More woodpecker news, this time from Cranford Park

An update on yesterdays blog post. I posted a photo of Bill the GS Woodpecker from Mum's garden, on to the Birding London Facebook page asking if anyone would know how a woodpecker could sustain such damage to its beak. A very nice man called Martin Gray replied:-

 

 "Your male has an undershot lower mandible. He seems to be coping with this but I wonder how he would do without feeders. The crack you mention in the bill is I believe just part of their bill structure. The brownish tone in the iris is normal too. I have photos of GSW in the hand in strong sunlight, showing reddish brown irises."

 

So our Bill does not have beak damage nor a head trauma. He is actually quite normal but obviously looks a little different from the other male GS Woodpecker that visits Mum's garden, and we will have to make sure we keep the feeder topped up for him. So Mum has two males visiting her garden. Lucky Mum !

 

I was at Cranford Park early this morning. My last visit (link to blog post 3rd May) had confirmed we definitely have a pair of GS Woodpeckers nesting near to the Information Centre. 

There will be many more pairs nesting within the woods, but this is the only nest tree I have found so far this year. 

So today this was the first place I visited. The male was very active bringing in food about every ten minutes. With it being so early in the morning, there were no dog walkers or children running around, and the M4 traffic was very light, so I could hear things much clearer, and in between feeds I could definitely hear chicks calling. 

 

the male - note the red crown

 Tony had visited the park yesterday and he had noted on his blog that the male was bringing food to the hole and that the female was inside. But as I watched today, not long after the male left the nest for the third time, the female then arrived with a beak full of insects and grubs. Its certainly our female, she has a ring on her leg.

 

 

However she didn't fly off after feeding the chicks, but just sat with her head at the nest hole.

 

So we have Great Spotted Woodpecker chicks. If my calculations are right, the juveniles should fledge around the 6th-10th June. We'll see the juveniles before then though as they'll be squabbling amongst themselves and calling for food from the nest hole.

 

The Green Woodpecker nest site is still under siege from the Marmite Parakeets. The Battle of the Green Birds continues. On my first visit this morning, there were two parakeets, one of them right on the nest hole with his partner-in-crime next to him.

 

And although I could hear a Green Woodpecker 'waffling' from a nearby tree, I couldn't locate it and it didn't attempt to move the parakeets on.

I checked the nest tree again an hour later from a different angle, and again saw a parakeet at the nest hole

 

On my third visit however, both parakeets had gone and there was a Green Woodpecker inside the nest peering out. By the time I'd lifted my camera to get a shot, the bird had disappeared back inside and didn't reappear while I waited.

So, our Green Woodpeckers look to be safe for now and as I didn't witness any woodpecker taking food to the hole, I presume they are still on eggs.

 

Our Wren nest has been almost completely obscured by nettles and brambles, and as I haven't been able to visit the site since the 3rd May, I have no idea if the nest was ever used at all. If it had the young would have fledged by now.

 

The Stock Dove hollow also shows no signs of life, although they could have also fledged.

 

The Great Tits in the nest box outside the Information Centre have definitely fledged, but I don't know on what date.

 

So I only have two nest sites to monitor now, three if you include the Kestrels. All I can do with the Kestrels is look out for when the juveniles leave the nest tree. The eggs should have hatched about a week ago so there will be more Kestrel activity as the days go on, with eventually both the male and female bringing in food for the nestlings.

 

Up by the river I watched one of the Kingfishers fly towards the stone bridge, and saw our resident male Kestrel, with the damaged tail feathers, drifting over towards the airport.

 

In the Memorial Garden, an area has been given over for poppies. It will look glorious when it has established.

 

 

And finally a link to Tony James blog post from yesterday. 

'Hiding' in Mum's garden

Following on from yesterdays blog, this morning I lugged my portable hide over to Mums. The first thing we did when I arrived was set it up at the bottom of the garden so the birds could get used to it.

 

 

As per yesterdays blog post, I primarily wanted to use the hide so I could observe the regularly visiting male Great Spotted Woodpecker. We'd noticed over the last couple of days that he had changed his eating behaviour. Instead of eating from the front of the peanut holder (as seen in my blog post a few days ago - link to post here) he was now collecting peanuts from behind the feeder and doing something with them behind the trunk. We couldn't see what he was doing, but on inspecting the trunk after he left we found remnants of nuts in several cracks in the bark.

 

So that's the primary reason for lugging my hide over two bus rides and a short walk. All in the name of observation. It didn't take long for the GSW to get used to the hide. Within half an hour of setting it up, we watched from the conservatory as he, again, went behind the feeder, faffed about behind the trunk and shortly flew off. Knowing this was my cue to go and sit in the hide, I armed myself with a bottle of water and my phone so Mum could call me if she needed anything. Mum retired for some horizontal resting in front of the tv, and I patiently waited.

 

Half an hour later he was back, at first sitting on top of the pergola, before coming down to the feeder. This was new to me, normally the bird we see enters the garden from next doors tree. This one had entered from the front of the garden. At the time I put it down to the fact the hide was there and maybe he was a little unsure about it..........

 

 

He soon perched under the feeder, and I started firing off loads of photos. When I was checking on my photos an hour later, I noticed our poor GSW has a broken top part of his beak, or culmen to give it its proper name. It also looks like it could be cracked and the red of the eye suggests some sort of head trauma I think.

 

 

When I got home this evening I compared the above photo to a heavily cropped one I had taken on the 13th May (see below), just four days ago. I'm starting to think these are two different males. The red crown on todays male looks a bit more extended up the back of its head, and the black markings around the cheeks look a little different too. Obviously the beaks are different. The feeding behaviour is also different as well as the flight path they use to enter the garden.

 

 

Todays bird (I have a very strong urge to call him 'Bill') was taking nuts from the feeder with both parts of its beak......

 

going round to the back of the trunk, dropping the nut into a crevice then spearing it with the bottom part of it's beak......

 

 

before ramming it into the crevice....

 

 

and smashing it to pieces......

 

 

 

 

He certainly seems healthy enough. I checked the trunk crevices later and there are no whole peanuts stashed in there, just lots of smashed up bits. Is he using the crevice as a type of vice to hold his nuts so he can feed ? I don't think he's storing food as I had previously thought, and I also thought that type of behaviour was mainly autumn or winter.

 

So going back to the broken beak, how could he have possibly sustained so much damage ? Woodpecker beaks are probably in the top ten for beak hardness and durability. I will never know what happened to our poor little male, but as the peanut feeder and where it is situated is obviously suiting him, we will make sure it is topped up.

 

So going back to my hide. After proving useful for observing Bill the Woodpecker, I wanted to see if I could utilise it for taking photos of the many birds that drink and bathe in Mum's stream. Because of the way the garden is planned, or to word it a little differently, because of how many plants my Mum has (lol), the stream cannot be seen from the conservatory view point nor the view point from the bottom of the garden. After lots of hide positioning and moving pot plants around to get a good view, I realised this was going to be trickier than the woodpecker. At the bottom of the garden where Bill's nut tree is, there is a dip in level so I could get a really good view of the tree and I only had to open the hide front a little bit.

Up on the patio area, the only view of the stream is looking down on it. And the only way to be able to take photos was by unzipping and opening the whole front section of my hide.

 

what my hide looks like completely opened

 

what my hide looks like closed but with the whole front section opened

 

Not only was the whole hide in a less hidden spot in the garden, it looked to me like the front was very exposed. Would the birds be spooked by it ?

 

Nope.

 

Less than forty minutes after erecting it the birds were feeding at the feeders right above it, Bill had come back down to his nut tree (less than six feet away) and the stream was alive with the noise of splashing birds.

 

I waited for a lull in the action then went and sat in the hide, and patiently waited.

 I didn't have to wait long........

 

 

"Come in, the waters lovely"

 

 

 

As well as the numerous Sparrows, a Starling dropped in for a drink.....

 

 

And one of next doors Robins came in for a quick bathe.......

 

So hide-wise, it was a complete success today. I will be looking out for our Bill in future, and may ask a couple of wildlife hospitals if they could guess what sort of head trauma Bill has suffered.

 

There's still a lot of action in Mum's garden

After the drama of Wednesday, yesterday and today were calm and peaceful. Most of yesterday Mum and I spent hours doing chores and gardening. She had a good day and was in high spirits. Today Mum rested quite a bit after having an uncomfortable night. So after doing the washing up, I was left to my own devices but making sure I stayed in earshot should Mum call out.

 

There were plenty of birds overhead. Swifts and House Martins were chasing each other, along with several soaring Red Kites. I didn't even bother attempting to photograph the Swifts and Martins though.

 

 

The house that Mum lives in used to belong to my paternal Grandparents, so I've known it and the road it's in, all of my life. I can remember as a child walking down the road and seeing on every house on one side, loads and loads of House Martin nests. As the years progressed and old neighbours passed on and were replaced with new ones, so the nests disappeared. Now there are only two nests on one house compared to three, sometimes four nests on every house (which would be about ten houses). So the decline has been from 30-40 nests each year, down to a very sorry two !

 

 Mum would love to have them nest on her house, but they have always chosen to nest on the row of houses opposite. It is probably due to the direction the fronts of these houses face, but the birds have never shown any interest at the rear of Mums house either, even though it faces in the same direction.

This morning when I'd been walking to Mums I'd seen a couple of House Martins perched and collecting moss from a neighbours roof. A golden photo opportunity as they are rarely still. But sods law, my camera was in Mums conservatory, I had left it there from yesterday as I had no photos to upload. And sods law again, by the time I did get out there with the camera, the birds had stopped gathering moss. I took a few shots of one of the birds at one of the nests, but the nest is in shade and my photos aren't too clear. I'll try again tomorrow at a different time of day.

 

 

Back in Mum's garden the male House Sparrows are looking particularly handsome at the moment.....

 

 

and the juveniles are looking particularly cute.......

 

The male Great Spotted Woodpecker has been behaving strangely. The most common view we get of him now, is this........

 

 

and then this.....

 

 

We've noticed he's started feeding from the back of the peanut feeder, then going to the trunk the feeder is hanging on and staying there for some time, before starting the process all over again.

 

 

After he flew off, I had a proper look at the back of the trunk. The hole just off centre is crammed full of peanuts, as are a few other nooks and crannys.

 

 

What I also observed from my safe unseen spot in the conservatory was that the Sparrows appear to have been observant too. Several times after the male GSW flew off, one or two Sparrows would disappear behind the same trunk. Are they removing his carefully concealed nuts ???

As the feeder is quite near my vantage point at the bottom of the garden, the GSW and the House Sparrows don't go on the trunk when I'm sitting there, so tomorrow I'm taking my portable bird hide to Mums. Hopefully it wont take long for the birds to get used to it and I should be able to take some nice photos and have a really good look at whats going on.

 

We're still getting juvenile Starlings coming in to feed and beg to be fed. I know their calling can be loud and incessant, but I love it.

 

 

The next door neighbours Robin was on its usual branch, but this time it wasn't singing as it had a beakful of insects. I wonder if they're on their second brood now.

 

 

A scruffy little Blue Tit was picking insects off the many shrubs...

 

 

So on to our Blackbirds.

 The scruffy looking female was spotted just once by myself, but she was on the roof and didn't attempt to come in the garden.

 

 

This new male I found skulking in the bushes.....

 

 

It soon became apparent why he was hiding, our very own Mr BB soon flushed him out and chased him all around the garden and into next doors. Mr BB still has a patch of grey feathers on his chest, so he's easily identified, as you can see below.

 

 

I noticed today that he is spending a lot of time perched on the neighbours aerial, singing. He's not singing to attract a mate, he already has one, so this must be territorial singing.

And speaking of his mate, here she is, our lovely Mrs BB hunkered down on her nest within the old whicker wall hanger. Every morning Mum goes out there and says 'good morning' to her and apparently Mrs BB winks back.

 

Introducing Will the Eyas and a visit to the London Wetland Centre

I've known for a little while what I was to be doing this morning, and all that time I was excited. Yet when it actually came to my 'big' moment, I had a mini-meltdown !!!

 

The plan was the solo Fulham and Barnes Peregrine eyas (chick) was to be ringed. The BTO ringer, Phil, was allowed two people under his licence, to accompany him up to the area just above the nest ledge. Nathalie (the peregrines 'godmother') kindly asked if I'd like to join her. Naturally I jumped at the chance, for me this was to be a once in a lifetime opportunity. So today was meant to be the day.

 

It all started well. I felt a little nauseus first thing but put that down to one of the 'sympathy symptoms' I've been experiencing due to Mums chemo side effects.

 

As soon as I reached the hospital where the peregrines nest, I found Tom (daddy peregrine, the tiercel) on the nest ledge with Charlie (mummy peregrine, the falcon) perched nearby. Charlie laid three eggs this year, one got broken, one never hatched but one did. Phil was on site today to ring the one remaining eyas and remove the unhatched egg (to be sent away for analysis). Just before Nathalie met me in the cemetery at the back of the hospital, Tom flew round to join Charlie on an adjoining perch.

 

Phil arrived soon after and we made our way to the 15th floor, armed with a ladder and Phils bag of kit to abseil down to the nest ledge. Nathalie and I were to stay on the ridge above the nest ledge and record the ringing by video and camera.

 

So far, so good. I was still excited and feeling great. Nathalie left to take up her position to the right of the nest box, and I waited as Phil kitted himself out, put up the ladder and started to hoist himself over the lip of the ridge. Then I started feeling queasy. Just watching Phil go over made me feel sick. It was my turn to go up the ladder. Nathalie was already in position up to my side. I got both feet on the first rung of the seven foot long ladder, got another foot on the second rung, and froze. I only had another five rungs to go and to then lean over the ridge lip and look down, but my blood drained, my legs started trembling, my arms started shaking, my heart was crashing against my ribcage and I felt as if I was going to faint. After a few more seconds of this, I knew I wasn't going to be able to do it. I indicated to Nathalie that I couldn't go through with it and hastily made my way back inside the building, found the first place I could to sit down and put my head between my knees. I had failed myself. A once in a lifetime opportunity and I couldn't go through with it.

 

I am absolutely gutted. I even had a bit of a cry when I eventually got home this evening. Last summer I ended up on the roof of the nearby Harper Collins building looking for one of last years fledged eyas who had gone missing. I didn't experience any fear at all. So why was I overcome with fear today ? Was it a panic attack ? Was I genuinely not well ? Was it one of my 'sympathy symptoms' for Mum ?

 

Anyway I can beat myself up about this for many years to come, but I cannot change what happened. Further down my blog is Nathalie's brilliant video footage of the eyas being ringed and three of her fantastic photos. But first a few of my distant shots from the safety of the ground.

 

Toms head just visible on the left near the corner of the ledge. If I had managed my mission today, I would have been peering over the ridge not far from the satellite dish.

Tom flying around to join Charlie

                                     

Tom on the left, Charlie on the right. This was taken just after Tom had landed, they're greeting each other.

This was after the eyas was ringed. Charlie had settled on one of the balconys and was watching Tom flying and calling overhead.

Charlie

The link below is to Nathalie's video clip of Phil and the eyas........



link to video clip of the eyas being ringed

 

And below are Nathalie's brilliant photos taken from her vantage point just above the nest ledge, of Charlie before and after the eyas was ringed (showing her own ring 'green 19') and one of Phil holding the eyas.

 

photo by Nathalie Mahieu

 

photo by Nathalie Mahieu

 

photo by Nathalie Mahieu

It was really lovely to see Nathalie again, and to meet Phil, but I feel I've let them both down as well as myself. So thank you so much for the invitation Nathalie, just so sorry I couldn't perform my mission.

 

 Even on the way to the London Wetland Centre I still felt very shaky, and if it wasn't for the fact I was meeting my two dear friends, John and Therese, I would have probably gone home.

 

But I didn't and after a cuppa and chat with John and Therese, I felt a little better. And thank you to both of them for letting me ramble on. After they left I had a wander around.

 

Jay

 

record shot of Reed Warbler

Redshank

Redshank

Common Lizard

Common Lizards

mating Azure Damselflies

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Little Grebe

Marsh Frog

On my last visit to the London Wetland Centre (on the 14th April) I'd seen a very pale looking Moorhen youngster. It was still there today and I was able to grab a photo of it with one of its normal coloured siblings.

 

 

Parakeet in the courtyard

I was just about to head home when out of the corner of my eye I saw a Wren acting oddly. Watching it for a while I realised it was taking food into its nest. I'm not going to say where the nest is, as its very accessible and therefore quite vulnerable. I took this one shot from quite some distance away and have heavily cropped it.

 

 

So that's the story of my sad day today. It really could have been better, and I'll be kicking myself about it for years to come.

 

But many thanks to Nathalie, Phil, John and Therese for cheering me up.

 

P.S - the eyas ring number is 'yellow A6' and he weighed in at 740 grams. Sexing an eyas is mainly based on the weight of the juvenile (females are considerably larger than males and weigh around 900g at this age - 27 days old). As 'A6' sounds like a road up north, Nathalie has decided to call the eyas 'Will'. Welcome Will. See you in a couple of weeks for Fledge Watch.