nature notes II

[Rhiannon]

My cat and dog both have some anti tick stuff. The car has still had a couple. She's not the friendliest and getting them off is ...interesting.

[floo]

On one of my daily walks yesterday I found a dead woodpecker on the pavement, which was rather sad.

[floo]

This morning I saw a tree in someone's front garden covered in magpies. I have never seen more than about two or three at any one time.

[Enki]

Autumn migration is slowly coming to a close. Some of the highlights for me have been the falls of goldcests/redwings/blackbirds/robins/fieldfares on the east coast, especially during the fine and dry spells we have had early to mid October. Occasionally at Spurn we have had goldcrests by the bucketload, in the grass, on small bushes and occasionally almost underneath my feet. Also the number of sub rarities and rarities have been extremely varied from great grey shrikes to Pallas's warblers(a superb little gem of a bird, like a goldcrest on steroids).

Only today I've seen a skein of pink footed geese, with their clipped mournful calls, winging their way in from Scandinavia. I am reminded of many a day's sea watching when I've seen small flocks of redwings coming in from the North Sea, making landfall and diving into the nearest bushes or hedges exhausted. Nocturnal migration, too, must be a fascinating experience, not often witnessed. Anyone interested, have a look at these two short videos showing chaffinches and bramblings dropping onto a vessel in the Baltic for a well earned rest.(the bramblings can be identified by their white rumps which show in the vessel's lights)

http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=5314

[Rhiannon]

I saw redwings are on the near endangered list. 

[Enki]

Are you sure, Rhi?   Redwings are extremely common in Scandinavian countries. The endangered list is also called the red list.(which now includes turtle doves and puffins, by the way)  Could you be confusing the red list with redwings? Just asking?

[Spud]

Heads up, all: garden birds like Chopin!

[Rhiannon]

Are you sure, Rhi?   Redwings are extremely common in Scandinavian countries. The endangered list is also called the red list.(which now includes turtle doves and puffins, by the way)  Could you be confusing the red list with redwings? Just asking?

Here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34664385

[Rhiannon]

Green woodpecker right outside my window feeding on the lawn. 

[Enki]

Here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34664385

No problem, Rhi. The redwing has been put on the 'Near Threatened at European level' because of its recent population decline in Europe. However this is very different to 'near endangered'.  Also, of course, it has a huge range which covers not only Europe but much of Siberia. So, although, I agree it has been put on the 'near threatened' list for Europe, it is "currently listed as Least Concern, because when last assessed it was not thought to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under any of the IUCN Red List criteria." This may change, of course, in the light of subsequent data.

http://www.birdlife.org/globally-threatened-bird-forums/2015/07/redwing-turdus-iliacus-uplist-from-least-concern-to-near-threatened/

[Rhiannon]

I guess redwings are fortunate to be coming from Scandanavia rather than flying across Malta.

[Enki]

I couldn't agree more,  Rhi.

[Rhiannon]

 

[floo]

On my third walk of the day this morning, along the bridle path at the back of our house, a sparrow hawk flew in front of me picking a blackbird out of the air, which started to squawk loudly. The sparrow hawk landed on the grass a few yards in front of me, totally ignoring my yells to let the blackbird go. It only flew off when I got right up close to it, clutching the poor bird in its talons!

[wigginhall]

Saw my first snowdrops today, I know you get them in December, but it's pretty early.   But then it has been very mild in London, 16 degrees today, boiling hot in a winter coat.

[Rhiannon]

Apart from a raincoat for walking the dog I haven't put a coat on yet this winter.

[Bubbles]

Fed up with rain 

[Rhiannon]

Noooo, I love the rain. Washing mud off stuff gets a bit wearing after a while though.

[wigginhall]

Apart from snowdrops, a ton of flowers are out, I noticed some ceonothus are flowering a bit.  If you have a sweet box near you, go and grab a nostril full, as they have the sweetest scent of almost any flower, and flower in winter, we call them the handcream bush.   Also called Christmas box, or sarcococca. 

[floo]

I have just seen a Great Spotted Woodpecker on our neighbour's birdfeeder.

[OH MY WORLD!]

Snowy Owls in Manitoba, released back into wild.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/rehabilitated-snowy-owls-released-manitoba-1.3380384

[wigginhall]

Well, I saw the 3 main spring flowers before Christmas - snowdrops, daffodils, and my next door neighbour's crocuses started coming out.  I think they will go back, if it gets cold.

[OH MY WORLD!]

Seems the bobcats decided to stay put. I can't blame them, Calgary is a great city to live in.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/bobcat-britannia-calgary-caught-camera-1.3396091

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-tgY_DOQEI

[Dicky Underpants]

Apart from snowdrops, a ton of flowers are out, I noticed some ceonothus are flowering a bit.  If you have a sweet box near you, go and grab a nostril full, as they have the sweetest scent of almost any flower, and flower in winter, we call them the handcream bush.   Also called Christmas box, or sarcococca.

Mahonia japonica has one of the loveliest of winter scents, I think. They have been in flower for more than two months down here, which I think is unusual.

Rather more prosaically, I planted some broad beans on a friend's allotment on Nov 11th. Other gardeners looked as though they'd planted theirs a month before, and with the warm autumn and the poor light were growing lanky and spindly. However, with the constant deluges we've been having, a doubt that mine will be doing much better. Haven't checked yet.

I saw several beds of lily-of-the-valley in flower in Wells (I think they were l.o.t.v., certainly not snowdrops). Is this usual for them to be in flower at this time of the year? Mahonia's scent has been compared by one Alan Titchmarsh to l.o.t.v. Maybe - a cross between carnation and sweetpea, perhaps.

[Dicky Underpants]

They aren't massively dangerous, Floo, although they can give a painful bite.

A friend of mine received a bite from some kind of European spider which had crossed the channel, a few months back. I was amazed at the damage that it had done to his leg - the flesh became quite necrotic. I never knew there were any European spiders that could have this effect. Quite unnerving that they can get to this country relatively easily. I thought the worst threat of this kind was the occasional appearance of a Black Widow spider in a box of bananas.