I sit out in the front garden most afternoons at the moment, and get visited by diamond doves, Willy wagtails and scaley-breasted lorikeets ( when the bottlebrush is flowering. At the moment they just zoom overhead, swearing loudly at the lack of blossom). I have fairy wrens nesting in my emu bush and double barred finches in the tree out the back. The weather has been cooler of late, so a lot of the birds are out for a peck around in the afternoon.
We have willy wagtails, magpies and lorikeets commonly around. A couple of days ago, we were parking the car ready to attend a meeting when there was a blue wren flitting around the nandina bush in front of us - first I'd seen in years. We also have a small flock of galahs who perform acrobatics on our neighbours' TV antennas, and yellow-tailed black cockatoos are becoming increasingly common screeching their way overhead or feeding on banksia cones.
We have Bush Tits that pass through from time to time. They are always in flocks and they descend en masse onto the suet feeder. There can be as many as 20 crowded onto the feeder at the same time. They are really cute - like small brown ping pong balls with olong tails.
Blue I presume? They'll be gone by April, just three months of distraction.
(I set up a youthwork introduction for the Bird Gardenwatch this weekend yesterday, with a list of all the UK native tits and a question as to which was the odd one out*. That's blue tit, great tit, coal tit, marsh tit, willow tit, long-tailed tit and crested tit - with a slide showing pictures of them all after the question. The other one was asking them to choose a number from 1 to 4 in answer to a question to identify common birds like robins, magpie, jackdaw, blackbird, chaffinch, sparrow, pied wagtail and something else commonly seen around here. All my fellow youthworkers panicked when they saw the bird slides and were relieved they only had to choose the right number. Of course, no young people for the zoom session, so we tested out a load of ideas.)
* it's the long tailed tit which is not a member of the Parus family, unlike the rest of them
Not sure that's a fair question. First of all, there's also Bearded Tit which isn't a Parus. Second, there's very little prospect of seeing a Crested Tit in your garden, even if you live in the small part of Scotland where they are found. There's not much more prospect in most of the country of seeing a Willow Tit in the garden either. Blue, Great, Coal, Marsh and Long-Tailed are much more likely to turn up at a feeder.
I can't remember whether I've mentioned before on these boards that one of my neighbours asked me whether a Pied Wagtail she described to me was a baby Magpie.
We have Bush Tits that pass through from time to time. They are really cute - like small brown ping pong balls with olong tails.
Are you in the US?
Long-tailed tits in the UK (and most of northern Eurasia) are bushtits, but mostly white. They move about in flocks of eight to ten, mostly in tree branches. (I don't think I've ever seen them at a feeder. They are cute. They make a buzzing-whistling sound as they move about. They're actually a kind of warbler.
@Enoch - it was more to get the sniggering out of the way because you cannot say tit near a teenager without giggling. If we'd been using it for real, rather than testing out using PowerPoint on Zoom, I'd have said that the ones they were likely to see were the blue, great, coal and long-tailed tit, and of them the one that wasn't really of the same family was the long-tailed tit. But that if they were watching in a different habitat, what they thought were coal tits might be marsh or willow tits. We have a number of local nature reserves on rivers or marshland that provide a suitable habitat.
My next slide had a picture of a blue-footed booby and the one after a European shag - because those names to cause giggles.
We have Bush Tits that pass through from time to time. They are really cute - like small brown ping pong balls with olong tails.
Are you in the US?
Long-tailed tits in the UK (and most of northern Eurasia) are bushtits, but mostly white. They move about in flocks of eight to ten, mostly in tree branches. (I don't think I've ever seen them at a feeder. They are cute. They make a buzzing-whistling sound as they move about. They're actually a kind of warbler.
Yes, it's the Big Garden Birdwatch in the UK today. Why is it that, when I sit in the conservatory for a designated hour, only half of the species regularly seen in the garden turn up?
Sad news for anyone inerested in the duck incubating her eggs in the vacant sea-eagles' nest. A pair of ravens came yesterday when she was away briefly, and ate one of the eggs (heavier and perhaps close to being viable) and removed all the rest.
Yes, it's the Big Garden Birdwatch in the UK today. Why is it that, when I sit in the conservatory for a designated hour, only half of the species regularly seen in the garden turn up?
Yes! I watched for about ten minutes this morning before going out to church, and got quite a respectable haul including great tits and a wren. When I got back from church I refilled the feeders and stood by the kitchen window for an hour, and only got one robin and a pair of scruffy starlings!
We did it today, and it was feeble, or rather we were. Every year, I'm sure birds get wind of it, and duck. One strange thing, we don't see blackbirds in winter.
We did it this morning as well - periods across the hour when there were so many birds they had to put in a one-way system, others when there were none ('cos they were all in next door's grapevine).
Anyway, our haul was:
Jackdaw 7
Starling 4
Magpie 1
Sparrows 10 (they like the bush at the end of the garden, so are sods to count!)
Blue tit 2
Collared Dove 2
Wood pigeon 1
Great tits 3
Wren 1
Blackbird 1
Chaffinch 1
and, in the dying seconds, a solitary dunnock.
No robins, only the one dunnock, and the goldfinch flew by without alighting.
In other news I've spent the arvo making bird boxes - from what timber I could get, rather than the right size, so they are a bit nuclear-bunker in scale! Two have 25mm holes for blue tits, the final one will have a bigger 'ole (when I get a drill bit!) and I'll see what it attracts - most likely sparrows or great tits. Meanwhile the Knotweed has edged up the sink-bowl ponds, which will look much less like two sink bowls in the ground when stuff starts to grow round them.
Don't let knotweed grow. It's an invasive species and can swamp a garden if left. It's also a bugger to get rid off (you'll probably need professional assistance) and if it spreads to your neighbours, you won't be very popular.
When we lived in Yorkshire, the local cemetery was heaving with knotweed, which was destroying the graves. The local authority were finally persuaded to deal with the matter as there were graves of historical significance being threatened. They sprayed on a regular basis, but it didn't eradicate the knotweed, simply keeping it restricted. Our garden had shoots emerging, which we jumped on quickly and used high power weed killer frequently. Weed killer isn't good for the environment, though, especially if you're near a watercourse. Prevention is better than cure.
A few Sundays mornings ago I was walking to the studio, across a major bridge over our principal river. (Toronto is built on a series river and creeks, and is riven with ravines, so there's a lot of wildlife just out of sight.) I though, My God, that dog's going to get hit! as something crossed the somewhat busy street. Then I realised that it too low-slung to be a dog - it was a fox! S/he made it across with alacrity.
Don't let knotweed grow. It's an invasive species and can swamp a garden if left. It's also a bugger to get rid off (you'll probably need professional assistance) and if it spreads to your neighbours, you won't be very popular.
The Knotweed, in this case, is @Celtic Knotweed who I can assure you is hard enough to get into a garden, there is little danger of her swamping it (though she is, as you say, a bugger to get rid of). She seems to get on OK with the neighbours.
Sorry, I forgot that that might not be clear in a gardening thread!
A few Sundays mornings ago I was walking to the studio, across a major bridge over our principal river. (Toronto is built on a series river and creeks, and is riven with ravines, so there's a lot of wildlife just out of sight.) I though, My God, that dog's going to get hit! as something crossed the somewhat busy street. Then I realised that it too low-slung to be a dog - it was a fox! S/he made it across with alacrity.
What's the status of foxes in Canada please? Here they were introduced in the early days of European occupation and they flourished. Over time, they've eradicated several indigenous species and shooting them is encouraged.
Don't let knotweed grow. It's an invasive species and can swamp a garden if left. It's also a bugger to get rid off (you'll probably need professional assistance) and if it spreads to your neighbours, you won't be very popular.
The Knotweed, in this case, is @Celtic Knotweed who I can assure you is hard enough to get into a garden, there is little danger of her swamping it (though she is, as you say, a bugger to get rid of). She seems to get on OK with the neighbours.
Sorry, I forgot that that might not be clear in a gardening thread!
Ah! Not heard of that one. All the knotweeds I've ever come across have been bad news.
Harriet's family of eaglets has been removed from the nest for treatment because of eye infections. I hope they recover soon enough for the to be put back in the nest before Harriet and M give up hope and leave. Returning them is the plan, but I don't know how long the parents will stay with the empty nest.
Mr (or Mrs) Fox came visiting us last night. How do I know?
There's a hen's egg in the middle of the lawn.
Probably an empty shell, uneaten ones are usually buried in my plant pots.
Good news on the crane front, estimates are now 200 wild individuals in the UK, and 60 breeding pairs. This is partly due to introductions, but also they arrived spontaneously in Norfolk 40 years ago. This is the big one, grus grus, not the demoiselle crane. They disappeared 400 years ago. I first saw them at Lakenheath, (Suffolk), an incredible sight.
@Lyda I've been worried about the same thing. The fuzzballs seem to be getting better, but there's no word yet on when they'll be well enough to return to the big nest.
Good news on the crane front, estimates are now 200 wild individuals in the UK, and 60 breeding pairs. This is partly due to introductions, but also they arrived spontaneously in Norfolk 40 years ago. This is the big one, grus grus, not the demoiselle crane. They disappeared 400 years ago. I first saw them at Lakenheath, (Suffolk), an incredible sight.
That's really great to hear. I would love to see them. With them, the kites and the beavers, perhaps there is hope for UK wildlife.
Cranes were present in the past, as were wild boar until our forefathers ate them, and which are now present again in various places. Nobody seems to know quite how they got here. Wolves were also definitely present in the past, probably until about 1600, though reintroducing them would be controversial.
Two introductions I am more uncomfortable about are the storks at Knepp in Sussex and the proposal to introduce lynxes. Both are impressive species. It would be nice to gawp at them. However, the evidence that either of them was ever present as part of the British fauna is minimal tending to the non-existent. The only recorded case of storks nesting in Britain before the Knepp assisted introduction is of a pair that nested on the tower of St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh in the early 1400s. It is clear from the description that this was an unusual and memorable event. One has therefore to conclude that they were vagrants that people had seen doing this on the other side of the North Sea. I do not think there is any evidence that lynxes ever managed to spread far enough after the Ice Age to reach the British Isles before the English Channel was flooded.
Because of the Channel, mammals are not likely to do this, but we have acquired new species of bird naturally, without any human assistance. In my lifetime, that has included the Collared Dove, now almost universal, an additional species of warbler and three varieties of egret. As yet, the third is still a bit tenuous. Ireland now has a small number of woodpeckers, but still I don't think has the Tawny Owl or the Nuthatch. If I'm wrong on that I'm happy to be corrected.
Storks are spread across most of northern Europe, so I'm not sure why they would be an issue here. I was excited enough when three flew over my garden last year.
Storks are spread across most of northern Europe, so I'm not sure why they would be an issue here. I was excited enough when three flew over my garden last year.
Quite. It's that which makes it quite surprising they weren't here. The advocates of introducing them claim that they must, therefore, have been here, but there doesn't seem to be any real evidence that they were, apart from the exceptional nesting in Edinburgh in the early 1400s.
With the exception of pelicans which are known only from bones 2,000+ years old, the other creatures we've lost like wolves, beavers, boar, cranes, spoonbills, how common kites were in the past, and wrynecks and butcher birds are all widely attested. There really isn't, so far as I know, any proper evidence for storks or lynxes.
Speaking of storks, we have wood storks here. Sometimes they show up in populated areas, but mostly seem to keep to the swamps. This winter, however, they are everywhere! Just going down to the store, you might see ten or a dozen wading in the swales by the side of the road. Very neat!
And for those who like pink birds, roseate spoonbills are always a treat to see! They aren't a common sight, but sometimes I get lucky and get to spot a few! They're about half flamingo size.
Not intending to at all, @Rufus T Firefly !
I definitely appreciate how fortunate I am to live in a place with an amazing variety of wildlife. Some of my friends are luckier than me in seeing critters I've never seen in the wild, like Florida panthers!
On lynx in the UK, I thought there was radiocarbon dating of lynx bones in caves to about 700. I don't have a link, but an important ecologist is David Hetherington, who works in the Cairngorms, and has written "The Lynx and Us".
On storks, I may be gone some time, to consult various bird books.
On storks, white storks are classed as British birds, via migration, and there are occasional sightings. However, evidence for breeding is flimsy. There are a lot of popular media comments that it "formerly bred", but this is unsubstantiated, although it breeds across Europe, plus N. Africa. Of course, it's a big charismatic bird, and I suspect that's enough for most people.
Quite. It's that which makes it quite surprising they weren't here. The advocates of introducing them claim that they must, therefore, have been here, but there doesn't seem to be any real evidence that they were, apart from the exceptional nesting in Edinburgh in the early 1400s.
Thanks, I see where you are coming from now. There's one or two - and I do mean one or two - possible references to lynx in English place names, which suggests if they were here that they were pretty rare by the time the Saxons settled.
The Knotweed, in this case, is @Celtic Knotweed who I can assure you is hard enough to get into a garden
Ah! Not heard of that one. All the knotweeds I've ever come across have been bad news.
Promise I'm not bad news for plants - except bindweed!
At one point I was working for the Environment Agency, and whilst we were taking water samples in a local gravel pit we were keeping an eye out over the site as there had been Japanese Knotweed there in previous years which the landowner was supposed to have removed by then. One of about 2 plants in the UK which is considered hazardous waste.
Anyway, I came on here to say that after not seeing hide nor hair of robins during the RSPB birdwatch, I've seen one in the front garden every day since! Wonder if they'll nest around us this year?
Gee D Interesting that you have foxes - they are one beast that were never introduced here - thank goodness. It's bad enough having possums and wallabies.
Someone mentioned Spoonbills. I have seen Royal Spoonbills on the Estuary near my house which, is also a destination for birds from Siberia which spend summer here. (and my brain has blanked out their name).
We have two sorts of Godwits here, Black-Tailed and Bar-Tailed. The Black-Tailed ones on this side of the country tend to be commoner than the Bar-Tailed ones and mainly come from Iceland to spend the winter. They are elegant birds with (guess what) striking black and white tails.
Went for a walk in the local woods, where they have been chopping stuff down, and there was a notice up saying that the tree of heaven is being eradicated. I remember that it produces chemicals which inhibit other trees. It also said that it's now illegal to sell, breed or import them. It's a handsome tree and common in London.
Gee D Interesting that you have foxes - they are one beast that were never introduced here - thank goodness. It's bad enough having possums and wallabies.
Someone mentioned Spoonbills. I have seen Royal Spoonbills on the Estuary near my house which, is also a destination for birds from Siberia which spend summer here. (and my brain has blanked out their name).
They were introduced so that they could be hunted! At least they never reached the plague proportions of rabbits (or perhaps the hunters were pretty effective). At least you've done well with the possums, great and warm knitted goods.
Something unusual around here this year has been the large number of trumpeter swans flying over. A flight (?) of them is a gorgeous sight, and the sound can be haunting. Lovely birds.
Probably quite unconnected, the last time I was on Iona, late 2019, there were some swans on a lochan close to where I stayed, and I was told that they had probably crossed the Atlantic on their way farther south, making a brief stop there.
Quite an amusing story from Devon, after a northern mockingbird was spotted in Exmouth. Anyway, a few birders travelled there to see it, and were fined for breaking Covid restrictions. They probably accepted it with good grace, as mockingbirds are ultra rare in UK, last one in the 80s.
Comments
I can't remember whether I've mentioned before on these boards that one of my neighbours asked me whether a Pied Wagtail she described to me was a baby Magpie.
Long-tailed tits in the UK (and most of northern Eurasia) are bushtits, but mostly white. They move about in flocks of eight to ten, mostly in tree branches. (I don't think I've ever seen them at a feeder. They are cute. They make a buzzing-whistling sound as they move about. They're actually a kind of warbler.
My next slide had a picture of a blue-footed booby and the one after a European shag - because those names to cause giggles.
West Coast of Canada.
Yes! I watched for about ten minutes this morning before going out to church, and got quite a respectable haul including great tits and a wren. When I got back from church I refilled the feeders and stood by the kitchen window for an hour, and only got one robin and a pair of scruffy starlings!
Anyway, our haul was:
Jackdaw 7
Starling 4
Magpie 1
Sparrows 10 (they like the bush at the end of the garden, so are sods to count!)
Blue tit 2
Collared Dove 2
Wood pigeon 1
Great tits 3
Wren 1
Blackbird 1
Chaffinch 1
and, in the dying seconds, a solitary dunnock.
No robins, only the one dunnock, and the goldfinch flew by without alighting.
In other news I've spent the arvo making bird boxes - from what timber I could get, rather than the right size, so they are a bit nuclear-bunker in scale! Two have 25mm holes for blue tits, the final one will have a bigger 'ole (when I get a drill bit!) and I'll see what it attracts - most likely sparrows or great tits. Meanwhile the Knotweed has edged up the sink-bowl ponds, which will look much less like two sink bowls in the ground when stuff starts to grow round them.
When we lived in Yorkshire, the local cemetery was heaving with knotweed, which was destroying the graves. The local authority were finally persuaded to deal with the matter as there were graves of historical significance being threatened. They sprayed on a regular basis, but it didn't eradicate the knotweed, simply keeping it restricted. Our garden had shoots emerging, which we jumped on quickly and used high power weed killer frequently. Weed killer isn't good for the environment, though, especially if you're near a watercourse. Prevention is better than cure.
A few Sundays mornings ago I was walking to the studio, across a major bridge over our principal river. (Toronto is built on a series river and creeks, and is riven with ravines, so there's a lot of wildlife just out of sight.) I though, My God, that dog's going to get hit! as something crossed the somewhat busy street. Then I realised that it too low-slung to be a dog - it was a fox! S/he made it across with alacrity.
The Knotweed, in this case, is @Celtic Knotweed who I can assure you is hard enough to get into a garden, there is little danger of her swamping it (though she is, as you say, a bugger to get rid of). She seems to get on OK with the neighbours.
Sorry, I forgot that that might not be clear in a gardening thread!
What's the status of foxes in Canada please? Here they were introduced in the early days of European occupation and they flourished. Over time, they've eradicated several indigenous species and shooting them is encouraged.
Ah! Not heard of that one. All the knotweeds I've ever come across have been bad news.
There's a hen's egg in the middle of the lawn.
Probably an empty shell, uneaten ones are usually buried in my plant pots.
That's really great to hear. I would love to see them. With them, the kites and the beavers, perhaps there is hope for UK wildlife.
Two introductions I am more uncomfortable about are the storks at Knepp in Sussex and the proposal to introduce lynxes. Both are impressive species. It would be nice to gawp at them. However, the evidence that either of them was ever present as part of the British fauna is minimal tending to the non-existent. The only recorded case of storks nesting in Britain before the Knepp assisted introduction is of a pair that nested on the tower of St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh in the early 1400s. It is clear from the description that this was an unusual and memorable event. One has therefore to conclude that they were vagrants that people had seen doing this on the other side of the North Sea. I do not think there is any evidence that lynxes ever managed to spread far enough after the Ice Age to reach the British Isles before the English Channel was flooded.
Because of the Channel, mammals are not likely to do this, but we have acquired new species of bird naturally, without any human assistance. In my lifetime, that has included the Collared Dove, now almost universal, an additional species of warbler and three varieties of egret. As yet, the third is still a bit tenuous. Ireland now has a small number of woodpeckers, but still I don't think has the Tawny Owl or the Nuthatch. If I'm wrong on that I'm happy to be corrected.
With the exception of pelicans which are known only from bones 2,000+ years old, the other creatures we've lost like wolves, beavers, boar, cranes, spoonbills, how common kites were in the past, and wrynecks and butcher birds are all widely attested. There really isn't, so far as I know, any proper evidence for storks or lynxes.
And for those who like pink birds, roseate spoonbills are always a treat to see! They aren't a common sight, but sometimes I get lucky and get to spot a few! They're about half flamingo size.
I definitely appreciate how fortunate I am to live in a place with an amazing variety of wildlife. Some of my friends are luckier than me in seeing critters I've never seen in the wild, like Florida panthers!
On storks, I may be gone some time, to consult various bird books.
Thanks, I see where you are coming from now. There's one or two - and I do mean one or two - possible references to lynx in English place names, which suggests if they were here that they were pretty rare by the time the Saxons settled.
At one point I was working for the Environment Agency, and whilst we were taking water samples in a local gravel pit we were keeping an eye out over the site as there had been Japanese Knotweed there in previous years which the landowner was supposed to have removed by then. One of about 2 plants in the UK which is considered hazardous waste.
Anyway, I came on here to say that after not seeing hide nor hair of robins during the RSPB birdwatch, I've seen one in the front garden every day since! Wonder if they'll nest around us this year?
Someone mentioned Spoonbills. I have seen Royal Spoonbills on the Estuary near my house which, is also a destination for birds from Siberia which spend summer here. (and my brain has blanked out their name).
They were introduced so that they could be hunted! At least they never reached the plague proportions of rabbits (or perhaps the hunters were pretty effective). At least you've done well with the possums, great and warm knitted goods.
Don't forget the gloves and socks, and a few scarves, as well!
Probably quite unconnected, the last time I was on Iona, late 2019, there were some swans on a lochan close to where I stayed, and I was told that they had probably crossed the Atlantic on their way farther south, making a brief stop there.