A stop-go week

The heat has been affecting cable broadband. We are about 4.5 cable miles from the exchange and heat affects our "box" up the road. And there's been alot of traffic, what with schools off and all those sporting events. It's been difficult to download photos on blogs/websites straight off, having to resort to right-clicking instead.

I'm typing this without a toolbar showing- so it's a bit hit and miss [Fixed it!]. Bird wise, only 5 spp this week, all in the garden. Gt. Tit 2, both 3Js
House Sparrow 17 (6), just the 2 adults as a 3 in Sept '08 and 3J in Jly '09
Chaffinch 1, 3J male
Greenfinch 1, a 2CY female with BP
Goldfinch (1).

The local pair of Blackbirds have decided to set up home in the apple tree, 5m away from the back door. She's been busy tearing off bents from my untidy (wildlife friendly) borders.

Temperatures have been in the upper 20s, top score 32C, by day and from 14 to 18C at night.

Leaking pipe in the d/s toilet cost £20 and the patio door jammed due to an "unwound rod" on the shoot bolt system (got it open 3cm before it stuck and it wouldn't go back either).The problem for me was, heavy rain was forecast for Monday coming; another £20 relieved from the back pocket. At least the bloke turned out on a Sunday between the Grand Prix and the footy final.

Sunday (today) was Barnacle goose round-up; it didn't go quite as anticipated. For a start the birds were on the "other lake".

 The pre-round-up 'huddle'

Off we go to find the geese

T

The flotilla passes by.
Ten canoeists and some of us 'pushing' from the bank soon had them penned up. I looked after the retraps. Still 139 retraps and in the region of 150 new birds plus 2 Greylags and 7 Canadas wasn't all that bad. (done my bit - just waiting for newly ringed totals, etc)

Ring (darvic C/U) taken off - had slipped over the bird's foot. 

The bird's foot can now heal after this unusual occurrence.

Ed got a ringing tick or two. 26 birds (Bargos) flew and 2 stayed put on an island. 10 Crossbills over north.

Ed married this Canada Goose

Retrap birds - '03 - 42%, '04 - 46%, '05 - 59%, '07 - 82% of the original number ringed
7 years old + = 11 birds
7 years old =6
6 years old + = 22
6 years old = 1 (ringed very few young)
5 years old + =32
5 years old = 36
3 years old + = 36
3 years old = 0 (no young ringed - parents and broods escaped)

Next stop - an old dirty loft for Swifts!

Whether? or Weather?

Was pencilled in to give a ringing demonstration to the local Watch group at their base in the Marston Vale. Ha,ha.

Nineteen millimetres of rain from midnight to noon and a Force 4-5 northerly put the kibosh on that happening! That's the Renhold Brook opposite my house - running full to bursting.

Watched the birds coming and going, feeding in the back garden instead. It's a start of a new week for the local garden bird survey. As I'd never done it before, I dug out my ST80HD and tried to read a few rings. That's harder than you think. I did manage to "observe" a Goldfinch and a Dunnock, both of which I had trapped a fortnight ago.

I did also have a go at digiscoping - and decided that it's a bit more difficult than you first imagine. My camera is an old Fugi F610 compact, which I just stuck in the rubber surround to the eyepiece.

The first shot was of one of the five Greenfinch feeding on the "waste" sunflower hearts that the Goldies scatter everywhere. The 'Greens' have only just started to reppear in the last few days, so I suspect that there is a bit of return migration going on - at last.

Here is the brook from the same spot - after the water level had subsided back down to a more normal winter level:

Let's hope that that is the last of it!

If you're interested ...

Went over to Blunham today to ring last night's catch in the duck trap. For a fuller picture, please go to http://ivelringinggroup.blogspot.com/2009/12/duck-day.html .

"What have you got there?"

A good show!

Last weekend, 12 of the county's ringers (this includes 7 trainees) managed to cover the 3 CES sites plus another major site and a garden. In total, they caught 228 birds of 26 species, of which 39 were re-traps. The greater proportion of the new birds were juveniles, as you would expect at this time of year. Well done to all.

For those interested, here are the totals (retraps in brackets):
Wood Pigeon 1, Green Woodpecker 1, Wren 7 (4), Dunnock 6 (4), Robin 7 (2), Blackbird 5 (2), Song Thrush 1 (1), Sedge W. 11, Reed W. 35 (3), Lesser 'throat 1, Whitethroat 16 (2), Garden W. 7 (1), Blackcap 16 (2), Chiff 6, Willow W. 1, LTT 8 (6), Blue T. 24 (9), Great T. 5 (1), Treecreeper 3, Jay 1, House Sparrow 3 (2), Chaffinch 6 (1), Greenfinch 3, Goldfinch 1, Bullfinch 6 (2), Reed Bunting 3.