Buzzard nest with a difference

We were contacted recently by Sam Bayley with the following fascinating story:

Early June marks the time when I check out a few of the many raptor nests that are present in my local area. After discovering three active Buzzard nests and a Kestrel nest I got a small team together including the invaluable help of tree climbers Max Varney and Sam Baker. The first two Buzzard nests and the Kestrel nest were very straightforward with broods of one and two Buzzards and a good brood of five Kestrels, but the third Buzzard nest at South Holmwood was something entirely different!

I had ringed this nest in 2014 when it contained three chicks and it was very typical with lots of evidence of rabbit unsurprisingly being the main food supply. It was very evident even from the base of the tree that this year was different, with a scattering of feathers on the ground below the nest. On reaching the nest Max and Sam found two Buzzard chicks and an unhatched egg surrounded by the remains of various species of bird. Buzzards will take birds, but only occasionally as they aren’t particularly adept at catching them and when they do it is usually limited to chicks or newly fledged birds. The species identifiable were Stock Dove (adult), Jackdaw (adult and nestling), Jay (newly fledged), Moorhen (adult), Great-spotted Woodpecker (adult) and a single Rabbit bone! It looked more like the contents of a Goshawk nest rather than a Buzzard’s, but obviously this pair had become incredibly proficient at catching these birds.

The two Buzzard chicks. Photo by Max Varney

If that wasn’t unusual enough, Max and Sam could hear another bird calling from the nest and eventually realised that it was a Jackdaw chick which was in its own nest within the structure of the Buzzard nest! The adult Jackdaws had created a tunnel into the side of the nest with a chamber at the end, less than 30cm below the cup of the nest! The Jackdaw chick was much younger than its Buzzard counterparts, so I can only assume that the Jackdaws started nesting after the Buzzards were already in residence. 

The entrance to the Jackdaw nest. The two Buzzard chicks
are just visible in the top of the nest. Photo by Max Varney

The Jackdaw chick. Photo by Sam Bayley

Only an end of nesting visit will tell whether they all survive!

Let the Cormorant nest recording commence

This year's nesting season has so far been mixed, with reasonably warm weather one day and then freezing conditions and snow the next. Now that March is here, the usual hunt for nests has started, with Blackbird, Robin and Long-tailed Tit nests being found already.


Simon Taylor, Mark Lawrence and Derek Spooner are already monitoring Cormorants in Devon and Cornwall. The laying dates for this species however can vary considerably even between colonies that are reasonably close.

Colour ringed Cormorant by Edmund Fellowes

Simon Taylor writes:
"Mark Lawrence first saw eggs at his colony in Plymouth, Devon, on 30th January and Derek Spooner has at least nine birds incubating full clutches on Looe Island, Cornwall. Meanwhile Cormorants at my site at Hells Mouth near Portreath, Cornwall, only started laying around the 9 March. Mark’s eggs in Plymouth have hatched now and the chicks are nearly big enough to be ringed, so my birds have some catching up to do."

If you would like to start nest recording click here and for those that have joined already, you can keep up with the latest information by joining the nest recorders Yahoo forum here.       

The Peregrine Project in Aylesbury

Following the theme in our previous post we'd like to share some good news from Buckinghamshire. 


Dave Short writes:
In mid-2007 we noticed that a young pair of Peregrine had taken up residence in the middle of town, 200ft up on a Bucks County Council office building. Bill Robson and myself, who at the time were volunteering for Aylesbury Vale District Council Barn Owl Project, approached Bucks council about placing a nesting platform on the building. The two councils worked together and a platform was duly erected in spring 2008, although sadly no birds bred that year.


In both 2009 & 2010 two birds were seen together, but no evidence of breeding was seen and the platform remained vacant. Then, in 2011 things began to look more promising. In late spring, two Peregrines were seen copulating and an egg was laid on the platform, though sadly it didn't hatch. 


With high hopes for 2012, we decided to put two web cameras on and around the platform in order to get closer to the action, and an anonymous donor kindly paid for their purchase and installation. Sure enough, the Peregrines bred this spring, and we now have two chicks age 3 days and 2 days--the first confirmed Peregrine breeding record for Buckinghamshire! If all goes well, we will be colour ringing the chicks in due course.




To keep up to date with what's going on in the the first ever Aylesbury Peregrine nest all you need to do is follow the Aylesbury Vale Channel on You Tube here.
Here is their latest video from 2 days ago. Enjoy.


To read more stories about Peregrines in the Demog Blog go here!

Christmas Eggs

With the freezing weather severely affecting Barn Owl survival, it has been quite a shock to hear from nest recorder Simon Taylor about his latest find.

Simon Taylor writes:
I work in Falmouth Docks as a Health and Safety Officer and decided to take my usual walk around the yard around mid morning. I wanted to test the telephone which is situated behind the wooden doors in a recess. The telephone is there for emergencies and for contact between docking teams and the pump room. At first when I opened the door a feral pigeon sat tight on a nest but after a couple of seconds she flew out revealing two eggs!

Incestuous pairing amongst Wood Warblers

Jerry Lewis writes:
I have been monitoring Wood Warbler nests in Larch plantations (Wentwood Forest, Gwent) for about 10 years, and densities are quite good at about 10 pairs per sq km. I ring most of the chicks so when I catch an adult I can usually see how the chicks have dispersed from the natal nest to the breeding site (males move further than females on average). Last month I caught a pair at one site which turned out to be siblings from a nest about 1400m away in 2009. I suppose that although this may not be particularly unusual, it is not often recorded. It was also interesting that 4 of the 6 eggs did not hatch (I seldom record unhatched eggs in nests), perhaps indicative of the "poor" pairing, and unfortunately the chicks were subsequently taken by a predator when about 10 days old.


Lee Barber adds:
Our ringers have ringed about 20,000 Wood Warblers so far and only 47 had been recovered by the end of 2008. The majority of the reports we receive about this species are from ringers doing this kind of valuable work but we have also received a few reports of birds found abroad. All of these were of dead birds and were from Italy (8), Morocco (1) and Algeria (1). We have had no foreign ringed birds being found or caught in this country yet.

Posted on behalf of Jerry Lewis and photo by Jez Blackburn

Say it with flowers!

Despite the cold winter and recent wet weather, birds are still making good progress with their nests and romance is obviously in the air. Nest recorder Frank Mawby recently watched a male Starling carrying a purple crocus flower to its nest. While we can’t rule out the possibility that he had forgotten an important anniversary, previous studies have suggested that Starlings are adept at using herbal remedies to combat parasite infestations in the nest, often incorporating vegetation in the lining.

Long-tailed Tits seem to have been less affected by the cold winter than many of us feared - here at The Nunnery most have now built their beautiful lichen and spider web nests and are in the process of lining them with feathers. ‘Our’ Song Thrushes and Blackbirds are just starting to lay, but the first reports of chicks are starting to arrive and many Robins are now busy feeding their broods.



With so much happening, it’s a great time to be out looking for nests. If you’ve found one, get in touch with us at nrs@bto.org and we’ll send you a Nest Record Scheme Starter Pack so that you can monitor it, or you can go on-line to take part in Nest Box Challenge www.bto.org/nbc.

Hatch of the Day

We always hear of a few unusual nest sites every year, but this is my favourite so far! Most nest recorders spend their time looking in bushes and hedges, but not Dick Appleton, who took these photos.


He spent this Saturday peering into some rafters... But these weren't just any old rafters, but Old Trafford rafters! This Mistle Thrush was spotted feeding young high up in the roof of the stand on Saturday, so as Man United eased past Fulham 3-0, this particular family had a bird's eye view of the match. We hope to update you on their progress (the birds that is) over the next week or so...


Thanks to Bill Meek for letting us know about this bird, and to Dick for the photos. Oh, and BTO Principal Ecologist Rob Robinson is to blame for the corny headline...

Tapping for Goatsuckers and a Breckland first

We've been out and about catching up with some Breckland specialities over the last few days.

As part of some BTO work on nest predation, we were out yesterday 'tapping' along forestry plantations looking for Nightjar nests. Once found, we can install nest cameras to monitor the progress of nesting attempts. Below you can see the camera on the left, and the eggs in the so-called nest on the right. Nightjar nests are never more than this, with eggs pretty much just laid on a patch of open ground.


The footage from these cameras is an amazing insight into the daily lives of these birds. Footage from Woodlark nests is also online here.

Then this morning, members of the BTO Nunnery Ringing Group finally caught up with the family of Cetti's Warblers that we suspected were breeding on our reserve. This is the first proven breeding in the Brecks of this colonist. The photo here shows mum (on the left) and two kids, and dad was also caught earlier in the morning.


Thanks to John Marchant for the Nightjar photo and Kate Risely for the Cetti's photo.

More bizarre nest sites

Following on from the railway Oystercatcher, a couple of other bizarre nests have come to light this week...

Just last weekend I was shown this Blackbird which is nesting in a coiled up hosepipe right out in the open on the side of a house in Skegness. The female seems quite happy there, and tolerates regular trips to the garage!


Also in Lincolnshire is this Robin family. The nest is just two 2 ft from the back door of the house, where the comings and goings of the adults are regularly watched by 5 english setters. After years of not being used, as soon as the box acquired a decorative Kingfisher, the birds moved in!


Since 2005 this Swallow has chosen to nest on top of a motorbike wheel in a barn in Hoylake, Wirral. They've successfully raising chicks in all five years, with 20 raised so far.


Thanks to John Elliott for the Swallow photo, Keith Bowden for the Robin photo, and Mick Briggs for showing me the Blackbird.

Manchester Peregrines ringed

Urban-nesting Peregrines have become more of a common sight in recent years, but they never lose their appeal.


These photos show the ringing of chicks reared on their custom-built highrise tray in Manchester last week. Peregrines have bred in the city since 2006, and even appeared on the One Show last summer.


The provision of a nesting tray by the Greater Manchester Bird Recording Group has suited them fine though, and the birds can regularly be seen on the BBC Big Screen at the Triangle behind M&S, so do go along and see what's happening. Video of the birds can also be seen on the BBC website here.


Thanks to Adrian Dancy for the images, Craig Bell for letting Adrian tag along and, of course, the steeple jack Colin Brooks who offers his services free of charge to retreive the chicks for Craig to ring.

Oystercatcher goes off the rails!

An Oystercatcher has been spotted nesting between the railway tracks of a busy train station in Cumbria. An email was sent to the BTO yesterday morning detailing that the track is used by commuter trains, freight trains and nuclear flask trains from Sellafield!

The Oystercatcher is incubating three eggs and presumably it sits tight and tucks its head down whenever a train comes! Only a few hundred yards away from the railway is a far more suitable breeding habitat of coastal sand dunes and riparian land. What a silly bird!