Twitchers Anonymous

[stevewmh]

The Grebes are being very co-operative lately, they mostly stay out in the middle of the Mill Pond but have discovered the fishing good near the bank. Have to say they are the most enchanting birds





This just struck me as funny....long focal length comp. at its best

[dorsetmike]

I tend to be a bit envious of you lot seeing such a variety of birds; here all I see are pigeons, magpies, gulls and occasionally a robin blackbird or wren, no sparrows, tits or finches; a few years ago I actually saw a green woodpecker feasting on an ants nest for long enough for me to get a shot, which I posted some while ago, probably more than once. I have a bird bath a few feet away from my patio door, but it only seems to attract the pigeons and magpies and gulls.
The management of these flats tell us not to feed the birds - it encourages rats. Plenty of grey squirrels and I once saw a fox, but it didn't wait for me to pick up the camera

[MJB]

May 19, 2023 12:14:06 GMT gray1720 said:

Kites used to be city birds. Round here, they definitely congregate round towns and villages, but out in the countryside there are definitely more Buzzards. Mind you, I bet the Kites have followed the tractor when Martin has been silaging, they take advantage of the critters that have been disturbed.

If by 'disturbed' you mean mangled, then yes. You'll be incredibly fortunate to see a Red Kite take a live mammal and they're primarily carrion feeders, but they do take insects on the wing and worms etc. on cultivated land. Even if they find a dead rabbit they usually need a crow to rip the carcass open for them.

[peterob]

I think I got my first willow warbler.   

DSCF4135.jpg by Pete, on Flickr

Best of five exposures.  This was a grab shot as the bird flew across me while I was looking up for the woodpecker.  It touched down on a branch, hopped about and was off again. Other shots were spoiled by movement.  I didn't have any time to change the settings I was using and the exposure time turned out to be only 1/105 s.  Quite remarkable as the effective focal length used was 727 mm and this is quite a heavy crop.  

A less good shot here with movement in head and tail.  The others went in the bin.

DSCF4132.jpg by Pete, on Flickr

Spent an hour deleting woodpecker shots to find they were all from last Saturday, left on the camera in error, and already rated and deleted from the computer.  I should have looked more closely before I hit "import" in Lightroom. I thought I hadn't taken that many pics today.  Normally I empty the card after I have backed up the import, must have forgotten. 

[zou]

In Japan you can see kites all along the coast, even near larger built up areas. In good numbers too, similar to the big squadrons of kites you can see in the Chilterns.

[peterob]

Best woodpecker shots of the day - these will be the last.  It is exhausting standing there waiting for a couple of seconds of action every five minutes or so. I missed an exchange at the nest, camera went to sleep (darned mirrorless viewfinders) and I couldn't find the spot in time.

Male I think, leaving the nest 

DSCF4125.jpg by Pete, on Flickr

DSCF4126.jpg by Pete, on Flickr

Camera still prefers to "follow" the hole in the tree even though it tells me it is locked onto the woodpecker.  Depth of field is nothing. It is a shame that the perch branch gets in the way most of the time but can't be helped when looking up from below.

Last one (I promised there will be no more woodpeckers, I have got them out of my system now).

Terrible photo but "walking on air" would seem to cover it

DSCF4140.jpg by Pete, on Flickr

[gray1720]

As it was such a nice evening we decided to sit out on the bench in the garden with a vera each and were treated to our first haircut- height flyby screaming from the swifts.

Chap up the road has them investigating his nest boxes already, ours have spadgers on so I fear there may be spadgerlings turfed out to their doom.

[gray1720]

Well, this one definitely comes from the Dept of Whale Oil Beef Hooked. I wonder whether @mjb, who I'm sure sees a lot more Buzzards than I do, had ever seen anything similar? I certainly haven't.

I was in the back garden when I heard agitated squawking, looked up, and I'm 90% certain what I saw was a buzzard, certainly a large raptor, carrying off an adult magpie! I only saw it for a couple of seconds before it vanished behind the rooftops, but it definitely had firm hold of a magpie, whatever it was, and it was a lot bigger.

[JohnY]

Adrian. You are in the wrong job. What you need is job in which you get up very early, work half a shift, spend a few hours doing photography, get a very nice late lunch, work another half shift, eat, do more photography then go to bed. Martin has got the idea perfectly except for one little detail. How does he get up so early?

[MJB]

May 21, 2023 18:42:33 GMT gray1720 said:

Well, this one definitely comes from the Dept of Whale Oil Beef Hooked. I wonder whether @mjb, who I'm sure sees a lot more Buzzards than I do, had ever seen anything similar? I certainly haven't.

I was in the back garden when I heard agitated squawking, looked up, and I'm 90% certain what I saw was a buzzard, certainly a large raptor, carrying off an adult magpie! I only saw it for a couple of seconds before it vanished behind the rooftops, but it definitely had firm hold of a magpie, whatever it was, and it was a lot bigger.

I've never seen a buzzard carry off a live bird before, but they do have the ability to do so. Corvids are definitely on the menu. Weirdest thing I ever saw a buzzard carrying was a fully grown grass snake. By coincidence I saw one of our local Red Kites trying to raid a magpie nest this evening. Momma Maggie was having none of it.

[peterob]

May 21, 2023 18:42:33 GMT gray1720 said:

Well, this one definitely comes from the Dept of Whale Oil Beef Hooked. I wonder whether @mjb, who I'm sure sees a lot more Buzzards than I do, had ever seen anything similar? I certainly haven't.

I was in the back garden when I heard agitated squawking, looked up, and I'm 90% certain what I saw was a buzzard, certainly a large raptor, carrying off an adult magpie! I only saw it for a couple of seconds before it vanished behind the rooftops, but it definitely had firm hold of a magpie, whatever it was, and it was a lot bigger.

My bird book says they can take small birds and crows, which I deduce means small corvids rather than crows specifically although adult crows will attack buzzards with extreme prejudice and I have seen [carrion] crows driving a buzzard off many a time. I've never seen a buzzard with prey. 

[gray1720]

Thanks, gents, very interesting. Of course they never do it even I have a camera handy, do they?

[zou]

Saw (on social media) a stunning photo of a peregrine the other day, had just taken a puffin on the wing. Poor thing had an extreme WTF face.

[andy]

May 22, 2023 16:33:19 GMT gray1720 said:

Thanks, gents, very interesting. Of course they never do it even I have a camera handy, do they?

They are contractually obliged not to .

[peterba]

May 21, 2023 18:42:33 GMT gray1720 said:

Well, this one definitely comes from the Dept of Whale Oil Beef Hooked. I wonder whether @mjb, who I'm sure sees a lot more Buzzards than I do, had ever seen anything similar? I certainly haven't.

I was in the back garden when I heard agitated squawking, looked up, and I'm 90% certain what I saw was a buzzard, certainly a large raptor, carrying off an adult magpie! I only saw it for a couple of seconds before it vanished behind the rooftops, but it definitely had firm hold of a magpie, whatever it was, and it was a lot bigger.

I once saw a buzzard take a juvenile crow. The parent crows followed in hot pursuit, but the flight took all of them out of my sight, so I didn't see what transpired. I suspect that it didn't end well for the young crow.