Hobby Hunting with Ben & Holly!

I have just recently spent a fab few days at the ICBP helping out at their annual Falconry Weekend and as always Jemima made me feel very welcome as did the rest of the team and it all went very well!

I got to meet so great new people and also some old friends, I ran a little activity area for children as it was also International Vulture Awareness Day on the Saturday so we did lots of fun vulture related activities right outside Delectable the Griffon Vultures aviary! Make sure you visit www.icbp.org the Owl evenning are due to begin!

Now I have heard several people at the ICBP talk about Hobby's flying over the centre and even that they breed nearby and it has always intrigued me. The Hobby (Falco subbuteo) is a small but long sharp winged falcon that is classed as a British bird of prey but not one that winters here, at this moment in time I imagine many British Hobbies will have started their migration back to Africa. The migration is based primarily on food supply and weather, the Hobby loving to hunt birds like Swallows and House Martins and Dragons flies and other bugs. Our warm weather wakes up the dragon flies and brings the Swallows and House Martins back to their breeding grounds along with the Hobby.

Hobbies have spread fairly well over the last 10 years or so from parts of Eastern UK across and up into the Midlands and North of England. My area of Cheshire has a few hotspots for seeing them especially when feeding and it is not unheard of to find a number of Hobbies hunting over the same area.

Whilst packing away some fencing with Ben after the ICBP event I heard a falcon(s) calling excitidly. It call didn't quite fit the call I am more use to of the Kestrel but sounded like a group of falcons which I put down to young birds with their parent(s). I thought could it be a family of Hobbies still around?

The next day I was in the horse paddock moving another fence and it was another fine sunny day when I heard the calling again, fast repetitive kew kew kew kew as if an adult was being greeted by hungry young beaks! I mentioned it to Ben a bit later on,  he had heard it the day before and sad as I am I played both the Kestrel and Hobby calls which I have on a phone app. He agreed that it sounded more like aHobby so we decided to go and see if we could get a visual.

I know Hobbies often use old crows nest which are usually on open ground in a tree like Oak. We heard the calling of what I thought was young birds but in the next field on and as we walked along a band of trees we got our first visual, four Hobbies playing and chasing each other above trees in the distance. We stopped under a tree and watched as the birds came in and out of view, sometimes the birds landed and one went up and into a large Oak and out again. An adult bird came in and the young started calling, rushing to meet the bird one youngster looked to receive a food item in mid air. Then the noise subsided and they vanished off over the woods. Ben seemed to get a couple of long distance shots with the camera and we made our way back to the centre.

That evening Holly wanted to see the Hobbies so we made our way across the the fields to the site where me and Ben had stopped. Sadly no sign of the birds this time but I walked a little closer to get a better look with my binoculars at the Oak presumed to be the nest site, sure enough a large stick nest could just be made out in the tree.

I read afterwards in Anthony Chapmans book The Hobby that the birds start to disperse from their breeding sites around 4 weeks later. It is important to point out that the species is protected by law and nest sites should not be appoached during the breeding season to avoid disturbance.

A real highlight for my summer sightings this year!

To find out more about such a stunning little falcon check out what Arkive have to say http://www.arkive.org/eurasian-hobby/falco-subbuteo/  

An important thing to sign Raptor fans!!

I just needed to share with you three links to some very important pages the first is a petition that you need to sign and is regarding the awful shooting of migrating birds over Malta. Many of these birds include Honey Buzzards, Marsh harrier and Osprey.

It just takes 2 minutes and they are nearly at their total of 5000!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_Spring_Hunting_in_Malta/?tta

If the above is a bit new to you don't worry BBC Radio 4 Nature have done a piece investigating the hunting in Malta.

Find it here at Raptor Politics.org http://raptorpolitics.org.uk/2012/08/02/bbc-radio-4-nature-series-7-bird-wars-on-malta/comment-page-1/#comment-11124

And if you have a spare 30 minutes and follow the illegal persecution of raptors in the UK why not voice your concerns to the European Environmental Commission, the more sent through the more likely action will be taken don't leave it to someone else!

http://raptorpolitics.org.uk/2012/08/03/voicing-our-concern-to-the-europenan-environmental-commission-on-the-lack-of-protection-for-britains-birds-of-prey/

All of the above will surely only take you half an hour, surely thats better than watching Eastenders!

Thanks.

Step away from the Olympics!

Well the Olympics is well underway and I have just been interrupted in starting this post by watching the fastest men in the world race 100 metres. Its all very exciting and makes me very proud to be British. Enough about that though as I'm sure you might have come here to get away from all the Olympic talk.

I must apologise if I post something below that I have posted in a previous edition, I have just sifted through my inbox and files and realised they are well over due a tidy up since my last post. Their is lots to pick through below from news in the field, new papers and a book to be released. Hopefully you will find something interesting or useful to read.

Firstly their have been some scientific papers that have dropped into my inbox from various sources, sadly I don't subscribe to the sites publishing the papers so only have access to the abstracts but you can find the links to these below.

The first one assesses the risk of extinction to the critically endangered Bonellis eagle in Italy - http://www.bto.org/about-birds/bird-id/bto-bird-id-summer-buzzards-common-buzzard-and-honey-buzzard?dm_i=IG4,VKOX,4BMHAI,2LTST,1

The next two are based on falcons, the first on vocalisations in Lanner Falcons and the second of the relationship between brood size and prey selection in Peregrine falcons in a specific region

http://www.springerlink.com/content/f5g4k6577819051h/

http://www.springerlink.com/content/npgp66w817304718/

When you open one of the above links if you look to the left hand side of the page you will also find other bird of prey related papers which might be of interest.

Next their is a couple of recent newsletters the first being from the Belize Raptor Research Institute showing the work they are doing and the Solitary Eagle nest and young they are monitoring. The second from the Neotropical Raptor Research Group which has a nice article from the Belize group but also further tropical raptor species news.

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/13983865/1359194174/name/Summer%202012%20Issue%204%20Belize%20Raptor%20Research%20Institute%20Nesl - Belize Raptor Research Institute

http://neotropicalraptors.org/Newsletter%20PDFs/NRN%20Newsletter13%20English.pdf

The Green Balkans.org site announced in May the first Griffon nest recorded in recent decades on the Balkan Mountains, if you haven't seen this news you can read more here http://greenbalkans.org/show.php?id=1475&language=en_EN&cat_id=35 but you can keep right upto date with more receent news at http://greenbalkans.org/category.php?language=en_EN&cat_id=35

You can find an interesting story from the Peregrine Fund on their continued work to save the stunning Orange Breasted Falcons, sadly some birds they came across had bot fly infestation and you can find out more in this link http://www.peregrinefund.org/news-release/242 make sure you also check out the rest of their news pages and why not sign up to their e-newsletter.

I have a few videos now for you to check out the first from Munir Virani working for the Peregrine Fund and trying to further highlight the plight of vultures in India and Africa http://talentsearch.ted.com/video/Munir-Virani-Why-I-love-vulture;TEDNairobi

The next video is on the amazing Harpy Eagle, it isn't in English but that doesn't really matter as the footage is fantastic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXyUmaLQIJg&feature=em-share_video_user

The final video might help any budding raptor enthusiasts in identifying the Common Buzzard and Honey Buzzard, its been produced by the BTO and if you look to the left of the screen you will find many more videos designed to help with bird ID including several raptors http://www.bto.org/about-birds/bird-id/bto-bird-id-summer-buzzards-common-buzzard-and-honey-buzzard?dm_i=IG4,VKOX,4BMHAI,2LTST,1

But if you really want to scrub up on your raptor identification then you need to head to something like the Batumi Raptor Count, in its 5th year it is holding a bird festival at the end of September http://www.batumiraptorcount.org/projects/batumi-bird-festival

Finally a new book is due to be released in Sept/Nov based on the Boreal or Tengmalms owl, it always excites me when a specific in depth book is due to be released on any raptor species . You can find it here on Amazon to pre order http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boreal-Owl-Behaviour-Conservation-Forest-Dwelling/dp/0521113717/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344203293&sr=1-1

Hopefully something of interest in the above, I'm about to fall asleep faster than Usain Bolt can win the 100metres. Keep coming back as I'm currently compiling a piece on illegal vulture killings Muti in Africa.

I'm still alive and so is the blog!

I'm still alive and so is the blog!!!

But where have I been and what has been going on in the bird world? I have been busy continuing with my BTO bird ringing training with another season under my belt. I must admit a very wet season which has affected some species more than others, Sparrowhawks were thin on the ground this year.

Whats happening in the bird of prey world or what has been happening? Lets start on home soil here in the UK. The fight goes on between land owners/Gamekeepers and birds of prey in Britain, two stories which highlighted this were the government body DEFRA announcing the idea to implement a management plan for Common Buzzard and its effect on Game birds predominantly Pheasant. One of the management methods mentioned in the plan was the movement of birds and also the destruction of Buzzard nest sites! This caused a lot of disgruntled e-mails and responses  and a U-turn was swiftly pulled by DEFRA. My view on this is simple, despite the fact I lean towards birds of prey I have many friends who shoot including gamekeepers and they have backed my view up that Buzzards only have an impact for a very short period and then the Pheasant soon wise up and grow up. My other thought like many others is how can you manage a native species for a species which is introduced in its millions.

The other story came from Scotland and again highlights the sometimes fraught relationship between land owners and birds of prey. A Scottish sheep farmer claimed Golden Eagles were causing extreme pressure on her sheep farming with a pair killing £9000 of livestock. Again a simple mathmatical sum based on the price of lambs would show the pair would have to kill a ridiculous number of lambs, and why has no one got any evidence of Golden or White Tailed Eagles actively taking lambs? I'm not claiming it doesn't ever happen but and know hill farmers have it tough but maybe it needs further research.

You can find out more and keep up to date as always at http://www.raptorpolitics.org.uk/ and http://www.raptorpersecutionscotland.blogspot.com/

If the kids have now broken up and your looking for something to do why not take them down to the International Centre of Birds of Prey as its still as great as ever with some of this years babies now out and in training. The new website is now live take a look http://www.icbp.org.uk/

Over the next month I am going to try and do a few specific blogs on topics that have come up recently ranging from killing vultures for Muti medicine and my view on the state of raptors in Britain. I'll also blog the latest links to raptor papers I have had in my in box over the last 2 months so keep checking back.

Thanks for bearing with me!

Introducing a friend!

If some of you have been on my long list of websites on right hand column of the blog you might have come across a friend of mine and his website, if not then let me introduce you to him. Allen Holmes is a freelance wildlife photographer and artist but he does all this in his own time not as a profession. He is based in Rotherham and when he's not working shifts he's out around his local areas getting some cracking images of our natural world, he has also been known to travel a bit further than Rotherham!

I had the pleasure of meeting Allen in 2009 whilst taking part in a BBC production out in Africa, he's one of those unassuming guys that has one of the nicest sense of humours you will meet. He told some of the worst jokes I have heard but somehow made them funny! Thankfully his photography is top notch and when you see his artwork well it could bring tears to your eyes I think it is that good.

I bet you want to see some photos don't you! Sometime ago Allen sent me some images of raptors he had photographed on his outings so below I will share some with you.

There are several more of these and many other species on the his website, but more recently he was lucky enough to get his best shots of an Osprey and it was in his home town of Rotherham.

I got in touch with Roy Dennis and he informed me that this was a male bird rung in Contin, Easter Ross on July 15th 2009. The bird was identified by his blue leg ring.

Finally if you thought his photography was good I personally think I have saved the best till last from Allen, as an artist he is incredibly talented and below is an example!

 Now all I need to do is give you his webpage so you can enjoy his work as much as I do http://www.allenholmeswildlifegallery.co.uk/

(Please note all the above images are copyright to Allen Holmes Photography and must only be used with Allens Permission, please respect this!)

Beating the Buzzards???

I thought I would let the dust settle before I blogged about recent defra plans to find a solution between Common Buzzards Buteo buteo and Pheasants released for game shooting.

Firstly I attach a link via the raptor persecution scotland blog https://raptorpersecutionscotland.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/buzzard-control-experiment-overview.pdf

If you have read that and everyone elses views then I have no doubt you will have made up your own minds and thoughts on the prospect of managing buzzards to help aid game shooting and a non native species but below my thoughts on the topic.

The majority of pieces I have read have jumped straight to the mention of destroying buzzard nests and potentially the birds themselves but I think we need to understand it from the start. What Defra have done is become the main sponsor of a study into the effects the Common Buzzard is having on Pheasants and the shooting industry and the first word that jumped out to me is SPONSOR.

Basically this means our government are stumping up the British taxpayers money thought to be in the region of £400,000 to pay for this study to be carried out. I for one think it is wrong for a government organisation to be spending a large amount of tax payers money on 1) a commercial enterprise(s) 2) Something that has very little effect on society. Surely if the shooting fraternity were so concerned about the subject their organisations would fund this, but then maybe they did the clever thing realising how soft our government organisations are .

Secondly what effects do buzzards really have on what is largely an unnatural managed enterprise? Their is no doubting that the population of buzzards have risen dramatically in the last 20 years but lets not forget that is because man and mainly the shooting industry pushed this bird into very small pockets of Britain. If this was a celebrity we would be so proud of how well they have bounced back, but when we attach the same emotions to nature things get misunderstood. The buzzard is a survivor like any other wild animal and pheasants make up part of its food chain, can you blame it when it is thought 40million game birds are released each year. I have spoken to several game shooters and gamekeepers over the years and they tend to fall into two catergories, those who are dead against any thing other than a clients gun taking one of their birds and those who realise that predators are part of the bigger picture and if protected must be accepted.

I accept that shooting is part of our rural heritage, brings in large amounts of money and provides jobs within rural communities and can have positive effects on conservation and biodiversity but I can't accept that this allows them to decide when we can intefere with another species biodiversity. People can argue that we need to address the balance but how can that be used when 40million non-native species are released.

Now as for the management techniques that Defra have suggested I think the only one worth looking at is adding more cover for game birds, I sometimes wonder what some keepers do to protect their game legally, I know of one keeper who waits for his birds to feed for 20 or so minutes, he admits buzzards will kill his poults but he only really has an issue for the first couple of weeks then the game soon gets wise. Survival of the fittest surely and I'm sure shooting parties want the best sport meaning the fittest birds. Removal of Buzzards will never work as birds would just repopulate as the food supply will remain the same. Culling birds won't work again as the same above will happen and how many buzzards would need to be culled, surely we would be stepping back 20 years and would it stop just their, how many raptors might get persecuted by mistake?

Back in 1981 we came up with laws to protect our wildlife so should we really be bending these to suit the needs of commercial activities? Especially as this government announced they would  be the greenest to date! The only way I see this being resolved is if we respect our natural wildlife and work together to protect everyones interests! Trying to man handle nature will never work!

Hello

I didn't realise how time consuming maintaining a blog would be and I must apologise for my lack of blogging. The world of birds of prey is still very active especially as here in the UK most birds of prey with be incubating eggs or rearing young. The Ospreys have returned breeding and that includes the amazing Lady of Loch Lowes possibly the oldest breeding Osprey!

Web cams and tracking has never been more popular with the chance to view a whole host of birds of prey on nest sites and also follow the journeys the birds take. You can find some of these web cams in the website links page just scroll down.

Bird of prey persecution is still a problem in the UK and this has included another Goshawk being targetted and English Hen Harriers presumed to be down to one breeding pair. Sadly in my opinion when the perpetraitors are caught the sentences they are given are little deterrant. So we could see the first extinction of a breeding bird in England for some time!

Some new websites being added to the website links page are listed below

http://www.bocn.org/ - The Barn owl conservation network

http://welshkitetrust.org/ - Welsh Kite Trust

https://wiki.ceh.ac.uk/display/pbms/Home -  Predatory bird monitoring scheme

http://www.wildlifewhisperer.tv/ -Simon Kings Wildlife Whisperer site

http://www.savethefalcons.org/Home.aspx - Save the falcons

I'm hoping to update the bird of the month page and also add some new stuff to the site including a video page with some ID tips. I am also in the process of setting up a new fund for birds of prey to raise money for a variety of different conservation projects globally with an interactive map to help you see where money will be going! Also I will be announcing my first bird of prey related fundraising challenge, its going to be a tough one! Watch this space for the webpage coming soon!

In the mean time why not get yourself down to http://www.icbp.org/ and see their birds up close and personal, they are about to celebrate their 45th birthday! Congratulations Jemima and the team!