What Bird of Prey?

[A Rural Heart]

Hi Tracey,

Good morning.

As you probably know Tracey, Tawny owls have favoured roosting sites out of the breeding season. (Tawny owls are breeding now in the Vale) Often these sites are in the darker areas of woodland where the owls roost tight up against the trunk of larger trees or in amongst stands of conifers. I know quite a few Tawny roosting sites around my home so can view some of them from afar with a scope without disturbing them.

We also have at least six breeding pairs of Buzzards within a mile of my front door which goes to show how common they are now a days. There is also at least one pair of Honey Buzzards further up in the Vale past the castle that I know of. Last year whilst watching Kites coming down for pheasant road kill along a particular road behind the Castle I had a rare and particularly special treat. A Merlin flew in from nowhere and landed 10 feet away from a Kite feeding on a pheasant at the side of the road. Prior to this I had never seen a Merlin in these parts so I was really privileged to have been in the right place at the right time as I'm sure this bird was a traveller on its way to the wintering grounds.

There is a particularly large old Victorian orchard at the bottom of my garden, not owned by me but by the local Welby country estate which is the country estate that borders the Belvoir one. The orchard is pretty much overgrown in places with apple, pear, Victoria plumb and damson trees still producing huge amounts of fruit. At the side of this orchard tucked in at the edge of the meadow is a cattle drinking pond, not huge but large enough for a pair of moor hens to rattle around in. There is also quite a few damsel and dragon flys always buzzing about like helicopters in the summer throughout the orchard and along the shrubs and flower beds in my large garden. Further along the meadow (Brownie) about 300 meters from my house is the village church, and behind this church lies the local estate lakes that were originally built in the early late 1600's to early 1700's by Capability Brown. These lakes are home to a very wide selection of fauna and flora as you could imagine plus lots more damsel and dragon flies. In previous years I'd heard about the odd Hobby sightings around the Belton House lakes outside Grantham but was never lucky enough to have spotted any myself. However four years ago whilst pottering around in my garden being intermittently distracted by the comings and goings of the cobalt blue damsels and larger dragon flies I had a huge surprise. A Hobby came flying in like a dart from behind the summer house and took a large dragon fly on the wing right before my eyes!! I was actually quite flabbergasted so celebrated my extreme good fortune by ceasing my dead heading activities and headed off to the village pub for a Guinness!! Since then I now manage to spot the Hobbies several times a year in the summer probably because these birds have enjoyed an unexplained and remarkable recovery since the mid 1900's when their numbers were down to 50-60 pairs nationally!! Some say the Hobby revival is down to increased numbers of dragon flies but I rather think the bigger picture might be more complex than that. In the brownie in and amongst the large holes left by splitting boughs there are large populations of Pipistrelle Bats and in the summer their young, the size of large moths, fly around in huge numbers at dusk. Hobbies also prey on bats so the habitat here does seem perfect for these visiting birds of prey and there is no doubting that these delightful birds are making their way Northwards from their homes in the South .

Kind Regards,

Lee.

[galanthophile]

Lucky you! Sounds a delightful place to live

[monkeyrepublic]

You might want to give that 20p a quick wash before putting it back into circulation.

[Dogghound]

Could be goshawk or buzzard, the pellet is not from a tawny owl.