Scops Owls, Help!

I finished sorting through the last of my photographs from holiday, perplexed over how best to remove the “red-eye” from my Scops Owl photographs. The red eye certainly made them look fierce but obviously it wasn’t entirely accurate in depicting them. Eventually after a bit of trial and error I found that IrfanView did the job best.

A pair of Scops Owls roosted opposite our Menorca hotel in trees in the grounds of some large villas and houses; not the best place to go wandering about with a large telephoto lens and binoculars on an island where bird watchers are largely an unknown species. So we just waited for the owls to come to us as they did every night. The hotel grounds were well lit at night by ambient brightness from the building itself but also from guest’s balconies, sources of light that allowed the owls to hunt for e.g. large beetles, moths and centipedes. After dinner and sat with a sun downer each on the room balcony we set our watches by the owls, calling at 9pm from the distant trees, then between 920pm and 945pm one or the other or both would fly calling into the nearest palm tree before landing at the top of the trunk just below the fronds, from where they surveyed the immediate ground. After a minute or two they would go off to hunt, either dropping to the ground, flying to other palms or watching the ground from the top of the daytime sun canopies, a convenient perch.

Getting the pictures was a bit hit and miss, as in the darkness the camera autofocus couldn’t work leaving me to try manual focus through the dark tube of the telephoto. So I set the ISO at 3200, and using the inbuilt flash, crossed my fingers at f5.6.

Scops Owl
Scops Owl
Scops Owl
”Red Eyed” Scops Owl
A dozen or so pairs of House Martins nest in the hotel’s rear entrance, and one night there was an almighty din when one of the owls may have gone into the roosting birds to try and take a sleeping bird. This caused all the martins to panic and fly around the grounds calling, until they either went elsewhere or settled back to rest. Scops Owls are known to take small birds, possibly up to Redwing size.

House Martin
One night we were watching the Scops when a Barn Owl flew into the hotel grounds and landed in a palm tree. It was a bit far away but in the ambient light also clearly visible as it went off briefly to hunt then return to the same spot to eat its prey. I think that Barn Owl is a pretty good species to see in Menorca and it certainly made that night memorable for two other hotel guests who joined us on our grandstand balcony to see the Scops Owls.

In the daytime the canopies the owls favoured were also utilized by the hotel’s resident Kestrel, a convenient stopping off place between its vantage points of the hotel roof and balconies and thence to the ground. If it couldn’t find morsels of its own the Kestrel was not averse to robbing the efficient Hoopoe of its large insect prey.

Kestrel
Kestrel
Kestrel
Hoope
Who ever said that holiday hotels are dull?

Oh,I think I might use one of the Scops as a header picture but can't decide which one. Help!

Good News, Bad News

A quiet Sunday morning walk is what I wanted and that’s exactly what I got when I did my standard visit to Lane Ends and Pilling Water this morning. It’s just that time of year when spring migration has all but ended, resident birds are engrossed in their breeding cycles and bird watchers accustomed to seeing new things each day settle for less daily changes, but if they are ringers maybe take the opportunity to test their nest finding skills or concentrate on nest box schemes.

At the Lane Ends car park a couple of Woodpigeons were finishing off the remains of the plants in the giant plant pots after most of the others were nicked. Now that’s not a surprise and quite predictable given the history of the site in the last twenty five years I have been involved there. More precisely the years between 1986 and c2002 when I gave up trying to get anywhere with Wyre Borough Council or The Environment Agency as my telephone calls and letters remained unanswered, and whilst optimum habitat for breeding and roosting Linnets was ripped out, as well as an overgrown patch of bushes where Lesser Whitethroats sang in May and areas that had breeding Sedge and Willow Warblers were left to develop into thick woodland.

At least the wood still holds a few singing Willow Warblers and a Blackcap, with a single Sedge Warbler clinging to the margins of the pool this year, but I haven’t heard Reed Warbler more than once this year. The plantation also has a healthy population of Woodpigeon that compete with the abandoned chickens for ground food put out by the animal lovers, but how different it might all have been with expert and enlightened management.

Woodpigeon

The other bird pushed to the edge here quite literally has been Reed Bunting, with 2 birds singing at the extremes of the poolside, which represents two breeding pairs I think; and they are inconspicuous enough to be safe from interference, unlike the Sparrowhawks of previous years. The fenced off pool still holds Little Grebes, I heard them trilling from the water behind the impenetrable woodland, whilst over in the east pool 4 Tufted Duck floated around in the ever encroaching green algae on the surface.

At Pilling Water there were still 2 female Wheatears “chacking” along the fence posts and one allowed me a reasonable approach for a photograph. I had a pleasant surprise when I checked the Redshank nest and found the female had laid another egg, but with a fine sunny day today and many passing walkers, I am afraid she will probably spend a lot of time off the nest.

There was another Reed Bunting singing here, a couple of Linnets along the shore, a Grey Heron in the ditch and sundry Lapwings and Oystercatchers moving about the dusty fields with none of them acting in a parental manner at my approach.

Wheatear

Redshank Nest
Grey Heron
Ok, so I have had a bit of a moan again, but that’s probably because I care about what happens, it’s not just a job, it’s a passion.

On the heron theme I’ll finish with a picture of Purple Heron from Menorca, not because it has anything to do with today but there is an interesting post about them at http://woodruff4.blogspot.com/

Purple Heron

Overdue

Sometimes you don’t catch a particular species for weeks or months then just when you least expect it, the mist net finds them, just like today when not only did Will and I catch a Sparrowhawk but also Mistle Thrush. Mistle Thrushes don’t find our nets very often and the chances are that we ring nestlings rather than catch full grown birds. Not content with catching the first one for some years, just like buses, two came along at once when we caught two birds, a male and a female, together in the same net.

And after a run of Sparrowhawks for months back neatly flying under, over and around our nets, this morning a second calendar year male stayed in the pocket long enough for me to pull it out. This was soon after we found its last item of prey, a freshly dead partly eaten male Corn Bunting, probably the one that has sung from the same set of song posts for weeks now. The song posts it used were amongst the line of small hawthorn bushes along the edge of the plantation – woodland edge, a favoured hunting habitat for a Sparrowhawk.

Sparrowhawk
Sparrowhawk
Mistle Thrush
Back to the beginning. The morning started at 0310 when I awoke to glance at the alarm clock set for 0400, and careful not to doze off, I waited until 0345 to get up. Most ringers will agree that the promise of a netting session prevents them from sleeping until the alarm and more than likely the early hours are spent actually waiting for the alarm to ring; I’m sure it’s something to do with unconscious anticipation of the unexpected. But it did mean that I wasn’t late for our appointment at Rawcliffe Moss for 0500 where we set the normal 320feet of net and waited for the rush of birds.

New birds caught today were 4 Whitethroat, 1 Chaffinch, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Willow Warbler, the aforementioned 2 Mistle Thrush and 1 Sparrowhawk. Retraps were 4 Whitetroats, 1 Chaffinch, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Willow Warbler and 1 Dunnock.

A couple of the Goldfinch showed very noticeable build up of what we though to be nyjer seed residue on their bills. One of those Goldfinch is shown below and it would be interesting to know whether these birds are still finding nyjer in gardens or whether their bills are coated like this from a winter feeding on the black seeds.

Goldfinch
Willow Warbler
Female Whitethroat
As expected, migration has all but ceased and the only definite migrant we saw was a Wheatear.

We found our friendly neighbourhood Buzzard still maintaining a vigil on the the same branch of same tree as some weeks ago, near the pair’s nest and a single Kestrel hovering over our nets and the set aside fields. Otherwise much was quiet while most birds settle in to nest.

Kestrel

Menorca Again

It would be a shame to waste the photographs I took in Menorca and I haven’t got a lot to report today as I spent most of it in Kendal, so here are a few more pics from the Balearic island least popular with most Brits.

One of the best places for birding in Menorca is Tirant, an area of wetland and farmland just a left turn off the main road between Es Mercadal a largish inland town and Fornells the famous yachting and boating resort on the north coast where all the tourists head for in search of the legendary lobster soup. Less than a mile up the road is a farm where Bee Eaters hang out, together with Tawny Pipits, Turtle Doves and the inevitable Sardinian Warblers, Nightingales and Cetti’s Warblers. I think I explained how difficult it is to get pictures of the latter two birds that stay in cover most of the time singing incessantly, but I did get shots of the first three. I must say that the Bee Eaters are very shy and although they fly around freely, as soon as people get out of vehicles or approach the farm gateway, the birds move some distance away. It was only by hiding in the hire car, window partly down that I managed to get the shot below.

Bee Eater
Turtle Dove
Tawny Pipit
Sardinian Warbler
Further along this road parking in a gateway (shades of Over Wyre) gives fairly distant views over Es Prat, where this year we saw Greenshank, quite a good bird for the island, certainly in May. This year the pool was quiet with Little and Cattle Egrets in the wetter areas and a couple of Marsh Harriers that had a habit of keeping well away from any roads, so in two weeks on the island I didn’t get a decent picture of a Marsh Harrier.

Near the marsh where the road lined with Stonechats leads eventually up to Cala Tirant and more Audouin’s Gulls, we stopped to admire Little Ringed Plover on the only area of visible mud which also gave the opportunity to watch both a Woodchat Shrike and a single Red-backed Shrike, several Spotted Flycatchers, more Booted Eagles and yet more Egyptian Vultures, by now becoming almost the commonest raptor. Unfortunately a Roller on the proverbial overhead wires gave brief views only before undulating away into the marsh. The herons all occur here, Little, Grey, Squacco and Purple with the occasional Great Egret.

Woodchat Shrike
Red-backed Shrike
Booted Eagle
Egyptian Vulture
Audouin’s Gull
Spotted Flycatcher
Stonechat
Another coffee stop, at Fornells this time, but it is a pretty good place to watch out for Ospreys patrolling the shallow waters, and although they are not common, they do breed on the island.

Osprey
Fornells
Fornells

It's A Mystery

It seemed a long time since I walked along Pilling way, Fluke Hall Lane, Lane Ends and Pilling Water, but I finally found time to look this morning, mainly in the hope of finding a few Lapwing chicks to ring. There were a number of Lapwings in the fields at Fluke Hall Lane but I didn’t see a single chick here, just adults showing a distinct lack of parental activity or concerned calling for nearby young. The only chicks I found were two fairly large probable “fliers” in the field opposite Lane Ends. So the Pilling Lapwing breeding season looks to have been another disaster and I am left puzzling how long Lapwings will persevere in this area before deserting it as they have other breeding haunts in the Fylde.

Lapwing
Lapwing
The Environment Agency were once again moving earth between Pilling Water and Lane Ends, but why it takes five men, four large vehicles, a number of cars and some hours to achieve this is a bit of a brainteaser. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it is paid out of the public purse? Anyway what they did achieve was to scare a Redshank from its nest, so with the continual disturbance I doubt the hen will go back quickly if at all. Late May but the poor bird was sat on one egg only, so whether this was as a result of the ongoing work, the usual watchful Carrion Crows or a combination of both is impossible to say.

Redshank Nest
Redshank
Along Fluke Hall Lane it was noticeable that five Whitethroats sang from the hedgerows with another one at Lane Ends itself where other songsters were Blackcap, Sedge Warbler and at least three Willow Warblers.

At Pilling Water late Wheatears were still around, a male and a female amongst the stones but I was both trapless and without mealworms to enable a catch. Beyond the dyke in the wildfowlers’ pool I found a single Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Tufted Duck, several Redshank, a Grey Heron and a singing Reed Bunting. Between Lane Ends and Fluke Hall I counted 6 singing Skylark, so all was not lost but simply provided a reason to return soon.

Wheatear
Wheatear
And talking of larks, here is a Thekla Lark photographed near Punta Nati, Menorca and a Cattle Egret pictured in the same area, doing what Cattle Egrets do best, hitching a ride on a cow.

Thekla Lark
Cattle Egret
And finally a photograph of a coffee call in the beautiful old city of Ciutadella which leads to this week’s conundrum; why is it impossible to find a bad cup of coffee in Menorca and impossible to buy a good cup of coffee around here?

Ciutadella

Down to Earth

Today I knuckled down to some proper birding in the way of checking nest boxes and finding out where the Swallows are up to. But I really look forward to spending time watching Swallows.

I started at Out Rawcliffe and checked several Tree Sparrow boxes before I found some that hadn’t recently fledged; that’s the problem with taking holidays in May that coincide with early breeders in the UK like Tree Sparrows where in most years early broods of young are big enough for ringing by the first week of May. So I resigned myself to having lost at least four broods as I inspected boxes to find well trodden nest material and no young. However I did ring two broods, a trio and then a foursome with two nests to follow up in a week’s time where the young were too small to ring. Near the village hall I found 2 separate Yellowhammer singing, the usual roadside Whitethroats, and on a couple of farm ponds three broods of well grown Coot. In the outhouse with Tess the Border Collie, a Swallow sat brooding four eggs. At this rate it will soon be autumn!

Tree Sparrow Nestling
Tree Sparrow Box
I also came across another Oystercatcher nest, this time on the ground as it should be, but with two eggs.

Oystercatcher Nest
Sitting Oystercatcher
On the moss proper I found a late Wheatear hanging around a pile of rocks and stones, a place I once caught one, but this bird cleared off smartish, and although the small pile of rocks might hide some tasty morsels, I doubt the bird will now stay around for much longer. I checked out the plantation in anticipation of a ringing session soon where I found at least 6 Willow Warblers, 3 Sedge Warblers, several singing Whitethroat, a Garden Warbler, 3 Reed Buntings, a couple of Corn Buntings, but parties still of Goldfinch numbering 18 to 20 in total. Strangely I didn’t hear any Skylark on the topmost part of the moss and only three further back towards the road; let’s hope they are not a serious casualty of our hard winter but the immediate signs are not encouraging.

Corn Bunting
More animals at the next farm where for the Swallow nests horses provide long, strong horse hair, dogs the insulating hair and chickens the warm feathers to complete the nest; and all three the insects to feed adults and young alike.

Horse Hair, Feathers and Fresh Mud
Swallow
Swallow
Swallow
Nest Lining
More Nest Lining
A Never Ending Task
The adult below had only one tail streamer and looks ready to lose the other one when it breaks.

Adult Swallow Taking A Break
I found four active nests; one with four eggs, adult sitting, two lined nests with no eggs, and a fourth newly topped up with earth but not yet lined.

That all looks like an hour or so on IPMR Nest Records, but just to keep myself in holiday mood I’ll finish with a bird from recent weeks, a Red Kite near Tirant, Menorca.

Red Kite
Wow, I've just noticed the blog clocked up the 100th "follower", someone actually reads this stuff!