Hello
As many as four Barn Owls were circulating around the villages of Hanging Houghton and Lamport this morning - two down in the Brampton Valley as usual, one at Lamport by the crossing and another hunting again in the grass field behind our house!
I couldn't quite work out why the garden was so empty of birds this morning until I noticed that a first year male Sparrowhawk was perched in our low hawthorn hedge. He tried again and again to grab House Sparrows and other birds buried in the depths of the hedge and refused to give up. I assumed it was the bird we had caught and ringed in the garden yesterday and eventually I could see enough of the ring to virtually confirm it. Clearly the fact that he had been caught and ringed the day before didn't put him off coming back and setting up residence in the garden. At one stage I walked out because he seemed to get himself in a bit of a pickle between the fence guard and the hedge but he just glared at me and went on trying to grab a Dunnock. They flew around me but the Dunnock outmaneuvered him and was off! He then flew back and landed in the hedge right next to me and was quite unconcerned at my presence! He continued to crash around in the hedge trying to flush avian prey out but some forty minutes later I saw him leave without a bird in his talons! It took a long time for the buntings and finches to return to the garden.
I think my only other bird of note from the garden today was a 'kronking' Raven but it sounds like this week-end's weather may well provide an opportunity to sit out in the garden and look upwards and pray for one of those wandering White-tailed Eagles to come cruising over! Recent days has seen records of these eagles as close as Buckinghamshire and Cambridgeshire, with multiple records in SE England...and it seems that at least some of these individuals are not the released birds from the Isle of Wight. With a recent report from Northants (Kings Cliffe) I hope someone else in the county connects soon!
David Arden's garden at Spratton scored again when David found a Black Redstart in his garden and around the house at about 1pm this afternoon...
Regards
Neil M
As many as four Barn Owls were circulating around the villages of Hanging Houghton and Lamport this morning - two down in the Brampton Valley as usual, one at Lamport by the crossing and another hunting again in the grass field behind our house!
I couldn't quite work out why the garden was so empty of birds this morning until I noticed that a first year male Sparrowhawk was perched in our low hawthorn hedge. He tried again and again to grab House Sparrows and other birds buried in the depths of the hedge and refused to give up. I assumed it was the bird we had caught and ringed in the garden yesterday and eventually I could see enough of the ring to virtually confirm it. Clearly the fact that he had been caught and ringed the day before didn't put him off coming back and setting up residence in the garden. At one stage I walked out because he seemed to get himself in a bit of a pickle between the fence guard and the hedge but he just glared at me and went on trying to grab a Dunnock. They flew around me but the Dunnock outmaneuvered him and was off! He then flew back and landed in the hedge right next to me and was quite unconcerned at my presence! He continued to crash around in the hedge trying to flush avian prey out but some forty minutes later I saw him leave without a bird in his talons! It took a long time for the buntings and finches to return to the garden.
I think my only other bird of note from the garden today was a 'kronking' Raven but it sounds like this week-end's weather may well provide an opportunity to sit out in the garden and look upwards and pray for one of those wandering White-tailed Eagles to come cruising over! Recent days has seen records of these eagles as close as Buckinghamshire and Cambridgeshire, with multiple records in SE England...and it seems that at least some of these individuals are not the released birds from the Isle of Wight. With a recent report from Northants (Kings Cliffe) I hope someone else in the county connects soon!
David Arden's garden at Spratton scored again when David found a Black Redstart in his garden and around the house at about 1pm this afternoon...
Regards
Neil M
He came back...the first year male Sparrowhawk. |
Black Redstart courtesy of David Arden. Lots of worn, brown feathers (particularly the tertials and primaries) and abraded remiges on this bird. |