Sunday, August 29, 2021

Sunday Scores

There was no time for ringing on Saturday, the visit to Cockerham was to drop a little extra seed in the ringing area only. It was a pity then that views of both a juvenile Marsh Harrier and a male Hen Harrier had been brief but decisive. The Marsh Harrier circled over fields and a maize crop before drifting south while the Hen Harrier followed a line of ditches from which flew a dozen Mallards and 20 or more Teal at the arrival of the predator. 

Hen Harrier
 
Sunday dawned at 7° degrees with a fine mist and a definite autumnal nip to the air. This morning I swopped the baseball cap for a woolly bobble hat when winter felt too close for comfort. 

Misty Sunday
 
As I drove into the ringing site a Buzzard flew out of the trees where it had probably spent the night out of harm’s way. That Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk that unsuccessfully broke up a flock of Linnets were the only raptors seen today during three hours of watching in between tending nets and ringing a few birds. The migrant harriers of Saturday had clearly been the customary “one day wonders” but hopefully a sign of successful breeding from whence they came. 

I keep picking up new Reed Warblers here, with another two today, both birds of the year, lately fledged but already showing signs of moulting body feathers; the one below replacing head feathers. That makes 18 Reed Warblers captured here since July. 

Juvenile Reed Warbler
 
A Whitethroat came as a nice surprise while the main target of Linnets produced 9 more new ones to make 38 Linnets ringed here in August. Thirty two of the Linnets have been juveniles and just 6 adults. 

Whitethroat - first year/juvenile
 
A number of the juvenile Linnets show signs of their partial post-juvenile moult in replacing their median coverts while other individuals showed no signs of yet doing so. 

Linnet - juvenile wing moult
 
Linnet - juvenile no wing moult

Linnet - juvenile/first summer

Eyes peeled for harriers meant that not much was missed on the birding side - I hope. 

So other birds seen equalled 125 Linnet, 30+ Goldfinch, 2 Reed Warbler, 2 Blue Tit, 1 Robin 2 House Sparrow, 14 Curlew, 40 Greylag, 15 Swallow. 

Back soon. Don't go away.


8 comments:

  1. That was a lot of birds seen Phil and gret shots. Thanks for sharing and had a great week ahead.

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  2. The nights are drawing in aren't they, Autumn is definitely knocking on the door!

    Always nice to see the birds but I liked the misty Sunday picture too.

    Enjoy the week ahead, can you believe it's September on Wednesday!

    All the best Jan

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  3. Nice to see you keeping busy Phil. Good pictures. Take care.
    Mike.

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  4. Great photos, Phil. I'm always fascinated by your posts - you share birds we never see here, which is fascinating to me.
    Thank you for sharing at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2021/08/smells-good-in-kitchen.html

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  5. I agree with NCSue - I love seeing birds on your blog that I never see over here in my corner of the world.

    Fabulous photos as always, Phil.

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  6. Well done, a lovely set of photos. We have hardly seen summer this year and the leaves are already dropping!! Sorry I am not keeping up with blogs and comments just so much going on. Lots to do in the garden and I have not had time to process photos that I have taken, I am getting backlogged!!
    Hope all is well, take care, Diane

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  7. Hi Phil! :) The closeups of the wings are beautiful. I love sky photo...7 sounds about right here too, I had to pull out my winter toque some mornings when I walked the pups!!

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  8. Phil - we had a light frost overnight ... love it! Glad you are getting some action during your ringing sessions. And I am not going anywhere - always enjoy your posts!

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