BBC Autumnwatch Live webcasting from Stronsay 26th Oct to 7th November




Bull Grey Seal on Stronsay - note his bloody neck

Finally got time to go through the pictures and to review what for me was a brilliant experience. Firstly though, thanks to all of you who took the trouble to e-mail or leave messages about the Grey Seal Autumnwatch live webcasting. OK, so I knew the basics before I left home, as in I knew the difference between Grey and Common Seal's but that was about it, and this was mainly because I just don't encounter Seals around my part of the Severn Estuary. I felt that this lack of knowledge was not going to be a burden, but could indeed be an asset. Meaning that this new adventure for me would become a shared learning experience with the audience. I left home in Somerset on the 26th of October, flying north to Orkney. After my first plane from Bristol to Glasgow, I took a second from Glasgow to Kirkwall. Upon arrival at Kirkwall airport I learnt that the little island plane that was to take me on the short hop over to Stronsay was broken, or sick, or something like that, so I had to rush down to the docks to catch the ferry. Having finally arrived on Stronsay Island I was reunited with a familiar working team. The Autumnwatch webcasting team that I would be working with for the next 12 days consisted of, Phil Windley the Technical Manager, the one and only Mr. Jo Charlesworth our excellent cameraman, and of course the boss Jeremy Torrance, Producer. My role would be to provide live commentary every so often and to cut into any interesting live action with live commentary.



Base camp monitoring station Stronsay Island

The next day for Phil, Jo and Jeremy was spent going through all the equipment, making sure everything was ready to go live on the 28th. This gave me just one day to get familiar with Grey Seals. My viewing room was the front seat of a Landrover, with Jeremy sat in the passenger seat and Phil and Jo controlling the whole show from their command centre of the back seats. On the dashboard in front of Jeremy and myself was a small monitor. This was to be my view of the Seals. The monitor displayed both camera views, with one camera on what we would now call beach 1 and the other on beach 2. I could tell which beach the audience was able to see (or live) by a red light in the corner of the screen. The views were superb, showing the full extent of both beaches, now completely covered in Grey Seals. So, for me the rest of the 27th of October was like having a crash course in Grey Seal behaviour.

Starlings were always around, even on the beaches feeding around the seals

 

House Sparrows in big numbers as well, always hanging round the farm buildings



"I've never known a night like it"

The Stornsay Islanders were just so amazingly friendly and went out of their way to make this Somerset yocal and the rest of the team feel at home. The Island itself being around 7 miles across with some amazing deep cut bays, was really good for wildlife. As with most interesting wildlife sites there is also a human story to tell; indeed Stronsay has in the past been inhabited by over 5000 people, with an additional 5000 coming to work on the Island. Kelp was a major industry along with Herring Fishing, most of which finished after the 2nd World War. Now though only around 300 people live on the Island, which has 1 hotel, 1 school and 1 shop. Anyone who visits the Island must go to the fish mart at the head of the pier. In this building you will find the Museum which, although small, is just one of the best if its kind I have ever seen. The information about Stronsay's past is well detailed and as you absorbed the information you begin to really respect the Island as it was and as it is now.

On my first day on the island a Merlin nearly took my head off in pursuit of a Meadow Pipit, and each day of the live broadcast we were greeted by hundreds of Curlew, Grey Lag Geese, Lapwings, Sanderlings and Knot. These birds were in fact feeding in the fields and were very easily observed each morning as we approached the site. Raven's and Hooded Crows were also present, along with Short-eared Owl and Hen Harrier. On Wednesday 3rd of November it became too windy for us to transmit any live webcasting so most of my day was spent with the Islands' foremost ornithologist, John Holloway, who has written several books about the birds of Stronsay and Fair Isle. John is an amazing birder with many tales to tell about the many rarity's that visit Stronsay, and his fantastic illustrations show his keen eye for the most minute of detail in a bird. John's precise illustrations mean of course that he can identify and clarify some of the real rarity's that turn up on Stronsay from time to time. The position of Orkney, being as far north as Oslo or Stockholm in Norway and Sweden respectfully, means that all sorts of birds get blown off course and end up there. Have a look at John's lists on his website http://www.stronsaybirdreserve.co.uk/ if you want to find out more!

Turnstone in huge numbers around the beaches feeding amongst the kelp





Black Gillies around Stronsay Pier early morning before sunrise

  


Turnstone and Redshank

Redshank

Winter Chiffchaff
In a farm buildling sunlit on the wooden beam. Stronsay is mostly mild in winter



   

Ring Tail/Hen Harrier.



In John Holloway's garden this is what greeted me. Waxwing.....wow what a bird!



Because of the berry shortage on Stronsay the Islanders were working together to help Waxwings by providing fruit



The Orkney Islands form one of the most important places for Grey Seals in the world, with up to 15% of the entire planet's population breeding in the archipelago. When I was on Stronsay I was told that up to 10,000 Grey seals come up onto the beaches during the Autumn period, and this is just one Island. The cow Grey Seals come ashore to give birth and rear their pups. The weaning period is very quick and takes around 18 to 21 days to complete. Grey Seal milk contains up to 60% fat, so the pups grow very quickly. Indeed, the time the BBC had chosen to do this live webcasting meant that some pups had already been born when we arrived, with some half way to weaning and others almost weaned off, but of course as we witnessed there were more births to come, and that meant more drama would begin to unfold in full view of the live camera.



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Bull (on the left) and Cow greeting each other in the water

  

Very much a pair (Bull on left Cow on right)



So, with Cows appearing on the beach and pups at all stages of growth, the scene was set for the Bulls to arrive. These Bulls appear at this time because during the rearing of the pups the Cows will come into season for a short period of time. We began observing these massive Bulls at first just swimming past the beaches perhaps testing and trying to mate with any Cows in the water. But as the time progressed more and more bulls began hauling themselves up on the beaches to try their luck. The best time to see them in action was around high tide, because of their enormous weight and short flippers, and because the beaches are covered with large rocks, they have expend a huge amount of energy just getting around out of the water. So, using the high tide they stayed in the water and only came ashore for short periods of time each day. This seemed all well and good at the beginning, but just as there seemed to be a pattern forming ..... enter stage right .... even bigger Bulls. These new bulls stayed ashore and began to stake out territories that they would defend from other bulls. This gave us some great action to watch.

'Rusty' the bull Grey Seal .... O.K naughty me.... we all agreed at the beginning of the live webcasting we would not name any of the seals as it could all end in disaster when poor old Gertrude the Grey Seal was found dead. I broke the rules though with Rusty, who seemed to be the King because any other bull that approached his beach was repelled in fine style, although interestingly mostly in a non-contact way. Rusty simply began edging his way towards the intruder and with outstretched neck would vocalise loudly and show off his great size and obvious strength. This seemed enough for most intruding bulls, however there were crafty bulls as well. Rusty would spend a lot of time asleep on the haul out beach, normally surrounded by his harem of cows. During these 'siestas' we noticed that other bulls would come ashore a little way from Rusty, catch up with a cow, mate with her, then hurry off back to the water before Rusty woke up. We did witness a few fights between bulls, but these were very short lived and actually come to think of it all of the serious bull on bull confrontations took place in the water.



Rusty the big Bull - showing the scars of battle





Cow Grey Seal shows agression towards an approaching Bull, note the seals on the beach in the background



Another view of "Seals on the Beach" Cow in the foreground



It was amazing to see what good mothers Grey Seal Cows really are, considering they are only with their pups for around 3 weeks before they abandon them to fend for themselves. There are exceptions of course, and for one reason or another one newborn pup was abandoned on one of our beaches. By now we were broadcasting to the whole planet, and everyone was sadened to watch the poor pup pull itself around the beach trying to suckle from other cows. On one occasion it actually managed to get a feed until the cow realised it wasn't her pup and saw the new born off. Inevitably during its voyage around the beach it would come across a Bull, in fact it even tried to suckle from a bull whilst it was trying to mate with a Cow. The Bull (not Rusty) picked up the pup by its tail and shook it, but through sheer determination the pup managed to pull free. With the live pictures of all this activity beaming out across the globe, people began to leave messages on the BBC Autumnwatch messageboards asking us to intervene, or to call in help. There was never any chance of us intervening, as we were positioned in our monitoring station some distance away from the remotely operated camera's on the beaches. Everything had been set up so that we would not disturb the normal behaviour of the Seals, and it was this normal, uninterrupted behaviour that we wanted to show the world. Very importantly, if we had made the decision to go on the beach and rescue the pup we would have started what the Seal experts call a stampede, put simply every adult on the beach would head for the water, possibly flattening anything in their path. So, in conclusion had we have gone on to the beach we would have more than likely killed many more pups trying to rescue just one. Then one by one the Seal experts came on to the message boards to explain just what the problem was, and played a really heart warming role in getting people to understand why we could not intervene. With so many Seals being born on this island at this time there would always be losses, indeed I had read that over 50% of all Pups born will not make it to their first birthday, and that is nature folks.



A ballooned Pup fast asleep, completely oblivious to me stood about 3 metres away



Not so ballooned - therefore a younger pup. I thought he was dead at first, but he was just asleep

 

A Cow Grey Seal seeing off the larger Bull, her pup is just between them in the background

The next morning when we turned on the camera the online audience saw and our worst fears were realised, the abandoned newborn had gone.

Away from the dilemma, we got to watch many other pups contentedly suckling, with their mother's carefully ushering them with the front flippers on to their teats. One of the most amazing observations was older pups being taken quite deliberately out into the water and trained by the Cows in the art of swimming. On stormier days the cows would deliberately stay open sea side of the pups and nudging them back to safe water if they ventured too far out.

As many of you know I can't miss the opportunity to interview someone, and on this webcasting we were blessed to have Gordon Buchanan come in for two interviews in the monitoring station, a total time of 1 and a quarter hours, now you wouldn't get that on TV or Radio. Both chats with Gordon I thought went very well indeed, away from the interview I managed to see Gordon in action filming the Grey Seals, and this really set me up perfectly to talk with him about the Seals. He opened up his chat by implying he did not really know a lot about them, however as one of the best wildlife cameramen around he certainly knows more than most people, and compared to someone like myself Gordon was the real seal expert. The first interview proved very popular so next we invited John Holloway into the monitoring station, where I interviewed him for half an hour on varying subjects to do with Stronsay, including the Orca's that swim round the islands during the Summer months. Indeed he even took some superb video of a small pod swimming off the bay near his house. Orca's would be a real threat to the seals of Stronsay, but more so to the Common Seals which have their pups during the summer months when the Orca's are likely to be around.

One of the many things that gripped me about Stronsay was the light, with the Autumn sun so much lower in the sky than at the home it was almost as though every hour of daylight was what photographers call the golden hour. Golden hour is the magic bit of the day when the sun is low in the sky and casts a golden colour across the landscape, creating a deep contrast to the light on the ground. Throughout my time on Stronsay it also felt that the island should be renamed Rainbow Island, for virtually everyday somewhere there was a rainbow, and I swear that one time I really did observe a triple Rainbow!


Sunset over Orkney

 

The whole adventure was a steep learning curve in Grey Seal behaviour, with just so much information pouring into my head because of the our privileged position watching the Seals intimate world. For me this would be an experience never to be forgotten. Indeed when I returned home there was an email waiting for me, asking me to do a talk on Grey Seals. I must admit I had think about it for a second or two, but then my new found confidence drove me to except the invitation. But I do so hoping to give the Seals something back, hopefully my new enthusiasm for these animals will indeed rub off on others as well. Not to forget I take with me the kindness and warmth that was shown by all the people of Orkney that I met.

Well I could go on forever. I could tell you about the Grey Seal pup that chased me across the field, but I won't as its far too embarrassing.



This is the frothy little blighter that chased me up the field!



If you ever get the chance to go Orkney don't forget to visit Stronsay. I should say if you get the chance to go, then take it!

One word of warning. If you have to fly back on three planes like I did, in a severe easterly gale take some extra food as I reckon I lost nearly 2 stone in weight on the flight back. Flying is for birds not for people.

Have fun, help your wildlife and its habitat where you live and I will write again soon.

Special Thanks to BBC Webcasting online team for putting up with me. BBC Autumnwatch for trusting me to do live broadcasts. BBC Radio 4 Saving Species for the Grey Seal piece we did from Stronsay during the live webcasting. Very special thanks to all the Grey Seals for being very special, and Gordon Buchanan and John Holloway, and last but not least all the people of Stronsay and the rest of Orkney. I will be back to see you all during 2011.



The magnificent light of Stronsay



Hornets 2010

I have now manged to find a Hornets nests and its at the location they used 2 years ago, however only thanks to local Badgers. What happened was the original nest was very well hidden, but badgers found and destroyed it, obviously the Queen and some workers survived, they then moved some 100 metres and back by coincidence to the nest of 2008.  The state of the nest as of 30th August is that the activity is much reduced on what it should be, yet as you can tell by these quick pictures I managed to take, it is building up.

 I would expect this nest to go on until at least end of October, so if the marriage flight of future Queens and Males has not taken place then there is still time to perhaps observe this. But it will depend on how advance they were before the old nest was destroyed.    Maybe the fact they are so keen to try again, means this activity is still to come.

The picture above is of one of the posted guards.  Unlike past nests I have visited were these guards are posted just inside the nest entrance, this one just dropped out of the nest and stayed the entire time watching me from this position on the ground.  For once I felt un easy about its posture. (I trust my instincts)

Another busy female worker leaves the nest in what always seems pre programmed destinations. All leaving worker Hornets can fly off in all ,but the flights path upon emerging  always seem determined with direction.

Its sad to hear of Hornets being destroyed and certainly where I live there is not as many as even 3 years ago, which was the year we found them locally.  However my little bits of information and these blog entry's and of course some well timed PR is paying off. Hornets are gaining new friends all the time, and I have even been asked to give talks on Hornets and Wasps, indeed one of these talks will be at a gathering of Bee keepers.

BFN

Forestry Commission - News - otus the owl guest of honour at forestry commission woods

Forestry Commission - News - otus the owl guest of honour at forestry commission woods

Should we be worried?

A must read, if you are interested in wildlife conservation in the UK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/13/plan-sell-nature-reserves-austerity-countryside

BFN

Dartmoor Long-eareds

Another glorious evening on Dartmoor, and indeed good news in that we found another forest with young Long-eared's.  Interestingly the Nightjars were much less in evidence than the previous visit, and all though they were present this reduction in activity is more probably caused by them beginning to move off to the winter areas.  I for one have enjoyed their constant presence in the Forests, as this is yet another species that seems to benefit from the actions of the Forestry Commision.

 

 As it was getting dark Red Deer began emerging from everywhere, very few Stags were observed but hinds were plentiful.  No doubt Forester Boyd Hay will explain this the next time I see him.

Buzzard young also could be heard throughout the forests, and obviously now flying.  The constant higher pitched me-eowing cry of juviniles echoing, with one cry mixing into another young Buzzards cry from another direction.

 

The sky on Dartmoor last night was superb and yes I did see some great meteors radiating out of the Perseus constellation.  The picture above is of the area surrounding the constellation of Cassiopeia, and so this is me testing the Canon eos 7 D on the B setting ready for the climax of the Perseid meteor shower on August 12th.

Here above is the area of Perseus.  As you see the stars are trailing which is an effect caused by the Earths rotation and the shutter being left open on the camera for too long.  This is from Dartmoor looking north east with Perseus rising.
Its quite a challenge, but I will try and get pictures of the meteor shower on Friday night/ Saturday morning.  Of course that is if its not cloudy.

 

BFN

Common Buzzard and Harris Hawk have bred in Plymouth

Here is a link to the news item.

http://www.itv.com/westcountry-west/bird-of-prey-in-plymouth38844/

Could this be the beginning of Super Buzzard, or perhaps Buzz Hawks.  How dangerous is this type of crossing in the wild? 

Enjoy the item.

BFN

Long eared Owlet Calling Video. As Requested!

Long-eared owlet calling from Hawthorn

This is the video I took of the Long-eared Owlet calling. Please note that it is almost dark, and that the Owl is perched in a very thick dark Hawthorn bush, therefore the EOS 7D is cranked up to its highest possible ISO setting, meaning that the picture quality is nothing but awful, but the audio I thought was just perfect.

BFN

Habitat Habitat Habitat.

Today I have been to Wiltshire to look at and survey an estate that just a few years ago was an arable desert, the emphases here is trees, however as can be seen in the first picture, there is plenty of open area, which does have some amazing rough grassland margins. I did this same survey a year ago, and today was gobsmacked by the number of Yellowhammer and Corn Bunting, Skylark. As you have probably noticed I really like Yellowhammer, they seem to me so wrapped up in the fact that some experts like to pigeon hole them into only being able to do or live in certain circumstances, yet here they are again, now operating across real rough and wild vegetation. As with the Hammers I found in the forests during the Forestry Commission Long-eared Owl Project, they are in the open yet seemingly doing even better than 1 year ago in the new growth of tree's. Mentioning experts, I was told only this weekend that Yellowhammers will only breed in the hedge and not out in the young tree belt. Sorry this is wrong. In fact as with the FC project here at today's location they were taking insect prey back to their nests which were not only in the hedges but also right out in the new tree growth areas, and breeding very close to the ground level. The moral of this story is that after almost 40 years of doing Natural History I would never surrender to that word EXPERT, because the beauty and excitement of natural history is that every time you go out you are going to learn something new!
If you think you know it all then its time to give up!

Yellowhammer what a bird

As you can see I can't get enough of Hammers. I'm told by my friends in the RSPB that if I was introduced to Cirl Buntings I would feel the same about them. OK Its over to you RSPB introduce me. Today's survey was brilliant for Birds and also large numbers of the more common Butterflies. Like Large and Small Skipper, Marbled White (my favourite),Speckled Wood, Ringlet, Large and Small White, Small Copper, even recorded 3 Brimstones obviously part of a second hatch, along with Peacock, Red Admiral Comma and Gatekeeper. Nothing perhaps very special in these species, although I did spend time looking for Wall Butterfly as it was the most perfect habitat for it however I found no Walls today. The point about the common butterflies is not that they were there, more so that they were in such huge number Peacock Butterfly

Comma Butterfly

A Bumblebee on Spearhead Thistle

Habitat is the key to all and when we consider our great struggle in wild conservation movement to preseve what is bio-diversity then perhaps we need go back to basics and really look careful at what the more common species need, and for goodness sake stop over complicating all of the issues.

BFN

Next up on this blog, Barn Owl Nest checking and this years re habbed Owls.

Hawk and Owl Trust Open Day Acton court

This was a huge event for the Hawk and Owl Trust. Those people that put this event together need the biggest pat on the back, along with all the volunteers that helped make it all run so well on the day. There was a large number of people present. The flying displays were carried out by the one and only Jemima Parry Jones MBE, and wow did her birds and of course Mima really perform well, I think its fair to say there is no one anywhere that can deliver a full on the spot talk and fly Birds of Prey so efficiently at the same time, I feel sure this is a female thing as it was full on multi-tasking.

Here are some pictures I took of the day, sadly not a lot as I was just a bit busy. Apart from the flying, there was face painting, bug hunting, pond dipping (well there was supposed to be but the hot weather meant the pond had dried up) On my last wildlife walk there was over 150 people that came out with me, and they really did enjoy become as one with Voles, and watching Ringlet and Marbled White Butterflies.

JPJ's Great Horned Owlet

Lanner in action at Acton Court

Lanner descending at speed towards JPJ's lure

The long snake of people enjoying my wildlife walk

And thank you Gaina, who did a brilliant job on the raffle such a success. Meanwhile its now back out in the field and more Barn Owl nest checking this week.

BFN

Today started off well checking nest sites around Mendip Hills, and then we went to a traditional nesting site for Barn Owl were we found the box had stones clearly lobbed into it and on the platform, which would have made it impossible for the Owls to nest in it. The farmer at this site is very pro all wildlife and a big fan of his Barn owls. Last year in 2009 we found, just one parish away from this site, a Barn Owl nest site clearly interfered with, this resulting in the death of the 4 Owlets. At the time we debated whether this was a one off, now maybe there is something more serious going on. I won't dwell on this any longer just let the video say it all for me.

But there was good news as well today, as we found other nests with owlets in, though the number of owlets in the nests is now reducing in number. This is most likely the result of the drought. All around today the grasslands looked more like the pictures of grasslands in central Spain rather than green and pleasant England. According to Peter Bright (who was with me today), we are having the driest three months for a long time, this of course follows the suppressed grass growth of the dry and cold spring. If this hot dry spells continue then I would worry that some of these Owls just won't make it to branching stage, of course for the farmers now thinking of bringing in the winter feed it will be desperate. Many of the hay fields look parched with no thickness to the grass at all. Acres of brown on the hill do however give way to some green as we move off the hill down on to the Somerset Levels.

Brown instead of green fields

Kestrel Young nearly ready to go

Only 2 Owlets from this site last year it had 4, but Peter and Mick are just as proud

Fantastic Forests Phase 2

Well I'm sat here quite stunned/knocked over/ by all the attention which has come about following my appearance on Springwatch, it really has been wonderful. Lots of people calling and e mailing with their own Little Owl observation and indeed some new sites for us to visit, thank you all for your kind comments. Meanwhile the important job of the last few weeks is the continuing partnership project The Forest Long-eared owl project, a project between The Foresty Commission and Hawk and Owl Trust. Two week ago we were on Bodmin Moor and met up once again with our great friends from The Cornwall Bird Watching and Preservation Society The weather was very perfect for going out at night, warm in the day cooling nicely with dropping wind speed for evening. Sadly only one female Long-eared owl was recorded, but at another site The team from CBWPS had mentioned that a Long-eared had been continually observed hunting through to the summer, so we could not rule out perhaps some late breeding here. As many of have noticed the comment from Steve Evans that in the North the Leo's are late, well just perhaps that's whats happening here as well. Certainly coastal offspring are flying yet still with parents, so maybe on the higher ground Leo's are a few weeks behind. Our Vole study plots certainly echo this with Voles slow to build on high ground, yet on the low ground seemingly doing very well after the cold winter and very dry spring/summer so far.

These Nightjars were so close to me at one stage they almost knocked me over

Tree Pipit found across most of the Forests

Please everyone note the plant this Blue Tailed Damsel is resting on

And this Red Admiral, you really can't keep a good bramble down

Dartmoor Forests revealed a wonderful observation of a Long-eared Owl out hunting in the sunset light. Clearly this Owl was hunting with either a sitting female or very young owlets in mind as it floated low of the clear fell part of the forest, momentarily halting itself in flight with wings outstretched then plunging into the long grass, this particular area is over 1300 ft above sea level. I don't know how this compares with Steve's area but certainly the snow and frost would have lasted longer here than on the south west coast.

Peregrine Falcon was not the only raptor recorded on our Forest surveys

Planet Venus hangs just above the Forest tree's

Once again these forest survey have echoed much of what I mentioned during the winter blog updates, in that whether on the Blackdowns, Exmoor, Dartmoor, Bodmin or Haldon they have a superb diversity of life within them and even if I were to just highlight some of the birds such as Goldcrest, which is noted for its dramatic decline over the hard winter 09/10, yet is found everywhere, and yes in good numbers in these forests. Maybe whats happened is that the plantation tree's actual give them and others better protection during long cold snaps, so if that is true and long cold spells are to be feature of climate change in the UK, then this makes forests suddenly become very important areas indeed. Other Birds of note again Yellowhammer stands out in the young tree's and clear fell areas, as do Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and Song Thrush. Cuckoo was noted in all the locations we have been to so far, indeed even at Haldon Forest on the 24th June. Nightjars well a big WOW! as they were literaly everywhere and a even bigger wow with us finding them between 02 and 03 hours coming together on forest paths lit by the moon. Glow worms were starting to emerge at Haldon last Thursday and I suspect that's the first this year, as normally I catch up with this species in Mendip and Somerset Levels but this year I have been too busy with the forest project to visit my traditional haunts.

Oh yes by the way. If you are enjoying following this and other projects I highlight on my blog, then please do join us and become a member of the Hawk and Owl Trust, you can join online by going to http://www.hawkandowl.org/ we need all the support we can get. Its not all over yet either, having a short break now to do some Barn Owl ringing and nest checking of other Owls and Birds of Prey, then back out to visit Dartmoor and Haldon again in a week or so. OK so that's the quick catch up time to retreat to my pit, however for tonight it will be the more sensible time as apposed to 0500hrs. And folks I'm not complaining as you can tell I love it, however my stomach does not, its fun way to shed pounds. Thanks again to all who have supported this project so far from Forestry Commission to all the Bird watching groups and Hawk and Owl Trust volunteers, we ought to have a big party at the end.

BFN