Another youngster settled down, but still hangs out with friends during the nights..



Swik38 is a male bird, born in 2015 that seemed to have settled a territory rather far from his natal home range, about 50 kilometers North East. 

Today I went to look him up. I arrived around 15pm and immediately heard two birds calling, the tagged bird and another adult, both were sitting in a treetop. So it looks like Swik38 formed a pair already. 

Swik38 on the right and its pressumed female on the left, both calling in each others intervals. The bird on the left still had a very dark, contrasting bill which probably makes it a younger bird, Swik38 already got a bit a greyish, less contrasting bill. digiscoped with the phone, 30-10-2017.

Swik38 showing some curiosity towards this guy with the camera, standing in the meadow..
30-10-2017.
The upper parts of the third calendar year bird, S1,2 and 3 on the left look old as well as S2 on the right wing. 30-10-2017.

I observed the situating for about 2  hours, both birds flew around a bit and a third kite shortly joined. For most of the time, Swik38 was sitting in his favorite treetop (Highest density GPS points on the map) and called very frequently. Around five, the bird suddenly flew up and disappeared behind a hill, in the direction of its roosting site. This bird spends the nights about five kilometers away from its territory at a communal roosting site. I immediately drove to this place, which took me nine minutes. And there he was again, flying with minimal 45 other kites, gathering for the night. Several first calendar year birds joined and I expect that these roosts mainly exists of younger birds, 2CY, 3CY and maybe even some 4CY. 

 Red kites gathering at the roosting site. 30-10-2017.


These kites preparing for the night really looks like a social thing. Buzzards are not that social, one decided to kick the kite in the middle so hard from its post that they both fell in the grass, several meters further. 30-10-2017.

One of the juveniles; brighter belly, white edge on underwing coverts, dark eye and slightly less deep forked tail. This bird is less bright than usual, making it harder to be picked up as a juv. on a larger distance.


It looked a bit like the birds were also enjoying the nice evening atmosphere. 30-10-2017.

One last time the whole group flies up. 30-10-2017.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The recovery of a dead bird

Image
One of the most important parts of this study is the end of the life of a kite. Survival and causes of mortality are some of the main focuses.  To find out if one of our tagged birds died, every third day we check all the loggers that we have flying around. The GPS positions send by SMS tell us if a bird is still moving or not. Additional information on temperature and activity make it a bit easier to assess if a bird is still alive.  On the 8th of January it was my turn to 'check the birds'. A very interesting thing to do because you really get an insight in the movement patterns of the kites, who's migrating and in which direction? Who’s all day long in its territory and who goes to a communal roost? and of course; are there any birds that died? Which was the case this time, an adult female with transmitter SWIK40. On the 4th of January it woke up at a communal roost, 9,5 km from it's territory where it usually spend the days. At 6 o-clock the transmitters tempera...
Read more

Spring is coming, adult birds are almost all back!

Image
Of 44 tagged adults with well working transmitters, 41 are in (back) in Switzerland. The other three are actively migrating towards the North-East in France. Of the 2015, 16 and 17 young-adults, immatures and juveniles only single birds are on the move, most of them doesn't seem to be in any hurry or urge to move northwards. Some movements of February 2018, red are adult birds, yellow 2017 juveniles and green 2016 immatures. A closer view on the last part of the migration before coming back into the breeding/natal area. I assume that the adults that migrated this month, are younger individuals eversince they are the last ones to come back into their territories. Some birds miss the right exit. Almost all birds travel north of the lake of Geneva, heading already North-East since France/Spain. Some seems to miss the exit towards the study area where they are once tagged. The two birds that flew in the direction of Basel before going back Nor...
Read more

Where to settle a territory as a youngster

Image
How a young male adult (SWIK46), born, raised and tagged in 2015, settled a territory. Swik46 sitting on a fence post, while calling when black crows and other kites come close. This is the place with the most GPS points on the map. The couple of meadows around this fence must provide the kite with most of its food, probably voles and earthworms. Note the dark, contrasting bill which is typical for a younger bird. 29-10-2017, Switzerland FR. Of the 44 nestlings tagged in 2015, about 19 are still alive, of those, 5 birds settled a territory of which two (both females) build nests this year, of which one laid eggs but failed to breed successfully. Although our Red Kites are (partial) migrants, settling and defending territories is a process that seems to continue in autumn and winter. The male on the picture above, now in its third calendar year, settled his territory, which is obvious when looking at his movement pattern of the last month (October). The movement of Swik46 in...
Read more