Small and sharp

I spent all day ringing at Castor Hanglands near Peterborough. We caught some nice birds - Marsh Tit, Treecreeper, a lot of retrap Long-tailed Tits (some a couple of years old), and this Sparrowhawk.

Before ringing a Sparrowhawk, you need to know for sure whether it's male or female. Males are much smaller and take a smaller ring than females. So you measure the wing and its leg...

This is a male. Mind those talons!

The feet are ready to grab you at all times...

The pointy end! Don't worry about the hooked beak, worry about these

Happy ringer (see how small the bird is)

The fog never really lifted all day...

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D

Birds in the net

Early start - got up at 4.45am. Didn't get home til about 9.30pm. Between these times I was at Castor Hanglands, one of my old stomping grounds near Peterborough.

Lesser Redpoll

11 in the net!

We caught about 120 birds...

• Lesser Redpoll
• Siskin
• Chaffinch
• Great Tit
• Blue Tit
• Coal Tit
• Long-tailed Tit
• Marsh Tit
• Treecreeper
• Blackbird
• Redwing
• Song Thrush
• Tree Sparrow
• Goldcrest
• Sparrowhawk!

Juvenile male Sparrowhawk

For me, this was the highlight: a juvenile male Sparrowhawk. I haven't handled many birds of prey so it was a really good opportunity to deal with a bird that actually could hurt me - if it wanted to, and if I wasn't careful enough.

We got it out of the net without too much trouble, and put it in a cotton bird bag until we were ready to ring it. Then, I had to put my hand into the bag containing the hawk, and get the bird out again without letting it escape.

I could see the sharp talons sticking out through the cotton, so at least I knew where they were...

the eyes have it

Normally you identify the bird, put the ring on, and then do the ageing, sexing and biometrics (weighing, fat and muscle scoring, and measuring wing length).

With Sparrowhawks there's such a size difference between males and females they take different ring sizes (males being smaller). The wing length confirmed it was a male, and the chestnut-brown edges to the back and wing feathers show it hatched earlier this year.

The Sparrowhawk was surprisingly docile while I handled it. It had a look of rage in its eyes, though. When we were finished, it was a pleasure to release it. What a bird...

underwing...

and upperwing

now for something smaller - a female Siskin

and Lottie, who kept us entertained between net rounds with her stick-chasing and chewing

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D

Blue skies above Castor

I've never seen a sky like this before. Perhaps I never will again. Living on a crowded island, there are always planes flying over at some height, no matter where you are. So thanks, Eyjafjallajoekull, for giving us beautiful blue, quiet skies for a while.

It was a gorgeous spring day, warm and sunny. These are the eyes of a male Whitethroat, the first one I've seen this year.  We didn't catch a whole lot at Castor... the hoped-for surge of birds near dusk never quite happened. Despite that, it was a beautiful day to be outside, admiring blossom, listening to Blackcaps singing (not Nightingales, unfortunately), eating cake...

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Castor Hanglands NNR

Whitethroat. Welcome back, my trans-Sahara migrating friend!




Marsh Marigolds




A very smart purple-blue-green-black Pheasant


This Chaffinch was a bit coy, hiding behind a twig...


Blossom

A truly splendid visit to Castor this morning. Two Grasshopper Warblers (the first of many) reeled in the scrub. A Nightingale started up - made me shudder and then grin like an idiot. Lesser Whitethroat rattled away in a hawthorn bush, but evaded capture on Compact Flash card... A Cuckoo sang, getting a bit over-excited and going into that crazy chuckling they do.

Many Whitethroats, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers, but no Garden Warblers... can't be long now, surely?

digiscoped photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995 + Leica Apo Televid 62 with 16x eyepiece

Castor Hanglands insects

Got a phone call at lunchtime from MJW who was watching a male Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa) at Castor Hanglands. After a little thought I decided it would be nice to go and see it. What an insect!

There were also Hairy Dragonflies (Brachytron pratense) on one of the other ponds, and we nearly trod on this Glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca) larva on the way out (see below). Robin Scagell of the UK Glow Worm Survey kindly confirmed its identity. There are no other recent records of Glow-worms from this area so it will be fascinating to visit again to look for glowing females. The survey's website provides lots of information if you're interested.

Bogbumper And The Curse Of The Black Tern

This morning I was woken at 05:45 by a text from Mike 'Early Birder' Weedon which said:

"Blak [sic] tern @ maxey now 5.45am. M"

I neeeeeeeeeed Black Tern for my PBC area list. That was enough of a stimulus to get even me out of bed. I grabbed my scope, bins, camera etc. and set off.

I arrived at Maxey at 06:15 (it would have been sooner if I hadn't gone the wrong way - twice). There was no sign of Weed, and worse still, no bloody terns! I waited around for more than a hour, in the vain hope that they might come back, but there was no sign.

After that bitter disappointment, I went to Castor Hanglands (I'm a sucker for punishment), and had my best-ever views of Grasshopper Warbler. I heard one reeling as I got out of the car, and decided to have a wander up the track to look for it (it sounded close, but they can be quite misleading). Scanning around, I soon saw it sitting low in a tree. After watching for a while, I decided it was worth a digiscoping attempt.



Hardly worth it, but it's fun trying. It's not easy to understand how Groppers sing. They just seem to sit there, open their bills and somehow the mechanical sound spills out. The only sign of any effort is the vibrating tail.

Also at CH were a few Turtle Doves, a couple of Cuckoos, and a lot of young birds.

These Common Spotted Orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) made a nice display.



This flower is pretty, but I don't know what it is...




Update: Mum says it's Goatsbeard, Tragopogon orientalis, otherwise known as Jack-Go-To-Bed-At-Noon.

What's in my CD player: Thriller - Lambchop

Grasshopper Warbler

Went out to Castor Hanglands at lunchtime to bag my first Grasshopper Warbler of the year. It was distant, but it'll do for now. It looked like it ought to be a good day for a fly-over raptor, but we didn't see any.

What's in my CD player: Deserter's Songs - Mercury Rev