It's getting towards the end of the nesting season, during which I spend most of my spare time finding and monitoring nests for the BTO's Nest Record Scheme. In terms of how we have done, it has been a successful year with over 120 nest record cards completed. The picture is somewhat more complicated in terms of how the birds have done, some species rearing good numbers of young but others such as Wood Warblers suffering very high levels of predation. Brood sizes in recent nests have also been rather poor which I cannot explain, given the generally good weather.
The weekend produced what may be the last Stonechat nest of the year, containing 4 healthy chicks about 8 days old.
I then checked on the last Wood Warbler nest of the year and its fate matched that of the species generally this year. Four eggs produced three chicks, one disappeared before ringing and the final check produced two dead chicks. The contents of the nest were too gruesome to show you as they were being consumed by a couple of
Nicrophorus vespilloides beetles and the larvae of the Calliphorid fly
Protocalliphora azurea.
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| Nicrophorus vespilloides |
On Sunday evening we got a bonus nest, found by a friend who was searching for his lost mobile phone!
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| Nightjar chicks |
Earlier on Sunday I had been at a site where a male Red-backed Shrike is hanging around. It's presence is being kept quiet, just in case, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence of a female there. Here is my entry for the worst bird photograph of the year competition.
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| Adult male Red-backed Shrike! |
Don't believe there's a shrike there?
See!
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