I spoke too soon!!

No sooner had I suggested that the group would not be out in the field much--than Kev has a try at his racecourse site. Although he ringed only 8 new birds, he had some quality in the catch. Based on some sound field-craft by son Gareth, Kev tried a net in a spot where Gareth had seen Green Woodpeckers active recently--and BOOM!

 

Although this was his star bird of the day--no-one interested in birds can deny the sheer delightfulness of Treecreepers:-

Quiet Period

Many thanks to all of those who have been following our blog--and apologies for the lack of posts recently. I have been tazzing around too much on family business so haven't done much ringing. Kev and Craig have had a couple of sessions recently but overall we are moving into a fairly quiet period. Most of the birds we go lamping for have either moved out of the area or are beginning to pair up for breeding so we leave them to it. Feeders are less busy especially with this warm weather so opportunities for ringing are fewer.
However, we will be posting the results of some of our activities soon--heron and black headed gull colonies, and nest box results, its just that postings are likely to be less than weekly.
It wont be long until the post breeding action gets under way in early July so please keep dipping into our blog, Colin

Two Hens

Too windy for nets today, so for Kevin it was back to setting the cage trap at Wolverhampton Racecourse. Baited with pieces of bread smeared with tuna-flavoured cat food, (yummy?), which Moorhens seem to find irresistible. It was not long before two birds were attracted and duly caught. Both adult males, it brings the total caught at the site since the first on 5th January to five. 

Moorhens occur all year round at the Racecourse, but their numbers fluctuate, from none during freezing conditions to ten or more after the breeding season. 

Previous recoveries of birds ringed elsewhere have shown that Moorhens do migrate significant distances, including between Britain and Scandinavia, as well as other parts of Europe. Although birds typically live for three or so years, the oldest have survived over ten years after ringing.

 

https://blx1.bto.org/ring/countyrec/resultsall/rec4240all.htm

It will be fascinating to learn of any future recoveries of those ringed at the Racecourse to see if they stay locally or travel much further, and for how long they live.

Varied day

Spent a couple of hours at one of our feeders this morning principally as another regular training session. Not much to report except an unexpected visit from a BBC radio 4 farming team who were interviewing the farmer about his special approach to soil husbandry. This led to them interviewing us also--no idea if it will make the cut though.
Got home about 11 am with the weather dull and cold but with rain forecast. There was just the chance of trying for Jack Snipe with our thermal imager at our specially developed site-so off I went with unfortunately no time to get a team together.
The site was jumping with Common Snipe with at least 73 counted--much the biggest count we have reported and suggesting that they are gathering before migration. I counted 12 Jack Snipe of which I caught another 3 making it a very worthwhile trip. The rain started just as I left the site-result!

Another superb day at Ashwoods

The advert for the ringing demonstration at Ashwoods was my last post before jetting off to Costa Rica--(can't recommend it highly enough by the way)--and this post describes the result.
After much angst as to whether to go ahead in the face of the gloom and doom reports about Storm Freya, the Met Office provided some common sense advice that the worst of the conditions would appear later in the day. So with the support of the team we agreed to give it a go--with worst case scenario us spending some time eating cakes in the tearoom!!
As things turned out we had a superb morning with lots of visitors and a very good catch of birds to show them and promote our activities. We ringed 73 new birds with -as usual- the majority being blue and great tits. However, we had some real bonus birds in the form of 11 siskin; 6 goldfinch; 3 chaffinch; 2 great spot woodpeckers and 2 brambling.
The team worked really well together with a guest appearance from Sadie from the Chelmarsh group and everyone enjoyed the event--with birthday boy Pat providing cake afterwards too--result!
On behalf of Belvide Ringers I would really like to thank the owners of Ashwoods and in particular conservation officer Tom for hosting the event and providing a good supply of birds via well-stocked feeders. Also a massive thank you to the large number of visitors who, as usual, provided some great company and stimulating questions, as well as very generous donations to help us continue our activities. See you later in the year for our next event--date TBC.
Colin