Weather early 2009

[art600]

More please...   

[Anthony Darby]

Fantastic pic of goldfinches Ian.

[Carol Shaw]

I really love how dapper the Goldfinches are... they've been mobbing our feeders too.

[mark smyth]

After weeks of absence my goldies are back.

Brilliant day here today and warm enough poloshirt only

[ashley]

This week several goldfinches and siskins visited the feeders, for the first time this winter. 

However our STAR visitor was a female house sparrow (Passer domesticus) !  Although there is a small population around the nearby village they rarely venture out here.  Recently too we had collared doves (Streptopelia decaocto) for the first time although they are fairly common in urban areas.   

Creeping suburbanisation? 

[mark smyth]

Ashley I would guess you dont normally see them because of a lack of suitble food in your immediate area. They are everywhere now and have recently reached America

[ashley]

Quite probably Mark.  Farmland hereabouts is mainly beef and dairy rather than arable, moderately intensive and not especially insect-friendly.  Our garden and an adjacent strip of mixed woodland act as a refuge.

[ichristie]

Hi more snow today and I spent most of the afternoon clearing our road, I went to Kirrie to buy more sunflowers for the birds what a joy to watch them we had visits from 2 bullfinches and a Woodpecker, cheers Ian the Christie kind

[ichristie]

Sorry posted wrong picture Ian.

[Anthony Darby]

A slight dusting of snow on top of what's left in Dunblane. James, his two cousins and my brother in law went to the Rangers - Inter Milan match tonight. Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. I wonder how the likes of Beckham, Ronaldinho and Kaka coped with the cold? A creditable 2 - 2 draw with the Rangers goalie man of the match.

[Gerdk]

Ashley I would guess you dont normally see them because of a lack of suitble food in your immediate area. They are everywhere now and have recently reached America

Mark,
Please tell a little bit more about the migration of the doves to America - didn't notice that here.

Gerd

[mark smyth]

Gerd it was on one of the birding web sites I read that but Googling just now it seem the invasion started with 20 birds that escaped from a pet shop on the Bahamas in 1974
http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/JFO/v064n04/p0477-p0489.pdf
http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/diversity/2003winterbird.pdf

[Gerdk]

Thank you Mark, always something new to hear about!
The collared dove is in my region less frequent than it was about 20 years ago.

Gerd

[mark smyth]

Once they romp across America they will eventually get back home.

[TC]

Went to Troon harbour to take this bird in the snow.  All the snow had melted by the time I got there!  Every year one or two of these gulls winter in Troon harbour. Despite their name, they breed in Greenland and overwinter in Iceland with several coming down to the U.K.and Ireland.  

We have a wintering flock of about 400 Common Eiders who jostle among the returning fishing boats for scraps and waste.
They have now started displaying en masse and in a few months will disperse to off-shore islands to breed.

Iceland gull           Larus glaucoides
Common Eider       Somateria mollissima

I think I posted this in the wrong section.  I meant to show a picture of Arran in the snow.  It's several years since I have seen the snow down to sea level