Materials Man

I was out at the back of seven am on the 15/5/10, and I immediately recognised that the bird on the eyrie was the male. The crest on the female is more pronounced and browner, she arrived within five minutes landed near the nest, then after a few preens and calls she made a quick flap to the eyrie, a few calls, hopped nearer and he got off. So yet another change over, my  4th, all in the morning and this time much earlier than I saw the others! When you don’t witness this for years and see four within a month makes you wonder, and I wonder if this female is different from last year and that she spends a disproportionate time off the eyrie, or leaves the eyrie every morning. He went to a nearby tree and started preening, after ten minutes I left them and went in search of those elusive Marsh Harriers, bingo, the male was hunting near the nest and I had good views for some minutes till he dropped into the reeds, I was distracted by an unknown warbler in the nearby tree and did not see the male take to the air, I did catch him return to the nest site, without any noticeable prey, spend less than a minute and was off, hunting, but he disappeared down river. I did not catch any wing tags which are very difficult to see on harriers. Why did he go to the nest site? why no food pass?  and the unknown warbler is still unknown, the pair of them only made contact calls so I had no song to help me. I did get a picture of the back end of a whitethroat last week, I am beginning to recognise whitethroats by song and call, a song that is very difficult to describe, scratchy and tuneful.

This morning, the 16th of May,  I was again out by the back of seven am and saw the male on the nest and the female preening, my fifth change over about to happen ? well two hours later and situation the same, except the female had flown around and landed on a fence post then back to the nearby taller tree. Surprisingly it was cold for May the 16th  and I had stood for two hours and was ready for breakfast. So I returned pm at 4.30, and the picture was exactly the same! she was on the same branch in the higher tree and he was brooding, facing the same way. I cannot believe this had been the situation all day, anyway she was not preening  just enjoying the breeze, after some minutes he gets off the nest cup takes off, so does she and replaces him without hesitation. My fifth changeover, this is very different behaviour, lets say i have been watching them for five years at say 40 hours per Osprey season that’s 200 watching hours, now in the sixth year after five weeks, say 10 watching hours I have witnessed five changeovers, you don’t have to be a statistician to know the probabilities have drastically changed. This is putting aside whether you believe I can sexually identify them, a changeover is easily identified. Anyway, he flies around collects a stick, not from the ground but by breaking it off, I see him flying eyrie wards, he banks, dives and next I see him with a much bigger stick, he lands right on the eyrie  with this four foot trailing stick !! he does this with another smaller one and disappears, gone fishing?  and I need to cut the grass.

Still not heard or seen a swift

On the 17th April went along and the often Osprey domestic scene unfolded, him on a nearby branch and her on the nest. And ten minutes later ? same scene. So I moved and after much panning around with the telescope spotted a female Marsh harrier, about 3 km away, it was windy and the bird was doing that harrier “lapwing” flight and like a lot of birds can do merged into the background and disappeared. I panned around for another half an hour trying to get the male, but that was my harrier moment, gone but welcome. Also welcome was my first swallows of 2010, flitting among the sheep and that white fallow deer, back again, it must be “owned”,  a kind of pet. I’ll find out if the cattle are put back in the field I use, because that’s when I meet the farmer, when he comes to check the stock. Farmers aye know whats happening. Like the wee old man I met as I got back to my car, he spotted the telescope and was keen to talk, he knew of the Ospreys, the peregrines, the harriers, the farmers and I guess welcomed the chat, he did say he had witnessed the crossover of Ospreys at the nest and I remarked that that was good fortune as in all the hours I have spent watching them I had never witnessed it. Well, today the 18/4/10 in the rain I did, and the thrill was I new what was going to happen, it does help a lot when you can visually separate male and female, ah here’s to sexual dimorphism! Works for me anyway.

Oh and the wee old man with a walking stick and three front teeth had saved his money on dental charges as he sported a £900 pair of swarowski binos ! nice one.

Forgot, heard a willow warbler, and last week in Gateshead where I was working, a chiffchaff sang all week.

On the 10th April the female Osprey was sitting on the nest cup, so in the last week she has laid an egg and is now incubating. I did see that the male has a left leg ring so my assumption is that the male is as last year. Buzzard was mewing above me, great spotteds were loudly “cheeping” and a lone willow warbler was singing away.

At the time of watching the male had a fish, on a fence post in sight of the nest, well eaten, when I spotted him, again the tail end. I saw him later at the nest site presumably with the same fish eating the “leftovers”, she still content on the nest. So must assume she is well fed.

No sign of Marsh harriers, time yet.