Aerial Combats

This morning I visited Manor Farm Museum to check on the House Sparrows, and get some colour-ring combinations as part of my BTO RAS project. I had intended to get up early and set a couple of nets, but an alarm clock malfunction, meant that I arrived later than hoped and therefore did not have the time to open nets before the farm museum opened. It was still a worthwhile visit, as I managed to get 11 different colour-ring combinations, and counted at least 20 breeding pairs.

Un-ringed male House Sparrow

Colour-ringed male House Sparrow

After the farm I stopped off in the woods and checked on a few next boxes. There are only seven boxes and within those there were three broods of Great Tit and one Blue Tit. My next stop was Botley Wood; I was hoping to catch up on a few butterfly species and also any new migrants for the patch. 

The Common Buzzards were very active and one bird had a finely barred tail and therefore I presume it to be a 2nd CY bird. It was showing evidence of primary moult and as I understand it, spring moult is typical of a 2nd CY bird.

Common Buzzard

The warm and slightly breezy conditions were good for raptors, and as other species appeared the local buzzards engaged them in aerial combat. Two Hobby's were the first to drift over Botley Wood; they appeared not to be hunting but the buzzards were keeping a close eye on them.

Common Buzzard (top) and Hobby

Hobby

A Eurasian Sparrowhawk also put in a brief appearance and this was immediately shadowed by a buzzard. With this level of activity I presume the buzzards are nesting nearby and are keen to keep an eye on any potential predators.

Common Buzzard (top) and Sparrowhawk

A surprise species for the day was a Turtle Dove; once a regular breeder at Botley Wood, I have not recorded this species for at least two years.

Ice Cold in Hampshire

If the weatherman is to be believed, and I have no reason to doubt him, last night was the coldest night of the year. The sub-zero temperature had produced a heavy frost and I was unable to get the solid ice out of the bird baths, and so had to fill up some saucers with water and place them around the garden. 

It was frozen at Titchfield Haven too, the first time I think I have seen that this year, and the waders and gulls were roosting on the ice at the southern  end of the River Meon. However, it was not the roosting gulls that drew my attention, but the waders feeding on the intertidal. In the 35+ years that I have been visiting Hill Head, things have changed, the intertidal area has become more sandy, and this in turn has attracted small flocks of Sanderling. The numbers remain fairly small, this morning I counted only nine birds, that were feeding with a single Dunlin and a handful of Ringed Plovers. Because the beach is well used for recreation at low tide the birds are generally quite approachable, and these were no exception.

Sanderling - Hill Head

Sanderling - Hill Head

Dunlin - Hill Head

I spent a good half an hour with the Sanderling, despite having only seen, and photographed them recently at Southsea, and then moved on around the foreshore. There wasn't much of note to report, Oystercatchers were common, as were Ringed Plovers and Turnstones, but other than the Sanderlings, Dunlin and single Grey Plover and Redshank, there wasn't much else.

Black-tailed Godwits - Titchfield Haven

Before heading off I had a quick scan over the frozen river, there were mainly Black-headed, but also Common and Herring Gulls. Four Black-tailed Godwits were also present, but they must of got cold feet and flew up the valley. A cheeky Fox was soaking up the sun on a south facing slope. It was clearly visible from the roadside viewing area and seemed unperturbed by my presence, although it did occasionally have a quick peak to see who was watching it.

Fox - Titchfield Haven

After my visit to the Haven I headed up to a site in East Hampshire where there was meant to be a Red Kite roost. Apparently up to 40 birds have previously been recorded there but recently it has numbered around the low 20's. It was still bitterly cold but the clear sky meant the light was excellent. I parked up on the corner of a farm track and almost immediately three Red Kites drifted over. Several Common Buzzards were also milling around, at one point I counted seven, but there was most likely more.

Red Kite - East Hampshire

As I waited for more kites to show I was entertained by a couple of Robins, who were being typically territorial, and several Brown Hares that were showing occasional signs of their March madness.

Robin - East Hampshire

Brown Hare - East Hampshire

There were several Red Kites coming into the roost by now but most of them were distant, which was a bit disappointing, the local Buzzards were coming much closer and enabled me to get the odd photo. The kites were generally just flying leisurely towards the roost and perching up, but just when I though that they had settled down, they would all take flight and chase each other briefly before settling back down.

Common Buzzard - East Hampshire

Red Kites - East Hampshire

Roosting Red Kites - East Hampshire

As the light, and the temperature dropped the kites settled down, and so did the level of bird activity, although a male Pied Wagtail continued to feed on the frozen farm pond. It seemed to be a very unlikely place to be feeding, when the farm yard appeared to have much more to offer, but it was actively picking up little morsels from the surface. Eventually it too flew off to roost, but as it did the moon put on a spectacular show.

Skating Pied Wagtail - East Hampshire

The Moon

Birding without all my senses - April 2014

The last couple of weeks has proven to be a somewhat frustrating time which started with a heavy cold and led on to ten days with significant hearing loss. For most of the time I was house bound, but this last weekend I decided that I would venture out for some fresh air. Not wishing to travel far, I decided to start with a spot of patch birding and soon found out just how difficult it was to bird with very limited hearing.

I travelled to Botley Wood and could just about hear a common chiffchaff singing about three metres away, finding it, without any sense of direction proved to be even more difficult. I continued along the main track and was rewarded with very little, other than a wren, song thrush and the resident blue and great tits, but it was tough going. Fortunately, the warm spring sunshine made it ideal conditions for raptors. At least seven common buzzards were enjoying the thermals and sparring with each other.

Common Buzzard

The sparring buzzards took my mind off my deafness and as I tried to get some photos I noticed a common raven in amongst them. There has been a pair loitering in the area in recent weeks; this bird was making it very clear that they were still around, and they didn't like the buzzards being there.

Common Raven with two Common Buzzards

The expansion of the common buzzard in the UK has been one of the avian success stories of recent years. Unfortunately its success has been met with anger from the gamekeeping fraternity and there are increasingly regular reports of persecution. The aerial sparring between the buzzards and raven kept me occupied for a while, but they soon got bored with each others attention and drifted off.

Peacock Butterfly

The warm spring conditions were proving ideal for butterflies too. Brimstones were the most abundant with the bright yellow males patrolling the woodland edge. Peacocks too were fairly abundant, seeking out the blackthorn flowers to feed. I recorded two other species on the day, comma and an unidentified small white, which vanished before I could make out whether it was a green-veined or small white.

Great Crested Newt egg - This species is protected under European law
and therefore it is an offence to disturb them. I hold a Natural England licence
that allows me to survey for the species.

There are a few ponds dotted around the patch, and two of these support breeding great crested newts. Newts begin to return to ponds to breed in early March so I thought I would check out one for evidence. It took about 30 seconds to find my first egg and confirm that they were still breeding. A female great crested newt can lay as many as 250 eggs a season, and will lay around 10 a night as the air and water temperatures increase. This early in the season a female may only lay one or two eggs a night.

Streamer Moth

The warmer day and night-time temperatures has seen an increase in moth activity too. Two nights moth trapping in the garden produced 128 moths of 18 species. The majority of the species were ones that I had already trapped this year; the new species were streamer (above), blossom underwing and early tooth-striped (below).

Early Tooth-striped Moth

Dutch Ringed Blackbird and Buzzard in 2010

Back on 11th December 2010 I caught a Dutch ringed adult female Blackbird at Manor Farm Country Park, and eleven months later, I have finally received news of its original capture. The bird was originally ringed on 7th February 2010 at Westkapelle, Walcheren, Zeeland, The Netherlands, NL18, 307 days previously. Its journey had covered 335 kilometres in a westerly direction, and since it was not captured again, I assume it must have continued on its journey and away from the cold weather that was covering the UK at the time. Whilst this control did not shed any new information on the movement of blackbirds across Europe, it was a notable capture for me, since it was the first foreign ringed bird I had captured at Manor Farm since I began ringing there in 1995.

Juvenile Common Buzzard 11th December 2010 Manor Farm Country Park

Interestingly, the 11th December 2010 proved to be a bit of a red letter day, since I also captured the first Common Buzzard for the site on that day.  Don't ask me how it managed it, but this bird forced its way into the bottom shelf of a 9m net and then wrapped itself up in it.

Juvenile Common Buzzard 11th December 2010 Manor Farm Country Park

I was pleasantly surprised to find that despite its large size, the bird was extremely docile and easy to handle. Ageing was also relatively straight forward, as this bird lacked the broad terminal band on the tail which adults show, and therefore was clearly a juvenile.