What's doing? Not a lot!

It has been a tad breezy down this way lately, what with the wind coming from the north-west down the Irish Sea. Although that means the old orchard net is sheltered somewhat, the new orchard net (the orchard is new-ish, not the net) does billow a bit at times. Just have to keep an eye on things, that's all. 

August is the month of the House Sparrows. This year seems to have been a good one for them. A few more and it'll be a 'ton-up'. All youngsters, of course; you won't catch a wily adult hitting the net very often, or even a second time offender amongst the teenage ranks!

Birds of some interest (that means I don't catch them very often) this period include another Collared Dove (makes three this year), a Woodpigeon, a Sedge Warbler, a Garden Warbler and the eleventh Pied Wagtail of the year.

Juvenile Garden Warbler
[note the grey collar]

Juvenile Sedge Warbler
[If it was an adult, it would be very abraded] 

Woodpigeon
[Always fascinated by the shape of their iris]

Altogether, there were 16 species and 63 new birds that were ringed. Ten species also had re-traps, amounting to 31 percent of the tally. This is pretty normal for me and this type of general ringing. Its the same with the Constant Effort Sites programme with which I was associated for many, many years. On the other hand, some ringers/groups target certain species at particular times of the year and their re-traps tend to be year-to-year  controls and a lot less as a percentage of their overall, annual totals. They usually make up for it with many more recoveries!

To the chase! All juveniles unless indicated otherwise.

Woodpigeon 1 - adult

Collared Dove 1 - adult

Wren 3

Dunnock 2 (2)

Robin 8 (2) - r/t adult female 1 year old

Blackbird 2 (2)

Sedge Warbler 1 - only one so far this year

Garden Warbler 1 - a second bird in two weeks! Scarce around here.

Blackcap 3 (1)

Long-tailed Tit 2 (10) - 2 r/t adults, 1 year & 2 years old

Blue Tit 10 (4)

Great Tit 1 (3)

House Sparrow 12 (2) - a new, adult male!!

Chaffinch 1

Greenfinch 1 (1)

Goldfinch 13 (3) - a new ad. male, 2 r/t ad. females, 1 of them caught 967 days ago (December) as a 1CY  

Juvenile Robin undergoing PJ moult 

Juvenile Robin at the end of PJ moult

Juvenile Blue Tit nearing the end of PJ moult

Juvenile Blue Tit - renewing old greater coverts unevenly
[notice that the alula & primary coverts are "original"]

It's 'Pony Week' - so all efforts, ornithological or horticultural, confined to the garden this week. I might be able to do something in the meadows after that, provided the remaining horses/ponies are more interested in grazing than seeing what I'm up to.

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.

Wet & windy Bank Holiday

The weather was very un-seasonal for the August Holiday weekend. On the Friday, it rained - over half an inch's worth (13.5mm). On the Saturday, we had heavy showers on and off throughout the day and on Sunday they only lasted for the morning. The sun appeared but a cold wind sprung up at the same time.

So, I got the forecast about right but, nevertheless, I was able to get in some ringing in the garden at times, mainly by switching nets. I was already resigned to a 'nul' weekend because of the forecast, on top of putting up visiting relations.

Surprise, surprise; it turned out quite fortuitous.


The garden capture list:
Sparrowhawk 1 - post-juvvy female
Collared Dove 1 - a female pushed in by two romantic males
Blue Tit 1 (2)
Blackcap 1 - a fat-free young male
Sedge Warbler 1 - an early morning surprise
Wren (1)
Blackbird 2
Robin (3)
Dunnock 1
House Sparrow 1
Greenfinch 3 - all juv juvs


A surprising mix - 12 new + (6 r/t) of 11 spp.

On the Monday, I was able to get in a couple of hours down at the meadows straight after first light. More ringing was not possible shortly after eight o'clock as the wind shifted round to a point east of north, affecting the nets. The fields had still not been cut for hay when I was there, but "her indoors" said they were being cut in the afternoon when she walked her dog along the track. Just as well since the Purple Moor Grass had been 'Buff Moor Grass' for a couple of weeks now.

The meadow capture list:
Dipper (1) - a juv first caught a month ago, now with a brown 'waistcoat'
Chiffchaff 4
Blackcap 3 (1)
Dunnock 1
Greenfinch 1 - another youngster
9 + (2) of 5 spp.


The young finches are around at last; a sign of better days to come in the garden at the feeders, perhaps.