STARLING IN WINTER PLUMAGE, SQUIRREL TAKING A RAIN SHOWER and HAND FEEDING CHICKADEES

2007-09-07T20:55:00.009-04:00

I tried to keep these short so they wouldn't take too long to load but if your in a real hurry and don't have time to watch them all you can always click on the arrows on the sides of the video screen and choose which ever one you want to watch.
(1) The winter colors of the Starling are completely different from the summer colors.
(2) After his shower the Squirrel has a rough time trying to get into a bird feeder. The birds you hear in the background are fledgling Grackles begging their parents to feed them.
(3) The last Cickadee in the video that pecks my finger is the same one that I mention in my story "HAND FEEDING CHICKADEES" on the third page.

Please feed my frog while your waiting for the video to load, just click your cursor anywhere beside him. I know he looks fat but I'm really not sure when the last time was that he was fed. Thank you.

2007-09-07T17:26:00.005-04:00

**** AN INTERESTING FACT ABOUT BLACK SQUIRRELS ****

Foster: black squirrels are grey squirrels whose fur happens to be completely black. Like albinism, which I have seen in grey squirrels in London, the condition is caused by a genetic variation, in this case leading to a condition called melanism.

There is a gene which controls the banding of fur, and one variation of this gene results in all-black fur. The rate of incidence of this sort of condition is very low (about the same as albinism), but whereas the gene for albinism tends to be recessive, the gene for melanism can be dominant, that is, black squirrels can give birth to more black squirrels.

This means that if the squirrels in a particularly area like the "black" grey squirrel (and grey squirrels seem quite unprejudiced in such matters) you can get a population of black squirrels - which I had already learned about in Canada, but which I didn't see while I was squirrel-watching in Montreal.

I hypothesise that in urban populations of grey squirrels, the black fur is no worse a camouflage than grey fur, and thus we may well see cities where the "black" grey squirrels are more numerous than greys, or replace them entirely, although I don't think the black fur will provide so much of an advantage that the blacks will eventually replace the greys.

Found at http://onlyagame.typepad.com

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IN THE GARDEN VIDEOS

STARLING IN WINTER PLUMAGE, SQUIRREL TAKING A RAIN SHOWER and HAND FEEDING CHICKADEES