Slow down

Summer's coming, so they say. Not that we've seen any of it so far. The last fortnight has been slow to say the least, with just the one day when there was some sort of flurry. It was last Thursday, when we didn't have to go to the supermarket - because we went on Wednesday in stead. Typical.

I have ringed 38 new birds over the 16 days since my last visit, with 12 retraps if I exclude all but the first of the multiple extractions of the Bullfinch clan. [Should start to disperse more widely now].
0, 4, 3, 1, 1, 3, 2, 2, 6, 0, 0/7, 0, 10, 3, 0, 3. That's how it went.

The one uplifting moment - 3JJ Redstart

Jackdaw 1
Blue Tit 3 (3)
Great Tit 2 (2)
Long-tailed Tit 1 - my 1st juv., moulting too.
Chiffchaff 1
Blackcap 8
Wren 3 (1)
Blackbird (2) - a 6F & a 5F
Robin 2
Redstart 1 - the tail was on the previous blog
Dunnock 2
House Sparrow 8 (1)
Goldfinch 1 (1) - a very recent fledgling
Bullfinch 5 (2) - the whole family (spread over)

Now that we are able to access the net-ride sites, the 7 new birds were taken down at the meadows last Tuesday. The grasses are the tallest anyone can remember. Tally was - Blue Tit 1, Chiffchaff 1, Blackcap 2 (1), Wren 1, Song Thrush 1 [a 5M], and Dunnock 1.

The lower crossing place

Now the sun's out from 05:22 until 21:16 and even a blind man can see the nets! What's worse is the bats (brown long-eared) are back out again, wizzing round the nets at dawn and dusk - so they have to be furled until the 'danger' is over.

If 'The Levels' dry out in this warm weather, we may be out catching some warblers the other side of Bridgewater, sooner rather than later! Need to play 'catch-up' - only 500 (or 50%) behind last year's total by now.

PS. I think I've lost some HTML coding as the side bar has slipped to the end of the posts! Ha ha.

Havin' a Brue

I managed to sneak in some ringing before the weather turned and the builders created havoc. The above Song Thrush had been visiting the rockery every morning for some time now but it didn't have a ring on. I knew this must be the "wife" of the male Song Thrush that defends the Elm hedge at the bottom of the garden. She at last fell victim after I moved the 9m net to a place where I had no idea I would catch her. Her brood patch indicated that she has been sitting on eggs for some while and hatching cannot be far off.

The following is one of the pair of Jackdaws that is nesting close by in a neighbours chimney. A very wary pair of birds. I think I'll get the whoosh net out and the rest of the grain shortly after their young fledge. I've tried this trick before - but these Jacks are not the easiest of birds to catch as they are so quick to react ... and escape in the nick of time!


For a couple of days, this pair of Siskins has been 'twittering' up in the Ash trees. I presume that they have been coming to the feeders once or twice a day. It was a pleasant surprise to find them on either side of the net, just as the weather threatened to worsen. He was a splendid 3CY+ bird, while she was a 2CY female with a red and wrinkly brood patch indicative of 'young in the nest'. They were processed quickly as a consequence; the nest site cannot be that very far away, either.



I had a meet with a land agent down on the Somerset wetlands. We walked around some areas where they will let us ring, much of it I had been round before. I was taken into an area where a lot of "re-landscaping" was going on for the eventual benefit of reed-bed birds and mammals; this is relatively dry at the moment but will be re-flooded. The public will be able to view the area from a tower hide but access will be limited (for obvious reasons, i.e. disturbance). They are keen for us to add to the overall species database for the valley in order to improve management and coordination across all the many small and large sites that are now set aside for nature conservation. For the first couple of years we may have to 'rove about' somewhat in order to get a measure of the task ahead.

A couple of typical landscape shots follow but not of our exact net sites.