First Cuckoo of the year

As the forecast had been for heavy rain, my plan was for going and getting some food shopping. But I had also promised that I would take two of the people I have been aiding recently to a place where we could all get a good look at the Red Kites. The difficulty is that it wouldn't work if the weather was very wet, but equally getting everyone together at the same time was nigh on impossible.

So yesterday it was all left open and dependent upon the weather. Therefore, when I saw that the rain had not yet arrived I called my fellow watchers and said I was willing to give it a try. So we all headed off to a place that I knew there was a good chance of seeing them, but as there are no guarantees I wanted to increase the odds and took some pieces of cooked chicken. Just as putting out seeds and nuts for birds in the garden attracts visitors then I knew there was more opportunity by doing this.

We settled down and waited, while nothing happened with the Red Kites for a time, while we waited we saw other birds. Two exceptional ones was a Kestrel and a green woodpecker. It was nearing the time that I would have to head home, as would one of my fellow watchers. It really did seem as though we had lucked out, but just as we were saying we would give it another half hour, we had been there for over six hours, we spotted one in the distance. After about fifteen minutes it was joined by two more and they came to the field were we were. From the hedge we watch as they flew fifteen or twenty feet overhead. It did not take them long to find the chicken, they did not ever land to take it but plucked the chicken pieces from the ground in swift passes.
We were all more than thrilled by this and while we were all now running late it was worth it.

Anyway, with my fix of Red Kite, I headed off to get some shopping. I got that done s quickly that I had time to treat myself to a carrot cake and a coffee. The bus home goes through a rather run down council estate (Housing Project) that is set in a rather nice landscape. If it were not for the crime problems I would love to live there myself as the views are heart warming. While on the bus just by a large green on the edge of the estate and on a steep hill, I spotted what I at first thought was a thrush. It was newly fledged as its feathers were still fluffy. But it didn't look right for a thrush, I thought it looked like a cuckoo and this was confirmed when this warbler, probably a willow warbler, provided the comical vision as it fed this over grown fledgling. The bus was passed before I could see more, but having not herd a cuckoo this year at all, it was great to see that.

Woodpeckers

Not long after I moved to the village work started on the construction of some new houses. At the time I couldn't see the point, but upon investigation I discovered that these were to replace some older elderly peoples cottages that could not be insulated. Thus the new bungalows were built to very high environmental standards. Further these were built as social housing, homes for rent, not just to profit developers. They were completed last year but their construction necessitated improvement works to the sewage and drainage infrastructure. As this work involved digging up some of the wildlife scrub land in the village, it was not started until the winter so as not to disturb the wildlife.

The reason for explaining this is that all that work has now been completed, and on Tuesday I noticed that grass seed had been scattered on the areas of bare soil. So I thought that this could provide a good opportunity to film some of the birds as they will feed on grass seed. Therefore I went down to the park boundary to see what turned up early in the morning. While there were plenty of birds, dropping in quickly and tacking a couple of seeds, there was also plenty of pedestrians and dog walkers. Thus, every time I was ready to start filming people disturbed the birds.

Everyone was good natured about it and I wasn't upset by this. It demonstrated just how active the birds are so close to human activity. However I was disappointed when the battery died, just when everyone seemed to stop using that path. So I will have to wait for the two long life rechargeable batteries to arrive in stock. It did mean that Wednesday was the only day that I didn't get any footage so far.

Today (Thursday) I went out specifically looking for possible locations where the woodpeckers may nest. I had a good idea of where to look, and I found two locations where it should be possible to film. Further, I may get to see what else nests in the old holes. One thing that's happening for sure is the birds think that its spring.

While I was out I stopped to try and film some long-tailed tits, but a loose unattended dog put paid to that. However just as was getting ready to move on I observed a tree creeper. I struggled for ages last year to get a picture of one, so I stayed a while longer and got some footage, it may be wobbly cam again but I got some thing.

As I was getting ready to head for home, suddenly was the drumming of a woodpecker. Not the I'm building a nest sound, but the I'm a male woodpecker fancy breeding? Sound and it was very close by. I stood and waited and a second drummed behind me. I didn't let that one distract me and waited for the first to drum again and he did. I moved towards the most likely tree he was using and waited with the camera ready. But I could not see him. I scrutinised the Oak carefully but I could not see him. I waited for over half an hour then suddenly I spotted him not on the oak itself but on a branch it had lost in the recent Gales. It must have seen my movement as I swung the camera as he flew off at that point. But what was amazing was that it was not the great spotted woodpecker I had expected to see but the rare Green Woodpecker.

Reading the Signs

Yesterday I wrote about interpretation of the signs of animal activity. This picture is a classic example of woodpecker activity. What the bird(s) have been doing is drilling in through the bark to extract insects that are living under the bark. While something like this is obvious to a seasoned naturalist like me, by seasoned I man that I have finally dried out, to a novice it could look as though it were insect activity that caused the holes. While it was experience that told me what I was seeing, I was able to confirm this via observation as I saw a Greater Spotted Woodpecker feeding on this stump. I also saw a Green Woodpecker feeding here during the early summer and both seemed to be feeding young at the time. The Green would vacate the stump when the Greater came along but would be back the moment the greater spotted had collected food for its young.

The second image shows just how perforated the woodpeckers have made the stump, and these holes make it easier for other insects to lay their eggs. Thus a tall standing stump from a wind snapped tree like this becomes more beneficial in its death than it was in its life.