It's been around for several days but I've dipped every time I tried for it. Today it gave very good views.
As it hunted over a grassy field it kept picking up balls of grass every few seconds and then watching them as it let them fall.
I'd hazard a guess that it might have been watching for mice/voles falling from the grassy bundles?
amazing photos ian .I wonder if the balls of straw are harvest mice nests,
Excellent shots Ian.
Fantastic photos Ian....was the bird in the field beff fore the Huntsman buildings as you approach the A19???. As Gary Cummings and myself saw a raptor which had Harrier characteristics on the way back from Rowlands Gill at aroond 3.45pm.
Quote from: martyb on March 10, 2012, 10:31:36 PM
Fantastic photos Ian....was the bird in the field beff fore the Huntsman buildings as you approach the A19???. As Gary Cummings and myself saw a raptor which had Harrier characteristics on the way back from Rowlands Gill at aroond 3.45pm.
Yes, that sounds like the area it was in. A few people have mentioned one being around over the last week. I think it's pot luck exactly where it turns up to hunt. I've tried five or six times previously but not seen it until today. I only stopped today as a friend mentioned they'd seen it there earlier.
Showed again today in the same spot at almost exactly the same time as yesterday though didn't come as close today.
What a fascinating sequence of behaviour, picking up the mammal nest (at that size the nest will be of field vole rather than harvest mouse, though is probably still a new 1km record for field vole depending on where exactly it was on Wynyard)
I've never heard of this behaviour before (although of course it might be well known to birders). It would be interesting to know whether it did this regularly, ie made the association between the nest and the mammal or whether it has just gone for the vole as it ran in to the nest and got vole and nest together.
Ian, would you mind if we used one of the photos in the mammal group newsletter?
Cheers
Ian
Sorry, I didn't read you post thoroughly. It obviously had made the connection between nest and vole.
Ian
Quote from: Ian Bond on March 13, 2012, 12:14:31 PM
What a fascinating sequence of behaviour, picking up the mammal nest (at that size the nest will be of field vole rather than harvest mouse, though is probably still a new 1km record for field vole depending on where exactly it was on Wynyard)
I've never heard of this behaviour before (although of course it might be well known to birders). It would be interesting to know whether it did this regularly, ie made the association between the nest and the mammal or whether it has just gone for the vole as it ran in to the nest and got vole and nest together.
Ian, would you mind if we used one of the photos in the mammal group newsletter?
Cheers
Ian
It certainly looked to be a pattern of behaviour as it did this several times. The photos above actually show three different balls of grass though I observed it picking up 5 or six before it caught something and flew away. Others had observed it doing the same thing an couple of hours earlier in the day.
The grid ref for where it was photographed is NZ432270 though it hunts over quite a large area north, east and west of here.
Feel free to use the photos.
Seen only briefly late afternoon.
Ian,
This interesting behaviour of snatching voles nests speculatively from the ground as a novel way of hunting, may not have been recorded before, let alone photographed.
Have you thought of writing a brief note, plus photographs, to " British Birds" describing these observations?
Alistair McLee
Shall do Alistair.
I've posted a thread about the behaviour on Bird Forum in the Bird Behaviour forum - http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=2390018#post2390018
Hopefully someone may know something about this behaviour.
As response to the Bird Forum thread quotes similar behaviour noted -
Quote
Eugene S. Rolfe (1897) noted the following interesting attempt to secure a meal: "Many times I have watched the Marsh Hawk sailing low and keenly scanning the ground on the open prairie, and suddenly pouncing down and quickly ascending again with an empty mouse nest in its talons, and one one occasion I followed behind for fully 2 miles and in that distance it picked up and dropped seven of these empty nests. On examination they proved to be simply wads of fine dried grasses, and it was easy to see that if these had all chanced to be occupied by families of young mice, the foray of that particular Hawk would have been most fruitful in the destruction of these small pests."
This sounds remarkably similar to what I saw.
It appeared this afternoon at 3.40pm. Thanks to Peter on the 'mound' I saw it as I was just packing up to leave when he shouted. Just as he joined me it came a little closer but not by much. I stayed another half hour and it remained in view most of that time, though didn't come close to the road.
All heavy crops taken with a Canon 7D + Canon 400mm lens + Canon 2x teleconverter.
Quote from: A McLee on March 15, 2012, 10:13:08 AM
Ian,
This interesting behaviour of snatching voles nests speculatively from the ground as a novel way of hunting, may not have been recorded before, let alone photographed.
Have you thought of writing a brief note, plus photographs, to " British Birds" describing these observations?
Alistair McLee
I photographed exactly this behaviour Oct, Nov, Dec 2011, Jan, Feb 2012
The county recorder of DBC was informed sometime in November 2011, I also relayed the same info to Ian earlier this year regarding two immature birds in Durham.
This behaviour has been witnessed multiple times over the years by Lord Barnard's keepers in Weardale, so, not new behaviour, recorded AND photographed already.
The foto is an immature rufus bird.
.
Sorry Dave, I recall you mentioning the Hen Harriers up your way on private land, but not any description of any behaviour regards picking up balls of grass.
This was totally new to me and many others it would seem.
Good to hear though you've also documented the same behaviour elsewhere.
Quote from: IanF on March 16, 2012, 08:08:54 PM
Sorry Dave, I recall you mentioning the Hen Harriers up your way on private land, but not any description of any behaviour regards picking up balls of grass.
This was totally new to me and many others it would seem.
Good to hear though you've also documented the same behaviour elsewhere.
No botha at all Ian, not having a go at you mate, I cant even remember what day it is at times. 8)
(For your notes.)
Ian, the next time you go to photograph this bird watch when it picks up a vole nest it will either strip it on the wing or take both the nest and its prey back to its larder that is usually out of the way of prying eyes, the ones that I watched there was usually a buzzard parked up on a vantage point ready to rob the bird of its prey after it had hidden it, (on the bank side of a nearby dyke is what I noticed)
When it takes the whole lot it will use the nests to cover the larder up, it would seem that every single raptor that either happened upon the harriers or watch them would have a go at robbing them, they also seemed to spend a lot of time hunting from a low branch or even more hours on the ground often lifting with the odd victim and back to its larder (bright sunny days) when it would turn very cold they would often just stay on the ground out of the way. (loads more but I am off out, good luck m8)
Still around this afternoon but never came close.
It came out at 5.00pm this evening and was more or less in sight for the next hour though at least 35mins it was sat in the grass following it's third kill.
Giving good views again this morning.
Still present this morning, though I'm not sure that I may have witnessed it's departure.
At 12.00 the Hen Harrier began to soar on thermals from ground level. By 12.16 it was still overhead but so high it was no longer visible even through binoculars.
I've seen birds of prey do this before and sometimes return but more often on departing an area.
Quote from: A McLee on March 15, 2012, 10:13:08 AM
Ian,
This interesting behaviour of snatching voles nests speculatively from the ground as a novel way of hunting, may not have been recorded before, let alone photographed.
Have you thought of writing a brief note, plus photographs, to " British Birds" describing these observations?
Alistair McLee
Just an update. It's taken a while but I've just heard back from British Birds after they circulated the article around several interested parties. They were very interested in hearing about this documented behaviour of the Hen Harrier picking up balls of grass. A short article will be appearing in due course.
If you scroll back to March 16th on the forum page you will see i put some video out of this behavior on another date at the same site. When we were on the Harrier nest watch we saw this behavior all the time. Dave Johnson also mentioned on March the 15th on the forum that himself and others have seen the same behavior quite often.
Yes, this bird and the ones Dave saw seem well adept at doing this. It sounds like this behaviour isn't that well known elsewhere.
You got some great footage of the Harrier Paul.
Here's a link to Pauls post in case anyone else missed it - http://www.teesmouthbc.com/forumtbc/index.php?topic=4264.0