Under Rydon Hill

Welcome to this blog about my time away from the tedium of domestic management. Once called "Tits and Things", now sub-titled "Life in Quantoxia", there's plenty of bird ringing (90%), some odd bits of general birding, some local steam trains, some personal bits and occasional 'away days' in other parts of Britain. Rydon Hill overlooks the lower valley of the Doniford Stream, where most of these activities take place.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

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!

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