last hurrah

...of sorts....Ive decided to just use one blog from now on...Gravel Pits blog....I just dont think keeping three blogs going is a good thing....

...so....see you on the other side....

thanks...

Juvenile time

After a few weekends off ringing due to the holiday in Hungary it was nice to get back out there.....

Green Woodpecker, Picus viridis

Greenfinch, Cardeulis ambigua

Dunnock, Prunella modularis

Blue Tit, Cyanistes caeruleus

Ringing continues

The Cuckoos on my new ringing site continue to be interested in my 'dummy'...sadly neither of the two males were caught....theres always next time....and still very much the hope of catching a juvenile when they start leaving the nest....I guess it wont be too long before the first ones appear.....

In the meantime I have started catching some juveniles...one Great Tit, Parus major, though didnt get a picture, so will do next time one appears.....however....some juveinle Robins, Erithacus rubecula, obliged...

Robin, Erithacus rubecula

These juveniles wont take too long to obtain the red colouration of the adults and as soon as they do they will be chased from the area as a potential threat...hence they are mottled brown initially so they get enough food to grow to become independent.

There have been some Greenfinches, Cardeulis chloris, calling every time I have been on site, but then most of the windbreaks are evergreens, a tree that they are particularly attracted to....the colour difference between this breeding pair, caught in the net at the same time just a few inches apart, is quite amazing...

female

male

A quick ring in the garden....

Wild at 54....!

Eye.....

So...did you guess....I am one of the Summers iconic visitors that everyone knows....

...............did I drive you Cuckoo.....

Spring Ringing

I have recently set up a new ringing site for the Spring and Summer.  Hopefully if it works out well I am planning to register it as a Constant Effort Site (CES) with the British Trust for Ornithology.
It is through CES that populations can be monitored but more importantly breeding success can be understood.
Anyway, enough of the science....heres some pictures from my first visit to the site.....

It was nice to see this Little Owl.  I trapped one at my winter site not too far from this new site.  Typical orchard birds, two were heard calling.

All the way from Africa....probably.  Blackcaps do over winter in this country and I am sure many must remain in Europe.  Most are still long distance migrators....first up is the female with a brown cap...

....and the male....with the black cap....

Whilst at the site I heard a Cuckoo.  A truly iconic bird that everyone knows without knowing and many people look forward to hearing (though they are gradually disappearing from many sites)....many Cuckoos will be looking for this bird, Dunnock, one of their birds of choice to parasitize.

Another bird that is capable of over wintering here in the UK in increasing numbers, Chiffchaff, below.  Most will arrive from Africa from around mid-March onward and commence singing for the next 6 months.  Many will stay in to October before leaving, meaning they spend a majority of their lives here in the UK.

Goldcrest.  The smallest bird by weight in this country.  Their numbers are boosted in winter by many birds coming to this country from Scandinavia....a direct flight across the North Sea.  We should be amazed at this, it is remarkable.  There are some Hummingbirds that migrate from South to North America and back again, some as far as Canada, these birds cross the Gulf of Mexico, 500 miles.
This bird is a male, confirmed by the presence of the orange coloured feathers in the crown.  Females have only yellow.

A pair of Bullfinches.  For a larger finch it is one of the quietest birds...but one of the most handsome...
First....a female...

...and a male...

New set up

Heres Spring....and I have managed to bag a little site in an orchard amongst some old disused trees....so this will be my experimental site for the Spring and Summer.
Whilst setting up I managed to catch a Blackcap, Chiffchaff and 4 Bullfinch (not really the orchard owners friend!)....sadly I didnt have my camera, but when I am out and about ringing there I certainly will have.

Heres hoping!!

Spring like

The Spring like weather continued this visit, Sunday 19 Jan.  Its been warm enough lately, and wet enough, that the seed in my feeders in the garden has sprouted!!
Luckily here at the orchard there is at least enough interest, or enough birds, to keep the feeders ticking over, though as you would expect theres no real birds of any difference or big numbers as there would be if the weather were...well...actually wintery.
I suppose the irony is that today, Monday, as im writing this, there has been a frost this morning....at last!
So not an awful lot to report in the birds department, nothing new species wise....but heres a few pictures anyway:

Lesser Redpoll

Chaffinch

....from this wing it can be aged.  The tertials hold the key (extreme left of the picture), these feathers should have a lot more colour on the tips and edges to be an adult, so it was definitely born last year.

This particular bird is also likely to be a native as the wing measurement is small at 86mm.

Poor show

Saturday 11 January...first ringing session of 2014 at the orchard....and a very quiet one.  14 birds in total including 4 Redwing.  There was around 35 Fieldfare flying around with some Redwing in tow and around double the number of Starlings.  The nets continue to remain void of Fieldfares.
Its always nice to catch a Coal Tit....

But the highlight today was....a Wren....!

..............this is not only the first Wren I have caught at the orchard.....

 .....but also the first AA ring sized bird which is pretty amazing as I am used to catching a number of Goldcrest during the winter as they have always seemed relatively regular in orchards previously....

...but im not complaining as Wrens are rather fabulous little birds.....

Frustration

Grrrrr!!
First decent ringing morning for some time and a frost put paid to any ringing at the orchard today.  With the heavy rain of the past, well, seemingly forever, the nets, when furled (rolled up) hold a lot of water, so a frost basically turned them in to frozen hard lines of netting with no chance of opening.....
To say this holiday period has been frustrating would be an understatement and I reckon there are plenty of birders and ringers out there feeling the same.....

Colder...but....

It was quite nice to see a frost at last.  I think this is only the fourth time that I have had to scrape at the windscreen and the warm weather has been, from a winter thrush ringing point of view, most unwelcome.
After my last visit a couple of days ago when I managed to ring 19 Redwing, I had high hopes when I left the house this morning with crunchy frost under foot.
At the orchard the frost was just as good.  However, with the ground already water logged just about everywhere in the south east I reckon it will take several days of hard frost to get  the earth 'as hard as iron'.  No such luck at the moment with more rain forecast in the next couple of days to see the year out.  So heres hoping to a cold new year!

The poor number of birds showing in the garden at home at the moment was backed up by the number around the orchard.  In fact it seemed there were less thrushes than before and I caught little today.

Anyway....clear skies early on meant the cooler conditions for frost were good.....

A couple of Song Thrush turned up today with several Redwing.  Both were adults.  Poor old Magpies get the blame for the reduction in numbers of these birds in particular, but the science of ringing and monitoring has shown it is the non-survival of juveniles over their first winter that is to blame.  Some birds seem to always get a bad press...Magpies.....Herring Gulls....Feral Pigeons....I prefer to turn this round and and look at the animal pointing the finger....humans!

This is the second Sparrowhawk in the net at the orchard.  This time a female.....

15th December

A nice start to the session being that it was easy to open the nets....meaning of course its far too warm....so not really that much in the orchard.  After a couple of hours it clouded over and began to rain so I packed it in having caught a few Redwing and a couple of Fieldfare.
Ironically, whilst I was packing up and as the misty rain became more persistent, the largest number of these birds I have seen on site were around....oh well....next time....and....will it ever get cold....!?

December...it must be cold weather...

...or not....a promising start to last week when it was cold became a shambles by the end of the week and when I stepped outside on Saturday morning it was positively mild (werent we promised an arctic blast?)....which usually means very few winter thrushes around as they will all be out in the fields somewhere eating worms....anyway...I went ringing and although it was an early finish some nice birds turned up anyway....

Ive been lucky enough to ring a few Redpolls at the orchard...heres a rather stunning male....

Lesser Redpoll

Male Siskins look fabulous...but this female is equal to the good looks task....

Siskin

Siskin

One of the birds that always has a lot to say for itself....Sturnus vulgaris....there were half a dozen in the net, so it was rather noisy!!....but the purpley, greeney, spotty suit of feathers is a thing of beauty...

Starling

....and heres a female, identified at this time of year by the outer eye ring....

Starling

One of each...

Woodpeckers, that is.....not the complete set and I am not expecting to complete the trio....I have only ever seen one Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the hand....however, I am not complaining...

These two birds below have completely different attitudes in the net and in the hand.  The Green, larger than the Great Spotted, doesnt complain at either....the Great Spotted however, is one of the noisy birds in the net and in the hand (along with Starling and Jay)....both are fabulous birds to catch....

Green Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker

 ...a fine set of spots....

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Another green bird...stunningly so....

Greenfinch

Greenfinch

Greenfinch

Last for now, if you read my introduction piece about the influence that got me in to ringing here it is...a stunning male blackbird with fine orange/yellow bill and a gorgeous eye ring matching accessory....girls...eat yer hearts out....

Blackbird