In amongst the football, water fights, wrestling and cycling with the Rowlands clan last weekend, we did manage to fit in a bit of wildlife watching.
Biking around the forest tracks turned out to be pretty good despite 2 crazy children in tow. The highlight was a male honey buzzard circling low above our heads while trying to work out which way to go! Non avian stuff was also pretty good with silver washed and dark green fritillaries, painted lady, golden ringed dragonfly, southern damselfly and scarce chaser in decent numbers. A trip to the reptile centre (sounds naff but worth the visit) offered good views of smooth snake, adder, sand lizard and natterjack toad all within 15mins!
The coastal marshes around Lymington had plenty of waders but we failed with the curlew sand although 8 med gulls inc a green darvic ringed bird was nice. We did manage to get the world's worst views of the long staying night heron, just it's eye showing through the leaves!!
Just booked a week in Cornwall in early October. The website said your holiday starts in 49 days, bring on the yank rares!!!
Saturday, 11 August 2012
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Missing words
Unfortunatley, some missing words in one of my recent blog posts have caused me a few issues so I will no longer be posting about my ringing activities. If you are interested in reading about bird ringing then check out the blog written by the BTO at www.btoringing.blogspot.com
I will still occassionally post here about my birding antics or you can follow me on Twitter @pauleele.
Off to Hampshire tomorrow for some spotting and crazyness with the Rowlands family!!!!
I will still occassionally post here about my birding antics or you can follow me on Twitter @pauleele.
Off to Hampshire tomorrow for some spotting and crazyness with the Rowlands family!!!!
Sunday, 29 July 2012
Swift exit
Another early start for a CES visit to one of our coastal ringing sites this morning. It was a pretty productive morning with 20 new and 4 retraps captured. Highlights were 3 chiffchaff, 2 bullfinch (retrap male), 5 reed warbler and a retrap female Cetti's warbler.
The main highlights was the westerly movement of swifts. Back in early June there was a similar good day and in a sample count I had just over 130 birds wesst in an hour. Today there were even more. In 30mins between 06:10 and 06:40 I had 320 birds west with groups of upto 40 at the same time and by the end of the morning (11am) I had recorded over 540 through. Also over were 15 crossbill, single tree sparrow (yeartick 179), 5 spoonbill and small numbers of linnet.
Just been entering my ringing data into my PC and there have been some decent numbers in the garden in July. Out of the 78 new birds ringed, 23 were blackbirds along with 2 blackcap and a whitethroat.
The main highlights was the westerly movement of swifts. Back in early June there was a similar good day and in a sample count I had just over 130 birds wesst in an hour. Today there were even more. In 30mins between 06:10 and 06:40 I had 320 birds west with groups of upto 40 at the same time and by the end of the morning (11am) I had recorded over 540 through. Also over were 15 crossbill, single tree sparrow (yeartick 179), 5 spoonbill and small numbers of linnet.
Just been entering my ringing data into my PC and there have been some decent numbers in the garden in July. Out of the 78 new birds ringed, 23 were blackbirds along with 2 blackcap and a whitethroat.
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Cracking clearwing
Saw my first ever clearwing moth at work today. A visitor brought in a red tipped clearwing that he had caught on the Meadow Trail. Cool little thing.
Sunday, 22 July 2012
It's all rose!
Today was a mid-summer WeBS count and I wasn't really expecting much about. The large knot flock seems to have moved off and there is only a small number of migrant waders about. Being a counter down I headed straight for the beach and left Richard with the fresh marsh to do and I would help if he needed it.
I had only counted a few sanderling when he radioed to say he had a roseate tern on the fresh marsh! Being a reserve tick I needed to see but had to finish my count section. Thankfully it was pretty quiet although a roost of 52 sandwich tern, 130 sanderling and a common sandpiper!!! was nice. A couple of dark phase arctic skuas were also about chasing terns close inshore.
I headed back to the fresh marsh as quick as poss only to be stopped by a couple of people for a chat. Richard radioed to say the terns were getting restless and I made my excuse to get away. Thankfully, despite a short flight, the bird was still present although the Arctic tern that had also been there had flown off.
Having only seen one in the UK before I was keen to see how pale they are and it stood out like a sore thumb with the almost white upperparts, black head and all black bill, the underparts were even still flushed pink! The news was phoned out and it stayed around for a couple of hours before flying towards the sea.
Not bad to see 4 of the 5 breeding British terns together on one island!
Few waders also on the move, 19 spotshank, 11 greenshank and 15 dunlin on the fresh marsh and with white rumped sands at both Frampton and Snettisham, it can't be long before we get something
I had only counted a few sanderling when he radioed to say he had a roseate tern on the fresh marsh! Being a reserve tick I needed to see but had to finish my count section. Thankfully it was pretty quiet although a roost of 52 sandwich tern, 130 sanderling and a common sandpiper!!! was nice. A couple of dark phase arctic skuas were also about chasing terns close inshore.
I headed back to the fresh marsh as quick as poss only to be stopped by a couple of people for a chat. Richard radioed to say the terns were getting restless and I made my excuse to get away. Thankfully, despite a short flight, the bird was still present although the Arctic tern that had also been there had flown off.
Having only seen one in the UK before I was keen to see how pale they are and it stood out like a sore thumb with the almost white upperparts, black head and all black bill, the underparts were even still flushed pink! The news was phoned out and it stayed around for a couple of hours before flying towards the sea.
Not bad to see 4 of the 5 breeding British terns together on one island!
Few waders also on the move, 19 spotshank, 11 greenshank and 15 dunlin on the fresh marsh and with white rumped sands at both Frampton and Snettisham, it can't be long before we get something
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| reserve tick 266, Norfolk tick 279, yeartick 178 |
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| roseate left, common middle, sandwich left |
Thursday, 5 July 2012
Garden Tick
I knew it was going to be 'one of those days' when I got to my coast ringing site this morning. I had planned to get up early but I could drag myself out of bed, so it was about 6:30 when I left home. Got to site put my wellies on, opened the boot and I had left the net poles at home...arse!!! There was not point going back to get them so I decided to do the garden instead.
This didn't start well as all the top poles pulled out leaving nets on the floor and me swearing!! It has been pretty quiet recently so I wasn't expecting much. Now that the flowerbeds are growing up, some of the birds are now hiding in them when I check the nets so I have started to tap the plants with a cane to push them out. First bird to fly out was a dunnock but as I went to get it out of the net I realised that it was a juv whitethroat, a new bird for the garden! There are loads of juv blackbirds about at the moment and 5 managed to blunder into the nets along with 2 coat tits (1 re-trap) and a male goldcrest. 6 crossbills over east was a garden yeartick taking the total to 51.
Afternoon trapping was slightly curtailed by yet more heavy thunderstorms and after a while I get fed up with open, close, open, close and shut for the day.
The sun is shining now...bloody typical!
This didn't start well as all the top poles pulled out leaving nets on the floor and me swearing!! It has been pretty quiet recently so I wasn't expecting much. Now that the flowerbeds are growing up, some of the birds are now hiding in them when I check the nets so I have started to tap the plants with a cane to push them out. First bird to fly out was a dunnock but as I went to get it out of the net I realised that it was a juv whitethroat, a new bird for the garden! There are loads of juv blackbirds about at the moment and 5 managed to blunder into the nets along with 2 coat tits (1 re-trap) and a male goldcrest. 6 crossbills over east was a garden yeartick taking the total to 51.
Afternoon trapping was slightly curtailed by yet more heavy thunderstorms and after a while I get fed up with open, close, open, close and shut for the day.
The sun is shining now...bloody typical!
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| Juv coal tit |
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| Juv whitethroat, 1st record for the garden |
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| male goldcresy |
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
Bonjour!
Given that we have had an extended weekend, I have made the most of it and got in a load of ringing.
The highlight of the weekend was getting my new site set up on the coast. It has got loads of potential for the autumn migration and should have some breeding accros present. The site is mainly dry reed with lost of nettle beds, willowherb, a tree-lined ditch running across the middle and willow scrub around the outer edges. Until I know how well the site will work I have started with a ringing rides across the middle cutting into the willow scrub on one side and the hedge in the middle.
Thankfully the rides didn't need any cutting this morning so we were able to get the nets straight up. It took an hour,but these things always do for the first time, and the 5 nets were up.
In spite of the strong wind and sunny conditions it was a very productive few hours producing 8 new and 2 controls including 5 sedge warbler, 1 reed warbler, 1 male bearded tit and 2 blue tits.
The highlight however was the control sedge warbler. As I approached the net I saw that I had caught a sedge but was dissapointed when I could see it was ringed...one of the birds I had just done? As I got it out I checked the ring and the numbers looked far too big and then the address gave it away - MUSEUM PARIS, a French control...awesome!! There is a good chance that it could have actually been ringed in Africa so we will have to wait for some info back.
Also around the site was a singing grasshopper warbler, cuckoo, 4 bullfinch and a ringed male whitethroat near the car - will try for him next time!
In an attempt to catch some corvids, I have taken delivery of a spring trap from my mate around the corner. The rooks and jackdaws are very clever and have sussed out where my mist nets now are and keep well out of the way so a new direction is needed.
The trap is a large piece of netting attached to two long rubber strap. It is attached to two angled poles with a firing pin in each side. All you need to bo is bait the area infront on the net and wait. When the birds are in range, pull the string and it fires.
It was very success managing to catch 1 rook (ringing tick), 2 jackdaw and 10 starling.
The highlight of the weekend was getting my new site set up on the coast. It has got loads of potential for the autumn migration and should have some breeding accros present. The site is mainly dry reed with lost of nettle beds, willowherb, a tree-lined ditch running across the middle and willow scrub around the outer edges. Until I know how well the site will work I have started with a ringing rides across the middle cutting into the willow scrub on one side and the hedge in the middle.
Thankfully the rides didn't need any cutting this morning so we were able to get the nets straight up. It took an hour,but these things always do for the first time, and the 5 nets were up.
In spite of the strong wind and sunny conditions it was a very productive few hours producing 8 new and 2 controls including 5 sedge warbler, 1 reed warbler, 1 male bearded tit and 2 blue tits.
The highlight however was the control sedge warbler. As I approached the net I saw that I had caught a sedge but was dissapointed when I could see it was ringed...one of the birds I had just done? As I got it out I checked the ring and the numbers looked far too big and then the address gave it away - MUSEUM PARIS, a French control...awesome!! There is a good chance that it could have actually been ringed in Africa so we will have to wait for some info back.
Also around the site was a singing grasshopper warbler, cuckoo, 4 bullfinch and a ringed male whitethroat near the car - will try for him next time!
In an attempt to catch some corvids, I have taken delivery of a spring trap from my mate around the corner. The rooks and jackdaws are very clever and have sussed out where my mist nets now are and keep well out of the way so a new direction is needed.
The trap is a large piece of netting attached to two long rubber strap. It is attached to two angled poles with a firing pin in each side. All you need to bo is bait the area infront on the net and wait. When the birds are in range, pull the string and it fires.
It was very success managing to catch 1 rook (ringing tick), 2 jackdaw and 10 starling.
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| Adult jackdaw |
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