I met Andy up at Oakenclough at 0630 for a long overdue ringing session, the first one of the autumn here. The morning was overcast but there was no rain in the forecast. And with a wind speed of 10mph there seemed good cause to expect a reasonable catch of birds.
The Office
Following a somewhat steady start the appearance of flocks of Goldfinches flying in from surrounding areas gave a boost to our eventual numbers. We were far from disappointed with a total of 63 birds of 11 species and totals as follows:
40 Goldfinch, 4 Chaffinch, 6 Coal Tit, 3 Blue Tit, 1 Great Tit, 3 Goldcrest, 1 Blackcap, 1 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Robin, 1 Treecreeper.
Goldfinches are certainly beginning to flock in some numbers in recent days. This morning we initially thought there to be 100+ birds in the area. This was a clear underestimate as two or more flocks may have been involved whereby a catch of 40 is indicative of 200 or more Goldfinches.
At this time of year we expect that the majority of birds caught will be juveniles of the year rather than adults however even we were surprised to find that of today’s 40 Goldfinch, 39 were juveniles and just one an adult. More interesting still was that this single adult proved to from elsewhere as the ring number beginning with Z690 was not one of our own. The ring number will be forwarded to the BTO and the original ringing details notified to us in due course.
Goldfinch
In contrast to the adult male above, most juveniles are still at the stage where they cannot be sexed with any certainty by their plumage. While the one below is as buff/brown as many of today’s birds, a wing length of 82 mm coupled with the large bill and black nasal feathers indicate a male.
Goldfinch
Treecreeper
Chiffchaff
Willow Warbler
Blackcap
Goldcrest
The ringing kept us busy but in addition to the birds mentioned above we noted 1 Buzzard, 5 Pied Wagtail, 1 Common Sandpiper, 15 Lapwing, 3 Siskin and 45+ Swallows.
Linking today to Eileen's Saturday and Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.
Linking today to Eileen's Saturday and Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.
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18 comments:
Hello PHil, great variety of birds from your ringing. I love the pretty Goldfinch. Have a happy day and week ahead!
They are all so beautiful, Phil!!!
Great sessions of banding to be sure! Our biggest total so far has been 31 and we thought we were doing quite well at that. Maybe this weekend we 'll blow you out of the water!!
Excellent birds! I can't believe how many goldfinches you caught. That's pretty interesting. We find the same thing happening over here with many of our birds....lots of juveniles passing through the areas.
You really got a good selection of birds,great job!phyllis
So many goldfinches...and, as I've said many times before here and elsewhere, yours are so much more colorful than ours! Beautiful birds all of them. It will be interesting to learn where that one adult had been.
Great pics. Interestingly I see more Goldfinches here in Tasmania (introduced) than I did when I was living in Scotland.
A great selection of beautiful little birds Phil.
Hello Phil!:) Super shots of all the birds. Thirty nine juvenile goldfinches is a great number to catch. I wonder where the adult was ringed.
Phil, have you ever had a Sparrow hawk in your lounge? That's what happened here yesterday. It flew in through our patio doors, when I was in another room, and then I heard all the loud banging noises and went to investigate. It was trying, as they all do, to escape through a closed window. What would you have done? I threw a handy dark coloured shirt over it to calm it down, and it stopped moving, and then went to get some thick gloves we keep for handling the logs, to see if I could somehow pick it up to release it. Gingerly lifting a corner of the shirt I then realized after seeing the talons that I couldn't risk it, but then it must have got it's bearings and took the opportunity to fly in the right direction and flew outside. I was so relieved! No photos on this occasion!!:)
Great selection of birds! The Goldcrest is one of my favorite bird.
All beautiful birds! Love the face on the goldfinch..so sharp and pretty. Your wigeon in the header is too! Great ringing day!
A great number of birds caught and ringed and all very good shots in this post Phil. I noticed this year i have a lot of yuor Goldfinch. must be a very good year for them but NO Chaffinfch. Where are they?
Nice work on getting the weather to cooperate with you! And then to have such a successful day of ringing, well, you must have been smiling the rest of the day. What a great collection of species!
I really enjoyed studying each of your photographs as these are all unfamiliar species. Your header image of the wigeon is exceptional.
Hope the weather continues to be kind to your birding schedule!
Have a wonderful weekend!
They are amazing! I saw several birds today. No photos. We drove 164 km for lunch today. I shall post about it later!!!
(ツ) from Cottage Country Ontario , ON, Canada!
Hi Phil, awesome closeups of the birds. I am glad you had a good session of ringing. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!
Wonderful series of beautiful bird photography! Gorgeous!
Happy Creating ~ ^_^
However do you get those little birds to sit on your hand.??? You have some lovely shots here!
Sounds like a good day. Always enjoy seeing what you're ringing!
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