Herring Gull and Starling through a telescope

Here's a few pics I took from the back garden, of birds on nearby house roofs. It was interesting watching a herring Gull close up. It was about 50m away, and had no idea I was watching it, so it was behaving naturally. From a distance they look like they're just sat there, being bored, but through the telescope it was clear that they were always on the lookout for something interesting, craning their necks to get a better view:

Here's one on another chimney, also about 50m away:

From the look of the feathers, this one's only just become an adult - there's still some traces of the brown juvenile feathers around the head:

This one was doing some preening as well as looking around:

I got a few pics of a Starling too:

I'm not sure what it was finding in the chimney pot:

This one was also preening:

and then having a good shake afterwards to get the feathers straight

Finally, I took a photo to give you an impression of the level of magnification being used. Here's some trees, and I've not cropped the picture at all. From looking at a map, I think they are about 600m away:

Mike

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Herring Gull chicks again, and cockatiels looking for trouble

Another video of the Herring Gull chicks, giving a better view of them this time:


And so they don't feel left out, our cockatiels Pete and Tom looking for trouble...


Mike

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Herring Gull chicks have hatched

I think these chicks have hatched in the last couple of days (they're on the roof opposite our house). You can only just see them peeping out once or twice from under their parent, who's holding their wings to make a wall to keep them in. Interesting that when it stands up, you can't see the chicks - I'm guessing they're keeping down low, as you can see the parent peer down at them.

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Seabirds at Camber Sands

As it was sunny this morning, I took a walk along to the channel the Rother flows along, and then back along the beach to Camber. As the tide was low, there were plenty of seabirds flying along the line of the river but actually below where I was on the sea defences:
allowing me to get some good pictures:
That's a Herring Gull - plenty of them around, usual, here's some more pics:
and it's bigger cousin, the Great Black-backed Gull:
The smaller Black-headed Gull was around too:
and inquisitive as to what I was doing:
The other bird I saw a lot of was the Oyster Catcher:
I know the next one looks the same as the one above, but I like it as it has the bird, its shadow and its reflection all in one photo:
I also saw one Cormorant:
and one Mallard, which was maybe a bit lost?
The sea defences aren't actually in great shape:
but I guess the local council is going to be to broke to fix them any time soon. Hope we don't get a storm surge this winter!

And to finish, a view along Camber Sands, from the Rother end of the beach:
Mike

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Herring Gulls fighting, and our cockatiels investigate chairs

Just a quick video of Herring Gulls fighting on the roof of the houses opposite ours.


And for more strange bird behaviour, our cockatiels being weird...


Mike

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On the beach

No, not the excellent (but depressing) novel by Nevil Shute, just us walking on Camber Sands. As Saturday is our "day of rest", we weren't working in the wood, and thought a walk on the beach might be nice. I got some cool photos of gulls breaking shellfish open to eat, so it was well worth it! It wasn't quite sunny, but that made for a nice view:
The shingle bank has been seriously eroded by the storms a few weeks ago:
It's not just a problem for those who live on top of them - there's a drop on the other side down to Camber!

The sign warning people using kite buggies and boards where their limit is had also taken a battering:
but I think they all know what to do anyway. The wind was in the wrong direction for kite surfing today, but there were a few hardy souls with boards or buggies out braving the chilly wind on the beach.
Anyway, on to the pictures of Herring Gulls breaking shellfish open. These pictures aren't as good as I'd have liked, but there wasn't a lot of light, and my telephoto lens cost under £200, rather than £2,000... but hopefully they're still good enough to show what was going on. I took pictures of several birds doing this, and I'll mix them together below.

First, find a shellfish and take off with it:
Then get at least 20m up in the air:
Next, stall your flight, so that the shellfish drops vertically, and you don't lose it bouncing along the beach:
Then let go...
Follow it down to the ground:
Quickly, someone else might get to it first!
and then eat it:
Some of them took several drops to break, probably because it was onto har sand rather than stone, but each gull persevered until it got its reward.

Right, woodland update coming up next...

Mike

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