Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 8658 Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 18 9:02 am Post subject:
There are SO many British native birds here..heard and saw a yellowhammer today, and sparrows, blackbirds, thrushes, starlings, goldfinches and chaffinches among others are common.
Unfortunately when the white people from Europe, mainly the UK in the cases of Australia and New Zealand, colonised them, they missed their native animals and birds, so introduced them. It didn't do a lot for the native wildlife in many cases.
Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2509 Location: New Jersey, USA
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 18 2:54 pm Post subject:
That's how we got starlings and English sparrows. Speaking of which, aren't pheasants Mongolian or something? Not to mention the tiny muntjac deer that come bouncing out in front of cars on your roads.
And don't get me started on plants.
gz
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 8658 Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 18 8:05 pm Post subject:
It made me very happy to see a fantail displaying and singing as I swept the leaves from the drive here.
Yes, we have more than our fair share of invaders in the UK. We get muntjac here too Jam Lady, and a pest they are. As if we didn't have enough deer of our own, we have about half a dozen species from other parts of the world, and all have increased over the last few years. We are fortunate that we only have the native roe and possible some muntjac in the woods. Fallow tend to stay the other side of the main road thank goodness, as they are very destructive.
Have just looked up fantail, and they look rather lovely birds Gz.
gz
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 8658 Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 18 8:57 am Post subject:
They are lovely...so small yet noisy and lively..it's difficult to photograph them as they rarely stay still!
Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Posts: 980 Location: derbyshire
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 18 1:31 pm Post subject:
Just walking round one of the local lakes with the dog and I looked up and saw the heron, just as it passed over us it let out a massive stream of Sh*t which landed 10 feet in front of us. Following the old traditional saying " may the bluebird of happiness fly over you " are we in for a lucky streak ?
Could be the luck was that it missed you. Son managed to get some sort of picture of the raptor that has been having pigeons in the wood. He thought it might be a goshawk, but looks more like a sparrowhawk he says. I know they will take down a pigeon because I once saw one on a local road. It was giving all the car drivers the evil eye as it was determined to eat the pigeon in the middle if a moderately busy local road.
at a guess a heron bombing might need more than a quick shake
news from birdtown , york includes
dik is very fond of woodlice and millipedes, worms have a maximum acceptable size. he is getting closer and will feed a couple of feet away from me .
there is a little owl about so the suspected visitation of beaki has been regraded as probable contact.
the perigrines are still hunting with this years chick and are quite an impressive team when after pigeons.
the assorted corvids are more interested in free food than in summer.
although reduced in numbers there seem to be more sparrows than this time last year so we are doing something right .
overall a damp mild winter, early spring, dry summer seems to have been ok for the garden,park and urban fringe birds.
a descendant of fat walter is on the shed roof at the mo . nice to know the family trait is still with us. there is a rather round blackbird as well but im not certain it has here as territory.
at the mo there is a 2 woodie vs jackdaw vs woodie mexican standoff over some damp pastry scraps. it just got violent. the daw decided to leave em to it , then the hound decided to "calm" the naughty customers
shroom species are very different this year, the summer drought seem a likely cause
it is a bit early to tell with mini beasts but frequencies seem different this year, see drought .
thinking of the dry summer it did favour some garden skp's over others with the drought resistant ones doing well