This is a bit late, but it will have to do. I've retained my 2014 garden ringing efforts, which have started, for another posting, due sometime after the builders have left and the water's back on. Very inconvenient but needs must.
So, back to the task in hand.
Day 1 - just shy of 54mm of rain! All-day rain at that. And gale force winds.
Day 1 - just shy of 54mm of rain! All-day rain at that. And gale force winds.
Day 2 - Christmas Eve; got to get the turkey, bloke-shopping, etc.
Day 3 - Christmas; another 26mm of rain once the frost had cleared.
Day 4 - visitors. Open the net; anything to get away!
And so it went on - rain, wind, drudgery, nip out and catch a couple of birds during the quiet spells (there was a target to reach, after all). Let's just say, it was big on re-traps.
As you will have seen on the TV News, the Somerset Levels & Moors are well flooded and several villages cut off - unless you have a boat!
As you will have seen on the TV News, the Somerset Levels & Moors are well flooded and several villages cut off - unless you have a boat!
| Male (darker/brighter) & female Siskins - December |
Great Tit (2)
Long-tailed Tit (1)
Blackcap 2 (1)
Wren (1)
Blackbird 2 (1)
Robin (2)
Dunnock 1 (2)
House Sparrow 1 (2)
Greenfinch 2 (1)
Goldfinch 5 (3)
Siskin 2 (1)
We regularly get double this number of species in the garden every week; it's just a matter of setting my mind to attempt to catch some of them (but many are too high).
| Hatch-year male Blackcap with more than the usual amount of brown crown feathers |
Goldfinch 377 - makes this No.1 bird 35 short of 1,000 in just under 3 years here.
Siskin 176 - up from 10th= place
Blackcap 124 - non-mover
House Sparrow 90 - up 3 places from 7th
Blackbird 86 - non mover
Greenfinch 81 - down 2 places from 4th
Chiffchaff 76 - down 2 places from 5th=
Willow Warbler 74 - up 7 places from 14th
Blue Tit 62 - down from 2nd place, falling 7 places
Chaffinch 49 - down one from ninth
These ten birds account for almost 80% of my new birds. Of the 44 species handled, there were seven species where I only caught and ringed a single specimen last year.
The Dippers, Kingfishers and Little Egrets were still utilising the local stream where I ring in spring/summer, even during the current heavy discharge.
Usually, January provides an influx of new birds. We'll just have to wait and see.
The Dippers, Kingfishers and Little Egrets were still utilising the local stream where I ring in spring/summer, even during the current heavy discharge.
| The Doniford in full spate (not full flood). Dec 2013 |
Usually, January provides an influx of new birds. We'll just have to wait and see.
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