First Terns since 2007.

Thanks to the efforts of LROS and the quick information feed from Ken Goodrich we were able to ring our first Common Terns since 2007. There is scope to increase the artificial nesting sites for this species. We manage to ring 3 healthy youngsters and hope to do more in the next few weeks.

The first Sand Martins.

Dispite a discouraging weather forcast , an early morning ringing session at WCP resulted in a good total of 55 birds. This included 32 Sand Martins, our first of the year. These were mostly adults, but there were also 6 juveniles. Thirteen species were caught, including Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Blackbird and Reed Bunting. A fly over Little Egret added to a great mornings ringing.

The class of 2011

Short session at the Sewerage works revealed a host of young Whitethroat foraging around the scrub. The class of 2011 looks like being the best in recent times after what has been a definite 'Whitethroat year' in many areas.

You reap what you sow!

Wake up bro.

When we are bigger we shall be ferocious killing machines!

Oi it's the class photo. There's always one.

This week we have had great success ringing owls and kestrels.Thanks to the sterling efforts of Little Owl and now Barn Owl man Paul Riddle we were able to ring 3 Barn and 11 Little Owls. These were all in boxes that Paul and his team have made,with the financial help of LROS, and erected. This involves countless hours of dedication and liasing with land owners. A massive thank you from CRG and of course the Owls.
We were also able to ring a brood of 5 Barn Owls and 5 Kestrels in boxes that CRG had put up. It is immensely satisfying when a box you have made, found a site for, obtained access and finally erected , eventually bears fruit.

Two of Paul's Little Owls looking well fed.

Young Blue eyes!

Two Jackdaw pullus were rung at Thornton today. They were using a Barn Owl box and were at an ideal age to ring ,with feathers just coming out of pin.

Tawny Owls rung.

A brood of Tawny Owls were rung recently at Thornton. They are using a Barn Owl design style box.

A very snooty youngster!

The female was also very tolerant and allowed herself to be lifted from the nest and rung. We returned the chicks and then replaced her in the box.

Bumper year for the Blue Tit

We spent Sunday afternoon checking our nest boxes, as its till too windy to do any mist-netting. The Tree Sparrows have already successfully fledged their first broods of which we ringed 27 chicks a week ago and are now on their second clutches. In the big wood the Blue Tits are doing very well as we ringed 74 chicks, brood size was 1 with 12, 1 with 11, 2 with 10 and several with 9. All the chicks were in good condition with no casualties found apart from the odd egg that hadn't hatched. We still have another 8 boxes containing 47 Blue and 25 Great Tit to ring later in the week, as these were too small to ring.
With a possible 121 Blue Tits from this one site compared to only 47 last year I think we can call it a bumper year for the Blue Tit. (here at least anyway)