The day the Blue Tits came

Took my eldest grand-daughter to Norfolk for the weekend; we stayed at Jenny's with the object of taking her bird-watching. It also helped her parents who are "between houses" and staying with Ali's parents and her sister in their small house making 6 persons, sometimes 7, and a fat Labrador!

Here's the little princess with 'Floppsy Rabbit' ready to return home.

The weather was not good but I did manage to get in some ringing on the Saturday morning before more rain. The session was dominated by Blue Tits with 28 individuals out of the 47 trapped.

Totals were - Blackbird 1, Marsh Tit 1, Coal Tit 3 + 4 r/t, Blue Tit 13 + 15 r/t, Gt. Tit 3 + 6 r/t & Chaffinch 1 r/t. The oldest bird was a GT from September 2007 while another bore an NOA ring from March 2008. {They ring occasionally in Fred Cooke's garden at the other corner of the wood, Fred being the NOA president).

On Sunday morning, we set off early (for us) and arrived at Snettisham before the 9.30 high tide. Apart from Oystercatchers and Turnstones on the tide line and a few large gulls and a lone Cormorant, there was little on the seaward side. At peak tide, a mere 6.0 metre one, a flock of 50 Knot headed south towards the inner Wash and RSPB Snettisham. We prefered to stay in the relatively sheltered 'so called' country park.

The main interest was the Meadow Pipits along the outer sea wall and the squadrons of Starlings arriving from the continent. They numbered from 6 to 60 with many in the 15-20 range, coming over every few minutes during the hour we were there. We also noticed a few Linnets, the odd Blackbird, a small party of Redwing and several noisy Wrens. From the inner sea wall there was little to be seen; I suspect it had been shot over the day before. The Wigeon, numbering several hundred, of a month ago were gone.We did, however, find a group of 30 Curlew, some Mallard and a few Coot.

Next it was a trip to the nursing home to visit "the mother", who is coming 95. Here we could get close to some splendidly colourful Mallard, Coot and Moorhens in the grounds. The weekend was a bit of a 'wash-out', I'm afraid, but Erin made it safely back to mum

Watch this space

My grand-daughter, Erin (whose initials also spell Erin), sometimes known as Renee, has been pestering me for ages to take her bird-watching. She's just 5y 5m and keen to get going.
So this week-end I'm taking her to NW Norfolk. At worst, she can sit in the conservatory and watch the birds on the feeders. But, knowing her, she will want me to do some ringing - AND take her to the "seaside" which will mean a jaunt along the beach at Snettisham. Good job we have a 'freebie' parking slot at the caravan.
Just hope the rain keeps off for her.

Marsh Tit plus

Ringing in Norfolk this last weekend was brief, owing to the heavy rain and blustery winds. It still resulted in 43 birds but just 18 were new birds. The junior 'pecker had a mix of moulted and un-moulted feathers, including un-moulted P9 & P10 as can be seen in the photograph.

Result for the session was - Gt. Spot Woodpecker 1 (a young female), Wren 1, Marsh Tit 1, Coal Tit 4 + 7 retraps, Blue Tit 2 + 14 r/t, Gt. Tit 5 + 3 r/t, Chaffinch 3 + 1 r/t and Greenfinch 1.

The re-trap adult male Chaffinch had lost its left leg completely since ringing on 25th August 2008 as a 6M (hatched 2006 or earlier).

This was the 9th new Marsh Tit of the year. I like their Hitler moustache! I have caught 21 of these since coming here and 13 have been re-captured. The interval between re-trapping varies from just 5 days to 500 days. The average is 16 weeks 3 days but the median is less at 11 weeks 1 day. The large majority of birds ringed have been 'birds of the year'.

As well as the Woodpeckers putting in an appearance at the feeders, the Long-tailed Tits were back, albeit just two. The feeders have been very busy for most of the day in the strong winds, just as if we were having a January cold spell.

Reflections on Armistice Day.

I was thinking about my forebears and how they have served our country in wartime.
My father, Ernest, was in a reserved occupation. He was posted to East Anglia, at first to Biggleswade, not far from where I lived for nearly a quarter of a century at Gamlingay. His job was to prepare airfields for our bombers. Later he was moved to Witchford, the last war-time airfield to close. Whilst here, he had to 'camouflage' Ely cathedral to make it look like Peterborough's and mislead German bomber pilots. He would take the train back to Guildford every weekend but would then pedal off and be a relief air-raid warden and first-aider at Perry Hill, Worplesdon.
My uncle, Bernard, worked for A.V.Roe, the aircraft manufacturer at Woodford, near Manchester. He was conscripted into the RAF as part of the 'ferry team'. He was stationed in Hampshire and Oxfordshire for much of his time, although he did do a tour in Northern Ireland. They used to patch up incoming bombers that had been "shot up" and fly them back to the factory for full repair and then bring a "new" one back. He used to spend some of his short leave with us in Guildford. One of his last jobs involved preparing the Avro Vulcan for the Falklands, a war I played a small part in. Funny that we should be linked in this way, on the same aircraft mission.
Their cousins, with whom they were brought up, served as well. Three volunteered for the 2nd/3rd Commandos, while one made parachutes, and another served as a sergeant in the Tank Corps in north Africa, Crete and Italy. The latter was much decorated but never spoke of the war, not even to his wife.
My grandfather, Daniel, was wounded at the Somme in WW1. He was 'shot' in the elbow and suffered a blast injury to his side. He was repatriated, first to Barnsley and then to Hove, where he died in 1919. He served in the "Post Office Rifles", part of the Middlesex Regt. His name and those of other 'fallen' are displayed in the main Guildford Post Office. It used to be on some lovely glass panels when the Office was further down North Street, now it's just a plaque high on the wall.
At least two of his brother-in-laws also served in WW1. Arthur Ernest Childs (after whom my father is named) joined the 1st Bn Queens (the 1st regiment of foot - our local regiment that had its barracks next to my primary school and where 'Carry on Sergeant' was filmed) and was a POW (prisoner of war) in Germany. I know he survived becaused there is a letter written to my father by him from Bristol, sent after his wife, Alice, died. His younger brother, Mark Bernard Childs (after whom my uncle was named), also joined the ranks of the Queens Royal West Surrey Regt. but was transferred to the 12th Middlesex. I believe he also died during the conflict.
The war memorial outside Ewhurst church (and the old Post Office that my grandfather ran) bears the names of my grand-father, relatives and near relatives. Ironically, my first civil engineering job was to design a lay-by out side the old village school, which is directly opposite both the memorial and the PO.

Thrush rush

With a cold front passing through at dawn (plus a piddling drop of rain), many redwings were forced to land. They have been coming from the east, having first travelled across the North Sea from Scandinavia. There are lots of Hawthorn bushes at Priory and the birds were very noticeable up until about 2 pm.

I had to make a visit to the feeders to fill them and it was only then that I realised that I had misjudged the ringing opportunity today. The moderate wind was tempered slightly by the bushes in the 'rough', enough to make ringing possible. So home I went, found my long-johns, made a flask and some sandwiches and went back and set up a couple of nets.

I did manage to catch two Redwing but the big deal was the ten new Goldfinches that I trapped.
Might give it a try in the semi-darkness tomorrow morning - if I set the alarm. Not too hopeful that I'll catch more than a couple of Redwing, the main target, though.

There was a record count of some 38,000 Redwings passing over the Pinnacle, Sandy, today. Most of the birds were moving NW, suggesting that they made landfall along the Suffolk/Essex coast after crossing the North Sea.

A glorious sunny autumn day

Monday: Not an early start - things to do. Went off to Harrold Country Park, mainly for a walk but always with some birding in mind. First, we came across a flock of Wigeon in the NW corner, 37 in all. The place was "heaving" with Coot as usual with a fair number of Tufted Duck as well. Two deer (Muntjac) were spotted in a stubble field but my camera is only set to 1Mp & 10x at best so forgive the images. I certainly wasn't going to put my hand out to focus on in the next pic!

Next, further along the northern path we came across quite a few Hornets, busy in the Hawthorns bordering the path. They can give you a very good "wallop", but are very unlikly to sting in the first place, unlike some dozy wasps. All the grebe were down one end and this seemed to be where the Cormorants were fishing, too.

Further round, we went into the hide. A flotilla of Tufteds passed in front as we scanned the Cormorants (17), spotted a Snipe, and watched a Little Egret preen high up in a tree. Next we went into the 'nature reserve' bit, where Richard (ranger) tried to run us over in the Landie.

Finally, we went and sat on a bench where we used to bring the Greylags ashore for ringing when they were flightless. Many geese, swans and ducks were 'loafing' on the island shore and we counted about 26 Gadwall. As we sat there 30-40 Redwings suddendly "fell" out of the sky "lickety-splick", and disappeared from view in the bramble bushes (middle right in the above pic) on the island, safe from predators (?). They were probably going to an early 'roost' at the possible end of their long, overnight migration from Scandinavia.   There has been a sudden influx of these birds over the weekend according to the "vis-miggers" that I have contact with. A real sign of autumn!

3s a crowd

Pass the Parcel

Grandson Thomas  is three tomorrow but the party was today. That's him in the white "cheeky" T-shirt with Nanny Newman to his left. Most of the rellies came including 'Great Uncle Roger' from N. Lincs.

Uncle Bulgaria - getting too tall for his hair

Going, I took the fastest route A421/A1(M)  and in the "back way". Jenny still beat me - all the way from Heacham. Mind you, she did have to take Timmy for a walk before the party started!

Big sister, Erin, and cousin, Jordan.

We left about 3.30. I got Shanghai-ed into bringing back an enormous box, some sort of kitchen set-up which Ali bought Tom for Xmas and which I've got to keep in the spare bedroom!

The man himself - in between dances

"I'll amuse myself, thank you"