Extract from Birguides

After my rant earlier this week I am glad to say that I was not the only person totally outraged by the decision to persecute our Buzzard population. Fortunately our abysmal government appears to be realising the actual level of low esteem in which it is held (if the current number of policy 'U'turns are anything to go by) and I am pleased to post the following extract from the Birdguides weekly newsletter. Another victory for common sense! 

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The public steps up for Buzzards

The RSPB is pleased at the news that an outpouring of public concern for a much-loved British bird has encouraged Wildlife Minister Richard Benyon to drop proposals to license the destruction of Buzzard nests, as well as the capture of adult birds on shooting estates.

Martin Harper is the RSPB's conservation director. He said: "We're pleased the minister has listened to people's concerns and acted in the public interest by cancelling this project. This is a strong decision, reflecting the strength of the nation's desire to see Government protecting precious wildlife. The recovery of the Buzzard is being celebrated by the public after many decades of persecution. It is clear they don't want their taxes being spent on removing Buzzards, and the Government has to ensure that no bird of prey will be killed in the name of sport."

"We don't want anything to distract Defra from the pressing task of saving our threatened wildlife. It should be putting its limited resources into areas such as preventing the extinction of Hen Harriers in England. Government-backed research has already concluded that illegal persecution is limiting the populations of Golden Eagle and Hen Harrier. The RSPB believes there are well-tried non-lethal solutions to reducing impacts of Buzzards at Pheasant pens."

Hooray to that! - Chaz

Midweek Hello

No shortage of Reed Buntings this year

Following Monday nights excitement things seem to have resumed the quiet descent into summer. Not much to report on the bird front with three Reed Warblers a Stock Dove and two Common Tern on the Marsh and five Common Tern, an Oystercatcher and a Great Crested Grebe on the Mere. Ray Fellows has informed me however that this years two Oystercatcher chicks appear to have survived the attention of the breeding Black Headed Gulls and were beginning to acquire a bit of bulk when last he saw them.

People accessing the Marsh from Clayhanger will be unable to miss the extension of the boundary ditch on the west side of the Mineral Line. Obviously this activity is a cause of concern as any detrimental impact could effect the Marsh so I have been in touch with Natural England in order to ensure that they are aware of the activity and that it has been done with their consent and approval. I will let you know as soon as I get a response.

Update at the weekend, enjoy the rest of your week - Chaz

Rare Bird Alert

Hi folks this is a difficult posting as it requires me to undertake a little suppression (something that does not sit comfortably with me).

A Quail was found tonight on the complex, and was heard calling several times. Although it is highly unlikely that this bird will remain in the area to be looked for it was unfortunately found where there are some vulnerable breeding birds so I am not able to give specific details.

Anyone who has pursued Quail before will be familiar with just how elusive and difficult they can be and even if it were to remain, it would require a significant amount of flushing for this bird to be seen  and that would cause unacceptable levels of disturbance and potential nest damage to other ground nesting species.

Hope everyone understands this point of view and will forgive the necessary suppression. Full details of the record will eventually be posted once the danger to breeding species has passed. - Chaz

The Marsh is looking beautiful, but...

Theres not much to tell you about!

Chris and Graham Weston took this nice shot of this years Clayhanger quads

Its always the same, when the Marsh starts to look its best the birding interest starts to die down. The first Large White Butterflies of the year have emerged today and the immature Broad Bodied Chaser was still active near the brook but the birding was dire!

Still two Reed Warbler and one Sedge Warbler singing and the Lesser Whitethroat is occasionally making its presence known but most of the other warblers have quietened down and are probably in the throws of breeding. A single Stock Dove was working the east side of the Marsh and there were about thirteen Common Tern active at any one time. The breeding Linnet are in the usual area and there is one Great Crested Grebe showing on the Mere (although I suspect there is a nesting female concealed somewhere on the site).

As Phil Ward said to me yesterday, you have to keep your eyes open for passage birds until the second week of June but after that things will be quiet until the return migration.

June is in at the end of the week and then I will allow you all the statutory six week summer until return migration begins in mid-July (yep, just about the time the kids break up the first Arctic breeding species begin to head south and from a wildlife point of view autumn begins, magic eh?).

Anyway, the Marsh is beginning to look its best and you could do a lot worse than pay it a visit at the moment. Enjoy your week - Chaz

A change of scene

The easterly winds seemed to promise Black Terns and Little Gulls today but was the promise fulfilled? (was it Eck as like!). I did spend a pleasant few hours at Chasewater With Phil Ward and Neil where there were a good variety of waders to be seen including; Ringed Plover (2) - Little Ringed Plover (11) - Common Sandpiper (4) and a very flighty Sanderling but the only other birds of note were a Buzzard which was receiving grief from a local Carrion Crow and a single Common Tern.

I walked back across Brownhills Common and was amazed to find a Beautiful Demoiselle Dragonfly. Heaven knows where these come from locally, they just seem to turn up once in a blue moon and then vanish without a trace! For anyone interested there are also a few Holly Blue Butterflies about, keeping company with the very late flying Orange Tips.

Marsh update soon, I hope you masochists enjoy the sunshine - Chaz

Indulging in weird behaviour - but I have an excuse!

Its Friday night - 23.30 - the sky is clear and there is a newish looking moon and I am standing silently in the garden, much to the bemusement of the neighbours watching inquisitively from behind their twitching curtains (just long enough to think, "Oh, its just Chaz being weird again").

Well I'm not being weird - so there! I am just being a bit over the top as a birder. You see, many years ago I became privy to a birding truth that many birders refuse to believe - that one of our rarest breeding birds actually calls on passage. Back in the early nineties I was stood talking with a friend (alright I will fess-up, it was about two-thirty a.m. and we were returning home from a 'lock-in' at the Railway Tavern - of fond memory) when I became aware of a very fluid '"wip-per-wip" call being regularly emitted by invisible overflying birds. Fortunately I had already enough experience to immediately identify it as the call of Common Quail and sure enough the following day I phoned Sam Claire's bird line to report this wondrous event only to find reports of Quail from all over the region! I even went out the following night and managed to repeat this occurrence, stone cold sober as I tended to a bonfire I had constructed as an excuse to lurk in the garden after dark.

If you see one this well you are doing alright!

Of course I tried to inform anyone who would listen to me but was met with nothing short of ridicule as nobody else had ever heard overflying Quail - that is, apart from one well respected midland birder now long passed away. I was telling him about this amazing event and could almost see the surrounding birders nudging each other as they waited for this oracle of birding to slap me down for being silly only to take a step backwards as instead he said; "yes, I have sometimes heard them flying over at night as well!"

So at the end of May/beginning of June I look out for reports of Quail (such as those that have occurred today by the way) and when conditions are right I sometimes go out after dark and listen in the hope of repeating that experience. To be fair it has worked twice while I have lived in Clayhanger, the first was an overflying bird in the early hours but the second had apparently been forced down by a colossal thunder storm. I awoke from a dream about half past three to find that the Quail that had been calling in the background of said dream was still calling and went on doing so for another half an hour! The conversation in the bedroom went something like:

Wife: "What are you doing now you idiot"
Me:   "Can you hear that?"
Wife: "yes, Its a bird get back to bed" -
Me:   "Its not just a bird, its a quail, a calling Quail!" -
Wife: "ZZZZZZZZZZ!"

So there you are officer, that's what I was doing standing in the garden this evening. This is the time, listen to the sky's with an open mind and if the best birder you know tells you that Quail don't call on passage, you tell him or her from me - they are talking out of their fundament!

Off to bed now, night-night! - Chaz

Does anyone out there seriously believe that any member of our co-elition government could find their backsides with both hands and a searchlight?

Let me get this right, our economy is totally screwed, yes? We are all suffering through unemployment, redundancies, lack of investment that would increase productivity or provide employment for the construction trade while we live in fear of the collapse of our trade links with the euro-zone. This is a time of austerity with a projected 16000 Police officers and staff predicted to lose their jobs, with all of the pursuant risks to our safety and security. The armed forces are being run down and we no longer have effective strike capability until our new Aircraft Carriers come on line in 2020 because we cant afford the upkeep of our existing armaments. Public sector staff are falling by the wayside like confetti at a royal wedding and everyone is desperately hanging onto their jobs for as long as they can because there is no money for Pensions. - Have I got all of  this right?

So what is the government department DEFRA spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on? 

Protecting the Hunting , Shooting and Fishing setts right to shoot Pheasants...

by persecuting Buzzards!

This is for real, the avowed intent is apparently to undertake a research project into the feasibility of destroying Buzzard Nests and capturing Buzzards and taking them into captivity to minimise their impact on young Pheasants.

Buzzards were nearly extinct in the 1950s and have slowly grubbed back their rightful place at the top of the avian food chain in Britain. For the first time in sixty years they are now restored to their former population levels so lets put them down again so that there are a few more Pheasants for the Toffs to shoot.

This is not a joke, this SICK idea is already being implemented. This is what happens when you have an unelected and totally out of touch government that has nothing left to loose.  Chaz