Bearded Tit Gritting Season gets Underway

Posted on by North Lancs Ringing Group - In North Lancs Ringing Group
The sighting of a pair on the  grit trays at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve today signals the start of the gritting season. The pair sighted proved most interesting.They were  both 2016 youngsters, the female having been ringed as a nestling in May and the male as a juvenile in July. The were first recorded together on October 2nd 2016 when they were recaptured. They were them recorded gritting together on 10 occasions up to  November 11th. The next  sighting was on the grit trays on 17 September 2017 and over the next months they were recorded gritting together on 14 occasions up to November 14th. On April 3rd this year they were sighted together near a nest box and the female was seen at the same nest box on April 27th.These sightings again prove that Bearded Tits pair in their first autumn and remain together as a pair as...
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Too Much Southerly

Posted on by The Hairy Birder - In Fleetwood Birder
I sort had this morning free so I took myself off to the Point to do some seawatching and joined Ian who said to me as I walked up to the tower, "you may as well go home mate it's awful"! Not what I wanted to here, but not surprising either as the wind was dues south without a hint of any west in it. At the Point the best direction is anywhere between southwesterly and westerly.Funnily enough, even though I was hoping for a bit of seawatching, because the wind was fairly strong, but not very strong, and because of the southerly direction there was a bit of vis. Three Grey Wagtails and a handful of Meadow Pipits and Swallows headed south into wind.The sea was quiet also, with the most numerous species recorded being the 86 Common Scoters that headed west and the scarcest a male Velvet Scoter that drifted slowly out and west on the falling ti...
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Boomerangs

Posted on by Phil Slade - In Another Bird Blog
September means Skiathos where Sue and I join the Boomerang Club, people who return year after year to this very special Greek Island.  Don't forget - click the pics.Skiathos is the most popular of the Sporades, the group of islands east of Volos and north of Evia on mainland Greece. The island of Skiathos is actually an extension of wooded Mount Pelion 100 miles away on the mainland and the scenery reflects this. Skiathos is a green island with pine forests and abundant water with fig, olive, plum, and almond trees, as well as grapes.  SkiathosLeaving SkopelosSkiathos embraced tourism many years ago where on glistening beaches, wooded hillsides and in peaceful valleys are a number of the finest hotels in Greece. We stay in one such place that shall remain our secret.Skiathos has much to offer people of all ages and national...
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Wot No Birding

Posted on by The Hairy Birder - In Fleetwood Birder
Life, namely work, and the weather has been getting in the way of my birding of late and it's Autumn!!! And I haven't posted since 8th September, so really all I want to do with this post is to let you know dear reader that I am still here and very frustrated!Before I was self-employed I used to always take the last week in September and the first week in October off as annual leave and go birding every day. I can't do this now, because if I am doing a series of wintering bird surveys at a site for example, and the weather is fit to get some surveys in, then I have to do the surveys and there goes my day or days off! I'm not after a sympathy vote as there are far more worse ways to earn a crust, but I am just offering this up as an explanation for my 'radio silence'. That in its self rings a bell, and I think I have offered that as an expla...
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A Breath Of Life.

Posted on by Pete Woodruff - In Birds2blog
Sounds a little dramatic, but wasn't meant to, rather than meaning to give a breath of life to Birds2blog whilst I get back some sort of normality again, and just to thank everyone who passed on to to me their good wishes via e-mail, phone, and card, I really appreciate them all, and had no idea I had such a strong healthy following.  It was also good to see Brian Rafferty back in business following a spell in hospital. Brian's Long-eared Owl is featured in my header image, and is one of two birds he saw on the the trip. The bird in the header being a juvenile, the other above an adult bird.Pallid Harrier.  Pallid Harrier Jan Larsson Pallid Harrier at Cockersand....as write. ...
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Comment on Three more hen harriers disappear suddenly

Posted on by Alex M - In Sky Dancer
Prasad et al, even if the suspicious circumstances were reported to the police, NE have some small measures (unlike in Scotland) which they can take without a successful persecution. Even better, the estate against whom the measures were taken, could appeal and let the public find out what is going on. If they did take measures against the estate/s where the incidents happened, it is clear due to the locations revealed, that the measures did not work as the same places  seem to be repeated. Of course, NE could have given greater details as incidents occurred over the years, which might have had an effect. Ah, sorry, I forgot. ...
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Comment on Three more hen harriers disappear suddenly

Posted on by Prasad - In Sky Dancer
I have an update on my comments. NE has replied and say 'In all cases, in England and the IoM, when one of Natural England’s satellite tagged Hen Harriers stops transmitting the Police are notified straight away and a thorough search of the area is made' That is very interesting but opens up new questions about what the police have done, I also wrote to them but if it ongoing i doubt i will get a reply. In other words another black hole of infornation Strange that the NE Hen Harrier satellite tagged data-sheet mentinons nothing suspicious about birds failing. Why? They write 'Missing Fate Unknown includes:    (i) radio-tagged birds that left the study area. The vast majority of Missing Fate Unknown's are radio-tagged birds, this is not surprising given the mobility of Hen Harriers and our relatively small study area.    (ii) radio-ta...
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Comment on Three more hen harriers disappear suddenly

Posted on by Prasad - In Sky Dancer
Thanks RSPB for swift appeal for information. In contrast According to information released by Natural England (NE) recently: www.gov.uk/.../hen-harrier-annual-tracking-update On 18th August 2010 Hen Harrier id94591 's satellite tag stopped working. 3 days later on 21st August 2010 Hen Harrier id58870's satellite tag also stopped transmitting. Both of these failures were very close together (within 7km) in Bowland an infamous raptor persecution hot spot. id94591 's last known location was Bowland SD596621 which is 1km outside the last known transmission of Hope and 3km away from the centre of the overlap in last transmission of Hope and Sky. id58870's last known transmission was 2km outside the last known transmission of Sky and about 3.5km from centre of overlap of last known transmissions of Sky and Hope. ww2.rspb.org.uk/.../sky-and-hope...
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Comment on Sky and Hope: A plea for information

Posted on by Prasad - In Sky Dancer
What happened to my comment? I posted over a week ago and can't see anything. I get the RSS Bowland feed and it tells me there has been a comment by other comments but the comments are blank. The last one i can see was from the post 'Six ways you can help hen harriers' in a comment by Alex. M ...
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Blog Post: Three more hen harriers disappear suddenly

Posted on by Chris Collett - In Sky Dancer
Dr Cathleen Thomas, Hen Harrier LIFE Project Manager, reports on the sudden disappearances of three more tagged hen harriers in England and Wales in suspicious circumstances. Just weeks after celebrating the breeding success of hen harriers in the UK this summer, the sobering reality of the continued illegal killing of our birds of prey was brought firmly into light with the suspicious disappearance of three satellite tagged birds in England and Wales. All of the birds were fitted with satellite tags this summer as part of the RSPB’s EU-funded Hen Harrier LIFE project and we were regularly tracking their movements as they left their nests and started to make their way into the world. We’d hoped against hope that they’d at least manage to survive for a year or two, but we’re very sad to see that these three birds only lasted a coupl...
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