nature notes II

[Dicky Underpants]

Heads up, all: garden birds like Chopin!

The Revolutionary Study included?

[OH MY WORLD!]

The UK buys it's bananas from Mexico? Black Widows can be found here is southern Alberta. As a kid I saw one in the dog house at my uncle farm. An older cousin sounded the alarm before us younger ones tried to catch it. Black Widows are found in Mexico, the USA and southern Canada.

[Dicky Underpants]

The UK buys it's bananas from Mexico? Black Widows can be found here is southern Alberta. As a kid I saw one in the dog house at my uncle farm. An older cousin sounded the alarm before us younger ones tried to catch it. Black Widows are found in Mexico, the USA and southern Canada.

Maybe I got the wrong variety of poisonous spider. Certainly banana crates are notorious for harbouring venomous spiders of some kind on occasion.

[wigginhall]

Amazing reports this week that botanists counted 600 flowering plants in the UK on New Year's Day, whereas the usual number is 20-30.  I know that in London we have daffodils, snowdrops, and crocus well out now.  But the botanists found species such as hawthorn in bloom, 5 months early!

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/more-than-600-species-of-british-flowers-in-bloom-on-new-years-day-a6833656.html

[Rhiannon]

Skylarks are singing on the wing above the fields opposite me already, and in greater number than usual.

[floo]

Today I saw some snowdrops for the first time this winter, which is rather late, especially as the winter has been so very mild so far. Normally one sees them about mid December in our area.

[Shaker]

Today I saw some snowdrops for the first time this winter, which is rather late, especially as the winter has been so very mild so far. Normally one sees them about mid December in our area.

That counts as unusually early - it's late January and into February when they appear in my garden, hence their folk name of February fairmaids.

[Rhiannon]

Yes, ours don't appear before February. In fact this year the first narcissi are earlier.

[ekim]

There seems to be masses of frog spawn about.  Hope it doesn't suffer from frost bite if the weather gets colder.

[floo]

That counts as unusually early - it's late January and into February when they appear in my garden, hence their folk name of February fairmaids.

The crocuses are out, and I have often seen daffodils out late December/beginning of January in our part of North Wales, but I haven't seen any yet this year.

[wigginhall]

Blimey, another mild spring day, nice for a walk along the river,  all the rowing crews going ballistic, just saw a black-headed gull with a black head, but this is not really early.   Lack of cold may bugger up some plants, e.g. fruit trees.

[Enki]

Beautiful day, yesterday. Blue skies, no wind and a crisp atmosphere which gave superb clarity. I decided to go to one of my favourite haunts, North Cave Wetlands. Plenty of snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils out in full bloom. Catkins everywhere and early blossoming trees looked magnificent. I managed to see two little owls, a barn owl, a green woodpecker, 3 redwings, 5 siskins and a variety of wildfowl, some of them displaying. I still managed to miss a kingfisher and a peregrine unfortunately. I love this time of year because it's a sort of interim time before the first real spring migrants arrive towards the end of February.

[floo]

I was fascinated by the antics of a male blackbird who was giving himself a thorough wash in our bird bath this morning. He put his head under the water then gave himself a shower by flapping his wings in it. A female blackbird was perched nearby, maybe he was sprucing himself up for her benefit? 

[Rhiannon]

Over the past couple of weeks I've seen three dead badgers at the roadside. This week I've seen another two. Presumably they have all been killed by cars. Apart from being so very sad it's so unusual - one a year is more like it - and I wonder if it is something to do with the mild weather waking them too early and they are a bit dopey and disorientated and end up under cars. Either that or it's not traffic at all but an illness that's getting them. Really odd.

[ekim]

I was told that there are some farmers who shoot badgers and throw them by the roadside to disguise them as road-kill.

[Rhiannon]

I was told that there are some farmers who shoot badgers and throw them by the roadside to disguise them as road-kill.

Of course. Obvious when you think about it. 

Farmers - possible. But we're arable country. I know of only one cattle herd in the area.

Badger baiters? They were active here fifteen years or so ago. Or maybe someone has dug up a sett because they want to develop a piece of land and are getting rid of the evidence.

[floo]

One never used to see dead badgers in the road, but in the last few years I have seen one at least once or twice a week! I subscribe to Ekim's theory that farmers shoot them and put them on the road to pretend they are road kill.

[OH MY WORLD!]

Try having a close look when you find another one. Is it flattened, is it's belly ripped apart, shot gun wound would be wide spread over the animal, check it's neck.
Could be a car, dogs(baiting), snare or shot gun. The last two you could probably go after the farmers, 2nd one would be baiters and the first is an accident, I would hope.

[Enki]

I find the following short article extremely worrying:

http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=5519

[OH MY WORLD!]

The state of my province's wolverines.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/wolverine-research-jason-fisher-1.3454605

Amazing, I've always been told how vicious wolverines are but obviously they can be domesticated. They shouldn't be though!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNgv3opJqoQ

[ekim]

There seems to be masses of frog spawn about.  Hope it doesn't suffer from frost bite if the weather gets colder.

Some frog spawn had become frozen but there are now masses of tadpoles.

[wigginhall]

Walking in Richmond Park, a hint of spring in the air.  The jackdaws and parrots making a helluva racket.  I guess the parrots are breeding already, and there will be lots of parrotlings soon. 

Lots of dead wood lying around; I think they leave it now, instead of carting it away, for the insects and other inverts.   London is a hot spot for stag beetles, and you get them in suburban gardens. 

[OH MY WORLD!]

Did the pirates bring home the parrots back in the days of yore and they got loose? lol


http://www.pets4homes.co.uk/pet-advice/exotic-birds-living-wild-in-london-the-feral-london-parrots.html

[Samuel]

I think I saw a Merlin in the garden this morning!

I'm no bird expert but it's the only thing I can find to match. It was definitely a raptor of some kind, but none of the more common types fit the bill. It had a slate grey back and tail with a russet coloured breast and was about the size of a small pigeon, or maybe a big blackbird. The only thing was the beak, it didn't quite look right.

[Enki]

I think I saw a Merlin in the garden this morning!

I'm no bird expert but it's the only thing I can find to match. It was definitely a raptor of some kind, but none of the more common types fit the bill. It had a slate grey back and tail with a russet coloured breast and was about the size of a small pigeon, or maybe a big blackbird. The only thing was the beak, it didn't quite look right.

That's possible, Sam, but it's unusual for a merlin to even fly over a garden, let alone be in a garden, unless, of course, your garden is very close to wide open areas. Your description, brief as it is, loosely fits a male sparrowhawk though which quite regularly flies through gardens and can often be seen perching there.