nature notes

I am in the UK right this minute, and happen to be online in a room with a view out over a garden. What can I see? Nothing at all! I can't promise I will sit here for an hour but I know from casual observance that wood pigeons sit in one of the trees, red kites make an appearance overhead every day, and there are far too many crows for comfort. It is starting to be very windy, would that make a difference do you think?
 
Just done our hour - not as much variety as usual, because of the gale force wind. Usually we get a variety of larger birds in the birch trees, jackdaws, crows, starlings, magpies, green woodpecker, etc - but the trees have been empty of birds all morning. Garden birds also down, especially starlings, which usually arrive in a flock. So only 12 species today - blackbird, greenfinch, bluetit, long tailed tit, robin, house sparrow, goldfinch, wood pigeon, starling, collared dove, dunnock and chaffinch. All the usual suspects, but numbers quite low. And no heron today, the goldfish in the pond will be grateful!
 
That sounds a lot of different breeds though Marigold, how lovely to see them all. My haul from 20 minutes is a wood pigeon on a hedge. A hedge pigeon! Friends in the UK have reported that they have a regular heron visitor. He perches on a workshop roof surveying the next garden but one, then swoops and stands and fishes in the other garden!
 
Out of my kitchen window this morning I only saw 3 sparrows, 2 female song thrush and a blackbird. Its bereft of birds....
 
We had all our usual suspects on the feeders or around them, the pair of Great spotted Woodpeckers seemed to think that they had to stay on the feeders for the whole hour ! One surprise was a male Reed Bunting that suddenly appeared on a feeder, Mistle & Song Thrush, Redwing and Fieldfare were busy on the apples. It started to get very windy here about 10am.
We supply a varied diet for the birds, peanuts, sunflower hearts, fatballs, apples and mealworms which get scattered under the laurel for the Robin and Wrens.
The Crows,Jays and Wood Pigeons go and hang around the mixed corn that is put out for the wildfowl.
We have a large Rookery in the woods at the back of us and 600 or so Rooks, and 700 ish Jackdaws make a wonderful sight as they fly in en masse and then chatter away for an hour or so
 
Bigyetiman, I'm so jealous you have all those birds around you. As a young girl, I used to love bird watching and only dreamed of seeing woodpeckers, etc. I used to have a fortnightly bird mag (feathered) ? and recall it had a vinyl "record" with it. When played, it allowed you to listen to and identify different bird sounds. The funniest moment was the reaction of my cat!, she went beserk, running around. I'll never forget it.
 
I'm still looking for rooks around here in the Midlands - lots of magpies, crows and jackdaws (loads of jackdaws!) I'm sure there are a few around here somewhere. Saw a couple of ravens when I went to Shropshire last - just a gimps from the car sitting in a tree but totally unmissable just because of their size.
Lots of wood pigeons too with just a few feral/rock pigeons living under the iron railway bridges.
 
A few weeks ago I managed to spot a kingfisher, sitting on a reed, in a lake near the aforementioned wallabies in deepest Sussex. My friends and ex-neighbours are quite jealous as its the first one any of us have seen there, its on a popular dog walking route, but hopefully it won't be the last!
 
The rookery is quite special as it is the only one in the London area. Havering just makes it into the London area.
We have had Raven over the garden as they have started breeding over the large couple of years on pylons along the Thames at West Thurrock and Tilbury. Freezing cold but sunny which got the Buzzards up and displaying this morning.
I remember that magazine Tweetypie
 
Well, the sparrowhawk is back, and possibly resident somewhere nearby as we have seen her twice. Once she was on a low branch on our peach tree, just by the house, conveniently sitting still for a good few minutes inspection with the binoculars. Then a few days later we saw her take off from a roof, swoop low over the sparrows roost and end up on next door's wall.

Other than that, the Egyptian grasshoppers, male and female, are to be found hiding in various trees and bushes, I have lost count of the number of times I come face to face with them. One lives under the outdoor table, and has taken to sunbathing on the glass top! I have seen a couple of butterflies (its mostly sunny here 16-19 degrees) and the honey bees and others are out in force taking nectar from wild flowers and also the osteospermums and marigolds; although its quite slim pickings really.

I had a dream last night that I met a pine marten/beech marten; not sure why, other than the local bar has a small selection of stuffed animals to lighten the gloom so perhaps that was on my mind.

With the warm weather is anything unusual going on in your necks of the woods?
 
The Rooks are busy displaying above the Rookery. On Sunday around lunchtime when it was really warm we had 11 Buzzard displaying over the farmland and a few miles away we can see the Thorndon ridge which runs from Warley to Thorndon Country park and 10 Buzzard were displaying along there at the same time.
The Tawny owls are quite vocal at the moment, and we had a garden 1st on Sunday about 5am with a Little Owl calling.
The local Peregrines are repelling anyone who comes near their pylon, especially a pair of Raven that have taken up residence about 4 pylons downwind of them.
The Skylarks and Yellowhammers have really found their voice this week also.
OH is busy surveying birds holding territory and talking about Ospreys coming back soon and spring migrants arriving.
OH reports that a Tengmalm's Owl has been spotted on mainland Shetland Hen-Gen
 
After the snow and freezing weather earlier this month, it's got much warmer and our hedgehogs have emerged, shuffling a lot of small stones out of the tiny gap in the boards round the base of the summer house. It's been dry and safe for them under the carpeted wooden floor and a female usually makes a nest under there in Spring. The dog will tell me when. They're eating an enormous scoop of hedgehog pellets each night, plate licked clean, and also the level of the drinking dish goes down a lot as well. A friend nearby works at a wildlife rescue and has been overwintering some youngsters who were born too late last year to put on enough fat to face hibernation. All the rescues are stuffed full of these babies, the result partly of the climate change giving us such long warm autumn conditions in the South of England.
We saw a barn owl hunting over the field behind our house. Not sure if this is good or not- there were lots of dogs on the field at the time, and although it stooped on what might have been prey, I wondered whether it was hunting there so near to people because the heavily-farmed fields were so bare of anything to eat. Luckily, the population of bank voles in our dry hedge and under the chicken run seems constant, food for predators other than the neighbours ' cats, I hope. My neighbour objects to the voles, which also tunnel under her shed, and make the back of the shed untidy, but I assured her they were harmless and just part of living in the country. Don't think she believed me. It's a bit like living next to Margo in The Good Life. Last week I was netting soggy old birch leaves out of the pond and cutting back some of the water weed before the frogs appear- a satisfyingly filthy job, and her comment was "Oh dear! How horrid for you!' However, we've just heard that they are putting their house on the market, so we are hoping a family will be able to buy it, who will appreciate the voles and do their bit to feed the birds and hedgehogs.
 
For me your post above regarding your neighbours was much for infuriating than the Guardian link. It is essential that those in surburbia are more sympathetic to wildlife as our farmland is often a green desert. And such concerns are even a problem here where fertiliser application and silage cutting are denuding the crofted areas of biological diversity.
The Guardian artical initially caused me consternation but as I read on I became a bit more sympathetic to Natural England’s point of view. The idyll of sharing our space on our overcrowded island is bound to cause some conflict. I remember as a youth having strong views on our population growth and the consequences of it. It often depresses me that there are those who become vegetarians or eschew harmful chemicals and yet have numbers of children exceeding the replacement numbers. The greatest and most destructive thing anyone can do is to breed.
Now I know that our whole social and economic system is based upon an ever increasing population. But it does not have to be so. When I read of the evolution of antibiotic resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria my spirit soars. If I go in the resultant pandemic then I would do so gladly if I knew that 95% of the human race were joining me.
Yes, harsh words and doom mongering. But big problems need big and unpalatable solutions.
 
We were discussing that the other day Hen-Gen and agreeing a good global pandemic was just the thing. Around this area people seem to be eating themselves to an early grave on a diet of take aways which may help as well.
 
Back in 1990 I started an Open University degree course with a T101 Technology Foundation. One of the units covered sustainability and stated that the planet was only viable with 3% of the then current population. The rate of population increase was explained very simply by the fact that, at that time, there were more people living than had ever lived. I completed the course in 1994, much wiser and able to dismiss most of the environmental claims being made, like 'recycling' plastic- it can only be re-used for something simple because of the chronic deterioration in its strength and environmental resistance. 10% recycled material added to a virgin mix results in a 25% reduction in overall mechanical properties. Solar electric panels is another of my favourites, as is recycling glass.

Based on the possibility that since then the population has doubled I think that 1 ½% is now more like the sustainable level Hen-Gen.
 
Interesting thoughts, chrismahon. A few sums convinces me of the truth of what you say. And, big yeti man, as you say nuclear war or super volcanoes decimate the planet for tens of thousands of years. By contrast a species specific pandemic leaves the planet undamaged, so long as someone remembers to shut down all the nuclear power stations!
Fortunately most of us here will be dead and buried before things get really critical but I would hate to see the natural world which has sustained my interest for 60 years be wrecked beyond salvation. For me any species is worth more than 100,000 human beings. A naked mole rat is more beautiful than the sexiest man/woman I’ve ever met. (And if you’ve ever seen a naked mole rat they ain’t no beauties).

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Mole rat, definitely not a pin up, only in another mole rats eyes or scent glands as they are blind I believe.
Always had a liking for Tapirs myself.
Great excitement at home this pm. OH was sky watching about 2pm, and had a flock of Golden Plover go over high north, then she spotted a bird of prey coming low towards her and at last Osprey for her garden list. before any Osprey fans ask, it wasn't sporting a leg ring
 
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