In Them Thar Hills

Andy and I made an early start to a ringing session in the uplands near Oakenclogh - 0730 to be precise. There’d been a good number of finches at the feeding station during our top-up visits and we hoped today might be the start of a new era for this previously valued site. 

A Robin greeted us from the fence post as we set up the “office”. 

Robin

The Office

We were busy from the off and by midday we had caught 66 birds with little in the way of surprises. We had zero recaptures as a number of years have elapsed since the site became unworkable for mist-netting when invasive rhododendrons completely engulfed the low and mid-storey habitat. We learnt recently that the land owners will attempt to clear the remnants of rhododendrons in February 2015 and replant with native trees in Autumn 2015. 

Our morning was dominated by Coal Tit and Chaffinches with 14 of each, closely followed by 10 Long-tailed Tit, 8 Great Tit, 8 Goldcrest, 7 Blue Tit, 2 Robin, 2 Dunnock and 1 Reed Bunting. 

A couple of the male Chaffinches proved to be large specimens with wing lengths of 93 and 95 mms respectively, putting them into the category of “possible” Continentals. 

Chaffinch

Of the 8 Goldcrests just one was a juvenile female, the rest juvenile males, their orange crown feathers hidden amongst the overriding yellow ones. 

male Goldcrest

Goldcrest

Coal Tit

Long-tailed Tit

Reed Bunting - first winter female

We were hoping to catch some of the Lesser Redpoll, Bullfinch and Siskin on site and although all three were seen and heard in small numbers, none found our nets. 

Also seen throughout the course of the morning: 2 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Jay, 15 Greylag, 40 Lapwing, 2 Fieldfare, 2 Blackbird, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Pied Wagtail. 

Kestrel

There’s more bird watching, bird ringing and bird photography soon on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Run-A-Round Ranch.