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Birding in October 2010

This month of harvest moons is when the tawny owls start to hoot. They will be very noisy for the next two months. The young fledglings have taken around three months to be fully independent, now the males are trying to find territories, and they come into conflict with the older males who are already settled in a territory. The older males hoot to warn the young ones to keep out, while the young ones hoot to challenge them. There are sometimes violent fights on a territorial boundary, with much screeching and caterwauling as well as hooting. All this will go on well into the middle of the night.

The commonest call is a shrill "kewick" used to maintain contact, the song is a very familiar mournful hoot in addition, some tawny owls are hooting because they are trying to find mates. They generally pair for life, and may live for ten or twenty years. The unmated males hoot to attract unattached females. The owls also feed at night, but when they are hunting they are totally silent, and their soft wing-feathers make no sound. In towns they catch many small roosting birds, but here in the country they catch mostly small rodents, but are not too proud to eat earthworms.

You may be lucky to spot or hear the Tawny Owl in places around Penyard Park and the surrounding wooded areas. They often have an established favourite roost tree where they pass the daylight hours close to the trunk hidden by foliage or ivy. The presence of a roosting owl is sometimes given away by "mobbing" noises from small birds.

In appearance it is about the size of a wood pigeon with a rounded body and head, with a ring of dark feathers around its face surrounding the dark eyes, reddish brown above and paler underneath. Our local owls are mainly resident with established pairs probably never leaving their territories. The fluffy young birds disperse from breeding grounds in early autumn.

Throughout this summer we have seen the number of collard doves in our garden increase, each pair held a small territory around the nest, but they were not very energetic in defending it. The males displayed above the territory, flying up steeply, and squawking as they glided down again. We have noticed that the pairs tend to stay together from one year to the next. Some pairs are still nesting, and some will go on well into this month. They have several broods every year. The nests are very flimsy platforms made of sticks, and from below you can see the two white eggs gleaming through the gaps.

You cannot mistake these pale doves with a pinkish face, a white-tipped tail and a black half-collar. To some the monotonous, loud cooing song sounds like "coo-Coo-coo", but Julie and I recognise it as either "u-nit-ed" or "I don't know", they also give a loud squawk, and lift their tail, when they land. Our doves feed mainly on cereal grain and small seeds on the ground, but we have noticed them taking berries from around the garden, they will also take bread crumbs placed on either the ground or the bird table and are increasingly managing to feed from our hanging bird feeders, especially the ones with seed trays fitted.

Since the 1930s the Eurasian collard dove has spread from the Balkan region to cover most of Europe. It is thought its success is due to its cohabitation with man. They started by colonising farmyards where there was scattered grain to feed on. These "Balkan doves" started moving west across Europe in 1930. In 1955 the first pair bred in Britain. Now they are everywhere, even in the farthest Hebrides We hear a lot about birds that have been successfully re-introduced in Britain and yet this remarkable bird has colonised our country without any help from human beings: They are still moving out of the Balkans, and are currently trying to take over Russia. I wonder if Vladimir Putin has noticed.

CDH