A Bit Of Everything

It’s all very well this going on holiday but there’s an awful lot of catching up to do eventually. 

I spent this morning checking Tree Sparrow boxes at Out Rawcliffe: without much luck as it happened because a couple of broods had obviously fledged, three adults were on eggs and the remaining boxes were occupied by either Blue or Great Tit. No joy with two owl boxes but the visit was productive in other ways as I met a neighbouring farmer who would like both Barn Owl and Little Owl boxes on his own farm – a job for Will when he returns from Scotland. Also here, 2 singing Yellowhammer, 2 Whitethroat, a singing Willow Warbler and a singing Lesser Whitethroat. 

 Whitethroat

A visit to our ringing site was overdue, mainly to see how much the vegetation had encroached on net rides during wet and windy May, but all was quite good with a netting session on the cards soon. Walking through the plantation I came across a couple of nests, a Chaffinch one with 4 eggs and then 25 metres away an unfinished and as yet empty nest which looked very Chaffinch-like. 

 Chaffinch Nest

Chaffinch Nest?

Other birds here, 8 Whitethroat, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Blackcap and 6 Willow Warbler, 1 Buzzard overhead, 6 Yellowhammer and 3 Corn Bunting. 

Again this year in Menorca I was struck by how common the Corn Bunting still is as a result of the islander’s traditional farming methods. Another prominent feature of the Corn Bunting in Menorca is their apparently large bills compared to ones I see locally in Lancashire. There are some shots below, and maybe I just captured pictures of particularly large Menorcan males in the unyielding Menorca sunlight, but the bill does appear very hefty. 

Birds of the Western Palearctic (BWP) suggests that although both Menorcan and UK Corn Buntings are of the nominate race Miliaria calandra, the Balearic Corn Buntings are if anything marginally smaller than their UK cousins. 

Corn Bunting - Lancashire

 Corn Bunting - Menorca

 Corn Bunting - Menorca

In Menorca the fields of summer flowers are left as winter fodder for the local cattle, a system which inevitably leads to an abundance of arable seeds for wintering Corn Buntings, finches and larks.

Linnet

 

 Menorca Flower Field

Menorca Flowers