What birds (are you/have you been) watching? What birds have been watching you?

[vinteuil]

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... yes, we have occasional rather sleepy-looking bumble-bees in our London back-yard at times during the winter.

We know that spring has come when the masonry bees arrive to claim and re-work their holes in the poor cement-work in our neighbour's house. Which overlooks the glass roof of our kitchen, so we get little sprinkles of cement dust on the roof as they go about their business...


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[Richard Tarleton]

Early emergence by bumble bees came up in an interview on Today - Martha Kearney (a beekeeper herself) interviewing a phenology expert, how things that rely on insect emergence times (birds) take longer to adapt than the insects responding to the weather......

I've been adding my observations of early butterflies, frogspawn etc. to the West Wales wildlife recording database, you will have similar in your area (search for yours here)

[doversoul1]

Early emergence by bumble bees came up in an interview on Today - Martha Kearney (a beekeeper herself) interviewing a phenology expert, how things that rely on insect emergence times (birds) take longer to adapt than the insects responding to the weather......

I've been adding my observations of early butterflies, frogspawn etc. to the West Wales wildlife recording database, you will have similar in your area (search for yours here)

Talking about early bees etc.: No hibernation for adders. Tough life.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/06/adders-now-active-all-year-with-warmer-uk-weather

[jayne lee wilson]

The Hedgehogs get a little confused with mild winters too...a smallish one appeared on 21/02, but it had been out once or twice in December, eating the bird food I lay out late for the dawn feed. I haven't seen it again since February.
Daffodils bloomed on 22/02 - looking just a little droopy now. A Brimstone Butterlfy illuminated the garden on the 26th as we had summer in the last week of February, and I spent all that week releasing lively ladybirds from warm, sunny upstairs windows (they hibernate here in tight little clusters)....

I hope all these creatures are coping as the temperatures zoom about......

[kernelbogey]

It's clearly just a rookie. Or raven mad.

[kernelbogey]

Jackdaws depart from their familiar repertoire when they make high pitched caws as alarm calls.

Well we do have quite a few jackdaws around so that's a possibility. But this one is clearly alarmed a lot (maybe anticipating Ardcarp's jokes ).

[Richard Tarleton]

Shocking news which seems to have been squeezed out of the national news - Fair Isle Bird Observatory destroyed by fire. No casualties, and the records had all been digitised and thus were not lost.....Viewers of Shetland may remember an episode based there.

[ardcarp]

That is sad news. I'm fascinated by those northerly isles...but have never been there. (One thing to do on the bucket list before I kick it.)
I trust they will have no trouble raising the funds to rebuild?

[Richard Tarleton]

They seem to be raising money for the family who live in and ran it to start with. Insurance? It'll be rebuilt for sure.

[ardcarp]

Slightly off topic, but I wonder what birds are watching this fella?



Photographed by us at the weekend in Cornwall. I looked on Google to find that 3 species of stick insect are now established in Cornwall, The Isles of Scilly and Devon.
Question: When does a species become a 'native' species? Presumably SI's arrived on a boat at the hand of mankind...but isn't that (sort of) the hand of nature? And is good old Global Warming responsible for their flourishing here?

[Padraig]

[QUOTE=ardcarp;732137I wonder what birds are watching this fella?[/QUOTE]

One of them fancied a leg.

Nice pic ardcarp and a reminder that there are other creatures to find and watch - as I used to do.

[Richard Tarleton]

Question: When does a species become a 'native' species? Presumably SI's arrived on a boat at the hand of mankind...but isn't that (sort of) the hand of nature? And is good old Global Warming responsible for their flourishing here?

All sorts of things are arriving on the bottoms of ships, from all over the globe, and finding they can flourish here, at the expense of native wildlife - eg Darwin's Barnacle, which has hitched a ride here from Australasia. This website sums it all up. By your argument ("at the hand of mankind") , any introduction is natural - rats from ships wiping out nesting birds on remote islands...... Only evolution equips wildlife to deal with predators, sudden introductions against which the indigenous wildlife has evolved no defences are disastrous.

[ardcarp]

...rhododendrons?

[Richard Tarleton]

...rhododendrons?

Fine in its native Himalayas where it has evolved as part of an ecosystem, but in an alien environment (here) an absolute menace in the wild (Snowdonia a case in point) - looks pretty from a distance, but creates a sterile monoculture of no interest to native birds or insects. Also, a major host for Phytopthera ramorum, sudden oak death syndrome, as a result of which it has had to be eradicated from large areas including from ornamental parks and gardens, at considerable expense. As the Woodland Trust says, get rid of it and replace with native species.

[oddoneout]

Slightly off topic, but I wonder what birds are watching this fella?



Photographed by us at the weekend in Cornwall. I looked on Google to find that 3 species of stick insect are now established in Cornwall, The Isles of Scilly and Devon.
Question: When does a species become a 'native' species? Presumably SI's arrived on a boat at the hand of mankind...but isn't that (sort of) the hand of nature? And is good old Global Warming responsible for their flourishing here?

The pet trade would have been the main origin I think, and escapees could have been deliberate(not wanted anymore) or accidental. Having had charge of these critturs many years ago on several occasions(mostly school related) I know from experience that the newly hatched ones are tiny and can(and do) escape.