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Monday 19 October 2009

Nuneaton Bird Club

I went down to Nuneaton bird club on Thursday night and was suprised to find out that they had 80 members and was probably the oldest bird club in the country (1950). The people were great and there was a slide presentation about a couple Alan And Sylvia Williams had retired and bought 11 acres of land to which they added 5000 trees this was in 2002 (i think) and it was a history to present day. I must say not only was I a little green I was amazed at what they had achieved, one particular thing was they had a clutch of barn owls and a clutch of Kestrels in the same nest box at the same time and both sets of birds fledged.
On Sunday I was picked up by the club bus and we went to Donna Nook where I saw sky larks, Meadow Pipits, Shell duck, Curlew, a group of 10 Little egrets,Grey plover,Brent Goose,Sparrow hawk, Redshank and hundreds of starling, We then decided to trudge through the marsh to see the grey seals and wow what a sight, There were 100's of seals and you could get so close to them it was amazin, I dont think you could see wildlife any closer than this.Think I will take Jo over in November when they will be pupping.
We then went over to the RSPB reserve of Frampton and what a day we had a Cock Hen harrier,scaup,I watched a barn owl for at least 1/2 hour,pin tail.
Photobucket
Photobucket
I really enjoyed my day and met some fantastic people who offerd me loads of advice. I think the highlight was the barn owl hunting along with the hen Harrier (what a big bird)but to see the starlings flock was fantastic - not a good day for photos but still very enjoyable

3 comments:

  1. Nice one Col! Now that you are a member, the help and advice will enable you to come on leaps and bounds! Glad you had a good outing. Love the seals.

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  2. Cracking shots of the Seals, Colin. I was just wondering about the Barn Owls and Kestrels in the same nest box. Were they the ones that were on Autumnwatch?

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  3. Yes they were the same ones, the previous year they had 4 pairs of owls breeding but 2 of the hens were lost to traffic (due to hedges being too short and owls flying at hedge hight) and they had a really bad year. This year has been really succesful and The guy has rung 92 owls in Staffordshire alone this year, the voles have been on viagra it seems

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