It's the way the wind blows

The winds turned easterly late last week, so I took up an invitation to go ringing on the east coast and it was an experience in extracting and ringing!

Dawn to dusk ringing and 208 birds were ringed on Saturday & we thought that was busy! We drafted in extra rings and help and ringed 311 birds on Sunday!

Birds were arriving all the time - the wind bringing lots of Brambling, Song Thrushes, Chiff Chaffs, Robins (I've never seen so many!), Goldcrests, Goldfinch some siskins and blackbirds amongst others. No foreign ringed birds or rareties though ...



Above: Bramblings.

And then the wind changed (at least the general weather pattern must have changed somewhere) and in so doing, turning off the easterly migration tap.

So, not having even seen a redstart on Saturday or Sunday, one turns up on Monday along with a late pied flycatcher (see more recent post for photograph). These must have been migrating from somewhere different to the birds we caught over the previous 2 days. We did continue to catch brambling, robins, thrushes etc. but only ringed about 50 birds. There were noticably much fewer birds arriving during the day.

We therefore had time to entertain Blyth (Mark & Jenny's 18 month littl'un) who is cuddling up to Norman (below).

Ringing firsts

I've had great difficulty in deciding which of the following birds (see photographs) was my favourite. 1 day ringing migrants brought 4 new species into my hands & we watched as more and more birds arrived throughout the day.



Above: Last bird of the day was this female Sparrowhawk. I've held one before at Priory (but it already had a ring on) so this was a nice end to the day.



Above: This male Redstart was one of many on site.



Above: This female Ring Ouzel was a really nice addition to the ringed list.



Above: If you made me choose my favourite from the four, I think this Brambling would just about sneak it.

Horace the hog

Above: Horace

The plight of 'Horace the hog' is a sad one affecting many hedgehogs this summer. Many are struggling to find enough food during the nighttime so are venturing out in daylight in search of food.

Happily, due to the kindness shown by Alison and family, this story ends well. A young Horace was discovered in bright daylight and was taken in and given a drink. However, he wasn't quite out of the woods yet as he was still ill. A trip to the vets and it was discovered he still hadn't been weaned by Mrs. Hog but all was safe as they knew just how to deal with that.

Master H.Hog will be released back into the wild soon with a better chance of survival.



Above: Horace & adoptive family.

33 and counting ...

Once more I found myself at Sandy Smith Nature Reserve in the early hours of Saturday morning - I'll do pretty much anything to chase after birds!

Us ringers have had time to catch and ring the breeding migrants (although there's still a little time to get the sneeky little beggars that have evaded us so far and/or their offspring). Far more interesting though are the ones that have started to move already.

Cue 'daydream sequence'.

Today's tally:

Whitethroat 8 (7 juveniles & 1 adult - all new). That makes 33 whitethroats I have ringed in just 7 visits!
Willow Warbler 1 (a juvenile likely to be on migration)
Dunnock 1 (an adult female still on egg/young)
Wren 4 (2 juveniles and 2 moulting adults).

It was pretty slow going - I stayed out until 5pm and the longest interval between birds was 2 hrs 50 mins!

I'd picked up on the grape vine that Willow Warblers have started to move and was pleased with the one today (a site tick - I spend more and more time with birders and this tick craze is starting to rub off! Better use a pen then I guess!).

Green Woodpeckers - always a target species with me - showed themselves, laughed at me, and went nowhere near the nets. Humph.

4 Kestrels were seen all day hunting the surrounding grassland. Despite dozens of attempts at catching food, I never saw a sucessful hunt. If at first you don't suceed, try again ... and again ...

Maximum count of 4 Buzzards (at the same time) were seen circling over Chicksands Wood with the odd one straying closer.

Jay(s) heard but not seen.

1 Sparrowhawk seen circling following the thermals - with a Buzzard!

1 Hobby seen racing eastwards catching food on the wing.

1 afternoon fox. Must have been hungry - are they having a hard time like the hedgehogs in this weather?

Numpty Green forgot his camera so no photographs today! So instead, lets hope that at least one of these whitethroats gets retraped somewhere very interesting as not enough is known about this graceful bird.

Willow Warbler

This morning I joined Errol & Davey on a visit to Priory Country Park.



Above: The highlight for me was this juvenile Willow Warbler. This is a species of bird that has declined dramatically over the last decade or so and I don't get many chances to ring them. Thanks to Davey for the photo.

Local birders are starting to report an increase in sightings, meaning that Willow Warblers are beginning their migration out of the country.

Sandy Smith NR Ringing Demo 21/07/10

I've helped on ringing demo's before but I organised and delivered my first demo on Wednesday. We didn't catch many birds (4) but one made up for at least 10 that we didn't catch!

A big thanks to all who attended the ringing demo put on by Errol and myself at Sandy Smith Nature Reserve. A special thanks to The Greensand Trust, Liz Millbank for helping organise and Steve Squire for mowing the path & the photographs. I hope you all enjoyed it - I certainly did.

Total for the evening:

Whitethroat 2 (1 adult and one juvenile) - a site speciality. The juvenile was one I had caught earlier (just out of the nest) & it's primary feathers had grown a further 9mm in 10 days!

Kingfisher 1 (juvenile) - this more than made up for the lack of other birds!

Song Thrush (juvenile) - this was as we were taking nets down in the fading light. Sorry if you missed it!



Above: An adult kingfisher has crayon red legs, this juvenile has dark legs on top.



Above: The flash of blue that is normally seen.



Above: Here I am taking a wing measurement.

I have ringed kingfishers before (3 I think and handled several more) but this is the first kingfisher I have ringed on my own rings.

Have a ganders at this

We did a Barnacle Goose roundup at Roxton today. We also rounded up a couple of Greylags and several Canada's (both of which ended up as ringing ticks for me).



Above: Me with a Canada Goose.

Sandy Smith Nature Reserve 26/06/10

Yesterday was very hot and I suffered in the heat, but it was worth it:

10 new Common Whitethroats (including 3 juveniles), 2 new Sedge Warblers and 1 retrap. Plus two new and sucessful net rides.

In all, I have caught 18 new whitethroats in my last 3 visits here. The site is full of them!



Above: One of the juvenile Whitethroats.



Above: The tail of an adult whitethroat.



Above: Net ride 1.



Above: Net ride 2.



Above: A catch (Whitethroat - what else!)

Providing interest during the day were a number of VERY noisy Green Woodpeckers constantly to-ing and fro-ing over the nets (youngsters must be about). I'm quite confident of catching one here with a bit of luck.

A flash of colour seen out of the very corner of my eye proved to be a Kingfisher flying along the river and an alarm call from a kestrel (presumably nesting) alerted me to a Red Kite.

Just after midday, I met up with Liz Millbank (Greensand Trust Ranger) and co. at the end of their guided walk around the site (orchids and flutterbies were seen). They were also fortunate enough to see the Red Kite. Before Liz left (and after she had been sniffing otter spraint!) I pointed out a Kingfisher carrying food (a site tick for the year) and lucky few hung around long enough to see me process a retrap Sedge Warbler.

All the data has now been entered on the computer ready to be sent for checking by my trainer and then sent to BTO. Perhaps one day I will get some info back from the BTO telling me where one (or more) of these birds have been recaught? I'm hoping so!

Sedge Warblers and Whitethroats

Whilst England were mustering a fairly inept performance in the World Cup, Errol and I went to Sandy Smith Nature Reserve for an evening attempt to catch Grasshopper Warblers and perhaps prove breeding.

No Grasshopper Warblers despite 360ft of nets. Whether I was just lucky in catching one last week, or that we don't know the site well enough yet is something only time and further visits will tell.

We did catch 5 Whitethroats - 2 retraps from last Sunday and 3 new (2 males, 3 females of which two were in egg). Also, 4 new Sedge Warblers (all adults - 3 male, one female) - I caught and released one unringed last sunday because it had scaly legs.



Above: A Sedge Warbler.

With it being a very nice evening and with us not being that busy, we were able to enjoy some of the supporting cast ...



Above: A ringing demonstration was given to this herd.

Errol watched 2 hares boinking. A cuckoo was heard and seen, a Jay flew past and a Great Spotted Woodpecker was going to and fro constantly. At dusk, a Little Owl was to be seen surveying territory from the telegraph wires. And just as we were leaving we saw a hunting Barn Owl.



Above: This photograph of a Barn Owl was taken elsewhere in Bedfordshire back in May whilst I was helping Amanda check Barn Owl boxes.

And in the morning whilst ringing at Priory Country Park, we had a flyover Red Kite.

A pretty good day - despite the footy result.

Tickity tick, tick ... tick BOOM

In the past I have had to rely on my learned friends (i.e. other ringers), for all my ringing ticks (thanks guys!) - 76 to date in total.

Today brought a tick entirely of my own and I cannot be more pleased (having imagined or more accurately day dreamed about this yesterday).

Without more ado, I present to you a Grasshopper Warbler:



Above: I have high hopes of catching more of these at this site.



Above & Below: V670807 is now a well photographed bird!



Below: Not a flattering angle to photograph a bird ... but it shows some of the plumage details nonetheless.



Below: Spotty throat.



Below: The ringing bible says this is one way to make sure this is actually a Grasshopper Warbler. The measurement of the notch to the tip of the 2nd primary should be between 8 and 11.5mm.



As you can see, this 2nd primary comes in at just over 10mm.

I think I shall be trying to ring more of these ... and sooner rather than later!