Wildlife April 2011

[Lesley Cox]

Way too late Mark. The feral population is very high in some areas and in any case, many people love their moggies. I'm for dogs myself but our Teddy is death to the little brown striped lizards we have in hundreds in the garden.

Anthony I don't believe anyone ever suggested that there is either logic or common sense, involved in the drafting or application of our Wildlife/biosecurity legislation. If I've moaned and ranted on the Forum a hundred times about out import of seeds/plants regimes, you are now getting a taste of the reality and even though you may not have had a lot of head hair in the first place, any left will be pulled out very soon. I wish you well with your geckos.

When I came home from my market job yesterday, both dogs were away with Roger and whether or not that made a difference (Teddy chases and dances after everything that moves) I don't know but in the quiet of the garden I saw at least 50 yellow admirals, like yours all freshly hatched and pristine. We have two or three nettle plants in the veg garden but I haven't noticed any caterpillars on them so I'm not sure where these all came from but they were a wonderful sight, and I hope I can encourage them. Usually I see only one or maybe two at any one time and not all that frequently. I decided to go out and weed instead of collapsing on the sofa with my feet up and a book, as I usually do after the market.

[Lesley Cox]

I just had a good look at the nettles, without getting too up close and personal. I can't see any sign of eggs, caterillars, lavae or discarded larvae cases. Lots of seed so no doubt there will be lots of nettles come the spring time. Do the yellow admirals lay on anything else? Lots were flitting around radishes and red chard, both in flower and going to seed rapidly.

Incidentally, why would anyone bother with silver beet when they could grow red chard instead? I've just started with it this spring/summer. It taste SOOOOO much better both in the leaves and the stems and it looks GORGEOUS as well.

[Anthony Darby]

Lesley, yellow admiral larvae live in a nettle leaf rolled into a tube. Once you know this you can spot them if they are present. Yellow admirals have done better since the introduction of the annual small nettle Urtica urens. The red admiral (Bassaris gonerilla) prefers U. ferox and both will lay on U. australis.

[RichardW]

disturbed a very grumpy Hornet at work this morning, lots of Blackcap/Chiffchaff singing now, spent a few hours searching for Wheatears but none through yet.

yesterday pm saw 5 Buzzards & 2 Red Kites circling very high.

[scatigaz]

Richard, i nearly always find the best conditions for finding migrant Wheatears are after cloudy evenings with south westerly winds. Having said that, i saw 2 on the 8th after a clear evening. Thats the thing about birds. Very unpredictable.

[Stephenb]

Some 10,000+ Pinkfeet (geese) passed over this weekend on their way to an area just north of here by the Trondheimsfjord where they rest until the final leg to Svalbard - always a joy to hear and I was woken twice in the night as more passed over. The first chiffchaffs were also sighted this weekend.

There's also a spectacular annual gathering of sea ducks and other sea birds just a couple of kms east of here - attracted by a Herring spawning site. Some 2,000 Eiders, 1,000 Velvet Scoter, 500 Long-tailed duck +++ fatten themselves up for the breeding season...

[RichardW]

Richard, i nearly always find the best conditions for finding migrant Wheatears are after cloudy evenings with south westerly winds. Having said that, i saw 2 on the 8th after a clear evening. Thats the thing about birds. Very unpredictable.

cloudy today so will go looking in morning, trouble is the crops have shot up so quick there's really not much chance of finding them now.

checked 3 Barn Owl sites yesterday and found one pair though no eggs yet, two boxes had been occupied by Squirrels   and were so full of leaves/bark nothing could get in, went back today to do a quick repair on one of the cleaned out boxes and an Owl flew out as I arrived so hopefully we'll have at least two pairs again.

[mark smyth]

that would be an exciting spectacle. Geese are on the move from here also. Large numbers were in County Donegal

Here's a waxwing with an Acer petal in it's beak
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bbl-dkMn6hA/TaISbthFD7I/AAAAAAAABhE/Ut_CQl5ssrc/s1600/Waxwings+Carrickfergus+Pauline+Majury.jpg

[Roma]

Tadpoles in the ponies' waterhole.

[angie]

Roma I hope the waterhole won't dry up 

Angie

[Stephenb]

Redwings and Fieldfares are back and in full song this morning....

...and last night I had a Swallow hawking after insects over the house. Summer is here I thought. Then I looked at the thermometer and it was only +3C - what's a swallow doing here? Two weeks earlier than I've ever seen a swallow here!

[mark smyth]

Never heard redwings or fieldfares sing - I must Google their song

[Stephenb]

I think you can sometimes hear Redwings singing in the UK as they depart for the breeding grounds. I regularly hear individuals singing while still in flocks here as they rest on their way north. Redwings also have very distinct dialects even varying over relatively short distances, birds from different dialect areas not mixing that much...

[Anthony Darby]

Here's my finished gecko cage and a close-up of the door lock. The lock has been in my garage in Dunblane almost as long as I've had the organ stop, which came from Dunblane Cathedral when the organ was replaced in 1989. I knew I'd find a use for them!

Yesterday I went to Shakespeare Point, north of Auckland. I spotted a couple of stick insects. The fields leading up to the lookout were full of pukekos (Porphyrio porphyrio melanotus) and masked lapwings (Vanellus miles novaehollandiae) - also called spur-winged plovers, but they're not plovers and all these types have spurs on their wings. I was followed by some enthusiastic fantails (Rhipidura fuliginosa) which must have been using me as a beater?

[ashley]

Anthony, have you been out to Tiri yet?