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Post by aeshna5 on Aug 6, 2018 4:16:59 GMT
Fairly quiet on the local patch yesterday but heard + then a good but brief view of a Lesser Whitethroat in the hedge.
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Post by rowanberry on Aug 7, 2018 20:03:56 GMT
A young juvenile greater spotted woodpecker has started coming to the peanut feeder over the past few days. Now that it's learned where there is food, I'm hoping it sticks around. Our pair from last year seem to have vanished.
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Post by NellyDee on Aug 9, 2018 13:16:45 GMT
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Post by aeshna5 on Aug 11, 2018 17:54:43 GMT
Lovely views this morning in my local country park of 4 Whitethroats feeding on blackberries + elderberries with the sun shining on them.
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Post by accipiter on Aug 12, 2018 13:45:27 GMT
Juvenile Sparrowhawks are now being heard, seen, and chasing each other around the wood, even though I see this behaviour every year the thrill still remains one of elation for me. Alan
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Post by aeshna5 on Aug 12, 2018 15:25:54 GMT
Juvenile Sparrowhawks are now being heard, seen, and chasing each other around the wood, even though I see this behaviour every year the thrill still remains one of elation for me. Alan On my local patch this morning I heard a juvenile Sparrowhawk calling unseen from a copse but later saw an adult over a more open area. A Kestrel (first I've seen here for a few weeks, but usually regular here) then flew towards the Sparrowhawk + there was a brief "play fight" for a few seconds + the Kestrel then hovered + the Sparrowhawk carried on. Only other raptors were 2 of the regular Buzzards. I was hoping for migrants but only obvious ones were a juvenile Willow Warbler (sadly no longer a local breeding species) + a Reed Warbler in a hedge as part of a mixed flock. All other warblers + the Swallows probably all local breeders.
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Post by rowanberry on Aug 12, 2018 20:37:46 GMT
Finally managed to get a photo of the juvenile Greater Spotted Woodpecker today- it has become a regular morning visitor now.
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Post by Harold Smith on Aug 13, 2018 8:15:57 GMT
Juvenile Sparrowhawk on my Cotoneaster preening.
Harold.
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Post by Tringa on Aug 13, 2018 12:07:58 GMT
Good shot of the woodpecker; they are rarely still and always wary.
Although we have had GS woodpeckers on the peanuts in the garden in the past it has always been a fairly rare event, but this year we also have had fairly regular visits from a juvenile in the last couple of weeks.
Dave
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Post by accipiter on Aug 13, 2018 15:44:48 GMT
Been finding more and more buzzard feather remains up and down a wide breath of the country during my little owl field studies, (too many to be a coincidence.) Presumably the bodies being carried off by a fox, now I never mentioned this before because I wanted to be sure has one could be their death was not caused by natural causes. Therefore I can only conclude there seems to be a deliberate ploy to reduce their numbers just when they are fully recovered, nonetheless I will make the buzzard my bird of the day has I saw one just this morning, and whilst they ‘still remain’ common.
Alan
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Post by NellyDee on Aug 14, 2018 9:22:42 GMT
Do you think maybe some sort of illness? I was getting concerned that I had not seen my resident buzzard for a while. Daughter and I were only commenting at the week end, that normally we see lots of buzzards on our weekly drive through Glen Lonan to Oban, but only saw one. Our other concern is that we have not seen our Sparrow Hawk either.
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Post by aeshna5 on Aug 19, 2018 4:05:10 GMT
Yesterday I was leading a walk in Richmond Park- mainly for invertebrates but had an hour + a half to wander around before the walk started.
It was quite a spectacle to see 30 Ring-necked Parakeets mobbing a Sparrowhawk. The hawk seemed relatively unfazed by the mobbers but fascinating to watch them all spiralling around. Also saw a couple of Kestrels.
Not much sign of migrants- a few local breeding Swallows hawking insects over the grasslands + a small number of House Martins hunting around the trees.
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Post by rowanberry on Aug 19, 2018 11:05:42 GMT
This flock of starlings mobbing the cypress tree this morning- they seemed to be pecking at the cones, and they did this frantically for a few minutes before departing en masse in a huge rush.
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Post by aeshna5 on Aug 19, 2018 16:12:59 GMT
There must be some insects on there they are feeding on.
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Post by NellyDee on Aug 20, 2018 15:14:14 GMT
Sparrow Hawk is back - must be feeding young as now seeing at lest twice a day. Today for the first time in a couple of years a Grey Wagtail was bobbing up the verge. Hope it stays around so i can get a photo
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