Materials Man

22/8/10, yesterday 21st there was strong south wind, so I half expected the Ospreys would be gone, but the male was perched by the eyrie and a juvenile was on the eyrie, food begging. On the estuary I caught up with the female and another juvenile, so one juv missing, it could be heading south. I spotted a wing tagged male marsh harrier but could not determine the colour or whether it had two wing tags, suspect it is one of this years juvs as the male adult has no tags, and it’s plumage was brand new, not a feather out of place.

There were circa 60 Canada geese honking around the estuary, all to soon there will be grey geese from the Arctic  and the swallows will be gone following the swifts who have been gone a week at least.

29/8/10 One juvenile on eyrie feeding, with two crows in attendance sheltering behind the eyrie as the wind was very strong. One crow did snatch a piece of sushi for it’s patience. I am guessing the other juveniles have left perhaps also with a parent. I further guess that the fish the juv was feeding on was parent caught and delivered to the eyrie. The wind was blowing so strongly that I suspect the parent was sheltered up somewhere nearby. the wind is from the NWst so would be a benefit to any bird going south, still plenty of swallows around.

I delayed this post to see if the Ospreys would have migrated by the following week, they have, now on the 5/9/10 as expected for Ospreys they’re off south. No sign of harriers either, thought I heard wild geese flying over the house this morning, but I was half awake. Plenty of swallows and martins around but they are feeding and moving south. In this area geese and swallows overlap by at least a week.

24/7/2010

As I expected the eyrie is now empty and an Osprey was perched on the top of the highest tree nearby. Ospreys are really nosey, when you watch them doing nothing they are always alert, and like to perch high to get the best view. I could not sex the bird on the tree, due to having its back to me and its head out of sight. Later I did pick up the female on a post with a fish, I suspect a pike as I could just make out a rounded tail fin, she sat for a while not feeding then took off and disappeared. I then picked up a juvenile on another post, see photo and note the mottled appearance of the plumage. On this day I confirmed three juvs and the adult female, but where was the male?

[View with PicLens]

Also pictured is a wood pigeon which I thought was nicely framed and the Ospreys on perches on the river, there is one picture with the crows picking at a fish, probably the one the female had earlier. Later I saw a juvenile recover the fish and have a desultory pick at it. I also saw a juvenile marsh harrier so the usual pair have raised at least one chick. The juvenile bird I saw had no wing tags, perhaps that exercise has stopped, it was hunting at the reed bed edge and did stoop and did not reappear, I did have a good view of it’s wings as wing tags are not always that  easy to spot.

20 June saw the male bring in a small pike and the female set about feeding her chicks, there are still three but one was being a teenager and just lying around. As the male took up his customary position out of faecal squirt range I saw he had a yellow ring on his right leg and a silver one on his left. These rings are harder to see than you might think as branches and feathers often obscure them. They  hunker down when preening and can stand on one leg. So it is well into the season and I am just spotting this yellow ring, oh for a camera on the nest area!

25 June, 5.00 am, at my usual watching time of 8 to 10 am I usually see a feeding session, I was reluctant to believe this was the first feed of the day, so I got up early and was on station by 5.00 am. Just witnessed the female feeding a chick who was soon full up and moving away. So that answers my question, well kind of, as the first feed of the day may be around 8 to 10 am if the fishing conditions are bad? The next bit was interesting as well, the female fed herself for a bit, the chicks were not interested, then she flapped to where the male usually sits and preens, he was up an adjacent tree. He immediately swoops down over her head and takes the considerable remains of the fish up the adjacent tree and starts to feed. Now I thought the male fed from the head of the fish and the body, then brought the fish to the nest for it to be consumed. He might well have done this as I did not see him arrive, and it could be he has no problems feeding his family so by 6.00 am they, including the female,  are full, so he has a second feed. He did fly back to the nest with the fish, but the female and chicks ignored him, so back off to the adjacent tree he went and sat for some time before resuming his feeding. The pics are the male preening and obscuring his legs, male up the adjacent tree and female on his usual preening perch, male on nest and female on his usual perch and female on nest

[View with PicLens]

[View with PicLens]

6th of June and one of the picture’s here show three Osprey chicks, two larger ones and a smaller one further back in the nest, hope it survives. There was a wandering Osprey today and the female immediately was off the nest, and circling, the male had gone fishing. The female wasn’t too bothered, as the wandering Osprey just flew nearby. Soon the male returned with a fish and she began to feed the two chicks that immediately were at her feet, the larger ones. The photo isn’t to clear but trust me there is three.

Other pictures are a fading rainbow and an Oak tree, a violet ground beetle larvae, with designs on a large worm. Notice in one of the pics the larvae’s head is vibrating, what’s that about? supposedly nocturnal so I was lucky to see it.

The seed head is a close up of a dandelion.

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

24 April 9.00 am, up to 12 carrion crows were giving the, not on the nest Osprey, absolute grief, turns out it was the female as after getting no peace at the top of a tree she flew around many times with the crow entourage and eventually settled on the nest for a cross over. Having never seen a cross over till last week, now I’ve witnessed two. There were plenty of martins and swallows in the air, the air was calm and there was a mist, although lifting with the daytime rising heat. A perfect time to listen, I could hear the Osprey chee, chee cheeing, the wispy call of a willow warbler, a song thrush giving it large, sheld ducks circling, in fours,  uttering their rapid Ka, ka, ka laughter flight call, what are they up to? they also have a soft see, see call uttered in flight and on the water, the rookery cacophonous. And best of all the curlew, urgent to a crescendo, then the plaintive cur-lew, cur-lew finishing with a bubbling note. Quite the best and evocative bird call to be heard on a still misty morning.

Spent 40 mins looking for harriers, not a one, but on the 25th April about 8.30 am, I was scanning reedbeds and spotted a male harrier obviously nest building, no female, he landed in the same place three times with nesting material and took off down river. I hung around but he had gone off presumably hunting. I checked last years nesting spot but there was no activity. The Ospreys were in a settled mode, however the male was off as I was returning to the car, and not a crow in sight. Why do the crows act mob “winged” one day and are nowhere the next? just young birds flying around tree corners making mischief?