999

Had a couple of ring recovery details come through last night - always nice to see. Neither that exciting, but one I found quite interesting.

The first is sad, as it concerns a cat kill on a female Blackbird I ringed on 14th July 2011 in Mum and Dad's garden. This bird was already at least two years old when I ringed it, so when it was taken by a cat on 13th July 2014 it was at least five years old. It hadn't gone far mind, in fact it was found less than 10m from where I ringed it!  Unlike my second...

A Blue Tit (a species that rarely give good recoveries as they often don't move much) I ringed in Mum and Dad's garden on 24th August 2011 as a bird of at least one year old, was re-caught at a nest box at Bucehayes, Stockland, Devon on 19th May 2014 by an A W G John. This is a gap of 999 days, and a distance of 15km. Not far in the grand schemes of things but really interesting that is was breeding here and not closer to Seaton which is what I would presume.  A good age too as if it's still going today it's at least four years old.

This year as you will have seen on this blog I have ringed a lot of long distance migrant birds, and I really hope I get some recoveries from these. Over the coming years I intend to ring a lot more migrant birds too, and want to add to the overall and ever changing picture of bird migration.

Willow Warbler  Beer Head 1st April 2014 - the first of 134 that I've ringed at Beer Head this year

Bird Ringing

Since moving into to our new place bird ringing has taken a back seat. Well not even that, it's been somewhere in the back of the trailer! Currently our garden isn't suitable for any form of bird ringing - there are just too many cats about. When I lived at Mum and Dad's, few cats, nice big green garden and lots and lots of birds meant it was ideal for bird ringing.

I can still go up to Mum and Dad's to do bird ringing, but instead of being able to put the nets out for an hour or two between other jobs like I used too, I'd now have to set a morning aside to do nothing but bird ringing. And this year I've just not had the time.

I am pleased to say though (and my Twitter followers will know this already) my ringing pliers have come back out over the past few weeks.  Not the mist nets yet though.

For me, the best thing about ringing pulli (that's nestlings) is that I'm also taking part in the BTO Nest Record Scheme. This is a very important and on going scheme as it is the only accurate way of monitoring the breeding success of birds in the UK. As I'm sure you know, you do not have to be a bird ringer to take part in the Nest Record Scheme - for more details see here: http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/nrs. I am very fortunate to have a ringing permit that enables me to ring the young as well, which adds the chance of another avenue of useful data coming from my nest visits.

Swallows are a keen interest of mine, and currently I am monitoring ten active nests. This total could increase dramatically in a week or so though!  Out of the ten, my first visit to each revealed eight nests of eggs and two nests of young. The young were easily big enough to ring and each of the two nests contained five birds.  One of the nests had really big young in which I thought were just a few days from fledging. A week later though and at least four are still snuggled in there...

You can only see two here, all five may well have been in there but I only saw a max of four.

The other nest of five was exactly the same nest I ringed six in last June. If they are the same parents, they are clearly bloody good parents!

As well as Swallows, I've ringed four broods of Tits. One nest with just two young Great Tits in that have just fledged, a box with six young Blue Tits in which should have just fledged (they looked ready to go two days ago), a box with seven Blue Tits that I ringed just a couple of days ago...

They've probably got about ten days left in the nest before fledging

And best of all, because they are on the Red List, a nest box containing two young Marsh Tits (and a cold egg). They were really quite big, with just a few mm of growth required on their outer primaries before being ready to go...

So nearly a 3J!

A follow up visit to the Marsh Tit nest confirmed they have successfully fledged. Fantastic news!

Expect more bird ringing-related post from now on...

Having A Hoot

Yeah I know Short-eared Owls don't go 'hoot' - but it's called 'poetic license' I'm told!

The weather was stunning yesterday morning, and I decided to spend the best part of it up around the Beer Cemetery fields. As I stepped out the car four Crossbills flew over east - it was going to be good!

The highlight(s) came whilst wandering through the 'Richard's Pipit field'. I picked up a Short-eared Owl towards Branscombe, it circled and always gained height, before cruising off high north. I took another few steps forward, the grass rustled and another Short-eared Owl appeared, about ten foot in front of me...

Which soon landed in a nearby hedgerow...


After about ten minutes, it took to the air again, and seemed to spend ages just flying around giving cracking views...


And here's a little video....

The last I saw of this bird was when it drifted off towards Beer Head.

By the end of my wander, at least 17 Crossbills had flown east; the four, a flock of 11 and at least two 'heard only'. Several small groups of Siskins and Skylarks also flew over, but in all directions!

The best of the grounded migrants (except the Owl) was two Lesser Redpolls again with the Meadow Pipit flock. Still no Red-throated or OBP, but there's time yet....

Despite checking several other sites yesterday, I couldn't turn anything else up, a colour-ringed Great Black-backed Gull (ringed on 28/6/10 in Calvados, France) and the Lower Bruckland Cetti's Warbler (which has moved to the lower pond now) being the best.

I didn't have chance for any birding today, although from the garden this morning a few Redwings, Siskins and a Redpoll flew over.

As well as all this birding I've been enjoying, and working obviously - I've had a net up in the garden for a couple of short spells over the last few days. A nice big but fat-less Blackbird must have originated from somewhere east of here, this Goldcrest was my second for the garden...


But this was the highlight...


Have I gone mad!? It's a Blue Tit - yes it is just a Blue Tit! But this Blue Tit was ringed before it flew into my net!

Ok, so it hasn't come that far - Fraser Rush ringed it as a pullus in a nest box in Holyford Woods on 18th June this year. I know that doesn't sound much, but fellow ringers will know re-catching a Tit ringed as a pullus isn't a regular thing! I wonder how its two siblings are faring!?