Menorca Birds 2010 Edition 1

I've just got back from a holiday in Menorca. There were plenty of highlights and I am really happy that I had a scope and camera (with attachment) to record some of these.



Above & Below: A Woodchat Shrike near Son Parc.



I waited quite a while for this bird to turn to the side or the opposite way round to get more images but to no avail.



Above: Before we found the Woodchat Shrike in the other images, my dad found this partially eaten, dead bird, skewered on a branch right next to the path we were walking along. Did it end up as a meal for a Woodchat Shrike? It certainly ended up as a meal for ants!

23:30 on 20/04/10

A very vocal hedgehog brought me to my window just now (I didn't see it despite shining a torch). I looked up into the night sky and saw some flashing lights from an aircraft. This is good news - I'm booked on a flight to Menorca on Friday!

Oystercatcher with ring

A brief evening visit to Castle Mill (20/04/10) revealed a ring on one of the two resident Oystercatchers! See the previous post for a photograph of these birds. This bird was most likely ringed locally several years ago.

The species can be quite long lived - the British longevity record for a ringed Oystercatcher is 36 years and 8 months held by the Wash Wader Ringing Group. They believe that this record could easily be extended.

Castle Mill birds 18/04/10

I made a dawn walk to Castle Mill gravel pit today to see the birds and try my new scope & camera.

The results of my digiscoping are here ... well, the best bits anyway! Not super brilliant - the birds were still too far away & I've still got to get the hang of it all.



Above: A regular pair of Oystercatcher. Last year they tried to nest but rising water levels eventually covered their nesting site. This year the water levels have started high but at the moment they are dropping. Looking good to attract more waders ... (5 Temmincks Stints were last years highlight).



Above: Two Little Ringed Plover. I saw a third but the results of the photographs weren't as good. 3 were present on Friday also.



Above: The water remained almost perfectly still early on and this Great Crested Grebe strayed into my sights - exhibitionist that it was!



Above: After the early morning photography, I settled down to have a better look around. A species that I haven't seen at this site before (not that I've been looking hard and when I have, I only had a pair of binoculars!). This is a Common Snipe. Not being familiar with viewing this species in the field (or at all!) I had to check that it was a Common Snipe.



Above: Having confirmed my identification of Common Snipe, I was surprised to be viewing a Yellow Wagtail (a migrant species that has started arriving in the last week or so) at the same time. As I spent more time looking at what else was around and being more confident with the identification, I found 5 Snipe in total.



Above: A species that can always be seen here, Redshank. Although difficult to count just how many there are here, I have seen 6 flying together recently and this is around what I would expect. Also present was a Green Sandpiper (4 on Friday).

25-30 Sand Martins
1 Swallow
Female Mallard with 10 ducklings (present since Friday)
1 Grey Wagtail
2 Pied Wagtail (I did well with the wagtail species!)
The usual Great Crested Grebes, Coots, moorhen, Mallards, Cormorants, 3 herons, tufted ducks and 2 swans.

Now that I have a scope, I might make this a more regular walk.



Above: Plenty of them about but never a family of birds that I want much to do with ... gulls. I'll leave it at that.

Little, Rainbow, Barn

Sometimes, without trying, you get your timing just right. Last Friday I was working in Milton Keynes and on the way back, we stopped to put the last 30 binders on a layed hedge to complete a project (we ran out of binders on Tuesday when I had planned on finishing it!).



Above: Hedge 1 at Rectory Farm that we layed. Whilst using the outdoor 'facilities' here, I flushed a Little Owl sat in a hedge.



Above: A short drive later and I was at hedge 2 at Rectory Farm- also layed by BTCV. I needed photographs of the completed hedge for the funders (GrantScape) and my timing was just right to catch this rainbow too!

Then, on the way back to the office via Astwood my jaw dropped, my finger pointed ahead of me and I shouted Barn Owl! We watched it fly over the road and hunt in the field opposite. About 10 seconds after I shouted Barn Owl, somebody else in the mini-bus did!

Saturday morning, I went with Errol ringing at Priory Country Park where we ringed our first Chiff Chaffs of the year. It wasn't a classic morning but we finished with a couple of nice Song Thrush's. We also saw our first swallows (12+) and frog spawn.

Late Saturday afternoon and I took a walk out to Castle Mill (not far from my front door. Here I saw 1 Swallow, 2 Little Egret, 1 buzzard, 2 oystercatcher, 1 Green Woodpecker, 2 Grey Wagtails, Great Crested Grebes, Herons, Coots, Moorhens, Cormorant, Mallards, 5 Tufted Ducks, 1 Redshank.

Today, a ringing demo at Randalls Farm - 3 chiff chaffs and a pair of bullfinches were the highlight. Another walk to Castle Mill produced 2 (maybe 3) Mistle Thrushes and nothing that wasn't there the day before.

I was puzzled by the behaviour of the Oystercatchers. There is an obvious pair here and they stick to eachother like glue - even in flight (nothing odd there) but there was a third bird that called as it flew in and the pair seemed to chase it away. It (or another) came back and it was allowed to land. A minute or two later, the pair follwed and landed in the vacinity (hidden from my view) where all 3 remained for a few minutes. Then all 3 took to flight and the pair seemed to chase it away again. Then a short while later, it (or another) came in again and landed next to the pair. There were periods of quiet but also noisy periods. They chased it away and then let it stay? Could this 1 bird have been a male that was trying to outmuscle the resident male?

2 more came over later & two more as I was leaving. Puzzled I am.

Foray back home

A weekend in Gloucestershire:

On Saturday I went to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition at Nature In Art (www.nature-in-art.org.uk). In my opinion (humble as it is!), it wasn't as good as other years. Don't get me wrong, there were some good photographs, and some outstanding ones, but I rarely agree with the overall winner (or category winners). One that stood out for me was the photograph of Bramblings (see http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/photo.do?photo=2527&category=50&group=1).

On Sunday at my dad's house, an early start & good conditions for ringing (overcast but hardly any breeze & no rain!). Here are the results: 41 birds of 9 species - New (retrap)

Blackbird 4 (0)
Blue Tit 13 (1)
Chaffinch 2 (0)
Coal Tit 2 (0)
Collared Dove 1 (0)
Dunnock 5 (0)
Goldfinch 7 (1)
Greenfinch 3 (0)
House Sparrow 3 (0)



Above: A collared dove. I don't get much chance to see these birds in the hand, but having had a couple over Christmas flirting with the net, I was glad that this one left with a bit of silver.



Above: For a good number of years (10 or more) my Dad has been seeing Blackbirds with some white feathers in his Garden. Presumably all are related (and I think all have been male)and are part of the local population. If this is true then it is obvious that these birds have no trouble mating!



Above: A male Chaffinch. These do not visit the garden in large numbers, but they do visit regularly.



Above: A Goldfinch. These birds seem to be visiting the garden feeders a lot at the moment. A shortage of natural food at the moment perhaps. One bird of note, a retrap (first caught at Christmas) Goldfinch.



Above: Just an excuse to post another picture of a coal tit!



Above: Caught together, this male House Sparrow thought it only right and proper to preserve the modesty of the female House Sparrow. Usually, House Sparrows are clever and sit somewhere nearby to feeders most of the day and make a short foray to the feeders. At my Dad's house, I don't know of a nearby bush where they sit (that doesn't mean it doesn't exist) but I don't think they are very close by (otherwise I would have heard them).



Above: Relegated to 'the garage,' this is the view of my ringing station!

Call me quackers ..

I got an invite to go ringing at 10am today. Where? I didn't know but I suspected it had something to do with ducks. So I waddled off to meet Errol who kindly took me to Blunham where ducks were in fact waiting, ready to be ringed.

It will be a rare day for me now to get 6 ringing ticks in one day, but that is what happened today. Tufted duck, Gadwall, Mallard, Pochard, Wigeon and Teal.



Above: A male Tufted Duck.



Above: A male Gadwall.



Above: A wigeon



Above: A male pochard



Above & Below: My favourite of the 6 - Teal. It was much smaller than all the other ducks we handled today and there was only the one.



Below: Not a flattering angle of me, but just to prove I ringed a Teal!



Got home & had to wash all my clothes (they smelt of duck muck!).

Blue Tit alley

You think to yourself as you watch those birds come to your feeders, well there's at least 6 blue tits (as that's how many you've seen at the same time), but probably not many more.

At least that's what my dad used to believe! I've now shown him that there are at least 61 blue tits visiting the feeders in his garden! My cold fingers took a right hammering. Especially today as 27 of 36 birds caught and ringed (including 2 retraps) were blue tits!

Totals were as follows (from 24/12/09 to 03/1/10): new (retraps)

Blue Tit 61 (2)
Dunnock 5 (1)
Robin 3
Goldfinch 7
Starling 1
Coal Tit 6
Blackbird 5
Great Tit 5
Chaffinch 3
House Sparrow 1
Greenfinch 3

Total 100 new & 3 retraps of 11 species.

One that left without a ring: Redwing (could have been 12 species). I wasn't happy as that is going to be a hard one to get again! It was a first for the location.

I was happy though that I hit 100 birds ringed over the festive period. Today I had higher numbers than on other occasions, but not so much variety. I now look forward to handing out jewellry to Bedfordshire birds after I have collected my Ivel Ringing Group rings.

Boxing clever

I changed, slightly, where I put the net today in an attempt to make the net less visible. The problem being, my Dad's house (in the Cotswolds) is the only house in the village that is brick (all the others are cotswold stone). When it was built they must have sneaked it past the planners (or at least got in before they tightened the rules!). It is also painted white (sorry, I've been corrected, magnolia). It is easy for the birds to see a net against a magnolia background!

I don't have much room for feeders and a net so, to catch the birds, I have to box clever!

Boxing day brought 27 birds of 7 species into the net. 14 Blue Tits, 2 Goldfinch, 3 Dunnocks (one being a retrap from Christmas eve - it didn't take long!), 1 Starling, 1 Robin, 3 Coal Tits and 3 Blackbirds (a second net caught these and nearly caught a 4th).



Above: With my brother behind the camera, he had me posing with this Blue Tit. 11 of the Blue Tits were born this year, with 3 adults. On Christmas eve, 2 of 3 Blue Tits caught were adults.

I noticed a complete absence of Great Tits at the feeders today. My Dad says they visit occasionally, but are outnumbered by the blues. Perhaps the nesting sites nearby are dominated by the blues?



Above & Below: Coal Tits are my favourite of the tit family. They sneak in, grab some food, and sneak back out to eat. Again, I've been corrected again, apparently here, they stick around on the feeders for quite a while. They must feel safer.



Below: A blackbird. I put a net up elsewhere in the garden especially to catch these. They feed near the other net, but fly in and out low. I'm after a blackbird with somebody else's ring on it (I'm informed there is one in the area. Perhaps just a matter of time and perserverance).

One blackbird was a possible continental. All were born this year.



Below: The patio is where birds feed on my dad's scraps. I had to move the feeders from being all against the fence (most birds would have come in over the fence, into the bushes, fed, and popped back over the fence had I not moved them!



All in all, I am pleased with the total. A starling was a bonus. The Goldfinch are a target species (my dad is particulary interested in these and he did give me some money to buy the rings!). After the two I caught early on, the rest seemed to see the net at the last second & avoid it.

The Dunnocks all seem to fly into the net at the same place from the same direction. I think it must be the way they follow the bushes around and circle the house! My first and only retrap so far was with a Dunnock caught on Christmas eve.

A house sparrow made a brief visit. I'm still waiting for a pied wagtail & jackdaw to come feeding (they do on my dad's patio). Then we'll see whether they make it into the net!

A festive first

My first ringing session on my own.

In order of appearance, Blue Tit, Dunnock, Blue Tit, Dunnock, Blue Tit, Robin. I had a bet (no money passed hands) with my dad as to how long it would take to catch a bird (I had already predicted a blue tit would be the first bird!). I had less than 5 mins and my dad had more than 5 minutes. As it turned out it was around 5 minutes. I didn't count the seconds.



Above: The better photo of the two is the Dunnock (no birds were harmed - the hob under the cooking pot was not on!!).

Below: The camera is a bit tempremental, therefore I released the bird before getting a better shot of it (well, it is only a blue tit!).



A collared dove and several blue tits flirted with the nets! Also seen nearby 2 coal tits, several more blue tits, goldfinch, greenfinch, blackbirds, more dunnocks and robins. This time I only put one 30ft net up for an hour. Next time I shall have a longer session (I'm going to try for a all day one on boxing day (I'll let them feed on christmas day!). I'm also going to put a net up elsewhere to catch the blackbirds. My dad says he's seen a blackbird with a ring on it recently so there's a possible control (that's what's call a bird that we catch, but somebody else e.g. not me - has put a ring on) lurking about somewhere!!

Merry Xmas everybody!