Have a look at this video which celebrates Springwatch at RSPB Ynys-hir near Machynlleth in mid Wales. The programme will again be aired live from the reserve from 28 May - 11 June <iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/42695733" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>
Yesterday (Tuesday 22 May) 14 year-old Harriet Sleight, from 4th Tenby Guides stepped up and took the reins of RSPB Cymru as Director for the day. Harriet was the lucky winner of a competition launched by RSPB Cymru in partnership with Girlguiding Cymru, to find a young champion for nature. For more info please visit www.rspb.org.uk/wales
Hello peregrine perusers! Well this week we really know that ‘Colin-for-now’ is not a boy peregrine, she is huge (See photo, thanks to Anthony Hallam) and is already the same size as her dad. It will be a matter of days before she is out and about on the ledges of the clock-tower, hopefully not falling off... please!
The chick is now showing clear feathers amongst the fluff and has started to stretch her wings in an experimental way. Feeding has now reduced to every three or four hours and seems to require many ‘reminder’ calls from the chick. The male bird got a real roasting from the female yesterday, she chased him around the tower at low altitude calling vigorously and dive-bombing him with some force. General opinion thought that he was getting a reminder to bring back food for the chick at regular intervals. He did spend most of the day just sitting on the tower looking a little... otherworldly.
Sometimes when watching these beautiful birds doing so well in city centres, you have to stand back and remember that there were few of these birds left in the 1960s. In fact, without RSPB protection, through the fantastic work of staff and volunteers, they may well have become extinct in the UK. We are now getting the results of that fantastic work done in the 1980s. Unfortunately, there is still the need for education and enforcement to protect this species and many like them. Nature is in big trouble, but we have to celebrate the vibrancy of life whilst guarding against future problems. So keep on growing Coleen-for-now, you are vital in more ways than one.
Look for the big green tent most Thursdays to Sundays on the City Hall lawn.
If you like this remember to check out the Date with Nature Blogs at www.rspb.org.uk/datewithnature too!
Also the Cardiff peregrines page at: www.rspb.org.uk/.../149834-peregrines-on-the-clocktower
One of the more interesting things you can learn from participating in the BTO Garden Birdwatch, the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, and the imminent Make Your Nature Count schemes are the various trends in your own back garden.
If you are a bit of a sad statto (like me) you can spend time looking over the last years count and see interesting patterns emerging. For example, last year I had a small number of Reed Buntings visiting the garden between March and April, and then they were gone, this year they have stayed put, and I have much larger numbers. I would like to think the gourmet buffet that is put on for them out there every day is the main reason for them staying this year, if it is, is this the beginning of a new trend for the bird here in the Pontypridd area?
I am now up to almost 90 weeks of entering counts for the BTO and my only ever present bird in that time is the Nuthatch, not one you would normally expect!
All records are made to be broken, and one such record did fall last week. For the past 27 weeks I have had a visit from a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the garden. A single male has been landing on the palm tree by the kitchen window and feeding off the fat cake nearby as regularly as clockwork. You can tell the sexes apart on the Great Spotted Woodpecker quite easily. The male sports a red cap towards the back of the head, the female does not. One thing to be wary of at this time of year is the juveniles all sport a red cap, but they tend to cover the whole head area to begin with. The male visiting my garden has been drumming out his territory up in the woods for weeks, in the hope of attracting a mate. It seems to have worked, as last week a female arrived in the garden to feed; this sent our male into a frenzy of showing off! I can only assume our love struck Romeo got lucky as he is clearly now off his food as we haven’t seen him since! I can only hope that they are as successful as last year when we had a magical moment of five Great Spotted Woodpeckers turn up in the garden. The proud parents brought us their young to see!
There is one garden tick I would love to have and that is a Green Woodpecker. Rather worryingly I have not seen one in this area for about a twelve month. They are one of the birds that have population crashes in particularly hard winters as they are insectivores which eat by and large, ants. Readers of this blog of a certain age (like me) will remember Professor Yaffle in the children’s TV series Bagpuss. Professor Yaffle was in fact a Green Woodpecker, and his name derived from this woodpecker’s distinctive laughing call. Those of you with a misspent youth (like me) will also be able to identify the bird from the side of a bottle of a popular cider!
The good news is, just as the Great Spotted Woodpecker has gone off the radar, I saw a Green Woodpecker fly over my house from the woods and meadow beyond my back hedgerow at the weekend. It seems they are back in the area, and as an amber listed bird this cheers me greatly! A good place to spot them at this time of year is in country parks or village greens just after they have cut the grass. There is every chance they have disturbed an ants nest, and you may get an opportunity to see a Green Woodpecker feeding. They have a long, sticky tongue with which they lap up their food; it’s quite brilliant to watch. Hopefully our local Professor Yaffle will take an interest in my ant hills on the lawn soon!
Image: © Anthony Walton
It’s falcon Friday folks! Lots of great sightings today at the clock tower, with Anthony Walton finally making a dry day to come and see us, congrats mate! ;-). The chick is now a huge meaty fluff ball and is beginning to sprout the first glimmerings of ‘proper’ feathers. Three large feeds seen today, it is more of a mincing machine than a chick!
Some interesting off-nest action this morning with a crow mobbing (can you mob alone?) a buzzard high above the tower. The buzzard was incredibly cool and just carried on hitting the thermals, though it did seem to loose a few feathers. The male peregrine (unsure which one?) was harried by a gull on leaving the tower, a quick roll over and thrust upward with the talons soon made the gull seek another way to have its fun.
The next few weeks will be a great time to come over and see the chick, whilst the weather holds and the chick considers coming out onto the ledge. Look for the big green tent most Thursdays to Sundays on the City Hall lawn.