28 Saturday Jan 2017
Robin: ‘The food table’s looking a bit empty!’
Me: ‘Well, hello to you, too, Robin.’
Robin: ‘Oh, okay. Hello, lady.’
Me: ‘Nice to see you today.’
Robin: ‘Never mind the small talk. It’s cold and I’m hungry!’
Me: ‘So, what else is new?’
Robin: ‘I’m still not seeing any food here. Suet is my favourite, y’ know.’
Me: ‘Yes, I know. And you’ll glare at me until I give you some, won’t you?’
Robin: ‘Darn right!’
24 Tuesday Jan 2017
Tags
bird feeding habits, birding, birdwatching, black-headed gulls, Coot, gulls stealing food, kleptoparasitism, Roath Park Lake, Tufted duck
Some time ago at Roath Park Lake I was intrigued to notice Black-headed gulls using Coots as their personal fishers, and I have since noticed this behaviour between the gulls and Tufted ducks as well, though I haven’t yet seen them using this feeding method with the other water bird species at the lake.
These gulls eat different food from the coots and ducks – gulls eat insects, worms, scraps, etc whereas the ducks and coots are mostly vegetarian, though the tufties will also eat some insects – so, presumably, the gulls aren’t actually stealing food the other birds would eat themselves.
The ducks and coots dive down for food, while the gulls float patiently waiting for them to surface. When they do, the gulls paddle over to see if there’s anything interesting for them to steal. The coots and tufties don’t seem to object to the gulls, even though they’re doing all the work. I guess they would be doing the diving anyway and, if the gulls aren’t actually stealing their food, then they’ve nothing to lose. The official term for creatures that take the food other creatures have caught, prepared or collected is kleptoparasitism, hence my title.
When researching this post, I located an excellent article that goes into much more detail than I have about this and similar bird behaviour: ‘Food usurpation by waterfowl and waders’ by Juan A. Amat can be found here.
22 Sunday Jan 2017
Tags
Anas platyrhynchos, birding, birdwatching, domestic ducks, feral domestic duck, feral domestic ducks, Mallard, mallard interbreeding
When is a mallard not a mallard? That may sound like a trick question but the indiscriminate breeding habits of mallard ducks can produce offspring that confuse people who are trying to identify their species.
As far as I understand it, the story goes like this. First came the mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). Then, humans decided they would domesticate the mallard to more easily obtain their eggs and meat to eat. Next, humans decided to ‘improve’ on the original mallard genes, using selective breeding to produce larger ducks with various colour variations (Chocolate magpie, Aylesbury, Welsh harlequin, Orphington, Swedish blue are just a few of these more specialised varieties and, if you’re interested in seeing more, there’s an excellent guide to domestic breeds of duck and the results of their various interbreeding here).
Sometimes, these domestic breeds escape from their captive situation or are illegally released into the wild and, when this happens, they can and do breed with pure mallards, thus producing a wonderfully varied and colourful array of offspring. These ‘mixed’ breeds are sometimes referred to as ‘manky mallards’, which is not meant as a derogatory term but rather as a way to differentiate them from pure-bred mallards. Manky they most certainly are not!
19 Thursday Jan 2017
Tags
berries, birding, birdwatching, blackbird, British birds, Cotoneaster berries, Redwing, Roath Park, winter berries for birds, Woodpigeon
They may look luscious and juicy but Cotoneaster berries contain toxins, which means that many people consider them poisonous. (There’s a good article about whether or not they really are poisonous on the Poison Garden website.) Yet the blackbirds, thrushes and woodpigeons seem to enjoy them and, when the more desirable berries like rowan have been consumed, these nutritious berries help to sustain the birds through the lean winter months.
Roath Park has several cotoneaster trees that are covered in bright red and dull yellow berries at the moment so, as I walked home from the train station this afternoon I kept an eye out for feeding birds. And I got lucky.
The hefty woodpigeons were easy to spot as their clambering made the branches shake a lot. The blackbirds were more delicate but also more entertaining, as they performed their aerial trapeze, clinging to branches and stretching as far sideways or upside down as they could to reach the furthest fruit. The bonus of the day was a group of about five redwings also feeding spasmodically in these trees. They were more skittish, flitting quickly on to the very top branches for some rapid pecking but, always watchful, flitting away again to higher nearby trees as people walked past along the pathway.
15 Sunday Jan 2017
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Grey wagtail, Jay, Pied wagtail, Roath Park, Roath Park Lake, robin, Tufted duck
My imminent house-moving was getting to me today and, as I’m already about two-thirds packed with a week still to go, I allowed myself an afternoon off for a long walk around my local parks for a Nature fix.
It always amazes me how many species of birds I can see in a walk around Roath Park Lake. Today it was 28: Carrion crow, Magpie, Jay, Robin, Dunnock, Lesser black-backed gull, Black-headed gull, Canada goose, Barnacle goose, Greylag goose, Mallard, Manky mallard and Aylesbury duck, Coot, Moorhen, Pochard, Tufted duck, Teal, Shoveler, Pied wagtail, Grey wagtail, Redwing, Song thrush, Cormorant, Mute swan, House sparrow, Feral pigeon and Woodpigeon (though purists might not count the Aylesbury duck, Manky mallards or Feral pigeons as extra species). Still, I think it’s an impressive total. These are just a very small selection of the photos I took …
09 Monday Jan 2017
Tags
Arenaria interpres, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Turnstone, turnstones as scavengers, turnstones in Cardiff, turnstones in Cornwall
I’d only seen these delightful little birds, the Turnstones (Arenaria interpres), once before I went to Cornwall and they were doing as their name suggests, turning over stones around Cardiff Bay, looking for the tiny insects, molluscs and crustaceans they like to eat.
the Cardiff Turnstones
However, though they looked exactly the same, the Cornish Turnstones were different birds entirely. No turning over muddy wet stones for these cute creatures – instead, they’ve followed the example of the gulls (and the occasional Starling) and learnt that scavenging from humans is a much easier way to obtain food, with crumbs of Cornish pasty their morsels of choice!
Turnstones were present in all the little harbour towns we visited and, though their habit is to scurry very quickly to and fro, they appeared very comfortable around people. They are adorable little birds and a pleasure to watch.
07 Saturday Jan 2017
‘Hey, lady. I saw you talking to that robin just now. Why don’t you ever talk to me?
‘I get hungry in the wintertime too, y’know, and I’m just as handsome as that robin!’
‘I have sharp eyesight so I can see that you’ve still got some seed in that little tub you’re holding.’
‘So, how about throwing a cold wet hungry but gorgeous jay a handful of seeds …. please.’
I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know the cold wet but gorgeous jay is no longer hungry!
04 Wednesday Jan 2017
Tags
birding, birdwatching, Crested partridge, Eden Project, Green wood partridge, Green wood quail, Red-crowned wood partridge, Rollulus roulou, Roul-roul
Say hello to Mrs Roul-roul, also known as the Crested partridge, the Red-crowned wood partridge, the Green wood quail, the Green wood partridge and, scientifically, Rollulus rouloul. She’s cousin to the pheasant family and her kin hail originally from the lowland rainforests of South-east Asia but this particular little beauty spends her days in the Rainforest Biome at the Eden Project in Cornwall. Sadly, her man friend was not as willing to have his photo taken.
02 Monday Jan 2017
Posted in 'Dedicated Naturalist' Project, birds, nature
A snippet from my volunteer work on the ‘Dedicated Naturalist’ Project, helping to decipher and digitise, record and publicise the life’s work of naturalist extraordinaire, Dr Mary Gillham.
Mary’s notes from a walk through the Cwrt yr Ala basin, near Dinas Powys, on 7 September 1975 are so very descriptive that I fancy I can almost hear the birds she heard:
Robin ‘ticking’ at our disturbance. Another squealing like a young bird – the squeal is a late summer call. One ‘playing dipper’ on stone in stream below Cwrt yr Ala lakes.
Wrens singing. House martins chirping. Swallows twittering. Long-tailed tits churring, blue tits scolding, woodpigeon cooing, jay screeching, magpie chattering, chaffinch chinking, bullfinch sibilant piping, pheasant barking. Chiffchaff and willow warbler, though with very different songs, have similar calls today, difficult to distinguish. Generally, as one would expect from the song, the chiffchaff has a more clipped, emphatic, less musical call, the willow warbler a softer one.
Goldcrests alarm note, blackbirds ditto. Mistle thrushes on wires saying nothing, song thrush on road ditto. Jackdaws and crows croaking, ravens flew past with scarcely a honk. Goldfinch. Grey wagtails – 3 on lower lake and spillway, one on stream below – have a more delicate call than the pied wagtails. Moorhen cronking on lake.
For the full story about the Mary Gillham Archive Project, check out our website, and follow our progress on Facebook and on Twitter.
29 Thursday Dec 2016
This post has been on my list of things to do since the summer….
I love all Britain’s tits: they’re almost all tiny and very sweet, often cheeky, always entertaining, occasionally rather tame, and frequently friendly. Though less colourful than its cousins the Great and Blue, I think the Coal tit (Periparus ater) is a very handsome bird. It tends to be more timid than its cousins as well, but will feed from garden peanut feeders and often joins its fellow tits in large flocks that move together through gardens, parks and areas of woodland looking for the seeds and insects they like to eat.
I was very lucky earlier this year to be alerted by my fellow members of the Glamorgan Bird Club to the presence of a pair of Marsh tits (Poecile palustris) in the woodland of a local country park. These birds look very similar to Coal tits (and, apparently, also to Willow tits, which I have not yet seen) but can easily be told apart by a look at the tops of their heads. The Coal tit (above left) has a white cap on top of its head, whereas the Marsh tit (above right) does not.
I was particularly delighted to see the Marsh tits as, sadly, their population has undergone a dramatic decline of at least 50% in the past 25 years so they are now considered globally threatened and have been added to the Red List of endangered creatures. Although they can be found throughout England and Wales, they are more often seen in the southern parts of both countries. They will feed from garden bird feeders so, if you live in the south and have the space for a feeder, do please help out these little birds with regular supplies of seeds and nuts.
earthstar 
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