Tern Raft Launch

On Saturday we launched the first of the 3 rafts that we have built over the last few weeks. It was going on a small piece of water at Church Farm, where Andy and myself had built them. Graham Middlebrook, the land owner, had offered his services - and his JCB - in order to make launching the raft that much easier. The raft will only be a short distance from Thornton Resevoir, where there are no places for Common Terns to nest, but Andy does see them flying over the piece of water where the Tern raft will be sited, so fingers crossed they find the raft and set up home on it!

 Above is Graham transporting the raft to the small lake.........making it look easy

 Lowering the raft over the Sand Martin wall with the JCB made the job much easier.

 The raft finally touches the water and Andy is elated it floats - I myself had no worries what so ever!

 Andy pulling the raft around into position with the 15mm rope

 The raft in its' final position on the lake...... fingers crossed the Terns find it!

We have secured this raft with 2 ropes from either side, as its only a small piece of water and it is on private land. They are normally put into position, then 2 anchors are used to keep the raft in its' place

Raft update

This is Andy - just finishing bolting the perspex sides on to the raft; these sides do a few things - they stop the Tern chicks falling off the platform and perishing, they allow observers to see what's happening on the raft from the shore line, they stop predation - mainly from Mink, and also stop ducks getting onto the raft, as they would  tread over eggs and small Tern chicks

So this is the completed raft, apart from the 50mm of gravel that goes on when we float the raft out,which will be in the few weeks. I will keep you posted on how they are doing.
As always thanks for stopping by

Doing a good Tern

Following the success of floating out Tern rafts at Watermead Country Park, Leicestershire & Rutland Ornithological society (LROS) decided to purchase two more rafts to be added to the ones already at Watermead CP, so, in the spring of 2014 I helped  a friend of mine, Andy Smith, construct two 'kit form' Tern rafts that had been purchased by LROS. The rafts were made of recycled plastic, and, being a carpenter for my sins, I started wondering how much would it cost for LROS to source the materials and  build their own. I broached this subject with Andy Smith and Jim Graham, who are both LROS committee members. They thought this to be a good idea and asked me if I would mind sourcing suppliers and costs etc. To cut a long story short, it became apparent that we could indeed build these rafts for a lot less - but without compromising the quality of the finished product! The Conservation and Education Sub-Committee of LROS are financing the project, and Christine and Graham Middlebrook very kindly offered us the use of their premises at Church Farm to build them. The first three rafts are now well under way, and will be ready to be sited in good time for the return of the Terns in the spring. Below are a few images of us building the rafts.

Yours truly cutting the sides

Start to construct the box

Andy fitting the side stubs

Filling the raft with polystyrene

All the polystyrene in

Almost the finished article

All that as got to go on now are the perspex sides and the gravel dressing and its good to go.

I will keep you updated on the progress of the project, and hopefully I will be able to post some images of the birds using them! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Robin

Just like to say thanks to the folk who have visited and commented on my blog and to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a great 2015!!!!!!

Cape Verde 2

Bar-tailed Lark

A few more images of the birds we saw around the hotel in Cape Verde, at times it was very difficult to pick up the both Larks as there colour blended in really well with there surroundings.

Brown-necked Raven

Cattle Egret and a friend

Male Iago Sparrow 

Stilts on the settling pools

Hoopoe Lark

Spectacled Warble

Hope you have enjoyed your visit!!

Cape Verde

Last week the Duchess (wife) and myself were off to Cape Verde to celebrate a friends 60th birthday; it was going to be a relaxing 7 days in the sun, but having never been to Cape Verde before, and after a bit of research, I found that there were a couple of birds there I had not seen - Iago Sparrow (Cape Verde sparrow)  - which is an endemic, and the other was Black-crowned Sparrow Lark, so, on the 26th of November, and after a 6 hour non eventful flight, we found ourselves on Boa Vista - one of the islands in this archipelago 350 miles off the West coast of Senagal Africa. Our hotel - the Riu Touareg (which I can certainly recommend) is on the SE coast of the island. On our 30 minute transfer to the hotel, it was noticeable just how sparse the vegetation was - the first image (below) was taken from outside the hotel - and this what it was like as far as the eye could see - with just a few bushes scattered here and there.

                                                                                    

 The hotel is very isolated apart from a tiny smallholding just north of the hotel; there are no other 

habitable buildings - or for that fact, no other buildings what so ever!  but on exploring,  the

following morning, the Duchess and and I were amazed just how much bird life was about - we 

first noticed small flocks of Spanish Sparrows feeding in the gardens of the hotel, and our first view 

of  the many Spectacled Warblers we would see

                                                                                      Spectacled Warbler

                                                                           Spectacled Warbler

                                                                            Spanish Sparrows

  

Just walking down the road adjacent to the hotel there were lots of Hoopoe Larks and then I came

across one of my target birds - the endemic Iago Sparrow - feeding a youngster.  I never managed 

to get a decent image of the male, but I think the female is quite a nice bird for a sparrow! Also in 

this arid habitat were lots of Bar-tailed Larks.

                                                                  Iago Sparrow

Bar-tailed Lark

Hoopoe Lark

We went out most mornings and my second target bird - a Black-crowned Sparrow Lark -was found on the third day - again just feeding at the side of the road. At one end of the hotel was a 

bit of a muddy area on which were a couple Kentish Plovers, also, a lot further away, was a Whimbrel and few Brown Boobies flying North up the beach

Black-crowned Sparrow Lark

lt

                                                                Kentish Plover

 About 600 yards to the north of the hotel there is a settling pool from the sewage management plant, where a few waders feed.  I never tried getting close for any images as the birds were busily feeding and I did not want to interrupt them. Sanderling, Curlew Sandpipers, Ruff and Little Stint along with a couple of Greenshank were noted, also a few Wood Sandpipers, and Black-winged Stilts were the main birds. As I was leaving the pool, a single Turnstone was noted. Leaving this area on the fourth day, the duchess and I watched a bird glide over our heads - with it's sandy body with black tipped wings, it could only be Cream-coloured Courser! What a lovely bird, but sadly no images! The bird I did want to get an image of was the Brown-necked Raven, just because it was always around the hotel but never when I had my camera with me, so on the last day it was great to see this one land right in front of me

                                                     Brown-necked Raven

                                                             Black-winged Stilt

Altogether, I had 23 species of bird just from around the hotel, including 2 'lifers' - not a bad return for a chillaxing week!

Hope you have enjoyed your visit to my blog!

 

Twice in a week

October the 25th saw the last remnants of hurricane Gonzalo pass over the UK - but what had it brought with it on the bird front? Well, on Friday 26th, all was revealed - a Forster's Tern flew by Cape Cornwall; a yellow-billed cuckoo was found in Porthgwarra, Cornwall, closely followed by a Black-billed Cuckoo on North Ronaldsay; also a Hermit Thrush and a Chimney Swift in the Outer Hebrides - both a bit to far, but Porthgwarra in Cornwall (though 320 miles away) is quite 'doable', so, at 11.45pm  Friday evening, Dave Gray, Ben Croxall and myself travelled over to our other birding buddy - Neil Hagley - for an overnight drive to Cornwall. We were there for first light and so, with a lot of other hopeful birders, made the 15 minute walk towards the said dried up pond where the bird had been frequenting the previous day. As the light got better and better every one was hopeful the bird would show, but sadly, after about 3 hours, despondent birders started to walk back to their cars, and we shortly followed. It was going to be a long drive home - but not before taking the opportunity to see some of the other avifauna that was also in the area, so we headed for Penzance as there had been a Juvenile Rose-coloured Starling  being reported there for a few days. We parked on Sainsburys' car park and it wasn't long before it was seen feeding on a bush on the other side of the road. (Apologies for the image it's a record shot and heavily cropped)

Juvenile Rose-coloured Starling

Next stop was Copperhouse Creek in Hayle for a Lesser Yellowlegs. Once again we parked up - this time on the libary car park and there was the bird right in front of us! but too far away for any images, so I made due with this Bar-tailed Godwit.

Bar-tailed Godwit

A little detour to Davidstow Airfeild, where an American Golden Plover had been showing really well, but sadly not for us. This was a bit disappointing for Ben, as he needed it for life tick - and to rub salt in to the wound, we had only been left about half an hour when it came back on the news services and was showing well -but we were well on our way home by then. A  disappointment,  but still saw some nice birds

Now.........fast forward a few days, I was speaking with Steve James about the weather (as blokes do) and he informed me we were going to get some Easterly winds mid-week and to get ready for a twitch at the week-end! 'Yes' I said, hopefully, but how right Steve was! On Thursday, news came up of a Eastern Crowned Warbler which had been found at Brotton in Cleveland, so, having spoken to Steve about going, we both made a few calls to see who else was available. The only one was John Hague - it was John and myself that dipped on the 2009 Durham bird - so at 3.00am Friday morning, after picking up John and Steve, we were off for hopefully, a different result from the week previous! Again, we were there for first light - and so were a lot of other birders! After about an hour, the bird was picked up in some sycamore;  there were birders running about all over the place trying to get a glimpse of this Eastern jewel, but, with a bit of patience and luck, I think everybody got decent views of  the bird and went away happy - we certainly did!  I tried to get some kind of image, but with so many people being there it was nigh impossible!I'm no photographer - just a birder with a camera, so seeing the bird is the most important thing for me. Needless to say, it was a lot better drive home this week!

Glad you dropped by and hope you enjoyed your visit!!