Saved by the tits

I managed to get in another session down at the water meadows on Sunday, a week after our last effort. This was the only chance of doing any ringing this week, so I took it gladly. I concentrated around net 1 since the rides further down the meadow were susceptible to the weather. As it was, I would have missed/scared off the only Blackcap hanging round there if and when I put the nets up. It was fairly sunny despite the cloud cover racing in from the coast (from the north-west) but the willows and alders create some shade for the net(s) at the top end of the site, where I stayed today.

Last week's moulting adult Chiff

Nine o'clock - and still no birds in the nets. Boredom was averted by a spot of bird watching instead. The local male Sparrowhawk appeared from the direction of home but was quickly picked up, and picked on, by the resident Crow from the hill. For a while, the Sparr let the crow have its fun but eventually turned on its tormentor. After a bit of a telling off, the Crow returned to the offensive until the Sparr was outside the imaginary defensive territorial ring. [Well, I couldn't make out the boundary, only a set distance from the top of the hill]. Later, a female Sparr was brought to my attention by the swarm of 'clinking' Swallows that accompanied her. She soon cleared off towards the riding school. 

The Woodpigeons have finished building their nest in the willows on the other side of the stream/river. The local male(?) Great Spotted Woodpecker flew across to look for its 'dinner' elsewhere. I counted four Blackcaps 'ticking' around the site in various hedges. These hedges would be ideal for ringing if only they didn't consist of a fence/hedge/deep ditch/hedge/another fence; they are kept at just the right height, too, for setting an intercepting net. 

From the lane, looking SE towards the Quantocks

Standing in the lane I could see the net. At nine o'clock, I noticed some activity around the trees. It look liked tits or warblers from this distance. By now the place was warming up and there was more bird activity generally. Eventually I could see that I had a catch.

It wasn't a brilliant morning but I did end up with the following:

Blue Tit 4 - including an adult male '49er'

Great Tit 2 - juvs

Long tailed Tit 1 (1) - an adult pair completing their moult

Chiffchaff 3 - a 3JP and 2x 3JJs

Blackcap 2 - a 3JP male & a 3JJ fem

There should have been another Blackcap, a 3P male, but it was a case of 'butter fingers'.

    

The weather forecast implies that we won't be able to go ringing this week until Friday at the earliest. Perhaps a spell of better (fine) weather then, before the aftermath of hurrican Isaac hits us. Tallyho! 

Game of two halves

Well, you could say that, with no score in either half but a fruitful half-time interval!

Not only has the weather been awful, we've had over 80mm of rain so far this month, but the birds are not about also. If you want to do any decent ringing/netting, the dawn lull in the wind soon turns to a hefty breeze. The Elderberry, one of the mainstays of passing migrants at this time of year, is beginning to ripen but the fruits are sparse because the flowerheads were not fully pollinated. The Blackberries are still hard and many are far from ripening, but it promises to be a decent crop, so who knows. The Policeman's Helmet [Himalayan Balsam] is approaching 3m tall down by the stream and seems to be the only thing keeping the local bees happy.

I know it's that time of year when many of our birds moult and therefore tend to stay out of sight, but this lack of birds is getting me down a little. Last year, I was enjoying reasonable success at a site that I had only just got permission for, but then the weather was a lot better than it is now. I was even catching the odd bird in the garden. But not this year.

In deep contrast to us here, a fellow ringer, Denise, who lives 10 miles to the west, just inside the National Park, has been ringing Siskins by the score (a score = 20, for our foreign readers) for the last two weeks or so. Her total for new Siskins alone exceeds 750 this year, just in her garden, while other Siskin ringers, well to the east, are wondering if the birds will grace their nets at all in any number this season.

Since the last post we have endured - rain, rain, rain, a couple of 3's in the garden, a decent morning down at the meadow = 20 birds (although nearly all the birds were trapped in just one net), 3 dawn retraps before the rain, showers, wind, nothing, nothing and, lastly, nothing except heavy showers. The garden nets are all in the shed now!

The main stay have been the young Chiffchaffs, together with a few Blackcaps. The prize for getting in a session down at the meadows last Sunday was a juvenile Grey Wagtail, that I forgot to take a picture of. That's two I've ringed this year, bearing in mind we haven't found out where they nest yet.

Adult Grey Wag (library pic) - possibly the mother of today's bird

Total tally for the period turned out to be 21 plus 4 retraps of 9 species:

Great Tit (1)

Long-tailed Tit 1

Chiffchaff 9 - just one adult, a female with a MS of 18

Blackcap 4

Wren 2 (2)

Blackbird (1) - one of the first males caught in Jan. 2011 

Robin 1 (1)

Dunnock 1 (1)

Grey Wagtail 1

Right now, we're keeping an eye on tomorrow's weather forecast - as it may be possible to get another sesssion in, down by the stream in the willows and balsam.

All the action here - Net ride Nr.1

After that, it's house and garden - as both our neighbour and uourselves have some fencing to attend to  following the Bank Holiday. Meantime, the other half will be harvesting the mega plum crop, which has ripened at long last (4 weeks later than 2011).             

I've struggled

What with the recent weather and a couple of family commitments, last week's ringing total was somewhat subdued! I still couldn't get on to the meadows because of the wet ground and that probably meant missing out on ringing some Sedge, Garden & Willow Warblers.

However, it was ten new birds and three re-traps caught and ringed, just enough to avoid severe withdrawal symptoms -

Adult (4) Collared Dove - note deep red eye

Collared Dove 1 - a red-legged adult (female)
Blue Tit 2 (2) - new juvs
Coal Tit 1 - fresh juv
Long-tailed Tit (1) - another adult in full moult
Blackcap 1 -
Wren 1 - yet another juv
House Sparrow 3
Bullfinch 1 - the last of fledglings? (makes 5)

We don't have any berries yet, black or elder. Our plums are still not ready for picking, either, which means a seasonal shift of about three weeks.

Hard, green Blackberries (mid-August)

Over the last two weeks the garden has been full of butterflies; Large White, Small White, Comma, Red Admiral, Peacock, Hedge Brown and Meadow Brown. The Hedge Brown (or Gatekeeper) has been the most prolofic. The Holly Blue has already gone through its second generation early.

Gatekeeper or Hedge Brown

The forecast for getting any ringing done during the coming week is poor - a rapidly moving mix of showers, periods of rain, thunderstorms and high winds does not bode well for any ringing ... and my step daughter, Bex, says it's going to be very warm at the weekend, to make matters worse.

Family commitments accomplished included a trip to Wells and the cathedral and the bishop's palace. We didn't chase round the city looking for all 42 swans!

Swan sculpture - one of six by the Bishop's Palace, Wells.

And to cap it all, I have had to look out for these two "charmers". They are not a threat to any birds in the nets, but they do follow me about quite closely. [H&S trip hazards!]
[Lakeland X puppy belongs to "her indoors" and the 12 year-old DSH tom-cat is "next door's"]

Amber & Misty

When does it stop?

This English summer, this unseasonal summer, this wind of no change.

I have managed a little ringing over the past 12 days. On eight days the nets were open in the early morning, before the wind found its strength, the sun its altitude or the rain its power. Twice the weather got the better of me and twice I had to commit to family matters.

On the 25th, we got the nets up down at the meadows. Nine birds of five species were our reward. It is still not possible to drive round the site for two reasons; the grass is extremely long, too long for my little estate car, and the ground is repeatedly softened by the heavy rain, constantly drying and then being re-wetted. The main stumbling block for us though is the relentless wind that is a feature of the present weather system.

Our reward was the following:
Great Tit 2 - juvs starting PJ moult
Chiffchaff 2 - one a female commencing primary moult (MS=06)
Blackcap 3 - all juvs and potential females
Song Thrush 1 - juv-juv
Dunnock 1 - an adult female with a BP feathering over and a PMS of 13
... and no re-traps.

I have been managing to achieve three to four birds of a morning to ring in the garden, sometimes with just 60' of netting, some times with double that. With 28 new birds to ring over the eight days, a respectable total of 14 species was reached, including a new one, Herring Gull. This was a bit of a cheat as it, a recently fledged bird from the factory roof "next door", clipped my neighbours TV aerial and crash landed in his garden. After a bit of TLC, inclusive of a present of some BTO bling, it was reunited with its parents.

Herring Gull 1
Goldcrest 2 - both juv-juvs
Blue Tit 1 (3) - the new bird was an adult male (6M), the others juvs starting PJ moult
Great Tit 4 - all juvs PJ-ing happily
Long-tailed Tit (2) - both ringed as adults last spring but with out any fledglings with them this time.
Blackcap 3 (1) - all PJ males, mostly 2 ogc and no fat
Wren (2) - a juv plus a 2CY female curtailing her breeding season
Blackbird 2 - a 3JM and a 6F
Song Thrush 3 (1) - mum this time, with 3 more of her former brood

Recently fledged Song Thrush

Robin 3 (1) - all of an age, probably from a third brood in the back hedge
House Sparrow 4 (2) another batch of recent fledglings
Pied Wagtail 2 - male with a 'club foot' & 1 of the off spring
Goldfinch 2 - both 1J's, just able to get from bush to bush
Bullfinch (2) - both from "our nest", one unfortunately hit one of our windows

Recently fledged Pied Wagtail

Adult male Pied Wagtail with 'club foot'

It was de rigeur that I attended the Taunton Flower Show last Friday; the consolation was the 'dog & duck show', the jousting and the Yorkshire Marching Band. If you ever get the chance, go see @the Sheep Show' - very entertaining as well as informative.

Marching Band at Taunton Show

I also had to attend a family wedding in Peterborough - the reception and the drive home took place during some torrential and prolonged thunderstorms, making driving into a setting sun a real hazard. Absolutely knackered but the day was worth while, none the less.

The weather forecasters have promised us warmer and better weather later on this week. Let us hope that it is more settled and conducive to some mist netting. My bones need it, too!

Yesterday was the third anniversary of my starting this personal blog (then known as "Tits and Things"), having started the Ivel Ringing Group blog some 15 months earlier. This becomes blog number 236.