It raineth every day

70 mm since Sunday evening, half of it last night!

Compared to the other day, the Renhold Brook has risen much higher.
The stilling pond that takes the surface water drainage from the new houses is "fairly full" and the flap-valve is now submerged.

The local cats have been having a field day (pun); when I got back from walking the dog, I found this present on the doorstep. M.agrostis.[Short-tailed Field Vole].Water Voles A. terrestris were present before the construction teams moved in. I have only managed to register them once since the landscaping was completed.

 They are telling us that the weather will improve - hope so as we need to get in a CES ringing session to complete the season's task. After that, it's migrant catching time - with few restrictions (e.g. tape lures, amount of net, etc.)

Post-script - Rainfall for the week = 87.5mm, 2x the average for the month.
Total rainfall for August was 139mm - wettest for at least 23 years

Not strictly

Saturday night>Sunday morning - it rained!
However, when I woke up, it had stopped and the wind had gone too. After some humming and haaing, I decided to visit our (Bedford) CES site. Today was the first day of a new period, but we (Ed and I) had talked about doing the CES during the week.

To cut a long story short, I went and put up just 150' of netting for 4 hours. This covered half of the CES site only - and with a start of 8 o'clock, I was not apprehensive of catching much. The sun was out and there were a few fluffy clouds. By 12 noon, the nets were in full sun.

This was the first time that my new dog 'Cerise' was introduced to bird ringing other than in the garden. She turned out to be very well behaved and gave me no problems.

I don't know what's more expensive - having a pedigree 'pooch' or being a bird ringer!

Any road up, here's what I caught:
Great Tit (1) - ringed as a pullus some way away (1st retrapping)
Willow Warbler 2 - both 3M's, fat3, muscle 2
Blackcap 2 - both imm. males
C.Whitethroat 2 (1) - 2 new Euring age 3 & an ad. male carrying a good "fat-load"
Wren 2 - unmoulted juvs
Blackbird (1) - last weeks juv male
Song Thrush 1 - the 2nd juvenile of 2010 here (2 pairs nest within the sub-site)
Dunnock 2 - both new juvs
Greenfinch 1 - a scary juvenile, looked very young
Goldfinch 1 - a young one about to PJ moult

This morning (Monday) was wet! Overnight, a low pressure system passed over, dumping 25mm (1 inch) of rain on us. Walking the dog, I spied 2 Kingfishers making use of the stilling pond on the new estate opposite.

It's an agreeable walk alongside the brook here; the new flower meadows are beginning to establish nicely. Just waiting for the autumn cut - and then we'll be 'whooshing Mipits', all being well.

The view looking back towards the 'new' roundabout (estate entrance).

Sorted!

Up at 05:30 today and left home at 07:00. Arrived at South Wing for 07:20 to find where Tavistock Ward was - even though I've been in there before. Usual gubbins - 'Who are you?', wait, 'Come with me', wait, 'Get undressed and take a seat', wait, 'My names Mr. Setti'. Aha - we-re getting somewhere. 'Sign here. Thank you. I'll see you in 20 minutes'. More waiting.

08:57 - into theatre, jabs, disinfectant, local, tourniquet, incision, poke about a bit, "chisel", waggle finger, close up, dressing - 09:21 in recovery. However, it was another hour before I left the ward, having had two coffees and a plate of biscuits, a de-brief and a longed-for pee. Ring Jenny and wait for her to pick me up (she was out walking the dog). Home shortly after 11:15.

Now I should be able to extract little birdies without too much trouble!

Been catching Sparrows lately. At times there were over 40 birds on the lawn. But it's too small to put my whoosh net out so I have to rely on an old 30' net. I don't mind as handling 6-8 birds at a time is reward enough. Most of the birds are juveniles and for the last 2 weeks the numbers undergoing a full moult has increased to nearly 100%. The pictures below show a very recent juv undergoing full moult (score =13) with severe growth bars in the tail, showing envigourated growth from the moment when the heat evapourated and the rains came - just 14 days ago.

New wood, new birds.

This week has been our first chance of going to a woodland site that was planted c.15 years ago. The site is near Springhill young offenders prison in Buckinghamshire on one of the headwater streams of the River Ray.

The wood is 29.5 acres / 12 hectares in extent; it lies NE/SW and is some 600 metres long by 200 metres (180-220m) wide. It is a deciduous planting, a mix of oak, ash and aspen with a good understorey of berry bearing shrubs. There are access rides and glades and several ponds, including a large "in-line" one on the Ray stream.

The owner has asked us to look at the birdlife there and to report on the seasonal changes. This will be a base-line for monitoring the change that will inevitably take place as the wood matures. The avifauna will change with some species being lost and others coming in. It was designed to be typical of the wet woods in the area and the planting selection will mitigate the huge changes normally seen as the wood develops its own character and the canopy closes.

We managed to get some nets up the night before - after the rain stopped! [It rained all day here]. At dawn, we arrived at the farm entrance, let ourselves in the electric gates, and crossed the sheep fields (3 gates!) to the site.

Dave S took some photos of some of the birds we caught as we went along. Altogether, we put up 440' (134m) of net. Only one net did not catch at all. This was a learning experience as we had no previous idea where birds utilised the woodland cover.

In all, we caught and ringed 36 new birds as follows:
Green Woodpecker - a juvenile
Blue Tit 4 - adult male and 3 juvs
Great Tit 5 - 3 adult males and 2 juvs
Marsh Tit 2 - adult and juv
Long-tailed Bushtit 2 - both juvs in full moult
Chiffchaff 4 - all juvs, 3 of them female (males leave first)
Willow Warbler 5 - all juvs, 4 females
Blackcap 1 - juv male
Garden Warbler 1 - juv, "on the move"
Lesser Whitethroat 1 - juv
C. Whitethroat 2 -juvs
Dunnock 4 - juvs
Bullfinch 3 - all adult males, none starting wing moult

13 species, 80% juveniles.

Willow Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Juv Green Woodpecker, Marsh Tit.
 
Other birds that were present but not caught included - Buzzard, Stock Dove, Tawny Owl, Gt. Spotted Woodpecker, Wren, Blackbird, Song Thrush & Greenfinch. Notable "absentees" were Treecreeper, Robin & Chaffinch. Perhaps further visits this year will bring forth more species.

As for me, I ringed more Willow Warblers here in one day than I have done all year to date!

Back to the future?

A busy few days!

History - Jenny's Mum's dog, Timmy the champagne miniature poodle, had a bad heart murmour. At age 14 (almost) he collapsed on a walk and we took him to the vet. Well, that was it - and we had to make the kindest cut of all. So we were left without an animal in the house. Sunny (wire-haired Jack Russell) had died over a year ago and Layla (Terveuren BSD) had been gone almost three years, both of them after a good and long life for their respective breeds.

Decision time - Last week, we decided that I would get another Belgian Sheep Dog to fill the void. A bit of internet traffic and we set off for the West Midlands - actually South Staffs. After spending an age looking for the place, we eventually made it and were greeted by  a motley of all four types of BSD. Deb, the breeder, was trying to get organised for the BSD annual 'jamboree' at Uttoxeter. The upshot was "Cerise", a 2 year old Terv bitch that had been best puppy. Relieved of my money, the breeder threw in food, micro-chipping and A KITTEN.

Home - we made it by teatime, having got lost and had a tour of Kingswinford, Dudley and Stourbridge! Now to sort out food and toiletting for one and all. The kitten is confined to the large kitchen/diner for the next few months, as she will be having a series of jabs and be spayed. After a couple of inevitable mishaps, she, "Shelley", got the hang of it. Then the mischief started - well not really - just the tearing around and pouncing on things.

Day 2 - That's all well and good, I've got a dog, we've got a cat, but J. has nothing to take for a walk. We just happened to go to the pet supermarket on the other side of town to look at food and prices, not to shop. My eye was caught by an advert for Border Terrier X puppies, so I wrote the 'phone number down. After a good deal of 'shall I, shan't I' from J., she decided to give the lady a ring. Well, J. wouldn't entertain a dog and all the worrying it would get up to when Cerise came into season, so she was lucky that the only puppy left was a bitch. 'Nough said, off we go on Saturday to look at it - and her mother - and her grandmother. Sold. Welcome to our family, "Amber".

Day 3 - I was up very early to go bird-ringing. I arrived home about 1 o'clock, had a light lunch and entered the ringing details into the computer database. By 3 o'clock, we were on our way back to the pet supermarket (which was on the way to the breeder's, anyway) to purchase a carry-case and some other essential bits and pieces. Of course, we (I mean J.) had disposed of many such things as the previous animals had died off. Neverthe less, one happy Jenny as she brought the 'beast' home, even though her pocket was considerably lighter!.

Today - All is hunky-dory.The picture tells the story.