looduskalender.ee

A thread for recording special sightings, your favourite bird, daily birds in your garden.

Thank you for starting this topic for our garden birds, Alice.

I have my camera ready. There are frequent visits from pigeons, and an occasional, tame blackbird. Cats are becoming intrusive in my garden, too, as I can tell from the disturbed soil - and I put poppy seeds in one of the disturbed places, too

I have twisted my foot -- I stepped wrong as a shoe fell off while I was stepping down a step and so I am barely mobile -- not much bird watching today.

So for today I saw a happy American Crow cleaning up the bugs in my lawn. And for some reason Crows rarely visit my yard although they are common visitors to my neighbours.
And
A small flock of House Finches -- they also seemed happy. The little group of them ate at my feeder for about 15 minutes in the late afternoon. Like the Green Finches at the winter feeder they sit and munch the seeds in their beaks.

House Finch from Wikipedia -- I think mine are a little different -- colours of birds vary across the continent.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Finch


for more pictures and sound
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/HOUSE_FINCH/id

These are among the most reliable visitors to my bird feeders. I love their song. the past couple of days, I have also noticed a goldfinch or tow on my nyger feeder. It has been a while since any of them migrated through my particular part of town. Hope they keep coming back.

I'm sorry about your twisted ankle, Alice. It is hard to be laid up when you are used to going out without difficulty. Hope you get better soon.

....
Sunday 24 April

I went past both local Osprey nests -- no sign of any Ospreys.

One of nests is down town across the river from the bike path so I took a little walk. There were lots of swallows flying around high in the sky. I also saw pigeons, crows and starlings chasing each other round.

Then down at the other end of the path I saw a group of Turkey Vultures soaring. I think they are still migrating back here, although the first probably arrived about a month ago.

from wikipedia


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_Vulture

Are House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) numbers declining in Europe?

So I still have not been seeing much, nothing comes to my feeders anymore -- I think the jays (so I do see jays) keep all the other birds away.

But today,

I got to see lots of Western Tanagers. They were even down in my English Ivy (but not when I can a camera in my hand). Still I got a couple pictures where they are visible

Hello Alice I can not figure out whether the House Sparrow is declining in Europe, but it says in my bird guide that it looks as though they are more numerous than they really are - at least here in Norway- because they are located where the people stays. In norwegian House Sparrow are called Gråspurv ( directly translated in english = grey sparrow ) And those Western Tanagers was beautiful Alice, they are totally unknown to me.

Lussi the reports I have read about House Sparrow declines have featured England. I had two friends mention it in passing on a non-birding kind of social site (one was in Devon and the other in more a slightly more northern Britain). Any how, I am really curious if there is still a decline and if it is local or on a large scale.

I just found this ---

For a long, long time, the chubby, chirpy house sparrow lived in our midst aplenty. Now, you can’t find them in the urban environment any more. All this has happened in a span of just a few years.

India is not the only place where the sparrows have disappeared from the cities.

In the Netherlands, they are already an endangered species. In Britain, their population is dropping at such an alarming rate that they are now in the red list as a species of ‘high conservation concern’.

In France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Finland, the story is not very different.

This is an environmental alarm bell at its loudest.

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a common bird that millenniums ago originated in the Mediterranean and came into Europe and Asia with the spread of agriculture. It was carried across the Atlantic in mid-19th century as a friend, to help clean up green inchworms from the trees of New York’s Central Park.

It was the most widely distributed species of the world.

Today it is suddenly disappearing in the urban environment. What this translates into is that the modern urbanization has reached a level where it can trigger the extinction of a species.

http://www.inewsone.com/2011/03/19/wher ... -day/36737

I think tomorrow is House Sparrow day -- in India -- so just now there are some articles coming out from India about the decline of the House Sparrow.

Here they were just considered an invasive species so very little attention is paid to them.

Good morning from Germany!

Alice, I also have found that sparrows have disappeared. I live in a city and previously you met them everywhere. Where I live, it was, besides different kinds of tits and blackbirds, the most common bird. I have not seen a single one in my area since years now! There was a small colony in a hedge next to the office building next to my house. But a few years back this building was redeveloped completely (went over several years) and they cut away that hedge and with it the sparrows disappeared. Also near my office, where lots of various kinds of animals can be sighted (as I reported in different threads), I don't see and hear any sparrows.
Don't know about the country side though. My father had one side of his house covered by vine and in this a lot of sparrows stayed over night - we used to joke that it is the bachelor's hostel. What a ruckus it was, when the "went to bed" in the evening The new owner took the vine away, and all the trees and bushes my parents had planted in their garden. So I don't know what became of all the birds.

I am beginning to wonder if what we took to be local disappearances -- caused by the removal of a hedge, or the movement of a bird feeder or something like that, is really something much bigger.

I did remember reading about this very topic and I've found the article online

http://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/inhalt.muenchen-voegel-am-marienhof:-kanonen-auf-spatzen.3eb32be1-041f-49bc-a8af-77f425097fed.html

Since it is in German, I thought I let Google translate it
Well, I think it's better to forget that idea so I tried to do it myself ( actually I should have done some work ...) and here's the result, hope it's not too bad and it's clear what the article meant:

For a long time the birds have nested on Marienhof [a place near the city hall in Munich]- now the hedges were torn up. Ex-City Councilman Bernhard Fricke is outraged. In a letter to Ude [= Lord Mayor of Munich] he called for sanctions.

München: It’s over now with cheerful chirping and the cheeky little sparrows on Marienhof. Despite all promises the hedges on Marienhof were uprooted for the preparatory construction work on the second main line in a big way. It was the green home of the last Munich old town sparrows. Now they are all gone. „Mit Kanonen auf Spatzen! "With a sledgehammer to crack nuts“! [the German actually means literally: to shoot sparrows with canons]
"I don’t grasp it and get really angry", rants ex-city councilman Bernhard Fricke. He sent a "flaming" letter to Mayor Christian Ude. [flaming in this context:urgent/pressing]

When the City Council agreed to the preparatory construction work before Easter break, it was only the debate whether the trees can be replanted, although they had already started leaf flushing. Of the birdies nobody thought. The following week the bulldozers came and started to pull up the hedges.
There was a big outcry: By the sparrows, by the neighbours, by the National League for Bird Protection, by CSU-Councilwoman Evelyn Menges (Vice-President of the Animal Rescue Munich) and Bernhard Fricke.
Because the birds were disturbed during breeding season.
When Frick intervened, he was promised on the site, that not all hedges would be pulled out immediately. They still could remain six to eight weeks. This would allow the birds to finish their brood.This was not adhered to.
"All the hedges with the nests were pulled away," Fricke is outraged: "Are they crazy?" Now on Marienhof only pigeons are flying. Fricke: "The habitat of the sparrow is destroyed."

This was a "clear violation against the clear provisions of the Federal Nature Protection Act," writes Fricke in his remonstrative letter to Ude: Thus a "felling and clearing ban applies to protect nesting birds from 1st March to 30th September."
Fricke requires a replacement hedge in containers for the birds. And he calls for "sanctions" against those responsible.
The "David vs. Goliath" [Fricke founded a registered society with this name] has a big heart for nature. Ten years ago he seized a tree (where today Schrannenhalle is situated) in order to save it from chopping. Legendary is his (now deceased) sheep Seraphin.

The Country's Federation for Birds (Landesbund für Vogelschutz) is outraged about the development in Marienhof as well. They had long cherished and watched the birds. Now, the last colony of the city sparrows has disappeared.

You did quite a big translation job, thank you.

It looks like again a local issue was seen as the whole problem.

It is disturbing the way people think only of themselves. They replace a power pole across the street, which had a starling nest in it. The birds were very upset. But removing many hedges is a bigger problem.

Yes, you are right, they see only the birds at that particular place, but that the birds have vanished as well from other places, they don't see! But - on the other hand, counting all the small "incidents" and removals of living space also connect to a bigger picture. It is sad, sparrows once have been one of the most commong birds here, now pigeons and crows (and magpies) have taken that place here, and especially the crows and magpies also make sure that the number of other birds decreases. One of the worst things I have seen here in this area in the last years was a magpie emptying the nest of a blackbird. I admire the beauty of them, but I hate them as well.

Edit adds: removing the hedges is actually a grave mistake farmers can make, as this also leads to erosion and loss of fertile ground. There was a horrible accident in North Germany a few weeks back, initiated by a dust storm. It had not rained for a long time, the soil was absolutely dry and heavy wind blew it towards a motorway where dozens of cars crashed in a sand storm.

My son has a web cam in the home of a Blue Tit at his work. He is a preschool teatcher in a nature kindergarten. The parents are very busy feeding their 8 - 9 little ones (it is difficult to count the presise number)

Oh my god, how cute! So many!

The Oystercatcher is attacking the camera on a roof in Bergen, a city in Norway

On the NUTHACH (sittae) cam in the Netherlands you can see the nest with about seven chicks with open beak constantly asking for food. Busy,busy parents there too..

Doing it again, just now



Edit: seems to be really angry about the cam!