Bits and Pieces

 Apologies for the lack of posts recently-I've been a lucky boy and had a couple of holidays. I'd like to make a plug for one. It's a lovely place in the foothills of the Gredos mountains about 2 hours west of Madrid. Keith and Jane have Finca la Sayuela waiting for you so check it out on the internet. If waking up to the song of Golden Oriole and Nightingale doesn't do it for you then sitting in the garden watching 7 or 8 raptor species circling overhead--plus lots of butterflies and stunning plants should seal the deal. Wonderful!!

So what's been happening while I was away? Well not a great deal--this is the breeding season so we don't tend to get out that much--but I have a few snippets of random stuff to ( I hope) interest you.....

When the weather is cool ( below 10 centigrade), the Swifts tend to fly low enough for us to stand a chance of catching them. They are magnificent birds but in the hand the have lethally sharp needle claws which make life painful for the ringer--but they also hold another less obvious surprise.....

But first here is a study of the head of a Swift....

For a fast flying bird which catches insect food on the wing big eyes are essential. But how small is that beak? What you can't see is that when the bird opens it's beak, it's mouth opens really wide-almost from the eye--giving it a very large gape to catch flying insects.

The surprise item is a particular blood sucking parasite called a Hippobscid fly--or a flat fly to us. They are presty gross but wonderfully evolved parasites. We collected a few in jars to send to someone doing a scientific study of them....

Gorgeous aren't they............

Hirundines ( Swallows and Martins), also come down low like this House Martin. In this side view you can see again a very small beak....

But the same bird from the front gives you an idea of how wide the mouth is again in order to help it catch flying insects....

This time of year also sees us checking all our nestboxes. Blue and Great Tits are far and away the most regular occupiers of boxes but this year they are about 10 days ahead of where they usually are so we have missed being able to ring the chicks as they are too big. Pied Flycatchers seem to be on track and we will report back on their success next time--checking is this coming weekend.

Here's a couple of recently fledged birds which show some interesting features; first a very recently fledged Great Spotted Woodpecker.....

The key feature here is that very young Great Spots have a red cap. This sometimes confuses folk into thinking they are the much rarer Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Just be wary of this --Lesser Spots are only about sparrow size--much smaller that Great Spots. The Great Spot juveniles gradually lose the red cap over the first few months out of the nest.

This baby Robin is also a classic confusion species when so young....

The red breast only develops over the next few months--the dappled brown breast is supposedly designed to avoid aggression from adult Robins during a time when the youngsters need to be protected. As soon as the red comes through however, the adults use this as a sign that their babies are ready to look after themselves and drive them out of the territory.