SPOT THE BEE FLY etc. etc. 9TH December 2021
We have quite a selection of sightings and observations for this latest update, so many thanks to all of the contributors!
We start with regular Rob Agar, keen to keep the project going!
“My offerings, but not been out as busy on history stuff...these were in Mytchett and was my little helper in a friend’s garden...Rob”
Following on from Philips observations on the pigeons eating all the berries, we received the following note from Derek and Judy Venables from their home in Norfolk:
“Hello Mike & Jenny. Thank you for your latest contributions, entertaining and educational! We sympathise with Philip about pigeons having stripped all the holly berries. They have stripped all our pyrocantha and contoneaster shrubs (about twenty-five) and are ripping any new top growth from all the trees and shrubs in surrounding gardens. At least three of our neighbours are regularly ground-feeding gulls and pigeons. Regards, Derek & Judy”
Thanks Derek and Judy, great to hear from you.
Then another interesting observation this time from Bernard:
‘MONKEY NUTS’ “Mike. A little observation for the members: There was a time, when it became popular to feed garden birds, that people would string together whole peanuts and hang them out for the birds to peck apart. With the advent of peanut feeders this practice died out, much in the same way that birds do not encounter milk bottles on doorsteps, so that they have mostly forgotten how to obtain free cream. Recently a friend attended a function where the table decorations had piles of monkey nuts included. He thought it would be wasteful to have then thrown away, so he asked the caterers to save them for him. This turned out to be a carrier bag of monkey nuts and I volunteered to take half from him.
My idea was to see if the birds would recognise the novel food. I strung two lines of nuts and hung them alongside the sunflower heart feeders. After a week not one was attacked. Then I threw a few whole nuts onto the ground each day, it did not take long until the jays discovered them and they were only in competition with the squirrels. (There was a time when a fox sneaked in for one). One morning I noticed that a whole string had gone missing and I never found any sign of it again. The other string has remained for the past month with nothing disturbing it at all. I can conclude that the many Tits do not recognise the monkey nuts as food but I am confused that the jays cannot see that the string of nuts are the same thing as those found on the ground. Best wishes for a happy Christmas. Bernard” Thanks Bernard, - perhaps an article for the Bird Brain of Britain!
Next a great set of photos from Jean and Roger Hoyle with the following notes:
“Dear Mike, I thought that you would be interested in our garden visitor this morning. Unusually he was here for over 10 minutes so I was able to get my camera. I took the photos through the bedroom window trying to hide behind the curtain as it can be quite twitchy. It wandered round the pond and then spotted the frog which it caught. It had it for what seemed a long time trying to turn it round and kept dipping it in the pond so it was head first before he could swallow it. I have attached a few photos of the many I took through the glass. I must admit I'm quite pleased as they are not all fuzzy or with a reflection from the glass. In the last one his neck is a bit swollen where the frog is going down. Unfortunately, the previous one was out of focus but you could almost see the shape of the frog in his throat. Jean”
Roger follows with his selection of photos taken after the heron left their garden:
“Dear Mike, Jean has just sent you some pictures of the heron catching a frog in our pond. When he leaves the pond he always seems to perch on our neighbour's roof for a few minutes. I took these images with him on the roof or taking off from it. I'm afraid two of them have suffered in quality from the quality of the glass in one of our bedroom windows - it's interesting that the two taken through different bedroom window glass are much better. Best wishes, Roger”
Thank you both for a superb set of photographs, - feel a bit sorry for the frog!!
Paul Barrow is next; he explains his contribution here:
“Hi Mike, I’ve done a piece of the Fungi surveys I’ve been doing with the National Trust West Dorset Ecology Group. You can reach it by the Dropbox link below Hope it is suitable for the Bee Fly.
We are both well and have, so far, survived Barra. Best wishes, Paul”
Thanks Paul, - a very extensive and interesting piece of work!
Paul has prepared his survey on a PDF document and so I have included the link here; - double click on the icon to open the document. I have also added the file as an attachment to the accompanying email should anyone experience difficulty in opening from here.
Some from me:
Constantly clearing up beneath the bird feeders along with the pigeons.
That’s it for now, - perhaps one more before Christmas, so please keep them coming.
Regards to all, Mike and Jenny