The leaves of Beeston

and, er, a flag

photos taken with iPhone and Hipstamatic app

Speckled

Juvenile Green Woodpecker ringed today at Beeston

and a juvenile Nightingale at Paxton Pits

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D or Canon Powershot A640

A spring morning

Ringing at Beeston

We we were on track to get the 2,000th bird ever to be ringed at Beeston today, and so we did. And at least it wasn't a Dunnock or Blue Tit (though they're nice in their own ways, we catch them all the time). It was a handsome male Goldfinch.

Male Goldfinch - the 2,000th bird to be ringed at Beeston

We also caught a handful of Siskins, which we don't normally... The first bird of the day was an adult male which was laden with fat (fuel for migration) and weighed in excess of 16g. The other Siskins we trapped were more around the 13g mark. Quite a big difference for a small bird.

First bird of the morning - an adult male Siskin

Smallest, lightest bird of the day - a male Goldcrest, which tipped the scales at less than 5g!

Male Reed Bunting caught in the garden

Mistletoe - untouched by birds!

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Frosty finch

This beautiful male Brambling was the star bird of our monthly ringing session at Beeston.

Catching Kingfishers

This month's ringing demo at Beeston turned out to be a corker! We caught nearly 60 birds - about three times as many as we've had in recent months - and two of them were juvenile Kingfishers. Most of the rest were juvenile Great Tits, with a scattering of Whitethroats, Blue Tits, Dunnocks, Greenfinches, Blackbirds, Chaffinches and Robins.

Everyone say: oooooh!

The first of two Kingfishers we caught today

Maybe the back view is even better

'Oh - you mean I can go now?'

'I'm outta here - but I'll crap on your hand first. Byee!'

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D

Migration is restarting (if it ever stopped)

Well, no, this Long-tailed Tit (above) wasn't migrating. It's just impossibly cute.

But at Beeston today we caught a nice selection of migrating/dispersing warblers: a load of Blackcaps (including an adult male from a few years ago), Garden Warblers, Willow Warbler, Whitethroat and - possibly nicest of all - the Lesser Whitethroat pictured below.

As far as most birds are concerned, the breeding season is finished and autumn is here. It's time for moulting and feeding, and migration's not far away. For some of these birds, the Sahara beckons...

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Yellow and gold

Male Yellowhammer, hatched last year

Male Goldfinch, also hatched last year

Been ringing again, this time on our monthly visit to Beeston. It was really too windy to be very productive, but we did catch the first Yellowhammer for quite some time, an array of Greenfinches and Chaffinches, and a Goldfinch.

Yesterday, we were very close to catching a Sparrowhawk, but by the time we'd legged it to the net, it had got out and flown off.

To make up for the disappointment, we caught three Long-tailed Tits. Two of them had consecutive ring numbers - they were the same two we'd caught together at dusk the previous month! Everyone say 'ahhhhh'...

I've been so busy lately that I've barely had any time for photos during the week, and I haven't managed much at weekends either. Hopefully normal service will soon be resumed. Highlights in the garden have been up to 15 Reed Buntings and four Yellowhammers. No sign of newts in the pond yet, though there have been a few Backswimmers and Lesser Diving Beetles pootling around.

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D

What colour is your pecker?

Fantastic, but very noisy and wriggly birds.

photo taken with Canon EOS 30D

Awright Starlin'

Two Starlings caught in the same mist-net.

The female (right) has a nice story: she was rescued from an attack by another female Starling back in February. She got a bad pecking, but recovered and was ringed and released.

Today we retrapped her with a male Starling. She has a 'brood patch' (a patch of featherless skin for incubating) so obviously has gone on to breed.

You can tell male and female Starlings apart by looking at the base of the beak: blue for boys and pink for girls

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Handsome males

male Orange-tip

Starling, trapped for ringing

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Now that's a beak

Note ragged, bleached secondaries


Male Green Woodpecker


Male Goldfinch (note the red behind the eye)

Another enjoyable ringing session at Beeston today. The sun shone, the wind was gentle, butterflies (Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma, Brimstone) fluttered, five Buzzards thermalled overhead and we were brought bacon butties and cups of tea. And caught 72 birds!

33 were Greenfinches (and one of those was a control - a bird that someone else had already ringed, somewhere else). The Green Woodpecker and a Starling brought a bit of variety to proceedings. A super-fat Chaffinch weighed 27 g and had a wing length of 93 mm (it could be on its way back to Scandinavia); many of the females were carrying plenty of fat, showing as a smudge of yellow on their chests.

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Beeston

Kestrel

Meadow Pipit

We went to Del and John's ringing session at Beeston this morning. There were a few nets around the garden and a 'pipit box' out in a stubble field - a triangle of nets with a tape lure in the middle. It succeeded in attracting Meadow Pipits but also a Kestrel which dived helpfully into the nets. It was a bit grumpy and stuck a talon into Del's finger.

Elsewhere around the farm it was great to see hedges bursting with fruit and buzzing with insects.

Small Tortoiseshell

Hedge full of berries

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM