From: owner-ammf-digest@smoe.org (alt.music.moxy-fruvous digest) To: ammf-digest@smoe.org Subject: alt.music.moxy-fruvous digest V14 #11886 Reply-To: ammf@fruvous.com Sender: owner-ammf-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ammf-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk alt.music.moxy-fruvous digest Monday, July 31 2023 Volume 14 : Number 11886 Today's Subjects: ----------------- 31 Years Of Boat Building, I'm Giving Something Back... ["Boat plans" Subject: 31 Years Of Boat Building, I'm Giving Something Back... 31 Years Of Boat Building, I'm Giving Something Back... http://proxdigesty.sa.com/4O0768bKV2kPXqP5W8ggrjgQae5dNnqfYSDibI742uny9CpJ0g http://proxdigesty.sa.com/mHZNdvIE0rmodC__YKJMWX0rZuiE0bG7Yozj9qxT0zOluchU-A Near human habitation the main predator of the common blackbird is the domestic cat, with newly fledged young especially vulnerable. Foxes and predatory birds, such as the sparrowhawk and other accipiters, also take this species when the opportunity arises. However, there is little direct evidence to show that either predation of the adult blackbirds or loss of the eggs and chicks to corvids, such as the European magpie or Eurasian jay, decrease population numbers. This species is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), but this is minimal because the common blackbird recognizes the adult of the parasitic species and its non-mimetic eggs. In the UK, only three nests of 59,770 examined (0.005%) contained cuckoo eggs. The introduced merula blackbird in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, has, over the past 130 years, lost the ability to recognize the adult common cuckoo but still rejects non-mimetic eggs. As with other passerine birds, parasites are common. Intestinal parasites were found in 88% of common blackbirds, most frequently Isospora and Capillaria species. and more than 80% had haematozoan parasites (Leucocytozoon, Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Trypanosoma species). Common blackbirds spend much of their time looking for food on the ground where they can become infested with ticks, which are external parasites that most commonly attach to the head of a blackbird. In France, 74% of rural blackbirds were found to be infested with Ixodes ticks, whereas, only 2% of blackbirds living in urban habitats were infested. This is partly because it is more difficult for ticks to find another host on lawns and gardens in urban areas than in uncultivated rural areas, and partly because ticks are likely to be commoner in rural areas, where a variety of tick hosts, such as foxes, deer and boar, are more numerous. Although ixodid ticks can transmit pathogenic viruses and bacteria, and are known to transmit Borrelia bacteria to birds, there is no evidence that this affects the fitness of blackbirds except when they are exhausted and run down after migration ------------------------------ End of alt.music.moxy-fruvous digest V14 #11886 ***********************************************