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THE GREEN PARROT IN TRISH'S GARDEN!

By Pete Perry

I recently got this email, with photos attached, from my Cousin Patricia Lewis, who lives in Ascot...

How do you like our visitors Pete!!! This seed feeder hangs just outside our lounge window and I just happened to be sat in the window with my camera!

How lucky was I?

Love CUZ Trish x x

and here's a couple of those photos...

Well, it's not often you get a parrot in your garden is it?

OR IS IT?

If you've had any strange birds or animals in your garden, send photos of them to us at

pete@widgeripoo.net

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Well, I'm sorry, but I have nothing against The Duke of Edinburgh as a person, - but I do find the present situation, - and his whole life, a total hypocricy...

Of course I wish him well, as he is a fellow human being, - but don't you think that it is somewhat ironic that surgeons spent several hours saving his life by putting a stent in his artery, - so that he could go out on boxing day and kill wildlife?

The Duke is ninety years old, and good on him for reaching such a ripe old age, - but he has never really done a hard day's work has he?

If a ninety-year-old gardener had been taken into hospital with a suspected heart attack, - the surgeons would probably have decided that he was 'too old and frail' to undergo heart surgery.

BUT OF COURSE - THAT WOULD BE THE NHS SAVING MONEY!!

APART FROM THAT, WHAT I FIND SO HYPOCRITICAL IS THAT THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH IS A PATRON OF THE WORLD WILDLIFE TRUST, - AND YET HE FINDS IT 'FUN' TO SHOOT GROUSE AND PHEASANTS.

I DESPAIR!

PETE PERRY

Where do birds go for Christmas?

An extravagant gift by anyone's standards, especially when you take into account the gold rings and all the rest of it. And difficult to obtain, too, because at Christmas time, turtle doves are a long way south of the UK, somewhere south of the Sahara.

Where exactly they go is not known at the moment, but finding out is increasingly important. We need to find out what's happening and where. Numbers of turtle doves have been falling since the 1970s - it's now estimated there are only seven turtle doves for every 100 there were in 1970. It's a shocking decline, but ateam of RSPB researchers is working on ways to help turtle doves in the UK.

Where does the robin go bobbin'?

With all its appearances on cards at this time of year, the robin must be our commonest bird at the moment. Most robins that breed in the UK will stay put the whole year round, but occasionally some may head on to France, Spain or Portugal, which is where mainland Europe's robins spend winter.

The ospreys that breed at our nature reserve at Loch Garten in Scotland have been popular for decades. But thanks to smaller, lighter satellite tracking technology, we've been able to reveal where the young birds go once they've flown the nest. This autumn, we've followed Tore and Bynack on two different routes through France, Spain and north Africa, to spend their first Christmasses in Senegal (Tore) and Mauritania (Bynack).

Winter sun for birds

For a long time, people believed that swallows spent the winter in mud at the bottom of ponds. But in 1912, a swallow with a British ring was reported from Natal in South Africa. Ringing has shown that most of the swallows that breed in the UK head that way, but in contrast, we know very little about where house martinsgo. They sleep while flying and even have feathered legs and feet to keep them warm while they circulate at altitude!

Cuckoos arrive in the UK in from mid-April, and leave again in summer. But until very recently, we weren't sure where they went for winter. However, our friends at the British Trust for Ornithology have been satellite-tracking some cuckoos using tags that weigh the same as five paperclips, and all five tagged cuckoos have now arrived in the rainforests of Congo, central Africa.

LOOK AFTER THE BIRDS THAT ARE STILL HERE THIS WINTER

KATE FULLER

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DAVE TELLS OF HOOPOOE SIGHTING IN BISHOPS STORTFORD

Further to Pete & Nikki's recent twitching adventures in Oxfordshire whilst filming 'Midsomer Murders', our old friend Dave Strutt tells us of an encounter with a real Hoopoe a few years back...

'This Hoopoe was seen on May 17^th. 2007', he tells us,'The location is the field adjacent to Bishops Stortford swimming pool.

It had been there for at least a week prior to that.'

Dave took the picture on the left. his one of course, didn't have a blue crest! That was added to the photo by technicians on the Bentley Productions team, who make 'Midsomer Murders'!

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NIKKI& PETE THE TWITCHERS REALLY DO SEE RARE BIRDS IN MIDSOMER

As you maye have read on 'The Continuing Adventures of Nikki & Pete', our intrepid pair played 'Twitchers', or bird watchers, in a forthcoming episode of Midsomer Murders, called 'Rare Bird'. The bird they are after is called a Blue-crested Hoopoe, which only exists in the minds of the writers.

There really is a Hoopoe, - a rare visitor from Africa, - but the blue-crested version is pure make-believe!

However, the are in which the series is filmed, Chinnor in Oxfordshire, is home to the re-introduced RED KITE, and Nikki and Pete saw several whilst they were filming.

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TRISH AND THE SWIFT CHICKS

Our regular contributor to 'Deb's Photo Challenge' Trish Lewis,sent us these charming pictures..

Trish told us: 'These are not fun pictures but I fell in love with these baby swifts nesting on my balcony in Spain, they became really tame and actually talked to me (well tweeted anyway!)

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NIKKI & PETE VISIT THE OXLIP WOODS OF EAST ANGLIA

Nikki and Pete took a trip out to Potton, Gamblingay and Grandsen in the Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire/ Cambridgeshire borders,to see how the last five remaining Oxlip woods are doing.

Unfortunately, with spring arriving early this year, the oxlips were finished, - but our intrepid couple were treated to a wonderful display of bluebells.

As a bonus, Pete also noticed a lone White form, as well as clumps of Yellow Archangel, and the leaves of primroses and oxlips, though the flowers were well past their best.

Pete has had a long association with these woods.

Way back in 1960, he had discovered that the oxlip, Primula elatior, was fast disappearing from the UK, with it's last remaining stronghold being restricted
to only half-a-dozen ancient woodlands in east anglia.

Pete discovered that these woodlands were situated in a small area on the borders of Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolkand Bedfordshire, being at Potton, Gamblingay, Grandsen, Waresley and Bardfield.

Whilst working as Garden Steward at Offley Place in 1965-67, Pete made it his business to check on these plants in their native habitat, and to write features on this rare British species in the gardening and countryside press,
includingGardeners Chronicle, Garden News and Hertfordshire Countryside.On one visit, he was horrified to discover a farmer destroying one oxlip coppice in the middle of his field. He literally, snatched a few of these precious plants from the oncoming bulldozer and raised them at Offley.

Since then, and maybe thanks toPete highlighting the plight of this little treasure, - five of these woods are now recognised as ssi's, and are protected.

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GREAT BIRD PICTURES FROM DAVE STRUTT

Left: Waxwings congregate in a tree Right: A Long-Tailed Tit at the bird feeder

WAXING LYRICAL OVER THE WAXWING

DAVE STRUTT tells us that the rarely-seen WAXWING (pictured left) can be seen locally at this time of year.

Dave and his wife Pam are desperately trying to seethis bird which has got all the twitchers out and about at present. Its an annual event here in the U.K. as thousands of Waxwings make for eastern Europe and leave their homes in western Europe due to arctic conditions. Pam &Dave have seen a flock already at W.G.C. in the town centre. They also frequent Hatfield (nr. Homebase). Its extraordinary that they fly all those miles every year to visit the same few trees in such urban locations.Their nearest point of contact is in Great Ashby area of Stevenage.They hope to visit again on a brighter day and if possible. take a reasonable shot through the telescope (if needed!). Howeverwe thought anyone interested through our web pages may like to try to see them. For some reason they like Rowan berries and other similar shrub red berries They are (unlike some birds), unconcerned about human and civil or traffic noise This may help any first-time watchers how to look out for them. Ive enclosed a magazine pic. of this splendid bird.

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