Another beginning on the meadows

The sun shone without any rain in the air for 17 days during the last 3 weeks. Now the weather has broken and the hay that hadn't been brought in is flattened. So far it had been a bumper year of top quality hay. There may be a chance for a recovery this coming week. It'll make life easier for us to get around the meadows, that's for sure.

I digress. We, I say we because I can now get out with a trainee as I'm feeling up to it at last, made our first visit of the year to the local meadows yesterday. The work needed to open up some racks, both new and old, is daunting for these old bones though so we started simple - two nets in the trees and one across the stream.

But back to the beginning. I managed some garden ringing, both before and after our week-long trip to Penwith (the tip of Cornwall). Things started very slowly but by the time we got back, there were a lot of young birds independently on the wing. Naturally, quite a few of these succumbed to being ringed or though one or two thought otherwise.

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers are easily recognised; two pointers are visible with the naked eye from a distance. They all have a "red top", whereas the adults are black-capped, and the under-tail coverts are a delicate shade of pink, not 'post office' red. Close up, you can notice a dull eye and small, white tips to the primaries, too.

Neighbour John, from the far end of the village (but a different parish), caught a Kestrel of mine  earlier in the week that was ringed as a full adult male (t'was nesting nearby). It had only shifted 1.8 km in the 331 days since its release. As I haven't seen it hardly at all this year (on my daily, repetitive walk), I assume it has chosen either another nest site or a new bride. On the same day, he ringed 'a large number' of young Blackcaps, one of which was in my hand by the stream on our first outing here 3 days later. The only species we handled that day were Kingfisher, Chiff., Blackcap, Grey Wag., Blackbird & Goldfinch. We did see a Jay and a Little Egret and heard a Dipper.

Aggregated list of 86 new birds ringed plus 13 ringed individuals, excluding the local inter-changes above, covers 19 species.

At long last - a juvenile Siskin

Kingfisher 2 - juvs

Gt. Spotted Woodpecker 2 - a 2CY female and a juv

Rook 1 - see below; 1 of several that come for food daily

Blue Tit 5 (4) - 1 moulting  2011 male; 3 juvs now in post-juv moult

Great Tit 7 (1) - juvs

Long-tailed Tit 17 - mix-and-match juvs

Chiffchaff 2 - juvs

Blackcap 5 - juvs + 2CY male

Wren 6 - juvs; part of a brood?

Blackbird 5 (1) - juvs; 4 girls, 2 boys

Robin 1 (2) - new bird was a juv just starting PJ moult (breast)

Dunnock 3 (1) - new juvs and a breeding female 

House Sparrow 10 - all this week - it's that time of year again! 1 ad. male

Pied Wagtail (1) - juv

Grey Wagtail 1 - a juv.

Chaffinch 1 (1) - juvs

Greenfinch 11 - 6 boys, 4 girls and a grandad

Goldfinch 6 (3) - the r/ts were all 2CY males

Siskin 1 - juv
Just 9 of these birds were adults. I doubt if any of the juveniles has had a chance to move more than a couple of miles yet so far this season. Even the Lottis!

Adult female Rook
This bird was in full wing moult and still had a bare but wrinkled brood patch

I/we look forward to a few decent sessions down on the meadows before the horses are turned loose from their summer paddocks. Although the site is divided into six fields, there are no gates and two fords! This is limiting in what we can usefully do. We'll have to hurry up and catch those young Kingfishers then! We'll let you know.

Someone's first Kingfisher?

Holiday time and the rain returns

No sooner had I written "we could do with some rain", than we get 16mm overnight, thanks to a belt of thunder-storms coming up from France. Around midday the lights went out as well, care of a lightning strike on an exposed cable nearby, so we had a cup of coffee using the Camping Gaz stove. We had "another dose" of thunder and lightning last night, too. At least it pushed the humid air away somewhere else.

The BTO have kindly sent me a report of a Siskin [Y319780] that I caught in the orchard on 4th February this year. It had travelled at least 167 kilometers (105 miles) since leaving Kings Norton in Birmingham on 14th March 2013 [327 days]. It was a full adult male and where it had finally ended up breeding last year is anybody's guess, but most likely north of Birmingham. 

Male Siskin (library picture)

Local ringer Karen sent me an email enquiring about another Siskin. It turns out to have been ringed by her trainer, Denise, on 25-09-2013 as a 3J, then caught by me on 28-12-2013 and now in her garden this Maytime. It only missed one other local ringer! The other bird she sent me was yet another Siskin, which I had ringed as a 6M on 04-07-12, then got re-caught by John, the fourth ringer, on 03-03-2013 and finally over to Karen's on 03-05-2014. Perhaps Denise's next stop? These little finches are highly mobile (as I found out in Norfolk) and move around seeking the right food at the right time and shifting their nest sites between broods as well. 

The weather has mainly been unsettled or full sun since last time. However, it has recently deteriorated, but it has been warm for the most part. The garden is full of young birds busy trying to feed themselves on whatever they can find that suits. At this time of year the feeders do not empty as fast as they usually do since the number one job for the birds is to hunt out insects that we consider pests and they consider delicious. 

Young Goldfinch

Degraded male Blackbird retrices

Also, the main consumers, Goldfinches, are virtually absent during late May to early August. The thing that is shifting like no tomorrow is dried meal-worms - parenting Robins, all manner of Blackbirds, but first and foremost, the Pied Wagtails. Our cat is also partial to a few! (meal-worms, that is). The Jackdaws rob out the suet pellets before anything else can get a share, too. Expensive time of year!

I chucked out some stale dog food onto the lawn one afternoon. Low and behold, seventeen, yes, 17, Herring Gulls swooped in all at once and removed it in ten seconds flat!! Three pairs are currently nesting on neighbours 'roofs' and there are some dozen or so pairs actively nesting in the village. Next door's have lost two wee youngsters from their chimney-pot nest site. Both rolled out down the roof onto the car spaces; the second one was quickly snaffled by the local Sparrowhawk in front of the owners' son and his girlfriend. Mum & dad HERGU weren't best pleased! They soon forgot about it/them.

Day-old HERGU chick

Over fifteen days to 7th June, I managed to catch, intermittently, the following:

"Think you're a big boy! Wait 'til I get hold of yer! I'll make y' squeal!"
[Juvenile Blue Tit - soon after fledging]

Woodpigeon 2
Rook 2 - 1 of each sex

Goldcrest (1) - breeding female

Blue Tit 36 (3) - 10 adults & 29 juvs

Great Tit 11 (2) - 10 juvs & 1 adult male hatched in 2011

Coal Tit 1 - 1st juv of the year
Reed Warbler 1 - NFY, "quelle surprise"
Wren (1) - adult female with BP
Blackbird 10 (4) - 9 juvs in this total

Robin 10 (4) - new birds all juvs, retraps = parents, incl. 2 females hatched 2011

Dunnock 1 (1) - promptly disappeared, must be nesting again 

House Sparrow 9 (3) - juvs but retraps were 2 males & 1 female
Pied Wagtail 6 (1) - ALL JUVS except r/t 2CY male
Chaffinch 7 (1) - 6 of 7 juvs were male(?) on size

Greenfinch 10 - juv sexes in equal numbers plus a fresh breeding pair
Goldfinch 11 (2) - 9 juvs, plus 2 new males, a "2014" female (aged 4), and a male that was one of the first birds I ever ringed here as an adult in January 2011. 
Bullfinch (1) - 2CY female in breeding condition

17 species, 117 new birds, 24 recaptures from previous dates/blogs

Juvenile Greenfinch, post-fledging

NB. All the photos (I mean snaps!) are my own, taken with a Fujifilm compact.