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Hobby Thread 2013 (1 Viewer)

I thought I'd put a decent picture of one of the Hobbies at our local area, not taken by me, but by the chap who told me about the 6 all together, he must be a serious birder judging by the size of the lens on his camera.
 

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Nice photo perebrine.

I was with a friend yesterday who has a big lens - he still reckons he needs to get within 12 feet to get a really good shot !
 
He took several shots here's a couple more of the day.




Nice photo perebrine.

I was with a friend yesterday who has a big lens - he still reckons he needs to get within 12 feet to get a really good shot !
 

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Talking of flight shots, check out Steve Ashton's marvellous capture. :t:

Large numbers of Hobbies (dozens) often gather at Stodmarsh in Kent at this time of the year, but I haven't heard of more than a handful so far this year?
 
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The Red flags were up which meant the Army were out on the rifle range, so no access inside the reserve itself, just around the perimeter, then it started raining so we decided to call it a day. :C
 
May 11th 2013. The pair and the nest. I'm not able to decide which one is the male and which one is the female...These are very long shots (800 mm equiv. on 35 mm film).
 

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Talking of flight shots, check out Steve Ashton's marvellous capture. :t:

Large numbers of Hobbies (dozens) often gather at Stodmarsh in Kent at this time of the year, but I haven't heard of more than a handful so far this year?


Great photo !

That's a bit worrying. I wonder what's happened to them ? Maybe they are just dispersed to different areas.
 
The cold wind was not as strong this morning but most of the birds still seemed to be keeping their heads down. A solitary Raven flew West and a Red-legged Partridge made a brief appearance, otherwise it was pretty quiet. We need some warm sunny days to get things moving again.

I said a few days back that the first Lapwing chicks had hatched and hopefully they would get a chance to grow without interference from the farmers. Unfortunately, I had forgot about the crop spraying. A spraying machine arrived just as I turned up today and quickly began racing up and down the field of winter barley. It’s amazing how fast they go and how quickly they can cover a large field with whatever it is they are spraying – and to be honest I don’t know if it’s pesticide or some form of liquid fertilizer, I must ask the farmer next time I see him. But what happens to any Lapwing chicks, or any other species, is in the lap of the gods. If they avoid the vehicles wheels, they will most certainly be drenched in whatever it is they are spraying, and I don’t know how anything survives to be quite frank. Intensive farming is good for us humans but one major headache for any ground nesting birds.

And with that sad thought I went home to get warm.
 
In the fields behind my house they grow Rape & a couple of weeks ago they sprayed it with what looked like a luminous yellow liquid. It's hard to stop my dog eating the green shoots & she was sick & also had luminous yellow dihorrea (spelling?), speaking to other neighbours, several of their dogs suffered the same, no idea what it was, but whatever it was the crops seemed to grow before your eyes.



The cold wind was not as strong this morning but most of the birds still seemed to be keeping their heads down. A solitary Raven flew West and a Red-legged Partridge made a brief appearance, otherwise it was pretty quiet. We need some warm sunny days to get things moving again.

I said a few days back that the first Lapwing chicks had hatched and hopefully they would get a chance to grow without interference from the farmers. Unfortunately, I had forgot about the crop spraying. A spraying machine arrived just as I turned up today and quickly began racing up and down the field of winter barley. It’s amazing how fast they go and how quickly they can cover a large field with whatever it is they are spraying – and to be honest I don’t know if it’s pesticide or some form of liquid fertilizer, I must ask the farmer next time I see him. But what happens to any Lapwing chicks, or any other species, is in the lap of the gods. If they avoid the vehicles wheels, they will most certainly be drenched in whatever it is they are spraying, and I don’t know how anything survives to be quite frank. Intensive farming is good for us humans but one major headache for any ground nesting birds.

And with that sad thought I went home to get warm.
 
Can I ask a couple of questions?
When you're looking for Hobbies are you sat in hides etc?
If you're sat where you expect to see a Hobby, as in my case "The Pond area" do you just sit & wait for long periods or walk around hoping to catch a glimpse?

Is this typical, I sit by the pond with my back to bushes & just wait, I may see the Hobby once or twice for only a couple of minutes (or even seconds) in an hour, but those 2 times are enough to make me smile?
 
Hi perebrine,

I don’t think I’m giving anything away that hasn’t already been described in previous years threads.

When our Hobbies first arrive, usually early May, they are extremely difficult to locate. They appear to wander around the general area for several weeks, presumably scouting for suitable nest sites, which will invariably be vacated crows nests. As the crows are still raising their own young the Hobbies won’t decide where to nest until the crows move out in a few weeks time. Each year, on our particular site, the Hobbies have chosen a different nest, but they’ve all been within about 1 square mile of each other.

Right now it’s really hard to pin the Hobbies down and you need to bear in mind these birds spend many hours hidden away, sat in trees. But like any bird, once they choose a nest site their activity tends to narrow down more towards that specific area – and that’s where you might get the chance to observe their behaviour at a discreet distance, and I have to emphasise the discreet distance. You must not try to get close to the nest because the birds won’t tolerate the disturbance and we usually stay at least three hundred yards away.

So really, it's just a case of keeping your local area under close observation and hope you get lucky !

Hope you find you local Hobbies and enjoy them as much as we have enjoyed ours.
 
Thank you for an excellent reply & the last thing I want to do is disturb them in anyway, so I'll be keeping my distance. In a way I'm a little lucky in the fact I was able to take an early retirement from work at the age of 54 (with a full works pension), so I have plenty of time on my hands to fill & knowing my nature when I get my teeth into something it becomes an obssession & at least this a healthy one. My wife works full time (Luckily she enjoys her job) so I'll be driving her to work in the mornings & will have plenty of time watch for them.
John.


Hi perebrine,

I don’t think I’m giving anything away that hasn’t already been described in previous years threads.

When our Hobbies first arrive, usually early May, they are extremely difficult to locate. They appear to wander around the general area for several weeks, presumably scouting for suitable nest sites, which will invariably be vacated crows nests. As the crows are still raising their own young the Hobbies won’t decide where to nest until the crows move out in a few weeks time. Each year, on our particular site, the Hobbies have chosen a different nest, but they’ve all been within about 1 square mile of each other.

Right now it’s really hard to pin the Hobbies down and you need to bear in mind these birds spend many hours hidden away, sat in trees. But like any bird, once they choose a nest site their activity tends to narrow down more towards that specific area – and that’s where you might get the chance to observe their behaviour at a discreet distance, and I have to emphasise the discreet distance. You must not try to get close to the nest because the birds won’t tolerate the disturbance and we usually stay at least three hundred yards away.

So really, it's just a case of keeping your local area under close observation and hope you get lucky !

Hope you find you local Hobbies and enjoy them as much as we have enjoyed ours.
 
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