Common Redstarts.
27th May 2020
I am hopeful that the government in Wales will relax some of the restrictions in the announcement on Friday the 29th May. Many people are waiting with baited breath, birdwatchers are straining on the leash! Having said that this ‘Lockdown’ scenario has initiated an increase in local patch birding and that is not a bad thing. Also closet bird watchers have come out of the woodwork, people who obviously watch nature and don’t usually share their observations are now doing so. I certainly hope this continues and a new type of nature reporting will be ongoing. One prime example of this ‘Lockdown’ reporting is the number of Common Whitethroats that have been heard and seen. Either this is a particularly good spring for them or they are always under- reported. Either reason is good news!
Roadside wild flowers are in abundance because of non-existent council mowing and I sincerely hope they don’t have any withdrawal symptoms when the restrictions are lifted! This should be a lesson for them and as a result I hope they realise this obsessive manicuring of the countryside is totally unnecessary.
Susan and I have maintained our walks and are trying to vary the routes in an attempt to alleviate any boredom because although we live out in the country there are only so many local walks you can undertake. Saying this a few days ago we walked up onto a local hillside and as we exited a steep lane onto the open hill we could hear Common Redstarts calling and sure enough a male was perching on the post of a farm gate. The female was also flitting about going back and fore a nest in an old gnarled hawthorn – a typical habitat used as a nesting site for these birds.
Female with food.
Male.
In their natural habitat.
We walked on and about a hundred yards away in an old stone wall of a long-derelict barn there was another pair showing nesting behaviour. Although widespread it’s always nice to see these lovely spring migrants because they can be quite shy and elusive.
The male of the first pair showed little regard for us when we walked past and continued to catch flies and beetles and sing openly – quite unusual behaviour for a Redstart. This started me thinking, because there was another gate to a field opposite to the gate post he was perching on. Therefore, both gates were set back from the track and with the width of the track added to this it gave me room to stay well away from their feeding activities and therefore not risk any disturbance. You can always tell if you are a problem to birds and if so it’s time to move on!! I noticed a small gnarled tree branch lying on the side of the track on our way back down and I inserted it into the old barbed wire fence near to the bird’s favourite fence post just to provide a more aesthetic perch for a photograph. If he took to it then all well and good if not then there was no harm done.
I needed my Canon 600 f4 to achieve any decent shots from this distance and this is the beauty of a big prime f4. It allows you to add on a 1.4 tele converter without causing any noticeable image degradation and when this is mounted on a 1.6 cropped sensor camera it results in a focal length of 1344mm @ f5.6. Unfortunately even though it’s the Mark 2 version of the 600 it’s still heavy going up a steep hill and coupled with a big carbon fibre tripod and a heavy duty gimbal head and a pair of binoculars and my lightweight walk stool, (indispensable), to sit on - results in a weight of 20+ pounds. This is not kit for walking up mountains that is why I bought the Sigma 150-600 contemporary lens –lightweight in comparison!
Susan dropped me off in her car at the entrance to the track on the main road, it’s only about half a mile away from home but both ways that’s a mile with that unnecessary weight on your back. As I made my way up a tarmac road and then the track, which is very uneven, I was relieved to hear and then see the male bird in exactly the same spot and on what was obviously his favourite gate post. He completely ignored me – which was very good news, I quickly set up and sat down on my stool up against the gate opposite, waiting to see if he was going to perch on the piece of gnarled wood I had left there.
I had been there about ten minutes when I could hear the clatter of horses hooves coming up the uneven track and then a single horse and rider appeared, but suddenly when the horse saw me it shied violently, it must have been day dreaming - it threw the woman rider into the air and turned and ran back down the very uneven track. I had deliberately kept quiet as I always do around horses and made no sudden movements, so it was just a freak incident. Nevertheless, I was horrified and fully expected to hear a very bad accident as the woman shouted at the horse to stop. However, because of very good horsemanship she gained control and dismounted. She came back up the track leading the horse this time, which in hindsight would probably be the best option, at least until she reached the open hill. I asked if she and the horse were all right and thankfully there was no harm done. However, she was visibly shaken and understandably so.
With all this commotion the Redstarts had gone into cover and I really thought that was the end of it. However, after a few minutes I could hear the male calling and he duly appeared on his gate post. As he started to adeptly catch flies from the air, he flew onto my perch which allowed me to take a number of shots in various poses and he continued to forage for food in front of me sometimes coming very close with total confidence. I have never had a Redstart behave like that before and it was a real pleasure to experience.
I was there for some time watching them go about their daily routine before I packed up and made my way down to be picked up by Susan.
They really are beautiful little birds.
A very nice but quite eventful morning.
Roadside wild flowers are in abundance because of non-existent council mowing and I sincerely hope they don’t have any withdrawal symptoms when the restrictions are lifted! This should be a lesson for them and as a result I hope they realise this obsessive manicuring of the countryside is totally unnecessary.
Susan and I have maintained our walks and are trying to vary the routes in an attempt to alleviate any boredom because although we live out in the country there are only so many local walks you can undertake. Saying this a few days ago we walked up onto a local hillside and as we exited a steep lane onto the open hill we could hear Common Redstarts calling and sure enough a male was perching on the post of a farm gate. The female was also flitting about going back and fore a nest in an old gnarled hawthorn – a typical habitat used as a nesting site for these birds.
Female with food.
Male.
In their natural habitat.
We walked on and about a hundred yards away in an old stone wall of a long-derelict barn there was another pair showing nesting behaviour. Although widespread it’s always nice to see these lovely spring migrants because they can be quite shy and elusive.
The male of the first pair showed little regard for us when we walked past and continued to catch flies and beetles and sing openly – quite unusual behaviour for a Redstart. This started me thinking, because there was another gate to a field opposite to the gate post he was perching on. Therefore, both gates were set back from the track and with the width of the track added to this it gave me room to stay well away from their feeding activities and therefore not risk any disturbance. You can always tell if you are a problem to birds and if so it’s time to move on!! I noticed a small gnarled tree branch lying on the side of the track on our way back down and I inserted it into the old barbed wire fence near to the bird’s favourite fence post just to provide a more aesthetic perch for a photograph. If he took to it then all well and good if not then there was no harm done.
I needed my Canon 600 f4 to achieve any decent shots from this distance and this is the beauty of a big prime f4. It allows you to add on a 1.4 tele converter without causing any noticeable image degradation and when this is mounted on a 1.6 cropped sensor camera it results in a focal length of 1344mm @ f5.6. Unfortunately even though it’s the Mark 2 version of the 600 it’s still heavy going up a steep hill and coupled with a big carbon fibre tripod and a heavy duty gimbal head and a pair of binoculars and my lightweight walk stool, (indispensable), to sit on - results in a weight of 20+ pounds. This is not kit for walking up mountains that is why I bought the Sigma 150-600 contemporary lens –lightweight in comparison!
Susan dropped me off in her car at the entrance to the track on the main road, it’s only about half a mile away from home but both ways that’s a mile with that unnecessary weight on your back. As I made my way up a tarmac road and then the track, which is very uneven, I was relieved to hear and then see the male bird in exactly the same spot and on what was obviously his favourite gate post. He completely ignored me – which was very good news, I quickly set up and sat down on my stool up against the gate opposite, waiting to see if he was going to perch on the piece of gnarled wood I had left there.
I had been there about ten minutes when I could hear the clatter of horses hooves coming up the uneven track and then a single horse and rider appeared, but suddenly when the horse saw me it shied violently, it must have been day dreaming - it threw the woman rider into the air and turned and ran back down the very uneven track. I had deliberately kept quiet as I always do around horses and made no sudden movements, so it was just a freak incident. Nevertheless, I was horrified and fully expected to hear a very bad accident as the woman shouted at the horse to stop. However, because of very good horsemanship she gained control and dismounted. She came back up the track leading the horse this time, which in hindsight would probably be the best option, at least until she reached the open hill. I asked if she and the horse were all right and thankfully there was no harm done. However, she was visibly shaken and understandably so.
With all this commotion the Redstarts had gone into cover and I really thought that was the end of it. However, after a few minutes I could hear the male calling and he duly appeared on his gate post. As he started to adeptly catch flies from the air, he flew onto my perch which allowed me to take a number of shots in various poses and he continued to forage for food in front of me sometimes coming very close with total confidence. I have never had a Redstart behave like that before and it was a real pleasure to experience.
I was there for some time watching them go about their daily routine before I packed up and made my way down to be picked up by Susan.
They really are beautiful little birds.
A very nice but quite eventful morning.