Sweden. Here I come!

Yes the trips on, I'm returning Sweden! Whats more I'm driving from Somerset in south-west England all the way to Sweden. The journey will take me through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark, total journey time 21 hours. Of course I will stop off on route as I have a 2 week break, however I hope to spend some time in Sweden meeting up with the great conservationist "Tom Arnbom" and a familiar man to this Blog "Alar Broberg". My Son Tom and Daughter Leah are asking to see Wolves, Bears, Beavers, Eagle Owls, Great Grey Owls, White-Tailed Sea Eagle, Wryneck, Wild Boar, Moose, Wolverine and Lynx, well actually the kids wish list is endless. So both Video and still camera will be with me so stand by for some pictures, and perhaps a film. Not actually going until the end of the month, so if there is anyone reading this blog from any of the countries on route to Sweden please let me know of any really good wildlife hot spots we can stop and camp in. These countries will be once again France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Denmark. Our goal is to head towards Stockholm. Once there we will be begin exploring Sweden.
A good friend of ours is Fred Domelhoff, he is the M.D of Cotleigh Brewery who make real ales named after Birds of Prey and Owls. I suspect at some stage you have all had a pint of Barn Owl Bitter. Anyway, Fred who is Swedish and now living in Wivelsicombe in Somerset, is setting the kids to task, they have to find a real Swedish farm market and speak in Swedish and ask for certain produce that can only be bought in Sweden. I thought that was a brilliant idea of Fred's for the kids to do. Of course he will send then a list of what he wants but they must speak in Swedish to buy it. Great way to learn a little of the language and culture at the time.

I must return also to Skansen Zoo this zoo not only has Swedish animals but also has with it a great walk through real life history of Sweden. Last time I visited when working with the BBC it was such a brilliant experience, such a friendly and real conservation action Zoo.

YACWAG Sucess

Well done once again to everyone involved with the Yatton and Congresbury Wildlife Action Group aka YACWAG. I was carrying out the annual monitoring of their boxes, Barn Owl and Kestrels. The management of the reserves is taken straight out of the Chris Sperring manuscript of how it should be done, indeed my early 90s work at Portbury was part of the inspiration for their success now. And boy what success, as we walked across the fields towards the boxes,
Butterflies of differing species such as Large and Small Skipper, Ringlet, Meadow Browns and of course my favourite the Marbled White were all at times in such large numbers its was quite breadth taking. The bird species list is endless check out their website to see for yourself.
The first Barn Owl box had an amazing five Barn Owlets, interestingly these were younger than the second nest which only had three, this has been a pattern this year in that if the Owls bred early the number of young is low, those that started later have more owlets. If you remember its exactly what I was saying earlier in the spring. It means we had suppressed grass growth leading to later breeding in the Short-tailed Vole which is their main prey item across these open grassland areas. But what to me was good was that one small reserve had 2 pairs of Kestrels both of which had young on the wing. This species has shown some quite big declines in the U.K, but here at least not only was the young production good but also from 2 pairs in very close proximity to each other. The Short tailed Voles here are having a bumper year. Now I have heard other's state that "this is a bad year for Voles" yet so far all my own Vole study plot areas show really good Vole numbers as did YACWAG's Kestrel and Barn Owl results. Just goes to prove you can't have a national up and down of Voles it does not happen. YACWAG is a very small local based independent wildlife charity. Yet what it does is up on a scale as great as any of the national NGO's, it buys up bits of local land and turns it into a wildlife paradise, it also proves that these tiny islands in the area, can produce maximum bio-diversity. YACWAG involves its local members of the public, they in turn make a major difference for the environment that surrounds them. Its all so simple yet what I have seen it makes such a huge impact for little fuss or money.
My regards to everyone involved with YACWAG and thanks for a great day out on the reserves, and for making such great habitat for real bio-diversity and not just a select few on a priority list, well done folks your the best!

All this reminds me of another organisation of doers, small yet very effective. The Hawk and Owl Trust springs to mind!

YACWAG volunteers including Trever Riddle and leader Tony Moulin
Count the Owls!

Close up of a YACWAG Babe

Three Older babes from the second nest of YACWAG

Kestrel recently fledged from the box

Ringlet Butterfly on YACWAG reserve

A Response On The Death Of Oscar The Eagle Owl from Sweden

Ornithologist Alar Broberg who studies the Eagle Owl in Sweden sent this message today after reading the blog entry about "Oscar" Bristol's Eagle Owl death.
Just to remind everyone, its thought that Oscar was injured and died after attacks from Gulls and Crows, so here is Alar's response to that.

I had a few sec free time, so I checked your blog –spot.
The only occasion I can imagine that an EO is killed by gulls and crows if it’s in a very bad health status. Sick or very poor luck with catching food. I have never heard about this happening, the only ones that kills EO is another EO or perhaps an Eagle.

Alar goes on to tell us about his Eagle Owl successes so far this year in Sweden

So far it’s pretty good year , and we had one day “all time high ringing in the archipelago”. Usually that area has about 5 chicks, and the previous was last year), last Monday I rung 12 ( 7 clutches).

Eagle Owlet in Sweden Picture by Alar Borberg

My Thanks to Alar for taking the time to respond to this.
Sadly the body of Oscar has been disposed of, obviously an autopsy to find any underlying reason why he died would have been good. And so after reading Alar's response it does make me wonder whether he may have been poisoned, this comment from me is really jumping to a conclusion and only based on the fact that Oscar was catching Rats in the City, therefore I would assume Rats in the City are targeted for poisoning. Stands to reason if this happened his health would have deteriorated to a point were by the Gulls and Crows may have picked on him.
At the end of the day we will never really know and without the evidence from his body then we only have rumour and unsubstantiated evidence.

Thanks to the many of you that have e mailed regarding Oscar the Eagle Owl.

Water Voles

More from the Water Voles later on this week, stay tuned!

Little Owl saved by member of the public

Quick thinking member of the public came to the rescue of this Little Owl at Portbury. The Owl was found on a path being perhaps picked on by Magpies? When we got the owl we could see no sign of damage just a few pulled feathers, and bit under weight and so obviously suffering from shock. Now at this time of year this adult could be a parent Owl, so time is of the essence. We had to get the bird back, if it could go back, as quickly as possible. We kept him in a dark warm container for a few hours this to help him recover from any shock. Then fed him, and left food with him. After picking him up late Saturday afternoon, by 2300hrs, he was starting to pull round a bit and move around his box.

Sunday Morning 0600 revealed he had eaten a lot, and was bouncing around his box, great!
However we did not know if there was any unseen wing damage, so at 1200 hours he was flight tested. OK not bad, leave him few more hours and see. 1700 hours second flight test, yippee bloody perfect! Elevated from the floor straight up with no problem at all, also good direct forward flight. Decision made is Little Owl to returned to site by 1900hrs, this in case any young were down to being one parent family and needed help. Took him back to the site on time and released in ideal Little Owl habitat exactly where he came from. Turn around of this Owl was, well about 24 hours, not bad eh!

I could have not done this without the help of Thomas Sperring aged 9 and 3 months, after he becoming inspired by his visit to see Jemima Parry Jones at NBPC, and of course the fact that his favourite bird the Little Owl needed help, so Tom really came up trumps on this one, and he really did help with feeding and looking after. Well done Tom this successful turn around is down to you.

Tom and the Little Owl, perhaps the next generation of Wildlife rehabilitator

Rest In Peace Oscar

This sad news came from Ed Drewitt of the BOC. Oscar Bristol's Eagle Owl has been found dead.
Apparently the victim of Gulls and Crows. If the boys studying Eagle Owls in Sweden are reading this please comment on this and tells us whether Stockholms Eagle Owls suffer the same fate?

Oscar did a great job not only promoting wildlife interest in the city Bristol but also for Eagle Owls and their presence in UK. He did not like some so called experts said he would, catch Dogs and Cats, chase small children and pick on rare birds.
Instead he munched his way through Grey Squirrels, Brown Rats and Feral Pigeons.

RIP Oscar; Bristol's free flying Eagle Owl and pest controller

Still Nest Site Monitoring

And where there's life, then we always have hope!

Climate Change, Birds, Marine Nature Reserves and very importantly, people

Programme Transmitted Tuesday June 2nd BBC Radio 4

Well what a title, but believe it or not I will be presenting a BBC Nature programme which has all these elements rolled into one. This programme is part of the series called Nature and is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesdays at 1100hrs. The real title of the programme is "Canaries of the Cliffs", and I have just spent the weekend with BBC producer Mary Colwell in a lovely coastal Scottish village called "Tain" were we met Bob Swann BTO Scottish rep and a real expert on his sea bird colony's having spent many years studying them. Good also to talk with a fellow ringer this year being the centenary of the ringing schemes. On the very steep cliffs I also interviewed Professor Sarah Wanless of the Center for Hydrology and Ecology (Note to Mary C, I remembered). Then for the second day we were on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast. Now I don't want to spoil the programme for you so will not say anymore about it.
I think you should listen to this programme, especially if like me your a land lover who had never been inspired by a sea bird colony's to think beyond the cliffs. The real story as I just hinted is beyond the cliffs, so book a time to listen to this one. I think you will find my clumsy title to this blog becomes more apt as the programme develops. Transmission is on JUNE 2nd at 1100hrs BBC Radio 4 and of course online at the BBC Nature website http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006sr7c after the programme has transmitted.

For those of you who become inspired after listening to the programme, then David Steel the National Trust head warden and his team on the Farne Islands do a fantastic job not only with the important research they do, but also with the general public that visit, and indeed these Island are a must visit. Here is the website http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-farnes/

Oh yes, I did take some pictures so I will leave you with a sample of the pictures I took on the Farne Islands. These were a bit rushed, I could spent weeks there!

Artic Tern with food
Eider Drake
Gillies
A reptilian looking Shag
Razorbill

And here they come now, everyone's favourite sea bird.

Puffins





That's all folks!

Nuthatch

I had 10 minutes to spare, so watched one of our boxes that we originally erected in 2001 as part of the Nest Boxes in Schools project (NBIS). The box was intended for Great or Blue Tits, however the bandit bird has taken it over. I think Nuthatches are great, they are Kings and Queen of the bird table or feeders, that's if you are lucky enough to have them visit. Their songs begin as the last of cold of the winter fades, and as you can see from the pictures they can rearrange very professionally the front of Tit box you have painstakingly built. They are the comics and demons of the woodland or indeed semi wooded garden.

As you can see for the pictures above what is being brought back to the nest for the chicks inside is not nuts or seed material that most associate this species with, in fact its insects, flying insects at that, with may fly and black fly seemingly the most in this short time I was observing them. Also of note most of the may fly was concentrated on the Hawthorn that is left to grow wild around this nest.

And for my last pictures from today, as I was leaving my house this morning I happened to look back and saw a Mallard Duck on my roof?

This is silly, what is a Mallard Drake doing on my roof?

Handsome, yet very silly Mallard Duck