Wagtail hat-trick

It looked promising for hirundines at the treatment works today so I set up in a sheltered spot out of the keen wind waiting for a bit of drizzle that sadly did not materialize so the birds (mainly swallows but a few House Martins and the odd Swift) were just a few feet too high so I caught precisely none! It's a fine line between the weather being too bright (insects and birds too high) and just enough to bring the insects lower and the aerial feeders with them. Some consolation however in the shape of several Pied Wagtails and one each of Grey and Yellow Wagtail too.

Gropper Bagged!

It was nice to catch my first Grasshopper Warbler of the year , after a " dip" in 2014.

 One of my favourite birds.

Lets hope they have a good year in 2015.

New Species for Hicks Lodge!

 Thought this might be a new species, Swallow Tailed Warbler!

 Just a Chiff that was regrowing part of its tail.

 A returning Blackcap was good to catch and indicates that the habitat is attractive to this species.

In total we only caught 11 birds, but four Wilwa including a control was nice. Surprisingly the new species for the site was in the form of a female Chaffinch, taking our site species total to 33.

Blackcap returns.

I only caught one bird this morning at Thornton, but it was an old friend!

 At first I thought it might be a second summer bird returning from last year.  There was some brown in the head. Not obvious in this image , but certainly in the one below.

 The first and 6th tail feathers were not pointed although I thought they might be more rounded if it was an older bird.

 All the greater coverts seemed the same.

You can see some brown in this image.
In fact I had first rung this bird on 3rd April 2011 as a second summer, so it is returning for its sixth summer. I had also retrapped it on 9/7/13.

Ticks at Hicks!

 The long awaited Snipe ringing session at Hicks Lodge was a success. We positioned two lines of nets, one of four and one of three 18m nets. We then walked the field after dark.

 First out of the net was this Woodcock, a ringing tick for Gemma.

 Next was a Jack Snipe, an extraction tick for Chris, but a ringing tick for Andy.

 Two Snipe were also caught, a ringing tick for Chris, completing the hat trick of ticks!

 The white on the under wing coverts and the less rounded primaries helped us age this Snipe as a 5.

 

 The two Snipe sit calmly just after release. My only regret is that I did not take the opportunity to grab a photo of all three species sat together. It would have been good for comparison. Oh well, next time.

 

Winter Blackcap.

 My first ringing session of 2015 at Thornton today resulted in 15 birds caught of 10 species.

Top bird was this first winter male Blackcap. It had been feeding on Himalayan honeysuckle, which is an excellent shrub for attracting this species. Ringing recoveries have shown that many of our over wintering Blackcap come from central Europe and especially Southern Germany. I hope this bird is recaptured in the future so we can find out where it decides to breed.

October update

We've had some windy spells of late but despite that we've had a weekly outing to our Winter site during October. This site is used as a roost, primarily for Blackbird, Redwing , Chaffinch and sometimes Brambling as in previous years, there is also a feeding station that attracts the usual woodland species. Our total for the month of 300 birds (210 new) includes 10 Wren, 37 Goldcrest, 16 Coal Tit, 41 Blue Tit, 52 Great Tit, 19 Chaffinch, 8 Blackbird, 4 Song Thrush, 3 Redwing and another 4 Nuthatch which brings the site total to 27 our best total has been 32 during 2007. Our September totals reached 256 inc 11 Robins, 36 Blackcap, 28 Chiffchaff, 31 Goldcrest and a Marsh Tit.
A few recent recovery details received back from the BTO include a Willow Warbler ringed as a pullus on 5th June and retrapped 63 days later at Icklesham in Sussex 246km away on 7th August, a Goldfinch ringed on the 1st April found it's way to North Lincolnshire and was killed by a cat, distance of 107km (no jokes please!) and a Greenfinch which was ringed in August 2013 was found with an injury in June this year nr Atherstone in Warwickshire a distance of 24km.