Materials Man

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Saturday 11 June 2010, back of 8.00 am, Both adult Ospreys at eyrie, male on nearby perch, female on eyrie rim. Chicks not visible and she is not begging for food so presume chicks have been fed. Grey squirrel in next door tree emerges from the foliage on a leafless twig and chatters at the ospreys, never seen that before. Also never seen the female take off  with a fish and fly around, which she did when I returned after looking for the Marsh harrier. She did this twice, see picture of  her landing, was this to encourage the chicks to eat? as the three of the chicks seemed content. They did consent to eat and I noticed them wing stretching and the small one had gained in size to the others. Took a picture on the 11th and the 12th showing three chicks, also a left yellow winged tagged  female marsh harrier, last years female but nesting in a different location. Caught a brief  glimse of a hunting male harrier, and an other Osprey sitting on a dead branch of a small tree, breeding nearby? probably.

Inserted some pics of hedgerow flowers that are much more difficult than birds to identify, if you put the mouse pointer on them you will see their names, (well my names for them!) Derek what is the fly on the Himalayan balsam’s leaf?

On the 22 of May at about 7.30 am I was on spot to do my Osprey watch, I am expecting to see chick feeding as i reckon the eggs should have hatched as she was sitting from the 10 of April, and perhaps a few days before. Well she was sitting and he was perched nearby and not a lot was happening except she moved off the cup a few times. On one occasion when off, she picked up a fish from the nest edge, fed herself and once or twice bent into the nest cup, that to me was offering a chick some morsel. Perhaps next week I’ll see some chick heads. After this she took off, flew around for a while and collected a stick and came back, she took a long time to settle and I couldn’t figure out why, till I spotted two burly walkers, going who knows where? Apart from the farmers I seldom cross any one’s path. The walkers were unaware of the Ospreys, they were walking through the countryside completely unobservant of their surroundings, I was 20m away, admittedly behind a bifurcated slim tree and remained undetected, mind you they were walking as if escaping, but my wife did say a local young doctor is encouraging us overweight people to get walking, or die before we should.

I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Spey bay several times from the 24th May, this was ostensibly to watch dolphins which I did on every visit except the one where i took colleagues to see the dolphins, nothing, nix, nonche zero. (bad luck Dougie and Paul) We did see an Osprey fishing but not plunging, but during the day of the 26th in the afternoon I watched my first Osprey catch a fish, and what a sight! first dive, and I mean dive, not skim the surface and drop it’s feet in, this was gannet like and immense to watch. In shallow, wave breaking water it plunged right in full dive speed, It then remained in the water wings akimbo and being washed by the waves, this remained the situation for some 30 seconds, then with a flap it revealed it’s prize, a fish, a gleaming silver solid bar of a fish, easily 2/3 rds of it’s body length. I watched all this from the shore through my telescope, BBC spring watch stuff and appreciated by watchers without binos standing to my right. The successful Osprey duly adjusted it’s mighty catch and headed westward, within minutes another Osprey arrives, was it watching the other one? a hierarchy of  who can fish when? could be, as it fished for 30 minutes and 7 dives into the water and caught nowt, a clear distinction in abilities. The gooseanders were catching more than this amateur Osprey, whom I think was the same one in the picture resting on the storm shore at the river mouth. Spey bay in May, or any time,  plan your visit, and see much more than diaried here, very aggressive swans, terns, sand martins, swallows, herons, otters, ducks, lupins on the shore? and if  i’m not mistaken giant hogweed on the shore too. Oh and dolphins, honest !

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As well as the Osprey on the shore, there is a poor picture of a Slavonian grebe, but the exciting thing is you don’t have to tramp the moors to some small lochan, you can hear the traffic from a major road while watching these terrific birds. My car was 50m away.

On the 29th May saw my local female Osprey feeding two chicks, so she has at least two wobbly headed chicks.

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Took these pics of a song thrush on the 2/5/10, and as the Ospreys were virtually doing nothing I will post this next week. I did just luckily catch the female marsh harrier land in the same place the male did last week, so that appears to be a chosen location. She remained at the location for a good ten minutes as I waited for her to take off, I scanned around then coming back to the location frequently, but there were no more sightings. The probable reason I had time to digiscope the thrush was he was singing against another and chose to ignore my quiet presence beneath his singing perch, the one I photographed had a “normal” call whereas the other did a great imitation of a curlew, mid song, better and more sustained than a starling.

The first bird I ever ringed in Dubai was a song thrush, the second was a Hoopoe !

This is ridiculous, I never witness a crossover of female to male Ospreys for years and now I have bagged three, this happened on the 8/5/10 about 9.30 am. Again the female was getting grief from the crows and this time giving some back, she landed on the nest several times and I could see her calling, he was not for moving and strangely was quickly ducking his head, now and again, what was that about? She took off several times and when she returned with a stick he promptly backed out of the cup, she settled in the cup and started to place the stick. Will I see chicks being fed next week? maybe if I stand there all day, something that I should do, a 24 hour watch, a red bull Osprey watch.

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The pictures above are a wee postscript, the common dog-violet caught my eye on the woodland path, the blossom on the wild cherries can’t be ignored, and the goldfinch looks like it has the finch disease, it is certainly not a well bird. If you look closely it has a tick or a swelling on it’s eye. Is the disease from the tick? lyme’s disease is much more prevalent in humans from ticks, I have had a few ticks, one in an a place you would not apply heat too! as my wife suggested.

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.

Big Buck?

Osprey chicks, there are two, are big enough not to need brooding so it is easy to confirm there numbers. My crap picture, I blam heat haze! should show two heads. The male when I arrived, I can now separate them by plumage differences, was doing his flapping about trying to stablise his footing near the nest. I knew he had a big fish just by this behaviour, and sure enough after feeding himself he flapped onto the nest and I caught a glimpse of a long skinny, covered in blood fish. I think it was a pike. Meantime she had gone chasing crows in a very determined manner, I think it was an excuse for some exercise. Meantime the male had looked at the fish now on the nest edge, and the chicks and had a bit chew at a stick in the nest. No attempt to feed was made. She came back and was calling when she settled, I wondered why? he had provided fish, so why was she calling? Anyway she started feeding the chicks and I thought I would go to the waterside as this happy family situation would last some time. I can’t see the Osprey’s nest from the waterside, but I was not surprised that I saw an Osprey perched on a pole. A wooden one not a polish farm worker. I just concluded it was the male from my nest, although I had never seen him on this perch. Within ten minutes another Osprey circles looking at landing in the shallow water, the female for a wash, I have seen her do this before and she takes a good ten minutes for ablutions, choosing the right depth of water that may take three flights and landings. But the other Osprey was on the pole and she was bathing, chicks left alone? I doubted it and took five mins to return to my usual spot, no female, but the male as I thought was on station. So a third Osprey is around. No surprise, I have seen visiting Ospreys before and there are many large trees around. But is it nesting?

I was also watching a pairs of hares, the picture is the buck having a stretch. To the non birders the big birds are the parents and the two wee heads are the chicks, yes they are heads, each facing the opposite way.

two chicks