Wildlife January 2011

[Lesley Cox]

The cardinals are really beautiful Arnold and I wish them full tummies through the winter but the clematis is not C. paniculata. I don't know where to look for the information but there was a American species given this name at one time when the true species is evergreen, spring flowering and a native of New Zealand. I don't remember what the American species is properly called. I'll try Google. Ours was called C. indivisa at one stage.

[Lesley Cox]

The American plant is apparently Clematis terniflora, an Asian native, naturalized (and invasive) in the USA, just as C. vitalba (the Old Man's Beard') is here. Google seems in doubt about C. paniculata, saying aka terniflora for the plant you have but also saying aka indivisa for our plant. The NZ Flora gives paniculata as correct and indivisa as an invalid synonym.

[ArnoldT]

Lesley, you're correct.  It grows like a weed.  Sometimes reaches twenty feet growth in one season.  I usually trim back to a five foot length.

Also hold the Box together during snow falls.

[Juan Fornes]

Arnold: beautiful couple of cardinals. That white sorrounding makes them look even nicer, but also kind of helpless...

Mark - I thought that you may find this interesting; http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/01/carnivorous-plant-feasts-on-bat-.html?ref=ra

Very interesting mutualism! Looking dangerous for the bat, but surely worth for him! Well, for both of the associated species!

Thanks very much.

The banana pipistrelle does something similar except the plant doesnt benefit. It roosts in the tubes created by new banana leaves. How does it hang on? It has suckers on its thumbs

Mark. I remeber when visiting Costa Rica we always searches for the new, rolled leaves of Heliconia plants. We could often find bats, but any surprise could appear: spiders, insects. Pictues shown are from my last journey there in 2007. You can see bats, grasshopper and spider hidding. Costa Rica simply seduced me: nature was so amazing I never got tired of taking pictures and each journey I took there just made me want for more...

I´m posting also two videos: one is the couple of Aratinga erythrogenys breeding wild in Valencia, and the other, the show of the sterlings (Sturnus vulgaris) coming to roos in Valencia (at the end of the video, birds can see looking for places to "land" among the leaves)

[mark smyth]

Thanks Juan. I will look at your videos soon.

[mark smyth]

A turnstone Arenaria interpres  - a small brown, black and white shoreline wader - has flown a migration trip of 27,000km / 18,000 miles twice

http://www.birdlife.org/community/2011/01/ruddy-hell-turnstone-flies-27000-kms-%e2%80%93-twice/

[Natalia]

If nearby there is forage Erithacus rubecula does not depart on the south, this birdie lives probably not bad.

[mark smyth]

This bird is number 1 favourite in the UK

The bird that lives in my garden now has a new boy or girlfriend.

[mark smyth]

I'm sure some of you have read or heard about a Latvian slaty-backed gull that is the first record for the species in the UK

[annew]

I know them so well, Mark. Six appeared in my garden yesterday for the RSPB big garden birdwatch event.

[Maggi Young]

There's a robin red breast inthe Scottish news at the minute, he's inside a  supermarket. It's a little one just along the road from me. No surprise to see pigeons or other birds in the bigger giant sized supermarkets... the last time I was in the nearby ASDA there were two  male blackbirds perched in the rafters singing at each other... but this 'supermarket' is not much bigger than a corner shop.... so smaller entrances for the robin to have flown in through.... quite brave of him really.
Ian was across at the shop this morning and the place was seething with news crews, radio and tv, to see the bird.  

[mark smyth]

and a robin living in a church. My local ASDA have a wagtail and a blackbird. Both went in during the heavy snow in December

I think it was Wyevale garden centre who were in the news a year or two agofor shooting all birds that enetered their stores.

Anne was it slaty-backed gulls you had?

[FrazerHenderson]

Mark

I may be wrong but I thought in respect of Robins you could tell apart because only males sing in the spring.

In respect of the Slaty-backed Gull I think it was called Latvian Slaty-backed Gull because there was a first sighting in Latvia of the first western hemisphere tick. However, the S-b Gull species overlaps with Herring Gull and hybrids are known.

Frazer

[mark smyth]

Male and female robins sing during the winter. I must check my two tomorrow but I think one has a flat head and the other is rounded

I'm confused now about the gull

[mark smyth]

This is the map showing where the turnstone flew. On one trip it flew non stop for 7 days!
http://www.birdlife.org/community/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Screen-shot-2011-01-31-at-08.27.27.png