SWALLOWS AND HOOPOES STAR IN ONLINE ART SALE

                                                                     

Arriving or leaving? Gillmor's white cliffs study of swallows

A SIGNED watercolour of swallows by acclaimed bird artist Robert Gillmor is one of the lots in an online auction which closes on Tuesday August 26.

Also included in the sale is a pencil drawing by Mary Fedden of hoopoes in a landscape.

The sale is being conducted by Salisbury-based Woolley and Wallis (01722 424500). 

The guide price for the swallows is £150-£200  and for the hoopoes £800-£1,200.

The works come from the estate of the late Dame Elisabeth Frink, herself a noted artist.

Hoopoes in a landscape

RSPB RESERVE WARDEN LIVED TO TELL THE TALE DESPITE FRIGHTENING TUMBLE FROM BIKE

Toby - only one bad memory from fabulous time at Frampton

A SEASONAL warden at an RSPB reserve escaped injury in a nasty fall from his bicycle.

Toby Carter lost concentration while checking the sky to see if a raptor had put up a flock of waders.

He lost control as he pedalled over a speed-bump and hurtled over the handlebars - with his precious Zeiss binoculars around his neck and a scope in its harness on his  back.

Luckily, his head escaped serious impact with the road, but he was severely shaken and sustained heavy bruising plus serious cuts and grazes to his leg.

The incident happened last summer while the Bangor University Environmental Studies student was working at the Frampton Marshes reserve near Boston in Lincolnshire.

"Perhaps, I got a bit cocky,"  says Toby (20), who is from Leicestershire. "I thought I had already passed the speed-bump - the last of three on the way to one of the car parks.

"I think I'll bear my Frampton scars for the rest of my life!"

Toby made his revelation in a video about what otherwise was evidently an immensely enjoyable spell at Frampton where he saw a huge range of different birds, some of them rare and many, such as golden plover and wigeon  in what he described as "insane" quantities.

He compiled the video to coincide with this weekend's virtual Birdfair in his capacity as an 'ambassador' for the optics manufacturer, Zeiss, a longstanding supporter of the event.  

In his first week at the reserve, he found its 11th recorded red-veined darter, its  second record of lesser emperor dragonfly and second record of otter .

Fortunately, the otter did not make prey of the chicks of Frampton's first pair of breeding black-necked grebes.

Other highlights included maintaining an acquaintance with a long-staying long-billed dowitcher, marvelling at the purring of turtle doves, spotting a squacco heron and studying colour-ringed godwits and other waders to establish their migration patterns.

But there was much more to life as a seasonal warden than just detecting and watching the birds.

Toby, a birder since he was five, was also involved with organising children's activities, such as bug-hunting and mini-raft making, updating the record board, installing signage and producing a weekly blog for publication via social media.

From time to time, he was also interviewed by BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

In a nutshell what  message would he put out about Frampton Marsh?

"It's a fantastic reserve," he says. "Every day at Frampton is a good day - just don't fall off your bicycle!"

DID PRIME MINISTER CATCH GLIMPSE OF SEA EAGLES DURING SHORT HOLIDAY ON SCOTTISH COAST?

Did holidaying couple forget binoculars?

HATS off to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and fiancee Carrie Symonds on their choice of summer holiday location.

The remote wrest coast of Scotland is seldom less than fantastic for watching birds and other wildlife.

With luck, bird species likely to have been visible included eagles - white-tailed, golden or both.

 On their hikes,  they may well have encountered skylarks, meadow pipits, linnets, yellow or grey wagtails and maybe, on the marshier terrain, golden plover, curlew and common sandpiper.

Out to sea, there would have been gannets , skuas, terns, gulls and eider duck as well as herring and black-backed gulls. 

Guillemots, puffins and razorbills might also have been in view - and perhaps the occasional peregrine overhead.

However, their terrier, Dylan, was off the lead so he will probably have chased off sand-feeding waders such as dunlin, knot, ringed plover, oystercatcher, whimbrel and godwit.

At this time last year, she was a celebrity visitor to the British Birdfair at Rutland Water, near Stamford.

The seas hold for her a special fascination and she will doubtless have been scanning the water s for sightings of whales and porpoises.

However, there may have been an omission. Judging from the photographs, the couple forgot to take with them their binoculars.

Unfortunately, the couple who were with baby son Wilfred had to cut short their holiday break after the location was revealed in the Press, making their security vulnerable.

* Photo: Courtesy Carrie Symonds/Instagram

 

THE MAJESTIC LAMMERGEIER: A BIRD THAT DOESN'T LIKE BATHING - OR DOES IT?

Lammergeier - what a magnificent creature!

 

A Lammergeier that has taken up residence - at least temporarily in the Peak District - has made headlines this summer. Delving through the ornithological archives, this intriguing item appeared in a 1912 edition of The Ibis, journal of the British Ornithologists' Union.

It is an established fact that the red colouring matter in the feathers of the Bearded Vulture, and also the colouring on its eggs, are due to superficial deposits of oxide of iron, but how the oxide gets there is still, I understand, a moot point. 

As regards the stains on the feathers, two theories have been advanced.

It has been suggested that these may be due to the fact (a) that the birds bathe in ferruginous streams or (b) that the iron is derived from the birds' blood. 

Ornithologist Allan Hume was inclined to think the latter as he emphatically states that the Lammergeier is "a very dirty bird and never washes". 

For the last twenty years or so, I have been closely attending to the habits of this bird and had hitherto always been under the impression that it neither bathes nor drinks water. 

It may, therefore, be of interest to some readers to know that, while out searching for nests of this species in a lonely mountain-glen in the Koti State, close to Sinda, in India, I came across a spot to which the Lammergeyers apparently habitually resort, not only to drink but also to bathe.

One of my native hunters had often assured me that he had frequently seen these birds bathing, but, up to this time I had refused to believe him.

Today (October 29, 1911), he exultingly drew my attention to this fact.

The spot selected by these Lammergeiers for drinking and bathing was at the bottom of a small waterfall, and, during the course of a couple of hours or so, I noticed no fewer than four of them follow each other in quick succession, and, without any hesitation, fly straight to this place.

Three of them drank and the fourth had a bath.

While drinking, the birds sat on a prominent stone which projected out from the middle of the water, and they always took frequent and long draughts. 

The bird which took a bath alighted at first close to the edge of the stream, then walked slowly into it, and dipped its head several times in the water and splashed about with its wings. 

After a short time, it walked back to the edge of the stream, preened its feathers a little, spread out its wings - apparently to dry them - and then took another dip. 

This was repeated several times, and the bath lasted for between ten and fifteen minutes.

I had no bottle or other vessel with me, and was therefore unable to bring away any of the water from this stream with a view to getting it analysed.

It would have been interesting to know for certain whether it contained any iron in solution or not. 

The next time that I happen to visit this spot, I shall not forget to bring away some of the water.

I note that Captain F. Adair - in his book,  A Summer in High Asia (p. 222) - mentions having shot a Lammergeier close to the Tagalang Pass, in Ladakh, when it was "drinking water at a stream".

It seems significant that, in confinement, the Bearded Vulture loses, or does not acquire, its tawny tint. 

Would it be possible to acquire this colouring matter on its feathers from mud-baths? 

I throw out this suggestion because, two or three years ago I noticed a Lammergeyer indulging in a bath of this nature on the ledge of a precipice. 

The bath lasted for about five minutes, and, at the end of it, the bird shook its feathers, raising a thick cloud of dust just as a fowl does. 

The late Dr. Adams appears also to have noticed these birds indulging in such baths.

He writes: "A red or cinnamon-coloured powder is plentifully distributed among the feathers of the neck and breast of young and adult individuals, and would seem to be composed of soil containing iron which they obtain from dusting themselves like other birds - a habit much indulged in by the denizens of bare rocky mountains, from the bear and ibex down to the mountain finch."

P. T. L. DODSWORTH

Carlton Grove

Simla, S.W. (Punjab) 

India

* Photo: Richard Bartz, Munich, via Wikimedia Commons

MARTINS HAVE SPORTING CHANCE OF BREEDING SUCCESS AS TRADESMEN RALLY TO THEIR SUPPORT

 

The seafront hotel where refurbishment is currently underway

PROSPECTS look bright for a family of house martins  that have made their home on the front wall of a hotel on the seafront in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire.

Since flying to the resort in spring from their winter home in Africa, they have built their mud nest under the eaves of  The Kingsway hotel.

Following a change of ownership, the hotel currently has no guests (apart from the birds) pending a complete facelift.

But the nest became vulnerable to disturbance following the arrival last week of tradesmen including Grimsby firm Alturn Scaffolding and Cleethorpes-based window installers Rapide Frame Supplies.

However, to their huge credit, they have all  have taken the tiny birds to their hearts as have the hotel's owners, David and Jennifer Christian.

Everyone is working round the health and safety of the martins as the parents flit to and from the nests with insects to feed the chicks.

The hope is that, within the next week or so, the chicks will have fledged successfully ready to  join their parents on the long migration - which includes crossing the Sahara desert - to southern Africa.

The progress of the house martins - which are smaller relatives of swallows -  is being monitored by the Lincolnshire Bird Club which records the population and distribution of the county’s birds 

"This is a very special species," says a club official. "Cave-dwelling pre-historic man  first learned how to build houses by watching what house martins did with mud. 

"It’s great that both the hotel owners and the traders have been so keen to safeguard this particular pair - a perfect example of industry working hand-in-hand with nature."     

                                 

What's going on here? One of the parent birds checks that the coast is clear

And then flies up to the nest to feed the chicks (photo: courtesy Alturn Scaffolding)

How the Grimsby Telegraph covered the story

The Wryneck says: Brilliant! Hats off to hoteliers David and Jennifer Christian,  Gareth Evans and Jordan Mussell  of Alturn Scaffolding and Tim Cattell and his team at Rapide. And good luck to the house martins!

DID MICHAEL PORTILLO NOT HEAR SWEET SONG OF NIGHTINGALE IN FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE?

                                                                  

Portillo in France  -  oblivious to birdsong

Poor show by Michael Portillo  in this week's episode of BBC TV's Great Continental Railway Journeys which took him to France's beautiful Loire Valley. Not only was there no mention from the politician-turned-broadcaster of the nightingales singing in the background, but the birds were subsequently silenced either by his commentary or the intrusive musical score. Must do better!