"
My money’s on "Great tits"
(Snicker, Snicker!)
Posted on 01/11/2019 9:49:01 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Researchers have found yet another way in which climate change has been detrimental to migrating birds. As European winters have become warmer, pied flycatchers traveling from Africa to reach breeding grounds in the Netherlands are arriving to find that resident great tits have already claimed nesting sites for the season. As a result, the number of flycatchers killed in great tit nests has risen dramatically.
"When pied flycatchers and great tits are more synchronous in their timing, this leads to a higher level of conflict over nesting sites," says Jelmer Samplonius, who did the work at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and is now at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
Samplonius's team got interested in the dynamics between pied flycatchers and great tits in part because both species rely on a short burst of food resources -- caterpillars -- to raise their young. When the birds' timing is well matched with the caterpillar peak, they are more successful in raising their offspring.
Given the reliance on the same food and nesting resources, it was clear the two species interacted quite a bit. Pied flycatchers were known for trying to take over great tit nests. They also eavesdropped on resident great tits to gain information the long-distance migrants otherwise lack about local conditions.
After years of careful monitoring, Samplonius says, "it was hard not to notice" that many flycatchers were dying in great tit nests. In other years, "virtually none" met that same fate.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
As far as I’m concerned, great tits can land anywhere they want, especially on me.
For these birds, windmills spells a rise in fatal conflicts
https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/Policy%20Digest%201%20-%20Figure%201.png
They even shred 747’s.... :)
Yes, there are ALWAYS winners and losers, but - unlike the alarmists want you think, LIFE writ large goes on and adapts to the changes. Humans will too.
Hey Fly, can you verify any of this info on the great tits? :^)
So, great tits are an endangered species?
Worried about the birds.....unless it’s wind turbines slaughtering them by the millions....
“As a result, the number of flycatchers killed in great tit nests has risen dramatically.”
My wife would no doubt kill me if I was found in a nest of great tits.
I’m in!
Wait...What?
Great!
Understand the pay is low or non-existent, but there is the reward of a job well-done.
... and enough fulfilling and satisfying work to last a lifetime!
I better remain silent here though. My wife, though she’s not a FReeper yet, lurks here all the time. Discretion is the better part of valor, so they say...
My wife is not a Freeper yet either but she has started talking back to the tv news
Well said and so true, my FRiend. :^)
Sounds like she’s on her way to becoming MrsBert on FR... :)
If so, it makes for a good moderating influence, doesn’t it?
(Wives ruin all our fun, don’t they! Ha!)
Rarely, however that’s more than never and though I was born unaware of things I wasn’t born yesterday. LOL!
Well played sir!
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