Wildlife Chris Sperring MBE

Birds of a feather

MORE and more fledglings are now on the wing, yet there will be some birds still busy nesting, rearing young and even incubating eggs. But many familiar birds will have stopped, and so the (by now) worn-out adults will start to moult thereby beginning to replace broken or missing feathers. During this process their flight, in some cases, may not be as efficient as normal and so, of course, many of our garden birds will seem to disappear, for a short while at least.

Young birds such as robin, blackbird and starling, although flying now, will still be recognisable in their juvenile plumage. Take the starling as an example: the young, although very able to fly, are much lighter coloured yet duller than their parents, but even now they are beginning a moult, so in effect changing their juvenile plumage to adult plumage.

The common buzzard, familiar to us soaring effortlessly in the now warming open skies, is one bird that will still very much be tending its young during July and may also be beginning to moult. So, with the pressure on, it’s not surprising that they time their young to hatch slightly later than some other birds so that there will be more food available to them.

Young buzzards that are capable of flying will still be being looked after by their parents; these young will be heard before they are seen, their cry is a repeated and harsher version of the adults meowing call. If you’re out and about hear this calling from wood or small copse, find some cover to hide yourself and start watching for a parent to return with food for the

By CHRIS SPERRING MBE

constantly calling youngster. The adult may announce its arrival on approaching by giving out one or two calls; if the youngster is old enough, it may fly out of the trees towards the parent bird either snatching the food from the parent’s feet or waiting for the adult to go to ground before the food handover takes place. Whilst adult buzzards will feed on a variety of food, anything from worms to rabbits, the young which are still Buzzards face a busy July growing fast will need the larger end of the prey list; from the adult’s perspective raising young this is also wise as then it’s not making as yet moulting many foraging trips as it would do if it was only feeding worms to the young. Voles such as short-tailed and bank voles can make up a sizable part of the diet, but even these are quite small, so during this time it’s not that unusual to see an adult buzzard flying with a rabbit, grey squirrel, or large brown rat dangling from its talons. The buzzard is a relatively easy bird to watch if you remain hidden, still and quiet; even though they are used to humans that doesn’t make them easy to approach closely. I have been asked to give an update on how the barn owl nesting season is going? Well after the rains of May, I’m pleased to say that our nests that we watch on cameras appear to be doing OK as of June 7th; with my annual monitoring of farms due to start I think next month I will be in a much better position to give you a more precise update. Don’t forget if you’re a farmer/landowner and have barn owls on your farm you can contact me through Chris.Sperring@hawkandowltrust.or.uk or by phone on 07799 413918 if you wish me to visit. The Hawk and Owl Trust Somerset Barn Owl webcam is still running with all six owlets doing well at present.

A young blackbird in its juvenile plumage Young and adult starlings showing their different plumage