Tuesday 8 October 2013

Late migrants

We had good conditions for mist-netting over the weekend of 5th/6th Oct.

Saturday morning we headed out onto the Ascot Heath site. There were still a few warblers about and we managed to catch a few blackcaps. The main surprise of the morning though was a young male redstart caught in the recently cut net ride.

1st year male Redstart. Only the 2nd recorded at the site in recent times.

Sunday morning we were back onto Hart sites with a morning session at Hazeley. We quickly set all the nets and caught a handful of thrushes first thing coming out of roost. Joining us on Sunday was the local RSPB Wildlife explorers group for a ringing demonstration. Luckily many of them could join us at short notice as the previously planned demo was postponed. 


A bright start soon cleared the mist

The kids really seemed to enjoy the chance to see the birds close up (and hopefully learn a bit about them). There was a nice variety of species caught including Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Goldfinch, Coal tit and very surprisingly a late staying Garden warbler. The last couple of birds shown to the group were a Robin which was met with a chorus of 'Aaahs' and a Dunnock to which the response was (quite unfairly) disappointment to finish on a small brown bird. Didn't seem like the crowd to start explaining their interesting mating habits though.

 
The past week has also fantastic for fungi. Plenty to be found near us and no shortage of the ever impressive fly agaric.



Tuesday 24 September 2013

24th Sept. - Hazeley Heath

Its been a few weeks since I have been able to get out to any of our regular sites (though we have managed a fair bit of ringing elsewhere recently). So this morning we had a short session at Hazeley focusing on warblers still moving through the site. It was a misty start...and middle...and end as the fog was set in for the morning and did leave the site feeling a bit birdless as not much was seen moving about. Nonetheless, we ringed c.30 birds over a couple of hours with a steady number of blackcaps about. The only peculiar fly over was a single grey wagtail in the mist.



There was a bit more movement as we were packing up and it was becoming a bit brighter with small number of meadow pipits and swallows moving through. Which we will hopefully be able to target at the weekend.



An adult jay ringed this morning did add a splash of colour and it was quickly released so it could get back to gathering acorns. 


Sunday 1 September 2013

A week of two halves

We have managed to get out ringing three times over the past week. Most importantly we completed the final CES visit (without missing any) at Fleet Pond on the 29th. Unfortunately it was a bit of an anti-climax with only 5 new birds and 4 retraps (especially after 40 + birds on CES 11).

31st August was a quick visit to Ascot racecourse again for a couple of hours before the wind speed picked up and there was a steady movement of young warblers through the site. We also had 1 whinchat seen nearby the ringing area.

The real bonus of the week though was a session this morning at a new site just down the road from our CES. It is an area of scrub on an ex-landfill bordered by heathland. We set a few nets nice and early and ended up with 80 new birds over the morning. A good number of blackcaps and a young tree pipit for interest were the highlights. There did seem to be a complete lack of whitethroats though despite ideal habitat. I expect we will ring there more often over the autumn and into the winter.

Sunday 11 August 2013

It's starting to feel like autumn...

We have managed to get out ringing a couple of times over the past week. Starting with a trip to another local site in the middle Ascot racecourse. This heath/scrub site holds a surprising number of birds and we processed over 40 birds in the morning, mostly consisting of juvenile goldfinches.

  

            A sure sign of autumn
            with many birds making
            the most of available
            berries

Thursday (8th) morning we visited Fleet Pond for the latest CES visit. Still relatively quiet with only just over 20 birds processed though it was good see the majority birds handled were juvenile. Highlight of two sedge warblers (which do not currently breed on the site).

Saturday (10th) was a bit of a change of scenery for us with a visit to some friends who ring on Salisbury Plain. A fantastic morning with 172 new birds ringed (plus retraps). A nice selection of warblers, nightingale, redstart, tree pipit and 7 whinchat. 

Ideal finish too with a young male sparrowhawk being the final bird of the day.

  
           One of several tree 
               pipits caught


  

               A blue tit's worst
                    nightmare

Sunday 4 August 2013

01/08 - Fleet Pond

We had to make a midweek visit to complete the latest CES session at Fleet. Set up was nice a quick apart from missing pegs and bamboos at one of our rides which was frustrating. Luckily whoever had been in didn't visit any other rides nor did they find our spare bamboos. 

It was a fairly slow morning again ending with 22 birds including 5 retraps but this wasn't too bad given the bright conditions. It was also nice to get 9 new reed warblers including 6 juveniles.

Unexpected species of the morning arrived in the form of a juvenile tree creeper. Needless to say we don't catch many in the reedbeds (though there is mature woodland all along the reed edge).



Tuesday 16 July 2013

16/07 - Fleet Pond CES

We had a few extra hands this morning so we were able to set up a couple of additional nets on top of the CES nets. It was a fairly steady morning but never busy finishing with 31 new birds and 11 retraps.

It was good to see most of the birds today were juveniles including 9 more 3J reed warblers.

               This adult female green
               woodpecker provided
               a bit of interest too

Saturday 13 July 2013

11/07 Fleet Pond

A brief visit to the pond on Thursday after work to ring the term and gull chicks out on the recently created islands.

To minimise disturbance we will only have one ringing visit to the colony and we tried to time this to get the majority of the common tern chicks. We had seen a maximum of 8 adults sitting and we managed to ring 10 chicks (likely around half the possible number of young).

                      Common tern

In addition we also managed to find and ring 6 black headed gull chicks. All birds were also colour ringed (apart from the odd one which was too small) so we hope people will keep an eye out for them. 


                    Black headed gull

This is the first time these birds on the islands have been ringed so we are keen to see how this new colony develops. 

Finally, many thanks to Tim Ball for joining us and adding these birds to his colour ringing project.