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!

Sandy Smith Nature Reserve

I have adopted Sandy Smith Nature Reserve (nr Clophill, Bedfordshire) as my ringing site. The site is owned and managed by the Greensand Trust - it was donated to the trust by Peter Smith and named after his wife.

The site is quite diverse - dry & wet grassland, reed beds, alder dominated wet woodland and it is bordered by broadleaf woodland and paddocks. The River Flit runs through the site. As you might imagine, there is quite a variety of birds in the locality.

Today I had a 60ft net up by 7am and finished at 12.15pm. Very modest numbers were made up for by the catch.



Above & Below: 1 of 5 Whitethroats caught (all new).



The other birds caught: 1 dunnock and 1 great whopper of a ringing tick (see more recent post!).

Menorca Birds 2010 Edition 7 - Tawny Pipit

Driving along the road, I stopped the car right next to this bird. It didn't fly away. I was in the drivers seat and the bird was on the passenger side of the car. Luckily my Cannon EOS 1000D was at hand on the seat and I was able to take a few snaps.



Above & Below: A Tawny Pipit.

Shadow play...

Cap de Favoritx, Menorca was a bit of a barren landscape. Everywhere we visited on else on this island had green vegetation in abundance. Here however, there was no green - just shades.



Above: Thumbs up!



Above: Hello!



Above: A weak joke ...!

Menorca Birds 2010 Edition 6 + Drain Pipes ... of course!

We went for a walk from Cala Galdana up Algendar Gorge (having already done part of the gorge from the other end where I got photographs of the Egyptian Vulture). We were aware that this was a great place to go for migrating birds but missed this on our visit last year.

I didn't find anything spectacular, or add anything to my holiday list but I did get some good photographs.



Above: A Sand Martin. I tried to find a crag martin during the holiday - unsuccessfully.



Above: Lots of house martins resting in a Tamarisk tree after an arrival.

The weather wasn't great but as the water droplets came down with increasing regularity, I noticed a significant arrival of House Martins on the way back to the car that weren't there on the first pass. Numbers must have been around the 4 figure mark.

Last year, whilst walking around I noticed a variety of 'interesting' (to me anyway)drainage solutions.



Above & Below: These are both the same house.



Below: This one was not such a good example. It is draining water from a balcony above but is clearly staining the wall. Most buildings in Menorca are white and I reckon they must sell billions of litres of white paint every year!



Below: Somebody with a sense of humour, although technically, I don't think it would be draining water from anywhere!