Been busy...

Wednesday dawn

*Only* one Wryneck this year...

When a man (or woman) is tired of Wrynecks, he is tired of life

Ringing tick - a Greenland Wheatear. Big bugger

Kingfisher...

One of three Water Rails, this one hatched earlier this year

And another the same age

Female Mallard

Wing of male Mallard

And a female Blackcap with funny wings. New feathers growing seemed OK though

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

Mr Cetti's Warbler

We seized the only opportunity for good Bank Holiday weather on Saturday. A visit for some ringing at Warren Villas was the way forward. We were pleasantly surprised to hear a Cetti's Warbler singing as we put up one of the nets. The sound got closer, and while we were securing one end of the net, a Cetti's Warbler appeared in the other end!

This is the first Cetti's Warbler to be ringed in the Ivel valley, the eighth ever to be ringed in Bedfordshire and the first for me (anywhere)!

We caught a nice selection of birds - Sedge, Reed and Garden Warblers, Blackcap, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Robin and Kingfisher.

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D

Ringing: Ferry Meadows CP

Angry Jay attempts to take a lump out of Daniel's hand!

What a start to the 2005 CES season! We'd arranged to meet at Ferry Meadows at 4am, allowing plenty of time to get the nets up. But at about 3.15am, an almighty thunderstorm kicked off.

It was, without doubt, the biggest, maddest, most intense I've ever encountered. The lightning was almost continuous and the rain torrential. I left the house in the dark at 3.45am and already there were Blackbirds, Robins, Wrens and Song Thrushes singing (woken up by the storm?).

Fortunately, I didn't have very far to drive, but by the time I got onto the parkway, I could barely see where I was going, even with windscreen-wipers on full power! As I drove down Ham Lane, there was a colossal bang just to my right as something got frazzled...

The storm was still going when Chris, Daniel and I met up. Though the rain did stop, the lightning continued, and Chris decided that it would be better if we all sat inside a car to have a chat, rather than going out to put the 14 nets up. Some of the poles are metal...

So, though we were slightly delayed, everything went pretty smoothly and we were ready to go within an hour. First bird for CES 2005 was a Blackcap. So far, so good. The most unexpected bird of the morning was a Jay! We see them flapping across the nature reserve quite often but I never thought we'd get one in a mist-net! The Jay was a big, angry, noisy bird (see pic above)!

We ended up with a total of around 70 birds, including good numbers of Sedge Warblers, three Garden Warblers (one a 'retrap' - a bird ringed here in a previous year), a few Reed Warblers, two Bullfinches, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Whitethroat, Robin, Wrens, Dunnocks, Reed Bunting and... three Kingfishers!


There was a Peterborough Bird Club guided dawn chorus walk and this male (see all-dark bill) elicited lots of 'ooohs' and 'aaaahs'...


A couple of the nets are set over bridges which cross dykes in the willow carr. Later on, we trapped this female, too (orangey bill).

And, late on, another male bird.




Will Bowell joined us this morning and he was able to take lots of nice photos. Click here to see and read all about it.

Thanks to Bob Titman for bringing us the bacon butties!

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995

Ringing

Pics from this morning's CES ringing session at Ferry Meadows.


Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker




Juvenile Kingfisher


Female Reed Bunting 'control' - originally ringed by someone else at another site - click here for details.

Somewhere around 120 birds were trapped this morning - Chris's 100th CES visit to FM - from about 4am to 12.30pm when we packed up. We had the first juvenile Reed, Sedge and Garden Warblers of the year, plus what seemed like the entire juv Great Tit population of Cambridgeshire.

The weather conditions were good to start with, since it was overcast and not too breezy. Unfortunately, the vegetation was dripping with rain from the previous day, and it got hotter and more windy as the morning went on. There was a lot of deep, squelchy mud underfoot - as usual - and the mosquitoes took a toll on us - as usual. No amount of insect repellent seems to make a difference.

I felt like I made huge progress today. Extracting birds from nets is really tricky and it requires patience, a bit of problem solving, dexterity and a cool head! Today I finally felt like I was getting there. I'm still very slow (Chris can do about ten birds in the time it takes me to do one), but now I feel like I've got the basic hang of it and from now on I'll be able to get faster. Something clicked today. Hurrah!

What's on my iTunes: Gold - Ryan Adams