Jeff Clarke Ecology

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Updates and photos from around the world on my travels both through pleasure and work

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Perfect mothing weather has prevailed for the best part of the last month and it tempted me to do some intensive and regular trapping in the garden. Being self-employed allows me the flexibility fit this around my workload. It was also good practice for re-honing my eye, as it’s often as much about the wing-shape, or resting position that a moth adopts, just as much as the intricate patterning that may lead you to a precise identification. Perhaps the most important outcome from my research is how few individuals of formerly super-abundant species are now finding their way into my traps, on even the most productive of nights. In previous Junes I’d expect at least 100 Heart and Dart to enter my trap on peak nights. The most I managed thi...
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Click on images to view at full size One of the joys to be found in teaching folk about birds; how to identify them; understanding their ecology etc. is that you get to commune with lovely people in some fantastic places. The final chapter of my Birdcraft Course Spring 2017 would take place along the fabled Northumberland coastline. Difficult weather conditions on the morning of Saturday 10th June resulted in a quick re-evaluation of our itinerary and we quickly repaired to the bird rich area around Low Newton. We had barely reached the shoreline when we were entertained by a Little Tern fishing in the bay at close quarters. Stonechats and Meadow Pipits scavenged the strandline for invertebrates in the wet and windy conditions along...
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I just completed a wonderful little gig as a speaker on a five-night cruise to the fjords of southern Norway. It was a last minute thing and I’d had no time to plan any wildlife excursions so went with few expectations. My Wife and I joined the Fred. Olsen cruise liner Balmoral at Newcastle on the 25th May.  Setting off in the early evening. My official duties prevented me from much in the way of observations that evening but I was up and out on deck very early on the 26th.  As anticipated Gannets, were very much to the fore, backed up by smaller numbers of Fulmar and Kittiwake. I carried out my first speaker duty and returned to my watch at the front of the Balmoral. By early afternoon we were approaching the Norwegian coastl...
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A recent journey, along the Humboldt Current, brought home to me, just how little is really known about species distribution in one of the world’s most important biodiversity rich areas. As the frigid waters of the Humboldt power north, along the immense coastal fringes of Chile and then on to Peru, they are loaded with a maelstrom of nutrients that get dragged from the depths of the ocean abyss, up the continental slope and into the sunlit surface waters. This mechanism is the engine for a food production process that has few equals anywhere else on the planet. As a result, the Pacific Ocean in this region seemingly brims with fish, fish-eating birds and marine mammals. Even so the total number predatory animals exploiting the Humboldt Cur...
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24-26/02/17 – Journey to Paracas and Callao - Peru Click on the images to enlarge to full size. Our final full day at sea would prove to be an absolute stormer. The Continental Shelf on this leg was almost non-existent and the sea floor sloped away steeply, with lots of folds and trenches along the way, creating an underwater maelstrom bringing rich upwellings to the surface waters that teemed with seabirds and cetaceans. Ringed Storm-petrels were still the dominant species but there was also a fair sprinkling of Wedge-rumped Storm Petrels playing second fiddle. Sooty shearwaters had only been present in moderate numbers since passing Chiloe Island but now they were back in force. Our track northwards must have been slightly clo...
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