Nice morning for my Breeding Bird Survey

All things bright and beautiful

 

This morning I was out bright and early (and cold and windy) for the first stint of my Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). It was pretty uneventful - I wasn't chewed by a horse and I met the man who used to have this stuff on his gate.

But surprisingly, the best bird was the first one I heard as I entered my square - a singing redpoll! I did hear one calling on another BBS visit a couple of years ago, so I wonder if it warrants more investigation. That would probably be quite a good breeding record in Cambridgeshire these days...

I also found three singing Lesser Whitethroats in the final three sections I was surveying, which was good, though I'm guessing they may not stick around for my next visit in a month's time.

Then, at lunchtime I found a male Redstart! A real blink-and-you'll-miss-it job. I saw it once and it vanished. That was annoying, but the Greenland Wheatears I saw a couple of minutes later helped make up for it.

photo taken with iPhone 4S

A funny day

Blackcap, Robin, Wren and Mistle Thrush woz ere

In a last-ditch attempt to squeeze in my early Breeding Bird Survey visit before the mid-May deadline (nice weather has been in short supply lately), we got up at 4.45 this morning.

It started well, with a Grey Wagtail lurking (breeding?) around the sewage works, but unfortunately it wasn't quite within the boundaries of my square. I resisted the temptation to cheat, but never mind, it'll be in the atlas instead.

There were plenty of Robins, Blackbirds, Wrens, Blackcaps, two Yellowhammers, a Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat in the first few bits of the transect. So far so good.

Transect section number 4 brought us into a pleasant pasture, which contained a horse. It came to see what we were doing, which was fine. That was perfectly OK until it tried to chew my foot, through my welly. I went off it a bit after that.

Next, two members of the landed gentry came to interrogate Darren about what were doing. I was trying to find the correct route out of the field (the footpath signs had vanished), but he'd already climbed over an electric fence. Ouch. They were concerned about the horse. Maybe they should have worried about whether it was trying to gnaw innocent passers-by.

Anyway, it was good to see that the signage below (photographed last year) is still in place, though the car has gone:



Moving on, we started the second part of the route, in the village. The contrast between the farmland and woodland, and the built-up area was striking. So many more birds, of more species! We added House Sparrow, Starling, Swallow, Swift, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Collared Dove, Long-tailed Tit, Moorhen and Stock Dove.

The best finds of the square came late on. Walking between two tall, old hedges, it was hard to see what lay the other side. Ears are really important for surveying. 'Prrrrrrrr, prrrrrrr, prrrrrr, prrrrrrr' went the Turtle Dove. Yessss! I was really pleased with that. Turtle Doves are getting hard to find in many areas.

Then, a bit further on, a Lesser Redpoll called as it flew over. I wonder where that came from, or where it was going? Breeding hasn't been confirmed in the county since 2002...

So that was the first part of the day, until 8am.

At Sutton Village Hall, that well-known nitespot, I witnessed some of the most extraordinary, extravagent, outrageous dancing I've ever seen, and from someone I perhaps wouldn't have expected it from. 'nuff said. That was funny. I only wish I'd videoed it.

Then, I drove home. While fumbling with the door key, at just gone midnight, I heard some trilling calls. 'Wiwiwiwiwiwiwi.' 'Wiwiwiwiwiwiwi.' One slightly lower-pitched than the other. It took me a while before I twigged that they must have been Whimbrels, migrating over in the bright moonlight, calling to each other. Garden tick number 92! Darren's gutted; he was in bed asleep.

And there ended my funny day.

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Breeding Bird Survey - Part Two

Went to do the first proper visit to my Breeding Bird Survey square this morning. It went quite well, I think. A couple of nice surprises were Mandarin and Nightingale, both on the northern transect (arable land/ancient woodland).

Other nice birds were several Yellowhammers, a pair of Reed Buntings, a singing Lesser Whitethroat, numerous Sky Larks and a Brown Hare.

It was very pleasant to be out and about in the early morning (started at 0620; finished at 0810), though I was a little bit wary of the heifers in one of the fields. They seemed to be in rather high spirits, galloping towards me and bucking joyfully... Just as well I had my clipboard with me in case I needed to fend them off.

Now I have to wait a month before I can do the next visit. I wonder how things will have changed by then?

photo taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

Breeding Bird Survey... Episode One

I've got a Breeding Bird Survey square to do this year (to read more about BBS, click here). Today, I walked the routes I'm going to take when I do my transect counts.

The survey squares are picked randomly so it's lucky that I've got a nice one in rural north-east Northamptonshire rather than an urban hell-hole in Peterborough... My two transects run east-west. The southern one runs through grazed pasture and arable land, while the northern one takes me through a bit of arable land and along the edge of some ancient woodland.


These are some of my co-surveyors

The purpose of today's visit, apart from checking that my routes (originally plotted on a map) are physically possible to do (i.e. no unexpected rivers, motorways or cliffs in the way), was to record the habitat along my transects. I haven't done it before so it was a matter of interpreting what I saw and learning to fill in the form.

I noted down the land use (mostly farmland, improved grassland or tilled land), the kinds of boundaries (hedges, with and without trees) and what was growing (or grazing).


The saving grace of my square is the woodland. Today I heard Nuthatch, Marsh Tit and Stock Dove for starters.

Now I'm ready to go ahead and do the proper counts - starting between 6am and 7am, once between mid-April and mid-May, and again between mid-May and late June. It'll probably be rubbish but I shall be proud to record that fact.

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995