SOME BEAUTIFUL BARN OWLS

A good birding friend of ours Peter Richards gave us a heads up to a Barn Owl site near Caerphilly in South Wales, and with it being only an half hour away from home myself and Steve thought we'd take a look. I won't put exactly where the site is as Barn Owls are schedule one birds so it is illegal to disturb them and I wouldn't want hoards of people going there as it could be detrimental for the birds. 

When we got to the site it was pitch black but you could just about make out the Owls in the old buildings where they roost. Steve got into the back of the van where he set up his scope and put his camo net over himself while I sat in the front seat with my scope balanced on the window using a bean bag.

The first few pictures and videos we took where only record shots as it was still pretty dark but as the light got better we were able to get some quite nice footage/pics of the birds.

barn owl

a nice shot of two together

  Here's some short clips of the Owls, it looks like the little runty bird is giving us a bit of a dance.

This short clip is a bit shaky with me trying to balance the scope and keep the birds in frame.

It soon got really light so the Owls disappeared inside the buildings to roost for the day.

Three together

 

Great to see this family of Barn Owls doing so well even if it was only for a short time. I think that overall Barn Owls have had quite a successful year nation wide. A few years ago their numbers were dipping really badly but with sites like this one lets hope they can make a come back and be a common sight in our country side once again.

HOBBY'S

A birding friend of ours called Brian Chappell was lucky enough to discover a pair of breeding Hobby's on his patch in a place called the Vale in Glamorgan S. Wales and he was kind enough to invite myself and Steve Bool down there to take a look at these beautiful raptors.

We couldn't stop long as we didn't want to disturb the birds but were lucky enough to have some superb views of these cracking birds of prey that come here all the way from the south of the Sahara Desert in tropical Africa to breed and stay with us through the Summer months.

During our short visit we managed some pictures of the adults and the two youngsters which were quite close to fully fledging and leaving the nest.

Here are some of our efforts.

Hobby

hobby chicks close to fledging

The male Hobby was a right feisty individual, chasing off anything that came near the nest, when we were there it chased off a Peregrine falcon before settling back down near the female.

The great news is that both chicks have fledged successfully and were joining the adults out of the nest. They should hopefully be on their way to Africa by now but what a privilege it was to spend an hour with these absolute beauties. 

 

LONG TAILED SHRIKE

 The Long tailed Shrike is a bird that is found over much of Asia from Kazakhstan to New Guinea, it is found mainly in scrub and open habitats. Many of the temperate zone populations are migratory moving south in Winter, while those in the tropics tend to be sedentary although they may make short distance movements.

So you can imagine the excitement and surprise when a single bird turned up in mid July at Eastleach Martin which is right on the Gloucestershire Oxfordshire border. This is only the third ever record of the bird to be seen in the UK so of course Steve and myself set off up there hoping to see which might well be a once in a lifetime chance of seeing this long travelled but lost bird. 

When we got there we found out we had to park in a field which one of the local farmers had provided it was to help stop blocking the narrow lanes between the fields where the bird had settled. They charged everyone £5 a car and gave all the proceeds to charity what a fantastic gesture.

We made it back to the area where the Shrike was last seen and with a little help off two other birders who we met when we arrived we located the bird fairly quickly, a mega tick for both me and Steve the gorgeous Long Tailed Shrike.

long tailed shrike

The Shrike had settled in a line of scrubby bushes and was moving to different perches it would sometimes disappear for a short while but would pop back into view again giving some excellent views.

I also did a bit of digiscoping and managed to get a couple of decent clips.

The bird was apparently in moult hence it's scruffy appearance and would stay until September until it had fully gained it's new set of feathers.

long tailed shrike during it's moult.

Steve absolutely fell in love with this bird and went up to see it about ten times before it finally left, here's a couple of stunning images and a short video that he took of the bird now fully moulted.

What a pleasure it was to spend some quality time with this gorgeous Shrike.

There were some nice birds there as well as the Shrike which included Corn Buntings, Yellowhammers, Whinchat, Red Legged Partridge and the very rare Grey Partridge which Steve managed to get some footage of and a nice picture.

a very rare grey partridge

A great day out to see such a rare bird and an added bonus of Grey Partridge what more could we ask for absolutely brilliant.

RAVENS NESTING IN OUR WOOD

 I've noticed over the last few weeks that the Raven's have been hanging around near my home area often sitting on a telegraph post near the house and circling over the woods adjacent to my home often calling very loudly and quite frequently but never going far. I'm sure they're nesting somewhere near by and as it is now April and Raven's are habitually very early nesters I should imagine if they are breeding here they should have chicks in the nest by now.

raven

As I'm still struggling after my knee operation I kindly asked the wife to go into the woods to see if she could locate the nest. When she came back she confirmed my suspicions with this photo of the Ravens huge nest that they had built in a large tree in the wood.

ravens nest

My wife Tina also confirmed that one of the birds had come off the nest as she walked passed.

I've also noticed that there's no crows nesting nearby this year so I asked the question to my nesting guru and good mate Stephen Carter who told me that Raven's will not tolerate any other corvids near it's nesting site. Good news for us as we've had Carrion Crows pecking on our windows and patio doors at their reflection over the last couple of years making a hell of a racket and a mess also it can be very annoying especially at 5am in the morning.

Here's a short clip and another still picture of a Raven on the lampost near our home.

Great to have these huge corvids nesting so close to my home and if it keeps the Carrion crows from bashing their beaks against our windows they're very welcome.

NESTING WOODPECKERS

 I've been out of birding action for the last couple of months due to a knee replacement operation. So looking out over to the small wood adjacent to my home I was delighted to see a Green Woodpecker, I set my scope up on our patio area and soon realised it was hacking out a nesting chamber. What a stroke of luck as I could observe the birds coming and going as they slowly dig the nest hole without having to leave my garden or disturb the birds brilliant.

Below is a picture of the male at the nest hole.

 Here's a pic of the tree the Woodpeckers have decided to use for their nest site.

I've drawn a circle around the nest hole so you can see where it's located.

Here's some video of the bird outside the nest hole.

And digging the nest chamber out on a dreary day.

Here's another video of the male on the other side of the tree perhaps he was alerted to some danger and moved away from the nest hole.

 Another short clip of the male giving way to the female so she can inspect his hard work. I did get the wife to bend back the branch that was in front of the hole so I could see them better from the house.

Fantastic to have them so close and hopefully as my knee slowly gets better I might be lucky enough to get some pictures of the young with their heads sticking out of the nest hole, that would be brilliant, lets hope they're successful.

All footage was taken with my Swarovski scope and iPhone 14, the picture of the woodpecker was a frame grab from one of the clips.

SINGLE MALE BRAMBLING

 Back in November I had my first Brambling back at my feeders. For those who don't know, the Brambling is a finch species that is closely related to the Chaffinch. They come to the UK in the Winter months usually in their thousands from Scandinavia and I am lucky enough to have them visit my garden feeding station. The bird back in November was a male and I was expecting a few more Bramblings to join him hopefully male's and female's but after a couple of days the bird disappeared.

male brambling from back in November

 So that was the last I saw of any Bramblings until early January when another male Brambling turned up. Was it the same bird? who knows but I was glad to see it. I managed a couple of photo's and some video footage and again hoped that it would be joined by some more males and a few females, but yet again it stayed for just a couple of days and then as the one back in November did it vanished.

another short staying male brambling

Here's a bit of video footage.

Looking on social media especially at the bird sites that I'm a member of  my single male brambling has been the only one that has been reported and/or photographed this Winter especially in the South Wales area. Obviously there's got to be more out there but perhaps missed or not reported.

The only other explanation that I can think of is that their numbers have crashed but I haven't seen anything in the news or online that supports this. Perhaps there's plenty of natural food about for them so they're sticking to the woodlands. Whatever the reasons it would be a pity if they stopped showing at my feeders, as the pics and vids show they're a beautiful little finch and I for one would sorely miss them.

CHECKING IN ON THE TAWNY'S

Last December with the help of my good lady Wife I put a trail camera up near where my regular Tawny Owl site is. I explained in a previous post that they had moved from a nestbox that I had built into a natural site in the form of a tree hole. The tree hole was exposed after a Winter storm had brought down a very large branch that had exposed the large hole which the Owls have readily taken to.

I don't like to  disturb them to much but every so often I like to see if they're still using the site and see what kind of condition they're in. 

I left the camera up for about two weeks until I decided to retrieve it. I brought my camcorder and my own DSLR camera to catch a bit of the action if they were to come out while we were there. After setting up the Wife kindly took the trail cam down and I stood there camera in hand and camcorder at the ready.

They came storming out so fast that I only managed to rattle off a few shots that were disappointingly a little out of focus but at least the camcorder got a bit of excellent footage of them emerging from the tree hole, I've included a bit of trail cam footage that I edited onto the clip.

the first tawny owl 

Here's a couple more clips from the trail cam, I had to zoom in a little on the computer but they still came out quite well.

 

I was very pleased that they were still there and both birds looked in excellent condition.

Let's hope they successfully breed once again this year as I for one love having them around.