Climate change and wildlife.

The hollies locally are already laden with ripe berries, way before time. Although the greedy wood pigeons usually have their fill, these food larders are eagerly visited by visiting Redwings and Fieldfares. I wonder if the visitors natural know how, will automaticaly adapt.

Also over recent years. Our cheeky sparrows have disappeared, also the swallows and martins. I can't remember the last time I saw a song or mistle thrush.

 

You can have some of our sparrows (house) Mike as we have masses of them.Because I feed them all year round they have made the most of it and with the hot summer have bred like mad.Hubby took a photo of them feeding on and around my bird table in the back garden the other day and he reckons there were over sixty of them . Costing us a fortune in seed though.

Our allotment Hollies have berries that are just turning red but I can’t remember when they normally turn that colour in the wild.

We have now lost the Swallows from our village although the House Martins are doing well.Had a Song Thrush in the garden earlier in the year but our blackbird saw it off so it has given up trying to feed.

Likely say there certainly isn’t the amount of birds around like there were when we were kids.I lived in a terraced house in a town and every roof in the street had sparrows nesting in them but I think now they have even disappeared

Will be interesting to see if we get the Fieldfares/Redwings later this year like they seemed to be last year as we usually see the first ones in September

 

I saw an article a while ago linking sparrow decline to the increase in diesel vehicles in London, maybe coincidence.
I haven't seen swallows, house martins or bats around my house for a long time. I know a meadow or two a few miles away where they still swoop over the meadows.
What I do notice is the fall in insect numbers even since the 80's possibly due to climate change, but also related to changes in agricultural practice. Not necessarily pesticides, but more the rise of monocultures, the switch to autumn sowing and the loss of species rich meadows. One example of this is the use of drugs to protect animals from internal parasites, these are excreted and continue to work in the droppings affecting dung beetles and flies that would normally feed on these and remove them. Net result cow pats last longer and fewer insects.

 

Also, cow poo don't smell like cow poo
I don't think it's clmate change, more of man changing things
swallows few,only 4 when we used to have thousands here
Honey bee's, what honey bee's not seen one this year, but lots of Bubble bee's
The last 4 years not many fies but this year hundreds

 

When we go away on holiday we always take a notebook each and record the bird and animal life that we see when we are out and about.I do mine as a holiday tick list but Mr Kandy does his for every place we visit whilst on holiday so we make a mental note of the birds we have seen then update it of an evening.We have been doing this ever since we have been together and we can look back at the holidays we have been on years ago and compare the lists of what birds new or old that we no longer see or ones that have now made their home in a particular place...eg We used to only see Buzzards when going up to Scotlandfor our holidays in the early part of our marriage so new that we would only see them once we crossed the border,now we can see Buzzards all over the place as they have now spread out far and wide.Same with Red Kites,we had to go all the way to Wales to see them but since reintroductions at various sites I can now stand at my kitchen sink and see them flying past

We can now go to places where we never see Starlings,or even Collared Doves whereas round here there are plenty of them and in the spring and summer months we stop and listen to the Skylarks singing their hearts out as they go higher and higher into the sky

Loss of habitat is definetley having an effect on bird and wildlife plus as others have said farming practises have a lot to answer for.

Also a lot of migrant birds are either being trapped or shot at in European Countries as they enjoy either eating them or killing them for sport.So the birds make their long journeys south to spend the winter where there are insects a plenty and it is warmer and then have to do it all over again on the way back to this country so have to endure the guns and sticky traps all over again

We also noticed this year on our allotment plots that there hasn’t been the quantity of bees and butterflies feeding on my butterfly bushes unlike other years when the bushes were covered in them.Things are certainly going down hill and I don’t know what the answer is

 

Climate change is no doubt a problem but only two weeks ago i went to a spot where I used to go when I was in my early teens, so you can be talking 47 years ago, just short grass, no grazing or anything just short grass, I remember sitting watching skylarks miles and miles up in the sky singing, I'd move away and watch them drop down, never ever did find a nest, back to two weeks ago, gobsmacked, it was like a forest, 90% silver birch, why, haven't got a clue, local disused railway line again full of silver birch, not man made, its like lovely trees like silver birch and even buddleia are to aggressive and have become a form of weed.