Weekend continued

It is still only March, so we shouldn't hope for too much yet.
However, we (Ed and I) did get out to a new site (for us) at Randalls Farm Education Centre by the now defunct Stewartby brickworks. We got there late morning and set about erecting 4 nets around the southern part of the site. This area was a demonstration forestry plot for the Marston Vale and was planted in the 'seventies with a variety of trees to see which grew best and which failed on this heavy Oxford Clay.

The upshot was 13 birds, all of them new. Our current target species is Chiffchaff, as part of a project out of Sheffield University.


However, the object of the exercise was to have a few birds to show the 'Watch' group kids that meet here on the last Sunday of the month.

Chiffchaff 3 - a male & 2 females
Great Tit 2 - possibly a pair
Long-tailed Bushtit 3 - a pair & a helper male
Robin 3 - 2 males, 1 female
Bullfinch 2 - a pair


When pondering where to put one of the nets up, we spied a Buzzard hanging in a Hawthorn bush beside the railway and under a pole mounted transformer. We will never know the cause of death as it could have been (i) a train, (ii) electrocution, (iii) poisoning (unlikely) or (iv) completely natural.


It was long dead and home to a large, black (ground?) beetle and its larvae.

Home in time for tea; a satisfying jaunt in the sunshine.

Feed the Birds

Oct 25th. We of the north journeyed to keep company with they of the south at Stockgrove Country Park. The weather brightened up after a showery start - and the people ventured out. The local RSPB, ourselves, the BTO rep and the Greensand Trust guys all joined together to encourage the visitors to think more about our birdlife. 'Twas a fairly busy day with a steady stream of grown-ups and children, many with their dogs, to our table "down in the woods".

We played our part well with over 50 birds to show the public. With three ringers, three nets and three helpers we managed to put on quite a display with lots of good humour. Lots of kids really enjoying the experience of see common birds close up. Plenty of laughter when the tits retaliated by pecking the ringers! These must be the most photographed birds of the weekend - apart from a Brown Shrike and that Eastern thingy.

The area we utilise is very boggy as there are loads of seepages along the valley just before the stream enters the bigger of two lakes. The trees here are also 60-80 feet high so we rely on birds coming to drink or to bait. Fortunately there are one or two small willows which we can align the nets against. Today it was mainly tits, a few different finches and a lone thrush. A Green Woodie graced us with its presence - but before the third net went up, admittedly.

Checklist = 48 (4) 7 spp. : Blackbird 1, Coal Tit 2, Blue Tit 21 (2), Gt. Tit 18 (2), Chaffinch, Siskin 4, Lesser Redpoll 1.

The Marsh Tits and Nuthatches stayed on the other side (away from the nets), lured by little heaps of seed placed on the fench posts at the junction of the paths. This practice has been going on for as long as I can remember and the birds are habituated to it. Even the Mallard and Moorhen enjoy the spoils. Apparently the Mandarin venture out only under cover of darkness. Our problem is that the other side of the fence is SSSI and we have to get specific permesso from the N.E. Peterboro' office to ring in there.

We shall probably ring here again in another three weeks, and so on throughout the winter.

CES plus

Saturday dawned calm and bright; it stayed that way, too. We had managed to get the nets up the night before - even though we were interupted by a violent thunderstorm which passed directly overhead.

The Wildlife Trust were having an Eco-day in the park, so we opened up and invited visitors to come and see us ringing. With it being holiday time, it was not surprising that the park was exceptionally quiet until we were half way through our allotted time slot.

At first it was a few birders as they finished their 'walk round' and towards the end other interested members of the public, including one recently retired teacher looking for a new hobby.

43 birds was a good tally for the day (2 to be excluded from the CES) with just 6 adults, 3 of them new. Two thirds of the juveniles were now under-going PJ (post-juvenile) moult or had finished, the rest were still very much "babies".



Above: Errol & Sabrina chatting with visitors about ringing.



Above: Errol showing a visitor a juvenile wren (one of 7 caught).



Above: Although not demonstrated here, it was fascinating to see a german ringer (Sabrina), who had joined us, handling the birds 'upside-down' (in the reverse grip). Sabrina has a juvenile male blackcap (undergoing its post juvenile moult with a part brown & black head) in the British standard ringing grip. This is just one of several differences between British and foreign ringing schemes.

Summary for the day (ad/juv/r-t): Wren 0/7/0, Dunno 0/4/0, Robin 0/3/0, Blabi 0/4/0, Sonth 0/1/0, Reewa 0/3/1, White 1/2/0, Blaca 2/4/2, Chiff 0/2/1, Bluti 0/1/0, Greti 0/1/1, Goldf 0/3/0.