Box Checking

We finally got the chance yesterday (Sunday) to check our 'tit' boxes in the wood, but the first few were empty, so this wasn't looking good. Out of the 25 we checked 6 held Great Tit and 7 held Blue Tit, all the birds were sitting tightly. The rest of the boxes were empty, normally we have a better take up than this, as last year we had 14 Blue Tits. Over at our Tree Sparrow site they are now coming to the end of their first broods, but they have been hit by the poor weather. Our main block of 13 boxes has 6 boxes still with  nests at various stages that have not moved since the beginning of April, and the others have all seen chick losses. They are 1/5, 3/5, 3/5, 2/5, 1/5, 5/5. so only 15 chicks ringed so far, but 2 are already laying up their second clutches. Last year we ringed 101 chicks from these boxes, so we have a long way to go yet.

Chiff tail.

I recently rung this Chiffchaff that showed that it had replaced its two central tail feathers, which are more adult, but still retains the more brownish grey and worn juvenile feathers.

Tough for Herons.

 Jedward the heron!

We managed to ring one juvenile heron at Watermead. Sadly its two siblings had succumbed to the cold and wet weather. This may be made worse by Sundays extreme weather. I also saw a heron carrying nesting material, so perhaps second attempts will be made, but this is rare. Let us hope that Jedward Heron makes it through!

Box Check

Just a quick check yesterday (Fri) (well not that quick as it took 2 hrs) of a few large boxes on the Nature Reserve found 2 boxes occupied by Tawny Owls, one contained 2 eggs and the other contained 3. Both these boxes have only been in place for a couple of years so I'm pleased with the result and nest record cards have been written up for them. Unfortunatley the other boxes were either empty or had had squirrels in them.
A few Meadow Pipits were seen and a Merlin dashing low across the field.

Winter Thrushes whooshed!

There have been plenty of winter thrushes coming to the apples in the garden and I was able to put my whoosh net to good use. Three Fieldfare and a Mistle thrush were trapped. I also caught 32 Blackbirds and a Pied Wagtail.

Adult female Fieldfare above and a first winter Mistle thrush below.

Mistle Thrush.

The juvenile Whooper Swan is still at Thornton.
First winter male Pied Wagtail.

Redpoll Recovery

Just received a few recoveries from the BTO the other day, and among them was one for a Lesser Redpoll. Out of all the birds that Andy caught at Thornton Y473221 was retrapped at National Park de Groote Peel, in the Netherlands, only 508km and 48 days later. What a good result.

1000 UP.

Ringing at our Charnwood Forest site this weekend saw us ring our 1000th bird of the year there, and that honour went to one of the Redwing that come to roost there. Our previous best total was 724 that we only reached last year! Our totals for the last few weeks include 87 Chaffinch, 52 Blue Tit, 92 Goldcrest, 30 Redwing, 31 Blackbird and a late Blackcap.
We also had 4 redpoll with one being an adult male Common and this female Blackbird with a deformed bill. This time of the year the forest has a wonderful variety of fungi including a lot of Fly Agaric

and this little, bright yellow thing which I think is a Parrot Wax Cap. Beautiful.