birds

[Bluemanc100]

darwin's finches have been at it again, the randy buggers.

hugely important in his understanding of the origin of species,
galapagos finches have recently created a new species, in just 3 generations.

https://www.inverse.com/article/38754-big-bird-galapagos-islands-evolution

here's the paper, published last week, by prof. leif andersson & others.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/11/20/science.aao4593
(you can register for free to read the full article)

"Fifthly".... I'm going to use that in my next customer presentation

 

[Dr Dweeb]

European visitors in the garden today. Loads of Fieldfare feasting on the abundant red berries.

 

[scousemanc]

European visitors in the garden today. Loads of Fieldfare feasting on the abundant red berries.

Where will they go after 29th March 2019?

 

[idahoblues]

some cold morning visitors and a northern flicker from the kitchen window

 

[Barcon]

You'd catch a few muskie with that last one.

 

[idahoblues]

You'd catch a few muskie with that last one.

A bit of muskie fishing sounds good, have to drill a big fucking hole to pull one of those through the ice

 

[The Earl of Abington]

Couple of years back, I was walking home from work through a small housing estate less than a mile from the middle of Northampton. A large brown bird flew past me at no more than head height and pounced on a small bird (sparrow or some such) that had been minding its own business in somebody's front garden. It looked at me while the small bird let out a pathetic squeak, then took off to enjoy the meal. I never imagined I would see anything like that in the countryside let alone the middle of town. Anyone got any ideas what the bird of prey was?

 

[purplenose]

Couple of years back, I was walking home from work through a small housing estate less than a mile from the middle of Northampton. A large brown bird flew past me at no more than head height and pounced on a small bird (sparrow or some such) that had been minding its own business in somebody's front garden. It looked at me while the small bird let out a pathetic squeak, then took off to enjoy the meal. I never imagined I would see anything like that in the countryside let alone the middle of town. Anyone got any ideas what the bird of prey was?

Likely a Sparrow Hawk if it was in a suburban area. We have one here that is quite shite at catching the small birds, often a rumpus in the hedge as it dives in after dinner then usually the small bird makes off and the Sparrow Hawk pops up out of the hedge with a "FFS" look on its face.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Couple of years back, I was walking home from work through a small housing estate less than a mile from the middle of Northampton. A large brown bird flew past me at no more than head height and pounced on a small bird (sparrow or some such) that had been minding its own business in somebody's front garden. It looked at me while the small bird let out a pathetic squeak, then took off to enjoy the meal. I never imagined I would see anything like that in the countryside let alone the middle of town. Anyone got any ideas what the bird of prey was?

Sparrow Hawk mate. We have one that uses our bird feeders as a fast food outlet. Poor little buggers don’t stand a chance. It is a beautiful bird though and unbelievable flier, it comes in fast and low through the trees and is nearly side on when it hits the unfortunate green finch/chaffinch/Siskin/great tit ...

 

[idahoblues]

had this little goshawk keeping the starling population down last winter. Saw it several times and heard the screeching of dying starlings