Common Buzzard - Baltrasna, Ashbourne

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

A local weekend

I spent a quite weekend and never really ventured too far from home(the month of March can do that to you; some birds leaving to summer elsewhere, whilst we await the arrival of our own summer visitors) so not too much to report.

I saw a single raven on three separate occasions over the last few days, haven't seen the pair together since last week.  I'm hoping they continue to hang around as who knows what may happen, they can nest early so here's hoping.  I have to say at this point that I havent seen any signs of nest building.  I'm of course presuming that the pair I've seen are a male and female.  I'm not sure whether the single sightings I've seen are not individuals from the pair, I presume they are otherwise the raven count for the area has really gone through the roof!!

Plenty of the usual suspects for this time of year, today however I had a chiffchaff (first this year) calling loudly from the top of a tree.

The local buzzards (three as usual) were circling and as usual the hoodies only tolerated their presence for a time before they mobbed them and eventually drove them away, I'm always struck by just how much the buzzards will allow the hoodies dominate them without ever really giving as good as they're getting.  This ritual of territorial protection is palyed out in front of me on a daily basis and I can't ever remember the buzzards coming out on top, they always just move on!

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