Ed Forum birdwatching 2008

Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola, Ruff Philomachus pugnax Fife, Scotland 28/08/08

Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus, Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus Fife, Scotland 30/08/08
 
Tawny Owl Strix aluco Angus, Scotland 01/09/08

It was the first dry evening here for what seems like weeks, so the local pair were out hunting in earnest.
 
sphenisc said:
House Martins Delichon urbicum and Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica beginning to congregate pre-migration: Angus, Scotland 29/08/08
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More interesting, for twitchers, is that there was apparently an Oriental House Martin Delichon dasypus in southern Sweden a week or two ago! Apparently, if accepted, this is the fourth record from Western Palearctis (all the other ones have been in United Arab Emirates or so, so they don't always count). Keep a look out for House Martins with shorter arms and tails, as I understand it.

sphenisc said:
Can you unpack that a bit for those of us who aren't biologists?
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Certainly:
My supervisor found an article recently where they published over 200 primers for the sequencing of bird nuclear DNA. The primers are needed to start up the amplification process in the PCR, and are specific for every gene or region, and often for every group of animals, depending on how quickly that specific region evolves. So my supervisor looked through the data in that article and selected 56 primer pairs (you need one that goes from one direction and one that goes from the opposite direction along the DNA).

I am currently running PCRs on seven species of birds and one species of louse to see how useful these primers are. Ideally, they will give resolution at the genus level, so my supervisor can use them for his studies (all kinds of passerines, but mainly the old Sylviidae, Turdidae, Muscicapidae, Laniidae, and Emberizidae). So far, it seems these primers are similar enough to the sequences in the shrikes and prinias I'm testing to work all the time (though I haven't got the actual sequences yet), but they work less well with waders, and not at all with lice.

I'll be back tonight to make a report of my Norwegian sightings, but I don't think there's anything new in there. I think I have a total of 30 species or so, the most exotic being Nutcracker, Red Crossbill, and Crested Tit. Haven't looked at the present list for Norway yet, though.
 
A Great Egret Ardea alba, collecting dinner.. a -goldfish-!
 

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Finally got there:
It's a bit of a quick and dirty update with no innovations and not extras as requested in the thread. I will eventually get around to it (promises, promses).
Order Count :19
Family Count :91
Species Count :535
Species Count including subspecies: 538
(Domestic/Rock Dove
Carrion/Hooded Crow, Hawaian/Short-eared Owl)

Total Individual Sightings : 1667
 
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Wow! Thanks! And I have a country all to myself!

Too early for corrections, but to put on the list for the eventual next update, the Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis).


Yeah, I was looking for my own...
 
I will add things this afternoon, including these birds I saw in Norway this weekend:

29/8 Trondheim:
Nutcracker Nucifraga caryocatactes
Greater Black-backed Gull Larus marinus
Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus
Herring Gull Larus argentatus
White Wagtail Motacilla alba
Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus
Jackdaw Corvus monedula
Domestic Pigeon Columba livia domestica
Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus
Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilus
Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis
Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe
Magpie Pica pica
Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo
Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus

30/8 Trondheim:
Swift Apus apus
Hooded Crow Corvus corone cornix
Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica
Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus

31/8 Trondheim:
Mew Gull Larus canus
Mallard Anas platyrhynchos
Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus
Starling Sturnus vulgaris
Goldcrest Regulus regulus
Crested Tit Baeolophus cristatus
Great Tit Parus major
Coal Tit Periparus ater
Red Crossbill Loxia pytyopsittacus

1/9 Trondheim:
Grey Heron Ardea cinerea

1/9 Hamar:
Red-throated Diver Gavia stellata
Canadian Goose Branta canadensis
Coot Fulica atra
Buzzard Buteo buteo
 
Mercutio said:
Wow! Thanks! And I have a country all to myself!

Too early for corrections, but to put on the list for the eventual next update, the Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis).


Yeah, I was looking for my own...
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Enjoy it while it lasts! Off to Crete tomorrow and hope to add something. Hoping for Lammergeir (sp?) at the very least.
 
EHocking said:
Yeah, uh, I actually haven't got them yet....
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Um... I know it's not the thread to say this, but... birds ain't the reason for the envy. Well, at least not literal birds.
Being a dinke helps...
Dual Income No Kids . . . . Ever
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I hate you, I hope you know that. Deeply and abidingly. And everything you stand for, and the horse you rode in on.

Nothing personal.

M
 
Swifts left the UK?

Mercutio said:
Um... I know it's not the thread to say this, but... birds ain't the reason for the envy. Well, at least not literal birds.


I hate you, I hope you know that. Deeply and abidingly. And everything you stand for, and the horse you rode in on.

Nothing personal.

M
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I have to admit, except for the very start of this thread, that I haven't been able to add many extra species to our list, but at least I've added to the distribution of the species listed. You'll have grounds to hate me even more in October :D.

Back on topic. I've not seen or heard Swifts in London for the past two weeks.
I guess summer is officially over.
 
EHocking said:
I have to admit, except for the very start of this thread, that I haven't been able to add many extra species to our list, but at least I've added to the distribution of the species listed. You'll have grounds to hate me even more in October :D.

Back on topic. I've not seen or heard Swifts in London for the past two weeks.
I guess summer is officially over.
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Hmmm. I haven't thought about it, but I haven't seen any here either for a while. I did see one in Trondheim, though, so summer is apparently still up and running in Norway.

A question: do you in the UK get an influx of swifts later in the season which are reported as, perhaps, Pallid Swifts or so? There seem to be one or two every year here now, and a lot of them are actually accepted as Pallid Swifts by the Swedish Ornithological Society Rare Birds Committee. The reason I am asking is that I am curious to find out if this is the case, and if so, how the British equivalent of the SOSRBC establish whether or not they are actually Pallid Swifts of not. I have heard it said, several times, that the SOSRBC are more likely to accept a record of Pallid Swift if one of the members of the committee have seen it...

Curiously, my supervisor has been looking into this, starting with a "Pallid Swift" that was reported and supposedly accepted in Finland a few years ago. In some way, they managed to get DNA from it (maybe it was found dead? Or caught in a net somehow?) and it turns out that it is identical to normal Swifts. Thus, he's now looking for material from Swifts and Pallid Swifts from all over Europe (1) to see what the deal is. Is Pallid Swift and Swift the same species, with some kind of regional differences due to climate? Are there pallid non-pallid Swifts and non-pallid Pallid Swifts? Or was it just this particular individual that was aberrant?

Another area where nothing is as it seems is Cuckoo/Oriental Cuckoo, but I am not at liberty to divulge any details.

---
(1) If you find any dead ones, please let us know!
 
Kotatsu said:
Another area where nothing is as it seems is Cuckoo/Oriental Cuckoo, but I am not at liberty to divulge any details.
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Ooo, you're such a tease. :) Can we try and guess?

Wikipedia said:
Each female Cuckoo lays one type only; the same type laid by her mother. In this way female Cuckoos are divided into groups (known as gentes, singular "gens"), each parasitises the host to which it is adapted. The male Cuckoo has its own territory, and mates with females from any gens; thus the population (all gentes) is interbreeding.

The standard explanation of how the inheritance of gens works is as follows. The egg colour is inherited by sex chromosome. In birds sex determination is ZZ/ZW, and unlike mammals, the heterogametic sex is the female. The determining gene (or super-gene) for the inheritance of egg colour is believed to be carried on the W chromosome. The W chromosome, of course, is directly transmitted in the female line. The female behaviour in choosing the host species is set by imprinting after birth, a common mechanism in bird behaviour
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Have you found some gens-specific primers? Do these primers work cross-species i.e they can identify the host of a cuckoo independent of which species of cuckoo you're studying? Am I talking complete nonsense? Wouldn't it be great if you could?

Sorry, I might be slightly drunk at the moment... :D
 
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