Who's that Bird?
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Who's that Bird?

 
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Jack Aubrey
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Joined: 31 Aug 2005
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Location: Camptoun, Scotland

PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 3:33 pm    Post subject: Who's that Bird? Reply with quote

Out for a run this morning and following a path close to a belt of woodland. Startled a bird just inside the trees that flew along ahead of me, inside the wood, for a while. I thought it might be an owl at first when I caught glimpses of a grey underside; but when I could see its shape, it was clearly a hawk in form - distinctly sickled wings. The one feature I could see clearly was a longish tail, red brown on the upper side and redder than the rest of the upper parts. It looked bigger than a kestrel (but seeing it through the trees may have confused me) and the tail wasn't barred and the wings weren't buzzardy. Any ideas about ID?
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skinnymalinky
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Location: Sunny West Lothian

PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 4:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Red Kite?
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Jack Aubrey
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 4:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

After extensive research (aka 2 minutes on Google Very Happy ) I'm going with female Sparrowhawk.
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Wildlifewriter
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Location: Norn Iron

PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jack Aubrey wrote:
After extensive research (aka 2 minutes on Google Very Happy ) I'm going with female Sparrowhawk.


Tricky one, this...

I can't buy red kite in Scotland - not for a few more years, anyway. Owls have short tails, always.


Possibles are:

1) First-winter kestrel, probably female. Grey underparts significant - individual birds vary a great deal in this colouring.

2) Juvenile male sparrowhawk - but even these still show barring on the tail.

3) Some exotic article (e.g. harris hawk) which would be falconer's escape. These are surprisingly common. Any wierd raptor which lets humans get close to it is always an escaped bird.



-Wlw
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RonnieH
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Location: Balloch, Loch Lomond.

PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 7:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Red Kites are doing very well in the Callander and Doune areas of Scotland after their reintroduction several years ago.
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HighlandNick
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Joined: 30 Aug 2005
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Location: Highlands, Scotland

PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 8:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I see Red Kites almost daily as I cross the Kessock Bridge onto the Black Isle and around Munlochy, Tore and over towards Conon Bridge.
I have also seen them in a friends garden where they come down onto the fence posts just outside the kitchen window and then jump down 3 ft onto dead mice left by the cats.

They have a very distinctive triangular fan shaped tail (kite shaped even some would say..) and a sort of twittering hovering wing action - similar to a kestrel hover but with more wing movement.

As a matter of interest, you CAN buy Red Kite from the Black Isle Brewery:

Amber coloured, Red Kite is brewed with best quality malt and Goldings hops to create a satisfying balance of citrus and malt in this deliciously quenching ale.


Last edited by HighlandNick on Sat Feb 10, 2007 8:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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skinnymalinky
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 8:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wildlifewriter wrote:

3) Some exotic article (e.g. harris hawk) which would be falconer's escape. These are surprisingly common. Any wierd raptor which lets humans get close to it is always an escaped bird.



-Wlw


There's falconry at Dalhousie castle. Were you near there?
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Jack Aubrey
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

skinnymalinky wrote:


There's falconry at Dalhousie castle. Were you near there?


Nope. Heading east towards "Letham to Liberty 2" on the homeward leg of a circular run. (Now why would an otherwise reasonably sane person go for a 7 mile trot on a morning like this....???? Confused )
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Wildlifewriter
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

RonnieH wrote:
Red Kites are doing very well in the Callander and Doune areas of Scotland after their reintroduction several years ago.

Thanks. Didn't know about a relocation project in Scotland. (Apart from Galloway)

Interesting.


-Wlw
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HighlandNick
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 8:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wildlifewriter wrote:

Thanks. Didn't know about a relocation project in Scotland. (Apart from Galloway)

-Wlw


From the Scotsman in 2002....

Red kites died out in Scotland and England during the 1870s through persecution and loss of habitat. Between 1989 and 1994, a programme saw 93 birds from Sweden introduced to the Black Isle area in the Highlands and a similar number of Spanish birds to the Chilterns in England.

Since then four other release projects have taken place in the UK - the latest began last year in Dumfries and Galloway - and the Scottish population now stands at 42 breeding pairs.

But poisonings are being blamed for up to 112 of 311 red kite deaths in the Black Isle and Stirlingshire.........
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Wildlifewriter
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's possible that these relocated birds in Galloway were involved in an unseemly incident some years ago which was widely reported (in the Glenluce Telegraph, page 33) at the time.

A Mr Angus MacPullet of Quarryknowe St, Glasgow was apprehended on charges of keeping a disorderly house and being a reet heidar. It seems that MacPullet - a founder member of the Brigton Derry Ornithological Club - had found his higher cognitive functions somewhat impaired after a three-day binge on Mundie's wine and over-the-counter degreasing solvents, and claimed to have seen Red Kites over the Dixon Blazes industrial Estate shortly after closing time.

He also saw White Pelicans, Black Storks, Elvis Presley, the Blessed Virgin, and Shergar. Refusing to recant, the unhappy MacPullet was excommunicated from the RSPB and the Free Presbyterian Church, to name but two, and his season ticket to Ibrox (block "C" seated) was withdrawn.

MacPullet ended his days in the Bill Oddie Home for Bewildered Birdwatchers, where for many years he was in charge of replenishing the nut feeders and making sarcastic remarks about the Pope.

Mister Presley was unavailable for comment as it's his day off.



-Wlw
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Scotsbob
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Location: Hamilton, Scotland

PostPosted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy
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