Mating Pheasant

You might have to look twice at the image above so as to get your head around the fact that some of those rules like  ' Two into one won't go !'  are broken in this sequence of images without working to hard to find them.

This female pheasant  'Might look like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth'  but she seems to be a bit of a hussy when it comes to Male Ring-neck pheasant,

When she saw one come into her open field at Millpool she kicked up her heels and fluttered her wings to attract its attention and the male could not get to her quick enough.

A second male bird soon arrived on the scene and was followed by a third that raced headlong into the females courtship arena.

The last bird to arrive wasted no time on small talk, He chased and mated with the little hussy immediately perhaps using his athletic advantage over the first two older males.

When the second bird also tried to mate the female got all excited and encouraged all the birds to chase after her as she literally ran circles around them.

Now who was it that stated that " Three was a crowd " because these guys seem to take a very different view on the matter.

And when ' Push comes to shove '  these pheasant have no matter with four.

This dubious looking trio all seem to be collaborating to being part of a  'Team Effort ' and on this occasion they seemed to agree with the plan that the younger and fitter male should give chase to the hussy while the older boys came along for the ride once the female stopped running.

In this final shot the young male catches and mounts the female at the hedgerow and males two and three follow in relay jumping onto the back of the preceding male while creating for me a very confusing finally to this mating sequence.

I sort of got the feeling that although this was a first  in mating behaviour to watch that these amazing birds had done it all before !!

Jackdaw behaviour

I dropped in to check out a pair of nesting Jackdaw yesterday morning perhaps hoping to see some fledglings.

I was obviously a bit to early as the adult birds were still very busy bringing in food and removing poo sacks and general waste from their nest that was well hidden behind a crack in the cliff face.

I will call back again in a few days by which time we should have a show of fledglings.

Recent Peregrine behaviour

A male Peregrine returns to his rock face territory with collared dove prey which he takes to a plucking point to remove chest and some wing feathers.

He eats none of the prey during this process and then flies it on to another grassy stash location favoured by his mate some distance further along the cliff and deposits his offering for her.

The female has been watching the males behaviour,  Sees him stashing the dove and wastes no time in collecting his prey offering.

A chip off the Old Block

I returned to one of my Holiday season retreats today looking for Green woodpecker in local horse grazing fields at Millpool.

No joy there but I was treated to a fine show from a Ring-necked Pheasant that was teaching his young male fledgling a few field skills.

The adult bird above struts boldly out into the field.

The young male follows unconvincingly.

                                The adult bird shows the way and keeps an eye on the young birds progress

                                           The adult bird then picks up on the sound of my shutter in the hedgerow,

And does 'the-off'  briskly walking back to the safety of the far hedgerow.

                               The young bird just carries on feeding in the open field.

   And he also decides to move further into the field and even closer to my camera.

                                And suddenly being so close he can also hear my shutter activations

    He is now rapidly off  in a panic to re-join his parent bird in the hedgerow with yet another lesson learnt:
 
   If Dad leaves because it might not be safe to stay then you leave too !!

Blue Tits Spider Hand-over

I watched a pair of Blue Tits that were making hundreds of returns to their nest box with Juicy green caterpillar and small insects which both birds were taking directly in to their chicks.

Then the Male blue tit returned with a large spider and seemed hesitant to take it in to the box,

The female returned with her caterpillar and went straight in and the male started to display to her from outside.

The female responded and came back out and gently took the spider from the male and took it back into the chicks.

The male didn't fly off but moved its head closer to the nest box hole perhaps to watch and learn how the female was dealing with the spider before feeding it to the chicks.

And then it was back to normal with caterpillar coming in from both birds every few minutes.

These little birds were making a supreme effort from dawn until dusk to raise their chicks and regenerate their species !!

                                   

They  were also doing a good job on the regular removal of Poo-sacks to keep their very compact nest box clean and clear.

Broad-bodied Chasers at Bartinney Down

The images of both male and female Broad-bodied Chasers posted above and below are of the first sighting that I have had of them this year and I was particularly pleased with the detailed structure shown in the image of the female above,

The Cuckoo are still showing well on the downs and you tend to wonder how they seem to manage to find so many Caterpillars to consume !

And then all is revelled when you come across a willow bush that had five balls of them all coming out and rushing down the branches in the midday sunshine.