Wildlife
quetzalcoatl
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in Heaven
I hunted high and low for a wildlife section, maybe there are old ones.
Anyway, I'll kick it off. There are plans to introduce the white-tailed eagle to Norfolk. An earlier plan foundered, as pig farmers felt that pregnant sows would abort at the sight of an eagle. But these objections seem to have disappeared.
This eagle has already been intoduced in other areas. It is very large, a flying barn door. Just gorgeous.
Anyway, I'll kick it off. There are plans to introduce the white-tailed eagle to Norfolk. An earlier plan foundered, as pig farmers felt that pregnant sows would abort at the sight of an eagle. But these objections seem to have disappeared.
This eagle has already been intoduced in other areas. It is very large, a flying barn door. Just gorgeous.
Comments
The reintroduction of Red Kites shows what can be done. I remember my excitement when I saw two kites circling low over the treetops near where I lived in southern England. Now, I am told, kites are seen so often that they are almost taken for granted.
Here on the West Coast of Canada recently, there was a mild stir when a particular pod of orca was seen in the area for the first time in 20 years.
Our wildlife spotting is limited now by all the footpaths being like the Somme, but a reasonable number of back-garden birds, especially wrens this winter for some reason.
I was saddened by the demise of the Golden Eagle in the Lake District. I never actually saw it but I know a lot of efforts were made to find a mate for it. It must have been so lonely for a very long time - if birds get lonely?
Today I heard all three native woodpeckers in the Forest walking - the lesser and greater spotted woodpeckers make different drumming sounds and the yaffingale is really common hereabouts, I often see them flying with that distinctive flight pattern or on grassy spaces.
Our bird feeders have been swamped with them since October. None of the other birds get a look in. And they have got so cheeky that they will stay on the feeder until I am literally removing it to refill. The other day, two siskins tried to land on it whilst I was still carrying it back to the post where it hangs.
Even the house sparrows and starlings don't go near the feeders now that the siskins have taken up residence. I guess, though, that they will be moving back north before too long.
I'm impressed by the trio of woodpeckers - I've seen plenty of yaffles, and more than a few greater spotted, but I think I've only ever seen one lesser spotted.
Mind you, on New Year's Eve, I did spend ten minutes watching a kingfisher from maybe ten yards at most. That was *magical*.
Still about 3 weeks to go before one could expect hatching, and then the ducklings would have to negotiate the 75-foot drop to the forest floor and some distance to the nearest water. The odds are against their survival but for the time being that thought doesn't detract from the interest of the unusual situation.
In the past 5 or 6 years bluejays have moved here. Not sure if climate change is a factor. We get only down to -30C or so now, gone are the days of the -40s. Grey jays (also called Canada jays and whiskey jacks) are more usual. But my favourite is bohemian waxwings. They like mountain ash berries, a tree of which we planted from seed. Beautiful tawny colour. Large flocks.
I think it's more a question of whether the pigs might be--or simply scared to death. Eagles are known to carry animals off--sometimes, even pets. So ISTM it's reasonable that a pregnant pig might be so scared that she loses the fetus.
There's also the reality that farmers have always blamed big birds like eagles for any misfortune that befalls their animals, regardless of whether it may be justified or not. That is one of the reasons why Red Kites (primarily scavengers but will also take small prey like mice & rats) were wiped out in England, when they were once uber-numerous. Kites offer no threat to lambs, piglets or calves. They were still hunted to extinction. And sadly, that kind of illogical antipathy still exists in places.
Yes, I remember when white-tailed eagles were brought to Rum, and local sheep farmers raised a hue and cry over lambs being taken. I think these eagles take a lot of carrion, dead deer, etc., and also compensation was offered.
Some years ago, I was driving to work in Merthyr and saw a red kite above our local country park. I was so exited that I wanted to tell everyone when I got in. Sadly, my colleagues in the office weren’t at all interested ☹️
The female Great Spotted Woodpecker has arrived back, hammering away at what looks like a blocked up bird box without bat holes in the base.
I m missing seeing the buzzards that used to whirl over our stop-gap rental in the south of Scotland
I agree with @Sandemaniac. Kites do not take lambs or piglets, yet alone their mums. They are scavengers. Even a Buzzard would have problems with anything bigger than a rabbit. I'm very envious of your seeing a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. They're both rare and difficult to see here. I've only seen three in my life and one of those was nearly 65 years ago.
Even though I live in quite an urban setting, I do quite often see Buzzards, Peregrines and Ravens. They all nest within a mile or two of the house.
A White Tailed Eagle/Sea Eagle is something I'd really like to see. It's the only regular (i.e. non-vagrant) day time British Isles bird of prey I've never seen. The juveniles have got a bit of a name now for travelling. Two of the Isle of Wight ones went on a great circular tour round England last Spring. So one can always hope.
There's an owl with rather elusive habits which is one of my bogey-birds.
@Rufus T Firefly the males especially of our siskins are a brilliant green, especially in Spring. Are yours? Ours nest in pinewoods and have become much more widespread winter visitors since large areas of moorland in the north of England and southern Scotland were covered with plantations.
Nearby on the River Itchen we see Kingfishers and occasionally a Water Vole.
Yellow wagtails on the River Test. The River Hamble is great for waders and visiting ducks.
I think they are a noisy nuisance and should be culled -but I don't know what the RSPB thinks!
If I possessed personal artillery, beavers would be an an endangered species around here after one of them took down a magnolia tree a few years ago.
It's difficult though to link X with Y, e.g., more parakeets and fewer starlings = causation.
The Pine Siskins here are streaky brown, with yellow edging. No green involved at all:
Pine Siskin
Round here, we have a number of woodpeckers. Most commonly seen at our feeders is the Northern Flicker. This also loves to tap on the metal outlets at the top of chimneys - makes a great sounding post.
Northern Flicker
We also get
Pileated Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
With regards to parakeets - they used to fly through our garden in Surrey. Pests! I would be in favour of culling them. But then again, we have endless House Sparrows and Starlings around us here (like parakeets, non-native species) and I am slightly tolerant to them, so I can't really be too dogmatic about parakeets.
Hopefully, since they both hatched the same day, neither will be a runt!
There is a place in the woods with a telescope to see a peregrine falcon's nest, and I sometimes have looked through it and the guy there explains where it is, but it just looks like a tiny dot to me.
Today's red list bird encounter was a flock of fieldfares - 30-40 maybe, maybe more. Not the most attractive song from one of the thrush family, but amazing to see, and so many of them. Also a couple of charms of goldfinches.
I went to look. They are so darned cute at this puffball stage! Harriet had been brooding them and when she got up for a stretch and to see how they were doing, they started going at it like your typical sibs. I imagine since they are equal in hatched age, they have some dominance to work out.
They've been investigating my bird box today.
I know the feeling.
Congratulations!
(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