Introducing Dilbert!

This is Dilbert Simmonds. Please join me in welcoming him to the family. As you can probably see he is a jackdaw, but he is a special one.

A month or so ago, the back garden was full of raucous noise and feathered action as the local populations of starlings and jackdaws brought their young here to feed, drink and bathe. The presence of the jackdaws was something new. In previous years they had rarely visited. I think our street does not favour them so much as the adjacent ones where the older roof and chimney stacks offer better nesting and roosting spaces.  Anyway, for a while, on warm and sunny days, jackdaws and their calls dominated the lawn and adjacent hedgerow. Then, after a couple of weeks, the adults all pretty much moved off, leaving behind the youngsters, distinguishable by their all-black head and generally gawky behaviour, and this must have included the odd youngster that we now call Dilbert.

More days passed and all the youngsters left too... that is all except one: Dilbert. He now lives here pretty much 24-7 and it has become clear that he is not quite like the others of his kind.

Jackdaws are a famously highly gregarious species living in small groups consisting of many adult pairs. It seems that Dilbert for some reason has been unable to successfully engage with the rest of the flock. He also seems to be maturing more slowly, only recently shedding his fluffy fledgling leggings, and there is something about his face that is a little different too. His beak looks a little misshapen and, and this might be the most important thing is terms of his failure to be allowed into Jackdaw society, he seems to be almost mute. He can make a gentle sneezing noise and seems to do this when we enter the garden (probably as a greeting) but he does not make the distinctive squeaky chyak-chyak that the others do.

I don’t know what happened to make him the way that he is. Maybe it is genetic, maybe he fell out of the nest and landed badly or had some other accident that left him in some way impaired.

He drinks very frequently from the water bowls in the garden, and he loves to bathe – most days several times. He also lets me get very close. That’s not necessarily a good thing in a wild animal but we will make sure he has ample food and water and perhaps when he is fully mature, he will be able to integrate into Jackdaw society.

The western jackdaw (Coloeus monedula) is also known as the Eurasian jackdaw and like most other members of the crow family has a distinctive black plumage, but with a silver hood when mature. They also have piercing blue/silver eyes. It is common across Europe and also found in adjacent areas of Asia and Africa.

Peru - gone birding!

 Here's the challenge: take just one day in Peru (after the IWC meeting there) and capture good images of as much of the local wildlife as possible. The day is overcast and quite cool.

So here we go! First a pause in a ittle flush of green in the desert to the south of Lima.

The first habitat explored - farmland along a river with the towering dunes of the dessert beyond. 

A  lovely little streaked saltator 

And again!

And here is an ani. There are bird species in the tropics that we have no equivalent of in Europe ans this little character is one. A member of the cuckoo family this highly gregaripus species builds a communal nest and then they care for the eggs and nestlings as a group!

The grove-billed ani.

And again.

Vermillion flycatcher (male and I am guessing immature)

Vermillion flycatcher (female) 

A beautiful male vermillion flycatcher

Then we move on to a lagoonal area set a little bit back from the sea and near the town of Chilca

I am not absolutely confident on the iD of this bird but I think it is a Puna Ibis. 

A little detail of this coastal wetland.

A black-necked stilt - the white patch over the eye helps to confirm the iD.

And again.

An egret!

Pelicans flying by close offshore.

Black-necked stilt and sandpiper

A black crowned night heron.... lurking!

More pelicans go by.

Ibis on a stick.

Then we leave the wetland and head to the seaside town and fishing port of Pucusana.... and out to sea in a small boat!

First a view from the shore.

A beautiful Inca tern - a near threatened species

Inca terns and neotropic cormorants

The longer the moustache of the Inca tern, the healthier the bird.

Juvenile Inca tern.

A very friendly young Peruvian pelican

Landing the day's catch in the port.

South American sealion - a big male hauled out at someone's gate.

Close up of female South American sealion

Red-legged cormorant out at sea

Humboldt penguins seen off shore - a 'vulnerable' species.

The guano-streaked cliffs bear witness to the local concentrations of seabirds

Humboldt penguins - adult and young - at the base of the cliffs

Local fisherman close inshore - they may have been fishing for octopus.

Peruvian penguin roost

Neotropic cormorants

And finally.... the last stop of the day .... a visit to another coastal wetland and adjacent shore, just south of Lima at Laguna Marvilla.

A little encouragement to leave the birds alone.

Wimbrels.... but not the European one!

An Andean gull

A juvenile Belcher's gull

Snowy egret has a bad hair day among the gulls and  moorhens.

Black vulture

A passing flock of vultures.

An 'I really don't know what this bird is' bird.

A multicoloured rush tyrant (incredible name for a bird that is only around 4cm long)

A line of oystercatchers at the sea's edge

Snowy egret has a paddle whilst a whimbrel watches

And here, finally, is a little snippet of film of that Peruvian Pelican roost - as seen from the boat.

With thanks to Vincent, Peter and Alejandro.