CES Visit 5 - Priory Country Park

Todays bird ringing session - CES visit 5 at Priory Country Park - was dominated by juvenile birds.

41 birds of 13 species, 32 new & 9 retraps (retraps in brackets).

Chiffchaff 4 (2) - 5 of these were juveniles
Great Tit 4 (0) - all 4 juveniles
Wren 1 (1)
Blue Tit 7 (0) - all 7 juveniles
Long Tailed Tit 1 (0) - a juvenile
Bullfinch 1 (0) - a juvenile
Dunnock 1 (2) - of these 2 were juveniles (the other being a retrap adult)
Blackbird 4 (0) - 4 new juveniles
Robin 2 (1) - including 1 new juvenile
Blackcap 4 (2) - including 1 new juvenile
Greenfinch 1 (0)
Chaffinch 1 (0)
Song Thrush 1 (0) - a juvenile

That's a total of 27 juveniles. Here are some of the cast:

Above: A juvenile Blackbird on the left and an adult female on the right for comparison.

Above: A juvenile Song Thrush - note all the thorn shaped markings on the wing.



Above: A juvenile Chiffchaff.



Above: A juvenile Robin (left) and adult Robin (right) for comparison. It will be a while yet before the baby Robin gets its own red breast - it has to replace and grow more feathers before that happens.

Above: A juvenile Bullfinch

Last weekend, we made a visit to 'the crescent' where we caught 20 different adult Reed Warblers moving between the reed bed and surrounding vegetation. Of the other 10 birds we caught, of only note was our first juvenile Blackcap of the year at this site.

Now to hope the wind dies down a bit so I can make the most of my weekend ringing activities.

Turdus viscivorus

Today at Sandy Smith Nature Reserve (SSNR) the first bird of the day was a Chaffinch. It turns out this Chaffinch was ringed somewhere other than SSNR and by somebody else other than me (it did have a British ring on it).

A site ringing first came in the afternoon - Starling. Presumably coming to the peanuts.



Above: Starling

Based on observations, a new net site was operated and it caught 1 bird...



Above: Mistle Thrush - Turdus viscivorus

Another site first and a ringing 'tick' for me (my 4th self caught tick - all of which have been at SSNR). I couldn't have done it without help so thanks go to Amanda. More details can be found here

Today's totals: In order of appearance - new (retraps)

Chaffinch 4 (0) and 1 control
Dunnock 1 (3)
Great Tit 1 (4)
Coal Tit 1 (0)
Greenfinch 1 (4)
Blue Tit 2 (0)
Goldfinch 4 (1)
Starling 1 (0)
Mistle Thrush 1 (0)

25 birds of 9 species.

Yesterday, I was at Priory Country Park. On the non-bird front, I saw a Stoat! On the bird front, in order of appearance, ringing stoatals were: New (Retrap)

Blue Tit 9 (9)
Long Tailed Tit 0 (4)
Dunnock 1 (4)
Blackbird 1 (0)
Song Thrush 1 (0)
Bullfinch 2 (2)
Great Tit 11 (8)
Wren 0 (1)

53 birds of 8 species.



Above: One of four Bullfinch.

Priory Country Park CES Visit 7

Today (03/07/11), the new CES period started so I decided to squeeze in Visit 7 of 12. I had high hopes after my success at Sandy Smith Nature Reserve yesterday (click here for more details).

The wind was virtually non existant for once. It was very sunny to start with the second half of the session very cloudy.

In order of appearance, the totals were: 35 birds of 11 species: (reptraps in brackets)

Great Tit 1 (0) = 1 [a juvenile]
Dunnock 8 (3) = 11 [8 juveniles]
Wren 1 (1) = 2
Blackcap 5 (1) = 6 [5 juveniles]
Robin 3 (1) = 4 [all juveniles]
Chiff Chaff 4 (0) = 4 [3 juveniles]
Reed Warbler 1 (0) = 1 [a juvenile]
Whitethroat 2 (0) = 2 [1 juvenile]
Chaffinch 1 (0) = 1
Blackbird 1 (1) = 2
Bullfinch 1 (0) = 1 [a juvenile]



Above: A juvenile Bullfinch.

My high hopes didn't get realised but I have no grounds for complaint! Thanks to DH for helping and to DK & DB and later JM for stopping by for a chat.

In the snow at Cardington

Though today started out with snow still on the ground, hard and icy, a thaw has at last set in. Temperatures reached 3 degrees Centrigrade by 1pm.

Small numbers of Fieldfares were around the area, a Buzzard flew over, two Marsh Tits were in the bushes. There seemed to be fewer Blue and Great Tits around, which was reflected in the ringing totals.

Between 10:30am and 1:50pm, 13 new birds and 11 retraps (shown in brackets below) were caught:

• Blue Tit 2 (1)
• Bullfinch 1
• Goldfinch 4 (1)
• Greenfinch 2
• Long-tailed Tit 1 (4)
• Marsh Tit 1
• Robin 1 (1)
• Song Thrush 1
• Dunnock (3)
• Great-spotted Woodpecker (1)

The female Bullfinch (see left) was only the 2nd ringed at the site this year (the first being ringed in May).

The retrap Great-spotted Woodpecker was first ringed on 30th October.


It was good to actually retrap a Goldfinch at last - this was the first bird retrapped, with a total of 27 now having been ringed so far this year.



Lastly, the Marsh Tit (see left) was the 2nd ringed at the site so far this year.

Two days from Priory

With rain persisting through much of the daylight hours on Saturday, ringing was obviously dropped from the wekend program. Looking out at first light on Sunday, it was apparent that we would have to ring somewhere with a bit of shelter. So we, of three different rankings, had a makeshift session at the back of "the sheep pen".

The main accomplishment was picking up several young birds, evenly split between Blackbird and Robin.
So the tally was 10 new birds and 9 re-traps as under:
Blue Tit 1
Great Tit (1) - this had 'moved house' from the CES area
Blackcap (1) - a 5M
Garden Warbler 1 - a 5F
Whitethroat (1) - another 5M
Wren (1)
Blackbird 4 (2)
Robin 4
Dunnock (3) - oldest, a 4F in July '08

Female Blackcap with "gunge" from feeding her youngsters.

Bank Holiday Monday took us back to CES, visit 4/12. My 'C' ringer from Bucks joined us for some practice in extraction and looking at "funny little birds". [He spends much of his free time checking birds of prey and ringing things in boxes].

Regular Ed with 'newby' Dave (but permit numbers say otherwise)

We were lucky enough to catch seven 3J's, considering the conditions; 1 Dunnock, 3 Robins, 1 Blackbird & 2 Greenfinches.


Young Robin and young female Greenfinch

The best moment for me was catching both of a pair of LESWH, that had arrived about three weeks ago. You never know when these are around because of the very short song period of the males and their 'hushed' contact calls.

Lesser Whitethroat (2CY female [5F])

Ed proudly presented us with the 12th species of the day, a 2nd year Reed Warbler; note the abrasion.

Immature male Reed Warbler - prospecting?

Today's tally was a modest tit-less 23, 16 new and 7 re-traps.
Long-tailed Bushtit 1
Chiffchaff 1 - a breeding female
Blackcap (1) - nesting female
Lesser Whitethroat 2 - a pair
Whitethroat (2) - a pair with young nearby
Reed Warbler 1
Wren 1 (1)
Blackbird 1
Robin 3 (1) - re-trap male was ringed as a '3J' exactly 3 years ago!
Dunnock 1 (2) - one time juveniles from '04 and '07
Greenfinch 3 - 2 juveniles and a female novice breeder
Bullfinch 2 - both 2CY females

Female Bullfinch

Because of the gentle/moderate westerly, a lot of insects were been blown off the willows. To our delight, we were entertained by the comings and goings of 150 to 200 Common Swifts for much of the morning. And I nearly forgot; something has been nobbling our nestlings. The evidence was found in the middle of the rack.

[Click on picture to enlarge, then click again (+)]

Now that we've managed to get this visit in, we can think about ringing a new site next weekend. We've had 2 "out of season" recce's, so we'll see whether it's worthwhile ... or not, as the case may be.

Bully for us!

At 6.30am Errol, Mike, Jo and myself met at Priory Country Park to find out what birds were around. We weren't exactly rushed of our feet but a few nice birds came our way. The wind was quite still when we arrived but picked up and started to blow the nets by the time they were up! We used the CES line and 2 extras.

Tally for the day was 6 new & 10 retraps:

Wren (1) - male from last summer
Dunnock 1 (3) - one was an 06 juv [1335 days]
Robin (1) - 08 juv
Song Thrush (1) - male from 17 July 08 (5M)
Blue Tit (1) - a 5F
Gt. Tit 2 (3) - all last years birds
Bullfinch 2 - poss a pr of 5's
Greenfinch 1 - a smart 6M

Most of the females were exhibiting signs of losing feathers on their bellies in preparation for the nesting season. One or two of the males were showing signs that they knew the breeding season is coming!



Above: We caught a female Bullfinch first & the male was seen calling nearby at the time of capture. It wasn't until later we caught this male.



Above: Errol couldn't let it go without a stern lecture!



Above: Many birders have observed the dramatic decline in numbers of Greenfinch - even since last year. There is much discussion as to the cause of the decline. It is sad to think that these birds are becoming a rare site in Bedfordshire!



Above: Errol & I both noticed some recent large mammal activity (a new hole in the ground & large amounts of soil) nearby and unusually for Errol, he was first to comment....! Apparently there aren't many records of this type of mammal visiting the park.



Above: This same mammal had left other signs of activity - scratches on logs/branches and the destruction of some of the logs left for insects/grubs. In the photo, the holes in the tops of the logs have been clawed at in search of food. That's a 300mm rule on the log - for comparison.