Wildlife early 2009

[Maggi Young]

Stephen, I am envious of your range of feathered visitors!

[Anthony Darby]

We get great tits, blue tits and coal tits regularly in the garden. The last hides sunflower seeds and peanuts in crevices all over and they occasionally nest in holes in the rockery wall. We are trying to tempt the other two to nest by putting up boxes. We only get the long tail tits passing through.

[Tony Willis]

can I have an identity for this insect enjoying the sun in the garden today. It is about 1cm long in the body and 1.5cm across the wings with a long proboscis

[Peter Maguire]

Looks like Bombylius major, common name Bee-fly. It's actually a fly not a bee, or at least that's what my identification guide says (looks like a bee to me  )

Peter

[Tony Willis]

thanks Peter ,I googled it and got a super picture, you got it spot on.

I have not seen one before and its a lovely thing to see.

[vivienr]

like a bee to me  )

There are hundreds of flies that pretend to be bees and wasps because predators think twice about attacking them - and while they are thinking the fly can escape.The long thin legs of the flies are an easy way to tell them apart. I think that the Narcissus/bulb fly is also a bee mimic so they are worth checking out

[cohan]

However, it's a bit worrying that I'm now hearing my first Robins (and Wrens) 3-4 weeks earlier than when I first started noting this. In the 1980s, around 10th April was normal, nowadays mid-March. Increasingly a few are overwintering and I think that within a few years these species along with Blackbirds, Bramblings and Chaffinches and a few others will be common here in winter.

last year, we had a few robins and a closely related thrush(name is escaping me now) and then we had some cold weather and fairly heavy snow that left them with nowhere to feed; a couple were hanging around the house (a bit risky with cats around) and i had to try to find something they would eat, i forget exact results now, i should have kept notes, but i think i had some success with apple/orange and raisins..hopefully this year they have better timing, there are serious risks associated with coming too early--we could have good weather, and it could go bad very fast!

[Anthony Darby]

Our robin is quite different from yours, being half the size. Mary Poppins got it soooo wrong.

[cohan]

Our robin is quite different from yours, being half the size. Mary Poppins got it soooo wrong.

i looked up the photos, (but not the name, have to find the bird book..) and  found a couple of really crappy shots taken through the window, from last year, late april; here is a poor thrush forlornly poking at some bit of food in front of the door, and a robin on an improvised water dish with indoor cacti looking on...the several days of snow and cold left these early arrived birds in a difficult place, unable to feed or find water...

[Lori S.]

Varied thrush in the first pic... they, and even the robins, probably don't need too awful much sympathy.  Varied thrushes winter on the west coast and in the coastal ranges, so they get their share of miserable weather and are well adapted to it.  Robins show up on the Christmas bird counts in every major city across Canada (as small wintering populations) and feed on dried fruit in the winters anyway.    It is hard not to be concerned when you actually see what we think of as "summer residents" out in the snow, but it is, presumably, perfectly normal for them, given the records through time of their migration periods.  (They are doing what they normally do and have always done; the only difference is that we are noticing them... if you see what I'm saying.)   

[cohan]

Varied thrush in the first pic... they, and even the robins, probably don't need too awful much sympathy.    (They are doing what they normally do and have always done; the only difference is that we are noticing them... if you see what I'm saying.)   

tks for the id...my bird book is buried somewhere...lol
i wouldnt have felt sorry for these birds simply being in the snow, except that they looked so forlorn--they just hung around in front of the house where there was a tiny strip of bare ground--and i didnt see them foraging or doing anything other than sit puffed up and looking miserable... they were also hanging around the feeders a bit, probably because they saw the other birds, but also didnt show any sign of eating there...
probably in the city there would be more fruits over winter, and bare earth--here every bush is stripped of berries etc completely, usually before the first lasting snowfall! the only exception is rosehips, which someone must eat, but dont seem as popular...i want to get more things planted for berries and seeds for the birds (there are lots of naturally occurring things, but again, they are all eaten up early!)

[Anthony Darby]

Here's 10 birds never to be missed!

[Lori S.]

You'll just have to take it up with "Mother Nature" then, Cohan.    The timing of migrations seems to have been established long before city plantings are likely to have made an impact... and if city plantings made an overwhelming difference, then why would the early migrants not just stay safe in the cities until April?  They don't because they never have; it is simply not part of their hard-wired migration instinct.   Presumably, a return in mid-March for the early migrants (such as robins) must have benefits that outweigh the possible risks, e.g. establishment of breeding territories.  Anyway, it doesn't seem that nature generally uses strategies that are suicidal, at any rate.   The early migration of robins doesn't seem to have done them harm, in the overall sense - they are an incredibly successful species.   

[mark smyth]

Anthony your birds are discussing a territory boundry dispute

[Maggi Young]

Anthony your birds are discussing a territory boundry dispute

I sympathise with them...... flippin' neighbours!!