Wildlife December 2010

[Stephenb]

I see both coal, marsh and willow tit in my garden, but only occasionally as they are mostly forest birds.

[Stephenb]

I like your squash feeders

Stephen, it makes me wonder why our birds die in huge numbers during our winters when it snows yet your birds can survive

As Trond says, there's of course quite high mortality here too, but this varies a lot between species. However, the Yellowhammer population in Northern Norway is no doubt more hardy than the Norfolk Yellowhammers that I watched in the 1970s! The Yellowhammer is one species which is very much helped here by people putting out food, but they certainly find food naturally too. I have a flock of about 20 on my feeder every day, but I've seen a flock of 200 birds feeding in the oat fields here recently.  It's a good old tradition here to put out a sheath of oats (called julenek) for the Yellowhammers (see  http://bilder.vgb.no/11287/3col/img_4950eb3dae309.jpg) and I still get locals coming around selling these at the door! Julenek is "Slow Food" for the birds....

Incidentally, I've often wondered if feeding birds on the scale that is practised in the UK is actually good for the birds -  maybe it makes them less capable of finding natural food (more susceptible to cold weather?); the bird food if it isn't scraps has to be produced somewhere on a pretty large scale (largely non-organically - how does this effect the local populations?); cats take many garden birds.  It's great entertainment though for us!

[mark smyth]

200 yellow yornies wow! I can count all I have seen on one hand

[mark smyth]

A programme has just started on BBC2 about our butterflies. The first few minutes showed them flying in very slow motion

[Arykana]

I see both coal, marsh and willow tit in my garden, but only occasionally as they are mostly forest birds.

same tit family live in the nearby gardens,  even I have a family living in the garden 

[Arykana]

[mark smyth]

Arykana you feed steak to the birds?

I have changed the food I feed my wild birds. I stopped feeding Nyger because it makes a mess when the goldfinches, siskins and redpolls look for the ?heaviest seed. I now feed them kibbled, chopped, sunflower hearts in the Nyger feeder. There is no mess because the chaffinches, blackbirds and robin eat what falls.

Nyger is cheaper than sunflower seeds!
Nyger £7.50 for 2.5kg
sunflower hearts £9 for 2.5kg
kibbled sunflower hearts £9.50 for 2.5kg

[Martinr]

Ouch Mark, that's expensive. Sunflower hearts in our local garden centre are £5.99 for 2.5kg

[Hoy]

Sunflower hearts, what is that? Seed without seedcoats?

[mark smyth]

That's correct Hoy.

Martin that's mail order so postage included. It's easier just now to buy from England than get to the local garden centre who are snowed in

[Hoy]

A programme has just started on BBC2 about our butterflies. The first few minutes showed them flying in very slow motion

The butterflies here are very slow for the time beeing

[mark smyth]

Butterflies a very British Obsession
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wwbm4/Natural_World_20102011_Butterflies_A_Very_British_Obsession/

featuring Butterfly World in ?north London
http://www.butterflyworldproject.com/

[Paddy Tobin]

Re food for birds: I have recently started giving my hens rolled barley as a supplement and find the wild birds love it. At around 8 euro per 25 Kilo it is very good value.

Paddy

[mark smyth]

Re food for birds: I have recently started giving my hens rolled barley as a supplement and find the wild birds love it. At around 8 euro per 25 Kilo it is very good value.

Paddy

A farming friend rolls his own for cattle and there is always a lot of chaffinches in his yearyard - goodness that was a terrible spelling mistake> what was I thinking

[PlantsnobIN]

I grow many plants just for the butterflies, and often bring caterpillars inside so the kids can watch the life cycle-two years in a row I had a butterfly emerge in February.  I felt bad about it, with nothing for it to eat.  As you can see here, there was snow on the ground, but it was a warm and sunny day, so I let it flutter away, to at least live a free life, if short.