Showing posts with label Short-toed Lark. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Short-toed Lark. Show all posts

Friday, July 20, 2018

A Cure For Ornithophobia

I’ll bet we have all met people who don’t appreciate birds. You know the type. Just as you’re enjoying a quiet spot of birding, relishing the grace and beauty of a Spotted Flycatcher or watching a Peregrine beating up the waders, along comes Mr Dickhead, all mouth and an over-abundance of non-functioning brain cells. He’s hoping to wind-up a nerdy birder. Although he’s never met a birder he knows they are all nerdy 'cos his mate in the pub told him. 

Spotted Flycatcher

"Spotted anything interesting pal? What f...ing use are birds anyway? I can’t sleep at night because of bloody seagulls on my roof from dawn until dusk. And they shit too much. That is when they are not rooting through my bin bags and scattering KFC boxes all over.” 

“And those sodding pigeons, rats with wings I call them, clogging up the town centre and crapping everywhere. Same with those duck things in the park. My kids can’t eat their jam butties in peace without “Quack, quack, bloody quack. Give us our daily bread”. 

There’s not much point in trying to explain science to a moron, someone who’s never taken the trouble to think about birds’ role in the natural world; how birds maintain sustainable population levels of their prey and predator species and, after death, provide food for scavengers and decomposers. How birds are important in plant reproduction through their services as pollinators or seed dispersers and why birds are important members of many ecosystems. 

I suppose the poor chap could have a touch of Ornithophobia. Yes, there’s a name for a person's abnormal and irrational fear of birds, or someone with a dislike of birds because of their habits or reputation as pests e.g. Carrion Crows, Collared Doves, Jays, Starlings, Gulls, Magpies and pigeons (feral & Woodpigeon). 

In such cases, keep it simple. I mention that birds eat a lot of insects, bugs and creepy-crawlies, all the things that Mr D also hates, and that if birds didn't do that, the world would be knee deep in such things within the week. Such a mind-blowing, revolutionary idea is often enough to make their dimmed light flicker, at least for the time being.  Off he goes in search of more worldly knowledge and I go back to birding with a cheery under my breath “bugger off”. 

But, here’s proof. “Birds around the world eat 400 to 500 million metric tonnes of beetles, flies, ants, moths, aphids, grasshoppers, crickets and other anthropods per year.”

Cuckoo

It’s from Science Daily, 2018. The numbers have been calculated in a study led by Martin Nyffeler of the University of Basel in Switzerland. The research, published in Springer's journal The Science of Nature, highlights the important role birds play in keeping plant-eating insect populations under control. 

"Nyffeler and his colleagues based their figures on 103 studies that highlighted the volume of prey that insect-eating birds consume in seven of the world's major ecological communities known as biomes. According to their estimations, this amounts to between 400 and 500 million tonnes of insects per year but is most likely to be on the lower end of the range. Their calculations are supported by a large number of experimental studies conducted by many different research teams in a variety of habitats in different parts of the world. 

"The global population of insectivorous birds annually consumes as much energy as a megacity the size of New York. They get this energy by capturing billions of potentially harmful herbivorous insects and other arthropods," says Nyffeler. 

Bee Eater

Forest-dwelling birds consume around 75 per cent of the insects eaten in total by birds which make up about 300 million tonnes of insects per year. About 100 million tonnes are eaten by birds in savannah areas, grasslands and croplands, and those living in the deserts and Arctic tundra. Birds actively hunt insects especially during the breeding season, when they need protein-rich prey to feed to their nestlings. 


Swallows

Further, the researchers estimated that insectivorous birds together only have a biomass of about three million tonnes. Nyffeler says the comparatively low value for the global biomass of wild birds can be partially explained through their very low production efficiency. This means that respiration takes a lot of energy and only leaves about one to two percent to be converted into biomass. 

"The estimates presented in this paper emphasize the ecological and economic importance of insectivorous birds in suppressing potentially harmful insect pests on a global scale -- especially in forested areas," explains Nyffeler, who says that this is especially so for tropical, temperate and boreal forest ecosystems. 

"Only a few other predator groups such as spiders and entomophagous insects (including in particular predaceous ants) can keep up with the insectivorous birds in their capacity to suppress plant-eating insect populations on a global scale," he adds. 

Hoopoe

A study from 2017 which Nyffeler also led showed that spiders consume between 400 and 800 million tonnes of insects each year. Other predator groups like bats, primates, shrews, hedgehogs, frogs, salamanders, and lizards seem to be valuable yet less effective natural enemies of plant-eating insects. He says their influence seems to be more biome-specific rather than on a worldwide scale. For instance, lizards help to suppress insects on tropical islands, but less so on a broader scale. 

"Birds are an endangered class of animals because they are heavily threatened by factors such as afforestation, intensification of agriculture, spread of systemic pesticides, predation by domestic cats, collisions with human-made structures, light pollution and climate change. If these global threats cannot soon be resolved, we must fear that the vital ecosystem services that birds provide -- such as the suppression of insect pests -- will be lost," says Nyffeler. 

Short-toed Lark

Maybe all birders should carry a paper copy of the above? It would come in handy when we next meet up with Mr Butthole; although the chances are he can’t read. 

Linking this post to Anni's Birding Blog.


Monday, May 8, 2017

Mad For Menorca

We counted. This is our fourteenth time in Menorca. And yes, it is that special. There’s very little blogging while Sue and I are away so I posted a few pictures from Menorca, both birds and photos of special places.

Don’t forget – “click the pics” for a trip to sunny Menorca. 

Mahon, Menorca

Es Migjorn, Menorca

Coffee Time, Menorca

Fornells village, Menorca

Cattle Egret

Turtle Dove

Egyptian Vulture

Wood Sandpiper and Common Sandpiper

Menorcan Panda

Hoopoe

Es Grau, Menorca

Black-winged Stilt

Cattle Egret

Greater Short-toed Lark

Punta Nati- Menorca

Bee-eater

Audouin's Gull

Red-footed Falcon

Ciutadella - Menorca

Serrano Jamon

 Hoopoe

 Red Kite

Bee-eater

Menorcan Friends

More Coffee Menorca Style

 Back soon with more news, views and photographs home and away on Another Bird Blog.

Friday, May 27, 2016

Memory Lane Menorca

It’s been a rubbish week. Laid low with a vicious bug, lethargy has been the order of the day. I’ve barely eaten a thing, spent 10 hours at a time in bed and struggled to leave the house. Even the thought of a glass of wine has left me cold. 

But now it’s time to shake off the self-pity and head off to Menorca for the last time this year. It’s a journey we make each year to Punta Nati, a remote, unforgiving and brutal landscape of rocks and field after field of moonscape with dwarf vegetation but where speciality birds abound. Don't forget to "click the pics" for better images.

We left our hotel soon after breakfast, found our way to the Me1 and joined the commuter run to Ciutadella, Menorca’s second city. The Ronda, the Ring Road, skirts the busy city where with luck we’d find the purple signpost that would send us to the parallel world of Punta Nati just ten minutes from the old world charms of Ciutadella. 

I pulled the car into the barely possible parking spot, the wing mirror just a whisker from the stone wall. The old fellow came out to greet us as he always does and explained again in zero English how the Cattle Egret colony here is the only one for many miles, maybe even the only one in Menorca. In my best zero Spanish I nodded in agreement and motioned with the camera that a few shots later we’ll be on our way and leave the egrets to their squawking family squabbles and bad hair days. 

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret

Towards the point Bee Eaters were on the move, circling high in the sky, resting on overhead wires and bubbling out their unforgettable contact calls. There’s urgency in their excited calls. Some drift off, others move closer together before as a group their calls grow more eager and they’re off as one, specks in the sky and heading over the lighthouse, over the Med and towards Europe. 

Bee-eater

Bee-eater

Punta Nati

The calls of larks, buntings and pipits are constant as all seem to be in the throes of breeding. Searching for food, looking out for their nests, warning of predators or snatching a song; it’s all in a day’s work where the dry atmosphere and unrelenting sunshine takes its toll on a bird’s plumage. 

Thekla Lark

Short-toed Lark

Tawny Pipit

Tawny Pipit

Corn Bunting

Towards the lighthouse we eventually found a pair of Blue Rock Thrush, the calls of the male leading us to the spot where the pair lived. A Kestrel watched us as we went, the species is a common sight dashing across the bare fields and where there are more than enough vantage points. Red Kites lazed through the skies, their twisty tails a delight to watch in the remarkable blue of a Menorca sky. 

Punta Nati

Red Kite

 Kestrel

An hour or two later the trippers arrive, fresh from their tourist maps looking for something to do, something to see, a little excitement on a sunny day. But unless they are into birds, and very few are, there’s little for to do except walk without purpose to the lighthouse and back, trample over unforgiving terrain along coastal paths and maybe sprain an ankle. Most give up at the sheer desolation of the place, jump back in their shiny hire cars and probably vow never again to visit Punta Nati. 

We’ve had our fun, seen some great birds, laughed at a few German tourists with their huge knapsacks and knobbly white knees but we kept the secret of Punta Nati. Now it’s time for a trip to the busy city ten minutes away. 

We park in the main square for all of two Euros and head to some favourite watering holes. 

Ciutadella

The Aurora

Diageo's

The Harbour - Ciutadella

Ciutadella is a fabulous place, a working Spanish city which remains untainted by the tourism that has blighted so many other similar places. And after a dry, dusty trip birding along Memory Lane, what better than a coffee or two, an ensaimada or a bocadillo and a spot of people watching for a change?

Linking today to  Eileen's Saturday.



Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Killing Time In Menorca

Wednesday began with yet more strong wind and showery spells from the north, hardly the best weather for finding later migrants arriving for the British Summer. Looks like I will have to invest in a pair of Stanfield's Canadian Thermal Long Johns for our UK summers.

So I took a day off birding until Thursday on the strength of a better forecast and set about creating a blog post about the recent Menorca holiday. 

There’s a well-worn route of ours via the ME1 and the Ronda which circumvents Ciutadella to reach Punta Nati, a rather desolate and sometimes windswept point at the north west corner of Menorca. Punta Nati is the place to see Ravens, larks, pipits, large numbers of Corn Buntings and when conditions are right, a number of raptors and other migrant birds. 

A mile before Punta Nati there’s a colony of Cattle Egrets in a pine plantation at the roadside. But the tiny stopping place leaves the car vulnerable to scraping the wing mirror on a stone wall or being hit by traffic zooming into Ciutadella a mile away. So it’s a quick point and shoot where the egrets are quite amenable as long as you don’t leave the car expecting the egrets to stay put. Many a budding photographer has discovered that should they approach on foot the egrets readily erupt into a cacophony of noise and action then depart the trees. 

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret

The stone walls near the point provide lots of singing posts for Short-toed Larks, Corn Buntings, Thekla Larks and Tawny Pipits. In early May those species are well into the breeding season with much display, song and evidence of youngsters in the nest. 

Punta Nati, Menorca

Short-toed Lark

Tawny Pipit

Corn Bunting

Short-toed Lark

The Theklas proved harder to photograph this time, the only half decent pictures obtained on the single grey morning we encountered. 

Thekla Lark

The other speciality of the rocky landscape of Punta Nati is the Blue Rock Thrush, a species which like most members of the thrush family is generally shy. Here’s a somewhat distant picture of a male and female together. The Blue Rock Thrush is fairly common but not always easily seen in Menorca.

Blue Rock Thrush

Egyptian Vultures are usually about and it was here that on our second and sunny visit I came across an adult bird taking off from a rocky field and heading south, gaining height as it did so. The usual views of Egyptian Vultures consist of birds soaring over the Menorcan landscape at great height, where their almost 6ft wingspan makes them unmistakeable, even from some distance away. 

Egyptian Vulture

Egyptian Vulture

Egyptian Vulture

The Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus), also called the white scavenger vulture or pharaoh's chicken, is a small Old World vulture and the only member of the genus Neophron. The use of the vulture as a symbol of royalty in Egyptian culture and their protection by Pharaonic law made the species common on the streets of Egypt and gave rise to the name "pharaoh's chicken". 

Egyptian Vultures feed mainly on carrion but are opportunistic and will prey on small mammals, birds, and reptiles. They also feed on the eggs of other birds, breaking larger ones by tossing a large pebble onto them. The use of tools is rare in birds and apart from the use of a pebble as a hammer, Egyptian Vultures also use twigs to roll up wool for use in their nest. Populations of this species have declined in the 20th century and some isolated island populations e.g The Canary Islands and Menorca, are endangered by hunting, accidental poisoning, and collision with power lines. 

On our sunny visit to Punta Nati we clocked up Kestrel, Red Kite, Booted Eagle, Peregrine plus a good number of Whinchats and Wheatears. We didn’t see the Stone Curlew here this year which does occur around Punta Nati, but a shy species which is not easily spotted amongst the grey rocky landscape. However we did manage to see two at Tirant on another day and another story. 

It’s the trade-off for a morning’s birding at Punta Nati, a stop off in Cutadella, Menorca’s second but far from second-rate city. Here are a few pictures which give a flavour of this most picturesque, historic, vibrant and wonderfully authentic Spanish city. 

The cathedral Ciutadella

Cafe Culture - Menorca

The fish market - Ciutadella

Market Square - Ciutadella

Coffee time in Ciutadella

Photography Exhibition - Ciutadella

The Harbour - Ciutadella

Placa Des Born - Ciutadella
 
Another Coffee Stop - Ciutadella

We called into one of our favourite shops where the Jamóns are displayed along the shelves and where Menorcan quesos lie slowly maturing.  Jamón ibérico or "Iberian ham", also called pata negra is a type of cured ham produced in Spain. Meanwhile the Menorcan countryside is dotted with farms which sell home-made speciality cheeses. The aromas created by these and other delicacies in delicatessens are simply heavenly making it impossible to leave such a shop without indulging in one or two samples. 

Menorcan Cheese - Ciutadella

Jamóns - Ciutadella

More from home and away soon on Another Bird Blog.

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