Show us ya birds !

[sime42]

This is a sad story.

 

‘These birds are telling us something serious is happening’: the songbirds disappearing from Britain’s woods | Birds | The Guardian

WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM

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The dramatic decline of marsh tits in an ancient Cambridgeshire woodland is a story repeated across the UK as human activity...

 

 

[Doug Tait]

Mowing the paddock yesterday and I noticed a blackbird busy at the stables, usually have swallows but not seen them in nests this year, however Mrs Blackie was in and out all day. Not a great pic but I didn't want to upset her by loitering.

 

[Mick Dempsey]

No pictures I’m afraid  but some good news nevertheless. 
Up to around 2014 ish there were countless swallows nesting and living in our hamlet. Every year, after a few weeks a hobby hawk took up residence, doing regular ‘drive bys’ trying to pick one off.

Then the population dropped dramatically only a handful nested here, year after year of no improvement.

This year however for whatever reason loads of youngsters have hatched, and the skies are full of them, and………just seen the first hobby for a decade being chased and harried!

let’s hope it stays like this

 

[kram]

On 19/05/2024 at 09:40, Doug Tait said:

Mowing the paddock yesterday and I noticed a blackbird busy at the stables, usually have swallows but not seen them in nests this year, however Mrs Blackie was in and out all day. Not a great pic but I didn't want to upset her by loitering.

 

Blackie chicks do look ugly with their oversized beak! We usually have a nest just outside our kitchen but last year I removed the overgrown bayleaf. Noticed their new nest is a couple meters along in the ivy fence (used to be a fence, not much fence left just a wall of ivy!). Currently has atleast two chicks in it.

Edited August 10 by kram

[Stubby]

My friends cut and bailed most of their hay but had to stop when the weather broke . They finished it off last week and working the 33 acre field I counted 14 red kites 2 buzzards and a hawk ( I think a peregrine ) The kites were flying about head height most of the time . They were there for about a week and have dispersed now only seeing one or two now . 

[Mick Dempsey]

Just now, Stubby said:

My friends cut and bailed most of their hay but had to stop when the weather broke . They finished it off last week and working the 33 acre field I counted 14 red kites 2 buzzards and a hawk ( I think a peregrine ) The kites were flying about head height most of the time . They were there for about a week and have dispersed now only seeing one or two now . 

Back in the 70s you would never have seen a kite in Sussex, buzzards very rarely.

[Stubby]

Just now, Mick Dempsey said:

Back in the 70s you would never have seen a kite in Sussex, buzzards very rarely.

Yep I agree Mick . The Buzzards started appearing I suppose 20 years ago ? the kites maybe ten . They seem to outnumber the buzzards now maybe 4 : 1 . What I don't see now that I used to is the Hen Harrier . 

[Mick Dempsey]

I never saw one in the UK, but the Weald isn’t really HH friendly.

You see plenty of HHs here.

 

[Stubby]

26 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

I never saw one in the UK, but the Weald isn’t really HH friendly.

You see plenty of HHs here.

 

I think they used to predate on the ground nesting peewits ( plover and other names )

[Mick Dempsey]

I wonder if the incomer kites/buzzards have predated on the HH nests?

I was talking to a farmer about the kites and buzzards following him on the tractor when he’s cutting hay, he said they were after crickets and grasshoppers rather than the rodents (which is what I had assumed)

It can be quite a sight, a dozen or more of each species dive bombing behind the tractor.