Some changes

This week has been 'garden week' with major changes to the ringing site.


Before


Nearly down


Garden designer doing some pondering

With the two conifers out of the way, I was able to plant 10 apples, a cherry and a pear in the rest of the orchard to compliment the existing trees and extend the cover for the nets. Of course, I had to try out potential future layouts, just to make sure. All this kept the actual ringing (well, nets up and ready) to a minimum this week.


To prove it, albeit at a slack time of year, here are the totals:
Sparrowhawk 1 (new)
Blue Tit 3
Wren (1)
Blackbird 5
Robin (2)
Dunnock 1 (2)
House Sparrow 1
Chaffinch 1
Greenfinch 1
Goldfinch 1
That makes 14 new and 5 retraps, covering 10 species; the Sparr now takes us to 21 spp. since mid-Jan. Now just need a few migrants to up the totals.



Spring can't be that far away - as the above, lonely Camelia flower hints at.

Some 40 percent

So far, I have managed 30 ringing sessions (of varying length) at the new house. Every day bar one I have ringed a new Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis; 8 birds were ringed on the blank day (Jan 31st) of 6 species but no King Harrys put in an appearence.

To date, 162 new Goldfinch have been trapped and ringed, which is exactly forty percent of the all-up total, the other 60% being spread over 19 other species.
Goldfinch was also a characteristic of my previous house where they formed 26.5% of the ringing total over seven years.

Some tourists

10:40 am and passengers are awaiting the first departure of the year from Williton Station, just a couple of hundred yards/metres from home. The station canopy has been completed and painted, but only just in time. The bases for the overbridge are also finished and the (new) fencing reinstated; it will be November now before the refurbished bridge is lifted into place. This week, the council also took out the unsafe footbridge at Watchet, which will also be replaced during the November closure.

The West Somerset Railway 2011 season got underway on Saturday 19 February. One surprise is the rostering of a visiting locomotive - GWR 4-6-0 no 7812 "Erlestoke Manor" - which will work one of the two steam trains. No 7812 started work by hauling the 10.25am from Bishops Lydeard facing Taunton. Here she is, tender first, entering the station.


"Erlestoke Manor" will continue starting each morning with the first train from Bishops Lydeard, until the Spring Steam Gala. This morning, pulling a full compliment of carriages (inc buffet), it was packed with folk off to Minehead, possibly Butlins, as next week is half term. We did the obligatory waving.

GWR 2-6-2T no 5553 works the Minehead diagram and was the first to arrive at Williton and exchange tokens, seen above before the Manor class loco arrived. There will be four trains a day in each direction 'all this week' (except Monday & Friday) and I look forward to hearing them even as far away as Washford and Sampford Brett.

On the birdy front, I had a flock of 150-200 Siskins together with 20-30 Goldfinch in the Alders along the Doniford Stream between High Bridge and Egrove; they were disturbed by a car coming up the track. I did manage to catch and ring a pair of these diminuitive finches this morning, too. Should be able to catch more of these when the Alder seed runs out sometime next month.

Other news - we have frog spawn in our tiny pond, spotted when fishing out a dead, bloated frog that had four males hanging on to it.

Slowsome

The weather has picked up in one sense - more sunshine - but dropped down in another - more rain. One minute the wind is in the north, only to veer to the south overnight and vice-versa. Most days we have been blessed with two out of three - wind, rain & clear skies - and we shan't be turning the central heating off just yet. This switching of the wind direction is a pain in the orchard as I need to adjust one or other of the poles to prevent the top shelves snagging on the upper branches of the apple trees.

In the meantime, the daily catches have been diabolical; for the winter finches, the temperatures are "too high" (any frost dissipates quickly) and they stay on the tops (<300m) or disperse towards "home". [Not a bad thing in itself as the latter could lead to a recovery or two.] The garden is alive with birdsong that heralds spring; Chaffinch Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Blackbird, Jackdaw and the three tits, Blue, Great and Coal. However, spring itself has not arrived, nor have the Chiffs and Blackcaps which I hope will grace our humble abode in the coming month. In exchange for this, they will, of course, be lumbered with a metal anklet courtesy of the BTO.

Since the last posting, I have managed very few birds even though the two nets have been open most days. We have had the pleasure of both the male and female Sparrowhawks through the garden, if that's got anything to do with it.


Another Robin (the 7th) was a bit of a surprise as I thought I had caught all 4 males that sing from their songposts in or within earshot of my garden and the two females that belong to the top and bottom hedges of the garden. This was another male; had it been displaced from somewhere else, had it out manoeuvred one of the four or was it just passing through?

Anyhow, 17 birds of 8 species in 6 days - painful! Nine of them were Goldfinch, keeping up the tradition of making up almost half the new birds this year. 2 Brambling (both '5'females), 1 Robin (6M), 1 Lotti (4F), 1 Blue (5F)& 1 Great Tit (6F), 1 Greenfinch (5F) and 1 Siskin (5F). So it looks like last year's birds are now in the ascendency. A bit like August, me thinks. I wonder what they do in Australia. After all, a bird hatched in November is in its second calendar year come Jan 1st! [They do the same with horses, don't they - all have their birthdays on Jan 1st].

Been to the opticians and ordered some new, improved spectacles. Should be able to identify those gulls soon. (Rolls about laughing!) Bound to be something rare down on Doniford beach. Don't hold your breath!

Some month

Today is my birthday and it also happens to be one month since I started ringing at this site. At least I've been able to put one or two nets up this week in between the prolonged rain showers. What a month it has been. Will the next four weeks be as productive? Just praying for another spell of cold weather to entice the Bramblings back in before it's too late.


The 5Male Blackcap with 3 ogc's.
Yesterday teatime, I caught my sixth Blackcap; this one was another 2CY male (Euring 5M) and it had 3ogc (three old greater coverts), the greatest number of retained feathers out of the four other 5M's and the singleton 5F (female). All birds, except one, have had fat scores of 20-35 ESF and muscle score 2. The exception was a small male (wing 70.5mm) with a fat score of 10 and a weight of just 15.8g. This coincided with four nights of sharp frosts (to minus 7C) straight after, so I don't hold out much hope for that individual. The average weight of the other five has been 20.4g (19.1 - 22.3g)

The last four days have produced the following 10 species, in all just 33 new birds: Blue Tit 2, Blackcap 1, Wren 1, Blackbird 2, (Robin 3 r/t, all different), Dunnock 1, Chaffinch 2, Greenfinch 3, Goldfinch 16, Siskin 5. That brings the last calendar month's total to 373.

The top five are: Goldfinch 143, Brambling 44, =Blue Tit =Greenfinch 35, Siskin 23.

Late Extra!! - I've just checked the nets this lunch-time, and, guess what, a birthday present in the shape of another 5M Blackcap (obw - alula feathers retained), making 375 new birds over the past 31 days, and 7 Blackcaps!