Hawks

Sunday, June 28th 2020

Bird ringing took place on Friday as part of the Constant Effort Sites (CES) scheme run by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). During CES visits, ringers operate the same nets in the same locations over the same time period at regular intervals through the breeding season at over 140 sites throughout Britain and Ireland. The Scheme provides valuable trend information on abundance of adults and juveniles, productivity and also adult survival rates for 24 species of common songbird.

In total, 189 birds were processed of which exactly 100 were new. It is surprising that there were only 8 Blue Tits, 5 Coal Tits and 17 Great Tits. There were however, 20 Chiffchaffs, 24 Willow Warblers and a staggering 53 Bullfinches! A highlight of the day was getting up close to an adult Sparrowhawk. Sparrowhawks are excellent bird hunters, catching small species like finches, sparrows and tits; sometimes they ambush their prey from a perch, while other times they may fly low, suddenly changing direction to fool it.

On Saturday, hawks of a different kind could be seen flying over the reserve; the Red Arrows made a spectacular appearance as part of National Armed Forces Day celebrations. The distinctive Hawk fast-jets arrived on schedule at Catterick Garrison, RAF Leeming and the coastal town of Scarborough, where the event was due to take place before it was cancelled due to coronavirus.

Although the cloud was low, the jets were a spectacular sight.

As they passed over the camp they released red, white and blue smoke trails.

It was all over in a few seconds and all that was left was a coloured sky! Head over to our Facebook page for a video of the flypast.

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