Bird Report

by Martin Iddon

THE rainy weather of the last few weeks and the rather cold winds haven’t made me feel that spring has finally arrived; the birds however are telling me very firmly that it has. I have already seen my first swallows and heard my first chiff chaffs and willow warblers.

Swallow

This is a very good time to watch for birds of prey as they are often more conspicuous in the breeding season as they establish their nesting territories and indulge in spectacular display flights. The best places to observe display flights are vantage points that allow the observer to scan the sky above dense areas of forest or woodland. Buzzards give away their presence with their

mewing calls which they give to each other as they soar higher and higher on their large rounded wings. It is best to watch on warm, still days when rising thermals make their spiralling ascents even easier. The other day no fewer than five pairs could be seen in a relatively small patch of sky. Carrion crows don’t tolerate buzzards flying over their nesting territories and will fly up and buzz the slower buzzards with attack after attack until the buzzard leaves the area. It was whilst watching a conflict like this the other day that I took a closer look at the intruding buzzard. Were my eyes

deceiving me or did the buzzard have a forked tail? Buzzards don’t have forked tails, so to put it another way, was my buzzard a red kite? In this case my eyes were deceiving me, but it is always worth checking for this very similar species. Red kites are being seen more and more often in our area. Two were spotted recently at Lopwell Dam which is a wonderful place to watch for raptors.

I didn’t see it, but I wasn’t surprised by the report of an osprey

Goshawk

at Lopwell on the ‘Wildlife in Devon’ website the other day. I have seen migrating ospreys there on a number of occasions at this time of year, either fishing out over the estuary or resting on an exposed branch high in the woods. They don’t seem to linger

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long before continuing their journey northwards to Scotland. I say Scotland, but possibly our Devon visitors are amongst those ospreys that now breed in England. A pair has successfully nested at Rutland Water for a few years now, encouraged by a man made nesting platform, similar to those used so widely in North America.

We are fortunate to have the very rare goshawk breeding in Devon, but you would be very lucky indeed to spot one performing its amazing roller coaster display high over the forest. Numbers of this

fierce forest hunter are increasing, (there are now about 400 breeding pairs in Britain), but sadly this species is still persecuted by egg collectors and disturbed by bird watchers who get too close to known nest sites. As a result responsible birdwatchers are rightly very secretive about where they see them. It is not a bird that is easy to accurately identify and it is no doubt often confused with the much more common female sparrowhawk, which can look very similar at a distance.

Sparrowhawks were much rarer in

the 50s and 60s, when they suffered at the hands of over zealous gamekeepers who regarded them as threats to their precious young pheasants and partridges. Their population was also badly affected by the pesticides that got into the food chain and

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