Nature Winners & Losers 2013

Mothman

With the very cold March laasting till mid April and some cool weather since, there was quite an impact on nature, but some things are fairing very well, at least on my patch.

So what have you noticed to be doing badly or well this year?

Winners
Bumble Bees, masses of them :eek:
Ladybirds, 7 spot to be exact, loads during past week.
Butterflies, except Small Tortoiseshell. Loads of whites and now loads of Meadow Browns and Ringlets.
Midges:mad:

Losers
Moths, although the last month has seen a big improvement, numbers recorded during Spring were down about 80%
St Marks Fly, I think I saw one :eek:

I'm sure I'll think of plenty others...

OpenYourEyes

No swallows in my family home for the first time in years! The really cold spell was when a lot of them would have been nearly here, so I'm sure plenty perished before they got here!

Luckily they can have two broods when they're here (weather permitting), so their populations can handle a bad year like this one every now and again

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

This may conflict with other observations but based on 30 years or more of my records.

Good year - Swallows, Dragonflies , Bumble Bees, House Sparrow, Robin, Buzzard, Grey Heron, Haws, Elder, BlueTit, Coal Tit, Grasshopper Warbler, Buttercup

Bad year - almost all Butterflies, Bees, Sedge Warbler, Cuckoo, slugs and snails, Mackerel.

We had the usual clouds of St Mark's flies but they were about 3 weeks late.

Everything else more or less normal.

It was a slow start but most things have now caught up.

fleabag

Well here in Co. Limerick so far, I'd say

Good year: Jackdaws, rooks, maggies, robins, bullfinches, ladybirds (seen 5 so far - saw none last year) and loads of black fly and green fly, ragged robin, cow parsley, hogweed and meadow buttercups on the rampage as far as the eye can see - lovely!

Bad Year: Slugs, goldfinches, blue tits, slight drop in swallows, horseflies and butterflies, especially red admirals - not seen one yet.

The farmer that has the fields around this year is the tidy sort and has sprayed all the field boundaries with Roundup to keep his fences clear and regularly cuts the grass short in fields with cattle in to keep the 'weeds' at bay. Luckily the farmers around aren't quite so zealous and our garden is 5 foot high

Mothman

Wasps!!

Saw no wasps last year. This year 4 nests within 2m of the house!

This doesn't really make it a good year as this is normal, just that last year was really bad for them.

Plenty of white butterflies targeting the brassicas.

Birdnuts

Spotted Flycatchers - they seem to be everywhere this year and in numbers. Came across 5 fledglings just yesterday in some forestry near Kilbride. Late summer migrants who missed the bad spring like Flycatchers, Swifts etc. seem to have taken full advantage of the cracking summer

whyulittle

Bad year for Long-eared Owls apparently.

62 Long-eared Owl sites, but only 5 chicks

As surveying for Long-eared Owls winds down for this season, the results are stark. There has been a widespread breeding failure this year with only two chicks fledging from a single nest, from 14 known nest sites.

More details at Irish Raptor Blog.

dodderangler

From what I've seen this year as in the numbers of wildlife around and noticed it mostly from hunting in areas where the wildlife numbers have been down and up over the years.
These are just what I've noticed on some lands I walk and hunt and numbers increasing and decreasing.

Winners: buzzards, foxes , sika, badgers, hares, jackdaws and unfortunately them biting horseflies >:-(

Losers: rabbits, rooks, squirrels, pheasant, pigeons and very few kestrels around now. Used to see plenty now not as many and I wonder has the buzzard and sparrowhawk population going up had an impact on kestrels.

I do take notice of the animals I see and various spots they do be.

OpenYourEyes

dodderangler wrote: »

. Used to see plenty now not as many and I wonder has the buzzard and sparrowhawk population going up had an impact on kestrels.

They fill very different niches - they don't really eat the same things, don't eat each other, and don't nest in the same places, so I can't see Buzzard and Sparrowhawk increases negatively impacting Kestrels. Possibly a change in small rodent numbers in the area has negatively impacted the Kestrels? Hopefully its nothing to do with secondary posioning!

In Europe it does happen that some of the larger raptor species locally impact the numbers of smaller raptor species (all part of nature's balance)but its usually because of similar diets, or the larger raptor preying on the smaller one.

dodderangler

Territory comes to mind. Such as buzzards taking out peregrines. Buzzards will attack any other bird of prey about. I've seen chase after spars.

OpenYourEyes

dodderangler wrote: »

Territory comes to mind. Such as buzzards taking out peregrines. Buzzards will attack any other bird of prey about. I've seen chase after spars.

While they might chase off other raptors from the immediate vicinity of their nest, I don't think they'd stop them nesting nearby tbh. I know of a place where Buzzards, Kestrels, Barn Owls and Sparrowhawks have all nested within a few hundred metres of each other.

I've seen Buzzards interacting with Peregrines, Sparrowhawks and kestrels but its all just been a bit of aggression and some chasing in the air resulting from a crossing of paths rather than purposefully killing the other.

Actually regarding what I said earlier about the possibility of secondary posioning - it should affect buzzards too so that mustn't be the cause!

Sometimes it can be something like the loss of a female from a pair that ends up preventing the local male Kestrel from breeding that year - with a loss of activity that year then. Thats (anecdotally) the case near me with barn owls unfortunately.

Birdnuts

dodderangler wrote: »

Territory comes to mind. Such as buzzards taking out peregrines. Buzzards will attack any other bird of prey about. I've seen chase after spars.

On the continent Eagle Owls take out buzzards. I suppose its the order of things like the way Lions take out Hyenas and smaller cats in Africa. In the US wolves take out Coyotes and Foxes. I guess it keeps everything in balance since Coyote numbers went out of Control when wolves were wiped out in most of the lower 48.

On the subject of Kestrels in your neck of the woods, I regularly see 2-3 birds in the Browns Barn/Citywest area. In fact that areas seems to be BOP hotspot as I've also seen the odd Peregrine and Buzzard knockin about there too.

bogman_bass

Frogs! Havn't seen any in years here and then saw 5 in a week

Birdnuts

House Martins. The most I've seen in a good 20 years. Many seem to be rearing 2nd or 3rd broods in these parts.