PUMPKINS FILLED WITH SEED OR SCRAPS CAN MAKE SUPERB BIRD FEEDERS

                                                                              

HERE'S an idea from the National Audubon Society - the American counterpart to our own RSPB!

It suggests that hollowed-out pumpkins can be used as bird feeders.

Materials:

• Small to medium sized pumpkin, up to 10 pounds

• Small sticks

• Twine or rope

• Birdseed
 
Steps:

1. Cut the pumpkin in half.

2. Scoop out the seeds, leaving a hollow inside with 1/2-inch thick shell wall.

3. Insert two sticks across the open pumpkin to create perches for the birds.

4. Knot two lengths of rope together at the centre and tack the knot to the bottom of the pumpkin feeder. Hang the other ends of the rope in your chosen feeder location.
 
5. Fill with birdseed. 

* The image, courtesy of Linda Goodman/ National Audubon Society, depicts  evening grosbeaks

More info (and a video) at:

https://www.audubon.org/news/pumpkin-bird-feeder-makes-happy-harvest-birds

SONGBIRDS AT SEA - NOTES FROM A CRUISE SHIP

Song thrush - it came  on board in the Bay of Biscay off the French Coast

The phenomenon of migrating birds seeking temporary refuge on ships is well- known.

 It was evident to guests on board the cruise ship, Columbus, flagship vessel of Cruise and Maritime Voyages (CMV), on its 15-night journey (October 12-27)  from Tilbury Docks, London, to Gibraltar, The Canaries, Madeira,  Portugal and back.
                                          

The cruise ship Columbus - part of the CMV fleet

From a bird’s eye perspective, the grass-coloured carpeting on the decks must have resembled fields or garden lawns while the swimming pools will have looked like ponds.

A field with a pond - how migrating birds might have perceived the open decks

                                          
 Among the confirmed species that hitched a ride south were robin, pied wagtail, song thrush, blackcap, skylark, plus at least one unidentified leaf warbler.

On the return, there were visits from at least one chaffinch (female) and one pied wagtail.

Typically. the birds (none of which seemed in distress) would fly around the vessel a couple of times or more before deciding whether and where to land.

The top railing was varnished and both too slippery and too broad to act as a perching point, so the narrower white railings beneath had to suffice

All the bird identified would venture on to the carpeting, while the blackcap also made brief forays on to the artificial, amenity shrubs in a vain quest for insect prey.

Most curious was the sight of the skylark shuffling its way along the deck under sunbeds regardless of their sunbathing occupants.

It is doubtful if there was any suitable food, and, the following morning, the bird was, alas, found dead.

It is though the other birds, having rested briefly, probably resumed their journeys - probably still hungry.

On one occasion, the robin flew into the ship’s Plantation self-serve bistro/restaurant where it was caught by a waitress and released outside.

There were also reports of whitethroat, grey wagtail. whinchat, redstart (and even of two quail) alighting, but these seem to have been speculative.

        It's carpet, not grass - so no worms to be found!

                                  

Unfamiliar habitat for this male blackcap

                                            

Vain quest for insects on this artificial shrub

This robin flew into the ship's restaurant

The skylark tries to make sense of its surroundings

No food to be found

Within 24 hours, the bird, sadly, was dead

MAN-MADE 'ISLAND' OFF SPURN POINT UP FOR GRABS

The fort - home to cormorants and  probable refuge for migrating birds

A MAN-made island located just off Spurn Point is up for auction.

The Haile Sands fort was built between 1915 and 1918 to provide a base for heavy gun batteries and anti-submarine netting against the threat of enemy incursions into the Humber Estuary.

Some 40,000 tons of concrete and steel are said to have gone into the construction, at a cost of around £1-5-million.

The fort was constantly manned during both world wars, and often under attack from aircraft and submarines.

The Army left in 1956, but the fort was still manned until the early 1960s.

It is believed its present owner bought it for about £350,000 two years ago with a view to carrying out a refurbishment project.

But this has not proceeded and the fort is due to go under the hammer, with a target price upwards of £100,000, at an auction in Sheffield on November 1.

From the vantage point of Cleethorpes and Humberston on the South Bank of the Humber,
cormorants and gulls can often  be seen perched on various parts of the fort's infrastructure.

In winter, it is probably used by peregrine falcons, and the chances are that it is a temporary refuge for many other species, including songbirds, especially at migration times.

More details at:
http://uniquepropertybulletin.co.uk/haile-sands-fort/

POPULAR BIRDING HOTSPOT HAS BECOME 'RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE' SAYS AUTHOR

 

OCTOBER birding on Scilly ain't  what it used to be.

So says John Lee in Bonkers Birding, his fast-paced and entertaining book about an activity that has kept him enthralled for most of his life

In several visits to the isles, he has seen many great species, but this location now appears to be dropping off his radar.

In a paragraph that won't best please the tourist board, he writes: "I am sad to say that October on Scilly now seems to be very much in decline.

"It has become ridiculously expensive to get and stay there. For the cost of a week's holiday, you could easily go abroad for half the price.

"I think many birders are now opting for the Continent or the States instead. It all just feels like a rip-off."

Lee is  Head of International Security at the European Investment Bank, based in Luxembourg, but he grew up, one of two sons of a GP in Castleton, Derbyshire, and studied English at Aberdeen University.

His varied career has also included spells as an inspector in the Royal Hong Kong Police and at the Britannia Building Society prior to its takeover by the Co-op.

He is a dedicated fan of Sheffield United FC, but birding is his chief passion, and his book describes the highs (and a few lows) along the way.

There are fascinating accounts of the exotic birds he has seen on  holidays in, among other places, Cuba, Spain and The Canaries, but the strength of his writing is in its humour and his refreshing readiness to be controversial where he feels it is appropriate. It is a book with 'attitude'.

For example, he was not impressed with the hospitality, he  encountered at the "much-vaunted" Finca Santa Marta hotel in Spain's Extremadura region when he and his brother, Tom, turned up, "ravenously hungry", only to be told no food  was available.

 "What kind of establishment allows their paying guests to turn up mid-evening without giving them the opportunity to book a meal?  It was as if they just did not give a damn."

They found a restaurant nearby, but the next day were charged 12 euros each for a pack-up lunch they had  to make themselves from what was left of the buffet breakfast

Continues Lee: "The one breakfast we had was average, our room was not that clean and the customer service was poor."

Critics of Lee's approach will probably pinpoint his 'consumerist' approach to birding. He is an out-and-out twitcher, with a huge carbon footprint.

This is reflected in the section on his quest - in the company of hundreds more twitchers -  to glimpse a thick-billed warbler at a particular site on Shetland.

"The assembled throng panicked and charged en masse towards the area - it was like being in a herd of stampeding wildebeest."

There is no indication that the author has given anything back to the hobby or that he has much concern at how bird populations are being decimated both in the UK and overseas.

The sole exception comes in his reference to the cirl bunting of which he writes:

"Cirl buntings are very much confined to Devon in England, but they should be far more widespread.

"In Italy and Spain, you can see them all over the place, but their range in the UK has contracted hugely.It just shows how intensive farming and probably climate change has impacted the British countryside.

"It is a shame because cirl buntings are beautiful birds and our countryside deserves them as part of it."

 But there is no questioning his appreciation of birds as in his description of the peduline tit he saw in Stodmarsh (after first pleading with a "gobby" birder nearby to pipe down).

"It was a. cracking male on a reed mace, feeding away in glorious sunlight. A little-orange coated highwayman complete with a black robber's mask -  a miniscule Dick Turpin in feathers."

Bonkers Birding is published in paperback at  £8.99  by Brambleby Books (www.bramblebybooks.co.uk)