Eastern Europe ...Lithuania, a birder's tale. (1 Viewer)

[Jos Stratford]

My neighbours...

a. nest one - from this nest, the first youngster made his first efforts airborne this weekend (he's the one preening)

b. nest two - two weeks younger, they are still content to watch the world beneath them

c. one of the stars, pretending to be a Bee-eater, hawking about 2km into the stratosphere!

The storks in my garden have started to build another nest, two poles down, but still tending their original!

 

[joannec]

Great stuff!:t: Is this the view from your kitchen?

 

[Jos Stratford]

Great stuff!:t: Is this the view from your kitchen?

This is, albeit on a rather less sunny day

A little guided tour from my window - for the storks, you need to swivel a bit ...they are not in this picture, you'd need to look a fraction more to the right to see the two stork nests pictured earlier, a bit to the left to see the one in my garden. The house way off in the centre does also have a nest, but you'll struggle to see that in this picture! The electric wires in the background are where the Rollers often hang out, the fence posts just visible sport fledgling Red-backed Shrikes and Black Redstarts at the moment and the big birch is where my winter feeders are, plusserve as occasional perch to the odd Golden Oriole or two. The forest just visible in the back is part of my land, home to all the woodpeckers. Anywhere in the sky for Marsh Harriers, Black Kite, perhaps White-tailed Eagle, Osprey or other raptors.

Finally the blue bit is one of my bee hives and the tree blocking the view to the left of the window is one of the best ones I planted. Finally the one feeder that is in view has a Tree Sparrow hiding behind it - head just poking out to the left!

 

[Jos Stratford]

An update on a stunning day - in a raptor-rich trip to the local patch, the usual White-tailed Eagles were joined by some stunners ...not only did I bump into three recently fledged Honey Buzzards, including one youungster screaming at me from the ground, but I also found a Red Kite, a very scarce bird out here.

Better though were the butterflies, 29 species in all - including five Swallowtails, one Purple Emperor, several White Admirals and dozens and dozens of fritillaries ...and one Camberwell Beauty, truly living up to the beautiful part of its name.

Better though, again, was an Adder ...finally I got in close enough to get a reasonable shot - normally they just slink off, but this one arched up in attack mode, so I edged in. Problem was a blade of grass hiding his snout, not what I wanted in the picture. Expecting a strike, I prepared to flinch a little, but eventually got to within 20 cm and the bit of grass was no longer in the way ...eye to eye with the snake, he was a stunning individual, full of colour.

 

[delia todd]

hmm... rather run out of superlatives:-O

Yet another Wow day for you

D

 

[Helenelizabeth2]

I love the adder pic. That's really special.

 

[Andrew]

Fantastic Jos, would like the guts to get that close to an Adder, a metre away was enough for me last year!

 

[delia todd]

How's your caterpillar ID Jos?

This one was taken.... er well you'll recognise where

D

 

[Jos Stratford]

i.d. on the blue bit is the western beehive! On the caterpillar ...hmm, will need to look into that!

 

[Jos Stratford]

Not getting out so much these days, turning into a bit of a couch potato, but at least the couch is well positioned - as befitting of late July, the skies are just bumper filled with raptors - tally this weekend included no less than two ospreys, two Lesser Spotted Eagles, heaps of Marsh Harriers (youngsters fledged), one Montagu's Harrier, one Honey Buzzard, several Common Buzzards and a pair of Black Kites! And the Hobby still buzzing the feeders. Plus managed a garden tick in the form of six Crossbills flying over and enjoyed feeder rewards with two Hawfinches taking the award for best birds.

However, best of best, the Rollers - fledged two weeks ago, but still in the area. Right corking birds, what with the two adults and their three youngsters, it is a postivey massive flock of them that now resides outside! And, boy, do those adults not like raptors now ...were indifferent to them before, but now the adults are like skyborne torpedos at the first sight of anything remotely hook-beaked!

 

[colonelboris]

Niiiiiice....
I guess the summer birding makes up for the winters. What sticks around in winter round your way?

 

[Jos Stratford]

5 June 2007

I was left with the bloodied chicks in my hands dying ....

So, today, of the four chicks, one died yesterday evening, another overnight. The strongest has a gaping neck wound, but no vets would look at it - bastards. So took home and closed the wound. This one, despite the wound would feed from me, non-stop! Others rejected food. At 4.45 a.m. this morning I began the feeding, neck-wound baby looking good. One of the others, who had been totally caked in blood and suffered head injuries, I had not held much hope for, but I cleaned him up and this morning he was still alive - began force feeding and after some hours, he began bill clapping, good sign.

So, an update on these two little tough nuts - from those days where survival was in the balance, they have done nothing but improve and grow. They have now been moved to a release pen, where over the next weeks, the quantity of food of food will be slowly reduced to encourage them (plus 38 other orphans!) to begin to find their own food, all is in line for a successful reintroduction to the wild and an autumn migration as normal.

 

[delia todd]

That's brilliant news Jos, thanks for the up-date.

D

 

[Jos Stratford]

Autumn is well under way - Black Storks on the move, White Storks shifting out, flocks of Wood Sandpipers numbering up to 60 odd and a good scattering of other passage waders ...the top season of the year ia about to move into gear. Also bumped into a couple of Caspian Terns and, in the garden, passage Pied Flycatcher, Common Redstart and Tree Pipit, good birds all.

However, hinting at the summer yet to finish, my Rollers still wandered the area, the pair and three youngsters feeding in meadows as late as yesterday. Click here for full Roller story and pictures of the past three years. Also lingering on, my old faithfuls, the pair of White Storks still sat atop their nest ...though have also begun a half-hearted second nest about a hundred metres down the road! I like to think they have too much time on their hands and not that they are planning to desert me next year!

 

[Jos Stratford]

All started well enough this morning - stepped inot the garden this morning only to hear a Grey-headed Woodpecker calling ...not only the first I have encountered away from Labanoras for about a year, but also a garden tick (for that garden!).

By 8.30 a.m., the day's work was over, so then headed off to the local patch ...and timed it just right to get there as a Bittern was flying slowly across the lake! All good so far, so headed off to the fish pools, hoping waders would be doing the business. Two areas looked good habitat-wise, so settled to begin my search ...had ideas of finding either a Marsh Sandpiper or Broad-billed Sandpiper, both scarce, but virtually annual birds on the patch. Luck continued with the finding of both Oystercatcher and Whimbrel, neither very frequent there, but then started to scan another patch ...and there he was, a Broad-billed Sandpiper! A smile did develop at that point. Did consider gong off to look for butterflies, but as the sun knocked the temperatures up towards the 30 C mark, decided it was all too much effort, so stuck it out on the pools ...17 wader species today, top in number being 84 Wood Sandpipers, best (other the above!) a couple of Temminck's Stint. Four White-tailed Eagles loafed, a Black Kite drifted over, two Caspian Terns (the second pair this week) headed off in persuit.

Back to Vilnius I went, not a bad day in all.

 

[Atricapilla]

A good number of waders there Jos,you can send that Broad bill down if you want as mine have'nt arrived yet!!

 

[Jos Stratford]

A good number of waders there Jos,you can send that Broad bill down if you want as mine have'nt arrived yet!!

Hopefully he'll be down there real soon - best numbers (if a bare handful at best per year can be termed best numbers) usually occur in the latter part of August, so I'll chew him over for while then send him on his way. Great White Egrets sitting at about 70 today, I suppose you have enough of those?

 

[Atricapilla]

No Great egrets yet either,maybe this heat wave has knocked them back,plenty of Black stork though!!

 

[Jos Stratford]

Picture says it all, best day of the year ...guess why!

 

[matt green]

Picture says it all, best day of the year ...guess who!

Fantastic:t:

Matt