Wildlife January 2011

[Lesley Cox]

Ducks wear dog masks
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HkImzSgHpek/THN2ll_6a9I/AAAAAAAAEbY/RH-2rtBuR9w/s1600/XSVIy.jpg

The one on the lower left looks distinctly foxy.

[Richard Green]

Mark, sounds as if you regularly have birds hitting the windows.  Have you ever tried those black paper kestrel-shaped silhouettes to hang in the windows and put the birds off?  Or more importantly, have you ever heard from anyone who has proved that they work?

[ruweiss]

A glass manufacturing company in our region offers an innovative new coated
glass which really prevents birds from flying against it. Normal glass is invisible
for them and the usual silhouettes of big birds glued at these pains are not
useful at all. More information under www.ornilux.de

[jomowi]

Bird stickers in the windows to deter birds flying into same do not work for me.  Worst time is during the breeding season when adults are working flat out and less careful.  Also fledglings are very vulnerable, woodpeckers in particular.  I always disable the window settings on the burglar alarm at this time of year after the embarrassment of having  it  set off by a woodpecker at 7.30 am on a Sunday when away from home.  Neighbour was not best pleased!

Had the thrill of watching a goldcrest in my Chamaecyparis lawsoniana erecta viridis today.  It spent a long time disappearing in and out of the dense vegetation which is no doubt rich in creepy-crawly pickings inside.  No chance of photos, it is such a furtive little bird.

[mark smyth]

Just realised my series of repoll photos are missing  Did I post them in the wrong place? 

[mark smyth]

redpoll

[Maggi Young]

Just realised my series of repoll photos are missing  Did I post them in the wrong place? 

You said you were editing them, Mark, but  you haven't posted them before now.

[mark smyth]

I must be losing my mind

[angie]

A glass manufacturing company in our region offers an innovative new coated
glass which really prevents birds from flying against it. Normal glass is invisible
for them and the usual silhouettes of big birds glued at these pains are not
useful at all. More information under www.ornilux.de

This is one of my excuses for not cleaning my windows as often as I should       my windows have there own coating. Joking apart I get a lot of birds flying into my windows I act fast when this happens as I have seen the magpies and the crows pick up these little chaps up before they come around. I put them in a tea towel and leave them on my utility room until the come around.
Just thinking maybe if my windows were polished and shiny they might not fly into them so much, who knows.

Angie

[Gail]

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

[mark smyth]

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

[ArnoldT]

Here are a pair of Cardinals feasting on seed heads of a Clematis paniculata ( autumn flowering)  which  I have rambling over a box

[ArnoldT]

Oh, that's snow in the background.  We're expecting 8 to 10 inches today

[Maggi Young]

Oh, that's snow in the background.  We're expecting 8 to 10 inches today

Smart Cardinals the snow makes a good background for the photos.... but, Arnold, please keep that snow, and any more you get, to yourself.

I wouldn't have thought that clematis seed were especially nutritious, being often fairly "skinny" looking sort of things, but I suppose in that weather those birds are just glad to find a meal above the white stuff.

[ArnoldT]

Maggi:

I  guess it's the   volume of seeds that are an attraction as well.  In the  fall it's a sheer blanket of fragrant white blooms.