More Westerlies

We met again at Winterton Saturday morning (6th Oct) the usual nets were erected, the winds were light but unfortunately still in the wrong quarter being Westerly. When we arrived it was raining, but Dave ever optimistic said it would stop by 7am, with which it duly did!
We didn't expect much, but surprisingly caught 48 new birds and a control.

3M Blackcap

Meadow Pipit ; 4

Wren ; 4

Dunnock ; 3

Robin ; 2

Blackcap ; 8, some of these were carrying high fat deposits, therefore they may have been here a while and now getting ready too move.

Chiffchaff ; 5 + 1 control, EPE425 Anyone?

Goldcrest ; 16

One each of Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Chaffinch

Reed Bunting ; 2

3M Reed Bunting

There was no visible migration going on, and the only noteworthy sighting was 4 Cranes flying over calling loudly.

Small Copper

When the sun came out so did the insects, with at least 2 Small Coppers, 2 Comma and  25 Common Darters.

Comma and Flies feeding on Blackberries.  

We are back!

After a few months off from blogging we are back at last!
It's been a roller coaster ride in the last few months since the last update, so many excuses we don't want to bore you to tears.
We did manage to carry on ringing with some successes, notably 353 Little Tern pulli ringed at Winterton over 3 Saturday's in July, with a massive help from the RSPB warden and his volunteers.
Also Barn Owl boxes were checked with varying success, about 50 Barn Owl pulli were ringed and several Jackdaw and Stock Dove.
The House Martin RAS started off well but with busy work loads and holidays getting in the way of the latter part of the season numbers dwindled, then when we could go the birds had upped sticks and gone! About 100 adults had been ringed up until then.
Most of September was taken up doing a Swallow roost at Martham, the roost varied from day to day and at it's peak contained at least 600 birds (see totals below).

3M Kingfisher

Martham roost ringing totals;
Greylag Goose 1
Kingfisher 4
Sand Martin 35
Swallow 686 , plus 7 controls.
Dunnock 1
Cettis Warbler 1
Sedge Warbler 4
Reed Warbler 22
Greenfinch 1
Reed Bunting 5

3 sessions at Winterton this Autumn have produced a few birds, the latest outing on 29th September saw 52 new birds being ringed with the first Lesser Redpolls and Meadow Pipits of the year being caught.

1st Winter (3) Lesser Redpoll

Winterton ringing total 29/09/12

Meadow pipit 6

Wren 5 +1 retrap

Reed Warbler 1

Blackcap 6

Chiffchaff 5

Goldcrest 20

Blue tit 4

Lesser Redpoll 5

3M Goldcrest

That's pretty much it for now,  hopefully we can catch some more birds and keep the blog updated, until next time ......

Go Wild Barton Broad, Sunday May 13th.

The team and stand at Barton Demo.

For once the weather was on our side, the last couple of years have been hopeless for us at this event due to strong winds and scorching temperatures.

This year it was a bit of a lie in as the event didn't open until 11am, we arrived at 9 to sort out the stand and erect the nets, the usual ones were employed. We had already been over and cut the rides and put some feeders up, to try and build the numbers up. Dave went over again on Friday just to top the feeders up , unfortunately some had already been attacked by the local Grey Squirrels !

Also on the morning of the event we had checked a box and found it had 2 chicks inside, this was to become our star attraction.....

Dave in full flow

We had a steady flow of birds with a good cross section of species through the day which was ideal for a demo such as this.Everyone mucked in with Dave, Mel and I staying at the base with Gary and Tony doing most of the net rounds.

  

Tony and Gary getting in on the act.

A respectable 39 birds were processed with 36 new and 3 retraps. All the retraps were from the demo last year on 22/05/2011.

Wren 3

Robin 1 (1)

Blackbird 1

Grasshopper warbler 1  this proved a popular bird.

Sedge Warbler 4 (1)

Blackcap 1

Chiffchaff 1

Long-tailed Tit 2

Marsh Tit (1)

Blue Tit 6

Great Tit 9

House Sparrow 1

Chaffinch 3

Reed Bunting 1

Tawny Owl 2 pulli.

As mentioned earlier the 2 stars of the show were 2 Tawny Owl chicks from a nearby box.These were very popular with the visitors, with about 50+ people around the stand at this point !!! One of the Owlets even received a name, Ruby, because of its red eye lids.

Kev and one of the stars.

The stars of the show.

Thanks must go to Mel for all her hard work on the day and for sorting out the photos and stand. Also for inventing another quiz for the children , this time a young and adult bird matching quiz. 

A 20' net was erected near to base and Gary's bird finger puppets were again used to show how the birds get caught in the net, this also went down very well.

Several Speckled Wood  Butterflies were seen during the day as well as single Brimstone and male Orange Tip.

 A female Marsh Harrier was seen over the reed bed and a Water Rail was heard early on.

Still quiet.

Another visit to Winterton on 5th May turned out to be a quiet affair.
The intention was for more migrant Warblers but unfortunately the poor weather of late and a constant moderate NE put paid to this.
Only 12 new and 5 (retraps) were caught, these included the first Garden Warblers of the year.

Garden Warbler

Blackcap 4

Garden Warbler 2

Chaffinch (2) both from 2010

Willow Warbler 1

Robin 1

Great Tit 1

Goldfinch 1

Long-tailed Tit 1 (2) both ringed on 29/10/2011

Dunnock (1) Originally ringed  03/09/2005, a bird born that year.

Chiffchaff 1

Male Large Red Damselfly

The first Damselflies were on the wing, with a male Large Red seen. Also 2 Common Lizards were basking in the sun but no Adders were seen this time. 

Common Lizard, this individual was regrowing it's tail.

Later on in the week a visit to check boxes at Horning Hall turned out to be another quiet evening with the only  recent activity being a Treecreepers nest with young in a split in the trunk of a Cypress and a Male Barn Owl seen a couple of times taking food into a new site, we will check this out later in the season.

A poor photo of the Treecreepers nest.

The second evening trip of the week at Haddiscoe Island was another quiet affair apart from the bird and Mammal watching.

The Lapwing were virtually non existent with only one nest being found with eggs and no young seen.

The only positive note was at least 9 nests of Mute Swan being seen.

Lapwing.

Birds observed included a cracking Short-eared Owl sitting right in front of us, Whinchat, 6+ Wheatear,10 Whimbrel, at least 6 Marsh Harrier and 10+ Little Egret.  2 Stoat were seen hunting on the road, Chinese Water Deer on the river bank and amazing numbers of Hare's that seemed to be just about everywhere.

GO WILD AT BARTON BROAD

We will be doing a ringing demo at Barton Broad, Norfolk on Sunday May 13th.
Come along and meet the team and hopefully see some birds close up.

A couple of old friends.

At last the weather broke and it has stopped raining long enough to check some big boxes.
Some have had Tawny's with most of the others containing Jackdaws on eggs.

Arthur, Gary and box. (These aren't the only old friends!)

5 sites have produced Tawny Owls with 9 pulli being ringed and a retrapped female.

A brood of 3, one being too small to take a ring and will probably end up as dinner for its siblings.

Another older brood.

The boxes at Martham x2, Winterton and Rollesby  all had 2 chicks and Ormesby St. Michael had the brood of 3.  It was at Ormesby when we again became acquainted with one of our old friends GC18044.

This female was originally ringed on 07/05/2007 and has been retrapped at this site in 2009, 2011 and 2012.

Old Lady.

The second old friend this week turned out to be an adult male Sparrowhawk retrapped in the garden.

This bird obviously enjoys my garden very much as it was originally ringed 23/02/2008 and has been retrapped 5 times since! On 03/10/2008, 29/03/2009, 27 and 30/12/2010 and lastly 03/05/2012. 

Old boy.

Also in the garden on 06/05/2012 the first juveniles of the year were ringed, 2 Dunnock and a Blackbird. Hopefully there is more to come.

3J Dunnock

Saved the best until last.

The second trip to Winterton this year, Saturday 21st April, produced a few more birds than the last session.
The nets were erected on the Saturday morning rather than the night before as it was raining 'Cats and Dogs' Friday night.
However the mornings weather forecast was going to be fine up to about 11am, as it proved we were right to have a go with a good selection of birds being caught and seen.

Chiffchaff (5M) and Willow Warbler (4M)

The first Willow Warblers and Treecreepers for the year were caught , with the last bird of the day proving to be a Belgian ringed Goldfinch ! This is our first foreign ringed Goldfinch ,we have had 3 of 'ours' found in Belgium. 

Belgian 'King Harry' (5M)

39 birds were caught with 24 new, 14 retraps (in brackets) and 1 control.

Wren; 0 (3) 2 from 2011 and another ringed 02/10/10

Dunnock; 2 (4) 1 from 2010, 2 from 2009 and 1 originally ringed 21/04/2007

Blackbird; 0 (1)

Blackcap; 7 (2) 1 from April 2011 and the other ringed as an adult 19/09/2009

Chiffchaff; 3

Willow Warbler; 3

Long-tailed Tit; 2

Blue Tit; 2 (1)

Great Tit; 1 (1)

Treecreeper; 1 (2) both from Autumn last year.

Goldfinch; 2 (1) Belgian control.

One of the Treecreepers.

Bid watching included a Buzzard heard and seen, a pair of Sparrowhawk displaying and 5 trumpeting Cranes .

The Cranes had been heard all morning but then later on flew overhead with 3 of them flying noisily out to sea but eventually turning back towards land.

5 Cranes overhead but only a 50mm lens on the camera, doh !

As the morning warmed up a few Adders were again seen sunning themselves, they proved a bit too quick to get any decent photos!

One of the slippery customers.