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UK Wildlife Blog

Posts tagged with "factfile"

RSPB Big garden birdwatch 2009

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In January the RSPB's 2009 garden birdwatch survey took place, with over half a million people taking part which meant the survey, in its 30th year, is the biggest of it kind in the world. The good news is compared to the 2008 survey the numbers of the birds in the top ten, with the unfortunate exception of the starling, have increased (although the chaffinch appears to have dropped slightly, this does not appear to be pointed out as significant by the RSPB, so may just be a slight variation that probably occurs over the years).
The overall standings in the top ten are largely unchanged, with the top 7 as in the 2008 garden birdwatch and the great tit having jumped into 8th above the robin now in 9th. The biggest change is the entry of the long tailed tit into top 10 and replacing the goldfinch out of 10th down to 11th place. The long tailed tit has done well recently partly due to its early nesting season, which has left it less affected by the recent wet summers, but the RSPB have said there adaptation to feeding from bird feeders, milder winters and the greater variety of food provided by the peopel putting out food for birds. Other interesting differences to last year are the numbers of the winter migrants: Redwings and fieldfares occured in 3 times as many gardens and Waxwings leapt up from 72nd upto 59th.

I always like to look at the unusual garden birds reported and the RSPB provided a list of that included a marsh harrier, red kite, little owl, hawfinch, quail, red grouse, little egret, cormorant and a common crane!

In the 30 years the survey has been running there have been some birds the that have done well, the number of collared doves increasing by 414% and wood pigeons by 825%, but the top 3 species have declined greatly, with the number of house sparrows dropping by 63%, starlings by 79% and the blackbird having also decreased significantly since 1979.



Anyway on to the list for 2009, the numbers below the species are the average number per garden

The top 10 species were:

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Raphidioptera – the snakeflies

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Snakeflies are among the oddest looking of British insects. Their abdomen and wings could easily be mistaken for that of a lacewing or possibly an alderfly but their snake like head and ‘neck’ are quite distinctive. This ‘neck’ is actually an elongate prothorax, with which it can raise its head. The only other similar group with the elongate prothorax are the Mantisflies (Mantispidae) which can be distinguished by their praying mantis like modified front legs, but these are not found in the UK.

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British Flies: the true and ‘untrue’ flies

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When is a fly not a fly? Many insects are referred to as ‘flies’ but technically any insect that doesn’t belong to the Order Diptera, is not a true fly. Below is a brief summary of the groups found in Britain that are referred to as flies:

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Dasornis - a Giant fossil bird

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Being that I have a bsc in Palaeobiology + Evolution and an MSc in Micropalaeontology there has been a notable lack of anything relating to these on my blog. And today when I found a story on my 'beloved' London Clay, on which my undergraduate project was on, I thought it was time I rectified this.

The bird in question's fossil skull was found on the Isle of Sheppey, North Kent and was a relative of ducks and geese, which lived in the Eocene. Based on the fact it was found in the London Clay, around 50 million years ago that would make it Early Eocene (Ypresian) in age.

(picture of skull from here Credit: Fred Clouter)

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RSPB Big garden birdwatch 2008

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The results for the ‘RSPB Big garden bird watch’ 2008 came out a while back and I’ve been meaning to put them on here for a while, so I thought I’d put them up to compliment yesterday’s Britains commonest bird post. This survey is the result for a one hour bird watch by almost 400,000 people, over the weekend of 26 and 27 January 2008, which counted more than six million birds across 228,000 gardens. The numbers below the species are the average number per garden

The top 10 species were:

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Britains most common bird

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After the question of what is Britains biggest bird, I thought I'd ask and answer another question: What is Britains commonest bird? The first set of data I have used is that based on numbers of breeding pairs or breeding territories. This is because the actual number of each bird species in the UK rises and falls depending on the time of year due to migrations, breeding and deaths in winter etc, so the number of breeding pairs gives a clearer picture of the true abundance of each species. I also used this data as it is easily accessible on the RSPB website

The top 10 most common British birds are:

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Red eared terrapins or sliders (Trachemys scripta)

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Although they are native to North America, Red eared terrapins have now become a fairly common sight in urban park ponds in the UK, especially in London. This one is in Round Pond, in Kensington Gardens, London

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Canada goose (Branta candensis)

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Canada geese Branta candensis are now the biggest geese species found in Britain, and now probably the most common species found in urban parks. They are native to North America, and there are 9 or 10 subspecies, which show differences in size, patterns of colouration and in range.

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Pumpkinseed fish ( Lepomis gibbosus )

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I thought I would start the series with some thing many people in the UK may not have heard of, unless of course you’re an angler, the Pumpkinseed fish.Some of the American readers may recognise it as it is native to Southern Canada and the USA.

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UK Alien animals – an introduction to Britain’s non native wildlife

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I thought to start off this series I would make a list of the non native species that do or have occurred in the UK. This is in no way exhaustive and I will probably add to it at a later date. But for now here is the list, including some surprising species…

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