DADs left home

Neighbouring ringer, John, picked up three of my Long-tailed Tits on Sunday that I ringed as 3JJs thirty days earlier. All three were undertaking their full moult by now and the reason for the 'headline' is my current usage of AA rings DAD7nn; I did wonder what John was on about until the penny dropped, when he sent me an email with the same heading! Movement was a mere 2km as the crow flies.

My weekend was fairly eventful with the ringing of a new species for the garden site, namely a 6F Jackdaw. Just recently, in the last couple of days, the local Jackdaws have banded together, about 200+ of them. Just before sunset, they come over the house en masse and land in the sheep field on the other side of the road/river. In flight, every bird is calling (caw-ing?) until they land and then there is just the odd 'chak' sound until they all take off again for the roost (wherever that is - I must suss it out) with more cacophony.

Jackdaw - 6 (ASY) female [Corvus monedula spermologus]

As to the rest of the weekend, the sum total was:
Jackdaw 1
Blue Tit 2 (2)
Blackcap 2 juvs
Blackbird 2
Robin 3 (all 6's)
Dunnock 1
House Sparrow 3 (1)
Chaffinch 1
Greenfinch 1
Goldfinch (1)

Chaffinch 6 (ASY) male [Fringilla coelebs gengleri]

Today, despite the forecast of increasing wind speeds, I decided it was time I went ringing at my 'new' site on the other side of the river. Not having been there so far, I needed to do some serious gardening before I could erect any nets. Being mid-season, the vegetation was nearly as tall as myself in the areas close to the river and patches of scrub. One 40' net was up by 06:00 and another followed shortly after. The first of the two nets provided most of the birds as the other was susceptible to the increasing wind speed as the sun rose higher in the sky. Eventually, after 18 birds, I packed up and then set about opening another rack a good few hundred metres away. I haven't really inspected the north end of the site but I think I will be able to have three nets there in suitable conditions (it's in a different 1km square)

So the end result was:
Blue Tit 1 (juv)
Chiffchaff 7 (all juvs)
Blackcap 4 (1 female with BP)
Lesser Whitethroat 1 (female with BP)
Whitethroat 1 (juv)
Robin 1 (6 female)
Dunnock 2 (juvs)
Greenfinch 1 (2CY male)

I'll have to think about getting up at 04:00 again very soon for a second visit!

Summer ain't here yet

Bit of a funny old week - if the sun came out, the wind tried to follow; if the sun went in, the rain tried its damndest to follow. The birdies didn't know what to do. I don't think I did either. One thing, it was too risky to go down to the water meadow and see what I could catch; some of these showers were really heavy.

Got up nice and early on Monday to see if dawn patrols were any better. Just got the first net up when I caught a brown long-eared bat. Shouldn't have let it chew four "hole extensions" in the 30 foot! Because of the weather's unpredictability, I have operated with a 30 foot or a 40 foot or both for the rest of the week. Monday did eventually divvy up 11 new birds; the odd sessions thereafter found another 17 new birds in the book. Retraps came to 11, mainly young birds recaught a week after they received their 'bling' from me.

Grand total (Mon-Fri):
Collared Dove 1
Blue Tit 10 (2)
Great Tit 3 (1)
Long-tailed Tit (4)
Blackcap 6
Blackbird 5 (2)
Robin (1)
Dunnock (1)
Pied Wagtail 1
Chaffinch 1
Goldfinch 1


This young PIEWA was traipsing around after its father (presumed) on the back lawn and was being fed tiny flies, spiders and lacewings. My cat appeared on the scene and caused it to abandon lunch and score a direct hit on the 30 foot, second shelf. The cat came in for some ready packaged lunch and stayed for the afternoon in the easy chair.


Many of these young BLUTI have not been out of the nest long. The season here has been a protracted one with fledging spread over three or more weeks. The above shot shows the underwing and the exposed wing bones devoid of feathering for a little while longer. Eventually, usually starting in mid July, these young tits 'of all ages' (from 6 to 10 weeks) will start a body moult where the areas that currently are un-feathered will gain a full insulating covering.

Leaving aside the Blue Tits, the past 5 days have been epitomised by juvenile BLACA and more adult BLABI, this time the turn of the ladies.

Denise, meanwhile, has been inundated with baby SISKI ten miles west of here.

The only sign of summer is the increase in tourist traffic; to that end, a rather special loco is working the line three days a week but will be gone before the schools break up. 'Tornado', a full size replica of the LNER east coast line Pacifics, all of which were scapped!!!

A few more

Another wet and windy week gone past but a few more birds caught and ringed nevertheless. 26 birds again with 16 new and the rest re-captured.
Another young Robin heralded the second broods now becoming more independent and a retrapped male had a primary moult score of 14 and very little tail left.


Juvenile Robin, second brood, June 2011

A pleasant surprise was two juvenile Chaffinches, one of each sex (on wing length), the first of the year.


Juvenile Great Tit, main brood, June 2011

A better week for juveniles at >70% of the catch; this week's takings -
Blue Tit 5 (2)
Great Tit 2
Long-tailed Tit (5)
Blackcap 1
Blackbird 4 (2)
Robin 2 (1)
Chaffinch 2
Greenfinch (1)

Whilst walking the dog, I bumped into one of the millionaire land-owners hereabouts, and he kindly suggested that I might ring in one of his fields during the summer months. This would suit me fine as it's only a 5 minute walk away. During the winter this long field beside the Donniford Stream - Kingfishers!! - is grazed by horses as their pastures elsewhere become clemmed. The fields round here either contain sheep or horses so there are very few 'proper meadows' like this one.


Meadow at Egrove, June

There are several suitable places, all exposed to the wind, but sufficient for me to be able to choose a sheltered spot or two. Currently it is heaving with Whitethroats, one of my favourite target species.


The Donniford Stream, June.

Thirdly, I now have to get to grips with "Windows 7 Pro", and ultimately install IPMR and then transfer all my files over to the new computer. My X20 has given me good service over the last seven years and I have grown fond of "Windows XP". The number of operating systems I have had to learn since 1966 is getting beyond a joke and I now stay as far away as I can from the intricacies of modern computing.

Seeing a third summer Herring Gull taking on a full adult Herring Gull on our roof reminds me that the Herring Gulls on the factory roof next-door-but-one have raised two chicks; they must have hatched on Wednesday or Thursday when we had showers as this is the first time we've seen them and they look to be about 3-4 days old (seen from our landing window).

Half way to Paradise

At least the effort of waiting to ring a few finches until after the worst of the snow had receeded last winter has shown some reward.

Today, I had a recovery for a 2CY male Brambling that I ringed on 17th January this year, here in West Somerset. Three months (91 days) later it was controlled the other side of the Kiel Canal in Schleswig-Holstein at a place called Itzehoe. It was re-ringed for whatever reason with a new Helgoland ring [DEW Wilhelmshaven 82091710]. It had moved 918 km ENE towards its eventual breeding grounds, most likely somewhere in a montane birch forest of northern Fenno-Scandinavia or a riverine willow zone in western Siberia.



A good start for the significant recoveries file with a 'hit rate' for the species of 2%. I just wonder what next winter will bring.

Some merit

Funny old week with the weather so changeable even it didn't know what it was doing from one moment to the next. Yesterday (Sunday) was different, with a howling gale and steady rain night and day ("wet stuff" amounted to 18mm).

A few birds were caught, by 'a few' I mean 26, of which 16 were new. The adults versus juvs turned out to be 50/50, so we are not yet into the hatch-year mega-season. [Then I would expect around 80% juveniles in any one session]

This week's on/off effort produced:-


Blue Tit 4, only 1 juv
GreatTit 3, all juvs, all in the net together
Long-tailed Tit (5), originally ringed 2 weeks earlier when the had shorter wing lengths
Blackcap 1, a juvenile, the 1st this year (above)
Wren 1, another ad. male
Blackbird 2 (2), 2 new juveniles plus 2 males
Robin 1, a juv
Dunnock 1 (1), both ad. males
Goldfinch 1 (2), getting difficult to sort into 2CY or older
Siskin 2, a pair at the nyger feeders (below)


On the nyger theme, somebody needs to import or make the finch socks that they use in the US of A; I think they might prove to work better than our current 2 types of tube feeders.


That one's for the train buffs out there. This weekend a "diesel gala" was held on the West Somerset and this 'Warship class 42', manifestly sporting battleship grey (actually, the undercoat, as it's undergoing a BR livery re-paint), was photographed entering Williton station with the signalman taking the token. "Onslaught" was built at Swindon in 1961 and is one of two survivors, having been de-commisioned in 1972 in favour of the heavier and more powerful 'Western class 52s'. An example of the latter, D1010 "Western Campaigner", is based at the DEPG depot at Williton but is badged up as D1035 "Western Yeoman".

Rubbish, but ...

Rubbish just about sums it up! Lousy week's ringing, thanks to clear skies, northerly winds and, today, murk and a stiff north-easterly. Think I'll have a stiff one myself.

"Wot we got" - 11 new & 15 r/t

Goldcrest (1) r/t male from March
Blue Tit 1 (1); a new juv
Great Tit 2 (1); all juvs
Long-tailed Tit 1 (2); all juvs
Chiffchaff (1) the 5M
Wren (1) the resident male - again
Blackbird 3 (3); new juvs & retrap adult nesters
Robin 1, another juv
Dunnock 1 (2) a juv & the orchard pair
House Sparrow 1, a fem with BP
Chaffinch (1) nesting female from March
Goldfinch (2); an M & a F from Jan
Bullfinch 1, a 'full on' male

There's still alot of birds either on eggs or tending young, either for the first time or for the second. After all, it's only the first week in June; time yet for many more youngsters to take to the wing. The top ranking off-spring caught so far have been the Robins, Blackbirds and, in the lead, the "bumbarrels" or "feather-pokes" [Long-tailed Tits].

One of these latter juvvies has five outer primaries pure white but only on its right wing.
(See poor photo below)



There was some good news from Ed, my 'C' ringer, who is undertaking one of my long-running Constant Effort Sites back in Bedfordshire. He caught Blackcap N344841, which I originally ringed as a 2CY male in mid-June 2004, 2580 days prior to this last capture. It was recaptured in '06, twice in '08 in different places, and then in '09. At just shy of 7 years (it will be 8 years old by now), it is the oldest Blackcap in the group's 20+ years existence.