Wildlife Spring 2007

[mark smyth]

With Spring upon us I thought we could go with a new thread.

Today I heard three different migrants singing but they could have over wintered here
Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla
Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilus
Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita

Hirundines will be here any day now. Swifts Apus apus have already been reported in Italy. If this weather keeps up they might arrive before early May

Spotted on a Narcissus flower today was a 'Crab spider

[David Nicholson]

Hirundine??? What he please

[Maggi Young]

Hirondelle is French for Swallow,( hands up everyone who drank the cheap wine called Hirondelle in their youth!!)  so hirundines must be bird speak for swallows, swifts, martins etc of that family.

[TC]

The migration season is well underway.  Our local wintering Whooper Swans have all but disappeared and the Greylag Geese are fattening up for their journey to Iceland.
Chiffchaffs are everywhere and Greenland Wheatears are moving up the coast. Sand Martins were seen 14 days ago and the first Swallow was reported yesterday.  My definition of Spring, in the avian world, is when I start seeing groups of Sandwich Terns in Ayr Bay.   

[SueG]

A chiffchaff was calling yesterday morning while I was waiting to get the metro into work and I've heard woodpeckers drumming away this last week in the wood by home - this is good as there's been no sign of them for the last 2 years so hoopefully they are recolonising the wood.
Sue

[mark smyth]

spot on Maggi

[Diane Clement]

Hirondelle is French for Swallow,( hands up everyone who drank the cheap wine called Hirondelle in their youth!!)  so hirundines must be bird speak for swallows, swifts, martins etc of that family.

To be pedantic, Swallows and Martins are hirundines, but swifts are not, and are not closely related.  Swallows and Martins are passerines (perching birds with 3 toes pointing forward and one back), and swifts are not (all 4 toes pointing forward) 

[Maggi Young]

I believe you are entitled to be pedantic, Diane, isn't it in your job description?
I did not know that swifts weren't in the same family, let alone about their toes! Thanks!

[David Nicholson]

I think I'll stay with they have all got feathers and fly!

[mark smyth]

Diane is correct but even though I am N Ireland's swift promoter I lumped them. Swifts and Hummingbirds are Apodiformes. The is from the Greek apous meaning without feet

I saw two two and that means teo swallows do make a summer!

Does anyone have swifts nesting in their local area? Could you help with a nest box scheme?

[annew]

My hand's up, Maggi.

[Maggi Young]

Yes, I thought I saw someone waving... glad you're waving and not drowning, eh?!!

[David Nicholson]

It was always "Newkie Brown" for me

[Diane Clement]

I believe you are entitled to be pedantic, Diane, isn't it in your job description?

Sadly, yes, someone's got to be 

I did not know that swifts weren't in the same family, let alone about their toes! Thanks!

It's the toes that mean they're not in the same order, let alone family.  Nothing like as complicated as flowers, with all that looking at their stigmas and styles and bracts in order to sort them out. 
I hope you're all keeping up now ... there'll be a test later.

[annew]

Chiff chaffs here today too, lots of Brimstone butterflies, and the first pipistrelle bat!