The Bird Thread

Sounds absolutely perfect.

The other day I was collecting wood from coppicing hazel and creating a glade in the tractor. Two roe deer cut across in front of me followed by a buzzard swooping down across my path, I turned a corner and two cock pheasants were fighting in front of me. It’s quite amazing.

Only problem is our viszlas now spend all day digging for rodents, their front claws are nearly worn out and they get mud jammed into their paws. But we really wanted to encourage more raptors so it has been a success. The next animals we’d like to facilitate are hedgehogs and hares. But the large badger sets may be why we don’t have many hedgehogs.

Hedgehogs declined due to the application of insecticides in vast quantities. The remaining starving population is vulnerable to predation by badgers who are similarly finding food hard to find at certain times of the year for the same reason.
Providing lots of insect rich habitat will help but it’s probably a losing battle.
Hares of course need a very different environment. Are there any nearby?

A owl!
A barn owl no less.
Excellent work.
Now of course you can’t touch the owl box you made. You need to find a licensed person to check the nest and perhaps ring the young if you think they breed there.

Hares on the other side of the hill so there are some locally.

We have loads of wood piles and rotting wood to encourage insects to hopefully help out hedgehogs and badgers.

i'll probably contact the Newent International Centre for Birds of Prey they are close to us. Hope they will start breeding, we could hear baby owls the other night so possibly there are some.

Are they likely to be there permanently?

Theres a specialist barn owl centre in Hempstead in Gloucester.

We went there two years ago - my wife loves owls so I made her the owl boxes and we went there for an owl flying session for her birthday.

Big congrats for your new arrivals - what an honour.

In my experience they’ll use a box throughout the year. Once the young fledge they may well still roost there or use other boxes nearby. I think it depends on the availability of shelter. Assume it’s their home from now on!

If you can hear baby owls now they are more likely to be tawny owls. They nest earlier than barn owls and around now the young often sit outside the nest calling. Have a check of the sounds. The juvenile tawny owl call is more owl like than the weird hissing of the young barn owls.

Todays mixed bag:

Lots of these ducking and diving

^ Great Swan in flight pic.

My son thought there should be Red Tits so...

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Just out of curiosity, what's the blue coloured bird?

Looks like a swallow to me.

Not a great shot, but a buzzard in a tree. Loads of them around the woods at the moment. Makes my morning runs a little nicer.

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Yeh it's a swallow, was probably 20+ of them darting around

I've been looking out for the kingfisher(s) on the Lee and not seen one/it for a good 4/5 weeks. Anyone else seen one recently near QEOP? (I hope this post is Schick-proof)

Well, you've clearly taken to the Essex spelling of the River Lea.

There should also be a full stop after 'proof', inside the parentheses. :)

Haha. One day...

I’m not sure what I came across in the woods today, obscure turkey?

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This is relevant to me - I put up an owl box with a mate a few years back when I was living with him in Tring, went back this weekend and it is definitely occupied now, heard female and male tawnys calling each other, 90% certain we heard chick too. Does that mean we need to get the next checked/the young ringed?