Long Tailed Tits garden nest building

After 4 weeks of stopping and starting, our Long Tailed Tits looked to to have completed their complex nest in our garden. Its our first ever LT Tit nest and being so close to our studio window (just 20 feet away) it's causing lots of distraction and interest for me.

There have been at least 3 birds building the nest in a scrappy patch of honeysuckle and bramble close to the house, on the garden boundary. By luck, I noticed  the birds collecting feathers and moss from day one and we watched as they cleverly weaved and built a moss and feather platform. At the beginning of the nest build, there was a lot of activity for about a week. It ended abruptly. The birds simply stopped, disappearing and leaving us rather deflated for probably 10 days. Interestingly despite the cold weather and presumed lack of insects, they didn't even return to feed on the garden feeders, something they had being doing since the new year.

To my delight they returned back to the garden, and in the last week they've built a typical cupped - shaped nest before developing further and adding a dome on top. Whilst they've been building the nest, bramble and honeysuckle have grown and obscured the whole nest so it would appear to be a secretive and safe site, out of view of predators, so must stand a good chance of success. Long tailed Tit nests have a high proportion of failure and are often raided and abandoned. A search of Google images for Long Tailed Tits nests show many that are poorly hidden in full view of  Jays and Magpies, so whilst our garden nest is going to be hard to view and follow progress on, it should be safe and successful. I say this knowing they've already come under the scrutiny of a Kestrel whilst nest building and our plucky birds have also joined in mobbing a Jay away from a nest site that was helping itself to a wood pigeon's nest.

Our Long Tailed Tits have happily been collecting Goose Down courtesy of a tear in my Jack Wolfskin coat

The elusive Water Rail in Orlestone forest

I first heard the pig like squeals of Water Rails at the end of January whilst surveying for Teal and Woodcock in the flooded woodland patch on the Long Rope trail. 

 Calling from a patch of woodland that I thought I knew so well, such was the loudness of the squeal that for a second I wondered if I was listening to a real Wild Boar.  These Water Rails represent a first record for me in Orlestone Forest and are still very much a surprise bird to find here. 

 Over the space of a week I finally viewed fleeting glimpses of two birds, but I was never able to get a photograph such is the speed of the birds disappearing behind fallen trees and banks of bullrushes and wet scrub. Wanting to share the birds with friends, I set-up a wildlife camera trap, trained on a plastic cage (ex B&Q solar light) filled with fat balls. I left the trap running for a week and I am amazed at the results the camera has delivered. The pictures are sufficiently clear enough to show that this bird is an adult displaying a bright red eye and clean grey face. Its difficult to sex as males should be marginally larger than females.  

 I'm in no doubt this bird is a migrant from Eastern Europe and may well have been present since October, likely to leave and head East any day now. As I write I've set-up the camera just to see if I can record it once more before the birds depart.

 The camera trap used is a Bushnell Nature View HD. For birds and small mammal images I can recommend it as it has two close-up lenses. See link - http://bushnell.com/wildlife/trail-cameras/natureview/live-view

Florida raptors, Coopers Hawk, Red shouldered Hawk and Osprey

Treking around Orlestone Forest, detouring around fly-tipping, slipping and sliding in the mud and more mud. Looking up at the sky a Buzzard here, a fleeting Sparrowhawk there and nothing close enough to merit powering on my camera. How different it was just a week ago on a family Florida / Everglades holiday. There, good trails and boardwalks, birds of prey everywhere - many very approachable too. We saw 11 winter birds of prey in Florida, many from the car (including a Bald Eagle), a memorable all-white Short-tailed Hawk (sadly no pic) and Ospreys just about everywhere. So here's a selection of some easy stuff taken in just enough time not to annoy my family who stood waiting and swatting mosquitos.

Our first new bird was a superb Coopers Hawk that Sian found hidden deep in a darky shady Mangrove Hammock. She spent some time trying to point the bird out to me through a maze of foliage and twisted trees - it was very dificult to see. In the end its position was identified by a number of small birds in its vicinty delivering a chorus of alarm calls.  From the wooden boardwalk, so typical of Everglade nature trails, this Coopers Hawk seemed distant; enveloped in shadow. So I'm amazed how detailed the pictures are from this distance. This male Coopers Hawk had prey, which I think may have been a Grey squirrel. In size the hawk looked like a lean and purposeful Goshawk or even perhaps an over sized Sparrowhawk with a long powerful rounded tail.

Coopers Hawk, John Peenekamp National park, Florida Keys

The Red Shouldered Hawks were photographed at Flamingo, a superb state park in the Everglades (no Flamingos there though!) The birds were very vocal and very easy to find. As I photographed the hen bird the male decided to attempt some opportunistic mating. Minutes later I photographed Ospreys mating too. Perhaps they were prompted by the warm March temperatures and the heat and wet season to come. Just before we arrived in Miaimi the Everglades had received intense storm with high winds, and over our holiday I saw many Ospreys rebuilding nests, bashfully flying down into busy car parks collecting branches, and sometimes litter, to rebuild their nests.

From the moment we arrived at Miami Airport and headed to Miami Beach it was impossible not to see Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures soaring and wheeling over the city skyline or sometimes just sitting on roadside gantries and buildings. On one trail in the Everglades Park, Black Vultures infamously sit on top of visitors' cars to demolish windscreen wipers and rubber car trim. For protection we followed other visitor's solutions, wrapping tarpaulin sheets (provided by the park) over the front of the cars for protection. We saw so few birds that day (indeed a feature of the Everglades this present, dry season) that the vandalous Vultures will be one of the abiding memories.

Red Shouldered Hawks, Flamingo Everglades National Park

Osprey, Flamingo, Everglades National park

Black Vulture at Flamingo, Everglades National park

Turkey Vulture at Flamingo

Turkey Vulture at Flamingo

Winter garden birds 2015/2016

1 of 25 splendid Yellowhammers that come daily to feed on scattered seed on the lawn

We could have had more had our local Sparrowhawk not caught one..

This winter we've had Mealy Redpolls visiting the feeders since November. Numbers have peaked
at 16 and just occasionally there's a stunning male such as this.

Starlings in the garden, and there is still a healthy number in the Shadoxhurst village area.
I've just put a new nesting box up for them in the front garden.

Perhaps our new house extension work from 2015 has scared off our House Sparrows as we're just down to 2 birds at the moment.

Winter 2015/2016 has seen anything up to 14 Blue Tits on the feeders but in contrast  never more than  2 Great Tits are there.

2015 seemed a bumper year for Blue Tits judging by the high numbers now on the peanut feeders. They're now in their
finest breeding plumage.

There's always a couple of Coal Tits either on the feeders or they're up in the Pine tree foraging.

There are hundreds of Wood Pigeons around the village this winter many, like this one, coming into our garden.

Surveying birds in our rural garden last Sunday morning, the highlight had to be the 25 plus Yellowhammer flock that continues to return every winter. We have been feeding scattered seed on the lawn for about 15 years now and the Yellowhammer flock number seems pretty stable. The birds will only disperse in late April to breed, so there aren't many months when we don't see them. Another bird visting the garden and increasing in number is the Jackdaw. In the field behind the garden there might be up to 50 birds searching through the mud and horse dung and its not unusual to see up to 8 at a time drop into the garden.

It's not all good news though as one bird that seems to have dropped in number dramatically and yet used to be common is the House Sparrow. With just 2 birds present on Sunday, that's a big drop off from what we can normally expect to see - (should be dozens). In previous years we've had a sizable flock of Sparrows, perhaps up to 100 birds, roosting in the garden so hopefully the fall in number is just temporary. Our one male House Sparrow bird spends most of its time outside its favoured nest box in the front garden. From there you can also hear a lot more House Sparrows in the vicinity. I can only conclude someone is supplying them with a better quality bird seed than me, and that they've got wise to the flight path of our local Sparrowhawk and keeping out the garden.

So winter birds recorded on Sunday, included 25 Yellowhammers, 28 Chaffinches, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Sparrowhawk, 6 Pheasant, 5 Collared Doves, 2 Stock Doves, 1 Song Thrush, 12 Wood pigeon, 7 Jackdaw, 2 Magpies, 17 Feral Doves, 2 House Sparrows, 1 Song Thrush, 2 Blackbirds, 12 Blue Tits, 1 Coal Tit, 2 Robin, 3 Redpolls, 1 Moorhen, 2 Dunnock, 1 Wren, 2 Goldcrest, 2 Mistle Thrush singing in the vicinity, GS Woodpecker drumming and a flyover, 1 Greenwoodecker, 2 Herring Gulls, 20  Black Headed Gulls, 2 Common Gulls and 21 Mallard in the field behind. In the village surrounds, a newly arrived flock of 300+ Fieldfare plus the odd Redwing and 20 Starlings. Tawny and Little Owl were close by in the evenings.

Route to nowhere - the farce of the Duck Lane Coldblow byway

A group of 6 vehicles illegally driving through the byway January 2nd 2016

In the distance, a dog walker returns back on his route unable to walk on the byway

In Orlestone forest, the byway running from Duck Lane to Cold Blow, is now no more than an off - roaders' play thing - an adventure mud track now rendered impassable to everyone else.

Today, despite the byway being legally closed Oct-April, convoys of cars with fun loving passengers waving, drive through the by-way shamelessly, whilst ramblers, dog walkers and horse riders have no choice but to return back home. It would seem that Ashford Borough Council have lost the 'will' to close the route in the winter months and with a lack of policing, there is no enforcement of the byway laws. Judging by the large numbers of vehicles driving down the by-way across the festive season, word has spread that the route is 'open to use'.

Consequently, the legal majority can no longer walk, ride or visit in safety, whilst the illegal minority have the byway to play and ruin to themselves. Lawlessness doesn't have to continue, below is a link to how Derbyshire police stopped a similair problem in the Derbyshire Dales.

http://www.derbyshire.police.uk/My-Local-Police/BDivision/BSouthSection/BakewellSheldonOverHaddonandAshford/News/2015/11-June-Officers-work-to-tackle-nuisance-off-road-bikes-and-vehicles-in-the-Derbyshire-Dales.aspx

Autumn garden Hornets

This autumn the back garden has been favoured by many Hornets which are now free from nest duty in the swan song of their lives. Some loiter around the edges of the pond, others are on the hunt for prey and they're struggling as their main prey of choice, the Honey Bee, is presently scarce.  Hornets always seem to favour our garden in late summer and autumn; I think its a mixture of sun, shelter from the wind and plenty of foliage to hunt within. The daily numbers peak in early afternoon, but by 4 o'clock they've gone elsewhere. They're never far away though. At night, with just the outside house light on, it takes just a few minutes to a lure them into view.  If the garden moth trap is switched on, we will have many dozens of Hornets angrily hitting the mercury vapour lamp, unable to draw themselves away.

I have photographed them in previous years  performing their nuptial flights together and it would be great to see this strange sight again.