The Bold and the Brave

I made a return visit to Afan Argoed today holding high hopes of catching up with a Marsh Tit. I didn't catch up with Marsh but Great Tit numbers were noticeably high with Blue Tits and Coal Tits also in good numbers. The activity, unsurprisingly, was concentrated around the feeders next to the centre.

For more images from the day please follow the link below     http://wildlifeinwales.blogspot.com/

'South-eastern' Lesser Whitethroat in Skewen

Julie & Wayne have been doing a good job keeing their birds well fed throughout the cold weather. The Lesser Whitethroat has been visiting their garden almost daily along with a host of other interesting garden birds; when I was there today Goldcrest, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard all dropped in.

The sandy brown upperparts looked strikingly pale in the bright sunshine today...

The extensively white outer-tail feathers are also characteristc of the south-eastern races, this pattern perhaps favouring ssp. halimodendri according to Shirihai et al's 'Sylvia Warblers'...

 In shade the bird still looked very pale and the fine bill is shown well in this shot...

Lapland Buntings at Paviland

I spent a couple of hours this morning with Chris Brewer trying to track down the Lapland Buntings, eventually locating a flock of 36. No Skylarks with them so for once we were able to make an accurate count, though it's possible there are other birds elsewhere as there are so many suitable fields in this area. The lack of flighty Skylarks also meant we were finally able to get some record shots of the flock. How many can you see? These really are mouse-like in habit and are very easy to overlook unless they take flight. I can spot eight in this shot.

For more photo's of these cracking birds check out http://moonmoths.blogspot.com/ 

RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch

This weekend the RSPB are running their annual Big Garden Birdwatch. I've taken part the last few years and found it really enjoyable. The data collected over the years has proved very useful in analysing bird trends in gardens. Once the RSPB have gathered all the records and made sense of them, they send you an email which allows you to look at the analysis from this and previous years; so it's worth hanging on to your records to compare them with the areas top ten most frequently recorded species.

Follow the link below to register to take part for the first time or indeed input your records for already registered participants. It's free and good fun and contributes to building a bigger picture.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/?gclid=CNjK6cCY26YCFQ1O4Qodg1Kl1A

Carduelis Collection

A few more snapshots from the garden today. A bit closer to the subject matter makes a big difference. Light was a little better too.

"Budgie"(below) our long time returning distinctive Siskin popped in again today. This is his 3rd winter in the garden and has also shown a taste for Niger seed. If you recognise Budgie from his photo and he visits your garden I would love to hear about it.

Lesser Redpoll in the Garden

A male Lesser Redpoll (top left above and left in both photos below) was in the garden today feeding on Nyger seeds with Siskins and Goldfinches(not shown). I'm surprized that we don't get them more often considering the numbers of Siskins and Goldfinches that pass through the garden.

This winter is the second winter out of the last 4 or 5 that I have been making Nyger seed availble for the birds. The first time it was a complete failure and they would ignore it even when no other food was on offer! This time round the round it is very popular and has the added advantage off not turning mouldy as readily as peanuts or sunflower.

Neonicotinoid Pesticides: the modern-day DDT!

Rosemary Mason and Palle Uhd Jepsen wrote:

On Tuesday 25th January our MP for Gower Martin Caton will talk for 15 min to his Early Day Motion in Parliament about the Impact of Neonicotinoid Pesticides on Bees and Other Invertebrates. As of yesterday only 25 MPs had signed up to it. I think that now we need to inform all MPs. The new work in fact is not directly about bees, but about major environmental contamination with these chemicals, which persist in the ground and water. Dr Henk Tennekes in his book The systemic insecticides; a disaster in the making revealed official Dutch Waterboard figures to show that year by year (2004-2008) imidacloprid levels were building up in surface water in the intensively-farmed areas of the Netherlands. A Master's thesis from Utrecht by Teresa Van Dijk showed that as the imidacloprid levels increased between 2003-2008, so the flying insect density decreased.

Bayer CropScience, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the UK Chemical Regulation Directorate and Defra all say that these chemicals are "safe if properly used". Yet in the 20 years that these chemicals have been used, not one of these organisations has measured their levels in the soil, surface water or ground water. In fact the US EPA in 2010 actually suppressed their ecologists' report which suggested that ground water levels should be done. (See beekeeper Tom Theobald's account of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Mrm9Y6khk).

The neonicotinoids belong to a group of powerful neurotoxins, which Dr Tennekes has recently had confirmed by an expert colleague in Heidelberg on clothianidin and imidacloprid, cause a virtually irreversible block of certain pathways in the nervous system. Because they are hardly broken down in soil, as they continue to be used, they are building up in the ground water and will enter our food chain. Presumably initially it will affect the most vulnerable individual, our unborn foetuses etc, then us (if it hasn't done so already)

Michael McCarthy, in the Independent, has been a lone voice and we attach one of his articles from 20/01/11. Where were all the other newspapers, the BBC, ITV etc? The problem is that they think that the Agrochemical Industry (like the Banks) is too big to fail.

If our Protection Agencies and the Government cannot protect us, or tell us the truth, what can you/we as individuals do about this?

1. Email your MP immediately this weekend. If you don't know who he is, go onto www.parliament.uk . Go to the MPs section, put in your postcode, which will tell you who your MP is. Then go back to the alphabetical list of members, click on your MP's name and you will find his email address. Don't even mention bees, it might confuse him. Tell him that new work has shown that the neonicotinoids are massively polluting the environment and suggest that he/she go on Tuesday to support this EDM. We suspect he has not been informed about this.

2. Send this email round to all your friends and relations and ask them to do the same.Your children and the lives of your childrens' children depend on what you do about it this weekend.

The CRD is meant to be protecting People and the Environment. Instead they are (indirectly or unwittingly) protecting the interests of the Agrochemical Industry.

3. Stop buying the Provado range of products in your gardening shop. Three contain imidacloprid, and one thiacloprid. If you are a golfer, ask if these product are used on you golf course.They are destroying beneficial things that aerate the soil, break down leaves etc, and when there is rain, the chemicals are washed into groundwater.

This motion offers the only chance to stop these lethal toxins further polluting the environment. You have People Power. At the Oxford Farming Conference 2 weeks ago, Dacian Cialos the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, said "It is for the people to decide". In fact he was actually talking about GM crops. At the moment the Agrochemical Industry is ruling the world, but as you can see it doesn't care a toss for the environment or for biodiversity, only for its own profits.

Rosemary & Palle
http://www.scribd.com/doc/47456262