Glad you liked it!
About the ecology, I can't point to anything particular that makes them thrive now. Something interesting that I left out of the post which I read in the article that wasn't available online, was that the owls eat different food in the Netherlands than in Germany. In Germany there are a lot of rodents, but in the Netherlands the rodents populations are smaller because of very intensive agriculture. Because of this, the Dutch owls eat more other species (they unfortunately did not specify what those species were).
One trend that is visible in nature in Western Europe is that smaller fauna are struggling, but larger species are doing really well. In the Netherlands we have seen reintroductions of not only the Eagle Owl, but also the white-tailed Eagle, the beaver, the otter and the wolf (and maybe the lynx too in the near future). On top of that we have seen big population increases of cranes, geese, deer and probably some more that I don't know about. This is mostly because of conservation efforts and hunting being banned.
And I didn't know that about the Kattenstoet, sounds very interesting!
I have no English sources for you, but with some translation app you can probably still check them out. One article that I used is not available online unfortunately.
The Owl Camera(they have other owls and other birds too, as well as some interesting articles. The site is only in Dutch unfortunately).
[Article by NOS](Oehoe bezig aan opmars: 'Mogelijk al boven de honderd' - https://nos.nl/l/2519607), the public broadcasting service. From this article is the ringing video that I talked about in the post.
This German Site which has some numbers about the Eurasian Eagle Owl in Germany. They also have This article that talks about how the Eurasian Eagle Owl was perceived in the past in Germany. It is really interesting, so definitely check it out! They have some more articles that are very interesting too.
Also some random linguistic facts: The Eurasian Eagle Owl is called Oehoe in Dutch and Uhu in German; both pronounced as "oo-hoo". This is the only Dutch owl name that doesn't end in owl; it is also an onomatopeia.
I thought you guys may like to know a bit about this. Most stories about the current state of nature are quite depressing, but this one is quite the opposite!
The Eurasian Eagle Owl was once abundant throughout western Europe, but after centuries of hunting they were gone from many countries. After they went basically extinct in Germany in the 1960s the Germans set up a conservasion program which lasted from the 1970s to the 1990s. Because of this there are now 2900 to 3300 Eurasian Eagle Owls in Germany.
In the Netherlands the owls had also completely disappeared, but soon the German owls started crossing the border. In 1997 the first Eagle Owl was spotted. Some years later, they were breeding and now there are possibly more than 100 individuals in the country, with no signs of the growth slowing down.
In one spot where they have been breeding for 13 years, an organisation has installed cameras to invade their privacy and for us to enjoy. There are 4 owlets right now, which is quite a lot, because the average amount of eggs laid by this species is 2.9. Recently the owlets have been ringed (which is were the photo comes from) and they are growing really big already.
That is the story basically. I am Dutch, so this all is very exciting (side note: if someone from Germany has another good article about this, please let me know!). Also, the Owls were once native to for example the UK, so I am hoping that we will see more good reintroduction news in the future!
In this NYT article they say that 55 percent of NYC households have no car, and this site claims a modal share of 30% for cars. So most NYC residents already use sustainable transportation, but not all of them.
Voor kamers zoeken raad ik je aan een account te maken voor Room.nl als je dat nog niet hebt gedaan. Kost eenmalig iets van 30 euro en ze bieden in vrij veel steden kamers aan. Je hebt een grotere kans om een kamer te krijgen als je een ouder account hebt, dus het is handig om dat zsm te doen.
Ik ben het volledig eens met je sentiment.
Wel even een detail: volgens het knmi (statistieken uit 2022) is de opwarming in Nederland al 2.3 graden. Je hebt dus de gemiddelde opwarming van de aarde genomen in je comment en de gevolgen in Nederland van een hogere opwarming, waardoor die gevolgen ernstiger kunnen lijken.
Dat gezegd hebbende: we moeten inderdaad oppassen dat we niet achterover leunen, want de gevolgen van nog meer opwarming zijn lastig te voorspellen.
I should really start listening to audiobooks more often. I just looked and the book is freely available on Librivox, so I may switch back and forth between reading and listening from now on. Thanks for the tip!
Reading "A tale of two cities" by Charles Dickens. I am not too far into it, but so far it's been really enjoyable! The English accents are really hard to follow for someone whose native language isn't English, but I'm getting used to it.
I recently read this and was surprised at how good it was. I loved Orwells Animal Farm, but didn't like 1984 that much, so I wasn't expecting to enjoy it; I read it more to get some insights of the war. But the book is not just informative, it is also really funny at times, and the story is just wild.
I second this recommendation.
Love is a human emotion, so the Caro Kann will never love you. Hope you recover from this loss.
I mostly use "The French" in a dehumanising manner. Which is a good thing, because a chess opening should not be humanised.
Homage to Catalonia, George Orwells memoir about the Spanish civil war. I never read memoirs or autobiographies, but I am very glad I have read this one. It gives a good insight into various aspects of the civil war, as well as Orwells personal views (and his sigarette addiction). On top of that, it is at times hilarious. And it is almost unbelievable how many things happened in just 6 months.
Highly recommend it if you're into history or politics or love Orwells other works.
!biodiversity@mander.xyz may be a good place, especially if you have some information on its impact on biodiversity. It's not a community dedicated to depressing news, but anything that has to do with science goes on Mander.xyz, even when it's sad.
I myself would be interested in articles you have to share, I never heard of this before!
In my experience (Dutchie living near the German border) the car culture of Germany isn't that big; it is mostly the industry. Yes, there are many cars and a few more people driving in big BMW than the Dutch average, but there are quite a few people on bikes too. Also, transit in Germany is quite decent, despite the governments efforts; and, contrary to the Netherlands, it is affordable. Meanwhile the UK cancelled part of their HSR system and the prime minister claims it is a "country of motorists".
Deutsche Bank I don't know about, so you may still be right.
Looks great!
Some questions out of curiosity: how long ago did you convert your lawn to this (if it was a lawn before), and how hard was it to beat all the grass?
If you haven't already, check out the Owl-natomy posts! They are a great way to learn a lot about the general anatomy of owls; I at least learned a lot from those posts.
If you have objectively proven that atheists are wrong, that means that you must have proven that God exists right? I do not think that is possible without God showing himself, and not just to you, but to others too. If these atheists have not seen God, you have in fact, not proven that they are objectively wrong.
Also, there are many arguments that atheists use. For example, some atheists believe that the Bible can not be right because parts of it were written long after the events that they describe (for example gospels written maybe 50 years after Jesus' death, meaning most if not all eyewitnesses have died).
As a Christian myself, I do not believe you can objectively disprove atheism. And to claim not liking God is the only reason for their beliefs is ignorant, if not worse.
One of Bob Dylans greatest achievement was understanding the importance of the Wiggle in music and he has incorporated it into many of his songs, most notably in his magnum opus, "Wiggle Wiggle" from 1990. Experts and scientists are still in disagreement as to whether or not the song "Wilbury Twist", from a band Dylan was in, is the greatest song of all time, but they agree that, as James Joyce noted, "the Wiggle is strong in that one."
Because of these songs Bob Dylan is the only songwriter in history to have been rewarded the Nobel prize for the literature. In his speech after receiving the prize Dylan could not stop talking about Moby Dick. Personally I think the genius that is Bob Dylan used Moby Dick as an inspiration for his music because the movement of the whale when swimming is a Wiggle: with this speech he once more showed the world that the Wiggle is what "keeps music moving forward".
Ah, the whale! What a beautiful metaphor for music! Oh man! Admire and model thyself after the whale!
Did some re-reading of Anna Karenina and Pride and Prejudice. Now reading George Orwells "Homage to Catalonia", his memoir of his time as a volunteer against the fascists in the Spanish civil war. I'm about a third of the way in and so far it has been quite enjoyable, but I am hoping for some more politics later on; right now it is mostly about the situation on the front.