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The Guardian
29-06-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Alastair Robertson obituary
My brother, Alastair Robertson, who has died of cancer aged 75, drew compulsively from an early age, on any scrap of paper. When he lost the use of his right hand in an accident, he transferred his skills to his left. His acutely observed watercolour illustrations of wildlife against delicate backgrounds of washes were widely exhibited in the 1970s and 80s. He also drew mammals, insects and fish, sometimes with humorous intent, but his passion was birds of prey: he kept a variety of hawks and falcons in his late teens and flew gyrfalcons at a US air force base to prevent bird strikes. Born surrounded by chalk hills in the Hughenden Valley in Buckinghamshire, Alastair was the elder son of Johnstone (Robbie) Robertson, an RAF officer, and Margaret (nee Barber), who had met during the second world war, when our mother was working in intelligence in the WAAF. He was educated at Berkhamsted school, in Hertfordshire, and at Bath Academy of Art, where he was influenced by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis. In the 70s, as his reputation grew, he became a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists and held exhibitions locally and in the Tryon Gallery in London. Early in his career he provided a cover illustration of wrens for the RSPB's Birds magazine, after which he illustrated a wide range of books. In the 80s he provided meticulously crafted illustrations of rare birds, based on studying skins in the Natural History Museum's ornithological department at Tring, for Save the Birds, a groundbreaking publication of the world's threatened birds by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and the International Council for Bird Preservation (now Birdlife International). From the early 80s he lived in a National Trust property near Sharpenhoe in Bedfordshire, where he carried out warden duties on the surrounding chalk downland in lieu of rent. There he met Anna Poray-Gedroyc, an extrovert and bubbly woman, and they married in 1985; she died in 2021. If Alastair cut an eccentric figure, accompanied by one of his Scottish deerhounds, it was because he was far from the centre of most human life, and happiest sitting on a chalk hill quietly looking at birds. These observations were faithfully rendered into his paintings. At the end, unable to speak, and conscious that he was dying, he typed out a farewell to the effect that the process was of enormous interest exclusively to him, and ended with 'sorry to be selfish'. He is survived by me, two nephews, Liam and Patrick, and by a niece, Marion.
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
What animal has the best eyesight?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Imagine you're a red-tailed hawk, soaring through the sky. You scan the ground, looking for your next meal. You spot a squirrel hundreds of feet below you. Its coat helps it blend into the ground, but its camouflage is no match for your sharp eyesight. Birds of prey — such as hawks, eagles and falcons — are known for their hyperfocused vision. But you might wonder if these birds really come out on top, or if other animals have even more impressive eyesight. So, what animal has the best vision? In reality, there's no easy answer — but there are certainly some standouts. "There is no perfect visual system," Esteban Fernandez-Juricic, a professor of biological sciences at Purdue University, told Live Science. He explained that from an evolutionary perspective, the development of advanced visual systems is extraordinarily costly. That's because eyes are a big component of the nervous system, which needs a lot of energy. To keep things efficient, evolution drives animals to develop only the visual systems they need for their environment and behavior. Raptors such as eagles, hawks and falcons have a reputation for having great vision, and that reputation is well-earned. These birds need to detect food from very far distances — sometimes even miles away. To do this, their visual systems evolved to prioritize extremely high-resolution vision. Sign up for our newsletter Sign up for our weekly Life's Little Mysteries newsletter to get the latest mysteries before they appear online. According to Thomas Cronin, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, raptor vision is about three to five times more detailed than humans', so having eagle eyes would feel like looking through a pair of binoculars. Related: How do migrating birds know where they're going? These birds have two adaptations that help them see clearly. First, their eyes are bigger relative to their body size. Second, they pack more photoreceptors — the specialized cells in the retina that detect light — into their eyes. Taken together, these traits help raptors spot prey from far away. When it comes to color vision in the animal kingdom, there's a clear winner: the mantis shrimp. These alien-looking invertebrates live in shallow ocean waters, and they may be able to see colors we can't even comprehend. To understand how mantis shrimp see the world, it's important to know how color vision works. Humans have three types of photoreceptor cells that detect different wavelengths of light, roughly corresponding to red, blue and green. Many vertebrates have four types of photoreceptors, meaning our color vision is worse than that of many other species. "Most other animals have better color vision than we do," said Justin Marshall, a professor emeritus at the University of Queensland in Australia with a specialty in marine animal eye and brain structure and function. "We're comparatively colorblind monkeys." Mantis shrimp have an even more staggering number of photoreceptors, though. According to Marshall, these crustaceans boast 12 types of color photoreceptors. Some of those receptors are even tuned to detect light in the ultraviolet range, likely making the world of the mantis shrimp look very different from our own. Mantis shrimp also have special photoreceptors that can detect the polarization of light — a feature of light waves that derives from how sunlight scatters through Earth's atmosphere. But it's not clear exactly how the mantis shrimp brain processes all of this information. Their brains may be picking up on patterns of color combinations rather than detecting individual inputs from photoreceptors. "They're probably not trying to see four times as much color as us — they're just decoding the information in a different way," Marshall explained. Our vision may feel like a continuous stream, but there's a limit to how quickly our eyes and brains can process information. According to Cronin, humans see at a rate of about 60 frames per second. Our creepy-crawly friends, on the other hand, can pack in much more visual information over the same period. The visual systems of most insects can capture hundreds of frames per second. That's so fast that fluorescent lights — which flicker at or below the perceptible rate for human vision — would look like strobe lights to them. "If a fly were to fly into a movie theater, it would just think it's watching a really fast slideshow," Cronin explained. This ultra-high-speed vision is why it's so hard to swat a fly; they literally see us coming before we do. Flies accomplish this because their bodies are so tiny that the electrical signals between their eyes and brain have a much smaller distance to travel, meaning they process visual inputs much more quickly. RELATED MYSTERIES —Which animal has the best sense of smell? —Which animal is the best hunter? (And which is the worst?) —Which animals are evolving fastest? All of these specialized visual systems are impressive in their own ways, but they also come with compromises. For example, both mantis shrimp and insects have compound eyes, which are made up of distinct subunits. There are only so many subunits that can fit, so these animals' vision is much lower-resolution than ours, like a pixelated photo. With these trade-offs in mind, human eyes are adequate, according to Cronin. "People are a pretty good compromise," he said. "I wouldn't want to be a mantis shrimp, because my brain would be the size of a small pea. So I'm happy with what I have, to be honest."
ABC News
21-06-2025
- Science
- ABC News
New 'risk-mapping tool' aims to prevent bird deaths from powerlines
Craig Webb says he does not want to share images of dead eagles on his social media pages. "But the fact is there are so many that I feel like everyone needs to know," the Raptor Refuge founder said. "I wish there was none. I'm not trying to cause trouble. I'm just trying to put it out there … how many of these birds are succumbing to powerlines." Raptor Refuge is a not-for-profit sanctuary in southern Tasmania dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of the state's birds of prey. Mr Webb said a "high percentage" of the birds that came into the sanctuary were injured by powerlines. "There's a real threat to them out there, and we see countless birds brought in with damages, or they're dead," he said. Technology that is used to mitigate against the risk of birds being electrocuted includes flappers — small reflective disks that hang from powerlines — perches, and covers. TasNetworks said more than 600 kilometres of its distribution lines had flappers, perches or covers installed — up from 140 kilometres in 2023-24. It has also used what is called the "delta design standard" that spreads lines further apart to reduce electrocution risk. Tasmania's powerline network includes 20,310 kilometres of distribution lines. University of Tasmania researchers, in partnership with TasNetworks, have released a new "risk-mapping tool" aimed at preventing powerline bird deaths. By tracking 23 wedge-tailed eagles over six years, the research team built a model that predicts where eagles are most likely to cross powerlines, and where the risk of death is highest. Lead researcher James Pay said powerlines were among the leading causes of injury and death for large birds of prey in Tasmania, and globally. It is hoped the data will help TasNetworks identify where mitigation technologies are most needed. "There's some other models that [TasNetworks has] been working on as well," Dr Pay said. "We're combining them all together to help guide where to put either the different designs of the powerlines or the bird flappers more proactively — rather than relying on where the birds have already been killed." TasNetworks said it invested almost $1 million every year in bird protection. In 2023-24, 11 threatened birds were "impacted" by powerlines, down from 26 reported incidents in 2022-23, according to TasNetworks. Mr Webb is concerned the number of birds injured or killed by powerlines in Tasmania is under-reported. "These birds are found under or near powerlines where there are people around," he said. "So you can imagine how under-reported this is because there are so many powerlines that aren't near people and aren't near townships that are not going to be found." More than 9,400 powerline crossings at "risky altitudes" were recorded during the project. Mr Webb said it was "a significant number". "If we can learn from that and do some more mitigation work in those areas, well, that's fantastic," he said. However, he said more investment in implementing mitigation was needed. "It's taken all this time to really realise what's happening and how these birds can see these powerlines. "We've got to catch up to all those kilometres and kilometres of powerlines that have never had anything and, in fact, make it mandatory that all new powerlines have flappers on them." Dr Pay said installing mitigation technologies could be costly. "The only thing that really holds it back is the amount it costs to get these things put out and also to maintain them," he said. "It'd never be feasible to put them everywhere, but [it is feasible] to target them where they're needed, using methods like the model that we've developed." TasNetworks said mitigation technologies were installed "all the time, based on high-risk areas and new reporting". "We're investing strongly in new technology like fibreglass cross-arms and the delta design standard to make the network itself more bird safe, in turn reducing the need for flappers and perches," a spokesperson said. If you find an injured or dead raptor in Tasmania call 1800 RAPTOR (1800 727 867).
CTV News
13-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
Birds of prey working overtime at Muskoka landfill
Barrie Watch Birds of prey are working overtime at Muskoka landfills to keep unwanted pests out.
Telegraph
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Man baited birds of prey with poisoned pheasants in shooting rights row
A man baited birds of prey with pheasants coated in rat poison amid a feud with a neighbouring landowner over shooting rights. A court heard Clive Burgoyne, 38, gutted four pheasant carcasses and filled them with rat poison in an attempt to damage the reputation of the Guynd estate near Arbroath, Angus. At Forfar sheriff court in April 2025, Burgoyne pleaded guilty to a breach of wildlife legislation between January and February 2023. The court heard he left four pheasant carcasses coated in rodenticide which would cause haemorrhaging in birds of prey. On Thursday, at the same court, he was given a community order and 135 hours of unpaid work to be completed within 12 months, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said. Prosecutors said he put birds of prey 'at risk of injury or death' using a known rat poison which can kill them in a single feed. Witnesses saw Burgoyne in the front passenger seat of a car travelling towards, and later away, from the Guynd estate on the morning of Feb 3, 2023. A short time later, an estate worker discovered a dead pheasant on a footpath, COPFS said. The breast had been removed and the bird was covered in a quantity of grain and seed which was then coated in a bright blue liquid. A further search of the area revealed three more dead pheasants nearby which had been similarly cut open and treated, according to COPFS. Blue grain was a known rodenticide Analysis carried out by officials at the Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture confirmed the blue grain was a known rodenticide. They believed the pheasant carcasses had been prepared and set out with the intention of causing harm to birds. A sample of Burgoyne's DNA was found on all four of the dead birds. Iain Batho, who leads on wildlife and environmental crime at COPFS, said: 'It is highly important to preserve Scotland's natural heritage, including the wildlife that forms part of it. 'As such, wild birds are given strict protection by our law. 'Clive Burgoyne's reckless actions put various wildlife, particularly birds of prey, at risk of injury and death. 'COPFS takes offences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act seriously and will prosecute individuals where there is sufficient evidence of a crime. 'This case is a testament to the collaborative working between COPFS, Police Scotland, and Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture, who in this case were able to provide vital forensic evidence,' he added.
