Hi Eoink,
Your so right… Fabulous site, but over the last few years it has got become very busy, I suspect in part due to both the National Trust and the boat trip owners wanting to maximise revenue. I do wonder if the education aspect (important), may be beginning to outweigh the conservation side to the detriment of the birds. It would be interesting to see what effect the absence of visitors during this last breeding season may have had on the Tern success rate. You are right about some visitors attitude to the nests and chicks, for some its just another seaside attraction and either they have no idea about wildlife or worse can’t be bothered, still at least the Terns exact some revenge on the uninitiated !
The same covid effect shows its downside however. On the Long Nanny shore site on the mainland close by the national trust rangers were missing this year due to coronavirus. The wardens usually camp out for the main breeding season roping off sections, this together with floods and finally loose dogs meant the wholescale abandonment of the site by all of the Terns with nil breeding success. Sadly there is no guarantee they will try again next year
Skerries Tern colony in Anglesey also lost its entire population due apparently to dog walkers freely ignoring signs, and much higher visitor levels on the beach due to staycationing”.
The Roseate tern – the UK’s rarest nesting seabird did have a record-breaking year with 130 breeding pairs on Coquet Island, the only breeding colony in the UK. I remember when numbers were down to a few pairs only, though Coquet Island is RSPB and my understanding is they never allow any visitors to land.
Jamiewednesday,
Great photo ! I hope you don’t mind my enlarging it a little for my poor old(er) eyes…… need to get my binoculars out! Always uplifting to get that flash of electric blue. I don’t think people generally are aware of just how small they are.
We seem to be short of them in Cumbria, at least in the northern part of the national park, (colder winters probably play a part). Used to see a lot more in the midlands and the south, we do have a lot of Dippers and Grey Wagtail though.
Keeping to the kingfisher theme, here’s one I saw on our Sri Lankan holiday last January - a white breasted version, together with one of the dozens of the common variety we saw.
I’m spending a lot of time in North London (Finchley) visiting my mum and family bubble. A couple of months ago walking through a park beside a small brook I saw a little egret. My first birding book had them in the rarity section, now they fish streams in London.
In my local patch in West Yorkshire we’ve got a pretty nice range. I have a sparrowhawk who regularly takes wood pigeons in my garden. My feeders have green, gold, chaff and bullfinch, great, blue and coal tits. Jays, magpies and jackdaws all use my garden as a base. I regularly have goldcrests in the pine trees on one side of the garden. I sleep with my windows open, I hear tawny owls and little owls every year, last couple of years barn owls have joined them. Summer visitors have swifts and swallows flying above me and house martins nesting on a neighbour’s wall. Kingfishers are usually visible with patience on the Rochdale Canal and River Calder just down the hill from me, and the usual herons, pied and grey wagtails. We’ve got goosander pairs on the water as well, as well as a resident pack of domestic geese who run the town. Kestrels are usually visible hunting around Norland moor when I pop across the valley for a walk, and are fairly often visible from my house.
Fabulous pics, SriLanka is on my list ! Just love kingfishers. Jurong Bird Park in Singapore have loads in the park, If your ever in Singapore on a lay over, or visit its a must visit Aviary.
That said if you want a “KING” fisher, these are pretty good at it …
I spend half my time these days in Cumbria, half in Suffolk, so we get to see quite a variety. Love watching the Dippers working the Lake District streams & the various birdlife on Derwentwater. The Ospreys from Bassenthwaite feed in the lake, and they’re not shy! Some great Starling murmurations around at the moment.
Red Kites appear to be spreading rapidly (they do make a funny noise, don’t they?) & I spotted one the other week near Bury St Edmunds. We’ve also seen an increase in Buzzards & Kestrels. There are a pair of Turtle doves that nest in the garden somewhere, which is great. Although we’re not close to any rivers or streams, Kingfishers do visit one of our garden ponds to feed on the baby goldfish, of which we’ve loads, so they’re welcome to the few they scoff. The herons aren’t quite so welcome…
Impressive though the Red Kites are, there success seems to me a bit of a worry. I wonder how it affects other bird populations both competing raptors and prey.
We are see Peregrines at Malham most years, and most exciting from above as they scream around the face of the Cove.
We rather like Herons. They seem to have a very grumpy affect. Can pretty clos to them outside the house, especially in winter, and you then really appreciate the complexity of their markings. The youngsters are also pleasingly gangly.
Red Kites can be a problem particularly when people start feeding them. But on the whole they seem to exist well with other raptors. We have a lot of kites around here (I suspect that I cannot be far from Mike-B) but the Buzzard population has increased notably and the sparrowhawks seem stable. Even seen the occasional Kestrel this year but they seem so rare everywhere compared with say 20 years ago. As for prey, the kites are largely carrion feeders but it does beg the question whether there will be enough carrion to support the kite population.
A much misunderstood bird, Red Kites are not really raptors, they are more scavenger like in habit, they feed off carrion in nature & anything edible that we leave on the ground.
They have little strength in their small feet, they are very ungainly on the ground & have next to zero ability kill other than those already injured.
They cannot carry much weight in flight, in fact they are very weak fliers & although they can fly continuously for long distances, they do that by gliding & an ability to play with wind & thermals, hence why they are called Kite.
Re feeding & scavenging, an old name for them was sh#te hawks, they fed off street garbage in cities.
If you’re in to birdwatching etc the Chirp app is great, it’s free as far as I remember and is a really useful source of info and of course the invaluable photos and audio samples of each bird along with a wiki link for further info on each.
On a side note it struck me as odd when I posted this that the site allows tit through the filter when it blocks d*ck, I was expecting to have to find a work around.
Indeed, some fine tuning might be a thing to do as & when time permits & consider the use of English English rather than American. This morning I tried to use the full spelling of sh#ite hawk the old english name for Red Kite, the ‘e’ still made it a bad word.
Anyway, back to thread subject.
From a bedroom window - Canon EOS50 & EF 100-400mm
For the Western Pelagic “Collins Bird Guide” app is VERY comprehensive it is in effect the complete collins bird guide book with the ability to downoad full bird videos and songs etc, as an addition it also has the ability to log sightings if that was something you wanted to do. The video and song recordings are first rate and useful
Have had redpoll, Siskin and goldfinch on my feeders but not at the same time….
I note the tray underneath the feeder does it keep all the Cr*p off the floor? If so must get one as the Nijer seed can be a little messy. I have a seed feeder which I only put out occasionally as the locals are so fussy they just discard loads to get hold of the ones they want. Usually have peanuts out year round with Nijer and seeds in late autumn and winter.
PS is it Niger or Nyjer ? or is that like Tom-ah-Tow vs “Toe-May-toe as our new world friends call it
Tomym,
Close to Keswick myself…. The trouble with Dippers is they take such a long time to watch before you move on ! One of those birds it’s hard to pull away from. Seems you have the benefit of Two diverse birding patches, and my mother always told me not to be greedy ! .
