Red Kites in Early April Sunlight

You can't go more than 15 minutes without seeing a red kite soaring over our garden, or anywhere in The Chilterns for that matter. They're amazingly abundant, to the point where one might wonder how there could possibly be enough food to sustain their population. Its not uncommon to see groups of 10-15 kites flying overhead, scanning the area for potential food sources. 

On sunny days, they're a stunning sight, showing off their beautiful rufous plumage. They often fly very low over the garden too, allowing for some fantastic photo opportunities. Conditions today were perfect for photographing them, and one particular bird allowed me to get a couple of snaps. They aren't anything special, but it was nice to catch the bird in the good light. 

Very nice to be back to a regular posting schedule. The blogging bug just never quite goes away. Back tomorrow with more nest box footage. Thanks for reading and enjoy your evening. 

Campus Bird Survey

The last of the field sessions for my ecology module on a Thursday was a couple of weeks ago. The aim of these field sessions was to improve people's bird identification skills in preparation for a campus wide bird survey- and to get people on the module involved in birdwatching for enjoyment purposes too.

As a group we've seen a really impressive number of species on campus (probably in excess of 50), with highlights being the Firecrest, Little Owls, Waxwings, Treecreepers, Siskins, Fieldfares, Redwings, Jays, both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, lots and lots of Nuthatches and a Kingfisher. It's been great to get so many people involved in birdwatching, and has just shown how much biodiversity is present in such a small area. It really isn't necessary to travel such long distances to see stuff, when so much can be seen within walking distance.

So today was the day where the group was given the opportunity to put the skills gained over the last few weeks to the test in the campus survey of bird life. The group was split into 25 groups, with about 3-4 people in each. Each group was designated a small area of campus to cover (each area was about 200mm squared). The map below shows the way in which the campus was split up. The picture isn't very clear, but our group was allocated square 5  which hopefully you can see on the map.

The area of campus we were given actually contains my halls within it. The bird life that can be seen in this area is very reasonable, but not as diverse as the woodland, Harris Garden and lake areas of campus which are on the east and particularly south eastern areas. Squares such as 6,7,12 and 19-25 would probably have shown the highest number of species. But I was quite pleased with the square we were given as I knew the area quite well. The photo below shows a close up view of our particular square:

As the picture shows, our square covered some of the sports fields on campus, as well as a decent amount of tree cover. P2 marked on the map is a car park, and around there is where I saw the Redwings a few days ago. We were given an hour to walk around the square and record what we saw. The total tally for each bird seen in the hour was recorded- not the total number of birds seen at any given time as in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. So there is potential that some individuals may have been counted more than once. Birds that were seen overhead were recorded, but we had to put a note beside those stating that they were seen flying overhead, as opposed to staying in the area studied. 

We started by heading out onto the sports grounds to see what was feeding on the ground. I was very surprised to see the group of Redwings which I thought had left campus, as they were no longer feeding around the car park area. There were around 15 Redwings in total, as well as 3 Mistle Thrushes and some Blackbirds. In the cluster of trees in the middle of the sports grounds just about on the boundary of our square we saw two Nuthatches chasing each other around near the base of one of the trees. Pied Wagtails were seen hopping around on the grass of the playing fields too. 

We then headed over to the other side of the path, walked around the car park for my halls and scanned the shrubs and trees on the other side of my halls where we saw Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits, a Chaffinch and two more Nuthatches. Also seen flying overhead were Black-headed Gulls and a Red Kite. A Wren and a Greenfinch were heard calling too. As we moved on we saw yet another Nuthatch and heard lots more Great Tits. 

It was actually quite difficult to drag the birdwatching out over an hour, as the patch was quite small, and we'd looked over pretty much all of it after about 40 minutes. We decided to have one last look around the playing fields to see if anything else had turned up. We were pleasantly surprised to see a Great Spotted Woodpecker climbing one of the trees in the middle of the playing fields, and added this species to our list for the hour. The final species list can be seen below. I have not included the numbers of the species we saw as the counts form we filled in has been handed in to collate all the data. 

• Red Kite
• Black-headed Gull
• Feral Pigeon 
• Woodpigeon
• Great Spotted Woodpecker
• Pied Wagtail
• Wren
• Robin
• Blackbird
• Redwing
• Mistle Thrush
• Long-tailed Tit
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
• Nuthatch
• Magpie
• Carrion Crow
• Chaffinch
• Greenfinch

So a total of 19 species were seen, not bad at all for an area of campus which definitely isn't one of the most biodiverse areas. 

So what next then? Well the data from all the groups will be collated, and the top 25 most common species on campus will be identified. Each group will then be given one of these species to produce an A1 poster about, with information on campus distribution, behaviour and a few other things. When this poster is done, I'll share that on the blog. So after we handed in our count forms, that was it for the day. 

Because I was surveying the birds throughout the hour, I didn't have my camera with me to take any pictures. So I decided I would head out later to see if I could get any better pictures of the Redwings around the sports fields. Below are a few of the photos I ended up with. The conditions were still pretty overcast, so the light for taking pictures wasn't too great, but the light was still better than what was available last time I tried to photograph them. The Redwings were much more reluctant for me to get too close to them as well, so maybe it's a different group to the ones I was seeing before around the car park.

After a while the sun came out from behind the clouds and allowed for a slightly more colourful image: 

After a while photographing the Redwings, I became distracted by a pair of Red Kites performing some impressive aerobatics above my head. I managed a few average pictures...

After seeing the Red Kites and watching the Redwings for a little longer, I decided to head back after a really satisfying day. And just to cap it all off, just as I was starting to type this post, I heard a Tawny Owl calling outside as I had my room window open. So that's another species seen/heard on campus for the first time to add to the Mistle Thrush I saw earlier in the day. 

February has been a fantastic month in terms of bird life here on campus and hopefully that will continue as March arrives. Spring is just around the corner and it'll be great to see some changes taking place here over the coming months. 

Thanks for reading and have a great evening :D

Big walk, pub lunch, huge butterfly

My last post showed some slight disappointment on the wildlife front, and ducks and swans were the only features. The moist grey morning on Saturday turned into a beautiful sunny day, and before you knew it, we were at the start of a long walk in the countryside. Well, not that long, just hilly. The damp ground soon dried out and it became suddenly quite warm. It actually felt like the end of summer rather than mid-autumn. Sad to say that it's been grey and cloudy here all day to today so make the most of the blue skies in the photos below.

As a small kid, I've always walked in the countryside with family, so Saturday was no different. As always too we saw plenty of wildlife on the way. On the way there, the first sighting was a group of Long-tailed Tits with Great Tits in the woods. I noticed their tendency to stay in large flocks. The next thing I saw was a little surprising. A Red Admiral butterfly was basking on the trunk of a tree on the edge of some woodland. I got a little bit closer and saw the sheer size of it. It was massive and very colourful, especially with the light shining on it. This also made me think; isn't it a bit late for butterflies. After all, it is now half way through October. I have to say that I was quite pleased with how the pictures of it came out.

I had a some delicious fish and chips at the pub. While I was eating, Red Kites flew overhead. I took a picture and watched them circle over my head almost as though it was eyeing up my chips. In case you didn't know, Red Kites were introduced in Bucks between 1989 and 1994. Since then, their populations have gone through the roof, and it's hard to go a day without seeing one. They are mostly a rusty red colour that is easily recognisable.

After lunch the walk seemed much harder after I was filled with food. The good weather continued throughout the afternoon and it was nice weather for walking. We took a different route back, so there was even more to be seen. In the Autumn, the countryside is full of empty fields. These are great for seed-eating birds. Unfortunately, the boring old pigeons that raid our garden bird feeders are part of this, but other interesting birds are attracted too. Pheasants are particular fans of this kind of land, as the picture of a female shows below.

The Woodpigeons on this occasion scattered when we got near them in their huge numbers. They all follow suit and they are gone quite quickly. Above we could hear and see Skylarks, and there were other unidentifiable birds feeding on the ground. Before Saturday, I had no idea how popular the seeds in fields are to birds like these. I also thought that pigeons rely on garden bird food. Obviously not! Overall, a great day out. When I got home, with a map measurer my dad worked out that we had done 8.4 miles. Not bad for a day's work!

Just to note that I might not post quite as frequently at the moment as I have GCSE's coming up and I need to focus on them. You may notice that most of my posts will be at weekends. I will definitely not rush posts though and will still have fun blogging.

All photos taken by me on a walk on 11-10-08

Red Kites around as usual

Generally the bird feeders have been very busy in the last week and I have noted many more Red Kites than normal. 5 were seen soaring overhead on Saturday. 2 or 3 of these were quite small, so this could easily have been a family. I managed to get a picture of one (which isn't very good), but it does give you an idea of the shape. The pic on the right is clearly my incompetent doing, and the one on the left was from a website. Since they started breeding in the Chilterns in 1992, they have really expanded in numbers, and it is now difficult to go a day without seeing one. The garden birds are quite unphased by the large predators overhead, and somehow know that Kites rarely take other birds as prey. I just hope they don't outcompete our other birds of prey such as Kestrels, Buzzards and Sparrowhawks. Anywho, its still entertaining watching these beautiful birds and long may their success continue!