Birds on Feeders and the New Year

First let me start by wishing you all, a happy and peaceful new year. I know that I have been rather tardy about posting of late, but as well as being busy, the topics that I could have posted on, I would only have been adding to the noise rather than have been adding anything constructive. In particular I am thinking of the Copenhagen climate fiasco. At the start I drafted a posting, but I just felt it sounded rather pessimistic. And while it would have accurately reflected the events that actually happened, I really don't want this place on the Internet to be a location of Doom and Gloom.

Therefore I decided to follow an old adage; “Unless you can say something Good, it is better to say nothing”

So I hope my loyal reader can understand that I just did not want to depress everyone by saying lots of negative stuff about the environment and especially the climate.

It is Ironic that damaging global warming should be being discussed when severe old weather should hit both the US and Europe. And while in the future I will continue making postings about climate change and the environment here, unless I can say something new, informative or interesting, I really don't see the point in repeating myself. Also, I really want to keep my posts here positive. Further, I want to try and use this particular blog for the wildlife observations.

In this vain I want to recount that a couple of weeks ago, just after the first snows, I was coming back from a supermarket run when I saw a fox travelling in the snow. He, it was a big old dog fox, visible genitalia being the dead give away, was scavenging in a farm yard and it was the white backdrop that enabled such a clear sighting. Of the people sitting around me, no one else saw him. It shows just how unobservant some folks are.

One of other observations that the snow has enabled regards the birds on my feeders.

While most people realise and understand that some birds migrate, it is only a recent discovery that even resident populations of birds move their territories with the seasons too. Therefore your winter robin is unlikely to be the same robin that was around and breeding in the spring and Summer. While it is not a hard and fast rule, it does appear to be a general truth. This is why often in the Autumn birds will stop visiting the feeders we put out.

It used to be thought that it was that the birds went into an Autumn moult and that was why the feeders would grow quiet. That combined with the natural abundance of natures harvest, the birds had less reason to visit feeders. However, over the years I questioned this preconceived wisdom as I would sometimes see birds that were in moult on the feeders or about. Also it did not explain why the juveniles who would not need to moult also would cease visiting feeders as well.

Then by using miniature satellite tags, the ranges of birds could be definitively discovered. It surprised Ornithologists and naturalists that most birds would move to a winter territory. While this may even be just ten miles from their summer breeding territory, the discovery started answering many of the questions that the previous theory had not explained.

As the main reason that some people see an absence on there feeders is that they have moved away. It then can take a little while for the incomers to discover or rediscover that food is regularly there. Often as there is an abundance of natural foods in my local area with berries and seeds in the woods and hedgerows it is normally the snows that enable the birds to discover my feeders.

While there will be differences in each location, and some people will never notice an absence of birds on their feeders, the new discoveries from the application of new technology is answering questions that have remained a puzzle for decades.

Anyway one of the plans that I have been making while I was not posting was to start making expanded observational posts about the wildlife I see in my area. While there will be fewer posts here as a result, I hope they will keep my poor suffering reader entertained and informed.

Further, I have been putting other plans in motion and will be writing more on food and farming issues. While I have often spoken of these ideas, and the issues, it has taken time and effort to enable me to get in to a position where I can do some of what I want and still ensure that I have bread on the table.

So I hope dear reader that you like the changes that I will be making, and that the folks that thought I had deserted blogging, well the rumours of my demise are greatly exaggerated. Have good year, I know that I will and pop by and share the fun too.