thick on the ground. The crows are sometimes able to just fly them down. The variation in predator avoidance...
  12. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    When we see changes in the environment that are coincidental we have a tendency to fill in the blanks by making up a plausible story linking the two. Frequently, however, things that coincide aren't directly linked at all, and I'm pretty sure this is the case for off-road parking and sparrow...
  13. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    Delusions of grandeur there I think. What the audience can see is that I've spent the last several days trying to chase down a properly framed question that isn't in the tradition of 'when did you stop beating your wife', both from yourself and Nightranger. All either of you has done is try to...
  14. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    Yep - that was the original point I was replying to - simply repeating it again isn't very smart or clever - you need to try a rejoinder. I may not know 'which points were deleted' (I don't need to because it's irrelevant to the inferences drawn), but it's quite obvious that you don't even...
  15. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    I see. Let's take a look then. Sorry old chap - don't understand your banter. And by the way, the answer to the 'deletion' (and 'small datasets') trope is here and here. http://www.cpbell.co.uk http://www.youtube.com/CultoftheAmateur
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    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    I'm not asking you to put the question again, I'm asking you to explain it, since it appeared to make no sense on either occasion that you posted it. You are being given every opportunity to clarify your query, and I am sure the thread followers are intensely curious to see both your...
  17. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    Welcome aboard - there's always room for another house troll - and if you can get permission from the BTO for me to hand over the data, I'll be happy to do so. Get ready to put your hand in your pocket though. Now where has that Ian 'Always On' Peters got to? http://www.cpbell.co.uk...
  18. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    No no - you challenged me for ignoring your post on 'skewed data analysis'. I'm now fully focused on your concerns, and would like to address them as completely as I can. That is why I would like you to explain what you mean by the phrase "the data was skewed into 'the sparrowhawk did it' part...
  19. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    Righto - the sparrowhawk presence absence data, and the sparrow count data. When you say this is 'skewed', do you mean in the statistical or colloquial sense. I presume in the colloquial sense, because otherwise 'skewed into the sparrowhawk did it part of the distribution' doesn't really make...
  20. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    Ok, let's try to work with this. What data are we talking about here? http://www.cpbell.co.uk http://www.youtube.com/CultoftheAmateur
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    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    Well, I did try. Let's see if I can get an intelligible question out of Nightranger. Glad to hear it. What was the question again? http://www.cpbell.co.uk http://www.youtube.com/CultoftheAmateur
  22. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    Nah - much more like this. Meanwhile I'm still waiting for you to tell me which analysis you're criticizing, and why you think the statistical and biological inferences drawn from it are invalid. Before you do so, why not step back a little and try to get a perspective. The methodology and...
  23. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    This is not an argument - it's just rhetoric. Take an analysis - any analysis in the paper - and explain why the critique implied by your three questions renders invalid the statistical inference leading the conclusions. Specifics please. http://www.cpbell.co.uk...
  24. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    If we’re going to go through all the counties one by one, your first going to have to explain why the rebuttal I posted here doesn’t apply to your latest example – and please also, can we have the information needed to interpret the maps properly? The answers will stay the same, no matter how...
  25. C

    Sparrowhawks responsible for House Sparrow decline says scientist

    Further to the BTO’s disinformation leaflet on sparrows, I’ve just picked up this little gem from their ‘Birdtrends’ page: “Negative correlations between indices of Sparrowhawk presence during its recolonisation of the UK and House Sparrow abundance from the Garden Bird Feeding Survey have been...
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