Wildlife 2007

[Armin]

All I need now are Swifts and I've seen all the "swallows"

Mark, why are you keeping the swift in your hands?
Was it hurt and recovered now?

[mark smyth]

Armin the white edges to the feathers show it is a current year ready to emerge chick. It was removed from the nest to have a ring put on it's leg - what you can call a leg - than is only a couple of cms.

[Armin]

Mark, o.k. I see.

I asked this because I found already several times weak swifts on the ground.

Mostly, just after having arrived in spring. They were full of blood sauging parasites sitting between and under the feathers. In spite of careful spraying insecticides and suppling a few drops of water (they refused to take offered insects) I wasn't able to rescue their lives and they died overnight, obviously of being already too weak.

[Anthony Darby]

The 'N.B.' wasn't for your benefit Mark. You know far more than I will ever know about two legged flying things.

Last week I did learn that you don't click your mouth at a free-flying kookaburra during a bird display (at Marineland, Lloret de Mar). It was sitting on a fence halfway between me and its keeper. Instead of flying to the keeper to collect a treat, it flew straight at me. Drew blood, so I looked as if I'd been bitten by a long-sighted vampire (two puncture marks on my forehead). All the way to sunny Spain tae get a Glesga kiss fae a kookaburra!   [After heid butting me it latched onto the hand of a poor bloke sitting behind me, before being removed and bundled away by its keeper.]

[Maggi Young]

If I were a captive Kookaburra, expected to perform for assorted holidaymakers in a far land, I'd probably get pretty ratty, too! He was likely bored stiff and thinking of good looking lady kookaburras in gum trees!

[Anthony Darby]

It had been bred in the park and the keeper even got it to laugh. Could have been serious as that beak would take your eye out!

[mark smyth]

good news from the bumble bees. Also resorted to sprinkler on the garden. Set up the sprinkler and watching to see where the water reached caught sight of a queen going in to my half buried clay pot. So much for the bee box that cost £19

[mark smyth]

here is a swift apartment block as used by some people in Holland and Germany. The holes are slightly too big. The best is 30mm high and 76 mm wide
http://www.londons-swifts.org.uk/Nestboxes%26Attraction.htm

[Anthony Darby]

I had several spp. of bum bees in the garden over the weekend, including the big red-tailed jobs. I put my three Barlia robertiana out to see if any would bee attracted. One bug queen did visit them. She looked pretty jolly odd with six antennae. I just hope she hung around long enough for the pollinea to adopt the "pollinating" mode (if only I could go to the discussion weekend - Roy Sexton and I set up a moth trap in a butterfly orchid field a couple of years ago and trapped a moth with three pollinea stuck to its eyes).

[Anthony Darby]

This is a male Emperor Moth (Saturnia pavonia). Like all members of the silkmoth (not to be confused with the similarly endowed silkworm moth Bombyx mori) family Saturniidae, it has no mouthparts so cannot feed. It is Britain's only silkmoth. The female is larger with grey replacing the orange colour.

[Maggi Young]

it has no mouthparts so cannot feed.

good grief, poor thing! mind you, better not  let this info out to the world of super models, or guess what their next craze will be?

[Paddy Tobin]

One for you, Anthony, to take you mind of the attack of the vampire.

Taken in the garden yesterday.

Paddy

[Anthony Darby]

Fantastic. I just love crab spiders. 

[Hans J]

Hi all ,

Today we made a nice trip to buy some pumice for my potting mixes -the only possibility is a harbour on the river Rhein -they sell it ( 45 km away ) .
On this way we must drive in a really nice area with some lower mountains ( Kaiserstuhl) - there are beautyful little villages and on this time are to see there sometimes on the roofs couple of storks in her nests ....after a long time of absence are now this birds back in our area .

best wishes
Hans

[John Forrest]

That's a great spider shot Paddy