In reply to Kiera:
Hi Kiera. Righto, I'll drop you an Email later today. Standard Willow Tit surveying is very straightforward; it's based around playing a recording of Willow Tit sounds in suitable habitat. In my experience other tit species will also always respond to the recording so it's mainly about making sure you are hearing the same thing coming back at you!
Ducks, geese and swans, it has to be said, are not always particularly choosy when it comes to mates and there are some amazingly unlikely hybrids, see e.g. http://www.gobirding.eu/Photos/HybridDucks.php . It seems to happen more often with captive birds, so that's another situation where species might find themselves without an opportunity to mate with their own kind, but it is not uncommon in the wild either. A wild/feral mixed example in Sheffield is a Mute Swan that has been mated with a (white domestic) Greylag Goose for many years though they (to my knowledge) haven't produced any young. While on the subject of Black Swans it's worth noting that they often employ an unusual breeding strategy where, to quote Wikipedia, 'an estimated one-quarter of all pairings are homosexual, mostly between males.They steal nests, or form temporary threesomes with females to obtain eggs, driving away the female after she lays the eggs'. Apparently there is slightly (on average) better productivity (more young are raised successfully) with these pairings.
I'm just touching on the hybridisation/fragmentation thing at the moment, and haven't studied it in depth but, anecdotally at least, it does seem to be a thing.
In reply to Alan:
Thanks, Alan, much appreciated.
Alan said:There is a messaging system on here melodious will check it out for you when back on laptop.
If you click on your settings option top of the page and have a look what setting you have IE
Then either one of you go to the others profile page and send a friends request via the connect option, once you are friends go back to the connect option and you should see an option to send a private message.
My Flickr photos
Thanks very much, Alan.
Hi Kiera. Friends request sent (I think); let me know here if I've fumbled it and you haven't received it.
In reply to melodious:
How are you with bird calls Melodious?
community.rspb.org.uk/.../may-i-put-a-sound-recording-on-here-for-bird-i-d
Birds of prey are tricky, most do variations on one or two themes; a wailing type noise and a chanting (ke-ke-ke) type noise.