Monday, June 29, 2009

June 2009 - Sparrowhawk kill.

Monday 29th:this morning at 9:45am a female Sparrowhawk attacked and killed a House Sparrow in our garden. My wife captured this short footage on my Finepix S5700 camera of the Sparrowhawk plucking its prey in the garden next door. Just out of shot is a female Blackbird voicing a loud disapproval but mostly because she has a couple of chicks in a nest nearby.




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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

JUNE 2009 - Acrobatic Squirrel!!

Wednesday 17th, this morning Melanie captured these videos of a couple of Squirrels performing acrobatics to get a morsel or two of bird food. We quite often get visits in the garden by one or two Squirrels and the birds don't seem to be too worried by this, though they do keep a respectable distance.





Tonight at about 9:10pm we had a visit from a couple of Black-headed Gulls! To my knowledge this has not happened before. Oh..we get Black-headed Gulls on the school playing-fields close-by, but we have never had any land on our house roof! The quiet of this Summers' evening was shattered by a loud squawking. At first we were at a loss as to what it was. We looked through the back windows, then the front windows, but could see nothing. I dashed outside into the back garden (minus camera) a saw this pair - a mating pair of Black-headed Gulls stood on the ridge tiles squawking their heads off and presumably eyeing-up the fish in the pond! On seeing me they flew off still squawking. Does this mean that they will come back at some point in time to take advantage of an easy meal? Who knows? But in my experience, when a bird has made a mental note of where there is easy food, they invariably make a return visit!
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Tuesday, June 2, 2009

June 2009 - Bempton Cliffs revisited - PUFFINS!



Tuesday 2nd, only 11 Puffins! Yes I took advantage of what the weatherman said was going to be; "the last of the hot sunny days", and went back to RSPB Bempton Cliffs as I had heard that some of these magical birds had returned in May.









What was apparent compared to the last time that I saw Puffins at Bempton Cliffs in 2000, was the lack of them! In 2000 there were quite a few, (in the hundreds). They were easily seen but scattered about in small groups or pairs. Now they are even scarcer and the small groups are no bigger than four. I walked a considerable distance towards Filey and back towards Flambrough, and there was a completer dearth of them. The Puffins main food source, Sand eels are scarcer too now and this is generally accepted as the main reason for such low numbers of Puffins.But enough of that! The feeling of wonder on seeing my first Puffin for 9 years was immense. Those red legs and webbed feet distinguish the Puffin form the other black and white birds such as the Guillemot and Razorbill and this makes them easier to spot.Though I only counted 11 all day, I suspect that some will be perched out of sight on inaccessible "out-of-the-way" cliff ledges.




As usual, a great many other seabirds were on show. The Herring Gull in small numbers was there, presumably waiting for chicks to be hatched and on the look-out for unattended eggs. Large numbers of Kittiwakes clung to the clif ledges along with many sizable colonies of Guillemots and to a lesser extent, Razorbills.











What was also noticeable everywhere one would go, was the large number of Painted-Lady Buterflies, more than any other type. Subsequently, I saw an item on the BBC's "Springwatch" programme stating that there are huge numbers of these Butterflies around this year as there has been an unusual influx from sub-Saharan Africa. Amazing how this delicate creature can fly all that distance!
Some numbers of Fulmars were also seen, but by far the largest number of any one specific seabird was the Gannet.



Above are photos of the younger members of the Gannet colony. Judging from the dark feathers, I would say that these are one year old, maybe two year old immatures. There was certainly many of these along with the vast numbers of mature breeding Gannets. And yes, I saw one chick that could have been about 2-weeks old.

Away from the sea, there as plenty of other birds to see; Greenfinch,Tree Sparrows, Goldfinches, Skylarks (which were quite numerous), Chaffinches, Wood Pigeon and Rock Doves together with plenty of Jackdaws and of course the Summer migrants of Swallows, Swifts and Martins, of which there was plenty.

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