Wednesday, November 5, 2014

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.

18 comments:

  1. A good start to the season with excellent birds, the best I can see, was the Goldcrest, that is great.

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  2. WOW! A Goldcrest? Where in the world did that one come from? Have you posted these birds before? We'll have to go ringing/banding one day. This looks like a lot of fun.

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  3. Is 66 a good number for your ringing, it sounds good to me.. I love all the cute birds, especially the Goldcrest.. Happy Birding!

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  4. oh, wow.... your Fluffy Tit is so cute...hahahhahah...okay that didn't come out quite right ...hhahahahh...but, it is ....

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  5. A lovely study of these cuties, Phil. I really love the hair-do pic of the male Goldcrest. I hope you have many successful outings as this.

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  6. Oh such pretty feathered friends.

    Love the color patterns.

    Beautiful!

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  7. I loved all your bird pictures but the one of the robin was just super! Amazing.

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  8. The robin says "whatcha doin'?" :-) Love seeing the goldcrest head feathers. beautiful! Great shots, especially of that kestrel! Wow!

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  9. Oh that was such a sweet photo of the Robin on the fence. Looks like you captured some nice birds. Loved the head feathers on the Goldcrest.

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  10. That Goldcrest has some beautiful crown feathers. All the birds seem so calm in your hands.

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  11. The long-tailed tit is just adorable!

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  12. Cracking shot of that robin and the kestrel! Nicely done!

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  13. Awesome close ups of the birds! The robin is so cute.

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