Bird of the week - Ring-necked parakeet

It is not often I take photos of birds on the feeders but I made an exception for these.  This is a bird I hoped would one day visit my garden as ring-necked parakeets have been seen and heard regularly only a mile or two away, but until last week I had never seen one here.

The first photos were taken a week ago just after sunrise in poor light through the (not very clean) kitchen window.

Fortunately the bird was back an hour or so later when the light had improved and the window was open.  It was first on the sunflower hearts and then on the peanuts, and occasionally sitting on a branch wondering what to eat next.  This is an adult male, with a prominent neck ring.

The male (or a male) was back again earlier in the week and then word must have spread because yesterday a different bird arrived, this one with only a faint neck ring, so either a female or a juvenile.

And then there were two.

These are wonderfully acrobatic birds and they walk around the mesh of the feeders using their beaks as a third foot.

And now they are here every day.  This one arrived this morning and sat high in the tree calling before coming down to feast on sunflower seeds and peanuts for a good 20 minutes.

Ring-necked parakeets (Psittacula krameri) are native to Africa and Asia and were first recorded as breeding in the UK about 50 years ago.  No-one knows how they got here but theories linking them to Jimi Hendrix or Humphrey Bogart are almost certainly unfounded.  Although they were probably escapees or releases in this country they may even have flown across the Channel from the near continent.  Their numbers have since increased to about 12,000 pairs, ours being the most northerly breeding population of parrots in the world.

Most British birds are found in and around London and the distribution is strikingly linked to human habitation.  These are city birds, perhaps because they find more to eat in parks and gardens.  This map shows records in iRecord since 2000.

Many people seem to disapprove of parakeets but they are here to stay.  I think this is a wonderfully exotic addition to my garden and I hope they stay around.

Bird of the week - Scaup

The blog seems to have been taken over by trail cameras and mammals since the turn of the year so here is something different.  This handsome duck has been resident all winter on a municipal lake only a mile from here.   At first he was a bit difficult to pick out from all the tufted ducks but now he is coming into his finest breeding plumage. This is a male scaup, also known as a greater scaup, Aythya marila.

The scaup is a diving duck and makes a very energetic leap as it starts its dive.

The scaup is in the same genus as tufted duck and pochard.  It has a similar shape to a pochard and similar colouring to a tufted duck.  Here is the scaup with a tufted duck behind.

Thomas Bewick described the scaup in volume II of A History of British Birds (1832).

He wrote

John James Audubon painted a pair of greater scaups for Birds of America.

Archibald Thorburn also painted pictures of scaups, this one showing a female as well.

Other male ducks showing off their colours on the lake were goldeneyes,

tufted ducks,

pochards,

and mallards.

Scaups are uncommon winter visitors to the UK.  They breed in the arctic so this one will be heading north quite soon. Scaups also breed in Northern Canada and from there they migrate to the USA for winter.

Fox News

There are still three yearlings visiting my garden regularly, presumably all female.  They are all easily recognised.  This one has long black socks, good fox-red colour and no obvious scars.

Her sister previously had a notch in her left ear and now also has a big scar on her forehead.

One night she was suddenly on alert.

And moments later she was flattened in a submissive posture as her father, the alpha male, had arrived.  She didn't stick around.

The third yearling is smaller than the others, paler in colour and is very timid.  It collects one peanut at a time from near the back door and runs back for 5-10m to eat it, a very inefficient way of eating.  Two nights ago I saw this fox chased out of the garden by the alpha male who then came over to eat.  If he wanted access to the peanuts all he had to do was walk up so he may have been trying to move the yearling out of the territory.  No wonder it is nervous but it was back again last night.

This is the dog fox, in his second season as the alpha male.  He is quite jumpy and spends most of his time gazing at the light while eating.

He is a handsome chap but is missing a left upper canine.

And this is the alpha female with her crooked smile, half-closed eyes and sticky-out ears, looking a bit like Yoda from Star Wars.  She is in her third year as the dominant vixen and is much more laid-back than her mate.

I last saw her about 10 days ago when she looked as though she was carrying cubs.  I expect by now they have been born, which is why she hasn't been back to the garden.

My 2021 Yearbook

My yearbook of wildlife photographs taken in 2021 has just been published.  As ever there are lots of photos of foxes, sparrowhawks and dragonflies but this year there are also lots of moths.  The print run was just two but you can have look online for free here.

OtterCam in daylight

The trail cameras have been picking up a lot of daytime otter activity recently.  There is no intrinsic reason why otters should be nocturnal.  They have no predators except humans (and their dogs) and they eat mainly fish.  A few thousand years of hunting and persecution probably taught them to seek safety in the dark but for the last 40 years or so they have been protected and it is getting to be more common to catch a glimpse at least in daylight.  My local otters are very used to my cameras, which are well away from people and dogs, so they seem quite relaxed.  This spot at the edge of the water is a favourite scent-marking place and otters call in several times a day.  This was a Wednesday, with three visits.  I think the middle one is the dog but I can't tell if the other two are the same animal or two different ones.

The next day there were four visits, but how many individuals?

And on the Friday just one.

Telling one otter from another isn't easy, particularly on black & white infrared rail camera videos.  The recent recordings in daylight make things a bit easier and convince me that there are three individuals around, the dog and two females.  I suspect one is the female that was courting with the dog recently and the other is last year's cub, now independent.  I can't tell which female is which but the fact that the youngster is still tolerated within the territory may suggest the other one is her mother.

Here are the three.  This is the dog, a bit too close and out of focus, but otherwise fairly easy to identify from his size and build.  He has a pink mark under his chin and a small one on his nose, perhaps acquired during the recent excitement of courtship.

On the video the two cameras recorded simultaneously in early morning but the second one had a bit less light as it wasn't pointing at the water and was still in infrared mode so I have converted the other to black and white as well.  We can see this is the dog from his size and build but the facial markings are more difficult without colour.

This is one female.  She has a pink mark on her upper lip and a pale chin with a diagonal dark mark across it.

This is the other female, the same size and build as the first but with a dark unmarked chin.

I'll keep recording and see how many of these stick around.  I suspect we may see less of the dog as he tries his luck elsewhere after the excitement of the courtship on last week's post.  This is the latest recording of the otter with a pink mark on its lip.  If that heals completely it will make it harder to tell who is who, especially at night.