How many high flying raptors are we missing? (1 Viewer)

As I've mentioned elsewhere on Bird Forum I've been somewhat desperate to catch up with Black Kite in Kent. It was particularly galling last year to hear of so many reports of the species in the Stour valley and not get the merest glimpse of my elusive quarry.

Today, like many days previously, I spent a few hours at Grove hoping for a fly-through Black Kite. My confidence wasn't helped by missing an Osprey that passed through at 7:50, what, until today, I would have supposed was the same bird over Collards after 9:30ish.

Late morning scanning through the 20 odd Hobby back towards Canterbury, I picked up a large droop-winged raptor flying towards me just above the skyline. It was obviously a kite and, unfortunately, equally obviously a Red, not Black one (it helped that I'd been watch both in Germany last month). The bird drifted below the horizon, dropped and almost landed in the fields on the south side of the reserve, but then, after a little hesitation, began to circle up higher and drift north.

I followed the bird as it circled higher and higher until it offered 'scope only' views. Then a second bird dived in from higher still to join it. I initially assumed that it was a Marsh Harrier, but, no, it was another kite! At much greater range this time it did take a few moments to check the bird, but it was another Red Kite! The two birds circled together for a few minutes then drifted apart with the first bird heading north and the second getting lost to sight. I can't recall any other records in Kent of two Red Kites together and had I not seen them together I'd have assumed that there had been only one bird. I most certainly wouldn't have found the second if I hadn't been following the first through the scope which rather begs the question of how many raptors pass high over Kent (and the UK in general) that we never see?

So, that makes Red Kites 6 Black Kites 0 in the county! OK so that total does include 2 wing tagged birds and I couldn't swear that the second bird today couldn't have had a tag, but it seems a bit much to have seen so many of one and none of the other. But the question is, how many high flying raptors are we missing passing over Kent, SE England and elsewhere?

John

Not raptors, but I have twice picked up large-winged birds invisible to the naked eye, while looking for Tree Pipits that were calling - a Little Egret and a Spoonbill!

We will probably never know. Only last summer I stopped the car to watch what I thought was a very high Common Buzzard on the A59 near Knaresborough. After watching it (without binoculars) it was joined by a second raptor. I thought at the time - and still do - that the second bird was a Marsh Harrier. Both these birds by this time were very high.

Several migration watchpoints, within the Western Palearctic, have seen high flying small to medium size raptors at first light. Presumably these birds have been flying all night.

So not only are we missing them thru the day, they may well be flying over us during darkness.

John Barclay.

Loads, John, I'm sure of it. I went raptor watching at Haldon recently (more for old times' sake than in the expectation of seeing anything) and it brought back the old experience of trying to distinguish birds from specks of dust on the eyepiece! I never did lock onto the Sparrowhawk that was sighted. I once had an Osprey fly over the house, but I only picked that up because I was scoping a couple of Buzzards over a copse a mile and a half away and they mobbed this interestingly larger-looking bird which fortunately then flew towards me. It only took a couple of minutes to pass overhead and that's the other thing: we're more likely to miss high-flying raptors because they so often just pass through and don't stick around - Black Kites being the classic example, of course!

The closest thing I have to a patch is Valleyfield Lagoons in West Fife -a godforsaken expanse of rubble, weed, dirt ponds & fly ash courtesy of Longannet Power Station. Despite the lunar landscape I always take my bins when walking the dog there as it seems to "draw" the odd unusual passage raptor. Last friday(28/05/04) at 9pm a large flapping raptor flew over heading North (if I had been at home it would have been a garden tick)-it turned out to be a male Marsh Harrier, a scarce bird in these parts. I have also in the last year had good views of Goshawk & Hobby- both scarce Fife birds- that passed through in similar circumstances so I suspect that many such raptors pass us by unnoticed-most well above our heads!

Hi John
your question reminds me of one of Chris Morris' best lines on the newsnight spoof - The Day Today - '.....and don't forget that crimes we know nothing about are rising too'.....

I guess the honest answer is that we don't know and have precious little way of finding out. We've probably all been watching something in the foreground and then clocked a large raptor in the background we otherwise might not have seen. The small area of east norfolk coast that i like to bird has had Honey, Monty's, Red Foot and Rough-Leg in the past 2-3 weeks. There's often no-one around though so stuff may be being missed too.....or would these be picked up elsewhere on the coast or inland?

Some intrepid birders might fancy a few weekends at likely points lying on their backs and looking up all day.....wait a minute....that's my kind of birding! Thanks John, watch out for a few raptors from Waxham soon..... B

Probably lots, and especially so over urban areas where I suspect passage raptors fly particularly high (because of their fear of man).

Just last Saturday (22 May), saw a tiny dot from home, very high overhead - turned out to be a local patch tick Common Buzzard, several miles from the nearest suitable habitat.

Michael

I've deliberately tried this a number of times in gwent not just for raptors but also with the hope of storks, cranes, bee-eater anything. So far nothing. I've gone out when nationally there is evidence of movement/overshooting occuring.
I have seen fly over raptors in south east wales i.e. black (2) and red kite, honey buzzard and osprey but never when i've been looking for them. In fact only the osprey when I was birding and it was a completely unexpected bird at that time.

It's hard enough spotting migrating high fliers following a ridge even when you know they should be there. Spotting unexpected ones in an open sky would require a lot of patience and luck.

Jane Turner said:

Not raptors, but I have twice picked up large-winged birds invisible to the naked eye, while looking for Tree Pipits that were calling - a Little Egret and a Spoonbill!

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That rings a bell. A couple of old student friends of mine were once looking after an injured, flightless redshank in their garden. One day they were out in the garden with the bird, and it got all nervy and started looking toward the sky. They couldn't see anything, but with bins picked out a spoonbill going over, v. high.

So i guess the answer to the question, is loads, and not just raptors.

Martin

I have a ridge that runs alongside M4 that I watch on way to work(travelling on back lanes not motorway). Have seen bits and pieces- peregrine, merlin small nos of passerine migrants, Black Kite (2002) two junctions east, red kite (1998) a junction west. Birds will occur but very, very infrequently. Honestly in this part of the world this is as good as it gets. As part of this "patch" I,ve regularly checked a ploughed field on this slope for two years looking primarily for dotterel (vagrants in gwent but field looked right, other birders looked at me stupid when I explained plan). This May passing birder saw 4 one afternoon, not present in evening when I and others checked.

Interesting question, John

I sometimes wonder whether there is a statistical analysis that could be worked out to answer a question like John's. It would involve some sort of sampling technique. But there are so many variables--not least the varying ability of birders to spot and ID raptors--that it would probably not produce statistically significant results!
I've noticed that quite a few interesting migrants in Surrey are seen in people's gardens, presumably mostly birders' gardens. Wryneck is one example that springs to mind. So that probably means that quite a few gardens host wrynecks in any one season (on the assumption that only a low percentage is spotted)... or not??

On a similar theme to gardens. When ever I drive, with due care and attention of course- I watch the sky as well as the road. There is an arguement that birds use roads as flyways but is it the no of watchers rather than the no of birds.

u r right surreybirder way too many variable for any analysis!

Nice to be right occasionally

John o'Sullivan said:

On a similar theme to gardens. When ever I drive, with due care and attention of course- I watch the sky as well as the road. There is an arguement that birds use roads as flyways but is it the no of watchers rather than the no of birds.

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Sorry JOS,

I am of the opinion that certain birds; from Peregrines to Sand Martins; do, in certain circumstances, use manmade structures; pylon lines, roads, pipelines, etc; to navigate by.

Back on topic: buy a chair, Thermos, sandwich box and umbrella and spend six hours or so, on a regular basis, skywatching. Unless you do this, you will have no idea what you are missing. How many birders do this? Less than 1% - mainly a few vismig and raptor enthusiasts?

Regards,

Andy.