Fluffy babies

It's that time of year again... the time for fluffy babies.

Juvenile Robin

This one's starting its post-juvenile moult, getting the orange breast feathers

Wren

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Another Great Tit

The fluffiest of them all... baby Long-tailed Tit

Suburban birds

I spent the Jubilee weekend and bank holidays at my parents' house while they were away enjoying themselves in France. Eventually it stopped raining and I did a bit of ringing...

Collared Dove

It's pretty difficult to catch Collared Doves in mist nets; being a bigger and faster-flying bird, they tend to bounce out easily or can wriggle their way to freedom. So I was lucky to get my hands on this male.

Male House Sparrow

Juvenile Starling

Adult male Starling

Goldfinch

Juvenile Dunnock

Moulting adult Blue Tit

At the bottom of the garden...

Hurray! I've finally got my first set of rings. My joy was tempered slightly by the cost, but poverty is all part of being a ringer. So I've wasted no time in trying to catch birds...

These ones are in my new garden. I have mostly been catching Blue and Great Tits, but there have been a few other bits and pieces, too.

Birds about to be extracted from the net

Treecreeper (check out the talons). They always look grumpy

Long-tailed Tit

I caught three Great Spotted Woodpeckers in one afternoon. Damage to my eardrums and hands was not inconsiderable, but I've recovered. Ear defenders would be handy, though.

Great Spotted Woodpecker (female)

Great Spotted Woodpecker (male)

Blue Tit with wonky bill, but it was in good shape so still feeding OK

While at my parents' over Christmas, I couldn't resist trying to catch some of their garden birds. It was mostly a fruitless exercise (someone down the road is clearly sucking in birds from miles around) but I caught a few (no, really, a few. Three Dunnocks and a Robin. Woodpigeon, Collared Dove and Goldfinch all wriggled out before I could extract them!).

The first bird to get one of my rings - a Dunnock. Dull brown eye says it's a young bird

Another Dunnock - bright reddish-brown eye says it's an older bird

My first rings

Captured!

I had my first attempt at ringing in my new garden today. It started well, with three birds in the net within 15 minutes, but that was the lot and I caught nothing else before finally giving up around lunchtime.

Great Tit: quizzical

Coal Tit: innocent

Blue Tit: "Grrrrr"

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

When Blue Tits turn bad

We did some more ringing in the garden this morning. When Derek arrived it was raining steadily and we didn't think we'd be able to get any nets up at all. After a cup of coffee, things brightened up and we put up one 40' net.

We stood in the kitchen and watched birds flying over, under and round the side of the net. It was pretty dispiriting! Eventually we caught two Blue Tits and a Great Tit simultaneously, and then it got windy. So things weren't looking too good.

Fortunately, despite the wind and occasional drizzle, we did OK.

We caught two Reed Buntings (we've had as many as 15 in the garden at the same time this week), which was pretty good. This one's a male. The pale flecks on his head will soon wear away, revealing smart, plain black feathers underneath.

For a while it looked likely that the Reed Buntings would be the highlight of the morning. Then we caught this bird:

A Great Tit, you say. Not very interesting, surely. Well, the thing about this Great Tit is that it already had a ring, and it wasn't one that we'd put on. So it's come from somewhere else. In itself, that's interesting enough (we'll have to wait to find out where it was ringed).

The extra-interesting thing was that the ring was a size larger than normal - a B ring (AAs are the smallest, for things like Goldcrests and Willow Warblers, then As, and Bs are usually for birds like Greenfinches).

When young Great Tits are ringed in the nest as chicks (or pulli as ringers like to refer to them), they need the next ring size up. This is because their legs are actually fatter while they're developing!

The ring still fits OK now that the bird is a thinner-legged adult, but hopefully the person who ringed it will be really pleased to hear that one of their pulli has made it to adulthood. The reason that Great Tits have such huge families (up to 9 eggs) is because many of them - 62% on average - will die in their first year. So this guy has beaten the odds.

Now you want to know what happens when Blue Tits turn bad, right?

We take great care when handling birds, but it's a shame that Blue Tits do not reciprocate. Everybody thinks they're cute and fluffy, but this is the truth: they are fierce biters and nippers. It wouldn't let go and actually made Derek's finger bleed.

Anyway, here are today's totals:

• Blue Tit, 17 (+ 4 'retraps' we'd caught before)
• Great Tit, 11 (+ 4 retraps, including the special one)
• Greenfinch, 1
• Dunnock, 1
• Reed Bunting, 2
• Coal Tit, 2

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D

Garden Birds: The Movie

It's cold and windy outside, so I thought I'd try digivideoing some common garden birds through the bedroom window. It's not come out too badly, but there's no soundtrack.

The stars of the show:

00:00: Goldfinch and Greenfinch are enjoying some sunflower seeds together when

00:10: they're joined - briefly - by a Coal Tit

00:14: another Greenfinch turns up

00:18: a Great Tit and Blue Tit arrive simultaneously, then more Blue Tits and Great Tits

I'll have to try to film the Marsh Tit that's visiting every day at the moment.

Canon Powershot A640 + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Feed me

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

Lodge birds

Some more rather predictable shots of birds at The Lodge. There's not much else showing at the moment...

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, Extender EF 1.4x II

New era

I've been thinking about getting a proper camera for a long time, and I've finally done it. I served my digiscoping apprenticeship and decided it was about time I jumped on the DSLR bandwagon.

These are early days. I haven't got a clue of which settings to use; I just know I need to get close. It's not been hugely successful so far, but it's great fun - feels like the photographic equivalent of go-karting!

Now I just need to find some nice, cooperative birds.

And so, at The Lodge this morning...

Blue Tit. Some nestbox inspection going on


Robin preening

Frosty ivy berries



Dunnock singing

Bramble leaves

Wouldn't be complete without some sunlit leaves, would it?

And from yesterday...

Greylag Geese

Bullfinches munching on ash keys

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, Extender EF 1.4x II

Bathtime again

Back to the Lodge pond to try a bit more digiscoping. It didn't help that the pond was mostly frozen, but there was nothing I could do about that...

Blue Tit

Great Tit


Coal Tit






Chaffinches

Starting to think I'm wasting my time trying to digiscope small stuff. They move too quickly!

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