Wildlife in a Suburban Garden

Ringnecked Parakeet

I went  to my "caravan hide"  late morning today to fill up the feeders.  I sat for a while to see what I could hear and see.  It was nice to hear a Green Woodpecker which I always hope to see on the grass around the drinking pool...... it's happened just once before.  It is good to know that they are in the wood somewhere.   As well as that I could hear a Treecreeper calling almost constantly and a Nuthatch.  Four different species of tit came to the feed, interestingly a Long-tail which is only the second I have seen here. I will be spending a few sessions there in the coming days.  

When I came home I looked through the photos taken yesterday and found this nice one that I hadn't seen yesterday.  Why travel to exotic places all around the world when birds as brightly coloured and beautiful as his are flying around!  Somehow the cloudy, almost white background adds to the effect.

Ringnecked Parakeets, Hinchley Wood Surrey

My wife and I travelled to Surrey yesterday for a family visit.  I always try to keep my eyes open for any photo opportunities wherever I go and I usually find something interesting in "leafy" Surrey. Rinknecked Parakeets are a very noticeable bird in that part of the world, noisy and of course colourful, you can hardly miss them.   They are thought to be the product of escaped birds but there is also a theory that that they have spread to the UK naturally but that is open to deabate and probably wouldn't stand up to scrutiny.  With their bright plumage and exotic looks you would be wrong to think that they are a tropical bird but they are found in the colder higher regions of Northern India where the climate is more like ours, that is wet and temperate.  They are quite at home here in the UK and other European Cities.  They breed in small colonies and are hole nesters. I happen to think that they are an amazing, attractive and gorgeous spectacle and to see a small group feeding on a garden feeder behind Crossy's Hardware Shop in Hinchly Wood was a real treat (and a great photo opportunity).

I took lots of pictures, trying to get them "in-flight" and managed to get some amazing pictures of their graceful plumage. 

 

More Rose-coloured Starlings to enjoy.

At last a shot with the sun out! Very mobile and just with me for a minute or two.

Robin

Rose Coloured Starling again.

Rose Coloured Starling again.

The Rosey starling wasn't there this morning and my first instinct was to think, oh well it's finally moved on, it is spring after all and I would imagine that eventually nature and instinct will take it's course.  However it was there in the late afternoon and then I watched it fly off strongly again towards the marsh just like the day before.

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Rose-coloured Starling - Sturnus roseus/Pastor roseus

 

As is usual for me, once I realised the possibilities, I decided to focus on this bird this week and over the last three days have spent many hours watching it. I doubt if I will be able to get any more photos that can improve on those already taken and they  are a good addition to my galleries. I have already been approached by the Editor of the well respected magazine Birding World and  one or more of the images will be included in a future edition of the magazine.

Having watched it for the last three days now, I have got a good idea of it's behaviour.  Although it is often seen with Common Starling I believe that this is more by coincidence rather than design.  I haven't observed any interaction whatsoever  between the two species except that they are often perched in the same favourite tree.  Late this afternoon I saw it become very excited and noisy.  It climbed to the very top of a bare tree, called loudly and postured (see below) before flying off very very strongly towards Exminster Marsh. This could be an evening routine and perhaps it was flying off to possibly, a usual roost but that certainly wasn't my impression. It will be interesting to see if it is back in it's favourite tree again tomorrow.

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It stretched it's wings, called loudly and  "rocketed" away towards Exminster Marh.

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Rose - coloured Starling Exminster Devon

I had a real go at getting some nice shots of the Rose -coloured Starling today and finished up with 200 worth keeping!!!!!

Rose-coloured Starling - Sturnus roseus

There has been a Rose-coloured Starling in a small patch of garden in Exminster Devon for the last 14 weeks or so. When I was younger this species of bird was more often refered to as a Rosy Pastor and the scientific name is quite often given as Pastor roseus and not Sturnus roseus. In the time that it has been been here  it has moulted from a juvenile and is now starting to look a little tidier and more like an adult but as yet, it's nowhere as pink as an adult will be.  Qute what will become of the bird is not known but it's easy to explain how it got here.  Rose-coloured Starlings are a very numerous bird in Asia where they breed in vast flocks.  In the winter they migrate south to warmer  climates.  From time to time some birds get lost and instead of moving south, wander north and off course.  The bird in Exminster is one such lonely bird.  It feeds from bird tables and gardens probably with common starlings and has prospered quite well. I would think it unlikely that it will ever meet up with others of its species, I cant imagine that it will have the experience to go back south. It's going to be interesting to see how long it will remain here in Devon.  Rose-coloured Starling are a rare bird in the UK and it seems that  only 20 individuals have ever been seen in the UK.  I was pleased yesterday to eventually get a photograph of it. I have to be honest and say that it it is not the most attractive bird that I have ever seen but I doubt that I will get many more chances to photograph one.  Considering that the bird has been at this location since December I haven't seen many photographs published on line.  I think this is because the bird seems to stay quite high up in one particular favourite bush and does not present an easy photographic opportunity.

Chiffchaffs in my Devon garden.

I decided to rewrite this post because of a vitriolic comment that someone posted on my last Blog entry.  Anonymously  posted  because I had dared to object that a local cat had decided to "hunt" the recently arrived migrant Chiffchaffs in my garden.  My feelings of frustration know no bounds, frustrated because I can't stop people's cats predating the birds in my garden and frustrated that people don't seem to care about my frustration and don't seem to try stop it happening.  Are people angry with me because I don't like  the way that cats are  responsible for so much destruction and death.  I actually like cats but I wouldn't have one because it would make me  sad to see it catching the birds in my garden.  So, if you are a bird lover why would you own a cat because we all know that you can't stop a cat from doing what  cats do.   I know it would be unkind to keep a cat indoors 24/7 as my anonymous and vitriolic corespondent said to me but surely thats not as cruel as the cat taking bird after bird from the garden.  Which is worse?  

I have not arrived at this opinion after just one incident and without experience, I am in my 60's and in my long(ish) and experienced life I have seen cats take numerous Blackbird, Robins, Starlings, Dunocks, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Chaffinch and even a Sparrowhawk and today Chiffchaffs. There is not a single year goes by without someone brings me a mauled bird, usually either a Blackbird or Blue Tit.  Please don't respond to this by posting rude and offensive comments.  Just think it through and understand that it simply can't be right for cats, your cat, their cat, other peoples cats to be responsible for the deaths of an estimated 2 million song birds in the the gardens of the UK annually.  Please understand that I appreciate that its what cats do but together we have to find a way  to stop it happening.

So here are a couple of pictures of the Chiffchaff  before the cat took them.

Black-tailed Godwits

 

In the spring Black-tailed Godwits are in their breeding plumage and look their best.

We arrived at home from our usual Sunday morning breakfast outing in the late morning, I can't ever remember a March day  as cold as it  felt, but we are lucky here in Devon, even though the  heavy rain  has flooded the rivers and fields.  We came in to the garden to be greeted by two small warblers flitting low from bush to bush.  I immediately grabbed my camera and tried for a shot but unfortunately I couldn't lock on to it.  I herd a call and checked on the iPad for either Chiffchaff or Willow Warbler and the little bird responded to the call I was listening to.  It was a very yellowish bird, like a female Willow Warbler and the fact that it responded to the Willow Warbler caller would indicate that it was not a Chiffchaff.  From time to time over the years, we have had "Willow/Chafs" in the garden, in fact only on two other ocassions before.

 

Now armed with the knowledge that, unusually, even Devon gardens were full of migrants I thought I should go out to the marsh to see if I could find some more of my own.  The marsh was about the wettest I have ever seen it and the road was completely flooded which in a way was good because it meant that it was very quiet.  The only people there being people like myself, that is, anyone who could tollerate a wet boot full of icy water because the only way to get down the road was to wade through and suffer the inevitable. My boots are neoprene so the damp feet son warmed up like a wetsuit!  Once on the marsh birds were everywhere including a few Swallows and a  Martin as well as Stonechat, Cetti's Warbler more Chiffchaffs.... at least 6 and the usual over wintering birds in large numbers. Godwits, Dunlin, Curlew and ducks in 5 varieties. For me the highlight was the massive flock of Black-tailed Godwits which made my wet feet well worth it.

 

The fields are flooded and the Godwits were wading close to the roads.

I would say that this is a pair, male in the foreground.

Dawn Chorus.

There is nothing as nice as the sound of a singing Blackbird (Turdus merula).  Probably one of the UK's most well known birds and loved by all. At this time of the year the sound of their evocative singing is something that I always enjoy and it's a sure sign that spring is here.  Females don't sing and are brown, not black and as well, they also have some subtle  spots on the throat and breast.  They often breed in gardens and sometimes in very obvious exposed places, once in my school corridor and 300 kids walked past constantly and yet the young still fledged.  One of the real threats to them in the garden is the domestic cat.  I hate to find the remains of them in my garden (I don't own a cat by the way), and quite often neighbours bring me injured Blackbirds that they have rescued from their cat..... they always die.

Female Blackbird showing "thrush-like" markings on the chest,  Thrush-like because they are in fact members of the Thrush family as is the American Robin incidentally.

The Raven

I have always enjoyed the poem, the Raven by Edgar Alan Poe very deep and dark but also very rhythmical and the alliteration, that is, the repetitive word sounds are very soothing and cajoling.  Its mysterious and frightening with overtones of death without the mention of that. There is a reference to a girl called Lenore who is never more!  You can listen to it here if you are so inclined.

 

Whenever I see a Raven I think of this poem.  I have no idea why or how I know it, I just do...... perhaps I learnt it in a previous life?  It's that kind of poem as well.  Nothing too mysterious about a Raven really though, just a clever resourceful bird that is more intelligent than all the others around it so it tends to win out.

I went back again today and I learned more about it and "it's game".  I had said that I thought there is possible a breeding pair but I have changed my mind now because I am quite sure that when the bird collects the eggs it takes them off to cache them before returning seconds later for another.  I notice that it knows where there is an egg, having flown off with one a minute or less earlier and then when it returns it purposefully goes straight to the spot where it had seen an egg on it's previous visit and so on and so on.  When it has taken all the eggs it knows about, it will return and circle above looking for any that it hadn't spotted previously.  Today though I saw it at it's nastiest, I actually saw it try and grab a Wood Pigeon from the fence line.  This was a massive surprise.   There was a hell of a commotion and feathers flew everywhere, a pair of Carrion Crows who are nesting in a nearby tree came in immediately to mob the Raven and whether it dropped the pigeon at that point or whether it hadn't got it properly I don't know.  I am not sure even if the pigeon escaped but I didn't see it in the Ravens beak as it flew in to the nearby fields. Then when it returned to the chicken enclosure I saw it trying to grab one of the hens!  Quite sure if there was a sickly hen it would be taken immediately.  By the way, the Raven towers above the chickens in size.

I have been unwell this last few day with a burst blood vessel in my eye, so I didn't stay too long.

Lucky chicken

More about the Raven.

I had a message from Dave Land today, a friend of mine and a well respected local birder and photographer.  He reminded me that Ravens will have paired up by now and are nesting, being one of the UK's earliest breeding birds and this bird will probably be a single unpaired bird. But I am not sure of that though.  Even though there doesn't appear to be a suitable nesting area nearby it seems to me that I see two different birds. I haven't seen two together but that wouldn't be surprising if they were incubating eggs you would expect them to swap over at the nest and then for the 'resting" bird to come and feed on it's own. Interesting to say the least.  Ravens have made a big come back in this part of the country and surely it won't be too long before they are the next bird in line for a threatened cull.  Judging by there liking for eggs they must be doing real damage to breeding birds.  I can imagine that if Ravens were in disproportionate numbers at lets say, a seabird colony, then they would quickly make short work of any nests, making short work of all eggs in just a short time. Still, as yet I haven't heard that this is happeneing.

Back to the birds today.  There was a Raven with me within seconds of my arrival and in total it, (or they) made off  with a total of 11 eggs.  As well as that, it went to the chicken feed and "snacked" from the hoppers and also had a drink.  This is what made me think it may have been an incubating bird taking a break and needing a drink.  Surely if it had just eaten a moist wet egg it wouldn't be in need of a drink. 

More Raven pictures.

I went back to see if I coud get some better shots of the Raven this morning and I didn't even have to wait, there he, or she was perched on top of straw bails set up to provide cover for the hens.  He was, (we'll call it a he), was up to no good waiting for the hens to lay some eggs.  I managed some great photos this time and I think, if I had the patience I could get better and better.

Believe it or not, this is actually one of the hens eggs and you get a real impression of the size of the bird when you see how comparitively small the hens egg looks.  I actually saw this bird take 4 eggs in total, it was my impression that it took them off to store somewhere because it would fly off accross the field and then within seconds be back again!  Once I saw it eating an egg on the ground inside the paddock perhaps because the egg had broken on the ground.

 

Is it a Raven or Carrion Crow?

Raven

It's not often I get the chance to photograph a Raven, it's not that often I even see one but I am pretty sure that I will be getting many more photos to post here in the coming days.  I would hazard a guess that I have, and a few others too, overlooked them, probably more often than I would care to admit or perhaps  even known about. I now realise that there is a bit of size almost overlap in both the Raven and Carrion Crow and I would guess that I have confused them with Carrion Crows quite often.  You get very big crows and some Ravens are almost as small as a Carrion Crow. However, once you see one perched and reasonably close up, they are such a massive bird with a huge beak and it would be hard to make a mistake. Ravens are very widespread worldwide  in the Northern Hemisphere and have even been found 20.000 feet up the Himalayas.  They are the largest Passerine Bird and have the largest beak with the largest bird brain....... so many records!  They are said to be the most intelligent of birds as well, they also have the ability to solve problems. At this site they have quickly worked out that they can forage for hens eggs. I am not sure if it is one or two birds but I would suspect that I have seen two, particularly at this time of the year.

Raven

Side on, you can get a real impression of the size of the enormous beak , said by some to be the largest beak of all passerine birds but that is obviously not correct, what about Hornbills and Toucans, but never the less, quite impressive.

Now compare the Carrion Crow photos below and pay particular attention to the beak...... no comparison.

Carrion Crow

While I am on the subject of Carrion Crow and Raven, it really galls me that people take the opportunity, and have the legal right to shoot Carrion Crows, I wonder, what damage they really do?  I guess they take the odd Pheasant egg and chick but it  It seems that anything that we don't like we simple kill...... of course we call it cull which somehow makes it seem OK.  I wonder when the crow falls from it's perch it thinks  "Oh it's OK I'm being culled not killed"!

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Carrion Crow

Raven stealing chicken eggs!

I could hardly believe my eyes today as I wandered, with my family from the car towards a paddock containing chickens and a solitary Ostrich!  On a fence post was a big black bird who didn't at first seem all that bothered that we were getting nearer, odd behaviour for a Carrion Crow, I thought?  Then as I had processed that thought it immediately dawned on me that it was a Raven! It assessed the situation and then flew off to a nearby tree for safety.  It seemed certain to me that the only reason a Raven would fly down to a flock of chickens was to steal their eggs.  Feet from a Raven...... and guess what?  No camera with me.  I asked the family, would it be eccentric if I went back home for the camera?  Yes of course but whats new they all replied so with that I jumped in to the car and went home for it.  On my return I couldnt see any sign of the Raven but after a wait of 20 minutes or so, suddenly there was the Raven back on the same post. Later on in the afternoon I went back and sat in the car which I parked next to the enclosure and waited.  I waited for 2 hours for the chance of "that shot" and it almost happened.  A Raven came down at least 3 times, it seemed as though it was just being opportunistic but then eventually I realised what it was after as it emerged from the hen house carrying an egg in it's beak.

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Herring Gulls feeding on cockles.

 

An interesting backdrop, in actual fact the yellow is the wall of a nearby building.  This Herring Gull has picked up this Cockle in the surf and is flying to the adjacent carpark where it will drop it to smash it open to get at the contents.

 

The cockle or Saltwater Clam is a bivalve mollusc, common around the coasts of Great Britain. I have to confess to being quite impressed by the sight of the much maligned Herring Gull  feeding on them today.  I had travelled to Teignmouth with visiting family who don't see the sea that often though the weather today would have kept most other people indoors.... in fact it had......! There are always large flocks of gulls at Teignmouth and it can be good to practice  flight photography which I do from time to time when I visit.  There is a carpark right next to the beach and the Herring Gulls of all ages were picking up the Cockles from the surf and carrying them to the tarmac, flying high above and then dropping them deliberately. There they would break and allow the birds to feed on the rich protein inside. Quite how much of this behaviour is instinctive is hard to say, it seemed to me that if young birds were also doing it then they must have copied the behaviour from the adult birds. 

The birds start by searching the surf line for the shellfish that have been exposed by the surf.

Once they have found one they fly to the carpark and drop  it from a height  to smash the hard shell to expose the soft contents.

It's not always successful and sometimes they need to retrieve the shell to try again.

Once smashed they settle to eat the contents. Some birds cheat by stealing the food before the owner can retrieve the prize. This is called "Kleptoparasitic".

Dippers and Kingfishers.

After a couple of weeks of frustration I decided to go back to the Dipper hide this morning, it was a very bright and sunny day (and reamained that way from dawn to dusk, cold but sunny, you can't beat it)............. My plan was to find Dippers, cover myself with a bag-hide and watch them to see if I could observe them carrying nesting material back to the nest and then I could pinpoint where they were carrying to. I wandered along the river towards the hide as I have done countless times before, it wasn't long before I saw my first Dipper and it continued on downstream, not a pair but just a single bird and it didn't seem to be near any nest site judging by it's behaviour so I carried on towards my hide.  When I got there, immediately two Kingfishers flew past me from where I had walked from, they were calling loudly, I started to climb in to the hide and there in front of me (but down stream), was a Dipper on one of the favourite rocks.  Before I could squeeze in to the hide the two Kingfishers flashed back past me and in the brilliant light  I have never had a better view.  Can you believe that?  I have been struggling to see Kingfishers at the two sites that I am licenced to photograph Kingfishers at and then, here's two, obviously breeding, somewhere nearby. I took up my position in the hide but nothing happened except that now two Dippers flew back upstream and past me going back to where I had walked from.  Well at least there was a few birds about.  An hour passed by and I left to go back up river to see if I could find the Dippers again. There they were as I hoped and I quickly covered myself with a bag hide and started to watch them.  One came close to me and was just opposite and I managed a photo or two.  I have seen and photographed Dippers so many times but it's always special to see them very near like this. You can't have everything and the lighting wasn't too good but at least it proved that the bag hide worked.  It flew back up to it's mate and then both birds were seen feeding in the riffles up river but 50 yards or so away.  One bird disappeared and the other one remained on its own for ages.  This gives me the distinct impression that I was watching a male bird now keeping guard over a nearby nest.  I had watched this kind of beahviour repeatedly last year. The male keeping guard near the nest as the female incubated I will need to return to continue watching but at least I have made a tiny bit of progress and perhaps I have got something to go on.

By way of an update.

My lack of posts over the last few weeks would seem to indicate that I haven't been out and about as usual but nothing could be further from the truth, and the actual fact  is that I am in the middle of the weirdest and most disappointing period of my Blogging history.  I have been concentrating on the quest to find the Kingfisher nest that I have a licence to photograph at and it's frustratingly, not going well at all. I have been sitting for literally hours at a time just trying to get a glimpse that would lead to the discovery but all to no avail. I have gone for as long as 2 hours without  even seeing a bird let alone a Kingfisher and day after day its been a blank.  If you add to that, the Dippers whose nest I found last year, decided to nest elsewhere and it's doubly disappointing. So this afternoon at around 4, I went to watch the barn where I know Barn Owls are nesting or at least roosting, and guess what I blanked again with no sign of Owls at all. Of course it would be wrong to check inside the barn because that would just disturb them and not what you would want to do.  Incidentally I am licensed to photograph Barn Owls at this site as well.  So today the only photograph that I managed was of this Rook feeding on the pasture by probing for leatherjackets. Rooks very characterful birds and as I have said before, interesting subjects to photograph.  I would suspect that they are ignored by most serious photographers but when you have no choice, a good subject to fall back on.

Just to let you know what I have been up to this last few days.

Warning:  It is an offence to disturb Kingfishers at the nest territory without the necessary license to photograph.  I am licenced by Natural England to photograph the Schedule 1. Kingfisher at this site. Warning

Since I last blogged I have been trying very hard to try and discover signs of Kingfisher nesting activity at the sites that I am licensed to photograph at. I also spent Monday trying to get over a poorly stomach, all very annoying. It's been a frustrating affair with plenty of quick glimpses as birds flashed past me and I have discovered several potential nest holes but as yet I have nothing positive to report, let alone photographs to post. Take this afternoon for example,  I sat watching site number 1 from a very safe distance and I had a clear view of the bank that they had nested at last year. I was completely concealed and 100 yards away and sure that I couldn't be seen.  To confirm this, a bird flashed past me and as usual I was immediately excited. It didn't call which made me suspect that the bird was in stealth mode and being deliberately silent in the territory rather than call which it would have done if it were looking for a mate or establishing territory. I expecting it to perch by the suspeced nest bank but it didn't.  This is pretty much what had happened on every visit this last week.

Long tailed Tit

The Long tailed Tit is a pretty little bird with a tail longer than it's body.  In the wintertime they move around in small family groups but I have noticed this last few days that they have just split up in to breeding pairs. In actual fact they are not related, as a species, to the other tits and chickadees in the USA, but are part of the family of Bush Tits.  Their nests are an indicator of this seperation, the other true tit species are hole nesters, thy will readily use a nest box, however, Long-tailed Tits build a beautiful nest, which is a balled construction made from feathers and moss and camoflouged with small pieces of lichen.  I have noticed in the past that these nests are often in the midst of a gorse bush and I never miss the chance to check for a nest at this time of the year onwards.  Thy can successfully rear as many as a dozen youngsters.

 

Rook, more attractive then you think.

The Rook is one of our most familiar  corvids (that is crow). They breed in large colonies called  rookeries and are  already well in to their breeding season as one of the countries earliest breeders.  I have been busy this last few days watching the Kingfisher and Barn Owl nest sites (I am licenced to do this  and it is against the law  without the license) and have not had a lot of successhence the lack of posts this last few days, I literally have't had anything to tell you show you.   However at one of my sites I have been seeing these rooks on every visit.  This isn't a bird I have photographed much before but I really ought to, they are more photogenic and interesting than you would imagine.To start with their shiny plumage has an oily sheen and seen in the right conditions has hints of magenta, blue and greens as you can see. It was fascinating to watch the interaction between the breeding pairs especially when they were food presenting, thats when the male feeds his female to strengthen the pair bond.

Ratus ratus

 We travelled up to Surrey yesterday to visit Jenny's mother in hospital and stopped at Cartgate Services for a break.  Some nice little birds were singing in the bushes next to the car and I put some sunflower and peanuts on the kerb just to kill the time really.  Within seconds Brown Rats were attracted out from the undergrowth... and well now you can see them.. Made me realise how opportunistic they are, these were alomost fearless as well which is quie unusual.