Seed-munchers

Been playing around with digiscoping garden birds through the double glazing...

Sometimes the results are pretty good, considering

Chaffinches

Rook

Good light seems to be the biggest factor (it's really dull today)

Greenfinch

Other times they are not very good, but it's nice to have a record of what's been visiting the garden

Yellowhammers

Reed Bunting

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

The pain, the pain...

The first ringing session of 2010 in our garden yielded lots of interesting things, but the pain was all mine.

We caught a whopping 39 Blue Tits, and my fingers still sting from their frenzied pecking... 14 of those were birds we'd caught before (known as 'retraps').

The three Robins have appeared from somewhere - we hadn't caught one since March. I've seen four at once in the garden in the past week, alternating between an uneasy truce and all-out war.

We trapped another three juvenile Marsh Tits - they just keep coming!

Starling (adult female) and Great Spotted Woodpecker (adult male) have been infrequent visitors lately, so it was lucky to catch them. I received a good pecking from them both, with the woodpecker drawing blood and leaving my fingers covered in pock-marks.

One of the Greenfinches (pictured) was already ringed, but not here! Del had caught it in his garden, 6 km away. That means it's a 'control', the first for the garden!

We missed a female Reed Bunting, which dodged the net, and a Sparrowhawk that's been hanging around for the past few days. Just seen it this afternoon, though - you can't catch 'em all.

The totals:

• Blue Tit, 25 new ones and 14 we'd caught before
• Great Tit, 12 new and 8 retraps
• Robin, 3 new
• Marsh Tit, 3 new
• Dunnock, 3 new, 1 retrap
• Coal Tit, 1 new, 2 retraps
• Starling, 1
• Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1
• House Sparrow, 1
• Greenfinch, 2 new, 1 control
• Blackbird, 1 retrap

- a total of 79 birds caught in 50 feet of net - our biggest-ever catch.

photo taken with Canon EOS 30D

Greenfinchfest

Did some more ringing today in the garden. One species dominated proceedings... can you guess which?

The totals:

• Greenfinch, 51!
• Blue Tit, 6 (+ one retrap originally ringed here in 2007)
• Dunnock, 6 (all juveniles)
• Great Tit, 3
• Goldfinch, 2
  

We kept going until we used up the whole series of 50 'B' rings (the size that Greenfinches take). It was a bit windy - we could have had even more. I'd seen up to 30 in the garden in recent days so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised at the number we caught. This afternoon there are yet more unringed finches in the garden!

Most of the Greenfinches had purple, sticky beaks. They've been eating berries - blackberries and elderberries, I guess. Most birds like berries for the sugary pulp, but Greenfinches and Bullfinches take them for the seeds hidden inside. That means lots of bright purple poos.

Near-misses included Chaffinch, Robin, Swallow and Sparrowhawk...

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Phonescoping with iPhone

Well, these pictures ain't gonna win no prizes, but I've been experimenting with my iPhone to see whether phonescoping is a possibility.

Conclusion: yes, for 'record shots'. For it to be slightly easier, I need to make a little adapter (which shouldn't be too hard).



Greenfinch on the sunflower seeds


Swallow wings and tails - sitting on the guttering above the window


Clouds on the horizon


With the vast variety of add-ons available, there must be some really good ones for birders. If you're in the States, you can get various fieldguides, but there doesn't seem to be much for the rest of us yet. Surely it's a matter of time?

Greenfinch photo taken with iPhone 3G S + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece
All taken through double-glazing...

FinchFest

Female Goldfinch (the red stops midway along the eye, not behind it)

Male Greenfinch

Male Great Tit, with super-wide black belly stripe

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker (with red on nape)

Time for some more garden bird ringing.

• Greenfinch, 12 (+ 1 retrap)
  
• Great Tit, 12 (+ 1 retrap)
  
• Blue Tit, 11 (+ 1 retrap)
  
• Goldfinch, 7 (6 were male!)
  
• Chaffinch, 3
  
• Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 (male and female)
  
• Dunnock, 1
  
• Robin, 1
  

Greenfinches seem to have made a comeback, as they've only been present in small numbers lately. Where have they been? 

All the retraps had been ringed on the last session, on 8 February. Where are those birds now?

Previous sessions: 8 February 2009; 3 January 2009; 17 November 2007

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

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