A fortnight later ...

 Time flies when you're having fun. My fun has had to be split between getting the garden back into shape, now that we've had some significant rain, and getting out ringing. Actually, much of my time has been spent in the garden, either strimming and raking, treating the Horse-tail, mowing, light pruning, hedge trimming or ringing some birds.  

The highlights from the latter have been the catching of two parties of Long-tailed Tits. The first contained five new birds, all youngsters under-going a full moult (one of those odd UK species that does this), plus two adults with consecutive ring numbers that were not of my doing. Two days later, I caught four more youngsters, and then, a week after the initial encounter, two more ringed adults, and two juveniles from the original session. It turns out that all four of these adult birds were ringed at the same time, back in late October last year, in friend John's garden the far side of the village (approx. 2 km away)  

So here are the results from an hour or two most days, once the kittens have come in for their breakfasts. There is still not a lot of movement.
Blue Tit 1 (2)

Great Tit 2

Long-tailed Tit 9 + 4 "controls" (see above)

Chiffchaff 2 - local birds?

Wren 2 (1) - the retrap was a "first brood", the others more recent

Dunnock 4 (2) - all juvs

House Sparrow 7 (2) - mainly incidental to trying for the next species 

Pied Wagtail 7 (3) - the main target species, as they are still nesting nearby

Chaffinch 1 - juv

Greenfinch 3 - moulting male & female plus a 'youth'

Goldfinch 3 - freshly fledged juveniles

Young Pied Wagtail (M.a.yarelli)

House totals = 11 species, 41 new birds, 10 re-traps & 4 'controls'.
Oh! And the Sparrowhawk has been in twice. That's according to the heaps of feathers from two unlucky Collared Doves.

I have also been able to get down to the meadows, twice on my own and once with company. Quantity low, quality high. Birds not caught include two Green Sands, a couple of Dippers, more Kingfishers, several Whitethroats, Swallows and martins and the (three) Little Egrets currently there on a daily basis. Would love to catch and ring a full adult Egret. It has been done!

The Himalayan Balsam is flowering well down by the river and the bees are busy pollinating it, making sure there will be a plentiful supply of seed for next year. The Rose-bay Willow-herb is also coming into flower, a plant I much prefer.

Rose-bay

Today's photos are all from this sub-site.

Young female Kingfisher

Young female Chiffchaff (starting PJ moult)

young Sedge Warbler (fat score 30)

Kingfisher 3 (1) - all juveniles; "and still they come!" (10 so far)

Chiffchaff 7 - all juveniles, mostly males

Blackcap 1 - a 2CY male bird that hasn't started moulting; still breeding?

Sedge Warbler 1 - second bird here this year; fat score of 3 (tracheal pit almost full) and 12.6 grams in weight/mass; "on it's way south to Senegal (?)" This bird could easily put on another 10 grams before it is ready to fly out over the Atlantic in a non-stop flight to West Africa.

Wren 1 (1) - young males

Dunnock 1 - a juv-juv

Grey Wagtail 3 - new species for the year; these were all juveniles

one of the 3 young Grey Wagtails

Farm totals = 7 species, 17 new & 2 re-captures.

There are still plenty of birds to come but I won't wish my life away just yet!
Back soon.