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!

April 2011 - Easter Waxwings!

Saturday 23rd: After the success of seeing the Waxwings yesterday, I had arranged to re-visit Sandra's garden and this time take my scope and video camera. So at 7:15am, I drove the 300 yards to Sandra's house with a plethora of equipment. "Why drive?" I hear you say. Well, my back has been plaguing me these past few months and lugging all this equipment 300 yards would just aggravate it more! Having set up the scope and video camera on tripods...pikelets were kindly served by Sandra...that's crumpets to you and me! Indeed, as the minutes passed and an hour with no sign of them...Waxwings, that is, we were beginning to feel that they had finally departed back to their native country!





We sat in the garden and were soon rewarded with the local bird life. Amazingly, a Nuthatch visited the sunflower-heart feeder just 5 feet away! I couldn't move to get my camera but Sandra quietly snapped a photo. A pair of Great Tits kept visiting the nest box, two Goldfinches drank water on this warm morning, the odd Collard Dove and Wood Pigeon pecked at the ground and a pair of Robins were constantly around our feet. Yes, both Robins were very trusting and one even perched on one of my tripods not two feet away! But it got better...one of the Robins landed on my knee as I sat in the sun-chair! Sandra grabbed a photo and I hope to show it here soon! With time, I suspect that Sandra would be able to get at least one of the pair to eat from her hand, but it would require enormous patience. A Sparrowhawk slowly circled overhead against the blue sky and headed towards my garden.

Finally at 9:30am the Waxwings flew over and moments later came back and alighted in the same sycamore tree as yesterday. Now we would get much more detailed views and wow, what a view! Looking through the scope showed the pinkish colouring and yellow flashes of the birds' markings. I counted thirteen individuals, Sandra, fifteen. These must've been the same individuals as yesterday. The Waxwings stayed for around 20 minutes and then at some unknown signal they took to the air and away. Well that was well worth the time spent waiting.

What a great time to spend an Easter weekend, in the Sun watching the birds!

Postscript: That morning was the last that the Waxwings were seen in that sycamore or anywhere else around here. It is now about the time of the season that they should return to Scandinavia, maybe these have. But there are still plenty being seen around the country.

Friday 22nd: For the past few days, Sandra had noticed that Waxwings were flocking to a distant sycamore tree. Using binoculars from her kitchen/back garden, she can see these birds amongst the blossoming and unfolding leaves. So this morning at 8:30am, I joined her in the Waxwing-watch and I wasn't disappointed! For twenty minutes we watched as the birds, 15 of them ate the buds. Amazing, but I should've fetched my scope! After the show we walked over to Sandra's local patch; Church Wood Plantation. Quite a few Wrens were about calling, Robins and Blue/Great Tits. The Bluebells were also out and look like they had been for the past few days.

We wandered back down the road towards my local patch; Kirk Moor Plantation Wood. Here we saw my first Black Cap of the year - a male. A pair of mating Wrens were active with, I presume the male holding a small white ball of fluff or wool in it's beak. An unidentified warbler was flying around and harassing the Wrens. It kept flying to the undergrowth were we believe it had or was making a nest. Chiffchaffs were abundant, at least four and we even managed to see one after some astute tracking by Sandra! Like Church Wood, the Bluebells were out in here too but not as many as in previous years. I also managed to glimpse a couple of Jays amongst the blossoming leaves! That was a first in this wood for a few years for me!

Monday 11th: The two Blackbird chicks that hatched a few days ago, appear to be doing well thanks to the constant feeding by both the male and female adult Blackbirds. Unfortunately the third egg has failed to hatch. We left it in the nest for a few days to make sure it was an unfertilised egg and then removed it.

April 2011 - Farewell Grumpy, Pinky & Little Lad!

Saturday 16th: Well they've finally been released...out into the big wide world. The 3 Hedgehogs that we affectionately named; Grumpy, Pinky and Little-Lad were transported to a garden in Tickhill, the home of Elaine and Paul. Sandra also kindly helped with the relocation as it was a major operation moving 3 Hedgehogs, boxes and sundry items to this new area.

As dusk fell, Grumpy was the first out and investigating her new surroundings. Eventually she made her way out of the garden and onto the field where myself and Mel followed her as she moved down the edge of the field bordering the gardens. Soon she became a faint shape as the light faded. She seemed to be enjoying herself as she was tasting the new odours and anointing herself. Farewell Grumpy, we wish you success!

Pinky emerged soon after but seemed content to stay in the garden. Before we broke off the "Hedgehog Watch" to have a bite to eat, prepared by our hosts Elaine and Paul, we had hoped to see Little-Lad emerge, but he stayed resolutely in his box.

After a very nice and welcome pizza and a toast with Bucks-Fizz to the Hedgehogs, we ventured back outside into the dark. Pinky was still in the garden but had moved further along the flower-bed and had been anointing herself. No sign of Little-Lad, his box was empty so he would be out-and-about somewhere but two other Hedgehogs were on the other side of the garden so that bode well. at least there is a community of Hedgehogs that these 3 may integrate into.

So farewell Grumpy, Pinky and Little-Lad, we wish you well in your new location.