Film of a red Kite sitting in her nest on Eggs

While not the best film I have ever shot, nor is there much happening, but you can see the yellow wing tag, otherwise the Red Kite would be very well camouflaged. The film was shot at some distance, so that this protected bird was not disturbed. If I can return and watch over the bird again I hope to film the chicks when they hatch too.

New Red Kite Film

There is one good thing to be said for the cold and wet weather, it has given me the time to get more of my video footage sorted out. I am making real headway with it too and as I have learnt more about how the editing software works, I am able to get it done faster. While I do have the manual and reading the procedures of what I need to helped a lot, there is nothing better than hands on experience.

Talking of experience, my regular reader may remember that last year I helped the Forestry Commission Ecologist when he was carrying out a survey of Bat roosts in my local woods. The technique is quite simple you have to walk through a patch of the wood in a methodical manner, and mark on a map the possible locations. Returning latter to check for the animals actual habitation. In the case of bats that's using a endoscope, but as the method is the same for most animals or birds, the real trick is being methodical. Well a few months ago I was talking to someone about the technique as they needed to do something similar. However they did not know how to even start, so I explained what myself and the Ecologist had done and he was pleased that this made the whole process straight forward. Just a lot of hard work.

Anyway out of the blue I get a call today, it was this same chap. Although it took me some minutes to remember who he was, he was calling as the charity that he works for is applying for a grant to fund this survey. While it will not be until February or March next year till they know if they have got the grant, I was being offered a job. The Job of conducting the survey. Well I could have been knocked down with a feather.

The job would be in Scotland in a very remote area, and while I would get a cottage to live in while the work was carried out, I would twenty odd miles from anyone, in fact I would only really have midges for company. Now as much as I love where I am, I had to say yes! So while it is dependent upon the grant application being successful it looks like I have a job for the next two years. Bugger me I was trying to avoid work.

While the pay is nothing spectacular, I should be able to save some money while there. Also I will get other fringe benefits such as a clothing grant to ensure that I have the right gear for the weather as it can be extreme at times. As well as getting new good quality boots, better than I could afford myself, I will also get my own laptop, one that I get to keep once the job is finished.

On the down side, I will not have access to broadband, so I will be joining my two readers that are on Dial up! Therefore, I doubt that I will be able to upload much video, but I will keep this web log going as and when I can.

Once I was off the phone, I did think that was the first job that I have ever got where I did not have to suffer an interview. However, I also thought about my friends dog. Previously I was reluctant to take on her dog for her while living here as it would be difficult to keep my cat happy and them separated. However, with the new circumstance I would be able to take the dog with me most of the time, as I will have a lot of walking to do.

However when I telephoned her with the news of the job offer, she told me that just this weekend a chap that lives near her daughter has agreed to take the dog. So I don't know if I should contact one of the rescue centrers now, or wait until a latter date. One thing I will need to do though is start saving for the move, as while it will be subsidised, it will still cost me to move.

Well it has been a surprising day in more than one way. When I was uploading some of the video earlier, there was a clip of two women and their Husky dogs, I may have mentioned it at the time when I met them. But I was talking to the women and the camera recorded my voice. When I was younger I had a stammer, and while its no where near as bad now, it was quite a shock to hear just how much I still so stammer. Well now I know that I have the perfect voice for silent films. LOL

Anyway, one of the things that I have been able to do today is get some of the clips of the Red Kite(s) together so here it is. And I hope that one American friend here is able to take time out from her thanksgiving feast to enjoy it. That's what using dial up is good for, you can download a video to time cooking the Turkey!

A happy thanksgiving to all my American friends.

The Flight of the Red Kite

I hope that my reader will forgive me for this ego massaging posting. Earlier I tried and failed to film a Red Kite, I went back to my cataloguing of my footage. This was a clip that I shoot a little while ago.

There is an analogy with shooting film or taking photographs with the way that a field biologist works on collecting trip. The scientist will collect specimens over a few weeks yet it will then require months of work as a result of that expedition. In effect that is what I am doing with my video film. As I catalogue the film so that I can find them again, I am also listing clips that will eventually get put together into films. Also I frequently discover that if I film other establishing shots or linking footage I can then do something justice. Even if it is rough justice.

However this clip of the gracefully flight of the Red Kite stands on its own.

I am fully aware that while my filming is not yet up to the standard of the pros, I can see where I am getting better the more I film. The trouble is that with wildlife I cant say cut and ask the bird or mammal to do that again. Their union don't allow it and its in their contract.

One of the things that has surprised me was when I looked at the number of people that have viewed my junk on you tube, I have clocked up over a thousand views. As my stuff doesn't involve gratuitous violence nor crass and juvenile behaviour, I am surprised that anyone has viewed them at all.

Well that's my ego massaged, I had better get on with some work.

No Luck and Good Luck

It has been hard to believe that we have just had the Summer solstice. Not just from the weather, but as hard as I look, I cant find where the year has gone. There was so much that I wanted to do, related to the seasons, but I have not had the time. I always knew that I would not be able to do all on my wish list, therefore I have been concentrating upon what I can do. That includes my observations of the Badgers.

As it was the solstice I thought I would have the best chance of filming the badgers. So I went out on Saturday night Sunday morning to watch them. While I still don't have access to the main sett I have been watching, there are others I can observe. While the wet weather does make it uncomfortable, the rain can help deaden noise and can make it easier to remain undetected. However, this night I saw absolutely nothing. Normally, I would see something, be it a mouse or vole, the odd rabbit but not a creature stirred. It is probably just that they had better sense than to venture out.

Not deterred, most would say foolishly, I did the same last night. This time I did at least get to see, very briefly, six of the Badgers as they moved towards a known feeding ground. While I did think of moving to that area, I decided to stay as it was likely that they would return that way. But they did not.

So I returned home feeling tired but philosophical. I had to go in to Consett for some shopping and to the bank so I could not retire to bed. Therefore, I was able to snatch some film of one of the Red kites as it glided over my home as I went to bring in the milk. I kept the camera with me when I went to catch the bus. So often when I have been at the stop, I have seen the kites from there. So I thought I would take it more in hope than expectation.

There was no sign of the kite but there was a female blackbird, busy pulling worms from the ground. While a little shaky I filmed her. Then while standing there I was busy watching a small white butterfly that came to rest on the grass. I was just powering up the camera when a swift came down and snatched it from the air. So quick was it that I was not sure what I had seen, but as I could see the swift departing with the white wings visible in the beak, I was left in awe of the swifts agility.

While I tried to get round my chores efficiently, I was confronted by a queue in the butchers. That meant that I would have to wait an hour for the next bus. As I came out of the shop, I bumped into a couple from the village who I had not seen for a while. So we had a little chin wag. Then I decided that as I had to wait I would go for a cup of tea.

One of the things that is rather surprising is that in Consett there are some quite good Cafés. Not sophisticated dining, but much better than the greasy spoon one could expect. I have been slowly discovering these, and went to one that I have not been to before. As my accent is not a north east one, frequently this will cause me to stand out. Therefore, sitting at my table I heard one of the two children, in a stage whisper, make a comment. The mother apologised and we fell into conversation. It was just general chit chat, then the youngest child spotted my red kite badge. I have an enamelled badge that the RSPB issues to help raise money, and the mother said that her daughter was nuts about the red kites. So getting out my camera I showed them the film I had just shot of the Kite. It also ran onto the film of the Blackbird.

Well, without relating the whole of the conversation, it turns out that she works for the local education authority and asked if I would be willing to give some talks to schools about wildlife and natural history. Well I could have been knocked over with a feather. I cautiously said I would, but I would need to know how doing something like this could be educationally significant and add to help the children learn. It was her turn to be ready to be knocked over with a feather, as she realised I was on the same wave length as her and I could be what she has been looking for for ages.

It was left with us exchanging phone numbers and email addresses, and that we needed to arrange a meeting to discuss what is needed. Anyway I get home to a ringing telephone, its the husband of my driver from a previous posting. (its not my fault if your not keeping up) She had just delivered a baby girl. They had thought from the scan that it was a boy, so they now have to start thinking of a girls name. They had been thinking of giving this child the same name as I have, but as I told them calling any child “Mouse” was not fair.

However, the main reason for the phone call was that they wanted further help with some small mammal trapping. But this will not be locally but two hundred miles away. While I am interested I cant do everything and I have left it open.

I just wonder if in six months time I will still be wondering where all the time fled?

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.

Red Kite Film

As a special request from a tree, yes I do talk to trees and this one talks back, (Quick call the men in white Coats the mouse has gone bonkers), I am posting the film of the Kite as a You Tube Embedded item.

As I used to be on a Dial Up connection myself, I know just how difficult it can be to view media files so for the Tree and my other reader who uses dial up here it is.

A Difficult Day Became A Red Kite Day

Today I was expecting to be a difficult day, but my stars were saying would be a lucky one. As I was meeting with my bank manager, I thought I would need some luck. I changed my bank account a number of years ago to my current bank when they were a building society. However I was just outside of the date that would have given me free shares when they floated on the Stock Exchange. As this was only by a few days, I made a complaint then. That marked me out to the local Manager as a difficult customer.

The situation never improved. Then when my ex and I split up, because of the debts and bills she had I aided her by acting as guarantor for her rent and other commitments so that she did not end up homeless. However, when my bank heard of this, my bank placed restrictions on my account that made a difficult situation nearly impossible.

I helped my ex clear her debts but because I never had any extra cash, the bank kept the restrictions in place. This also meant that it was impossible for me to move my account as the restrictions normally only apply to people that have been irresponsible. When in fact I was being responsible.

In spite of complaints made at the time, I was stuck in a situation not of my making. Therefore, when I got an invitation to go and see the Bank Manager, I was not looking forward to it. However, because of the Credit Crunch, the bank has been reviewing its customers accounts and couldn't work out why these restrictions had been put in place. I told them why, and even then the advisor I was speaking to could not understand what was happening, as that seemed just plain wrong to her.

Well the upshot is that the restrictions are to be lifted and they will be investigating as it appears that the then manager overstepped his authority. I did ask if I was going to be compensated, but all they were prepared to say was that they would look in to that. Well if I am I think I will buy a pig and give it flying lessons.

On my way home I actually felt more angry about it, but while passion can be useful, I could not see any way to channel it positively. Also what I had expected to be just a couple of hours had dragged on to being all afternoon. As I had planed to go and film at one of the birds nest sites, I had missed that chance.

So, I switched on the computer and looked up out of the Window: RED KITE. I grabbed the video and was out the back door like a bullet. I cant help it but the moment see the Red Kites I am five years old again. There are some of my readers who know that I am childish anyway, but I really do get excited by seeing these birds. Anyway I got some film out the back of my place, including some shots of the kite being harried by a crow. It also serves to illustrate just how large the wingspans are of these magnificent birds. I would have gone chasing the bird and got more but I realised I was standing in the street with bare feet. Well at least I keep the neighbours occupied and while they are talking about my antic's they are not gossiping about anyone else.

So what started out as a difficult day became a Red Kite Day.

A Red Kite Day

Today has been a rather unusual day for me as I had an appointment with a Dentist. As my reader in the UK will know, here in Britain there is a serious shortage of dentists. There are plenty in private practice, but finding one that will accept NHS (National Health Service) patients is dam near impossible. I have been on several waiting lists for all of this century.

Anyway, on Monday I had an initial appointment and because I needed a filling and the Dentist had a cancellation I had this appointment today. On Monday while waiting for the bus early in the morning I could see a Kestrel hovering just over the gardens of the houses bordering the road. If ever I needed something to take my mind off something this was it.

Then Today as I walked down to the bus stop, a pair of Red Kites came wheeling over head. As I stood waiting they were criss crossing the whole expanse of sky, quartering the open ground around the houses of the village. The sight of them put a smile on the face of even the most miserable folk.

It stopped me thinking of Laurence Olivier in the film Marathon Man.

The Dentist was fantastic, for me a test of a good dentist is if he doesn't try to hold a conversation with his fingers poking around in my mouth. I even told him an old joke:

A new patent goes to the dentist after being sat in the chair, the patent grabs hold of the dentists testicles and says “We are not going to hurt each other now, are we?”

With the treatment over I had the best part of a hour to wait for the bus home. Therefore I went and got some shopping. Having just spent the last few days doing my washing, I needed to get some Washing Liquid. As I use the brand Ecover, an environmentally friendly one, I have to make the effort to obtain it. It was as I bought it that someone else from the village saw me and commented on me using this. I don't know what it is about our current culture but people seem to want to us all to be some kind of homogeneous mass?

Even after getting my shopping I still had time on my hands, so I went to a really nice friendly café and indulged in the wonderful home made cake they have and some real coffee. It is something that puzzles me why so few cafés will make the effort to make decent coffee or even decent tea?

When I got back home I went straight out to see if I could film the Red Kites. While they were still about they were up at altitude. They really did seem to be just enjoying the freedom of the open sky. I don't know if it was the dentist or the kites that improved my smile more.

Feeding the Birds

As well as feeding the birds, I also put out some cat food as I regularly have a hedgehog that visits my yard. I was aware that some of the birds that visit are also feeding on this. Yesterday morning getting up early, I noted that the food had not been taken by the hedgehog.

However, I left it there as I knew that birds like the Magpie and Jackdaw would take the food. Failing that, there are cats from the neighbourhood who would garner a free feed.

As I sat writing my notes from another night of Badger watching, I was treated to a veritable parade of birds coming to feed in the yard. I think that it was the magpie that got the lions share. But what made the situation remarkable, was at one point I heard the vocalizations of Jackdaws, looking up I saw them mobbing a Red Kite that was just circling over my roof.

I sat back and watched in amazement as the Kite attempted a decent into my yard. It was only the presence of my solar powered clothes dryer (Washing Line), that prevented the Kite landing.
To be so close to such a bird was incredible, but it does make me wonder if the kite would have been able to eat the cat food. I just don't know.

Anyway, the picture is one that I took the other day, just to remind me that spring is here.

April Showers and Red Kites

The other day after being out, I returned home not long before the rain came. As its April and it has been a wet month, that should not be surprising. However, the reason for mentioning it here, is as that shower tailed off, I opened the back door to take out the rinsed milk bottles and put out the rubbish. I found a pool of water lapping at the door seal. The reason was a blockage in the drain. This is something I still need to clear properly, but I did do a temporary job. Anyway, last night more heavy rain was forecast, and it must have been playing on my mind as I woke up and knew I had to check the drain. While I had not flooded but I had to clear the drain again.

This caused me to get up latter than I expected. While I wanted to be out early, I was the only person that was effected by this. However, because I was still in the house at the opening of office hours, my attempts to leave the house was disturbed by the telephone. While I was tempted to ignore it, I would only have wondered who it was. It turned out it was the food hygiene department of the local council regarding the “Eggs Incident” While I don't intend to disclose the nature of the conversation, I am heartened to see the authorities taking the matter seriously. And to those readers that feel this matter is trivial, in some ways selling caged eggs as free range is. However, if there were a disease outbreak or a salmonella contamination and a recall occurred of all eggs from caged production, there would be people put at risk by thinking that what they had thought were free range eggs were safe.

Anyway, this lead to me having to stay home. As I sat at my desk, I could see in the distance, over the treetops the Red Kite that I had been hoping to film. What was even more frustrating was that the bird was around for well over an hour. So close but so far. Yet from my distant vantage point, I witnessed the kite do something I have only seen previously on film, a Red Kite hovering. For anyone who has not seen a Red Kite, we are talking about a bird that has a wing span of over one and a half metres, so to see such precision flying is amazing. Had it not been for the trees in my line of sight, well at least in my mind I was getting some incredible footage.

Anyway when I had finished dealing with the council officer, I was able to head out to get some lunch, and much to my surprise the red kite was still in the area. While beyond the range of vision from my windows, I was pleased to see the bird still around. Following a quick bought sandwich rather than my buying bread to make my own, I was out like a shot.

I had the tantalising prospect of the kite in my vision, but at a distance. Not willing to be deterred, I headed into the direction the Kite had been flying, although graceful gliding is a better description, and for over an hour was tantalised by the occasionally glimpse of the Kite. I lost site of the bird, but I continued searching.

Eventually, I realised that the bird had landed in a tree. I was not totally sure, when I spotted it, if I had found the Red Kite or not. I am not used to seeing them perched, so I approached with caution. The difficulty was the trees were obscuring my vision. Finally I got this picture, just before it took off again, and I could be sure it was the Kite. By this time I could not follow as I was well and truly caught in the wood with no way of extricating myself easily nor with any clear view of the bird.

While I am starting to get some rather good (types with smug grin) pictures of late, it has actually been the months of hard work tracking and working out territory that has really paid off. As well as a lot of luck.

Painted Lady and Red Kite

I can always tell when I've been neglecting my wifely duties, as is normally manifests in the running out of underwear. So while I was out this morning, and knew I had to return fairly early so that I could get some washing ton. Therefore, I was in the House to hear the radio four programme World on the Move. While I do listen to this as a podcast, it is rare for me to be able to catch it as a live broadcast.

I have mentioned in previous postings about this programme, and I dare say it will again, as this is quite inventive of the BBC to broadcast such a project. However my reason for mentioning the programme today is that of the two of the species that they're asking listeners to track, one of them I have seen already just three days ago. While sitting at the computer when I noticed something fly past the window, I looked out expecting to see a bird, and there was a painted lady butterflies sitting on my window ledge. I quickly grabs the video camera, but in the time it takes for the electronics to warm up the butterfly has flown off. Had I got the film of the butterfly I would have mentioned it at the time here, as I thought it was early for this species. Yet by listening to the programme today, I realised that the butterfly painted Lady is at least two weeks early here. Another effect of climate change.

While my wildlife watching this morning had not yielded up much that was worth reporting, it is still been pleasant to be out. And it was wild if I was having a cup of tea following a late lunch, that out of the living room window and saw one of the red kites fly over.

My poor neighbours must wonder what goes on in my place at times as I ran straight up the stairs to grab both video and still camera. When I got back downstairs, the red kite was no longer incite. But awaited as I know from experience, when they are all about they tend to fly in a pattern where there quartering the fields looking for false or shoes or beetles. My decision to wait was rewarded as into a very clear expanse of sky the red kite gracefully gliding over.

After taking the still images, I waited at longer to see if that kite returned but it is policy flown off. However it did find it rather amusing that one young mother returning with her child from infants school, had to, mildly, chastise the child after it said something mildly rude about me that was obviously a repeat of something that an adult had said, previously in the child's hearing. Personally I don't worry about what the neighbours think, if they think I'm eccentric then so be it. The one thing I haven't lost as an adult is the ability to see the world as a child, with wonder and excitement.

A Link to the World on the Move Website

A Small World or Balls Up at Blackhill

Yesterday (Tuesday) I had three tangible demonstrations of just how incompetent I am.
In my defence on Monday night I had been out watching the Badgers. Therefore in part I am offering a defence of tiredness (your lord ship). And while I think of it, and I had better use the thought before it gets lonely, I did get to see a Mole while out watching the Badgers.
I had planed on getting some sleep during the day, but a telephone call meant that I couldn't do that.

The caller was someone that I have been writing to for more than fourteen years, but I had never met before. I started writing to “The Professor” after reading an article that he had posted in a news group. It turned out that he genuinely was a climatologist working for one of the universities in Cambridge. That fact never stopped from giving him a hard time over some of the assumptions or his interpretation of the data looking at ice loss in the Antarctic All in a good humoured way I should add, but I have been signing off my mails by calling myself that pain in the butt (that's the clean version). He had been visiting Newcastle University and had made the time to visit as he hoped to see a Red Kite.

Now I knew that we had friends in common, as I know that he has worked with people I know. However, as he showed me some pictures of his last trip to Antarctica, he slipped in a couple that had been taken of me years ago. I asked him how he got them. He told me that his daughter had taken them. Well if he had a feather he could have floored me with it.

When my ex-wife and I first split up, I started to build a new circle of friends. One was a PHD student who was remarkable in so far as was one of the few people who had not only heard of Climate Change, but understood some of the science. Well the discovery that I had nearly been dating The Professors daughter was almost a Hommer Simpson moment in its self. But what really floored me was that she had been much more interested in me than I ever realised. However, as I now repeated to her farther, I was married at the time and while I was separated it would have been inappropriate to have started a relationship then.

And this is really the first demonstrations of just how incompetent I am, while I had thought about trying to contact her, when I knew I was single, I didn't even though I knew there was mutual interest.

As the professor and I went out to see if we could get a sighting of the Red Kites, we talked and I asked him if it had not been that his daughter knew me would he have come to meet me? And did she know you were meeting me? The answer was no on both counts. However, he said that a couple of years ago she had gone through a “messy” divorce and she had mentioned me only a few weeks previously, wondering what could have been. While making me feel uncomfortable I said that we can all think of events where we made choices and where we could all think of ourselves in different lives...

While in one of those awkward silences, not one but three Red Kites came over. I had chosen to take the Professor up to a ridge overlooking some fields, and it paid off. For a good five minutes we had a clear sighting of the birds. I was thrilled as I trained the video camera on them, I really thought that I was getting some great shots. It was not until I got home and tried to review the footage that I realised that I had been trying to film with the camera on pause! The second demonstrations of just how incompetent I am. But I got twenty minutes film of my legs and feet as I slogged up the hill!

When the Professor went he gave me a little gift, some sausages from his local farmers market. As I may have bored people with here before, I love trying sausages made by craft producers from quality food markets. So he had brought some as a gift.

Well while I do pride myself on my cooking skills, I think I must have left them by the Badger sett. I got out the griddle pan and switched on the wrong ring on the cooker to start with. I prepared the potatoes and Broccoli and then only put one pan on for both, this resulted in overcooking the potatoes. I did finally get my dinner cooked, but it was more Joe's Café effort than Gordon Ramsay meal. Well as things are supposed to happen in threes, I hope that I can get back to the illusion at least that I know what I'm doing now.

One last thing, I mailed the Professor, and told him that yes he could pass on my details to his daughter. She and I were good mates eighteen, nineteen years ago, but that she should only expect friendship now.

Its events like this that reminds me of how small our world really is. Further it shows that it only takes a woman to turn me in to a gibbering wreck.

Red Kites Nest Building

On Wednesday I went out into the woods to see if I could work out where the Red Kites were likely to nest. Previously, I had seen the courtship flight and a pair of the kites get together. Also Last year I discovered a nest that had partly fallen out of the tree while being built. You have to remember that as reintroduced birds, they don't have the skills garnered by observation of other breeding pairs, and the birds are quite young. I was told by the head of the Northern Kites Project of one pair that tried to build a nest on the ground in the first year they breed.

Thus, I started looking around the location of that previous nest site. Because of the thinning work in the wood and the high winds that have battered the area over the winter, there are plenty of twiggy branches on the ground. However, I was not prepared for what I saw next, at a distance of about one hundred and fifty yards, a Red Kite came majestically swooping out of the sky and picked up one of these. I had not seen the bird coming nor could I through the maelstrom of branches see where the bird went.

So I decided to set up the camera and see if the bird would come back and if I could film this collection of nesting material. I found what I thought was a discreet spot and set up and waited. I got brief glimpses of the Kite as He or She glided overhead, but no more collection occurred.
While waiting I was tantalised by the brief sighting of the Goshawk who appears to have returned, this one was carrying a wood pigeon. Again I hope to locate the nest site latter. But for now I was more concerned with the Kites.

After a couple of hours waiting, I heard behind me a sound, as I looked round I saw the Kite rising with another branch in its talons. This time I was at least able to move quickly to see what direction it went off in.

I waited for a long time, until the light started to fade but no return did the Kite make that day.

Breeding Frogs and Displaying Red Kites

While it was not planed that way, it was rather fortunate that my new toy arrived on the first day of spring. So far I have been able to get out each day with the video camera and I have got some interesting footage. However, it will take time before I can post anything here as I still need to get the software and cables to do that. However, getting out each day to explore with the camera is a pleasure.

While the camera is digital, I am learning its limitations and its abilities. On Sunday I went looking for the signs of breeding behaviour in the amphibians, and I found frog spawn. I used the camera to film the spawn and was really pleased that the macro facility really worked and worked well. Playing the footage back, I could see the frog developing inside the egg. I plan to try and return several times and observe the development. I must admit that I am fascinated by these really basic aspects of natural history, whenever I see something I just become a child again. There will be some folks that know me, that will attest to the fact that I have never grown up.

Then on Monday after getting an okay sequence as I was heading for home I spotted a pair of Bullfinches feeding and got some clear footage of them. Tuesday I popped out early, and while I didn't get what I was hoping to see, I had a long clear view of a Jackdaw preening.

But as I had other commitments, I had to head off and do all the boring stuff of life. However, when I got back from a supermarket run, if only the cat would buy her own food I could be saved that job, I still had time to get out for a wander.

Last year I witnessed a pair of the Red Kites trying to build a nest, they failed as it collapsed off the branch. Therefore I have been keeping up an observation to see if it happened again. Therefore I have been looking out for any activity that would indicate the Kites were pairing or nesting.

As the thinning work is going on at the moment in the woods, some paths and tracks are closed to the public. Therefore I have had to take longer circuitous routes to the various locations to observe. While in the thick of the wood I spotted one of the Kites. As I tried to make my way forward I realised that there was not one but three of them and they were circling. Then to my wonder and delight I realised there were four of them.

Had it not been the happy chance of the trees still being without leaf and all three appearing in the patches of open sky at the same time I may not have realised what I was seeing. I was one hundred yards of thick wood away from gaining a clear view but there were three males competing in a courtship flight for a single female. At one point two of the birds, one of the males and the female exchange food in an aerial pass, talon to talon. This is behaviour that I have only read of in books before and never witnessed. What an amazing sceptical, as one bird (the male) has to fly upside down, all be it briefly, to complete this feat in mid air.

I got a short, a few seconds long, of one of the kites though the trees, but after the female chose the male, they flew off before I could escape the thicket. Had it not been for the forest operations going on I would have tried following but the path I would have needed to take went straight to where heavy machinery was felling timber and as excited as I was I did not want to get into the path of a hundred foot spruce coming down.

The excitement of seeing something like that is amazing. It would have been great if I could have filmed it, but that was not to be this time at least. I don't care if people think that I am like a child at moments like this, as these experiences provide me with memories that are priceless.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

Now I guess that I may need to explain to my overseas readers that the RSPB, the British version of the Audubon Club, started via its children's group, the young ornithologists club a project to look at what birds were visiting peoples gardens. Now that part should be as clear as mud!

However, us adults stamped our feet and started crying and said we want to play too... So quite soon after it started thirty years ago, we adults (adult only by longevity and not temperament) were able to sit for an hour and count the birds that visit our garden. They even make it easy by saying you can use the park as your back garden.

Therefore for an hour today I became a child. I went to the park for a change, as while my yard is getting better for birds, I also know that there are periods when birds just don't come in. And as one of the rules is that the bird must land, it was possible that I could end up seeing loads but recording nothing. Us Brits know how to make life complicated!

However, the serious part of this is not the very useful data that this project has generated in the past twenty nine years, but the fact that it has excited children young and old to look and learn about the environment, conservation and natural history.

Well I suppose that you want to hear what I saw, no I hear you cry, well I am going to tell you anyway!

Blackbird (6), Jackdaw (19), Magpie (3), Robin, Wood Pigeon, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Long tailed Tit (14), Great tit, Blue Tit (9), Starling (7), Pied Wagtail (3), Collard Dove (2) and Tree Sparrow (8)

Then following my stint I went for a walk and I ended the day with a long sighting of one of the Red Kites.

A Day Watching Wildlife

When I bought my new digital camera, a second hand one off of the Internet, it was very much with wildlife photography in mind. While I am still a fan of old fashioned film, I had grown to see the real advantages derived from digital. Therefore I decided I would head off and put the camera through its paces yesterday and headed off to a hide to try and photograph some small birds.

As with any public hides, you do have to put up with “the experts” who always seem to know better and will always tell you what you have just missed. Yesterday was no exception and the moment I was through the door I was being told I had just missed seeing a Yellowhammer. Now there is a great community sprit among wildlife watchers, and I know that my enthusiasm for what I have seen can create a blurred fog in the eyes of strangers. Yet often some of my fellow wildlife watchers don’t seem to know when to just observe. Sometimes it cam be like listening to a bad commentary on an otherwise great wildlife documentary.

Although, many pairs of eyes can mean that you get to see more as we are all looking in different directions. Therefore, even with one person pontificating about what they can see, its normally the person with the most expensive gear, there is a great shared experience gained from using public hides.

This one in Thornley Wood is set up specifically to allow the observation of small birds. Many you will see in the English garden, but on a much more grand scale. There are feeders and simple bird tables set up around a small pond, and you can see the tits and a myriad other birds flitting on and off the tables and feeders. Some you will only get a brief look at, others will stay a while longer, but all relatively close. In fact at this hide you often don’t need binoculars to watch the birds. That can encourage children and young people to start watching Birds and wildlife in general.

However, I knew that yesterday was going to be a good day as on my way to the hide I saw two Red Kites while on the bus. I had wanted to get off and photograph them but as it was a Sunday I knew I would have a long wait for the next bus, so I just enjoyed watching them.

At the hide there were several people with big expensive cameras, in the past I perhaps would have been just like them, except that I always felt self continuous about appearing flashy or pretentious, and to be quite honest conversations about equipment drive me mad. Therefore I was grateful that my little camera doesn’t make my look as if I have a problem with the size of my phallus. As for me it’s about seeing and if I can photograph what I do see.

Also, while I do enjoy seeing the rare and less common species, its not about ticking it off some list, I see sighting something less common as a good indication that we are doing something right with and about our environment. Therefore, I am always happy to see birds like the Blue Tit, Great Tit or the Chaffinch, picture above.

However seeing birds like the Great spotted Woodpecker (see image) or the Yellowhammer is a treat too, and one that I had yesterday. What also made the day rather special was a brief glance of a Deer, a roe deer I think, and a fox that came trotting through the clearing.

I would loved to have stayed longer among the strangers there, but the chatter of the expert was driving me mad so I left early and went for a walk. It is somewhere I will be returning to as apart from being a beautiful place it is rich with wildlife.

An Inspirational Conservationist

I was asked if I could help provide some green woodcraft activity for some of the Forestry Commission staff that were attending a meeting in Chopwell Wood yesterday. As this mouse and a few other members of the Friends of Chopwell Wood recently underwent four days of training and experience to enable us to pass on these skills, I thought that it would be a wonderful opportunity to show the Forestry Commission folks what we do in their wood. While I do frequently call it my wood, that is just because it’s my home base from a landscape and conservation perspective, and while the Forestry Commission owns the land, it is in fact the communities’ wood.

However, I only tell you all this to set the scene, as after I had set up the equipment, as any reader of my old Blog will know we made a Shave Horse and Pole lathe, I was offered some lunch and the opportunity to hear a talk by Keith Bowey the head of Northern Kites.

Again my regular reader knows, I am passionate about the Red Kites, any day that I see them lifts my spirits and the way that the local community gets excited about seeing these birds is amazing. Every time I meet a stranger and they see I am carrying a camera or binoculars (That’s all the Time), I am asked if I have seen the Kites!

Yesterday I met the man who has inspired that passion, Keith Bowey. Every now and then you get to meet someone who really shares a passion, and for me that happened yesterday.

I have personally felt that far to often when conservation projects happen that everyone should be told of what is occurring. That way people can be enthused by great wildlife. One of the things that the Northern Kites team did was to tell everyone that “Hey we are reintroducing this bird into the area” rather than keep it all secret. This has had the positive effect of ensuring that the birds were not persecuted. Persecution is why the Red Kite nearly became extinct in the first place. In the 1930s it was down to one breading female.

That was how close we all came to loosing this fantastic bird.

Right from the start, Northern Kites, got the community involved and all of the birds have been adopted and named by local schools, in fact we need the kites to breed faster as more schools want to adopt the birds that have yet to be laid and hatched yet! By being so public and getting the community support and involvement when one of the birds was poisoned in the first year, the community condemnation, especially from children, has prevented it happening again.

The Red Kites were one of the prime factors that caused me to move to my village in the first place.

I wish I could convey the passion that Keith Bowey has, personally he has inspired me a new and I can see great thing for my wood, our community woodland that is Chopwell Wood.

Catching Up

Today and part of yesterday I have been playing catch up. I have been so busy out of the house, that even my cat, was asking who I was when I came in. So it was down to all the boring housework bits. However, because of where I am living as I hung my washing out on the line, I saw two of the Red Kites glide over in the distance. It even made me feel less peeved at having to do the housework.

In between doing essential bits around the house I have been trying to catch up on some emails and letters, so if anyone is expecting a message from the mouse it will be coming, soon…

Its not all been hard work though and I did get some time for a stroll That’s when I saw this Phaeoulus schweinitzeii although I took this image off it a few weeks ago. I was surprised it was still there, as frequently the kids destroy any of the fruiting bodies of fungi they see.

Because I was playing catch up, I was able to find the time to read some of my friends Blog's, and one made an interesting point. Because of where she lives, it sounds like a paradise the way she writes about it; she has to use wood as her fuel. However, it concerns her that it adds to her carbon footprint.

The simple answer is no it doesn’t, as it is part of a closed carbon cycle loop. The tree grows, capturing carbon, which is only released when it is burnt.

However, it is a little more complex than that as that carbon that is released will be around for about fifty years before it is reabsorbed. Thus while it still is that closed carbon cycle it is the timescale that prevents the answer being simple. This is also why carbon offsetting is so unrealistically simplistic.

This is where people pay for trees to be planted as a salve for their conscience when they jet off on holiday. Even if everyone did that from now on it would not be for fifty to seventy five years that those trees would start to have any impact upon carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

The real problem with burning any fuel is understanding its source. If that fuel was produced using the suns energy from the last couple of centuries, then it is part of a closed loop carbon cycle. With using the suns energy stored in fossil fuels is that it old energy and ancient carbon, that became locked away to provide the breathable atmosphere we have to day.

By releasing that old carbon we are changing the atmosphere back to a state when life barely existed. Not forgetting that plants were first, we are in danger of wiping out all animal life on the planet.

Wildlife and the Supermarket

I had hopes that today I could take some time out and obtain some much-needed rest. But as the old saying goes the best laid plans of mice… Well this mouse found that his plans were all put to rest a long while ago. Thus apart from tackling housework and all that, I had to make a trip to the supermarket today as well.

Where I have been so busy combined with the exertions of yesterday as well, I over slept this morning. Normally I do rise much earlier than do most people, half past four to five in the morning is not an unusual occurrence for me. But today it was gone nine. That had the consequence that I missed the free bus to the Tesco store in the main town. Not that this was a major problem as I could still get the afternoon one. However, with all that I needed to do I suddenly found myself running out of morning. Thus I shot up to the post office, we are lucky as the government have failed to close this one down yet, and on the way I saw that the council were cutting the long grass behind the village bus shelter.

This large expanse of grass is allowed to grow long providing shelter for insects and wild flowers. While far from a perfect natural history site it is still a good place for wildlife. Further, as I was walking towards the post office I was thinking that it would not be long before the Red Kites find this and start looking for food there. Then as I look up, there was one of the Red Kites, seeing that cheered me up no end.

Walking back I tried to see where the Kite might have gone but I couldn’t see it and guessed that it must have gone further a field than the village. Just in case it was lower down or even on the ground picking up a feed I scanned the area of the cut grass, to
My astonishment I saw a hare suddenly run out of a small hollow in the ground and disappear rapidly from my sight. While I knew that hares were around, it is the first time that I can positively say that I have seen one and that I may have seen a rabbit that I had misidentified as a hare.

Then a short time latter while waiting for the bus to take me to the supermarket, I spotted the Red Kite again, clearly quartering a field. They are a magnificent sight, so graceful and elegant, it made me feel less frustrated at having to waste my time doing the weekly shopping.

The picture is of quarry pond that others and I were working on yesterday.

One Success One Failure

Last night I attempted to get out and see if I could observe the badgers at one of the five setts there are locally. However, almost as soon as I set off the heavens opened. I don’t actually mind the rain and while I dressed appropriately, the rain was making the ground slick and very slippery. I am normally a good stalker and can often get quite close without making my presence know to any wildlife I am trying to watch. But last night because of the traitorous conditions under foot, I found it very difficult to move silently. While I could not see what I had disturbed, I think I alerted the badgers to my presence. Even so I found myself a spot to locate myself and waited to see if I could see the badgers.

Locally in the five setts there were seventeen cubs this year that I can be sure of. The number may be as many as twenty-three but that could be an over-estimate as there could be that chance that I double counted some of the cubs. Thus I will settle on the number of seventeen as a definite number of new cubs this year. There have also been losses as I know of at least three adults that have been killed by traffic and I have been told of two that were shot by a farmer. Something that is illegal but without proof or the bodies there is no way of proving the cause of death. However over all the population is reasonably healthy and stable.

Thus I was hoping that I would get to see at least some of the badgers, I was in an excellent spot but not a sign did I see. After four hours I was very cold and wet, so I decided to make my way home. Some times that’s the way you make good plans but see nothing.

However, as any reader that has followed my move of Blog site will know, any day that I see the Red Kites is a good day for me. Rather than calling them red letter days, I call them “Red Kite Days”. Therefore I have been excited to see over the past few days one of the red kites coming to feed in the fields near my home. I spotted it initially less than a week ago out of the back window, as I sat typing. I had my binoculars to hand and my eyes were not deceiving me. Then it was there the following day too. As the breading season is now over for them, incidentally we had nine chicks successfully fledged, they are now venturing out looking for food further away from the nest sites. As they will follow methodical patterns, it is possible to see them on a regular basis at reasonably predictable times. Thus it is with this Red Kite.

I can happily report that today is a Red Kite Day.