Every Sunday there is also a new episode of the Stuifmail podcast. Listen to the podcast here:
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Beautiful robin but with a strange beak, why is that?
Anne-Marie Spruijt-Pellicaan sent me a photo of a beautiful robin with a special beak. The beak is a bit bent and there is a strange spot on it. Anne-Marie would like to know what is going on. We are dealing here with a deformed beak on that robin. Normally, beaks continue to grow, just like our nails, but as they wear out, such a beak becomes normal in size. Humans have to cut their nails, because we don’t use our hands like apes do, for example. The beaks of birds wear out because they use them when eating, digging, chopping, etc. However, in some birds – because it happens often – the beaks grow too quickly. Possibly due to a virus, the circovirus. The result is indeed an oddly shaped beak. And that is not very good for the bird, because an oddly shaped beak can prevent the bird from eating properly. The bird can lose weight and, in the worst case, even starve. Unfortunately, there is nothing more that can be done about that.
Who owns the beautiful parakeet flying around in Heesch?
Antje De Bruyn sent me a photo of a special bird: a king parakeet. This bird has been flying around her area for several weeks and she wonders whether this king parakeet will survive the winter. I don’t think so, because king parakeets are basically aviary birds and so they are fed by the owner of such an aviary. Finding food yourself is then difficult. The menu includes fruits, berries, nuts, grass and plant seeds, nectar, blossoms and leaf buds. The last three are now no longer or hardly present in our country. The other food sources on their menu are also not available as much anymore. In addition, they have learned to eat from a bowl, which is difficult in nature. Informing professionals such as the Animal Protection Society is therefore very useful. Don’t try to catch those animals yourself, because they are already stressed enough. These king parakeets originally live in the coastal and mountain areas of Eastern Australia and from North Queensland to South Victoria.
Seen beautiful mushrooms in a forest area, but what is their name?
Marijke Saedt came across mushrooms in the forest that she had never seen before. I think the photo shows the caps, mushrooms or fruiting bodies of the golden hat fungus. Caps of golden hat mushrooms have a golden yellow color, just like the thick stems. If you have a mirror, you can see that the plates, also called slats, have a different color. They are usually ocher brown. This used to be a rare fungus, but nowadays you see it more and more. Especially on sandy soils and then you can encounter them in forests, grasslands and even in parks. The caps of the golden hat mushrooms can grow quite large, with a maximum of twenty-five centimeters. Like all other higher fungi, these fungi clear away dead organic material.
During a walk in the Warande, Tilburg, I saw two separate trees with strange bark, are they sick?
Jeske van Heeswijk came across two trees in the Warande in Tilburg that looked different from the rest and thought that the bark of those trees had contracted a disease. Fortunately that is not the case, but the bark of those two trees looks very strange indeed. We are dealing here with the bark of Douglas fir trees. I can very well imagine Jeske’s thinking, because the bark of Douglas fir trees looks such that they are all very different and also have a strange structure. I am completely in love with the bark of Douglas fir trees, because they also evoke something of art in me. And so I also take a lot of photos of it, see two examples below.
