Moving on

Garden Ringing

The weather precluded going down the water meadows, much as I would have liked. The nets there are set up some distance apart and it would be impractical to supervise them all if a squally shower came through. Meanwhile, my "assistant" is away on CABS duty in Malta.

A little rush of lady Willow Warblers over the weekend, pushing on northwards in a bit of a hurry, going by the fat they were carrying.

Results: 16 new & 6 re-traps

Blue Tit (1), resident, eggy female

Willow Warbler 4, all girls - maybe Scots Lassies, Fat Slags or Norfolk Dumplings? certainly not local.

Blackcap 2, both 2CY boys

Blackbird 1 (1), 

Robin (2), probably a young pair from next door

Greenfinch 4 (1) - [see also below]

Goldfinch 3

Siskin 2, incl. the 1st Juv. of the season
Bullfinch (1), smart 6M 


Escapees - Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook. One of each. What do you expect with a "superfine" set for LBJs? 
The remains of two recently fledged Greenfinches were found on the path by the fruit cage; Sparr suspected as the perpetrator.

The Blackbird I controlled last week was originally ringed back in 2006 as a fledgling. So far, she has survived 2122 days. There is no intermediate history.

Day trip

Took a day off on Friday to go on a coach trip to the Swanage Railway with the volunteers down at the local West Somerset Railway station. I attach a picture on the return journey of some of the reprobates before we boarded .

 

We were taken to the workshops where three 'Battle of Britain' class locos are undergoing "re-ticketing" or restoration. It was a long walk but this was well worth it.  

Post-Valentine's agony

Half term! The grand-children arrived on Tuesday and my priorities had to change. The garden is looking bleak after the frosts but there are signs of spring, with a few Snowdrops out and the crocuses pushing up but not yet open because of the wintry weather. The buds are showing on the Pussy Willow, too. Twelve Redwings have been sitting in the Ash trees and swooping across the garden, looking for the remaining Pyracantha berries as well as any fruits on the Ivy that the Woodpigeons and Blackbirds have missed.
It being half-term, the steam trains on the West Somerset "branch" line have started running again after the mid-winter lay-off, when essential maintenance takes place. Of course, we had to take in the station as part of our walks. This is one of Pete Waterman's locos.
During one of our local tours, we popped in to Carhampton church to view the magnificent rood screen. I was more interested in the large churchyard. This is only cut at the 'back end'; the rest of the year it is allowed to grow naturally and it contains a large variety of common and not so common plants, about 100 in all. The dozen Yew trees are magnificent and were playing host to a group of noisy Siskins and Chaffinches.
The family were leaving on Friday, so I was able to put some nets out. This gave me a chance to show Erin (8) birds close up in the hand. She liked the 'big' Redwings and the 'wriggly' Blackcap; and she was able to name them.
Here's the list of what was caught and ringed (re-trapped):
Blackcap 1 (1)
Blackbird 1
Redwing 4
Dunnock 1 (1) - still they come
House Sparrow 3 (1)
Greenfinch 1
Goldfinch 5
Bullfinch 1 (1)

Total 17 (4)

Yesterday, Denise and I recce'ed an orchard with a view to catching some Fieldfares before they decide to up and go. The wind was against us, billowing the nets, and the sun was also bright. We did manage to suss out the most sheltered part for a future attempt. This will probably be sooner rather than later, as the 400 or so birds could well depart as the temperature is forecast to reach the mid-teens later in the week.
Fingers crossed!

Some merit

Funny old week with the weather so changeable even it didn't know what it was doing from one moment to the next. Yesterday (Sunday) was different, with a howling gale and steady rain night and day ("wet stuff" amounted to 18mm).

A few birds were caught, by 'a few' I mean 26, of which 16 were new. The adults versus juvs turned out to be 50/50, so we are not yet into the hatch-year mega-season. [Then I would expect around 80% juveniles in any one session]

This week's on/off effort produced:-


Blue Tit 4, only 1 juv
GreatTit 3, all juvs, all in the net together
Long-tailed Tit (5), originally ringed 2 weeks earlier when the had shorter wing lengths
Blackcap 1, a juvenile, the 1st this year (above)
Wren 1, another ad. male
Blackbird 2 (2), 2 new juveniles plus 2 males
Robin 1, a juv
Dunnock 1 (1), both ad. males
Goldfinch 1 (2), getting difficult to sort into 2CY or older
Siskin 2, a pair at the nyger feeders (below)


On the nyger theme, somebody needs to import or make the finch socks that they use in the US of A; I think they might prove to work better than our current 2 types of tube feeders.


That one's for the train buffs out there. This weekend a "diesel gala" was held on the West Somerset and this 'Warship class 42', manifestly sporting battleship grey (actually, the undercoat, as it's undergoing a BR livery re-paint), was photographed entering Williton station with the signalman taking the token. "Onslaught" was built at Swindon in 1961 and is one of two survivors, having been de-commisioned in 1972 in favour of the heavier and more powerful 'Western class 52s'. An example of the latter, D1010 "Western Campaigner", is based at the DEPG depot at Williton but is badged up as D1035 "Western Yeoman".

Some migrants

Rubbish pic of male Willow Warbler caught first thing on Sunday.

A bitty week when I have had other commitments. This didn't really affect the ringing as there was little movement of the "target species" - i.e. the birds that come through the garden. I don't think I've much chance of catching Linnet, Sand Martin, Meadow Pipit or Wheatear in the orchard, all of which are pushing through the area at the moment.


Another new species for the garden - 5M/2CY Bullfinch.

A second Willy followed soon after the first. A male Blackcap on passage was trapped on Tuesday and a new female on Sunday; the "winter resident" female was re=trapped on Friday. All of these migrants were in good condition (fat & muscle scores).

The 38 birds ringed this week (and 10 re-traps)were:
Great Tit 2 (1)
Chiffchaff 1
Willow Warbler 2
Blackcap 2 (1)
Wren (1)
Blackbird 3
Robin (1)
Dunnock (1)
House Sparrow 1 (2)
Chaffinch 1 + 1 new fem. with 'scaly leg' not ringed (2nd this year)
Brambling 3
Greenfinch 8 (3)
Goldfinch 14
Bullfinch 1

And for the railway buffs, a shot I took today of the oldest surviving GWR loco in private ownership [Cotswold Steam Group]. The Churchward designed 2-8-0 No.2807 emerged from the Swindon works in 1905 and had a working life of 58 years.

Some Solace at the Equinox

A better week brought about by better weather and some welcome sunshine - for much of the time! The best day in the garden was today, Sunday.

The "semi-resident" female Blackcap spent much of each morning feeding away in the Camellia, now in full bloom (see last week's blog entry); this pissed off the pair of Robins and the result was a draw.

I played about with the nets and the feeders, trying to find the optimum layout in the orchard. Ever hamstrung by the badly cared for and mis-shaped apple trees (nobody thought of reducing the top growth), there are now 4 nets instead of the 2 that worked well when I was able to ground feed the Bramblings and Chaffinches.

The highlights were a male Goldcrest, a second straight forward collybita Chiff (most likely the one that sings from the trees in Union Lane, 5 doors away), a couple of moving Siskins and a 5M Brambling with a very low weight, fat and muscle score that must be on the move, too.


Wing detail of said 2CY Bramblefinch.

Here then is the list of the 16 species handled over the last seven days:
Goldcrest 1
Blue Tit 3 (1)
Great Tit 2
Coal Tit 1 (1)
Long-tailed Tit 3 (1)
Chiffchaff 3 **see below**
Blackcap (1)
Wren (1)
Blackbird 1 (2)
Robin (2) - nesters from other gardens
Dunnock (1)
House Sparrow 3
Chaffinch 1
Brambling 1
Greenfinch 6 (2) + 2 local movers (2km)
King Harry's 12 (5)
Siskin 2

***Stop Press*** Have just caught second Chiff, this one with a wing of 66m, [e6,wp4/5,2=8] with a weight of 13.3g, fat 35, muscle 2; has to be another abietinus.

This weekend is the Spring Gala of the WSR (West Somerset Railway). Just a couple of pics from yesterday.


SR 30777 "Sir Lamiel" [4-6-0 King Alfred class] tender first, passing cleared signal for Williton down platform.


'Brit' 70000 [4-6-2 West Country Pacific] starting up the incline from Williton station to Stogumber. Almost the same view from our bedroom.



Williton station in the early morning sun.
Notice the newly refurbished footbridge ex Trowbridge that was returned and lifted into position by the contractors, TEMA, on Wednesday 16th. Not much ringing done that day. Just need to fit the wooden steps and find £20K for the roof and lighting!

Some tourists

10:40 am and passengers are awaiting the first departure of the year from Williton Station, just a couple of hundred yards/metres from home. The station canopy has been completed and painted, but only just in time. The bases for the overbridge are also finished and the (new) fencing reinstated; it will be November now before the refurbished bridge is lifted into place. This week, the council also took out the unsafe footbridge at Watchet, which will also be replaced during the November closure.

The West Somerset Railway 2011 season got underway on Saturday 19 February. One surprise is the rostering of a visiting locomotive - GWR 4-6-0 no 7812 "Erlestoke Manor" - which will work one of the two steam trains. No 7812 started work by hauling the 10.25am from Bishops Lydeard facing Taunton. Here she is, tender first, entering the station.


"Erlestoke Manor" will continue starting each morning with the first train from Bishops Lydeard, until the Spring Steam Gala. This morning, pulling a full compliment of carriages (inc buffet), it was packed with folk off to Minehead, possibly Butlins, as next week is half term. We did the obligatory waving.

GWR 2-6-2T no 5553 works the Minehead diagram and was the first to arrive at Williton and exchange tokens, seen above before the Manor class loco arrived. There will be four trains a day in each direction 'all this week' (except Monday & Friday) and I look forward to hearing them even as far away as Washford and Sampford Brett.

On the birdy front, I had a flock of 150-200 Siskins together with 20-30 Goldfinch in the Alders along the Doniford Stream between High Bridge and Egrove; they were disturbed by a car coming up the track. I did manage to catch and ring a pair of these diminuitive finches this morning, too. Should be able to catch more of these when the Alder seed runs out sometime next month.

Other news - we have frog spawn in our tiny pond, spotted when fishing out a dead, bloated frog that had four males hanging on to it.

40th anniversary Special

It might seem perverse to many for a railway line to be commemorating the 40th Anniversary of its closure after the Beeching proposals of the 1960’s but that is what happened on January 2nd 2011.

The commemoration took the form of a special First Great Western Diesel Multiple Unit train which left Taunton at 10.40 in the morning and was due to arrive at Minehead at 12.15, returning from Minehead at 15.00 and due into Taunton at 16.37.

Although closed by British Rail in 1971 the Minehead line began to re-open in 1976 and is today the West Somerset Railway, one of the most successful “heritage” railway lines in the country and carrying over 200,000 passengers per annum. WSR trains normally operate from or terminate at Bishops Lydeard, which is four miles from Taunton but it has remained connected to the main line and sees both excursion passenger trains and mainline freight from the national network on an occasional basis. The special train will be both a commemoration of the 40 years since the closure and also the first act in a year of events to mark the 35 years that have passed since the West Somerset Railway story began. The Railway’s annual Spring Steam Gala at the end of March will be built around telling some of the story of the WSR.

While we were waiting for the 'Special' to arrive, a Buzzard perched on the fence, then swooped down on something tiny on the track-side ballast and flew off under the road bridge. It returned a little later and sat on one of the rails under the bridge. Yesterday, I had a fly-by male Peregrine. These now bring my local total to 50 'ticks'. Hopefully this will now grow rapidly since the moving in process is practically finished and I can devote more time to birding and, very soon, ringing again.

Distant view from Williton crossing of PWE gang at "Teddy Bear Crossing"

150 class DMU No.234 approaching Williton

First Great Western DMU stationary at Williton for down token exchange

Cleared Hymek loco 7047 (pulling PWE gang) after up token exchange at Williton

A few days earlier, I treated the family, 4 adults 2 grandchildren and 2 dogs to a round trip to Minehead. A couple of record shots to prove it. And a big hole in the wallet!

My lot as the train approaches

Our 'double-header', 9351 + 88

Flat tyre, perhaps? (S&DJR 88 - "Two Fat Ladies")