Any cuckoos out there? ... and other BirdWatch/NatureWatch news

[zxDaveM]

taking my morning constitutional as a bit of exercise, alongside the wood at the end of my road, there were the usual suspects: Wood Pigeons, Collared Doves, Blackbirds, Great Tits, Wrens, Blue Tits, the usual (sadly no Mistle Thrush anynore, and not seen a Song Thrush for ages now). Also heard a-tapping a male Great Spotted Woodpecker (only 'greater' as the 'lesser' the size of a sparrow) some 40-50 yards in front of me, as his mate (I assume - unless there is more than one pair in this small wood) flew across the road I was walking on. Then standing on the wee bridge over the Wandle, that runs through this wood, the welcome flash of blue as a Kingfisher streaked upriver skimming the water's surface. Then when I got home, there was a carder bee on the forget-me-nots. Oh - and yesterday evening, had a Jay foraging in the garden. They are not uncommon round here, but very secretive, so you don't see them that often

[AnneMarriott]

4 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

 Oh - and yesterday evening, had a Jay foraging in the garden. They are not uncommon round here, but very secretive, so you don't see them that often

We have jays in the woods opposite the house, but they never come into the garden.  I usually only notice them because of the harsh call.  What's a carder bee?

[bangorballetboy]

Best we managed yesterday on the common was a couple of robins and a parakeet sitting on a branch

[zxDaveM]

3 minutes ago, AnneMarriott said:

We have jays in the woods opposite the house, but they never come into the garden.  I usually only notice them because of the harsh call.  What's a carder bee?

 

I have a very big, ugly as you like, leylandii tree on the other side of my back fence, so they pop into the garden from that.

Carder bee is like a bumble bee, but not as rotund

[zxDaveM]

4 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

Best we managed yesterday on the common was a couple of robins and a parakeet sitting on a branch

 

oh - yes, I forgot about the squawking/screeching Parakeets (and the quarellsome Magpies too). Largish bird, hooked beak, agressive - the native birds don't like them much, I don't think....

[zxDaveM]

I don't know why - perhaps its the type of trees/shrubs around the light industry car parks, on the way - but when I walk to our local Sainsbury I always hear (and occasionally see) lots of Goldfinches. They have become quite common now - maybe they have learnt to take advantage of people feeding the birds in the winter, so surving better

[Anon2]

We get a good mix of birds in our garden being rural and surrounded by woods but what I’ve enjoyed the last couple of days is watching the blackbirds going about their business. They’ve been amusing to watch as they hop along the fence in groups all keeping an equal distance from each other and then one leaving the line to rummage through the grass cuttings. Once he’s done rejoins the line up, bit more moving up and down the fence and another has a turn to rummage. It looks so well choreographed. 
 

The woodpeckers are very active already, can hear them early every morning. We’re also seeing the tree bumblebees back this year, they’ve returned to last years nest in the loft. 

[taxi4ballet]

6 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

I don't know why - perhaps its the type of trees/shrubs around the light industry car parks, on the way - but when I walk to our local Sainsbury I always hear (and occasionally see) lots of Goldfinches. They have become quite common now - maybe they have learnt to take advantage of people feeding the birds in the winter, so surving better

There's a blackthorn hedge at the bottom of our road, in between a row of garages and a children's playground. It is goldfinch central.

[AnneMarriott]

6 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

 

Carder bee is like a bumble bee, but not as rotund

 

Do they have fluffy white bottoms?  If so we have lots of them here - I think they nest in our eaves some years.

[zxDaveM]

23 minutes ago, AnneMarriott said:

 

Do they have fluffy white bottoms?  If so we have lots of them here - I think they nest in our eaves some years.

 

there are several different species, and they aren't disimilar from bumbles - but the ones with white bottoms almost certainly a type of bumble. I didn't know which type I saw in my garden this morning, hence the vague description!

[taxi4ballet]

I think carder bees are the extra-fluffy ginger ones.

[taxi4ballet]

On the way to work this morning, I heard (and saw) a skylark. It's been a good few years since I heard one of those, it was lovely.

[bangorballetboy]

I saw a lovely pair of tits on the common today!

[taxi4ballet]

Well there's no answer to that, is there?!

[AnneMarriott]

11 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

I saw a lovely pair of tits on the common today!

The old ones are the best!

[JohnS]

I rather thought BBB was quoting what the bird said about the two twitchers but had misheard ‘lovely’.

[bangorballetboy]

Didn't see too many birds on the common today (certainly heard them), save for a heron that seems to have taken up residence at the pond.  We did see Christopher Carr though...

[taxi4ballet]

I saw a sparrowhawk this morning, flying in between two houses. And the bluebells in the wood are out 😊

[zxDaveM]

yes, the Spanish cultivar Bluebells out in my garden now, clashing colourwise with the Honesty blooms. But I don't mind, as the bees seem to like them both as much as I do 🙂

 

Nice re the Sparrow Hawk. I have seen a couple round here, but very rarely

[zxDaveM]

7 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

Didn't see too many birds on the common today (certainly heard them), save for a heron that seems to have taken up residence at the pond.  We did see Christopher Carr though...

 

Was he standing in the pond on one leg as well?

[taxi4ballet]

15 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

yes, the Spanish cultivar Bluebells out in my garden now, clashing colourwise with the Honesty blooms. But I don't mind, as the bees seem to like them both as much as I do 🙂

I dug up the Spanish ones in my garden and chucked them. Apparently (so I'm told by a naturalist friend) they frequently hybridise with the native ones, and even the ancient native populations are under threat from that.

[Beryl H]

I've got lots of Spanish bluebells out in both my front and back gardens,  I have a few very old native bluebells too, much more delicate.

[zxDaveM]

55 minutes ago, Beryl H said:

I've got lots of Spanish bluebells out in both my front and back gardens,  I have a few very old native bluebells too, much more delicate.

 

I have tried to isolate each - so Spanish ones out the front, natives out the back. The former seem indestructable - sadly not so sure yet of the native ones...

[zxDaveM]

1 hour ago, taxi4ballet said:

I dug up the Spanish ones in my garden and chucked them. Apparently (so I'm told by a naturalist friend) they frequently hybridise with the native ones, and even the ancient native populations are under threat from that.

 

hope you were careful where you chucked them - there have been some people chucking them out into the local wood/hedgerow where they ended up thriving, and so making the hybridisation situation worse. There are some in the wood at the end of my road, where people in the streets above on the opposite side of the river, have done exactly that

[AnneMarriott]

Just now, zxDaveM said:

 

I have tried to isoalte each - so Spanish ones out the front, natives out the back. The former seem indestructable - sadly not so sure yet of the native ones...

Good effort, but pointless! I have only ever planted native ones but the Spaniards have invaded from elsewhere and more or less completely overtaken them.  The worst thing about the Spanish variety is that they lack scent - although of course they make a lovely display with their tall stems and large flowers.

[AnneMarriott]

Just now, zxDaveM said:

 

hope you were careful where you chucked them - there have been some people chucking them out into the local wood/hedgerow where they ended up thriving, and so making the hybridisation situation worse. There are some in the wood at the end of my road, where people in the streets above on the opposite side of the river, have done exactly that

Your post crossed mine.  We live opposite woods where they used to be carpets of native bluebells.  Now there are only Spanish ones and I think local residents must be to blame - there are a lot of patches of garden flowers in amongst the undergrowth.  I'm pretty sure that's where my invaders have come from - front and back garden alike.

[zxDaveM]

1 minute ago, AnneMarriott said:

Good effort, but pointless! I have only ever planted native ones but the Spaniards have invaded from elsewhere and more or less completely overtaken them.

 

Have yet to see the results - the Spanish ones I transplanted to the front, most seem to have survived, if not exactly thrived as yet. The native ones I planted up last spring (in the green in the back garden) not that evident yet, so not sure whether they made it or not. Definitely no sign of the spanish ones though

[zxDaveM]

1 minute ago, AnneMarriott said:

We live opposite woods where they used to be carpets of native bluebells.  Now there are only Spanish ones and I think local residents must be to blame - there are a lot of patches of garden flowers in amongst the undergrowth.  I'm pretty sure that's where my invaders have come from - front and back garden alike.

 

There don't seem to be any natives in the wood near me - just suspiciously appearing Spanish ones on the fringe (white and blue varieties) along with the odd daffodil and suchlike - very much like someone has disposed of some garden soil containing these, a few years back

[taxi4ballet]

22 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

 

hope you were careful where you chucked them - there have been some people chucking them out into the local wood/hedgerow where they ended up thriving, and so making the hybridisation situation worse. There are some in the wood at the end of my road, where people in the streets above on the opposite side of the river, have done exactly that

They went in the wheelie bin. I dug them up because they are threatening the native ones, so I was hardly going to fly-tip them in a hedgerow, was I?!

 

22 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

 

I have tried to isolate each - so Spanish ones out the front, natives out the back. The former seem indestructable - sadly not so sure yet of the native ones...

They are pollinated by insects so separating them won't help unfortunately.

[alison]

We keep trying to eradicate the wretched things from our patch of garden, but unfortunately the bulb-y bits have wriggled themselves under the path and other bits of stonework, and are really difficult to get rid of.  There is supposedly a time of year when they are much shallower in the soil than the rest of the time, but I can't remember when that is.

[taxi4ballet]

Arm yourself with some Roundup gel. It's like a deodorant stick and you wipe it on the leaves. No danger of spray drift onto other plants either .

[JohnS]

I’d seen signs of damson blossom the last couple of days and this morning one tree is pretty much in full bloom. It’s normally early May so a couple of weeks earlier than previous years. Fortunately there are no frosts in the forecast. The blackthorn blossom during the last two weeks has been quite the best I’ve seen, perhaps because I’ve been doing very much the same walk most days and we have fabulous mixed hawthorn/blackthorn hedgerows on the local lanes. 

[alison]

Ooh, damsons.  Nice!