May 2011 - Greater Spotted Woodpeckers feeding chick.

Sunday 22nd: Whilst out and about in a local wood this afternoon, Sandra and I heard rapid "cheeping" coming from inside a tree we had just passed.

About 10 feet from the ground was a perfectly excavated circular hole, that could've been made by a power-tool, such as a Great Spotted Woodpecker's beak! In the trunk from where the sound was resonating came the familiar call from a Woodpecker chick waiting for the next meal. We retreated a short distance and sure enough, moments later a male Greater Spotted Woodpecker attached himself to the side of the tree. He appeared to pass a small bundle of tasty caterpillars and insects into the hole and the chick, then flew away in search of more critters to satisfy the persistent hunger of his offspring.

A few minutes later, the female GSW alighted on the tree trunk and fed the chick. Over the next 45 minutes we deduced that the two adults were flying out and back alternately to the chick with a "waiting time" of 5 minutes for the chick before it's next meal arrived.

Just the one chick in the nest, we think. But the continual chase for food by the adults for their offspring will continue for some days until it has fledged and even then the adults will be constantly harassed by the chick.

May 2011 - Beetle in the study.

Sunday 8th: Just after midnight, I sat down in the study and then a "thwack", in the half-light I saw something on it's back waving its legs in the air..! A rather large beetle too, but what type? I've never seen anything like this before. A quick search of reference books by Mel and the beastie was identified. It is called a Cockchafer Beetle (Melolontha melolontha) and sometimes called the "May Bug", as it emerges from it's larval stage in the soil during the later part of April to early May. Much bigger than your average beetle, it has these extraordinary antennae, rather like antlers. This one as can be seen on my hand has seven "prongs" on each antennae indicating that this beetle is a male. The females have six.

Although the pointy-thing at his rear looks quite menacing, this beetle is in fact quite harmless. Starlings, Rooks and Crows are very partial to the grub or larval stage of the beetle and will dig at the ground with their long and strong beaks in search of them...and anything else that they may find. I must admit that as he walked over my hand and up my arm, the beetle had a firm grasp with it's pincer-like feet! I could feel every movement on my arm as he lifted each of his six legs! After taking several photos of this little-seen, but fairly common beetle we placed him on a plant stem outside where we assume he will find a mate!

May 2011 - Sparrowhawk season!

Thursday 5th: Sparrowhawk visits to the garden, and I suspect other gardens, are becoming more frequent now. Today at 2pm, a male Sparrowhawk perched on the arch in the garden as can be seen above. From the study window, holding the camera outside, I snapped a succession of photos as Melanie stood motionless not 10 feet away. This is the time of the season when the female Sparrowhawk will be sitting on a clutch of eggs and the male will need to find and catch small birds, mammals etc in order to keep her well nourished. On this occasion, he nipped into and through the conifers to grab a small bird. Promptly he took off back towards the nest clutching the live bird in his talons and the waiting female.

May 2011 - Red Kites Galore!

Monday 2nd: On my way to South Wales to visit my Mum, I made a detour to Gigrin Farm, a Red Kite Feeding Centre in Powys, mid-Wales. When Summer Time is in force, the Kites are fed at 3pm, so a target was set. Leaving home at 10:30am I deduced that I had ample time to get there from South Yorkshire. In fact I was parked-up at 2:15pm on a bright and sunny but breezy day. Red Kites are a familiar raptor in Wales, frequently seen in the skies. Other areas thanks to a successful rehabilitation programme now have their own population of these raptors, including Yorkshire. The main congregation being located in West Yorkshire, but occasionally, a lone Red Kite is seen as was evidenced by Melanie a couple of weeks ago. She saw a Red Kite slowly move across the sky at low-level over the garden and was flabbergasted at what she saw.

The last time I saw a Red Kite was way back in 1997 when myself and a friend, Neil drove down to Aberystwyth for an Astronomy weekend. At a loose-end during the day, Neil suggested we travel eastwards to the interior and try to see Red Kites. On that trip we saw about half a dozen individuals, all at fairly close range! Back in 1997 there were a recorded 152 monitored Kites in Wales, rising to 568 in 2008 with many more estimated and numbers increasing throughout various areas of England.

Back at Gigrin Farm, Red Kites had began to arrive. Looking up into the sky, I could see Kites gliding on the thermals. To see one is incredible but to see many more is just amazing and at such close range. The area where the beef is put out for them has an arc of long hides to one side and already they seemed full of spectators. I took my place in a hide and prepared for the spectacle.

At the stroke of 3pm, a tractor with a trailer loaded with cuts of prime beef entered the area. The number of Red Kites had increased dramatically in a matter of a few minutes. The sky was full of Red Kites as can be seen by the two photos at the top. These are not photos of the sky with superimposed Red kites, but actual photos I took during the course of the session. I kid you not when I say that the immediate sky was crowded with circling Red Kites. But these were not the only birds; three Buzzards were in attendance as were approx 32 Rooks and a few Carrion Crows. I counted 35 individual Red Kites but there were many more, probably three times as many! The tractor and the chap shovelling the meat out did not seem to deter the Kites, Buzzards or Rooks as they grabbed the meat almost as soon as it was on the ground!

The closeness of the action made this scene all the more exciting, Kites would swoop down from the sky and grab a chunk of beef and rise up into the sky, eating on the wing! Birds were wheeling, diving and making sharp turns in the sky with one or two near collisions but the Kites appear to be such masters in the air, swivelling their large forked-tails to manoeuvre, that a collision in such a crowded area was never going to happen!

After about 30 mins, all the meat was out on the ground and the tractor was driven out of the area. Two brown and one very pale Buzzard were on the ground feeding with the Rooks on the periphery while the Red Kites continued to swoop and collect meat. A sole White Kite was also in attendance. This White “Red” Kite or Leucistic Red Kite is apparently a frequent visitor and is 8 years old. This Kite has tags on its wings and so do some others that I saw. The tag on the right wing denotes the year the raptor hatched while the left wing tag denotes the county to which it resides. More info can be found at the Gigrin Farm web page. But not all Kites have tags, so are truly wild!

Most spectators had drifted away by 4pm but I stayed another 30 minutes just soaking-up the spectacle! Kites were still wheeling around in the air and swooping to mop-up the remainder of meat. I suspect that some Red Kites stay in the area while others roam much further a-field but they will be back tomorrow for another feed. A truly amazing experience and well worth another visit!