Biology - Following the Pilot Whales in Loch Carnan, Uist

Read the full article here:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1389999/Fears-safety-pod-60-whales-confused-high-voltage-cable-seabed.html#ixzz1NBi5d5wY

Extract:

"A pod of 60 whales that have disappeared from a loch in the Outer Hebrides could have lost their way after becoming confused by a high voltage power cable under the sea.

Rescuers said they are looking into the theory that their navigation may have been affected by the magnetic field emitted by the cable that runs from Loch Carnan, where the whales were found, to the mainland.

Last night hopes for the pod were fading especially after two of the pilot whales have already been found dead in South Uist. 

Veterinary investigations of the first dead whale found 'potential evidence of an infection' in the animal's melon, a fatty organ found in the forehead.

It also showed external injuries to the whale were not enough to cause its death.

Tests showed the female whale was just coming to an end of a lactation and rescuers said they hoped her young calf would have been fully weaned."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1389999/Fears-safety-pod-60-whales-confused-high-voltage-cable-seabed.html#ixzz1NBi5d5wY

Biology: Marine Creatures: Pilot Whales

There are a pod of about 60 whales in Loch Carnan, Uist at the moment.  You can catch up with the story here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13466462
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-13483100
In pictures:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-13469173


Extracts:

Pilot whales normally prefer deep water but come inshore in search of squid, which is their main food source.

Last week a pilot whale died after getting stuck in the Sullom Voe in Shetland.

Sick and injured whales are thought to beach themselves to die.

However, at times, dying whales have been followed to shore by healthy animals.

Conservationists have also suggested the whales may have got lost.

In October a pod of pilot whales were in danger in the same sea loch.

Days later, 33 whales, thought to be the same group, were discovered dead on a beach in County Donegal.

Pilot whales can grow up to about 20ft (6.1m) and are among the most common marine mammals.


How to save a beached whale

British Divers Marine Life Rescue is an organisation dedicated to the rescue and well being of all marine animals in distress around the UK.   Read more here   http://www.bdmlr.org.uk/

RESCUE HOTLINE: 01825 765546 (out of hours: 07787 433412)
What to do if you find a live stranded marine mammal

Please note the place, the state of the tide and any injuries you can see without getting close and call 01825 765546 during office hours, or call 07787 433412 out of hours (NB: this number does not receive texts). We will then advise you on what to do and will get one of our trained medics out as soon as possible. More information »

Biology: Plants - Leaf, root and flower study

We decided to expand on my Plant - Leaves study and on the way home from walking my little sister to school this morning we spend sometime ambling along the woodland paths collecting all the different leaves we could find.  We came back with over 30.  Many of them we know the names of and some we dont.

I am doing a powerpoint presentation on each of the plants we know  and hoping to find the names of the plants we dont know.

I am also going to get my dad to make me a "flower/leaf press" so that I can press the leaves and collect them and then I am going to start my own nature study scrap book.

I found a wonderful blog whilst I was reseraching my first plant.  We know it by the name of Poor Mans Potato and could not find a reference to that name anywhere on the www.  We then looked through a book we have called "healing Thread" tradional medicines of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland) and  found the name Silverweed.

I then seached Silverweed and found this:  http://radix4roots.blogspot.com/2011/02/another-root-less-travelled-silverweed.html - it has a lot of info on Silverweed.

Here in the Hebrides it is a well known fact that people survived the Great Pototo famine by eating the small tubers of the Silverweed/Poor mans Pototo around the time of the Clearances.

I noticed from all the info that you can apparently eat the tubers raw or cooked by think it need s a lot more investigation from me before I try it out! 

WARNING:  Identifying plants is very complex and trying out plant that you only think are the right plant can be fatal.  You just need to look at the movie:  Into the Wild - where the guy died from incorrectly identifying a plant when he was short of food.  Don't do it!  You need to cross reference and study the plant in detail i.e. roots, leaves, flowers etc before you every try something like that.  We have books of wild foraging and herbal books, traditional books, ancient books but still we are very wary of actually trying stuff unless we have studied it over time and are 110% certain.

I will tell you more about my project as it progresses as it will be a study of a couple of days.

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Other good references:

http://www.floranordica.org/index.en.html   - Flora Nordica is a research project with the aim to produce a scientifically based flora of the vascular plants in northern Europe. (i.e. Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway (incl. Svalbard and Jan Mayen) and Sweden.)
http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/tree-key/simple-leaf-trees.htm - simple leaved trees
How to press flowers  http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/pressing-flowers.aspx