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Post by dogghound on Oct 18, 2015 19:33:29 GMT
Nice to see one got ringed at Filey today.
Quite a rarity away from the nest.
Bryan It was a fantastic bird to catch ;-) a 1st winter female with virtually no body fat, just in off the North Sea. Hopefully we will get some good data from it if it's seen again :-). Will post it's photo on here tomorrow evening, when I'm on the PC.
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Post by ayjay on Oct 18, 2015 23:15:05 GMT
One SEO reported seen at Barton-on-Sea this morning, (by a reliable witness) There were three and sometimes four SEOs which spent the winter of 08/09 on the golf course at Barton cleaning out the vole population, they've not been back since, but the voles must be building up again so I take a look there most winters. It seemed strange watching them hunting in the afternoon while there were golfers out there golfing. We get the odd one turn up a little further down the coast at Keyhaven but they always get a hard time from the many local Corvids and rarely hang around for long. IMG_4434-r by Wabi Gallery, on Flickr
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Post by dogghound on Oct 19, 2015 18:14:18 GMT
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Post by kentyeti on Oct 19, 2015 20:26:55 GMT
Lovely photo Dan.
Must have been an amazing experience to be holding a wild adult.
I've briefly handled a captive adult at a decent conservation centre and wild young on the nest, (when with qualified bird ringers). But the only wild adults I've handled are very sadly those I've found dead.
I will check when I get time, but my recollection is that very few adults ever get ringed in the UK.
Cheers,
Bryan
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Post by kentyeti on Oct 20, 2015 20:19:31 GMT
One SEO reported seen at Barton-on-Sea this morning, (by a reliable witness) There were three and sometimes four SEOs which spent the winter of 08/09 on the golf course at Barton cleaning out the vole population, they've not been back since, but the voles must be building up again so I take a look there most winters. It seemed strange watching them hunting in the afternoon while there were golfers out there golfing. We get the odd one turn up a little further down the coast at Keyhaven but they always get a hard time from the many local Corvids and rarely hang around for long. Thanks for that, just hope the Corvids don't get too much of a problem. One way the Shorties handle that is to go nocturnal, which is their default setting anyway. I watched one do that at Shellness on the Isle of Sheppey last winter. It had patch it liked to start it's late afternoon hunt on: that was it's first hunt since daylight as far as I was able to work out. But kept getting aggro from a lot of Corvids. So in the end it came out a bit later, often perching on a fence post a few hundred metres away until the Corvids had gone to roost. Then it came up and started hunting as it got fully dark.
Cheers,
Bryan
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Post by kentyeti on Oct 20, 2015 20:36:44 GMT
8 hours of field work today. A short day compared to recently as I didn't get going until 10.45 as I had some tasks to fit in at home. Like giving the front grass a last cut. Until November!
On the "sea front" at Shellness to do another sea watch. Mild, sunny, light N breeze and an incoming ride. A wonderful day to be out. There were a few incoming birds from the North Sea, but far off and heading to the mainland. Don't think any were Shorties but have times and will check for other reports from anyone who may have been nearer when they made landfall.
What I think is the sole Shortie as yet on the saltmarsh was just visible on and off from 14.00. Hard to pick it up until I went onto the saltings at 16.30 when it flew down the seawall to greet me, or so it seemed! Need more observation time on this one, but it looks like it has it's first hunt in daylight in the afternoon, which may mean it has two more hunts at night. All depending on the size of prey it catches at any one time of course.
During the day I did check the marsh behind me from time to time and saw Peregrine, Buzzard, Marsh Harrier and Kestrel. And at 11.45 a wonderful Ringtail Hen Harrier flew very close and very slow past me to the landward side of where I was parked.
Yes, a truly wonderful day to be out on the North Kent Coast on the Isle of Sheppey.
Cheers,
Bryan
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Post by dogghound on Oct 20, 2015 23:13:59 GMT
[/p]
I will check when I get time, but my recollection is that very few adults ever get ringed in the UK.
Cheers,
Bryan [/quote] Yes, very few adults are ringed in Britain. They are open country birds that are very difficult to catch. They rarely stick in passerine nets and are unusual in other forms of ringing. Always nice to see and hopefully we will get some information back from this bird.
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Post by kentyeti on Oct 21, 2015 8:45:05 GMT
Sadly that may mean when it's recovered dead Dan. Which does give very useful information. But again there are only a limited number of any recoveries for the reasons you mention: open country birds.
I've only once got the number off a ringed Short-eared Owl. It was one I watched being ringed on the nest, and photographed it very close up some weeks later a couple of kms away from it's Natal area before it left the moor and when it was fully independent. Sort of counts!
Cheers,
Bryan
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Post by shirl100 on Oct 22, 2015 15:26:43 GMT
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Post by dogghound on Oct 22, 2015 20:24:37 GMT
Unfortunately these birds are still widely persecuted (along with many other species) on grouse moors due to the continued ignorance of gamekeepers :-).
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Post by kentyeti on Oct 22, 2015 22:16:21 GMT
A tiring but productive afternoon and evening on the Isle of Sheppey. 2, just maybe 3 Shorties out on the saltings at Shellness. No serious hunting from them until almost dark, when I was able to sit on a style and hunch back against the fence as one got close. It never saw me and came very close indeed flying and making several plunges a few metres away. No matter how often I have such close ups with them it still sends massive tingles down my spine. Unusual for such close ups at that location, they mostly hunt way out on the salt marsh or over on Leysdown Marshes.
The local Kestrel was tucking into prey. It seems whenever I see that Kestrel it's eating something!
Into the night and elsewhere on Sheppey I found 1 Little Owl and a couple of Barn Owls, one of which I watched swallowing a small rodent.
A nice way to spend 8 hours.
Cheers,
Bryan
PS. The Leysdown Bakery as you drive through Leysdown, on the right opposite Ron Woods Fish and Chop shop is superb to my taste. Hot coffees and pies, and freshly made rolls/batons. And very, very naughty cakes. Shuts sort of 15.00 - 16.00.
And as for fish and chips! I continue through Leysdown heading to the sea and Shellness and past the Bakery on the right and Ron Woods fish and chip shop on the left. Last chippie shop in Leysdown a few hundred metres further and on the right is what to my taste is the best. I usually go in around 19.00, (7pm), and Autumn through to Spring, so don't know how they cope with the busy summer period. But my large piece of cod and normal chips is consistently superb. The fish is cooked to order, and they don't seem to stock pile chips, so they are usually fresh cooked too. Great for taking onto the sea front a few more hundred metres away to watch the sea birds if enough light left in the sky. I usually take mine out onto the marsh to Owl watch. But take very great care later at night on the marsh and do not go alone. I won't do full nights there anymore for a variety of personal security reasons.
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Post by kentyeti on Oct 24, 2015 9:47:48 GMT
The Shellness, Sheppey "roost" may be up to 3 now, if they are indeed roosting together. I'll be working on that. Hopefully more will arrive.
And there are very large numbers in the country now, if the number of reports I am struggling to note down are anything to go by. Closing in on 300 reports so far in October, 3 times as many as last year.
Would like to know how many are here but staying nocturnal. But not easy to find: I do a great deal of overnight field work and have to choose my locations with care. Somewhere I don't disturb the local farming community, where I have a chance of spotting the Shorties, and from my car and also where I feel comfortable re my personal security: certainly not the case on the more desolate parts of Sheppey.
I suspect that most sighting at present include recent Scandinavian arrivals who are still mobile in Britain, searching out ideal over wintering territories.
Cheers,
Bryan
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Post by aeshna5 on Oct 25, 2015 17:25:14 GMT
Really thrilled to have 3 Short-eared Owls on my local patch in west London at dawn this morning. Saw the first quite low at 7.15 + then rose high in the sky + did a series of circuits over the open land looking around. Watched it for over 5 minutes before I was distracted. Telling a friend he'd just missed it I saw what I assumed was the same bird again quite low + as it rose again we saw there were 2 birds together. As we left this area I told another birder who'd just arrived + an hour later he saw 3 birds together. He also saw a Little Owl. My third owl species for my local patch this year as we occasionally see Barn Owl here too.
It's been 3 years since my last patch SEO when I saw a bird several times over the winter with the first on Boxing Day.
Also in London area today 2 were also reported at Beddington (1 there yesterday) + 1 high south at Barking Creek.
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Post by kentyeti on Oct 25, 2015 19:38:20 GMT
Wonderful report, thank you! I know how you feel.
Still picking up very large numbers of reports all over England. Some are staying broadly where I assume they came in, others are dispersing to more suitable habitat. And I suspect many are still totally nocturnal.
The Sheppey count of viewable Shorties went up to 5 today. I had 3 under observation at Shellness, (not all up at the same time but I knew where they were), and I got a phone call from a friend at Elmley NNR when she was watching 2 others hunting. The Shellness ones didn't get serious about hunting until getting dark at 17.00 hrs, when one flew right over my head and very low. Thankfully it must have read my draft chapter on food and hunting as it realised Yetis were not on it's list of prey!
Those at Shellness are making a few daylight short flights at present, and often a very long way out on the saltings. Fine for my field work but not much good for photography. I'll keep tabs on what happens at Elmley and report back here as that reserve can get very good for close up photography.
The rough track out to Shellness is, by the way, very rough in places at present!
Cheers,
Bryan
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Post by kentyeti on Oct 26, 2015 10:42:50 GMT
Just a quick "book snippet" I picked up talking to someone, a very active local birder, out on the marsh yesterday. Four years ago whilst working he flushed a Shortie that flew off directly in the direction of where I live! Make a sentence in the book in the appropriate chapter. "Shortie may have flown over my house." LOL. Well I am on the edge of an estate and get Tawny Owls and Little Owls very occasionally. And Little Egrets on the trees overlooking the small stream running through the adjacent small parkland.
There are some issues re being out on the marsh that need handling with caution, and I'm dealing with those at present. But it can be a great place to meet others who love being out in that sort of country. Walkers, dog walkers, fishermen getting ready to go out for a spell on the small spits of land into the North Sea, (they are catching Sea Bass at present), birders and the local wildfowlers as they head out for an evening shooting. Even had someone from Elmley Reserve down there the other day taking Max, the lovely Reserve dog down to the seaside! All knowledgeable people and all willing to swap information on what we are doing and enjoying.
Highlight of yesterday was a small family group out walking who stopped to chat and break my lonely vigil. I was telling them about Shorties when one rose from it's roost and flew around for a few minutes. They seemed really pleased to learn about them and then to actually see one!
Cheers,
Bryan
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