030517 Hirundines at KSW

I got to the sewage works at 5:30 and had three nets set up by the time Bobbie (CT) joined me and we put the fourth net up together. I had a 40ft in the far left corner, as far down as we're allowed to go. I put a 60ft between two rotating things, one 40ft between a rotating thing and the hedge and the 30ft I put up with Bobbie we put next to the fence to the farmers field next door.

The first catch was a Pied Wagtail. I'd never processed an adult Piewa until this morning and following guidance from Laurent Demongin's ID guide I concluded that it was an age code 6, however I didn't manage to tell if it was Pied or White because the guide was talking about how the shades of grey/black/white are different in each, wing bars are broader/narrower than each other, face tinged "olivaceous yellow" in white or "slightly yellow" in pied... I had nothing to compare to. So it will remain a Pied Wagtail until proven otherwise! The second bird was a male Goldfinch and after that it slowed down quite a bit. Hirundines had started flooding in and a bright spark told me to move the 30ft net, so Bobbie and I did that and then Bobbie had to go to do BBOWT things. Thank you for coming and helping me! Please come again 😊

Captures continued to be slow and I was practicing my hirundine identification. They kept giving me heart palpitations, getting so close to the net and then dodging it at the last moment! To mock me even more one of them crapped in my coffee. Thanks. But that didn't stop me being ecstatic when I caught one! A House Martin 😁 The book says that they do a full post juvenile moult so I couldn't age it any more precisely than 4. I caught a Grey Wagtail in this round, too. After that I caught a Blackbird at 9:55.

I was just about to take my nets in and thought I'd better check the nets first. Another Grey Wagtail and 3 House Martins! Wow! After processing those I went and got a net in. Checked the other nets again - 2 more House Martins!... Processed those, took another net in, checked the last two nets nets, a Swallow! 😁💓 After processing that one I took a third net in (left the one that was catching the birds until last. Don't tell me you wouldn't) and there was another House Martin. Processed that. Another one in the net. Processed that. Took the last net in! Phew! I'm now knackered and I don't know how I'm going to survive work this evening! Wish me luck!

House Martin:

Swallow:

Totals:

020517 Mist netting AND Nest box checking

Today has been a very bird-filled day! I started with ringing at Bowdown, putting three nets up - one of which was 18 metres so I thought I wouldn't stretch myself with putting a fourth net up, just in case I got inundated! 

The first 5 captures were Long-Tailed Tit's which was hardly surprising since they were beeping away all around me for the first half of the morning 😄 they were caught in the footpath net. Then a Marsh Tit and a Garden Warbler in the net ride that Ian found when we went out as a group last Sunday was great! I will definitely be putting that net up again! All the 18 metre net caught all morning was a retrap Chiffchaff - a female just starting to develop a brood patch.

Corinne, who helps check the Dormouse boxes at Bowdown, came to visit at 9 and we had a nice time chatting about Dormice, birds and butterflies 😄 she has since kindly emailed over some documents to help with my Dormouse licence training - thank you so much! 💓 I thought it would be another no-show like at the demonstration on Saturday, but at 10:30 a female Bullfinch went into the footpath net 😊 a nice little bird to be able to show!

I'd just finished getting the first net in at the end of the day when Roger Dobbs, Bowdown reserve warden, came over for a chat. He was doing a butterfly transect and a lovely day for it, too! I really like Bowdown - a great place to ring, I'm getting involved with the Dormice here, bird nest boxes, and I'll be doing some bird surveys for Simon here soon as well!

I'm so good at making birds look really unphotogenic, but it was very pretty I promise! The Garden Warbler from the new net ride:

Here are the totals for this mornings session:

This afternoon I met up with Steve to check the nest boxes here at Bowdown and also at Aldernbridge Gulley (spelling..?). One clutch of Great Tit's at Bowdown were ready to ring today, but I haven't put the information into IPMR yet. I think I will wait until I'm with Jan so that I can make sure that I'm not doing it wrong! (I think it's mostly like normal, so age code 1 - pulli, but do I put the wing measurement (1 - 2 mm showing through the sheath) in? Or should I leave the wing length blank? Or put it in an "own" column. I know that I need to put the box number in an "own" column, too.)

When we got to the other site, who do we happen to bump into? Simon and the CT's!! They had just finished doing their Habitat Condition Assessments so they came along to check the boxes with Steve and I. A couple of clutches - one Great Tit and one Nuthatch - look as though they might be ready to ring in a few days, so Simon and I might go out late afternoon on Friday or in the morning on Saturday to ring those.

So yeah, it's been a very birdy day, and to top it off Simon and I went and did a full weekly shop (we made a list and everything!) It's time to chill now, before another morning of ringing tomorrow at the sewage works!

290417 Demo at the Butterfly Reserve

On Saturday I did a ringing demonstration for Ailsa's Birding for Beginners talk (which was really good!! I highly recommend her talks! I learnt so much :D). I got to the reserve for 6:30 and put up 4 nets - a 9 metre, 2x 12 metre and an 18 metre! I'd just finished putting up the last net when Ian arrived, shortly followed by Jan, and they put one more net up. We retrapped a pair of Treecreepers - the same one's that I retrap here a lot that are good examples of different ages. The younger one is the male - toyboy hahaha. :P

We caught all of the birds before the ringing demonstration took place. The one guy who turned up early saw the Blackcap but sadly no one else got to see any birds in the hand. Thank you so much Jan and Ian for coming because I don't know how I'd have coped with having to run around every 10 minutes checking the nets praying for there to be a bird AND entertain 10 people at the same time all on my own! You guys basically saved my bacon so thank you very much 💓

We found out when Simon came to lead the group of people back to the NDC that there was an event happening in the reserve at 10 - it was 9:30 at that point so naturally I freaked out 😅 but Ian reassured me that it wouldn't take long to take the nets down with three of us, and it didn't 😁 so again, thank you! xx

23/April/17 Bowdown with the Group!

Today was the last Sunday session before the CES starts, and I suggested we all go to Bowdown to see if there are any other potentially good areas where I could put my nets up in the future. I put the two nets up that I usually put up on either side of the Oak tree, Ian put two up in the surrounding low vegetation, Jan put two up down the footpath, one at the top end where I usually put a net and one at the other end of the footpath, Jon put up two nets further down the enclosure, and I put a third net up down that end of the enclosure, too. So 9 nets in total.

In the first round we caught a Blackbird and 4 Chiffchaffs, including a retrap Chiffchaff. While we were processing these birds we were joined by Jone, a lovely lady who works with Simon at BBOWT and who checks some of the nest boxes that I'm hoping to ring. 😊 We were later also joined by Duncan and Simon.

We heard Garden Warbler and kept our fingers crossed, but no luck. Captures were slow but steady, and between rounds we checked under the reptile mats and found, in total, 5 Slow Worms and 2 Grass Snakes. While I was setting my furthest net up, I was about to put a peg into the ground when I heard what I thought was a hiss. When we went to check it out later on the guys said that it was more of a buzz sound and that it was probably Bee's. Good job I didn't put the peg in there!

As for finding new good places to put my nets, Jan's net at the top of the footpath caught the most birds all morning. The far nets (Jon's nets and my third net) caught one Dunnock. One of my Oak nets caught a Blackbird and maybe one or two more (I didn't check the nets each time so I could be wrong). As far as I know, the rest of the birds came from that top footpath net. Ian found another area that might be good just to the left as you enter the enclosure, so next time I will put a net there, I will move one of my Oak tree nets so that it's parallel with the big patch of bramble because we saw quite a lot of activity there, might keep the net that caught the Blackbird? We'll see. But will definitely be putting the top-end footpath net up!

Thanks for coming today everyone 😊 here are the totals:

19/April/17 Blackcaps galore!...

...well, not quite - I caught 4. One of which was a retrap and the ring is not mine! Will have to wait and see if it's a control (a bird that has been retrapped 5km or more away from where it was first ringed), but I'm not getting my hopes up (much)!

I put up 4 nets, 2 in the places that I said I'd try last time. Those two nets didn't catch much (one caught one Blackcap and the other caught - okay, a little better - a Blackcap, a Dunnock and a Woodpigeon that I spooked into the net, so that one doesn't count.)

Talking of the Woodpigeon... I now realise why I've been having such a hard time fitting the F rings... it's because on the big pliers the big hole is the first hole, the smaller hole second. On the small pliers the first hole is the smallest and then they get bigger. So I've been fitting F rings in the G ring hole and when we caught a Woodpigeon at the Butterfly Reserve before I taught Simon how to fit an F ring (in the G hole). So please, Simon, forget everything I told you about fitting F rings! 😌 In fact, if anything, F rings are 10 times easier doing it the right way - you did a good job fitting an F ring the wrong way, so I have every faith in you to do it even better the right way!

I also told myself I'd get a photo of the Woodpigeon for the blog. I totally forgot to do that but I did take a photo of the evidence that I'd ringed one:

The Cetti's Warbler that I caught was a retrap, but it wasn't the retrap that I've caught here previously, so that's quite exciting! I had a bit of a shock while taking my nets down. Two men were walking around inside the Butterfly Reserve and usually people don't go in there so I was surprised. They stopped and asked what I'd caught, told them about the Cetti's and then one of them said that he was Steve, the guy who checks the nest boxes at Bowdown, who I'm scheduled to join this year to ring the nestlings! So it was good to meet him. He and his pal were in the Butterfly Reserve doing a butterfly survey.

Overall a nice morning. Finished reading The Naming of the Shrew, too. Here are the totals:

16/April/17 KSTW

Today was the first ringing session since reinstating permissions at Kingsclere Sewage Treatment Works (KSTW). I sent round an email on Friday to the group and I was joined today by Simon, Jan, Ian, Jon and Pat 😁. We all put up nets in different areas, and found that the catches were pretty random, with no particular nets doing particularly well. Some areas of the site could have done with a net or an extra net, which I'll try out next time I come here, which will probably be next week (Monday or Tuesday). I got to test out one of the nets that Rupert gave me and I must say I am very impressed at what great condition it's in 💕😍 I'm so grateful - if you're reading this Rupert thank you again!

We caught two Grey Wagtails, which were nice to see as Simon and I hadn't ringed them before (I've ringed pulli, but not full grown). They're surprisingly long! Relatively easy to sex (the two we caught were both female. According to the French guide males would have had black on the throat) and more complicated was ageing them. Looking at contrasts in the colour of primaries and secondaries compared to tertials allowed us to age the second Grey Wagtail as a 6.

We caught at least four Chaffinches that unfortunately couldn't be ringed due to grotty foot. There were Swallows about but they could see the nets and were avoiding them skillfully! They did get dangerously close though! In the ringing hut Jan was saying about not being able to hear Goldcrests, which was coincidentally singing as he was saying it! (he couldn't hear it lol). Was good to see everyone and next Sunday is the last group session before the CES starts, so the whole group will come to Bowdown! Hosting two group sessions in a row, cor 😀

Totals for the morning:

Is it a fashion statement? Or is it health and safety:

10/Apr/17 First Blackcap

Ringing at Bowdown this morning I put three nets up. Two on either side of the big Oak - they only caught 1 bird each. I suppose without the feeders being regularly topped up the birds haven't much need to go to the oak anymore. I had a walk around later on in the morning to look for new places to put nets up. Some potentially good places but I'm wary that the nets would be visible from the footpath. On the other hand, a bit of publicity wouldn't be a bad thing. I need to build confidence talking to passers by about what I'm doing and get myself known in the area, so that I can venture a bit further from my car (people stand and look at my car because I park it inside the reserve and I suppose they're just curious, but I can't help but be paranoid... my car and it's contents are the most valuable things I own..!). I put the third net up along the footpath within the gated enclosure, and this net caught 8 birds. I'm thinking I might put two nets in a row in that area next time, since it's been such a productive net so far. My only worry about that particular area is that because the ground is solid rock I can't get pegs into the ground, so need to work out positions for the nets that are within guy rope distance of trees..!

The Long Tailed Tit that I caught first off was a female with a brood patch so far developed that I'm sure she must be sitting on eggs (BP4). The same went for the Dunnock caught later on this morning - I'd caught this bird a week ago and she had a BP3, BP4 today. Both male and female Blackcap's incubate eggs and the male I caught this morning had lost a lot of his belly feathers in preparation. He was also my first Blackcap of the year :-). In fact, all of the birds I captured this morning had signs of breeding! Excited to ring some pulli and 3J's in the near future!

Totals for this morning:

08/April/17 yay company!

I had Simon come out with me for the whole morning for the first time in ages! It was good to have some help setting up nets and chats and things so I think he should come ringing with me more often (hint 😁) 

We put up four nets this morning. Our plan was to put three nets up and then fix and leave up the fourth net because I thought the top string had come loose but when we put it up this morning it was fine. All four nets were up by 7, and we started taking the nets down at 11:15. I have a good idea about where I want to put nets up next time because we noticed a lot of activity in a couple of areas, including a pair of Blackcap near to the gate.

We retrapped the Cetti's warbler that I had caught last time. Jan had sent me previous records of this particular bird and Simon ringed it. Simon had also processed it two times between ringing it and me retrapping it last week, and then Simon processed it again today! All of the data!

We had 5 Wrens this morning, including 2 new and 2 age 6 with rings close together in the ring series (HTP234 and HTP236). The female Great Spotted Woodpecker was born last year and had a brood patch (BP2). I need to work out how to submit brood patch and cloacal protrusion onto IPMR - I'll ask the group when I go ringing with them tomorrow morning.

Last but not least at 11:10 was another Wood Pigeon! Earlier in the morning Simon said that he wanted to ring one, and his wish was granted! And like last time I dropped everything I was holding and RAN to the net to stop it getting out (I don't run. Ever. 😜). Fingers crossed that the excitement of this catch makes Simon want to come out ringing with me again and again! 😗

Here are the totals for the morning:

4/April/17 Thorpe Park

I'm exhausted! Went ringing this morning and then went to Thorpe Park straight after. Got home about an hour ago and I'm nearly ready for bed (gotta have dinner first though - taco's yay!)

I left the flat while it was still dark to make the most of the time and daylight that I had because I knew I'd have to leave earlier than I usually would. I bought 8 more pegs yesterday so that I had plenty for this morning, but I placed one of the nets on a footpath, which was impenetrable with the pegs, so I carefully tied the guy ropes to Blackthorn trees..! They'll come in handy I'm sure but I needn't have bought the pegs after all :P

I caught a good variety of birds this morning, and I had a Great Spotted Woodpecker narrowly avoid the net, too. Highlights from the morning include:

• The Dunnock that I caught had a very advanced brood patch.
• The retrap Great Tit with ring number D738706 isn't a ring series I recognise. I wonder if it's one of Jan's rings?
• Having caught a Coal Tit and a Marsh Tit in the same round it was good to see side by side how different they really are from each other!
• I wasn't expecting my footpath net to catch very much and I was pleasantly surprised when it caught two Chiffchaffs! :D (it caught the Blackbird, too).
• The Blue Tit that I caught as I was taking the nets in was a beautiful big bright blue boy! (all the B's!) He was lovely :)

Totals for the morning:

31/03/17 Happy Birthday Nan!

It's my Nan's birthday! So Grandad if you're reading this please tell Nan a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY Love from me 💙💚💛💜💝

I'd just got my nets up and it tried to rain... luckily only for a few minutes and then it was dry for the rest of the morning :) I tried my little 6 metre net in amongst some low trees and I had to cut a few branches back to save my net some injuries! It caught quite a bit! The Wren, Treecreeper and Long Tailed Tit all came from that net - half of this mornings captures.. It also caught the Dunnock I'd already caught and ringed earlier in the morning. Will definitely try that net again, if the nettles don't get too high later on in the year..!

Apart from the Robin because I hadn't thought to do it until after I'd caught and released it, I noted down the sexes I thought the birds might be, even though it's a bit early in the season. These were just for my records and I didn't submit them to IPMR, but since I get a lot of retraps at the Butterfly Reserve, it will be interesting if I capture them later on in the breeding season to see if the sexes that I noted down were correct.

Simon came over at about 10am to bring me breakfast (thank you!!!💗) just as I was ringing the Long Tailed Tit. A man saw me release the bird and came over, asking "was I just seeing things or did you just let that bird go?!" hehe. I explained what I was doing and he had a positive reaction so that's good :)

When we took the nets down, there was a bee stuck in my net :( unfortunately for Simon, I didn't want to do what had to be done so he did, and it stung him! :O bringing me breakfast and taking one for the team 😌 double thank you!!! 💗💗

IPMR gave me a weird warning about not having a printer installed so it didn't give me the normal totals list... but here's a screenshot when I ran today's date in a query

And here's a photo of the pollen chops Blue Tit we caught today! 💗😍

27/03/17 Woodp

It was a stressful morning net-wise. I was going to do what I did last time and attach two nets together around the Oak Tree with the feeder, the first net went up fine, but when I was taking the second net out of the bag, I noticed that the top string was sagging loads, so I took it back in. I was trying to get the net in the bag when a peg that was in my pocket got really badly tangled in the first net. Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh. I then tried putting up another net at the border of the open area, where I'd seen some Blue Tits fly in previous sessions. This net fell over on top of me while I was putting it up, thankfully not getting tangled in brambles. I also had to re-arrange the guy ropes while it was on the ground. ugh. I sat down for 5 minutes to breathe and then went and put a little 6 metre net up in a more sheltered area. For the rest of the session I wished that that net was longer because there was so much activity in that area and the mini net caught one Robin all morning.

I caught a new male Great Tit and a retrap Dunnock in the first net next to the Oak Tree. The second net I put up I held a grudge against all morning because if it was positioned maybe a few metres differently it would have caught quite a bit, I reckon :P and it caught nothing else all morning until I was thinking about packing up when a Wood Pigeon flew in. I'd had a pretty bad morning so I ran towards it and managed to get to it before it got itself out :D some good experience putting a bigger (F size) ring on and the first time I've used my big ringing pliers and cheered me up a bit :). Wood Pigeons do a weird moult, according to the French book. It says that there is suspended moult in young birds, so I thought it might be an age code 5 (born last year), but the book also says that some individuals suspend the moult for a second year, so it might have been an age code 7 (born the year before last year)... so I put it down as an age code 4 (not born this year, but unsure which exact year) just in case.

The picture below is of the Wood Pigeon's suspended moult in it's secondary feathers. Look at the tips of the feathers - some are worn and tatty, while some are neater and newer.

25/March/17 Cetti's!

The Butterfly Reserve was alive with bird song when I arrived at 6:15. I put two nets up at first, then went back to the car and cut some more guy ropes from the Paracord that Simon gave me and put up a third net. The Paracord slipped a bit when I put the third net up so I kept checking it over the course of the morning and they seemed to hold up fine after that :)

First two rounds I had one Wren each time. The second Wren was spun and was a pain to extract. After processing it it was a bit stressed-looking so I let it warm up and calm down inside my jumper. It seemed okay after a few minutes and flew off. 

The next round I had a Dunnock that had been caught very close to the end of the net and it looked very tangled. I thought "Oh no not another difficult extraction" but actually it turned out to be easy. In this round I also caught the only new bird of the session - a Long-Tailed Tit (!) I thought I'd probably ringed the entire population of Long-Tailed Tits in the Butterfly Reserve by now! But obviously not :P

The next round I caught a Cetti's Warbler!! Ever since I started ringing at this site I'd always heard a Cetti's in the reedbed behind the Reserve, but not caught one until today! After reading up in the French ID book I aged it as a 5, because there was a slight difference in colour tones on the wing, like the book said, but when I tried submitting it to IPMR it refused to let me age it as anything but a 4, so 4 it is. (I may have been wrong and the colour might not have been significant enough to age it, I will have to get my eye in when the NRG start catching them at the CES reedbed this year :) ) I also caught another Wren in this round. Each Wren I processed today were retraps, all from different ring series.

The last bird caught this morning was a Dunnock (almost typed Duck - I wish lol) at 9:45. When checking the nets a little while after this catch a Wood Pigeon gave me a heart attack by flying into my net, taking it down to the ground and then escaping... thanks :P and then a little while later than that I was checking the nets to find a big grey thing in that same net! "Gotcha," I thought, thinking it might be the same Wood Pigeon from earlier, but on closer inspection it was a Sparrowhawk! I started to pick up the pace but unfortunately it saw me, thrashed about a bit and got free before I could get to it :( next time!

21/3/17 Green Woodpecker bounce!

My second attempt at putting nets up at Bowdown was more successful. I used the mallet to bash in the pegs and that worked well, but because I only have 6 "heavy duty" pegs, I only put 2 nets up (attached to each other). It was forecast to get windy later on in the morning, and I had to pack up at 10:30 because my poles were threatening to blow over..!

A nice. sunny morning, the birds were so noisy all around me! Including 2 Green Woodpeckers, one of which bounced out of the net :-( I heard them cackling all around me for about an hour before they moved on. Fingers crossed one gets properly caught next time! It was such a nice sunny morning, just hearing and seeing the birds all around me, and watching their movements around the nets. When I get paid I'll definitely be buying some more sturdy pegs and some more poles to try out a load of different net positions :-)

I caught a Robin - blowing the feathers off of the belly I'm sure it was a female because the belly was swollen as if she was egg bound, but I didn't submit the sex to IPMR just in case I was wrong. I'll talk to the rest of the NRG about how reliable the swollen belly is as a sexing method. I caught a Coal Tit and a retrap Marsh Tit from the last ringing session at Bowdown.

140317 the first Chiffchaff!

I ringed the Butterfly Reserve this morning - it's sooo nice that the Nature Discovery Centre is only a couple of roads away from our new flat! Takes about 2 minutes to get there - amazing!

Yesterday and today I've heard loads of Chiffchaff's! At work last night I was midway through talking to someone outside the building when I heard a Chiffchaff really close by and all attention to the conversation was lost 😋 they must've thought I was crazy... 😌 it was no different at the Butterfly Reserve this morning - Chiffchaff were noisier than anything else! I put a mixed tape on of Chiffchaff, Goldcrest and Firecrest (still hopeful), and as it's nearly the breeding season I'll not use tapes again, but it did get me a Chiffchaff in the net this morning! First one of the year for Newbury Ringing Group 😃 I even remembered the wing formula without having to think about it - impressive!

For the people reading this who don't know what the wing formula is, it's a method used to tell apart similar species, in this case Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. You have to look at the primary feathers for the emargination (I don't know how to describe it... like indents on the outer side of the primary), the wing point (longest primary) and look at the length of the second primary compared to the rest of the primaries, and note down which is the same length, or note the two down that the second is between (hope this makes sense).

After the Chiffchaff I caught a Long-tailed Tit. I've seen posts on Bird Ringing groups on Facebook saying that some people are starting to see signs of breeding activity on some birds, so I checked the Long-tailed Tit but couldn't see any signs. Eeeee babies sooooon 💓

13/03/17 Bowdown

Yet another new site ringed at today! Bowdown Woods! I met up with Ian from BBOWT and Bowdown's warden, Roger on Friday to discuss where would be best to ring and it was agreed that the enclosed area would be the best area - it's more open so more places for nets to be put up, there are feeders hanging in an Oak tree and, best of all, since there's a fence the whole way around the perimeter there'll be less risk of dog walkers making contact with nets!

I got on site at about 6am, filled the seed feeder with Sunflower Seeds and got to work on putting nets up. I found that putting the pegs into the ground was REALLY hard - under the first layer of soil it's just solid rock! I managed to get one net up, Ian's 12 metre one, and tried and struggled to put another one up. I tried two different places and then I gave up. I texted Simon to tell him about my struggles and he reminded me that I had a mallet in my car. By that point, though, after struggling for ages only to feel stupid that I didn't think of the mallet, I decided to just keep it to one net 😋

There were two more obvious places where putting a net up would be beneficial, all around the Oak tree with the feeder on it, but the one net did not disappoint! 3 Nuthatches and 3 Marsh Tits (don't see those everyday!) and 16 birds in total. I heard Chiffchaff calling all morning, and we heard Redpoll (a rattly sounding call).

Jan came to join me and we had a look at my weighing scale, which has a mind of it's own. After trying to calibrate it, it just got worse, so Jan has kindly lent me one of his weighing scales while he takes mine home with him to look at a bit more.

Totals for the morning: 

< Nuthatch!

> The median coverts (or shoulder feathers as I professionally call them) on the Nuthatch here show contrasts, with some blue and some grey. This suggests it was born last year.

 

The colour of the undertail feathers on these two nuthatches tell us what sex these individuals are.

< The pale colouring on the Nuthatch on the left suggests that this is a female.

> The darker ginger colour on the Nuthatch on the right suggests that this is a male.

And below, a beautiful Marsh Tit on the left, and on the right an angry retrap male Great Spotted Woodpecker, which was ringed by Jan as an age code 5 in 2014 and, until today, had not been retrapped since.

6th and 7th March

Hiiiii!

We're all moved in to our new flat and we have wifi! So I can finally post blogs about recent ringings 😁

So on the 6th, I did a test run of a new site in a car park (I'm sworn to secrecy about which car park, but those of you who know me will know! Ooh this also means I can't post any of my photo's from that morning, in case you guys can guess where I am..!) where I'm hoping to catch more Pied and White Wagtails than anything else... I got there really early, about an hour before sunrise, because when I usually get to this car park it's still dark and the Wagtails are usually already about (I saw 2 Wagtails on this particular morning - typical). I set one net because I didn't want to be inundated with birds, especially when it's probably more likely here than at any other of the places I've ringed that I'll encounter people, even though they did close the top floor of the car park for me (thank you!). Long story short, I could have put more nets up because I caught a grand total of 0 birds, lol. There was a Robin, Blackbird and a feral pigeon "stuck" (I put it in inverted commas because I'm sure they go in there on purpose... especially the pigeons) inside the building where the lifts and stairs are, so I put a net up in there, too. Nope, didn't catch them either. In fact, the Blackbird tried to perch on the top string of my net. Like Jan told me, it will probably be a better site to ring in the Autumn. The best/funniest sighting that morning was Crows throwing all the rubbish out of the bins! 😆

Next up was the Butterfly Reserve on Tuesday 7th March! Is it bad that I don't really remember any highlights from that morning? I didn't even take any photos! I'm sorry! Here's my totals for that session, though:

03/March/2017 Bricks?

I'm ringing in a car park on Monday and I'm having trouble thinking of things that I can use to suspend my net strings from, because obviously I wouldn't be able to put a tent peg into the ground like I usually do at the Butterfly Reserve and every other site I've ever ringed at...

I thought I'd have a go at using bricks and did a test run in Ailsa's garden (thank you Ailsa!) ...I'm sad to say that the bricks are kinda rubbish - just one brick isn't heavy enough and dragged along the ground when I tightened the string, and when I used two bricks the top one fell off the bottom one when I tightened the string, but it did work somewhat and held up for the two hours that I left the net up for, but ideally I'd like something that I can rely on a bit more! I had thought of buying breeze blocks or something and I think I'm going to have to unless I get any other bright ideas... 💡😕 any ideas are very welcome!!

In the two hours that I was ringing I caught two Blue Tits. Ailsa has two seed feeders, a fat ball feeder and a table feeder that has meal worms on it. I could have caught a lot more if I'd set the net in a different position - there were House Sparrows and Goldfinches in the trees, two Starlings came to the fat ball feeder, there were Blue Tit's on the seed feeder and a Robin going for the meal worms. A female Blackbird showed interest in the meal worms too but she didn't stay for long.

28/Feb/2017 Sparrowhawk on Pancake Day

I arrived at the Butterfly Reserve at 6:45 and it was already light. I put up four nets, but because I don't have enough poles to put them all up separately, I connected two nets in a row, twice.. if that makes sense! I found I didn't have enough strings when I came to putting up the second double net, but I used the wooden poles in between so I could push them into the ground and that seemed to work as the nets stayed upright :-)

I was on my way back around the reserve after putting all of the nets up and found that the first two nets had caught five birds and I didn't have any bird bags with me yet! Agh! I'm glad I looked at the birds before I went to the car because I noticed I'd caught a Redwing which had it's tongue caught, so I knew to grab a QuickUnpick while I was at the car to cut the net. In that round I also had two Bullfinches (ones that I could ring!), a new Dunnock and the adult Treecreeper that I ringed on the last ringing session.

The Newbury Ringing Group, Simon and Bobbie (BBOWT CT) had arranged this morning to do some access work and widen the rides for the CES site, so after my second round (a Blackbird and a Songthrush) I was joined by Ian who looked for the Firecrest, with no luck, but he did say he had heard a Chiffchaff, so next time I'm out I might play Chiffchaff calls to see if they respond. Jan and Duncan came over as well. Duncan suggested I put on Goldcrest calls because we could hear them all around us. I put the tapes on at about 9:30 and they were calling back to the tape for the whole of the rest of the morning but I didn't catch any.

After everyone had gone to start cutting the rides, I caught a Sparrowhawk! To be honest I was a bit nervous (crapping myself in fact) but I managed to not get got :P After that I caught both Treecreepers I caught last time and a Robin. I left the nets up until midday just in case the Goldcrest wanted to come to the tape, but then a noisy tractor went by with a flail so I thought they'd probably be put off so I took the nets down.

Totals for the morning:

 Thought you guys would like to see how camouflaged and pretty a Treecreeper's plumage is :-) 

Below is a photo of the Sparrowhawk - a male (grey back). The yellow eye and the contrast in wing colours suggest that it was born last year. I didn't dare try to get him in a good position to get a photo of the wing in case he decided he wanted to sink those talons into me!

And lastly, a photo of the wing of a male Bullfinch, showing four old greater coverts :-) this means that he was born last year.

24/Feb/17 a lotta lotti's

My plan this morning was to connect two nets together, but I overestimated the length of the Gundry net so put the two nets up separately instead but in the same area :P I might as well have put the Ecotone net somewhere else though because it didn't catch anything all morning... Live and learn! I put a third net on the other side of the reserve.

Despite the Ecotone net not catching anything I had a busy start to the morning. On the first round I had four birds - 2 Long-Tailed Tit's, a Blue Tit and a Treecreeper (nice!). I also caught that Bullfinch that we've caught previously with the crusty legs and the cloacal protrusion - the cloacal protrusion looked a bit nasty and maybe infected so maybe it's just unwell and not breeding...

On my second round I caught a flock of 7 lotti's (including one that I'd caught in the first round), a Dunnock and another Treecreeper! (I'll get back to the Treecreepers in a minute as they were different ages and I've got pics to see the differences). The third round I had another Dunnock that managed to roll itself out of the net and got away, and a Blackbird. That round was at 8:45 and I didn't catch anything more after that.

Totals for the morning: (note the number of retraps compared to new birds! All of the data!)

Back to the Treecreepers!

The cream coloured tips on the primary coverts on the Treecreeper in the picture on the left stretch a long way up the shaft of the feathers, whereas the cream tips of the primary coverts on the right Treecreeper are small and do not stretch up the shaft at all. This suggests that the bird on the left was born last year, and the bird on the right is an adult.

I should have taken the photo's with the same background, but it can still be seen quite clearly, and this may be down to poor condition rather than age, but I noticed that the primary feathers of the Treecreeper on the left are a lot more transparent than the primaries of the one on the right.

I was very lucky to see these contrasting plumages today!

And finally here's a picture I sent to Simon captioned "I could have done with your help today!" But actually I coped fine :D I must be getting better at this!

Peace and love xo

16/Feb/17 O frabjous day! Callooh callay!

I timed myself putting my nets up this morning. Ten minutes for each net, which I felt wasn't too bad considering my Ecotone net is poorly and I stood for a few minutes looking at it all confused. The top shelf string was hanging loose and the net was bunched up all around it and I couldn't work out what was wrong. When Jan came to visit a little while later he looked at it and fixed it a bit, but it's still not 100% right... :-( I've been looking at Potter Traps and Spring Traps online this past week thinking about buying some but maybe I'll have to invest in a new net first, if I can't fix this one :-(

My first catch of the day was a Robin, which overtook me as I was walking back to the car after putting the nets up, and I watched it fly straight into the net in front of me. The second net round I walked the opposite way round the Butterfly Reserve. Extracted a Dunnock from the Ecotone net, walked towards the last one and saw a little bird in the net and another one of the same size on the other side of the net in the bushes, probably Goldcrest. As I got closer the bird in the bushes flew away, and the closer I got to this "Goldcrest" in the net the more I thought "that's an eye stripe!" I'd caught a Firecrest!! My tummy flipped and it's the explanation for the title of this blog post :P a happy line from my favourite poem, The Jabberwocky! Jan had timed his visit perfectly as I had the Firecrest in my hand when he got to me and we admired the bird together :D so happy! Here are a couple of photos that Jan took:

After the excitement of the Firecrest we looked at my Ecotone net that I've already mentioned was a bit broken. That round saw a Blackbird and a Goldcrest caught in the 6m net. The Goldcrest was the female that I've now retrapped twice since ringing it on the 24th of January. The rest of the session involved attempting to coax a Swan up the bank of the lake just outside the gate of the Butterfly Reserve. It wasn't successful but Jan gave me 2 Swan rings just in case I'm ever successful in catching one when he's not around lol. I also spent a little while pulling those Alder (I think) seeds out of the net. Such a pain!...

Here's the totals for today's session:

Jan and I are going to a meeting with staff from Thames Water tomorrow to discuss permissions to ring at Kingsclere Sewage Works. So excited for the prospect of ringing Pied and Grey Wagtails! and Pipits! And a building with heating and toilets to ring in - luxury! Fingers crossed!! Watch this space, blog readers (if I have any)!

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

9/Feb/17 Experimenting with nets

Since it's not been very long at all since I was last ringing, I put the nets in different areas to where I would usually put them. I was really happy with how I dealt with putting nets up today - I usually get frustrated at myself when even the tiniest thing goes how I didn't plan it to, but today, even when I overestimated the length of the 6m net, my thought was "okay, let's sort this out" and just got on with it and sorted it out much faster and effectively than if I was in panic mode 😋 need to keep this up!

Even though all these nets were experimental, all three of them caught at least one bird, so I'm pretty happy with that! Here are photos of the nets today:

The Gundry net (12m)

The NR net (6m) through BBOWT's education area

The Ecotone net (9m)

Although I didn't catch many birds, I did catch the Goldcrest that I ringed on the 24th of January but accidentally let go of while trying to write and take biometrics at the same time (I hold the bird in the hand that I write with, which is weird for bird ringers, apparently..! And I struggle to scribe for myself. I have a scrap notebook that I scribble info in with my left hand before I write it neatly into my ringing book after I've released the bird.) But yeah, I caught that Goldcrest again so I have all of the measurements for her now 😁 This isn't her but this is the male Goldcrest that I ringed first thing:

That face! 💓

The orange crown feathers shows it's a male

I also caught a young male Blackbird that Simon and I keep seeing hopping about in the Butterfly Reserve (always close to where I put my 9m net today - that's the net he was caught in) but never actually caught him before! I'm pretty sure it's the same bird because even from a distance you can tell that he was last years bird - the brown colour of his primary feathers is an extreme contrast to the black everywhere else 😃 here's a photo of him and, in particular, his wing:

Totals for the session, 3 new, 3 retrap: