Wildlife -January 2010

[mark smyth]

Lesser Redpoll - Carduelis cabaret
For a LBJ it's got some nice colours but wht would it need that dagger for a back toe!

[Anthony Darby]

The wood is impregnated with alkalyd wood preservative to kill beasties and fungus so I am guessing we just have a bolshie woodpecker! We have been trying to photograh our Haw finch but it refuses to settle!

Aha! Woodpecker on drugs!

[Anthony Darby]

Lesser Redpoll - Carduelis cabaret
For a LBJ it's got some nice colours but what would it need that dagger for a back toe!

Nothing is there for no reason, so it must be required for holding onto what ever it preferred perch is, or be required for holding on to access food.

[Lesley Cox]

Our redpolls, and we have a resident flock lately, eat grass seeds almost exclusively. We have so much long grass here at present. So such feet are not needed for the clinging onto grass stems. What else do they eat? Small insects maybe, caught on the air.

[Maggi Young]

Lesser Redpoll - Carduelis cabaret
........... why would it need that dagger for a back toe!

Going by my sister in law's canary:  just to hold itself upright on a twig. 

[mark smyth]

Lesley is your redpoll our redpoll?

You should buy some niger feeders. They will love it.

[TC]

The Redpoll in N.Z. is Carduelis flammea-an introduction from Europe.  The only difference I noted that it seemed lighter in colour than our U.K. specimens.
In fact, all the introduced passerines looked much paler than their U.K. counterparts.  The Yellowhammer was especially notable in being "washed out" looking compared with the rich deep yellow here.  An leading ornithologist we stayed with had noticed the same thing on his visits to the UK.  His theory was that it was caused by the very high levels of ultra violet light found in New Zealand.

[Lesley Cox]

I'm surprised that our redpoll is paler than the UK version. It is a mid brown, the males with a rich and quite large red spot on the head, like a large drop of blood, and a rosy chest. The female has a smaller, head spot and not so obvious but still red. The breast seems not to be other than the brown of the rest of the body.

As to yellowhammers, again, the male has a bright and stong yellow head, to the extent that for a while I thought he was our very rare native yellowhead, Mohua ochrocephala. The female (yellowhammer) is a yellow/brown mixture, rather striated throughout.

Having said that, this morning I found a black sock on the lawn, having dropped it there when bringing in the washing on Monday before going away for a couple of days. The "black" sock is now a light and streaky grey on the upper side where the sun hit it.

[Anthony Darby]

The Redpoll in N.Z. is Carduelis flammea-an introduction from Europe.  The only difference I noted that it seemed lighter in colour than our U.K. specimens.
In fact, all the introduced passerines looked much paler than their U.K. counterparts.  The Yellowhammer was especially notable in being "washed out" looking compared with the rich deep yellow here.  An leading ornithologist we stayed with had noticed the same thing on his visits to the UK.  His theory was that it was caused by the very high levels of ultra violet light found in New Zealand.

I think the UV angle is a red herring, unless darker forms are selected against. It will be a gene pool thing. When ever populations are separated, isolation, mutation and natural selection will favour certain genotypes. It may be that lighter ones have an advantage over darker ones?

[mark smyth]

How are yellowhammers doing in NZ? In N Ireland they are on the red list and mostly confined to the northwest and southeast

Niger seeds may not work in NZ because the birds wont know what it is.

[Lesley Cox]

I don't know in general Mark but around here they seem to be doing very well. I only saw the occasional one a few years ago but now I see them daily if not in my own garden, then flying across the road or on the roadside when I drive to town and also in local parks, gardens etc.

I was going to ask, what IS niger? I don't know it at all except as an African country and as a hellebore.

As to local birds not knowing it, they'd soon learn. Local goldfinches didn't know lavender before I came here but now they swarm on the bushes in late autumn and through winter and eat the seed with great determination.

[Maggi Young]

 Nyjer seed page....http://www.ebirdseed.com/nyjer_niger_thistle_birdseed.html

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you Maggi. From the wesite I put the botanical name into the Bio Index and it is a permitted species as seed (plants - "Requires assessment") so if I wanted I could bring in some seed for bird feeding. Having said that, our birds don't suffer as yours do, with our much milder winters so probably they are able to get what they need easily enough.

[Ragged Robin]

Local goldfinches didn't know lavender before I came here but now they swarm on the bushes in late autumn and through winter and eat the seed with great determination

Now there's a thought Lesley, I've always concentrated on the flowers with insects and butterflies but never thought of birds eating the seeds - next year I'll leave some for the birds in winter instead of trimming the stalks after flowering and see what happens. 

[Lesley Cox]

I didn't plan for this extra food source Robin. As with many garden tasks, the trimming didn't get done and that happened to work to the birds, advantage. I've not seen other birds than the goldfinches on the lavenders but maybe they just haven't needed them yet.

Early in the week I spent three days at my son's house some 150 north of here. He manages a dairy/beef fattening unit with around 800 cows and 300 young bulls there at present. Below the house though is a long thin lavender paddock where someone else leases a few acres for lavender, cut for the oil. The days were still and very hot (low 30s) and the air, even in the house, filled with wafts of lavender scent, a lovely time.