Raptor Poisoning Map.

Raptor poisoning map from 2007 - 2011.

Defra have just released a map of confirmed raptor poisoning incidents in England and Wales.
The map for Scotland is below please click on images for a larger view.

Defra claim that 101 such incidents took place in this 4 year period.
What is astounding is that all these finds had been made accidentally. These incidents had been reported by people that had stumbled across poisoned birds in suspicious circumstances.

The worrying  fact about this number is that for every dead bird discovered there must be 10 maybe 20 or even more that are never found.

If only one bird in 10 is found and reported that would be more than 1000 birds poisoned in a 4 year period.  This is just poisoning there is no mention in these pages about about illegal trapping or shooting.
The RSPB claim that we have enough moorland in England to support 300 nesting pairs of Hen Harriers. In 2012 we had only one pair successfully breed.






The Yorkshire dales blackspot.

Mr Magpie and his family !

Probably the best known member of the crow family. The Magpie is often overlooked by many.
If the Magpie was less common or a rare visitor from distant lands could you imagine the fuss that would be made about its beautiful plumage, the striking markings and the iridescent green shimmer upon its darker parts ?
Often seen scrounging from rubbish or bullying  smaller birds away from the bird tables we easily forget what a stunning bird the Magpie really is.
The Crow family also known as Corvids has 7 common members in the UK.
The largest being the Raven, often used in horror films and the guardian of the tower of London. Plumage is completely black and it has a heavy bill. It is about 20% larger than the Carrion Crow.
Its call is deep croaky and it calls in flight. Very agile for a large bird.
The Carrion Crow is also completely black and seen everywhere.
Probably the most common bird seen of this family.
The Hooded Crow is the same size as the Carrion Crow but has a grey body with black wings, head and bib. It is confined to northern Scotland and Ireland.

The Rook is similar in size to the Hooded and Carrion Crow but has a bare grayish skin area at the base of its bill. Roosts in numbers in Rookeries high in tall trees. Often seen on farmland and fields searching for earthworms.

The Jackdaw is about 20% smaller than the Carrion and Hooded crow. The plumage is black all over but the hood is grey ( not very visible in this photo).
Eye colour is watery grey, it's bill and legs are shorter than Carrion Crow. Often seen feeding on farmland, sea coasts will scrounge through rubbish.

The Chough is slightly larger than the Jackdaw. It has a distinct red slightly down curved bill and bright red legs. Confined to the rocky western coasts of Ireland, Wales and south west Scotland. It is also a very agile flier. Feeds on short grasslands often probes, digs and turns over stones.

The Jay. The most colourful of the Crow-Corvid family.Similar size to the Jackdaw.Has a small pale streaked crest that can be raised.  Buff-Pinkish body. It has a bright blue patch and a white patch on the wing. Tail is black but the rump is white and very obvious in flight. A mainly woodland bird seen in parks, copses also cemeteries where there are mature trees.

Bohemian Waxwings in Burnley !

                                                               Throughout the week I had been keeping my eye on the East Lancashire Ornithology Website.There had been several sightings of these beautiful birds in and around Burnley and one sighting in Blackburn. I had a chance of catching up with these colourful creatures on Friday 8th of February 2013. Allen Holmes had kept us all up to date on the numbers and places where they been seen. On Thursday 7th a worrying  posting on the website read something like this , " 11 waxwings only... one tree has berries but they are dwindling fast "! This was a huge drop in numbers from 50 or so the previous day.

Arriving at Viking Place in  Burnley where the birds had been seen I sat in the car scanning the nearby trees. After a few minutes high in a tree close by several Waxwings appeared. The outline of their dumpy shape and visible crests made the identification easy.

The name Waxwing comes from the tiny blobs of red on the birds wings, If you look closely they really do look like droplets of red wax.

The birds stayed high in the tree for several minutes until being joined by more Waxwings, 29 in total now !
Below was a solitary type of Rowan tree that had berries It  was being guarded jealously  by a single Mistle thrush.The Mistle thrush was quite aggresive and was  not going to give up its food supply easily, it chased and harassed every Waxwing that came close.The Waxwings knew that the Mistle thrush could not chase 29 different birds at the same time so as the thrush chased one away the others descended and a feeding frenzy ensued, but only until the Mistle thrush returned.

Watching the Mistle thrush chase away a Waxwing gave us the green light to prepare for the arrival of the main group of Waxwings  upon the Rowan. Trying to focus on one bird amidst a hectic feeding frenzy was far from easy, but i am quite pleased with the results from that day !