What birds (are you/have you been) watching? What birds have been watching you?

[ardcarp]

I saw an interesting phenomenon this morning as I drove along a country lane with hedges either side. A buzzard (as is their habit) was sitting atop a telegraph pole. As I approached two other buzzards flew up towards it making that baby-seagull-I-want-to-be-fed noise. The first buzzard flew off and they followed it. Assuming the pair were youngsters, they looked every bit as large and fully fledged as [what I assumed to be] the parent. A few questions:

1. Do buzzards rear more than one chick?
2. Are 'chicks' dependant on their parent/s this late in the season?
3. Is the high-pitched squeaking typical of young birds [I am acquainted with the 'mewing' of adult birds as they soar looking for prey]?
4. Could there be another reason for the threesome?

[cloughie]

Booted/Sykes sounds like a game for ringers! And when did they stop being Hippolais and become Iduna? I'm very out of date, clearly. In the old days there were only 6 species of Hippolais, including Booted......All this splitting has worked to my advantage, but it gets a little wearing.....

My only autumn migrant of note has been an osprey on the river, not far from home. Oh, and a marsh harrier (we also get wintering ones).

We have a number of booted warblers in Cornish singing groups - probably one of those!

[Richard Tarleton]

I saw an interesting phenomenon this morning as I drove along a country lane with hedges either side. A buzzard (as is their habit) was sitting atop a telegraph pole. As I approached two other buzzards flew up towards it making that baby-seagull-I-want-to-be-fed noise. The first buzzard flew off and they followed it. Assuming the pair were youngsters, they looked every bit as large and fully fledged as [what I assumed to be] the parent. A few questions:

1. Do buzzards rear more than one chick?
2. Are 'chicks' dependant on their parent/s this late in the season?
3. Is the high-pitched squeaking typical of young birds [I am acquainted with the 'mewing' of adult birds as they soar looking for prey]?
4. Could there be another reason for the threesome?

Yes, 2-3 eggs - incubation starts straight away with the first egg so hatching spaced over a week. The smallest often does not survive but 2 young normal. And they remain dependent on their parents for 40 days or so after fledging.

Young birds when fledged are full sized and can look even bigger than their parents as their plumage fresh and fluffy, unlike their parents worn down by the cares of parenthood. And yes, begging noises - young sound more plaintive!

PS I love the booted warblers!

[oddoneout]

I saw an interesting phenomenon this morning as I drove along a country lane with hedges either side. A buzzard (as is their habit) was sitting atop a telegraph pole. As I approached two other buzzards flew up towards it making that baby-seagull-I-want-to-be-fed noise. The first buzzard flew off and they followed it. Assuming the pair were youngsters, they looked every bit as large and fully fledged as [what I assumed to be] the parent. A few questions:

1. Do buzzards rear more than one chick?
2. Are 'chicks' dependant on their parent/s this late in the season?
3. Is the high-pitched squeaking typical of young birds [I am acquainted with the 'mewing' of adult birds as they soar looking for prey]?
4. Could there be another reason for the threesome?

I had assumed the answer to 1 to be yes since those at work are a pair plus three whereas last year it was pair plus two(and the year before that) but perhaps that's an incorrect assumption on my part. The family group has been much in evidence(sight and sound) the past couple of weeks, possibly getting ready for the youngsters to disperse and make their way in the world? What has been interesting is that these group flights don't seem to be of much concern to other birds, who continue to go about their business - can they tell the difference between enjoying riding the thermals and looking for the next meal, perhaps buzzards in numbers are not a risk but a singleton is? Any ideas?

[Richard Tarleton]

Or - more dangerous to try to mob a whole family, as harder to watch your back? Not sure about that one.

[ardcarp]

A short item on the Today programme this morning celebrated the increase in Cirl Bunting numbers, mainly in Devon. Can't remember the exact figures, but breeding pairs have risen from 100 to about 1000 in recent years due to improvements in farming practices. Apparently they used to be known as The Village Bunting in bygone days.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/b0bjyq5h

Approx 1hr 20mins from start.

[Richard Tarleton]

Yes that was nice, and an excellent RSPB expert talking about them. Have you seen them in Devon, ardcarp? I've only seen them abroad, I remember my first one exactly. Not much of a song, more of a dry rattle, as Peter Holden says not unlike a lesser whitethroat or a yellowhammer without the flourish at the end.

[Bryn]

A short item on the Today programme this morning celebrated the increase in Cirl Bunting numbers, mainly in Devon. Can't remember the exact figures, but breeding pairs have risen from 100 to about 1000 in recent years due to improvements in farming practices. Apparently they used to be known as The Village Bunting in bygone days.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/b0bjyq5h

Approx 1hr 20mins from start.

A lot can be put down to the RSPB wisely buying what was previously farmland to the west of Labrador Bay belonging to Teignmouth Council. It had long had wildlife encouragement written into its conditions of use, but the RSPB had futher developed these conditions with the express purpose of assisting the Cirl BUntings to be found there. The area was featured in a Springwatch feature on corvids. It's an area I am very fond of and am aiming to visit again soon.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/reserves-a-z/labrador-bay/

[Vox Humana]

Cirls are one of my favourite birds. I first saw them at Wembury, near Plymouth, way back in the mid 1980s, although there are better places to see them - Labrador Bay, as mentioned, probably being the best. Back in the nineteenth century they used to be common in the West Midlands, central southern England and the South East and abundant in Devon and Cornwall, the New Forest, the Isle of Wight and all along the Sussex coast. By the 1980s they had become confined to the coastal fringe of Devon from Exeter down to Plymouth. That is still their stronghold, although they have now been introduced into Cornwall.

[ardcarp]

Have you seen them in Devon, ardcarp?

No, not knowingly! But Mrs A. has seen them in Cornwall (S.Coast) where an estate, in conjunction with the RSPB I think, has managed part of its farmland appropriately. We'll keep an eye out in Devon tho'.

[AmpH]

Yesterday, much enjoyed a glorious bird-filled walk on a falling tide along the edge of Morecambe Bay from Hest Bank northwards. A beautiful crystal clear sunny day with flat calm conditions in the Bay and superb views of the Lakeland Hills.

[Padraig]

Have you heard this bird recently?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJB8SJf2J8M

[Serial_Apologist]

Have you heard this bird recently?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJB8SJf2J8M

It is said that there are still painted slogans to be seen on walls in US cities proclaiming "Bird Lives".

Speaking of black birds, has anyone noticed recently how much more bold carrion crows seem to be getting these days? A number of times I have passed within a few feet of them when I'm out and about, whereas previously they've seemed to hop and then fly away if I was within about 20 yards.

[gradus]

Thin year on our feeders, only blue and great tits, robins and a greater spotted woodpecker with a couple of chaffinches occasionally and that's it apart from the perennial wood pigeons and collared doves on the bird table.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thin year on our feeders, only blue and great tits, robins and a greater spotted woodpecker with a couple of chaffinches occasionally and that's it apart from the perennial wood pigeons and collared doves on the bird table.

I thought collared doves were supposed to be almost extinct. You are lucky then!