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buzzy



Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 20 1:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

sgt.colon wrote:
How do you tell the difference between the boy and girls DPack?

boys have blue eyes; girls have pink eyes

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 20 5:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    



from now on i will refer to mrsbrack and mrbrack as she seems to have decided he is a keeper and has married him, i await the little brackets

yungi and mikii sammison are busy stocking their larder and are perhaps back in the family hall(woodstore) as a residence.

sparrows still mostly boys in the feeding group

re timings of the start of green shoots, the bramble has about a cm of growth
wheat(from the feeder) is 10cm tall, it was bare earth due to mrsbrack digging worms until about a week ago and growth has been fast.

umm, the worms are pretty active so i guess the soil is very warm for january in yorkshire.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sat Jan 25, 20 8:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Like that Henry.

I haven't been out in the garden much lately, but think the daffodils are starting to come through in the front of the house at least. A few new primrose leaves in the woods, but otherwise, not a lot of activity.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sat Jan 25, 20 1:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

as a small aside to the boy girl thing, mr brack is becoming a man.
over the last ten days his beak has been changing from black to orange.
it started with a reddish orange line at the face end and is now about half-and-half and seems to be growing out at about a mm a day.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 20 9:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Do they only change colour during the mating season, or as they become mature?

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 20 12:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

iirc it is a growing up thing, born dark and turning orange at maturity.

i had not watched it day by day before, it looks like it might be 3 to 4 weeks to complete the change.

he does look rather starsky and hutch with his go faster stripe at the mo.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 20 1:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

birdtown is busy

a few extra visitors included a pair of coal tits and at least one wren today.

mrs and mr brack seem settled, fat ankles and walter two sticks are becoming quite "tame" and will now feed a couple of meters away.

the mf ratio is closing among the sparrows but there are some singles among the group of both sexes,maybe 65% male
by semi casual observation there are at least 4 pairs and perhaps a couple more +the singles
numbers went down but the extra females are building total numbers

from the squabbles it looked like sending the kids off to seek their fortune with some of them.
it might be easier to assess that once i have identified this year's pairs and their offspring.

yungii and mikii have settled in which is nice and indicates we are relatively rat free at the mo

the peregrines hunt the area a few times a week, makes sense as they have a city and a few miles around it as a happy hunting ground, rotation is sustainable and surprise makes for an easier dinner.
waiting for them is not for me, sooner or later i will have the kit and moment at the same time for a photo shoot.
the young one seems to have moved on and not having had a close sighting recently i dont know if i have seen one a few times or two at different times.

i suspect two, as i have seen one doing "beater" for something a distance off to the side

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 20 8:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The birds round here seem as depressed by the weather as we are. Apart from some rather disgruntled pigeons sat on top of the weeping birch with their shoulders hunched, and the inevitable robin, there hasn't been much activity.

A peregrine seems to have commandeered the pylon tower near our house, but seems only to be an occasional visitor. Enough for the rooks who used to build there to have gone down to the next tower anway.

Interesting that more females are arriving. Do you think sparrows form more gender specific flocks during the winter?

sgt.colon



Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.
PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 20 11:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We had a visitor to our garden yesterday. I figure he eats sparrows as there was absolute silence from them whilst he was around and for a while after and during the day, the sparrows never shut up.

Does anyone know what it is please?





derbyshiredowser



Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Posts: 980
Location: derbyshire
PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 20 1:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Its a sparrow hawk, we have one that frequents the area , total killing machine. We had one doing a bit of a battle with a wood pigeon that ended up with the pigeon flying off. However they have had some of the blackbirds and it was one of these where we had a perfect circle of black feathers with a beak and a pair of feet left in the middle kind of weird.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 20 1:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

yep, they work ambush from fairly close and above, air kills happen but pounce from 30m up while the target is having lunch on the ground is a common tactic.

owt smaller than an adult crow can have a problem but i have seen pigeons escape the claws in close combat.

they hover or sit on a high seat and watch, if they lock onto a small bird or mammal they drop on it like a HARM on a SAM site, it has a second or so to evade once the swoop starts.

messy eaters if it is too big to consume or carry:lol:

any sign of raptors and the tasty birds will react with warnings*, escapes and evasions until they decide it has gone.

* they different calls and different calls for different threats but all know each other's alarms and unite against a common threat.
complex cross species behaviours in that stuff

sgt.colon



Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.
PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 20 2:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Thanks both. It was interesting to watch. It kept going in the small bush in front of it and then bush would shake. Not sure if it got a sparrow or not.

Will it be living in the wild, or owned by someone, do you think?

Also, can I expect to see it again?

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Fri Jan 31, 20 2:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

it will be back if there is dinner

the small birds know how to cope even if that means last in the bush is it.

i have had small+raptor visits lots of places, rather nice to see a healthy food chain even if little chums get murdered in front of you while they were murdering a worm

red in beak and claw, flying dinosaurs

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 20 9:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

They are native Sgt. Colon, so probably wild. I saw one get a pigeon once and decide the right place to eat it was in the middle of a moderately busy local road. Everyone was avoiding it and the sparrowhawk was giving everyone filthy looks while plucking the pigeon.

I love watching kestrels as they hover over grassland. Amazing to see how they keep their heads still and their bodies moving around in the air.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 20 3:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

yungii sammison is starting to fill out, he is not as toned as bufii sammison was, but he is heading that way.

blue tit and at least one wren visiting

the rest of them same as.

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