Any road up, I've managed to fit in a bit of "bird catching". 16 birds covering 10 species since my last blog entry on Wednesday. Not bad - and a new species ringed for the garden/1km 'home' square!
We've had so much rain lately that even our wellington boots have grown webbed feet. The stream has risen even further and, down at the net sites, has begun to undercut the banks in the soft mudstone geology. Will all my racks be there in the spring, I wonder?
One of the pleasing happenings is the appearance of "young" Blue Tits; this is against the recent run of 'mainly adults' that have been a feature of this autumn. You can tell it's a 'bird of the year' by the bleached and un-moulted feathers close to the edge of the wing.
The Blackcaps still keep on turning up. Here is a young male with hell of a lot of "juvvy brown" still left among the 'adult type' black feathers of a male crown. He also had 2 easily distinguished, old (i.e. faded) greater coverts.
On to the new species. We have had between 17 & 23 Redwings toing and froing from the Holly tree and the Ashes. Today I managed to ring a couple of these, one a youngster, the other an adult. These are easily told apart by the tail shapes and the striking white tips in the juveniles to (at least one of) the tertials which cover the closed wing.
A few more birds added to the 2011 totals; it won't be long before we all start a new "countdown" in 2012. I hope to have all my "legal paperwork" done and sent off by the end of the first week in January [It actually goes electronically] together with my permit renewal.
A couple of (half)day's effort realised the following:
Blue Tit 1 (2)
Great Tit (1)
Long-tailed Bushtit (1)
Blackcap 2
Blackbird (1)
Song Thrush 1
Redwing 2
House Sparrow 1
Chaffinch 1
Goldfinch 3**
**I am looking forward to catching a few more of those King Harry's.
Oh. I forgot. It's gonna get warmer for a bit - and the winds'll pick up to force 5 gusting 6, and I don't want a net in the apple trees again! I'll try and be patient.
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