Well, September wasn't like other years. Partly my fault, I know, having been away for best part of a fortnight. Now the weather has set in and ringing is off the cards.
Bumped in to old Jack (ex Skomer warden that lives up the road) and he told me he had had a 1CY male Woodchat up on St. Peter's fields earlier last month (that's by the church at the other/western end of the village) while I was away. This is my No.1 UK "bogey bird"! B*****! These are 'once a decade' in this large county. I did manage to see the Lesser Grey near Leiston, (Suffolk) though, and add it to my list, as we just happened to be in the town. This was thanks to a tip-off from my first ringing trainee, Paul Oldfield, who I was to spend a couple of days with during the holiday. Later, at Languard Bird Observatory, I met another two ringers who I had helped to train at Sandwich, Nigel Odin & Tim Bagworth, the latter being this year's warden at the Obs.
Dave Odell stayed over after we got back. He was the county bird recorder for 14 years for Bedfordshire and was lacking Dipper for his year list. A short walk down the road turned this into a positive, and the bird was there the following two days as well. They are always elusive here during August and September (post-breeding moult & dispersal of the young).
Bumped in to old Jack (ex Skomer warden that lives up the road) and he told me he had had a 1CY male Woodchat up on St. Peter's fields earlier last month (that's by the church at the other/western end of the village) while I was away. This is my No.1 UK "bogey bird"! B*****! These are 'once a decade' in this large county. I did manage to see the Lesser Grey near Leiston, (Suffolk) though, and add it to my list, as we just happened to be in the town. This was thanks to a tip-off from my first ringing trainee, Paul Oldfield, who I was to spend a couple of days with during the holiday. Later, at Languard Bird Observatory, I met another two ringers who I had helped to train at Sandwich, Nigel Odin & Tim Bagworth, the latter being this year's warden at the Obs.
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| Inside Landguard Fort |
Now, back to local goings-on. October has started extremely quiet indeed. The final days of September settled for some outward bound Chiffs and a miscellany of the offspring of what were most probably local breeders. No Blackcaps and no Goldfinches, and a background of Robins advertising their (hoped for) winter territories.
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| ICY European Robin |
Blue Tit 7 (1) - a pre-ponderance of small-winged 1CY birds (females??)
Great Tit 1
Chiffchaff 2 - 'dark olive green' males with a 62 wing on the 28th
Wren (1)
Blackbird 1
Robin 1 (3)
Dunnock 3 (1)
Greenfinch (1) +
Goldfinch 18 (11) - all caught over 3 days before we left. X105685, a 4M in post-nuptial moult, was from a snowy January 2011 (unaged).
Total 33 new birds and 18 re-captures of 9 species
One last bit of news - an incoming email and subsequent 'phone call delivered a Hawfinch recovery, some 188 km away in a northerly direction (details not yet received from BTO).
Now to make the most of the bad weather and dye some nets.
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| 1CY Chiffchaff showing the short primary projection (compared with the tertials) |
One last bit of news - an incoming email and subsequent 'phone call delivered a Hawfinch recovery, some 188 km away in a northerly direction (details not yet received from BTO).
Now to make the most of the bad weather and dye some nets.
HI Errol Lovely to hear about all the birds that have been ringed recently and nice to see a close up of the Chiffchaff.
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