Dotterels

Charadrius morinellus

Kingfishers

Alcedo atthis

Swallows

Hirundo Rustica

Kestrels a plenty

Falco Tinnunculus

I have been watching a pair of Kestrels nesting in a box on my patch for some time now, keeping well clear most of the time, just having a peep with my bins now and then to see the hen is still sitting her eggs. I noticed one day last week she was missing from her usual spot, watching from the nest box as she surveyed her territory, I wondered where she could be. Had the eggs failed and she had deserted? Had the nest been robbed by a predator? A Crow, Squirrel etc? The nest looked so vulnerable without her siting in it, or on a more positive note had the eggs hatched and she was waiting somewhere for hubby to bring her a meal for her new born?

I would have to wait for the answers as we were about to have a few days away on our boat in Norfolk. Today I went and staked out the nest, I sat watching the front of the box for ages with no clues to what was going on, I was becoming concerned at the lack of attention around the nest box. I thought I saw some movement earlier which turned out to be a fly inside the box, its funny what tricks your eyes play when you stare in the same place long enough. All of a sudden I did see some movement and was mad with myself for not reacting quick enough to take a picture of what it was, I need not have worried as soon after I saw another movement which this time I did record, it was a pair of wings obviously from a baby Kestrel, how relieved I felt,soon after I was rewarded with a view of a couple of heads, happy days.

Being a natural worrier I was now wondering if my presence was keeping the parents away, I was in my dome hide, but I would be kidding myself if I thought the birds could not see it. I need not have concerned myself as suddenly the male appeared with an offering, a vole for his off-spring. He presented it to his partner, and in seconds he was off hunting again. It amazes me that most of the food finding is done by the male who usually brings it to the female to feed to their chicks.

It was another two hours before they returned with the next meal, it looked very much like a tree sparrow.



I am very pleased to report that all is well with the Kestrels on my patch, particularly as they are now on the amber list. I hope to monitor the progress of the chicks over the next week or so. happy days.

.

Down memory lane

Now there's a title I never wanted to be associated with, but I am so feel free to join Jeff Attwood and myself at the BS convention on Friday 11th where we will be presenting a slide show entitled, yes you guessed it "Down Memory Lane" Jeff is one of the best ever speakers on budgerigars and I am honoured to be asked to accompany him in Southport, we hope to see you there.

ChiffChaff

Chiff-Chaff

Jay's

Garrulus Glandarius

We decided to have a few days in Norfolk and as you know by now Robby goes everywhere with me, so a trip to the East Coast for him would be his first. I placed his box in one of my all wire photo cages (used for front cover budgie images) and sat him on the back seat, put his seat belt on, well around the cage and off we set. Twenty minutes later Jak told me Robby was calling for food, so stopping in the next available lay-bye he had a feed of chopped worms. On we go for a further 30 minutes when he was calling again, another lay-bye another feed.

Robs first seaside trip.


A further three stops and we reached our destination, Brundall, where our boat Ruby Tuesday is moored. Rob seemed to take to his new surroundings straight away, all he wanted to do is watch the ducks, so we gave him a ringside seat, he loved his new view and certainly let us know when it was time to bring him inside.
Ringside seat

I have to say over the next three days I turned into a Robin, everything that moved I investigated to see if it was a suitable meal for our Robby.

Hide and Seek

Red-Leg Partridge.
Moving the boat further downstream, we moored up at Langley Dyke, a small tranquil offshoot from the vast river Yare, I walked towards the village, a walk I had taken the previous year around September, I wanted to look around a small lake I had discovered at Langley Abbey in the hope of photographing some Mallard chicks.. I was surprised to see a temporary car park opposite the entrance to the Abbey apparently the doors were open to the public for the first time, I reassoned as I was already there I may as well have a snoop around. Although I was interested in the history of the Abbey, I was more interested in the surroundings and found myself walking around the grounds, I spotted a partridge in the distance and walked towards it, it was a Red-Leg, an introduced species from Europe.


Red-Legged Partridge.

They mainly breed in France and Spain but are very widespread here now. It became quite disturbed at my presence and I wondered why, I only wanted to take its picture. I sat down and kept a low profile when suddenly the partridge made a run for it to my left, with a speed that Usain Bolt would have struggled to achieve, it covered around 50 metres in next to no time, when suddenly around twenty chicks appeared out of nowhere.



I stood to get a better view, and in doing so they all disappeared instantly as the Mother dashed off again. They were there I just could not see them. I waited for what seemed an age when one by one they reappeared, the Mother joined them and they all trotted off together.



Looking around I noticed I had wondered into a private area, I reckoned I should beat a retreat. My fear is they may all not make it to adult hood, I guess one or two at least will become a meal for a Crow or Heron, but I hope not.

Rockland Broad boat channel

Time to observe
Sitting next to my boat whilst having a cuppa on the bank of the short entrance to the beautiful Rockland Broad, situated a short distance off the River Yare, my attention was drawn to a small little brown bird flitting back and forth from a small area of old Norfolk reed. At first I took little notice, but always looking for a birdy pic I move my position, this would give me better results with the sun behind me if a photo opportunity did arise. I sat for I guess 20 minutes watching this lovely little warbler, wondering why it kept coming back to this sparse area of reeds.


It never dawned on me until I saw it fly off with a fetal sac that there was a nest among them, something that would have been second nature to me as a 13/14 year old lad. On first inspection I found nothing as my search was mainly concentrating on the reeds themselves, but as I looked closer I spotted the nest neatly tucked away about a foot above the ground within some nettles and bramble.


Whitethroat Nest



What a thing of beauty it was with a full clutch of chicks too, I quickly got Jak's to hold the vegetation to one side while I took a photo,quickly we placed it back to its original position and beat a hasty retreat. Within two or three minutes the parent bird was back at the nest with a beak full of insects for the waiting hungry chicks. We settled back in our chairs soaking up the Norfolk sun and marveled at how hard these birds had to work if they were to be successful rearing their brood. What species was it I guess you are wondering? It was a Whitethroat, a migrant, it winters in Africa, South of the Sahara.


Whitethroat


I never did get a clear shot of this hardworking bird, but was happy to have observed its world for a short time.

Making Hay

As a young boy we lived opposite open farmland, how we loved messing around in the fields and close by woodland, birds egging was the order of the day, my mates and me used to find nests of all species, when I look now I find nothing, I guess the years have stripped me of my youthful knowledge. The time we looked forward to most was when the farmer cut the hay, the wildlife that lived in the grass in those long gone time was vast, voles were a plenty as were fieldmice, watching the Kestrel hovering over a newly cut field was a site to behold (still is) The hay was baled and left in the fields for what seemed weeks, we would make dens with the bales, castles, etc we had endless fun, all his would take place in September. Why mention this now?
Making Hay

Well as I sat in my garden pondering as we do on a lovely sunny June day, a tractor appeared and proceeded to cut the grass in the field at the rear of my property, it's June 3rd, how times have changed aye. I guess with modern fertilisers etc the grass grows quick enough to harvest twice in a season, but at what cost to the wildlife we knew as kids?

Great Crested Grebe
Podiceps cristatus

Little grebe.

Grebe & Eel.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker






Dendrocopus major

Bloody Rain

I decided to take myself and my camera for a walk today, it was overcast, not the best conditions for taking bird images, but the weather girl said it was going to brighten up (lieing sod her) it rained, rained and rained even more as you will see from my lily pad image.



I was out now so I thought I may as well make the best of it and headed for a Country park about 30 minutes drive away, I parked up and hoped the rain would stop. I noticed some seed on an old tree stump that an earlier visitor had left, shortly after a baby rat appeared. Moving over to the passenger seat of my car and winding the window down, I placed my camera bean bag on the car door. I had my cable release with me, I figured I was going to need it in such low light conditions. Every time I was about to take an image a car door slammed or some noisy brat was chasing around, keeping both the rat and any other species well away from the tree stump, also my camera was getting wet. I'm fed up now.

Moving to another area of the park, the rain ceased temporarily so I ventured out, not far mind as I am a fair weather togger now. The birds it seemed were as fed up as I was, the ones that did decide to show had to put up with a woman's dog, who chased anything and everything that moved.



I decided I could have more fun sitting with the Mother-in-Law so back to the car and called it a day.

More please

Our Robby

Well Robby is growing fast, he should be if the amount of food he eats is anything to go by. Sod the worm hunting etc, I took the easy route and went to the local fishing tackle shop. I placed Robby on the counter (remember i told you he went everywhere with me) and said, he wants a quarter of maggots and some worms. I have never heard so many Ahh's in my life, full grown men with tattoo's and piercings, noses that looked like the Rock of Gibraltar crowded around to see our Robby. On six foot plus angler said I have got to give him a maggot, it made me smile. We left the shop with a promise of reporting Rob's progress and enough food to last him a fortnight.

He has around six maggots at any one feeding, his record is nine, chopped worms are a favorite with him, but not me slimy as hell when chopped up. Robby will be going on holiday for a few days tomorrow to our boat in Norfolk.

Robby

My neighbour came round and said I have found this chick in the garden, you are the bird man here you go, and presented me with a tiny bundle of fluff. I wish he had left it where he had found it at the base of our adjoining hedge, that way I am sure Mum would have attended to her little mite.

With this in mind I placed the little baby Robin chick next to the hedge, I watched for over 2 hours but the parents never found it. Faced with the option of either letting it die or trying to help I chose the latter.

I quickly found an ice cream tub and an old towel, now to find some food, I will state now , if I was a bird I would starve to death, finding worms, grubs etc is not as easy as it first seems. That said I found enough to get him through the night. Yes you have guessed it, I was up at first light grub hunting again, this guy demands food every 30 minutes, he goes everywhere with me now (except the loo that is) I will be glad when he can feed himself.

L&P Martin Best Young Bird 2009

P&D Spruce Best in Show 2009

Lightning Strikes Twice

Dude 2008 winner

Following on from our fantastic win at the Budgerigar Society World show in 2007, we had talked about where we would go from here, some well known budgie fanciers said it would be all down hill from now on.We never saw it that way. I made a pledge to my budgie partner that we would win it again, once is a hell of an achievement, twice is exceptional. On the Saturday as we watched the judging of the major specials, our Dominant Pied cock bird was selected as the Best Adult in show, as in 2007 we now had to compete against the Best young bird (current year bred) It seemed to take an age for the judges to make up their minds, but to our amazement we triumphed again, Although I thought we would be crowned World Champs again, neither of us thought it would be so soon. We will now go down in budgie history as one of only four who have won the World show more than once.