Slow down

Summer's coming, so they say. Not that we've seen any of it so far. The last fortnight has been slow to say the least, with just the one day when there was some sort of flurry. It was last Thursday, when we didn't have to go to the supermarket - because we went on Wednesday in stead. Typical.

I have ringed 38 new birds over the 16 days since my last visit, with 12 retraps if I exclude all but the first of the multiple extractions of the Bullfinch clan. [Should start to disperse more widely now].
0, 4, 3, 1, 1, 3, 2, 2, 6, 0, 0/7, 0, 10, 3, 0, 3. That's how it went.

The one uplifting moment - 3JJ Redstart

Jackdaw 1
Blue Tit 3 (3)
Great Tit 2 (2)
Long-tailed Tit 1 - my 1st juv., moulting too.
Chiffchaff 1
Blackcap 8
Wren 3 (1)
Blackbird (2) - a 6F & a 5F
Robin 2
Redstart 1 - the tail was on the previous blog
Dunnock 2
House Sparrow 8 (1)
Goldfinch 1 (1) - a very recent fledgling
Bullfinch 5 (2) - the whole family (spread over)

Now that we are able to access the net-ride sites, the 7 new birds were taken down at the meadows last Tuesday. The grasses are the tallest anyone can remember. Tally was - Blue Tit 1, Chiffchaff 1, Blackcap 2 (1), Wren 1, Song Thrush 1 [a 5M], and Dunnock 1.

The lower crossing place

Now the sun's out from 05:22 until 21:16 and even a blind man can see the nets! What's worse is the bats (brown long-eared) are back out again, wizzing round the nets at dawn and dusk - so they have to be furled until the 'danger' is over.

If 'The Levels' dry out in this warm weather, we may be out catching some warblers the other side of Bridgewater, sooner rather than later! Need to play 'catch-up' - only 500 (or 50%) behind last year's total by now.

PS. I think I've lost some HTML coding as the side bar has slipped to the end of the posts! Ha ha.

What's this?

Just taken this out of the net - another garden tick!

3JP

Wet, wet, wet

I'll get it off my chest now - it's been wet and windy, most of all, yesterday and today. We've only had an inch and a quarter or so (32++mm) in 18 hours, not as bad as further south. The Doniford Stream is running high already and still has to reach its peak. I don't know when that will be as it's still raining!      

Today is the Village Fete. I was thinking of entering the BSD in the bitch classes as she had a bath earlier in the week. She'll be wet through again by the time I walk up there! Wonder if Diane (organiser and next door neighbour) has called the whole thing off?

Juvenile GSW

First up was this Great Spotted Woodpecker of the juvenile kind - easily told by its red cap [adult males have a red nape]. I knew that I had replaced the old peanuts with some fresh ones for a good reason.

Juvenile (female?) Blackcap

It was a relief to catch a couple of young Blackcaps around the garden, too. The male had started singing again but I had not got on to any offspring to date. Until this week.

Adult male 'King Harry' outside the kitchen window

I haven't caught any Goldfinches for some while now; it must be about 3 weeks since one hit the nets.

Small Tortoiseshell

Painted Lady

Last Saturday, the sun did come out and it got quite hot. A few butterflies emerged from wherever they had been sheltering and I managed some shots of two of them. There was also a Red Admiral but 'it' was very active and wouldn't settle for long.

I've been sneaking in bits of ringing in the garden at 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning, when it's not been a stiff blow. Not much to report other than it turned up a different set of birds, as you can see.   

Juvenile Robin

There are lots of young Robins around at last, and one or two of them are just beginning their PJ moult, showing a modest few red feathers in the top corners of their breasts.

The tally for the week was:

Gt. Spot. Woodpecker 1 - juvenile

Blue Tit 5 (1) - all juvs except the re-trap, an adult female

Wren 1 - a youngster

Robin (3) - all this year's offspring

Dunnock 2 (1) - two juvs and a 'daddy'

Blackcap 2 - juvs

WHITETHROAT 1 - this year's bird

Blackbird (1) - female with a good BP; third clutch?

House Sparrow (1) - last year's juv, a female with wrinkly BP

Siskin 2 - another local breeding pair

Total 14 new, 7 re-traps, 10 species

I managed a short spate of gardening on Thursday afternoon. It was very pleasant with a background of Siskin song in my ears - until the dustcarts raced round the corner, returning to base at shift end.

Male Siskin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The deserter

Robin X105504

Recently, I received a report of one of "my" Robins going AWOL and, unfortunately, ending up dead,  miles from home. Why it should have deserted us, we will never know.

This was the 11th bird that I ringed after moving into our new house here in West Somerset. It was a 2CY bird in January 2011 and was later deemed to be a male by both measurement and examination of genitalia. I retrapped it many times, in fact 22 times, and it was definitely present in every month (except maybe April and November 2011). The last time it was re-captured was on 2nd March 2012 when it weighed in at 21.0 gms. Temperatures were low and there had been an air frost overnight.

The bird was recovered, freshly dead, on 24th April 2012, some 94 km to the north-east in the Forest of Dean, at the eastern end of the village of Ruardean. Having spent the previous two winters and a whole summer with us here, why should it suddenly decide to abscond and cross the Bristol Channel the following spring? 

Answers on a post card, please, ....

By a babbling brook ...

The stream eating into the bank alongside the 1st net run

At last! Have managed to cut out three of last year's racks so far. The stream is still high (for summer-time) and the crossing points are 2 feet deep or more, thanks to the re-alignment of the stream following the winter and spring floods. Getting over to the 'orchard' side is currently out of the question, since "Bob", a poorly nag, is occupying the 2 acre entrance field which we have to negotiate in order to cross the 'leat' to get to the other side of the water meadows. The problem will go away shortly as the owners have to take a silage cut in the very near future [the grasses are very tall and seeding right now] and access will then be restored.   

Not wanting to waste all that hard work, I put up three nets in said racks. The weather was not at its best for ringing but, nevertheless, I did manage a few birds, namely 13 new and a couple of retraps. It is noticeable that there is a distinct lack of tits this year and that the finches are particularly late in nesting. The warblers are all beginning to sing again, a sign that they are attempting a second or replacement clutch. The only really noticeable birds are the House Martins, Swallows and Swifts, feeding over the meadows, along the hedgerows and skimming the water.     

Jay - doing what Jays do!  Ouch!

 Once more, a modicum of success, especially as it was an afternoon session. Top bird was surely the Jay that was ringed as an adult in the garden 13 months beforehand. The other retrap was a 6 female Blackbird that was ringed in mid-November. All these short-winged Blackbirds seem to stay with us all year; by short-winged I mean 127/128mm when fresh, females generally a tad shorter than the males, as normal.     

Jay (1)
Blue Tit 1
Chiffchaff 2
Blackcap 6
Blackbird (1)
Dunnock 2
House Sparrow 2     

Recently fledged Chiffchaff  (don't know why it flipped)

It is exactly one year since I started ringing down at the water meadows and, looking at my records, I can see that the pace will not pick up here for another two or three weeks. Definitely a dispersal site, where many young birds come and feed up prior to ab-migration.       

i managed to achieve two significant 'tetrad' upgrades for the local county Bird Atlas (in its last year) during my visit. First was a Garden warbler with food for young that also gave me some serious ear-ache. Second was a male Reed Bunting entering a nest on the edge of the stream, this as part of a food pass to its mate and a 'comfort break' for her.

Next, garden chores to catch up on, now that I am feeling better. Mowing, fence repairs and a good bonfire are on the cards. Then it's off to see my disabled brother and my grand-daughter whose birthday I missed. If the weather holds next week, it'll be more ringing and taking the 50-year old front fence down. See you soon.