Saturday, April 8, 2023

Good Saturday

Following my 0525 alarm clock and the inland drive Saturday dawned bright if a little cold at 2.5°C. No problem because the sun would soon rise to bathe us bird ringers in the morning sun of Oakenclough where I met up with Andy and Will. 

Until this point England had seen its wettest March in more than 40 years. Met Office data up to 30 March showed 111.3mm of rain fell during the month, 91% more than the average. So far April has been little better but fairly normal, less rain but quite cold, therefore not helpful to the arrival of large numbers of migrant birds from southern climes. 

And whisper it quietly so as not to be “cancelled” but the Northern hemisphere may be entering a temperature cooling phase until the 2050s with a decline up to 0.3°C. Arctic summer sea ice stopped declining about a decade ago and has shown recent growth. The Greenland surface ice sheet grew by almost 500 billion tonnes in the year to August 2022, and this was nearly equivalent to its estimated annual loss. 

Of course, climate alarmists have not caught up with these recent trends because there’s more money to be made by frightening Joe Public that the world is about to end unless they subscribe to such patent nonsense.

Back to the job in hand and Saturday’s ringing. The morning was slow with 11 birds caught. Although migrant warblers were in evidence in the shape and sounds of 3 Willow Warblers, 2 Chiffchaffs and a single Blackcap we caught none of those, instead 7 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Robin, 1 Goldfinch and 1 Long-tailed Tit. 

Three male Willow Warblers stuck to their chosen song posts all morning without venturing the very few yards to our mist nets. It was as if they were reluctant to vacate the perfect spot for even a minute or two to let an interloper grab the prime location together with a passing female. 

Willow Warbler
 
Lesser Redpolls were much in evidence with at least 20 seen and heard in small parties throughout our 4 hours stay. Unusually all of the ones caught were females. Perhaps many males have already travelled further north in their search for territory? 
 
Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll

Goldfinch

Long-tailed Tit
 
With eyes peeled for birds on the move a single south bound Swallow was potentially going in the wrong direction unless it changed its mind upon hitting the cold that we too felt. Otherwise, three Buzzards, but not together, a single Pied Wagtail and a passing Mistle Thrush completed a good Saturday morning. 

Buzzard

Back soon with more news, views and pictures from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog and Anni in Texas.


12 comments:

  1. Hello, Phil

    Happy Easter to you and your family. It is the opposite here, we've had a dry winter. We could use some of your rain here. Wonderful captures of the birds, The Willow Warblers are cute, The Lesser Redpolls are a favorite along with your pretty Goldfinch and the Long-tailed Tit. Great shot of the Buzzard in flight. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post! Take care, have a happy weekend!

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  2. It's very dry here now but we hope to get some afternoon showers in the days ahead. Love seeing the birds you share. Happy weekend!

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  3. Hello Phil :=)

    This week we have had temperatures of 40 degrees, and plants need watering every day. I must say that your weather has been appalling, as I have also heard it from other UK residents.
    Well, at least you managed to get out and capture and photograph some lovely birds. That first photo of the Lesser Redpoll is charming, and I'm always drawn to the cute Long-tailed tit.

    I hope you and your family have a Happy Easter.
    All the best.

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  4. Lovely photos. I especially like the one of the gold finch, so very colorful! Have a wonderful week! Cathy

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  5. Hope that you had a good Easter and glad to hear that you are out and about ringing again. Good news on the weather front, the ice is growing!
    As always great photos.

    We are back home with masses of photos to go through. With all the overgrown gardening blogging will be slow but I have started sort of working on it!!

    Cheers Diane

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  6. Sorry I'm late arriving to visit...holiday AND SLOW computer connection yesterday. Thanks for sharing your link!
    Love the precious tit photo

    And, you and I are kindred spirits when it comes down to the weather scare tactics!!

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  7. I always do a double-take when I see your photos of goldfinches and robins. They are a completely different critter than ours! Funny that we use the same names for such different birds.
    Thanks for sharing at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2023/04/beautiful-quilts.html

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  8. Hope that you had a wonderful Easter, Phil.

    Happy to hear that you are out and about ringing again.



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  9. Beautiful birds! Even the buzzard looks good.

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  10. I hope you had a lovely Easter.
    We were fortunate to spend time with family and enjoy some April Easter sunshine, which made a lovely change from wet March days!

    You have shared some beautiful birds here and I like the buzzard shot too.

    Enjoy your days.

    All the best Jan

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  11. Glad you had some good weather Phil. It's been a long time coming. Lesser Redpolls have moved on from me locally in recent weeks, but I do look forwarding to finding them again. Fingers crossed for a dry and still weekend coming up, and I'm glad you pointed out the cooling aspect of the planet in recent times. Certainly does not get reported on or mentioned enough, as like you say, it doesn't fit many peoples current agenda.

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  12. A day out with the birds! Brilliant!

    A chilly day with some sunshine certainly beats your recent alternatives. And as a bonus, you even had some volunteers to be fitted with new jewelry. The Goldfinch is always a crowd-pleaser but the close-up of the Long-tailed Tit is pretty special.

    Here's hoping for more spring-like weather before spring is gone!

    In other news: ANOTHER BIRD BLOG DECLARES ICE AGE IMMINENT!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!

    We humans have apparently been so successful at reducing our carbon footprints that we have gone too far and damaged the whatever-sphere causing us to capture an excessive amount of hot air, mostly emanating from those selling books, movies and speaking engagements and now we are faced with impending disaster as vicious icebergs are forming near both poles and are intent on wreaking havoc around the planet in their wrathful revenge.

    The only hope for the planet is to send all of your money to researchers who are working feverishly to devise "iceberg traps" to keep the frozen frightful floating flotillas safe within the polar regions until a comprehensive plan to save humanity can be developed. Or until the sun comes out and melts a few of them.

    In the meantime, we're out birding so don't bother knocking at the door.

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