Wildlife things you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask

[Boddie]

Beautiful

I was going to say 'expensive hobby', your food bill must be incredible...

[nightshade]

Kayleigh,frogs and most amphibians return to home ponds to mate then disperse again looking for new sites and feeding grounds
I have upwards of 100 frogs and toads here at peak times, the pond is jam packed,they try to mate with anything and everything I have prised them off my fish before now, they grip them around the gills holding them shut and the fish suffocates
Look around the area newts frogs toads (of the home team) tend to hibernate
in the vicinity of the pond

[nightshade]

WW,The spider castes the first very fine line to the wind then takes a stronger line across,then returns with a slack loop under the main lineand bisects this to form a Y the rest easy !

[nightshade]

Boddie, most snakes seem to find the equivalant of a compost heat and lie up there, some live in areas where they can get underground in natural fissures old Rabbit holes etc anywhere the temperature is stable and free from disturbance

[Pat]

One from me. How do you tell a male robin from a female ?

[nightshade]

How to tell male and female Robins apart lift up the tail,otherwise there is no way!

[pheonix]

as it was minus 6 degrees last nite and nearly all water i saw today was frozen...

where do water birds go when its sub zero?
there were hardly any birds at sites where they'd usually be loads

[Boddie]

We should cahage the name of the thread to ASK NIGHTSHADE.

You should go on Mastermind mate

[nightshade]

I will leave em to you mate

[Boddie]

No chance. I did not know the answer to any of those questions, but do now. Fantastic knowledge

[Tinkerbell]

In reply to Pheonix and the plight of water birds during extreme cold, I can't speak for all of them but apparently in 1963 when there was a particularly lingering period of hard frost, which froze quite a lot of fresh water around Great Britain, much of the Kingfisher population perished and took some years to recover. I guess old habits die hard and they were not generally inclined to look elsewhere for food or shelter.

[nightshade]

A lot of birds stay near the water,as it is to them a place of safety,even frozen it is a clear line of sight against predators
Geese, swans, ducks, move to meadows and woods to roost and glean being veggie for the most part,or just move to find open water.We know of instances where ornamental birds like flamingos lost limbs when the shallow
lakes and pools they were kept on froze them into the ice

[henrya]

Quote
Why is it thought that frogs only return to the pond where they were spawned to breed.
I know Toads return to same pond to breed but do newts return to same pond to breed.

I have a new pond (1 year old) what can I expect to breed in my pond in the near future
Endquote

Why do frogs and toads return to the same pond to breed? Well, it's probably because that means they are guaranteed (rain permitting) a good breeding site - but there are always a few that will end up in a new pond, so you might get frogs, toads or newts in your pond this year.

henrya

[wildone]

Geese ( mainly Greylag) with 'Angel Wing'. What causes angel wing and when the birds moult do they grow 'proper' wing feathers or do they have the same trouble with the new feathers?

[Paul mabbott]

If there are two together, the smaller one is most likely to be the male.

[Paul mabbott]

Yes, it's aphid urine in effect. Aphids live by sucking sap from plants: sap is rich in sugar but low on protein so aphids use the protein for growth and reproduction but excrete most of the sugar - thus honeydew. Ants, on the other hand, tend to live on high-protein foods and get short of sugar so they 'milk' the aphids. It's a symbiotic relationship: ants get sugar, aphids get protection from predators such as ladybirds. (Mostly - if the ants need a more solid snack they will eat aphids, but not all of them).
Someone once asked why humans don't collect honeydew as a sugar source: after all, if we like bee spit then what's wrong with aphids urine?

[henrya]

Quote
Geese ( mainly Greylag) with 'Angel Wing'. What causes angel wing and when the birds moult do they grow 'proper' wing feathers or do they have the same trouble with the new feathers?
Endquote

According to the web it's a permanent bone deformity, caused by poor feeding at the gosling stage (too much bread and grain, not enough green food).

henrya

[henrya]

Quote
My question I'm afraid to ask is: why aren't plants that are unpalatable to herbivores more widespread and common?
Endquote

Robf, which plants were you thinking of? I can think of some unpalatable ones that are definitely widespread and common (Stinging Nettle, Ground Ivy)

henrya

[wildone]

Yes you can also tell the separate sexes by their behaviour. See David Lack, "The life of the Robin". I had a pair that nested in the garden for a couple of years until the male was killed by, I think, a cat. I could tell which was which after the first breeding season. He was much more bold and would take food, particularly meal-worms from the hand. She was always much more nervous and although would come down and feed nearby, was never able to pick up the courage to land on my hand. Another thing I noticed that when they were feeding young, he would take meal-worms whenever they were available whereas she would give the offspring a much greater diversity of food, taking meal-worms perhaps only once in three or four visits to the young.

[henrya]

Quote
Someone once asked why humans don't collect honeydew as a sugar source: after all, if we like bee spit then what's wrong with aphids urine?
Endquote

Maybe if we didn't have bees, we would. A lot more hard work to collect than honey, though!

henry

[Imaginos]

Originally Posted by henrya

Quote
My question I'm afraid to ask is: why aren't plants that are unpalatable to herbivores more widespread and common?
Endquote

Robf, which plants were you thinking of? I can think of some unpalatable ones that are definitely widespread and common (Stinging Nettle, Ground Ivy)

henrya

Most plants are palatable to something, even if larger herbivores don't eat it then there's probably a whole suite of invertebrates that do. A good indicator of this is how well introduced species of plant do in this country where there are no natural enemies. Bio-control of invasive species is a developing science but it is clear that introducing only a small number of herbivorous insect species can drastically affect the population of invading plants.

Other factors are between-plant competition and succession. These are both important influences on the ecology of areas & would affect how widespread & common plants are, nettle & ground ivy are good examples here, both are very competitive plants in ruderal (or wasteland) habitats but as succession continues & different species of plant become more competitive due to changes in soil, shade etc. then they are ousted.

One example of a plant unpalatable to herbivores, most insects & is supremely competitive is bracken and its easy to see how widespread & common that is

[Paul mabbott]

Yes, plant abundance depends on two things: avoiding competition from other plants and avoiding be eaten by animals. So plants have different strategies: growing rapidly, growing large, being toxic, or any combination .... The strategies aren't to avoid being eaten &c but to avoid being eaten or outgrown before reproducing. For instance, as long as a poppy has made seed then it doesn't matter if it is eaten, overshadowed or chopped down.
Over much of the planet the most abundant plant family is the grasses: their defence isn't from noxious chemicals but by having tiny crystals of silica. It doesn't stop them being eaten but it slows down the rate at which they are consumed.

Originally Posted by Imaginos

Other factors are between-plant competition and succession. These are both important influences on the ecology of areas & would affect how widespread & common plants are, nettle & ground ivy are good examples here, both are very competitive plants in ruderal (or wasteland) habitats but as succession continues & different species of plant become more competitive due to changes in soil, shade etc. then they are ousted.

One example of a plant unpalatable to herbivores, most insects & is supremely competitive is bracken and its easy to see how widespread & common that is

[nightshade]

Try not to get too involved or you may frighten away the people the thread is
aimeded at,thanks

[Kayleigh]

What wildlife will I attracted if I plant a Hawthorn and what birds eat the haws of the hawthorn.

What will I attract if I plant Blackthorn (sloe) Does anything eat the sloe fruit.

[wildone]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

.
What will I attract if I plant Blackthorn (sloe) Does anything eat the sloe fruit.

Don't know about eat but they are used by humans to make Sloe Gin.

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

What wildlife will I attracted if I plant a Hawthorn and what birds eat the haws of the hawthorn.

Blackbirds, Thrushes, Fieldfares, Redwings and Waxwings to name but a few.