Wildlife April 2011

[Anthony Darby]

Do you supply the swifts too Mark? We only have welcome swallows here. Today the front lawn seemed to be a magnet for sparrows and goldfinches. Yesterday I startled a pair of eastern rosellas out of a tree in the garden! The settling ponds (for storm water) near us attract little shags and paradise shelduck but mallards and pukekos are the commonest water bird.

[Stephenb]

According to the RSPB web site they only winter here. Red-backed shrikes bred in a secret location in England last year.

Great Grey Shrikes are found as breeding birds in open mountain coniferous woods here, particularly with boggy areas and are spread throughout the country with an estimated 5,000 - 10,000 pairs. However, only about 1,000 are thought to overwinter, mainly in the lowlands below the snow limit where it's easier for them to catch rodents - a part of the population is thought to overwinter in the UK...

[Stephenb]

.. and in Belfast city centre a flock of waxwings have been present for about a week. They are using the trees around the city hall. I was there for a look today. No berries to eat but they are eating sycamore flowers and or buds

Never heard of them eating flowers and buds? Are you sure it's not insects they're after - sycamore flowers are very attractive to insects?

[Lori S.]

It's common behavior here for cedar waxwings to feed on flower petals when the fruit trees are in bloom.

[mark smyth]

Stephen I never thought about them eating insects. When should they be breeding? I thought these were late heading home

[scatigaz]

Stephen very few winter in the uk now, maybe between 10 and 20. During the 70s around 100 or more wintered and they have never bred here.

[mark smyth]

during the last 3 evenings a few of us became trespassers to rescue a sand martin, Riparia riparia, colony. Over the winter the bank collapsed from a good bank to a gentle slope with a max of 60cm 2 feet of vertical bank.

I'm wrecked. My right tricep is hardly working, my left wrist tendons are in spasm, my legs hurt ...

We remade the bank by moving 13m of sandy soil.

My swift mailing list has 35 email addresses. Some are in England and Scotland so couldnt help. How many volunteered to help - 3.

Photo 1 is day 1
photo 2 is day
photo 3 is  day 3 except I forgot to take it

The last photo shows claw marks left by an animal possibly a badger. This happened after the first days dig

This is the video I took yesterday. We have now cleared all the way to the left side
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrsOC8TGwH4[/youtube]

[Stephenb]

Stephen I never thought about them eating insects. When should they be breeding? I thought these were late heading home

Thanks, Lori!  I looked it up in a comprehensive book on Norwegian Birds (by Svein Haftorn) and didn't find this mentioned, but then most of them have left for the breeding grounds when maples etc are in bloom.

Mark: There's still fair numbers around in Southern Scandinavia and I had a small flock in the garden at the weekend. Not sure when they arrive back on the breeding grounds, but there's still deep snow in those areas, so I guess they don't get started until June, but think most have returned by May as I've only once seen one here in May.

[Stephenb]

Stephen very few winter in the uk now, maybe between 10 and 20. During the 70s around 100 or more wintered and they have never bred here.

OK, my reference was written in the 70s and I understand that breeding populations have increased in Scandinavia so I'd expected an increase in the UK too...

[Stephenb]

during the last 3 evenings a few of us because trespassers to rescue a sand martin, Riparia riparia, colony. Over the winter the bank collapsed from a good bank to a gentle slope with a max of 60cm 2 feet of vertical bank.

Well done! That takes me back as I did the very same thing back in the late 70s with our very own conservation work party out of Edinburgh - we called ourselves FROG (Forth Region Outwork Group) and I was secretary and newsletter editor...

[mark smyth]

Are there any geologists on the forum? The sand martin bank is interesting. It must be a glacial deposit but why is the lighter material at the bottom and the stones at the top? The bottom layer of sand is black.

[mark smyth]

I'm ready for swifts 2011. There are 6 camera installed
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpCBrUYhkCI[/youtube]

[scatigaz]

Had the wood cut today for my 3 Swift boxes from our local wood yard. Only cost a bargain £10.50. Just to fix them together and put them up.

[mark smyth]

Gary don't forget to get the budgie concaves from the petshop for the swift to build on. The concave sits at the back of the box in the opposite corner to the nest entrance

[scatigaz]

Mark got 3 of them a few days ago. So all ready to go. 2 and half to 3 weeks and the first ones should be back. 2 Swallows today at a local breeding site. Must be this very warm weather, around 19c here today.