Rarity

I should have gone ringing early Saturday morning but I went birding instead because conditions looked right for a good bird or two (mizzle, low cloud and falls of migrants all down the east coast). There were some decent birds around the county (skuas etc) but the best I could manage was a Hobby. Today it didn't feel anything like as 'rare' (warm, dry, only slightly overcast) but that didn't stop me catching one.

Rarity is of course a relative concept but sadly that label now fits the poor old Willow Tit. Poecile montanus has taken a hammering in the last few years and I haven't seen or heard one round these parts for ages, until this morning that is when I first of all heard that once familiar buzzing call and then found this little beauty in the bramble net ride.

Welcome appearance of juveniles

A few CES (constant effort site) reports have flagged up low levels of juvenile birds in the last sessions at a time when historically they should represent a high proportion of birds caught. It was quite encouraging therefore to get a nice range of juveniles earlier this week at the sewerage works. This is something of a Whitethroat stronghold and the catch included several recently fledged individuals like this one in very fresh plumage.

Early Moult?

 While ringing at Watermead  I was surprised to trap this adult male Willow warbler that was undergoing active moult. This seems early to me!

It is always nice to trap Lesser Whitethroat, possibly my favourite bird.

In the hand I thought it had a white crescent in the upper eye, although I am less certain when I look at this photo. It had very abraded PP and TF. The 5th TF had no white tip although it was abraded. It was a female with a BP of 2. Aged as a 4 , but I suspect it is a 5.

Terns and Sand Martins doing well.

 We managed to ring 24  Common Tern chicks at Watermead Country Park today. Using a bucket to keep the birds in prior to ringing was a great idea. Well done Chris!

 There is always one that is just too small. Hard to imagine that this petite package will  make its way to over winter off the west coast of Africa.

Another success was ringing 32 Sand Martins at Church Farm. 24 of these were newly fledged young.

And then it cleared

I was away in Norfolk when a huge movement of Swifts occurred at the sewerage works. There are just a few times each year when sometimes thousands of birds congregate around the filter beds and even then only very occasionally when this coincides with safe access and calm drizzly conditions is it possible to make a catch. This past week afforded a couple of chances but only for a brief time. We manged to ring 29 House Martins 5 Swallows and 2 Swifts. All were healthy weights and apart for multiple flat flies on most individuals they all looked in good health too. As soon as the drizzle clears the birds fly higher and that's it.

Nest Recording and things

Spent a day on the reserve checking the progess of nests we are studying as part of the BTO's Nest Recording Scheme, which along with the Ringing Scheme is part of the Demography Unit (see http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/nrs). First we checked on four Lapwing nests that we have been monitoring. At the first nest the female was still incubating. The eggs had hatched in the second nest a couple of days ago and today we managed to locate the three chicks. The final two nests had also hatched.

Lapwing chick 'hiding'.

Lapwing chicks at this age defend themselves from predators by hiding, which usually means putting their head under some vegetation and staying still, "if I can't see you then you can't see me".

One of the chicks ready for release. You can see mud on its' beak where it has been probing in the soil for food.

The chicks are quickly ringed and released, so that disturbance is kept to the minimum.

We then went off to see what other nests we could find for our project. We soon found, among others, a linnet, reed bunting and dunnock. We will keep track of how these nests progress and send in the data to the BTO at the end of the season.

Reed Bunting nest

In the reedbed

That got your attention didn't it? Not one of today's birds sadly but please read on .... Andy, Barry and I were in the reedbed from 6:00 am today and the weather forecast was spot on; cool with light breeze for the first half of the morning. The air was full of song but with a typically slow early season start we caught just 22 birds with 9 nets. A nice mix of Reed and Sedge Warblers, Reed Buntings, assorted Tits and Thrushes. Some of the Reed Warblers have made the sub-Saharan round trip a few times now and it's always great to have them back. As long as we don't get a repeat of 'summer' 2012 things are looking promising. One unexpected delight yesterday was a Turtle Dove seen well by the rangers at the southern end. It's been a long time since I ringed one of those so forgive this indulgent reminiscence. Turtle Doves are in SERIOUS trouble having declined a frightening 93% since the 1970's. The RSPB and others are working hard to investigate the underlying cause. The current edition of 'Birds' has a feature piece on this very subject. Please visit www.operationturtledove.org