Brian's Wildlife Garden

[RonP]

Thought I would share my latest experience with you, for the past few day's the wife has been asking me can you hear a strange noise in the bathroom, but being hard of hearing it's not surprising that I couldn't. Then on Saturday evening I'm in the bathroom and hear this buzz buzz sound so thought we had a mosquito in there, so Sunday we emptied the bathroom and sprayed loads of insect spray and closed the door, three hours later and the noise is still there, anyway today I'm checking the outside of the house and notice some bee's going into the brickwork where the roof joist sticks through the wall.
Out came the Bigma and finally managed to capture a pic which has allowed me to identify the bee's as "Tree Bumble Bee's" so it looks like I have got some visitors for a few more months until the Autumn so long as they don't make there way into the loft or house.

It is surprising though how a bee can find such a small hole in the wall and decided to take up residence in the cavity wall, and we even have cavity wall insulation.

[Chocky]

Have just uploaded a video of these beautiful Bees Ron .

[RonP]

Hi Beryl.

Just checked your video of the Buff Tail, it's different to the one's I have mine are "Tree Bumble Bee's" and have a vivid orange colour around what I would call the shoulders like a coat, with black body and a white portion on the tail. Here is a link to an image.
http://bumblebeeconservation.org/forum/viewthread/16/

[Chocky]

Hi Ron Have a look at this . You looked at the wrong vid

http://www.photography-cafe.com/forum/index.php?topic=17838.0

My tree bee is the French tree bee and  my first discovery was printed in the journal

There is a big difference between the tree bee and the Buff-tiled bb

[RonP]

Thats the one Beryl, smart looking creature, pity he has a poor choice in residence. 

[Chocky]

They like living in holes Ron. usually  old nest boxes or holes in trees.
The bee conservationists are over the moon about heir arrival as they are friendly. The male has no sting and the females will only sting if handled roughly or threatend

I have a fascination for Bumblebees I love watching them

Maybe if you put a nest box fairly close they might migrate to it. I don't know what to suggest. Brian might be able to help when he reads this post

[Harry7mc]

Found a snail on the fatball feeder yesterday  see Wildlife post,
Has any on come across this before?

[RockArea]

I should think that after climbing all the way up there he needed the energy that the fat provides! I think that snails get pretty well everywhere in the garden, it's just that we don't always see them.

I was fairly confident that the sparrow boxes that I put up a couple of years ago where going to be used this year and I was right. I feel very gratified that I now have resident sparrows whereas I never saw them in the garden before.

After returning from my French trip having been away for three and a half weeks, I saw a sparrow going in to feed and I could hear sounds from the young. This year there has also been an awful lot of magpie activity and they have proved to be a real nuisance to the sparrows. The nest box has now been vacated but I'm not sure that the youngsters have fledged successfully, I haven't yet seen any sign of young and I fear that they've become prey for the magpies. It's very strange as I've not known so many magpies about in previous years.

Oh well, I knew it was a long term project!

David

[RockArea]

Ah, that's better. I've just seen a female sparrow feeding a chick so it would seem that one has fledged successfully.

[chippy]

Glad to see this David, we have had only a few feeders this year - no long tailed tits, no blue tits, only one robin, a single coal tit family - it may be the weather but we have too many magpies, jays and at least two spotted woodpeckers who I think are the worst nest robbers.  Our only regulars were the nuthatches - about 6 or 7 fledged successfully.  What can be done about these preditory birds? 

[Harry7mc]

Today on the fatball feeder --Snails !!second time I have found them, I wonder why? answers welcomed.

[RockArea]

Glad to see this David, we have had only a few feeders this year - no long tailed tits, no blue tits, only one robin, a single coal tit family - it may be the weather but we have too many magpies, jays and at least two spotted woodpeckers who I think are the worst nest robbers.  Our only regulars were the nuthatches - about 6 or 7 fledged successfully.  What can be done about these preditory birds?  

It's a difficult one and there are many different views. This is from the Shooting Times:

Magpies are now one of the most common birds in the UK, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Numbers have increased by 112% over the past 30 years, making them now the 13th most commonly seen bird in British gardens.

During the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, which took place over the weekend of 26 and 27 January, some 400,000 people counted more than six million birds across 228,000 gardens.

Controversy still surrounds the bird, however, as some refuse to acknowledge the destruction that corvids cause to the native songbird population.

Evidence from the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust's farm at Loddington, in Leicestershire, where specific research was carried out to establish the impact of predators on songbirds, found that on keepered sites where the magpie population was controlled, songbirds flourished.

The RSPB refuses to accept these findings, however.

The charity's Andre Farrar, said: "There is no convincing evidence to show that magpie predation is a conservation issue for songbird populations. Studies by the British Trust for Ornithology have shown that the failure of nests of potentially vulnerable songbird species did not increase during the period of rapid magpie population growth in the 1970s and 1980s."

He added: "I'm conscious that giving a UK population-based answer to a question that is often driven by the distress caused by witnessing predation rarely leads to agreement."

The RSPB have produced a lengthy report which suggests that studies have not reliably shown that removal of predatory species improves the numbers of prey birds: http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/Predator Report_tcm9-177905.pdf

The major studies seem to have been done either in areas of serious conservation risk or in game bird or waterfowl situations.

It seems to me though that if I were to shoot all the magpies in my garden (I'm not, I don't have a gun) it wouldn't be long before magpies from nearby (who might otherwise die for lack of food) moved into my garden and took advantage of the magpie free territory.

The trouble is it's so hard to watch these things happening and it would probably make us feel better to do anything, even if it is unlikely to make a difference.

David

[chippy]

David, thanks for that very comprehensive reply - I tend to agree with you about culling merely creating a temporary magpie free zone...I remember a Mull friend saying a similar thing about the midge-killing machine in our garden!  I am also reminded that a recent Springwatch edition showed a spotted woodpecker actually emptying a nest box and I wondered whether in our enthusiasm for providing artificial nests and then feeding garden birds, we are making it too easy for predators.  I am now much more concious when out walking with Bramble of the range of birds seen and heard.  It is certainly true that the fields round us have more magpies but there seem plenty of smaller birds around and singing - so is this a garden problem?  (This is not to mention the recently arrived red kites in the area)  

Happily this morning, I think our second brood of nuthatches have fledged.  I counted five at the nuts.  I wonder if they are too canny with their nesting areas for the robbers - and they are very fast on the wing once out.

[Chocky]

I think every thing in the garden is beautiful. Well done Brian . A pleaseure to look at

[Pat]

The snow is about 6 or 7 inches deep in my garden and all plants are resting till spring but...

I see lots of foot prints in the snow or little animals that stroll about in the dark of the night. 

Wish I could see them and see which ones are enjoying my sleeping garden.  I know that one of them is a bunny as the prints are far between as if they are jumping from spot to spot but the others I don't know about.

[jart]

Had my first pair of Blackcaps yesterday feeding .. never seen one before ..

[RockArea]

They're lovely little birds, aren't they? They're summer migrants mostly but more have been staying over the winter, I understand. I'm lucky enough to have two pairs that visit us during the winter, then when the weather warms up and there's plenty of food elsewhere we don't see them again until it gets cold again.

[scoundrel1728]

Had one that got away Thursday afternoon, when a robin landed with a worm in its mouth about fifteen meters away and started hopping across the college's front lawn.  (The robins aroumd here are larger birds with a much longer necks and lighter builds than than the version in Great Britain.)  Caught me almost entirely unprepared, but I had my camera with me.  hophop.... start reaching for my camera ...hophophop... turn my camera on ...hophophop... wait for it to power up ...hophop... aim camera ...hophophop... (out of range)

[Pat]

We've been trying to attract Purple Martins for the past two summers but sadly today, Paul has closed up the houses as sparrows were moving in.

We have Tree Swallows being very active and a nest of Bluebirds so that's lovely.