The Monkey Birds of Runcorn...

 

I was out a couple of weeks back, late at night in Runcorn, near my house giving the wee boy his pre-sleep walk when I heard cackling above me. It was not a sound I recognized and on looking up was met with a coven of these things settling in for the night - Monkey Birds, or at least that's what they looked like when I checked the above photo on my phone when I got indoors.

In total there were 13 of them and they were there just for the one night. The question was, what on earth were they? I had to know. Now perhaps, YOU can tell from the pix, but I certainly couldn't and their glowing eyes and owl monkey-ish appearance got me guessing. And before you leap in with... they're owls, really? Think again - they are NOT owls. Neither are they native to this country... and I had never before seen them in a tree!

It reminded me of a different occasion in which an expected species turned up in an unexpected place and momentarily threw me completely. My friend and I were in Scotland hunting for this beauty...

We lived there at the time and had been tipped off about a couple of possible lekking sites and so went for a tromp up a steep Heather and Blaeberry slope to some semi-natural Scots Pine habitat where a male had been calling for a few days. We kept our ears peeled for the characteristic 'knife-sharpening & champagne cork-popping' song to no avail and after an hour or so, headed somewhat disappointed back down the slope at which point there was a loud whoosh as a bird the size of a turkey skimmed our heads and clattered off down into the valley. It had been high up in a Scots Pine unseen by us until it decided to hop ship and skedaddle. We had NOT expected that. Nowhere in the field guides does it say "Oh, and don't forget to check the trees!" Thankfully we got the same chap showing off to three females among the pines a week or so later, but it just goes to show - one can be caught off guard.

Back to the Monkey Birds. So, in that 'what are they doing up there' mindset in combination with their non-native status and the fact that yesterday they were feeding on the grass... and there were only four of them... you can perhaps understand why it took me a second visit with a torch to confirm what they were.

Perhaps a silhouette will satisfy the curious...