RedKite

Christmas Robin

The robin with its bright red face and chest is the bird everybody thinks of at Christmas.  Happy Xmas from Redkite this year.

The robin is quite abundant wherever there are a lots of grass trees and shrubs for it to hide behind and forage for its favourite foods.  It can also tuck itself away and doze behind the dense leaves.

It is often seen in parks and is attracted to gardens that provide bird feeders and bird baths because this is an easy way for it to feed without too much competition and energy.  But it also likes the woodlands and open country because  there is plenty of food available in these areas and he can find pools of water.

The very small, baby birds are speckled and brown in colour.  It takes a few months for the fluffy feathers to moult and for the red feathers to grow through and then they become a fully grown Robin in all its glory.

The Robin does sing and there is a slight melody in his voice, you can often hear him when he is wooing his mate.

Happy Christmas

 Tania Little

 

Woolly Mammoth

The woolly mammoth is my favourite.  It lived 135,000-11,000 years ago.  There were several species but the woolly ones survived the longest.

They were quite small as prehistoric animals go and mainly ate vegetation that was easy to find at the time.  They weighed about 6 tonnes and had to eat a couple of hundred pounds of food most days of the week just to keep themselves going.

So as you can imagine they spent most of their time grazing, a few hours of play especially with the baby mammoths and probably the rest of the time sleeping or dozing.

They probably enjoyed the water and mud that was around in those days but they seem to have had a pretty uneventful life.

Because of their size a lot of animals would not think about attacking them but they did have enemies and of course they would make a good supper if you could catch one.

 

Basking sharks

Basking sharks are harmless and only eat plankton, however when I saw them in the sea in Devon when I was swimming I got out quick.

They have 5 gills each side of their head that filter plankton with. Hundreds of gallons of water go through the gills and their food is sifted out and eaten.  Because the gills get so much ware and tear during the summer they need to be replaced.  They are shed in the winter and regrown in the spring.

Sea lampreys actually attack the basking shark.  They are small fish but they swim up behind the basking shark and bite it, leaving scares on the shark.  I don’t know why they do this?  Perhaps they think they are feeding.  It is uncomfortable for the shark but I don’t think it does it any real damage.

They say basking sharks are harmless but they are quite big at 36 foot and when we saw them in Devon I was scared.  Harmless or not I did not fancy swimming on the shore with a couple of sharks darting in and out.

Velvet crab

The velvet crab is one of my favourites, it has a fine velvet coat over its shell which is soft to touch.  His legs are blue, black and red, so he is beautiful.

It makes you wonder how nature created so many beautiful animals in the world and I think this crab is special. 

Like most crabs if it loses a lib or a claw in a big fight with one of its enemies it will just fall off at the joint.  A little later on a new claw or limb will grow back a bit bigger than the old one and the crab will be ready to fight again on another day.

The unusual thing about these crabs is that during the mating season a male will seek out a female partner and when he finds a female crab that grabs his attention he will let her rest on his back and ferry her around for a few weeks before they mate.

Velvet crabs are found  around the coast of Britain wherever the water is not too deep.  They are quite easy to spot, with their bright red eyes and blue legs, and easy to catch and some people like to take them home and keep them as pets in a tank.  The small ones are quite easy to handle but I am not sure just how big they grow.

They are very easy to feed as they will eat almost anything, they are not fussy eaters.  In the wild they like to feed among the kelp forests and seaweed and catch the many small creatures that make their home amongst these plants.

 

Butterfish

It is called the ‘butterfish’ because it is so slippery that the fish slips and slides in your hands and you can’t pick it up.

Butterfish are abundant around the coasts of Britain and are caught by people who fish for a hobby but are not caught and sold by the commercial fisheries.  Commercial fisheries do use these fish as bait to catch more profitable fish.

I don’t know what they taste like but the slippiness puts a lot of people off but you could probably get a good meal out of two or three of them and it would be a new dish to add to your monthly menu at home.

They mainly eat worms they find in the seashore but will also eat small crabs and small shellfish.  They have distinct black circles ringed in white going down their backs, so are easy to spot.

This fish is quite abundant and you should be able to find some quite easily and then it is up to you what you want to do with it or use it for.

 

Smelt

The smelt fish used to be very popular to eat because it has a unique flavour.  It tastes like cucumber and gives off a cucumber smell when fresh.

There used to be several large fisheries, one big one on the Thames to catch and sell these fish.  They are a nice change from the usual menu of cod, sole and haddock.  I think the major supermarkets should introduce it into their seafood range.

They are not as hardy as other fish and the population numbers fluctuate depending on the weather and the food supplies.  They have their young in fresh water but once they are old enough move out of these streams and end up in the coastal waters. 

Their teeth are like little spikes that are good for catching shrimps and tiny crabs and tiny lobsters.

This is the perfect seafood dish for your next dinner party and it will be fun hunting down where you can buy some from or even catch your own and make a meal everyone will be talking about for months.

Loach

The spined loach actually does have spines, it lives in poor water conditions with little oxygen and  in the last 30 years has become a favourite in aquariums. 

The spines are located in a pouch beneath each eye.  There are two pointed spines under each eye that can be retracted.  These spines may cause harm to other fish , birds and animals that might fancy eating the loach.  But are mainly in place as a deterrent.

The spines are what makes this loach very different from other loach and they are its main defining feature.  Therefore, it was officially named the ‘spined loach’.

Because there is very little oxygen in most of the waterways where they dwell the loach compensates for this by swimming to the top of the pool or river ,jumps into the air and literal gulps air into its guts.  In this way it able to survive in conditions that are uninhabitable to a lot of other less hardy creatures.

The spined loach is reasonable rare and found mainly in the Midlands and East Anglia.

They feed from the bottom of the riverbed, very small eggs such as midgets, small crustaceans, shrimps and any other small tip bits.  

Spoonbills

Spoonbills are found in America, they have pinkish feathers and a spoon shaped bill.

They are quite large birds and walk across shallow lakes with their wings spread out behind them.  The sunlight catches their feathers and from a distance they glisten a beautiful pink and white.  They look truly beautiful.

Their bill is what differentiates them from other similar birds and it is so peculiar that the birds were named ‘spoonbills’.  They shuffle their bills in shallow water looking for food, sifting through the waters. 

There is a special nerve in the bills that recognizes when something in the bill is edible and when contact is made the bill snaps shut.  Then the bird has a meal for the day.