Summer sightings

It's been a fairly average summer, both weather wise and bird wise. There has been very little of note, but it does seem to have been a successful breeding season for many garden birds. Once again blue tits have been the most abundant, but we've been hearing reports of house sparrows, goldfinches and great spotted woodpeckers aplenty too.

Juv great spotted woodpecker 07/06/19

A pair of kestrels nesting in the church again this year, raising 3 or 4 young. Occasionally a hobby caused a stir, harassing the youngsters but soon seen off by the adults.

Hobby 04/07/19

The swifts, which also nest in the church, seemed to have another successful year, with a highest count of 16.

Swift 12/07/19

Green woodpeckers have been busy this summer, the farmhouse lawn the most common place to find them but one juvenile took a liking to sitting on the old wall.

Juv green woodpecker 13/07/19

Both male and female sparrowhawks have been swooping through, with an unfortunate sparrow falling victim to the male on one occasion.

Male sparrowhawk 19/07/19

Male sparrowhawk with sparrow prey 19/07/19

Buzzards had been oddly quiet early in the summer, but with the arrival of some finer weather later in August, sightings became more regular.

Buzzard 23/08/19

August was dominated by blue tits on the feeders, with species such as blackbird and great spotted woodpecker becoming notably absent as they found more natural food. By later in the month the long-tailed tits arrived back after a summer hiatus, and a few chiffchaffs starting appearing, feeding up before their long migration south.

Long-tailed tit 30/08/19

Chiffchaff 29/08/19

We are still waiting for our 100th species, having been on 99 now since spring last year. Bring it on!

Where are all the hirundines?

This year there seems to be a real shortage of swallows, house martins and swifts across the county (and maybe Country?). Here at Feathers we used to have dozens of pairs of house martins nesting between the old vicarage and the farm house, whereas now we are lucky if we see any at all. Swallows have bred on the farm in years gone by, but again we now only see them occasionally. Fortunately, the swifts that call the church home still seem to be stable, with about 8 birds back again this year. Other birders in the area and plenty of customers have noted the lack of hirundines this year and it would be interesting to know whether this has been a trend for the whole of the UK.

Swift at Feathers, 25/05/19

On a more positive note, we have had a firecrest present for at least a month now. Throughout the day I can hear it singing somewhere just over the road. For the most part, owing to their protected status (Schedule 1 species), we haven't been even trying to look for it, but just knowing it is here and potentially breeding is great news for us. However, we were afforded wonderful, albeit very brief, views of it earlier in the month.

Firecrest at Feathers, 02/05/19

It seems to have been favourable weather for the breeding season, if anything perhaps a bit too dry! Hopefully it will mean great success for many species. So far we have seen young starlings (although the boxes weren't used this year), sparrows, great tits and blue tits. No doubt the blackbirds, robins and dunnocks have fledged but we haven't been introduced by the parents yet. The great spotted woodpecker parents have almost been a fixture for the last couple of weeks, taking food away but back within minutes. Perhaps there is more than one pair. No sign of the juveniles yet but I hope it won't be long.

Male great spotted woodpecker

Juvenile and adult starling

Adult and juvenile blue tit

Breeding success

It's very hard to tell this early on how successful this breeding season may have been, but indications are it's been a good one. Though only one of our 10 nest boxes has been occupied (the Starling box), it seems there are plenty of other nest sites available. Once again, the Church has provided a home for a pair of Kestrels (who have raised a brood of four) as well as a good few families of Swifts.

The Pied Wagtails are a yearly nester and though we don't know where they settled this year, we have recently seen a few fledglings being fed by mum and dad. A new nesting bird for us here is the Grey Wagtails. With the river Rother close by, it's likely they have bred there in recent years, but this May they began nest building under the eaves of the workshop by the kitchen, about 50 yards from the shop door.

Also very close by were a pair of Robins and a pair of Blackbirds, who both chose the storage room to nest. A safe choice as both nests saw young fledge successfully. We've seen baby Blue Tits, Great Tits, Chaffinches and Goldfinches on the feeders, along with of course they 20/30 young Starlings, but the highlight so far has to be our Great Spotted Woodpeckers. The male first brought his two youngsters to the feeders in early June and spent much of his time between the suet balls and peanuts, breaking them up in to bite size pieces to feed to the fledglings. On the 7th, one of the babies flew in the shop window with quite a thump - fortunately no injuries sustained apart from one hell of a headache, as it took a couple of hours under my care before flying off. The day after it was back with its sibling and dad, being fed again, but didn't leave when they did. It was only then did I believe it was the same bird as it allowed me to come very close. Our very friendly woodpecker promptly became a tourist attraction, with customers coming to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience of getting face to face with a wild GSW. We were cautious to not let it become to familiar with human contact and the good news is we have seen what we can only assume to be the same two juveniles back with its parents, now feeding independently.

These past few days have been unbelievably hot, with temperatures above 30°C, so the feeders have been particularly quiet. From mid May until now, however, activity was very high, particularly the suet balls which were going down twice a day. The heat is due to drop now so we may see the feeders pick up again this week.

Unfortunately in late April/early May we made the difficult decision to close the hide and nature area. With the adjacent oast house falling down, it posed a genuine health and safety risk for visitors. Within the space of a few days we had created a mini nature area outside the shop, with comfortable seating space providing a perfect spot for customers to sit and watch or photograph the birds in comfort with refreshments on hand. This small area has turned out to be a bigger success than we expected, and though it's not as established as our old area, many species are already using it happily and we hope many more will join us soon!

Summer roundup!

It's fair to say I haven't kept up with the blog this summer, for some reason it has been pushed to the back of the queue, even though I told myself I wanted to keep better records of our sightings at Feathers.

It seems this breeding season was fairly successful for most species locally, although there was certainly a shortage of House Martins and Swallows attempting to breed here. There were no sightings of Spotted Flycatchers in Spring/Summer, which have at least attempted breeding in the past 5 years. None of our Tit/Robin nest boxes were occupied this year, though once again they found other cracks and crevices around the farm to nest. The Kestrels successfully raised another brood in Salehurst Church (which also houses the Swifts), although one juvenile was taken in to care with a broken wing and another was found dead shortly after. We're not sure whether there were more than 2 juveniles, let's hope at least one made it. Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers once again provided great entertainment outside the shop, allowing for close photographs. Mixed flocks fed in the oak trees over the road, with a family of Treecreepers present in late July. The feeders on the whole remained fairly active throughout June and in to July, but the warmer weather which graced us late in to the month and is still going strong now (29° here yesterday!) caused a huge decrease in activity. As lovely as it is, we are looking forward to cooler weather returning and the feeders become busy once more.

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker

Juvenile Kestrel

Juvenile Goldfinch

Juvenile Treecreeper

As we entered early Autumn, signs of migration increased. The Swifts were first to go, whereas many others are feeding up in preperation for their long journey ahead. Good numbers of House Martins have been feeding in the blue skies, joined by young Swallows. Our first sighting of a Spotted Flycatcher was on the 6th September, the same day a pair of Wheatears made a surprise visit to Parsonage Farm. This was only our second record here and our first 'from the shop'. Chiffchaffs have been singing and feeding in the sycamore tree, also enjoying the flurry of insects the warmer weather is providing. All, I'm sure, will be heading south as soon as the cold arrives.

Wheatear

Spotted Flycatcher

Chiffchaff

Robins have changed from their summer 'look at me' to their winter 'stay well clear' song. Lots of territory battles taking place outside the shop and in the Nature Area.

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June Birding

June is normally one of our busiest months of the year, both in the shop and for birds on the feeders, as all the fledglings arrive in gardens. It seems this year is significantly quieter, very few Blue Tits or Great Tits, the Sparrows are busy but not a whole load of youngsters, the Starling youngsters were out in May and have slowed down too. The Great Spotted Woodpeckers have brought one juvenile in though, which is always nice to watch, and the Nuthatches are certainly regular at the minute too.

Adult Male (left) and juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker

A brief but nice surprise in the Nature Area was a male Blackcap, just staying long enough for Allan to get a nice photo.

Unfortunately the Spotted Flycatcher's attempt to breed was unsuccessful, the nest was built but then destroyed, presumably by a corvid or rat. A big disappointment for us as they now haven't bred here for the past 3 years.

The Pied Wagtails didn't breed in the same place as last year and so far we have seen no young, though they are seemingly now gathering nesting material so we're keeping watch on that.

The Kestrels, however, did breed in the same place again as the Church tower evidently provides a safe home. Though we haven't kept up with their progress as well this year, they are certainly very active now and it seems the young are out flying now, though not venturing too far from the safety of the Church, particularly as the Jackdaws give them a lot of grief!

Allan had an unusual event in his garden recently as an adult Great Tit was feeding a couple of baby Blue Tits. This is known as cross-species feeding and according to the linked BTO article can be down to a number of factors, including mixed clutches and nest failure.

Cross-species feeding: Adult Great Tit feeding fledgling Blue Tit

Breeding Season Progress

This time last year we had young Starlings, young Siskins and young Pied Wagtails out of the nest, even the Blue Tits weren't far behind, as a mild winter led to an early breeding season.

This year, the Siskins never showed up, the Pied Wagtails have chosen to breed elsewhere as have the Starlings, though the latter are very active on the feeders now, so I'd expect they are breeding nearby and will bring their youngsters in soon. The Blue Tits recently fledged in the nest box as the adults are now making regular visits with food, putting their fledging date somewhere around the end of the month. The pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers, which rarely used the feeders over winter, are back to nibbling peanuts in to small pieces to take away. One pair of the ever promiscuous Dunnocks are now parents, with at least a couple of babies lingering in the relative safety of the shrubs outside the shop.

Last weekend a pair of House Martins returned to one of the nests on the farm house. Compared to the numbers from 5 years ago, it seems there are very few now. The nests are still there, so what the reason is for their local decline I'm not sure. Fortunately the Swifts are back in relatively good numbers, the first of them arriving on the 8th May, a week or so later than 2014.

Swift

House Martin

Fledgling Dunnock

Busy Blue Tit

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker

Latest Sightings from Feathers

Tuesday was a good day for birds, lots about and blue skies too. 2 male Bullfinches, Treecreeper, Grey Wagtail, the pair of Kestrels, Buzzard, Goldcrest, Coal Tits, Long-tailed Tits plus all the usuals.

Much wetter by the end of the week but still feeling cold, the feeders are still very busy in the Nature Area. The Robins are now very vocal and others have started singing now too - Chaffinches are looking smarter and the males are making themselves heard, Great Tits are 'pichu'ing and the Great Spotted Woodpeckers have been drumming for a few weeks. Rather a rainy day for photos but one Robin came just in front of the hide.

There's also a fair bit of activity/movement with the Fieldfares it seems, we haven't seen much of them this winter but there have been a lot flying over recently.