I made a mistake on the share token URL. Here is the correct one: (V. interesting article on rewilding & paleoclimate in Scotland):

A Wild Boar rub on an isolated Black Pine. Resinous trees attract them as the exudates have ectoparasite repellent properties. It's usually males who do it, so perhaps it's just aftershave? Hunters mimic these plants by painting vegetable tar on rough posts & suitable trees.

@BenSteiner1st @cloud1a7 VW was not founded by a Fascist. That was Fiat, founded Giovanni Agnelli (1866-1945), a fascist senator from 1923. VW was literally founded by Nazis, the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) in 1937.

Re. "paludification" & climatic worsening on oceanic climates dring the Holocene. I've always been surprised that the Irish left so many fine oaks to die & fall over into the Bog of Allen without turning them into a fine dresser or somesuch. 2/2 (Photo

@cortes_john @RewildScotland @ScotGovFM I shoot Wild Boar. (1.5m in 🇮🇹) & Red Deer (still rare but on the up). No wolves around me & no shortage of game. I'll keep adding to the photos on this thread. The official pop. of wolves in Italy 3,300 (up from 100 in 1975). They eat ca. 100k ungulates a year, wild & domestic.

@cortes_john @RewildScotland @ScotGovFM It's wolves. You're free to talk about the "ecological benefits" of large carnovores but not that "there are no significant effects on livestock". Italian Regional governments are paying out €millions annually in compensation for thousands of animals.

@Ed_Miliband What will you do when they sell up to buyers with cash who then farm them out to short tourist lets?

@cortes_john @RewildScotland @ScotGovFM Come to the Italian Alps and say that. They'd run you out of town. Not lynx, mind you (harmless enough), but wolves & bears. The dog was called "Toby". Say his name.

@GethinJones123 One of the weird things about walking around in Ireland is seeing rotten wood on trees with no woodpecker damage whatsoever. (There are now a few GSWs on the island but they remain few & far between for the moment)

@SereneSquirrel

@AliceFromQueens I can only manage about 5 minutes on there before saying "fuq dat".

@WessexRichard "Red deer may become less sociable as they grow old to reduce the risk of picking up diseases, while older house sparrows seem to have fewer social interactions as their peers die off."

@ShevinQwantz There's a map of the sites assessed as "prato stabile". If they own land classified as such they'll have been notified officially. It is illegal to plough this land but many of the meadows were abandoned so these subsidies were introduced about 25 years ago to encourage cutting.

Two Monk (Black) Vultures this morning with a Red Kite (still rather rare in this part of the world) & the usual Griffons at the Lago di Cornino NR just N. of Udine, NE Italy. (At least one has a French colour ring). Photos by Matteo Skodler.

@TheSimonEvans Could he be accused of Mellinger-ing during Covid?

A big - if all too rare - victory for Team Bat / Team Newt. Reevesey will be hopping mad!

@SteveCJjones A pure canopy fire does not need the undergrowth to propagate, and leaps from tree to tree canopy with the help of the wind. Usually here it is the undergrowth that burns with the canopy dying later from the heat stress. 2/2.

@SteveCJjones A couple of young HOs growing in a glade in the wood behind the house. They are on a SW-facing slope & sheltered by trees from the NE Bora wind, about 4km from the coast. Obvs. spread by Jay's.