I noticed that you go from town to rural in far shorter distance in the north than down here Dpack. Here we tend to get sprawl for miles. We do have a natural barrier with the Downs, but the people tend to be mainly townees even so. The wildlife tends to go where it likes, but we do get too many pigeons because of peoples taste in garden trees and hedging.
it depends where in the north. leeds and manchester are pretty sprawling, york is a compact target of urban, suburban in concentric rings and then rural with villages/small towns for 20 or so miles in any direction
huddersfield is both, from where i grew up one direction nowt but high fields and moor until oldham or rochdale and industrial/urban sprawl along the river towards leeds the other way.
there are plenty of ex industrial urban patches set in rural land with no suburban border and patches of dormitory suburbia as well.
Thanks Dpack. I have only been to York. I don't know the north of England at all as I have always lived down south. I have been to the Lake District a few times; once on holiday and other times on business. Otherwise I haven't been to the north much. We have visited Newcastle a few times, but only York last year other than that.
Managed to get round the wood on Wednesday, even through it was more of a slippery slide rather than a walk over most of it, and the bluebell leaves are starting to come up in the south of the wood. A bit late if anything, but probably kept their heads down as it was so wet.
i have decided to trawl the scholarly papers re sparrows, it will help prevent reinventing the wheel and might help focus this towards new data.
at the mo the ratio of 7M to 4F is understandable as the boys are the nest holders and the girls often breed out of the village afaik.
there are some papers about social stuff, i will have to see what aspects of interest are already covered.
the total number of the local colony has dropped by about 50% over the last week or so but more girls than boys have gone so it seems it is partly social as well as tragedy and murder.
there were roughly twice as many girls as boys and now it is about 7 boys to 4 girls
the boys have become more aggressive to each other and show offs to the ladies so it looks like an early start to the season at the mo.
That seems the most likely reason. Setting up territory and then the ladies decide who they fancy. We once had two blackbirds with territories that met in our garden, and we had to put out two lots of food within a few feet of each other or they argued when one came into the others territory.
with blackbirds it is the female who owns territory and the nest, she then chooses a chap from the suitors.
sparrows, the chaps are the householders
re an early start to the season this am dik has got very vocal and is quite fierce , there is a long tailed tit claiming the maple, mr black visits ms brown but i am not sure if she likes him.
yungi is resident somewhere, the journeys from food source to home larder are quite quick
Nice you have got a wood mouse back again. So Yungi may be the new patriarch then.
Apart from pigeons and the odd rook, haven't seen too much of interest in the garden. We went into town yesterday ( to get away from the mud) and there was a young seagull seeing off other young seagulls. It seemed to be aiming for top place, but didn't see if it was aggressive to adults.
mice paired and harvesting
blackbirds paired
dik angry ( he should be a bit cautious considering the last two were eaten while shouty)
sparrows competitive
a lone long tailed tit held the maple next door for a while but has left again
the parliament of crows is yet to assemble but the jackdaws seem to have started acting as though they expect spring
the flora seems to be getting an early start as well
Ours seems to be a bit variable. The bluebell leaves are a bit late coming up, but I saw some wild arum leaves fully opened and some other unidentified leaves starting to come through the ground in the south of the wood. We have had frost 3 out of the last 4 nights, although it has been warm in the sun, so may put things back. So far, no smell of wild garlic; we usually smell it before we see it as we tread on the emerging leaves. Little sound of birds staking our territory.
boy sparrows eating a lot, squabbling a bit and outnumbering girls 2.5 to 1 at the mo in the feeding group ratio.
it might be that the girls are yet to arrive from somewhere to replace siblings etc but if mine left others should have arrived.
it might be some are sitting already? but i have not seen nest materials bought and building work undertaken so far?
Rather odd. We haven't seen or heard very much evidence of birds even setting up territories yet. The pigeons at home are courting, but they always do regardless of the time of year, and heard the occasional woodpecker drumming in the woods, otherwise very little.
sgt.colon
Joined: 27 Jul 2009 Posts: 7380 Location: Just south of north.
Posted: Fri Jan 24, 20 9:59 am Post subject:
How do you tell the difference between the boy and girls DPack?
boys have a black bibs is the most obvious feature, but other feather patterns and overall shape can give it away if the angles are wrong to see a bib.