Re: Wildlife November 2009

[ranunculus]

"You'll never get me up in one of those!"

Image captured on the Algarve - March 2009

[Tony Willis]

I'd be surprised if it was a land crab? I think they are all tropical?

That was only a general description to illustrate it was not on the beach but 120 miles from the sea. It was pictured on a road in the middle of a pine forest. They are quite common and live in holes in roadside banks.

[Anthony Darby]

I'd be surprised if it was a land crab? I think they are all tropical?

That was only a general description to illustrate it was not on the beach but 120 miles from the sea. It was pictured on a road in the middle of a pine forest. They are qiuite common and live in holes in roadside banks.

Happy to be wrong. Land crabs indeed. Must be some trek to breed? I must find out more, as I was unaware of any that existed outside the humid tropics.

[angie]

I hear waxwings have arrived in Aberdeen
[/quote]

Got my camera out today, but skies were quiet no chatter so my wishes that they might be waxwing were dashed . I think maybe they have headed of for the bright lights of Aberdeen.

Rodger , that must have been something to watch Bald eagles amazing. I was worried that some of the blue tits wouldn't survive,
my mum would have been so upset, she is house bound ( on oxygen all the time ) and watching these little birds gave her so much joy let alone pass the time for her. I cant imagine what she would have thought about bald eagle chicks.I suppose it wouldn't have been caterpillar's they fed to there chicks.
Angie

[Rodger Whitlock]

Rodger , that must have been something to watch Bald eagles amazing. I was worried that some of the blue tits wouldn't survive,
my mum would have been so upset, she is house bound ( on oxygen all the time ) and watching these little birds gave her so much joy let alone pass the time for her. I cant imagine what she would have thought about bald eagle chicks.I suppose it wouldn't have been caterpillar's they fed to their chicks.

Here's the link for your mom: http://www.hancockwildlifechannel.org/staticpages/index.php/20090302200021473

There are two nests at Pat Bay with a camera on each. At this time of year the adults are in and out once in a while, but if your Mom can catch them in the nest, she may have some amusement watching Pa and Ma Eagle dispute over the placement of new sticks they've brought in to beef up the nest(s).

The Wild Earth system that distributes these feeds has a sort of bookmarking system called seekpoints, so if your mom burrows around in the site, she will find many, many links to particularly juicy episodes in the family life of the Pat Bay eagles. There is also a gallery of stills and videos attached to the site.

Eggs are laid around the beginning of March and hatch in early April. They are fed on bits of fish, small mammals, and the occasional chicken carcass someone has left for the eagles on the beach nearby. It's quite a sight to see the huge parent eagle reaching down with a morsel in its beak and offering it to a chick with the utmost delicacy.

One by one the chicks learn to feed themselves and the parents largely stop feeding and simply drop off food in the nest, then fly away to look for more. It takes a heap of food to raise three eagles from egg to fledging!

[angie]

Roger
Thanks very much for this, cant wait to see them in there nest, my mum is nearly 79 and finds this amazing, she cant get over by just chatting on the SRG forum that some one has took the time to send us this link, but like I told my mum gardeners are the nicest people out there, Thanks again Roger we will have lots of fun with this. Oh I forgot to say my husband has given my mum his old laptop so she can click onto it any time, roll on March.
Angie

[Rodger Whitlock]

Just to give your mom a taste of what she might see...

Even now she can, if she wishes, go to the discussion forums from last spring and summer and read a moment-by-moment account of what happened in the nests this past season. The discussion forums also include many photographs, some taken by people with good equipment and skills to match.

And here's my absolutely favorite eagle link, even though it's not the family at Pat Bay:



A pair of adults and their offspring bathing in a freshwater pond.

Youtube has many, many more videos of eagles, and I'm sure of birds of all other types too. Even a lady of 79 years can figure it out.

PS: I forgot to add the obligatory connection to gardening: a resident at Brentwood Bay, a small settlement a few miles south of Pat Bay, has an eagle-nest tree in his garden. He regularly finds small collars on the ground under it...

[angie]

Hi Rodger

Thanks again for the links ,I hope the collars aren't what I am thinking.
Angie

[mark smyth]

Minister collars?

[ranunculus]

Minister collars?

Hopefully cold c------!   

[mark smyth]

From the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust newsletter

Buzzing with excitement as the world's first bumblebee reintroduction plans are underway...The biggest bumble fans have probably already heard about our Short Haired bumblebee reintroduction project: The bee went extinct in UK in 1988, but a British population survives in New Zealand. We hope to bring them back in 2010!  The target area is in and around Dungeness and Romney Marsh in Kent, where the bee was last recorded. Farmers are encouraged to put in “pollen and nectar” strips along their field edges, to recreate flower meadows (by rotating livestock), or to put in clover ley crops (which also boost soil fertility).
 
The work is already paying dividends. Although the short-haired bumblebee is not yet there to benefit, other rare bumblebees including the brown-banded carder and moss carder seem to be increasing in numbers and spreading outwards from the nature reserve at Dungeness. We can make the UK a happy place for bees!
 
Nikki Gammans, project officer, is off to New Zealand in mid-November to begin catching the queens of the short haired bumblebee. Keep up to date with the project on her blog for the latest news from the project!

[Armin]

Mark,
the projects sounds exiting.
Do you know the reason(s) why the short-haired bumblebee went extinct in 1988?
Did the environment change to better conditions to make such efforts worth?

[mark smyth]

More info Armin
http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/subt_project.html

[Anthony Darby]

Interesting that there is no mention of whether the bee is found on the other side of the Channel?

[Armin]

Thanks Mark.