It raineth every day

70 mm since Sunday evening, half of it last night!

Compared to the other day, the Renhold Brook has risen much higher.
The stilling pond that takes the surface water drainage from the new houses is "fairly full" and the flap-valve is now submerged.

The local cats have been having a field day (pun); when I got back from walking the dog, I found this present on the doorstep. M.agrostis.[Short-tailed Field Vole].Water Voles A. terrestris were present before the construction teams moved in. I have only managed to register them once since the landscaping was completed.

 They are telling us that the weather will improve - hope so as we need to get in a CES ringing session to complete the season's task. After that, it's migrant catching time - with few restrictions (e.g. tape lures, amount of net, etc.)

Post-script - Rainfall for the week = 87.5mm, 2x the average for the month.
Total rainfall for August was 139mm - wettest for at least 23 years

Not strictly

Saturday night>Sunday morning - it rained!
However, when I woke up, it had stopped and the wind had gone too. After some humming and haaing, I decided to visit our (Bedford) CES site. Today was the first day of a new period, but we (Ed and I) had talked about doing the CES during the week.

To cut a long story short, I went and put up just 150' of netting for 4 hours. This covered half of the CES site only - and with a start of 8 o'clock, I was not apprehensive of catching much. The sun was out and there were a few fluffy clouds. By 12 noon, the nets were in full sun.

This was the first time that my new dog 'Cerise' was introduced to bird ringing other than in the garden. She turned out to be very well behaved and gave me no problems.

I don't know what's more expensive - having a pedigree 'pooch' or being a bird ringer!

Any road up, here's what I caught:
Great Tit (1) - ringed as a pullus some way away (1st retrapping)
Willow Warbler 2 - both 3M's, fat3, muscle 2
Blackcap 2 - both imm. males
C.Whitethroat 2 (1) - 2 new Euring age 3 & an ad. male carrying a good "fat-load"
Wren 2 - unmoulted juvs
Blackbird (1) - last weeks juv male
Song Thrush 1 - the 2nd juvenile of 2010 here (2 pairs nest within the sub-site)
Dunnock 2 - both new juvs
Greenfinch 1 - a scary juvenile, looked very young
Goldfinch 1 - a young one about to PJ moult

This morning (Monday) was wet! Overnight, a low pressure system passed over, dumping 25mm (1 inch) of rain on us. Walking the dog, I spied 2 Kingfishers making use of the stilling pond on the new estate opposite.

It's an agreeable walk alongside the brook here; the new flower meadows are beginning to establish nicely. Just waiting for the autumn cut - and then we'll be 'whooshing Mipits', all being well.

The view looking back towards the 'new' roundabout (estate entrance).

Sorted!

Up at 05:30 today and left home at 07:00. Arrived at South Wing for 07:20 to find where Tavistock Ward was - even though I've been in there before. Usual gubbins - 'Who are you?', wait, 'Come with me', wait, 'Get undressed and take a seat', wait, 'My names Mr. Setti'. Aha - we-re getting somewhere. 'Sign here. Thank you. I'll see you in 20 minutes'. More waiting.

08:57 - into theatre, jabs, disinfectant, local, tourniquet, incision, poke about a bit, "chisel", waggle finger, close up, dressing - 09:21 in recovery. However, it was another hour before I left the ward, having had two coffees and a plate of biscuits, a de-brief and a longed-for pee. Ring Jenny and wait for her to pick me up (she was out walking the dog). Home shortly after 11:15.

Now I should be able to extract little birdies without too much trouble!

Been catching Sparrows lately. At times there were over 40 birds on the lawn. But it's too small to put my whoosh net out so I have to rely on an old 30' net. I don't mind as handling 6-8 birds at a time is reward enough. Most of the birds are juveniles and for the last 2 weeks the numbers undergoing a full moult has increased to nearly 100%. The pictures below show a very recent juv undergoing full moult (score =13) with severe growth bars in the tail, showing envigourated growth from the moment when the heat evapourated and the rains came - just 14 days ago.

Not much doing

Apart from sallying out to get a few 'early season' Reed Warblers, everything else has come from the garden.
Having 'mended' (a euphomism in reality) a 30' net and put out more food for the blighters, visitors were always quick off the mark. However, as I have to ring on one side or the other, there is plenty of airspace for those that intend to keep their freedom.

It wasn't all bad as I managed over 50 birds of 9 species in 5 mornings. Top was 15 Starlings, all 3J's. Next came House Sparrows with 12, 2 of them new adults and a retrap juv from 2 weeks earlier. Then, in third place, Great Tit with  7 new youngsters and 4 adults that were all in their 2nd CY. Of the 5 Blue Tits, 3 were adults, all new. After that, it's 3 Blackbirds, 3 Greenfinch, 2 Goldfinch and singleton Dunnock (a retrap) and a heavyweight Wood Pigeon.

Many of the "baby" Starlings were extremely noisy and living up to their nick-name of "flying shit"; hands under the tap every time! This one in particular was a so-and-so. And it was well and truly entangled in the net ... and a fidget.

Quiet, at last!

Surprise early doors

Having been up early the previous two days, it was no surprise that I woke early again, despite the alarm clock being turned off. Having used the two garden poles yesterday (see here), I re-erected the 20' just as there was a glimmer on the eastern horizon.

A wash and a shave later, a pair of Starlings had attempted to make for the bread on the lawn before 6am (BST). They were processed and I indulged in a little more toiletry before looking out the window, net checking. An all grey bird with a black head was hanging there and I shot down stairs quickly. It turned out to be a 5M (2CY) Blackcap, the first of the year for the garden.

T

Today's Blackcap X447901, 5M, 1 ogc, wing 75, 16.8 g, fat 1, muscle 2. @06:30BST

Then, after a breakfast of yoghurt and oat flakes, it was off to the park to lead a guided walk for spring migrants.

Weather wise

Garden ringing has been rubbish this last week. Either the sun was out "24/7" so to speak, or we were "blessed" with a stiff easterly breeze.

So it was just 10 birds, of which 5 were new.
Blue Tit (1)
House Sparrow 3 (2)
Greenfinch 1
Goldfinch 1 (2)

Bird (sp)ringing!

After the snow storm had turned to slush, I just had to put a net up. Today, Sunday, is a good deal warmer than yesterday, despite it having been sunny then. It's what is known as "a grey day" at present.

 

Initially, two new male Chaffinches, both 2CY, fell in. The second bird was much heavier and was in far better condition than the first. It had little fat and was 17.5% lighter than its congener.Next up was a female Dunnock. I gave her a good blow and she revealed a brood patch at stage 2 (well defined - almost).

Next up was a 5F Goldfinch from 3 weeks ago. Then, the above Wren. I had seen her, for she too was getting a brood patch, in the bottom of a Berberis pulling away at something. Initially, I thought it was a bent and the bird in question was the above Dunnock, but with the bins I could see it was a Wren, pulling away at something fatter. The bird kindly moved to where there was more light and unobscured from my vision. Lo and behold, it was hacking away at a long, fat, pale green, juicy caterpillar! Eventually, after cutting it in two, it ate it - with difficulty. Luckily, I netted her as she returned to the shrubbery for more; last November, she was a 3F.

Todays tally for a couple of hours effort was:

Wren (1)

Dunnock (1)

Greenfinch 1

Chaffinch 2

Goldfinch 1 (1)

A relaxing morning after yesterday - looking after the grandchildren for 10 hours while No.2 son moved into his new house. Now the sun is out and I can put on my wellies and go and top up the feeding station.

For the second time ...

... this month, I caught a Collared Dove. More often than not, they forcefully manage their way out of the net. These two times, I've been on hand, seen them go in - and pounced! Today's victim!

As a by-catch (I kid myself), I caught four Goldfinch, three new and one recapture. The retrap was a bird of last year and all the others, 2 males and a female, were all full on adults. The bird in the photo gave me "an old fashioned look" before I let it go.

The Snowdrops have been out for over a fortnight now. These are genuine Yorkshire ones.

 

The weather forecast promises a deteriorating situation for the coming week. I've another busy schedule so I won't be so miffed if ringing is off the cards!

Another tough old bird is Jenny's mum. She's got to hang in there for another 10 hours until the morning - when she will have reached the ripe old age of 95! Happy Birthday, Margaret.

Great Garden Bird Watch

One hour, starting from half-light, produced 44 birds of 12 species in my 100' x 30' garden, close to the edge of town.

Wood Pigeon 1
Collared Dove 4
Dunnock 3
Robin 1
Blackbird 5
Song Thrush 1
LT Tit 3
Blue Tit 2
Starling 2
House Sparrow 9
Chaffinch 1
Goldfinch 12

The RSPB intend to publish the final results on their website in about 8 weeks time .

A better day was had by all

The penicillin capsules are starting to have an effect. The cough is drying up and so is the mucus.
The weather has been "quiet", some would say, grey skies, light winds but low temps. This is ideal in some ways for catching birds.

Today, they took another catch at the Blunham trap and caught a lot of new Gadwall. Later in the day, I went over to Chris Z's and loaded IPMR on his computer and set it all up. We then put in the last two catches.

In the garden, it was painfully slow. A new female Great Tit, a species not seen for the best part of three months, a 5F Blackbird that sneaks in down the side passage but doesn't go beyond the Apple tree (i.e. as far as a net) and a 5M Goldfinch. However, a fresh party of Lottis, numbering six, appeared at the top of the garden, on their way to next door's feeders in a small but thickly branched Field Maple. Nine new birds for the day.

A call from the park to say that Danny had picked up a male Pochard with a ring on. It was a Blunham bird (can't tell you when it was ringed because we're only just inputting the records, backwards historically). It was a big bird (wing of 222) but was drastically underweight (at 690 gms) after the recent bad weather of prolonged ice-over and snow cover. While in the park, I made the bi-daily Bird Aid drop off in the Rough.

Yesterday, Lee Evans (UK400Club) read somecolour rings of the Barnacle Geese at Willington. These turned out to be birds that are faithful to this area and have not been seen "wandering around the countryside". LGRE manged to read 20 out of 33 he noticed. At the end of last October, another bird-watcher managed to read 13 c-r, none of which Lee recorded this week.Just two of these had been involved in a "local wander".

Minus 6C

As the sun was shining the last two days, put a 20 foot up across the garden during the warmer part of the day. My rotten cold was improving, and I felt I could cope.

Yesterday was the poorer of the two days. Two 2CY Blue Tits, of opposite sexes, one a re-trap. Also, two Blackbirds, one a male born locally in 2007 and a new '6' female that was in the process of regrowing all of the feathers on the right side of its tail. The male weighed 124g and the female 126g; that's 30-40% heavier than in the breeding season.

Today was more eventful. To start and finish, new, unringed, female House Sparrows; the main period for catching this species is May-June-July when they are nesting/fledging. Next, my favourite, an adult male Goldfinch, this one with a wing of 85mm and weighing 18g (fat2) at half-past ten!  Then a cheeky juvenile Wren, sexed as a female on size, a retrap from November, with 3 ogc.

The the surprise, a Redwing - the first to be ringed in the garden in 13 years. It was a '5' (2CY), with 5 ogc and it was regrowing its inner tertials. A good weight at 63.5g (We've caught then in the Fens with starvation weights of 48-50 gms). We often see them passing over as they leave the fields just to the north of us in the early mornings. I think I'm right in saying that this is only the third time that they have entered the garden, the same as Fieldfare, and always in hard weather.

The afternoon was quiet with just a re-trap 2CY female Blackbird and the second, new Song Thrush of the week; these have been healthy, too, with weights of 82g and 79g. Today's bird had just 2ogc, which were very ginger in colour compared to the rest of the bird. I would have liked to photograph it but the light was going fast.

Snow joke

Our second snowfall of the winter, just 2-3 cm so far, although it's trying to snow again. Traffic reduced to a trickle outside (on the unofficial northern by-pass). We have been lucky so far - the situation is far worse in other parts of the UK.

Did manage to ring some birds in the garden yesterday before the snow came. It was warmer than the day before (Monday, when I ringed the feeding station in the Rough) with only a slight breeze. It was a pleasure to catch the Song Thrush, which had a healthy weight of 84 gm. Then there were 8 Long-tailed Tits, a mum, a dad & an auntie, plus 2 sons and 3 daughters. There were nine not long ago, so one must've "copped it". The rest consisted of a retrap Blue Tit and a retrap Spuggie with a new adult male Starling and a 2CY male Greenfinch.

The light was still poor at 09:00

Today, I scaped away some snow along the shrubbery in the half-light and then put down a mix of sunflower hearts, mixed millet seeds, black sunflower, maize, wheat and sultanas. The first bird to arrive just after 8 o'clock was the Song Thrush, followed by a male Blackbird, a Robin, two Dunnocks, a female Chaffinch, a Blue Tit, a Goldfinch, two House Sparrows, a Greenfinch and finally 3 Collared Doves. By now it was close to 9 o'clock. More birds joined later in the morning, and, having bought some apples, I sliced them in half and put them out as well.

Passing the Rough (Priory CP)

Later this morning, I had to go and fill the feeders in the rough and put some seed down on the deck, a job that needs doing very two days.

As I write this at midday - it's starting to snow again!

How long will the buses keep running today?

First blood!

A Happy New Year to one and all!

After leading a guided walk down at Priory CP this morning (see here), just had to start off the new year with a pair of pliers in my hand! What did I get first of all? The ringer's nightmare - 'flying shit'. This young woman was very gobby, too. Ah, well. Can't be helped.

(Starling, age 5F, wing 126mm, weight 77g)

Brrr....

Bitterly cold last night when we went down to -6C; today wasn't much better as we couldn't quite get to zeroC.

Not much in the way of bird activity after the dawn raids by the pair/trio of Dunnocks, the winter resident Robin and one of the two male (unringed) adult Blackbirds. A lone male Goldfinch (ringed) and a juvenile female (ringed) Greenfinch attended the upstairs restaurant briefly before it all went quiet.

Nets up. Four House sparrows messing about in the tops of the trees. Nets partially visible against the clear blue sky. The moderate to strong north-easterly wind has gone and been replaced by a light/gentle westerly. One of the Collared Doves sits pensively and all fluffed up in the Crab Apple tree by the garage. Hope its not sick; shouldn't be - there's plenty of food laid out.

Still nothing in the net. Have to pop round to see my younger brother in the residential home and take his mail, etc. Just furl the nets while I'm gone; whoops, got a 1CY male re-trap Blue Tit. Biggy with a 66.5 wing and weight of 11.8g; no probs there, then.

Back and unfurled the nets. I'll go and run through the three quarters of a million plus viruses, trojans and malware on the computer in the mean time. Time for a coffee and a sandwich, just check the net, oh a 'sparrow' has just flown in, better take it out. "Blow me down with a feather!" (polite version), I says to myself, loudly.

It's only another female 'Bavarian' Blackcap. I'll get this away quickly. Ringno ...845, wing 73.5mm, weight 20.8g, fat 2, muscle 2, tail shape adult/rounded. Take a couple of quick photographs while I'm at it.
[The one on the 8th was a 3F, wing 77, wt.20.7g, F3 M2]

I have three Leycesteria bushes, one in the front right and two up the side but none in the back. I do have 5 or 6 seedlings sprouting in the front gravel, ready for setting in the back, though. Originally given to me by a 'C' ringer when I moved here, they are attractive to Blackcaps, Robins and Blackbirds with their syruppy 'seeds'.

Just finishing up the blog and a third bird for the day - an adult, poss 'continental', female blackbird, doing OK so far (wt. 111g)

Bingo!

Withdrawal symptoms now departed.
See the group blog for details of todays 'smash hit'

The flags are flying

It's just a bit breezy out there as the view from my bedroom window looking towards the 'new-build' suggests.

Out the back, i.e. sitting in the kitchen with a cup of fresh coffee in hand, sixteen Goldfinches are already hard at work, eating their way rapidly through another bag of sunflower kernels. And nine Collared Doves chime in as well a bit later one. Don't they realise I'm a hard-up pensioner these days?

Here's a poor shot of some of them - which reminds me, I must gee up the window cleaner.

 

Blast!

Although the 'currant bun' is shining, the wind is still greater than Beaufort 4 and the nets are flailing about. They are furled and tied back but that hasn't stopped them from advertising their presence. It also looks as if this month is going to be as wet as July was.

For the last week or so, the garden has been full of birds in the early mornings. There are 10-12 Goldfinches with smaller parties following on while I sit there eating my breakfast; there could well be 30 different birds and quite a few are ringed among the early risers. Collared Doves now number 9 individuals all at once, some on the feeders, some on the ground. With plenty of food on the deck, why do they hog the feeder trays, ports and lids? The Starlings are back after a lean couple of months, gardenwise. Up to now, they have been feeding on the verges and the large landscape areas around the 'new build' and the autumn sown fields beyond.

I haven't seen a Great Tit in the garden for 'yonks' but a couple of Blue Tits come mid-morning. The 'Lottis' come regularly too but are ignoring the fat-balls and feeding on the various roses instead. With day-time temperatures up around 14-15C, I'm not surprised that there are insects to be had still. Another new-comer is the Magpie, coming once or twice daily but not on the feeders or bothering to go down on the deck. It has been a couple of years since we regularly saw one of those in the garden. The same goes for Sparrowhawk although we did have one on consecutive days in early autumn; he left empty handed.

Down below on the lawn and in the shrubbery, the several Dunnocks and the lone Robin clear the small seeds and the Robin gets an extra treat in the form of sultanas that I put out for "him" and the Blackbirds. The latter are non-existant at the moment and I am beginning to think that they have emigrated to 'warmer climes' in southern counties and that the 'continentals', which we have been catching at the country park, are not yet being forced into gardens. The Hawthorn trees are still laden with berries and there are plenty of other fruits as well.

One old friend, living not too far away, is getting Blackcaps and even had 3 males the other day; previously he was seeing females. The Whitebeams and Crab-apples are laden with fruits along our road, just ripe for a party of Waxwings! - but we won't be seeing them until after Christmas.

Grey pattern

Tues: the grey skies seem to have made the birds look for more easily accessible food sources. Grey days keep the insects inactive and harder to find, hence the alternative feeding strategy for "them boidies". This works to my advantage - if I want to ring some birds in the garden.

Net up as usual - Long-tailed Tit 8, Blue Tit 3 (3) [one of these retraps is Martin's from Renhold], Starling 2 [both females, of different ages] & Goldfinch 4 [all young, one definitely 'on the move'].

I always think that the pattern of the underside of a Starling (this one is a first year post PJ moult) is fantastic. At this age the "arrowheads" are bold, but next year they will be smaller and more delicate.

Changes expected

On the last day of September, myself and Davy Howes netted the 'rough'. The weather was fair but overcast. The forecast for the weekend was wind and rain, the latter having been absent for a month now. There are still several Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs passing through, so we thought we'd have a go. As a back-up, we also put a net across the feeders.

We managed a grand total of 38 birds, 14 of which were tits we caught by the feeders (8 Great & 6 Blue).
Highlights were:    3 immature Blackcaps on the move, a large male Chiffchaff and a couple of Treecreepers.
The Chiff was on the large size (64mm wing) but not grey enough for an abietinus and too big in the wing for one. In all we had 12 species.

Davy had just come back from a ringing course in the Isle of White. He brought back greetings from some of the trainers and trainees that I have known well in the past. They had also had a slow time of it during this year's migration and numbers caught were down considerably, mainly because a Swallow roost did not form.

Two days later:     I swapped the 30' net on the east side of the garden for a 40' on the west side (the other side of the feeders). My reward was 4 Goldfinch (the first for quite a while), a young Blackbird, a young Starling, a young House Sparrow and a couple of Blue Tits. The grass is very dry and the lawn has cracks in it; this didn't stop me putting the mower over it as they keep telling us that we're going to get some rain soon. I'll believe that when it happens!

The change in the weather should mean a change in the birds. The lack of rain has meant a lack of birds in the garden especially.

Underwing under net

For a week or so, I have been finding lines of moth eggs cemented to patches of the garden net, which is up permanently, but furled most of the time.

So one night, about 11 o'clock, I went out with a bright torch and caught one in the act. A quick capture, indoors to look it up, easy-peasy, Large Yellow Underwing. In the morning, I took this photograph.


Other feats of endurance, especially as I've had a severe cold (man-flu) all week, were to put up the new peanut feeder and cut away the nettles and other nasty things growing where 10 months ago there was bare ground (we'd cut the trees/bushes down). Look how they've grown; the Elders are well over 2 metres.