Spring has sprung

 

 photos taken with iPhone

Mr and Mrs Nutter

Female Nuthatch

Male Nuthatch

I still remember the first time I saw a Nuthatch, at Forge Valley Woods in North Yorkshire. I was 11 years old (and I saw them there again 20 years on!). I ringed one Nuthatch a couple of years ago but I never dreamed I'd be catching them in my garden...

(If I'd thought about it properly, I'd have photographed their bottoms for comparison - males have bright reddish-brown feathers around the bum)

Though I've seen them in the garden a couple of times through winter, as part of roving tit flocks, I saw a male which seemed to be collecting mud and thought how nice it would be to catch and ring one at home. But I was very surprised when first a female turned up in my net, and then a couple of days later a male. 

Excellent birds!

Quakers and friends

Purple Thorn

Powdered Quaker

There have been a few nights suitable for moth trapping lately. Last night was one of them:

• Common Quaker, 21 
• Clouded Drab, 7 
• Hebrew Character, 7 
• Twin-spotted Quaker, 3 
• Small Quaker, 4 
• Early Grey, 1 
• The Satellite, 1 
• Purple Thorn, 1 
• Powdered Quaker, 1 

photo taken with Canon Powershot A640

Moths, moths and more moths

Moth trapping is getting quite interesting already, and it's not even April yet.

There are nice, pretty moths...

Pine Beauty

Oak Beauty, in two different colour schemes

Great camouflage

Early Grey

Yellow Horned

And then there are brown moths...

March Moth (well, it is March)

Common Quaker

Red Chestnut Clouded Drab - thanks Matt...

Twin-spotted Quaker

Small Quaker

349 moths of 10 species:

• Small Quaker, 155
• Common Quaker. 115
• Clouded Drab, 36
• Hebrew Character, 21
• Twin-spotted Quaker, 14
• Early Grey, 4
• The Chestnut, 4
• Pine Beauty, 3
• Oak Beauty, 2

and 1 each of

• March Moth
• Satellite
• Yellow Horned

Red Admirable

Photo taken with iPhone

Moths are back

It must be spring, because I put out my moth trap last night. I've never trapped at this time of year before so it was a voyage of discovery.

It was a reasonably warm night (about 9 degrees I think) so it was nice to catch about 40 moths, mostly Chestnuts. Hopefully this bodes well for later in the year when moths have really got going.

Oak Beauty

Pale Brindled Beauty

The Satellites

Spring Usher

The Chestnut

Hebrew Character

There's always one I can't identify. Any offers? Clouded Drab - thanks Dean!

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Fieldfare!

Meet Mrs Fieldfare, the first one I've ringed. 

Winter sun for Ladybirds

I can see you, hiding on the south-facing side of the fenceposts...

Bright and beautiful

I've been ringing in my garden again.

I caught my first Goldfinch, a young male

Red which extends behind the eye shows it's a boy

And with a narrow, worn tail like that, he has to be one of last year's young (see how much more quickly the white bits wear)

I think we've met somewhere before...

It was the fourth time I'd caught this female Great Spotted Woodpecker (can't tell how old she is though). I've ringed four woodpeckers in the garden but this is the only one I've re-caught. 

As a repeat offender (or maybe frequent flyer) I think she needs a name... Since my neighbour Laura put the ring on, and Laura's from Finland, I've decided on Käpytikka, the Finnish name for Dendrocopos major. See you again soon!

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

iPhonescoping: the return?

Mallard digiscoped through Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece, Apple iPhone 4S and bodged-together adaptor

The shortest day

Like last year, I spent 21 December on the farm trying to catch some birds. 21 December 2010 was cold and snowy, we caught lots of birds and had a big jar of Quality Street to devour. Sadly 2011 was not quite as successful.

But we caught a few birds around the farm orchard.

male House Sparrow

female House Sparrow

'Fascinating' fact: Both adult and juvenile House Sparrows do a complete moult after the breeding season (though obviously not all at once - that would be silly). So once that's complete you can't tell how old they are. But you can tell whether they're male or female.

Coal Tit (sex unknown)

Coal Tit was a good catch for the farm, with only a couple ever caught there before.

'Fascinating' fact: You can tell how old Coal Tits are at this time of year (though I forgot to photograph the relevant bit). Young birds don't moult all of their greater coverts, so if you look carefully you can see  difference in colour between the old ones and the new ones.

photos taken with Apple iPhone 4S

Red and white and frosty

photos taken with Apple iPhone 4S

BOOM!

Waiting for high tide and birds at Beaumaris

I've been for a wet and cold weekend in Wales (who'd have thought that Wales would be wet and cold in December?). But there was a good reason: to see cannon netting for the first time. After much briefing, we arrived at Beaumaris on Anglesey before dawn and set up the net. Then we waited in freezing cold temperatures for a few hours until high tide had pushed the roosting waders into position.

One of the 90 'retrap' Dunlin

One large explosion later, we had a net full of c330 unringed Dunlin, c90 ringed ones, and six unringed Turnstones. I'm glad I couldn't see me 'sprinting' the 150m (while wearing chest waders) between our waiting position and the net on the beach (sorry for anyone who saw).

Inside the hide at Bangor

On Sunday we tried again at Bangor harbour (having failed on Saturday). It was horribly rainy and we then had to wait for the tide again. I was pretty lucky to wait inside the [leaky, hessian] hide instead of outside.

It would have the ideal place to have seen the red button being pressed... but unfortunately, the birds didn't get into the right position for us and once more, we didn't get to fire the net.

Pretty exciting stuff. And we had a great pizza (with free pint) at Gallt y Glyn on Saturday night. Thanks to the SCAN crew for showing me the ropes!

photos taken with iPhone 4S