nature notes II

[Rhiannon]

Observed in our garden:

Blackbirds prefer red grapes, apple, green grapes, in that order.

And a hungry great tit can see off a robin.

[wigginhall]

Had a great walk on the beach on Sunday - Titchwell - the sun was out, the tide was very low, so we walked a long way out to the strand line, where there thousands of birds scurrying about feeding frantically; also big piles of shells, and most interesting, lots of old tree roots in the sand.  So I am wondering when there were woods out there, I suppose when the sea was lower?  Well, I googled it, and some people are saying it's the remains of a Bronze Age forest, from about 5000 years ago.  People also apparently find tools and stuff out there.

Anyway, if you are in the area, you need a low tide to see it, so check tide tables.

[Rhiannon]

Wiggs, you are sorely trying my new year's resolution of not being jealous of people living in Norfolk.

Incidentally, have you seen the stuff about the 800,000 year old footprints found off Happisburgh?

[wigginhall]

Wiggs, you are sorely trying my new year's resolution of not being jealous of people living in Norfolk.

Incidentally, have you seen the stuff about the 800,000 year old footprints found off Happisburgh?

Amazing, isn't it?  From a time when Britain was still joined to Europe. 

The Titchwell submerged forest seems to show that the land extended further out; but it also seems to be connected with the last ice age, when the sea was lower. I must say, it is hard to get concrete information about it.

Incidentally, crocuses are out in London.

[OH MY WORLD!]

I'm looking forward to watching this documentary special in march.

http://www.cbc.ca/wildcanada/

[L.A.]

Incidentally, crocuses are out in London.

Bloody Unions!

[wigginhall]

Quite mild on the allotment today, and I was looking at some flowering veg that somebody had let go to seed, and I noticed three bumble bees feasting on them.  Not my first bees of the year actually.  I wonder if it gets cold again, if they seek shelter - I guess so.  Of course, lots of birds singing now, I notice dunnock every morning now, and the blackbirds have started their dusk serenades, very nice to hear again.  Again, maybe they shut up, if it gets cold?

[Enki]

The great spotted woodpeckers are starting drumming now. Where we live, every morning now, we can hear a green woodpecker yaffling like some demented animal and the echoing hollow sound of a great spot. Interesting that both species have become more common in the last 25 years or so. Great spots are supposed to have benefited from the decrease in starlings, and the starlings' increasing preference to nest in buildings...also, I believe, more great spots are visiting bird feeders in gardens. Not sure why there is an increase in green woodpeckers in Britain, unless it's the warmer winters over a 20 to 30 year period, but evidence seems to suggest that they are more numerous and more widespread.

Unfortunately our third species of woodpecker is not doing nearly so well. The diminutive lesser spotted woodpecker(size of a chaffinch) seems to have contracted its range over the same period, and, in some areas, where it was relatively common, it's now virtually absent. The last time I saw a breeding one was a few years ago near York, although I have seen a wintering one much closer.

[OH MY WORLD!]

 I was out in the garage this morning and I heard a woodpecker working on a tree next door. Found this site with some good pictures of the birds in my city.

http://www.birdscalgary.com/category/woodpeckers/

[Enki]

I was out in the garage this morning and I heard a woodpecker working on a tree next door. Found this site with some good pictures of the birds in my city.

http://www.birdscalgary.com/category/woodpeckers/

never been to Canada, JC, but I have been to California, especially around Yosemite. Seen a good range of woodpeckers and sapsuckers, including both downy and hairy woodpeckers. The commonest. I remember, was the acorn woodpecker which was actually considered a pest because of it boring holes in fence posts and telegraph posts. The rarest one was the red cockaded woodpecker that I saw in Florida. The most impressive was the pileated woodpecker, a magnificent beastie.  Like many other birders I used to have fantasies about finding an ivory billed woodpecker in the swamps of the southern U.S....even though it is almost definitely extinct!

[Rhiannon]

We get both greater spotted and green woodpeckers in our garden. The green are more numerous and feast on ants on our lawn and on the cricket field behind us. We deliberately leave part of our lawn long and never use chemicals, which may account for why they find so much to eat. They are extraordinary birds, almost reptilian in appearance. I startled one when I opened the curtains this morning.

[wigginhall]

Wandering round Barnes on Friday, which is a really pretty 'village' in London, anyway they have a nice village pond, which I usually have a look at for birds, and there were a pair of Egyptian geese, with 7 goslings!  Pretty early, although Egyptians are noted for early breeding.  Tons of people firing bread at them, which probably isn't very good for them.   Remember - don't feed bread to swans, as it can kill them.

[Rhiannon]

Wandering round Barnes on Friday, which is a really pretty 'village' in London, anyway they have a nice village pond, which I usually have a look at for birds, and there were a pair of Egyptian geese, with 7 goslings!  Pretty early, although Egyptians are noted for early breeding.  Tons of people firing bread at them, which probably isn't very good for them.   Remember - don't feed bread to swans, as it can kill them.

You can buy huge bags of duck food fairly cheaply on-line, and decant it into smaller bags to take out to 'feed the ducks' - let's face it, if you have small kids around then you just have to at some point.

Bread isn't just bad for swans and ducks, it actually fouls the water itself, especially on small ponds. Our local town council has banned feeding bread to the ducks on the town pond for this reason.

[Enki]

We get both greater spotted and green woodpeckers in our garden. The green are more numerous and feast on ants on our lawn and on the cricket field behind us. We deliberately leave part of our lawn long and never use chemicals, which may account for why they find so much to eat. They are extraordinary birds, almost reptilian in appearance. I startled one when I opened the curtains this morning.

Great stuff, Rhi. I've never had a green woodpecker in the garden. I remember seeing my first one years ago, and the feeling of wonderment it engendered though.

[Rhiannon]

I don't know why they are so abundant round here, sometimes there are half a dozen feeding on the cricket field. There is an old orchard nearby - for now - which might account for it.

On paper we live somewhere that shouldn't have much exciting birdlife, apart from woodpigeon and crows - we live on the edge of the village surrounded by arable farmland. But if I get up early enough I can see larks over the field opposite - again for now as the landowner wants to put a few houses on it - and every night we hear tawny owls; walking along the lane we are accompanied by a flock of chattering sparrows. And one day I walked into the kitchen to find a female sparrowhawk eating a woodpigeon just a couple of yards from our back door.

[wigginhall]

It's probably because you have your eyes open, Rhiannon - most people don't.  In our garden in Norfolk, which is also in arable land, we have had sedge warblers, corn buntings, turtle dove, goldcrest, great spot woodpecker, fieldfare, and we get pink-footed geese in the fields.

Just walking along the Thames, noticed a ton of blackthorn flowering now in the hedges.  So I have seen the hedges beginning to flower, birds breeding, and bees buzzing, this week! 

[Enki]

It's probably because you have your eyes open, Rhiannon - most people don't.  In our garden in Norfolk, which is also in arable land, we have had sedge warblers, corn buntings, turtle dove, goldcrest, great spot woodpecker, fieldfare, and we get pink-footed geese in the fields.

Just walking along the Thames, noticed a ton of blackthorn flowering now in the hedges.  So I have seen the hedges beginning to flower, birds breeding, and bees buzzing, this week!

Couldn't agree more, Wiggs. I remember years ago a little owl took up residency on the edge of the cliffs leading to Filey Brigg. It could be seen by anybody walking by, and loads of holidaymakers passed it without noticing it at all.

Incidentally has anybody noticed greenfinches coming into their gardens or on their feeders? The reason I'm asking is that in recent years their numbers have dropped dramatically, mainly because of them contracting a disease(Trichomonosis) which leads to greenfinches(and to a lesser extent chaffinches) not being able to digest their food. Symptoms can include lethargic fluffed up birds, sometimes with uneaten food around their bills, and wet plumage around their bills and faces. Pigeons are thought to be the main carriers(and wood pigeons have hugely increased in suburban gardens). The disease is passed on by regurgitated food, so one suggestion which might help is to regularly clean bird feeders and put fresh water regularly  in bird baths.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Bird spotters,

Okay come clean, countryfile on the TV highlighting Portland, Swallows arriving, this time of year our have I got it wrong.

Gonnagle.

[RobM]

Dear Bird spotters,

Okay come clean, countryfile on the TV highlighting Portland, Swallows arriving, this time of year our have I got it wrong.

Gonnagle.

Yes.  There are reports of swallows from various places on the south coast.

I believe that some swallows now spend the winter in southern France.  Maybe these are the early returners.  It has been very mild (amongst all the rubbish weather coming our way.)

[Rhiannon]

It's probably because you have your eyes open, Rhiannon - most people don't.  In our garden in Norfolk, which is also in arable land, we have had sedge warblers, corn buntings, turtle dove, goldcrest, great spot woodpecker, fieldfare, and we get pink-footed geese in the fields.

Just walking along the Thames, noticed a ton of blackthorn flowering now in the hedges.  So I have seen the hedges beginning to flower, birds breeding, and bees buzzing, this week!

Couldn't agree more, Wiggs. I remember years ago a little owl took up residency on the edge of the cliffs leading to Filey Brigg. It could be seen by anybody walking by, and loads of holidaymakers passed it without noticing it at all.

Incidentally has anybody noticed greenfinches coming into their gardens or on their feeders? The reason I'm asking is that in recent years their numbers have dropped dramatically, mainly because of them contracting a disease(Trichomonosis) which leads to greenfinches(and to a lesser extent chaffinches) not being able to digest their food. Symptoms can include lethargic fluffed up birds, sometimes with uneaten food around their bills, and wet plumage around their bills and faces. Pigeons are thought to be the main carriers(and wood pigeons have hugely increased in suburban gardens). The disease is passed on by regurgitated food, so one suggestion which might help is to regularly clean bird feeders and put fresh water regularly  in bird baths.

Maybe, chaps. I can remember going on holiday as a kid and buying spotting guides; my family knows very little about wildlife, if anything at all, so I'm not quite sure why it mattered so much to me not only to notice the creatures around me, but to know what they were called.

No greenfinches, funnily enough I noticed this the other day because usually I can hardly keep up with feeding them.  Lots of chaffinches and sparrows though.

[Enki]

Dear Bird spotters,

Okay come clean, countryfile on the TV highlighting Portland, Swallows arriving, this time of year our have I got it wrong.

Gonnagle.

Yes.  There are reports of swallows from various places on the south coast.

I believe that some swallows now spend the winter in southern France.  Maybe these are the early returners.  It has been very mild (amongst all the rubbish weather coming our way.)

Absolutely!  There are a few swallows arriving.. but they really start arriving in numbers in late March and April. However from late February and into March the first push of sand martins start arriving. They can often be seen on inland reservoirs/lakes, at first in the south of the UK then increasingly on inland waters further north. They are one of the earliest of our summer migrants.

[RobM]

Bang (if you'll pardon the expression) on cue the frog spawn appeared in my garden pond last Friday.  Very similar date to the previous ten years.

This morning I counted 29 frogs in the pond (and I am sure there were more) in, what can only be described as, a mass orgy.  The pond is only about 8' x 6'.  Crowded or what!

[OH MY WORLD!]

I love my Rocky Mountains.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LFS1cBD-Tdo

[Spud]

Great picture on the March page of the Countryfile 2014 calendar: a photo of a female Mallard duck chasing an Osprey.

[OH MY WORLD!]

Dinosaur Provincial Park Alberta Badlands. A must see if any happen to come to my province.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FqngadhPGWc