Nest box niceness

We tend not to do much general mist netting at this time of year -during the breeding season- but we do check the various nest box schemes we have in the patch. Kev has been doing the Belvide nestboxes this year, and he will report on them soon when he's completed them all.

Yesterday and today we looked at our farmland boxes and as usual most were Blue tits with well grown chicks in most of them. We had Great tits in only one box ( out of 9), but the birds in two boxes were rather unexpected.

Robins nest in a wide variety of places but not usually in a hole-nesting box. The hole in this particular box was a little bigger than usual and inside was a really healthy brood of 6 well grown chicks. The pictures show the rather cute tufts of down still on the head above the eyes:-

While the second shows a feature of most passerines ( but more so the "chat" group to which robins belong)-which is the rapid development of the legs.

The legs of nestlings tend to be thicker than fledged birds. This is because they have a rich blood supply and their tissues are growing rapidly. In some cases we need to use a slightly bigger ring for nestlings than for fledged birds. Once the legs are grown, the blood supply is reduced and as the tissues harden and dry, the legs get thinner, and appear as we see them in the field.

 

We have only ringed one Nuthatch at the feeding station near one box, which surprisingly had a brood of 6 very robust Nuthatch nestlings in it. I thought this might be the case because the entrance hole had a few bits of hardened mud around it--something Nuthatch parents typically do .Although these chicks were quite large, being in a box meant that they could be safely replaced  and the hole covered for a minute or two after ringing to make sure they settled down-which they did. Even at this stage of their development we were able to sex the nestlings. The males have a dark chestnut area between the top of the thigh and the underwing as shown here

Whereas the female lacks the coloured area-as shown here:-

It shouldn't be too long until we have a look at our Kestrel boxes. Our experienced pair look like they are in residence again; and excitingly the second box we put up on the farm appears to have a pair nesting also. It's likely this will be a young/inexperienced pair so we're not sure how many chicks there will be or how successful they will be. More on this in a couple of weeks I hope

 

 

A reminder of good times to come

About this time of year I can't help fast forwarding to July when we really get started on our post breeding /migration sessions at Belvide.
Yesterday our friendly farmer asked us to sample some of the birds breeding in one of his blocks of mixed woodland. It's in the breeding season so we didn't spend too long in the field--but we did manage to catch a few birds which gave us a reminder of what we will be catching in big numbers in a couple of months time.
Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs seem to be singing from every bush around us this year and Chiffs from lots of trees in woodland so it was no surprise that we caught some of these:-

Both were males--the Blackcap easily sexed by the black cap, and the Chiffchaff by it having a swollen opening to its vent--called a cloacal protuberance. Both birds were starting to look a bit 'scruffy'--no wonder after undertaking a migration then nest building, breeding and now feeding young mostly in dense undergrowth.

We unexpectedly caught a Goldcrest which seems as it it's also breeding in the wood. The first picture shows the yellow stripe on the top of the head which is what most of us see in the field:-

The second picture shows that this is a male--under the yellow there are some orange feathers which the male is able to expose and flash at any female in the area as a mating signal--pretty cool !!

 

 

An unexpected new species!

I've been playing around with a new cage trap in my garden --trying different places to put it and different baits inside it. I have been having very little interest so was losing interest when all of a sudden this stunner popped in:-

Jackdaws are our smallest resident member of the Corvid ( crow) family and in many towns and villages are very frequently seen. But how often do most people get a really close look at them--the subtle grey shawl and neck and the stunning silver grey iris make this a stunning species I think. And to top everything--it happens to be the first full grown individual of this species that I've caught and ringed. Still plenty to do and learn even after 45 years of ringing......

Great to be back!!

Ringers in England had some great news yesterday when we were given the ok to get ringing in the field again--with appropriate safety measures re Covid 19 of course.
Under normal circumstances this is a very quiet time of the year for our group because while many birds are breeding we don't operate in most of our main ringing sites. However, this is the time of year when, if conditions are right, we can try and catch those wonderful birds--Swifts!!

Apart from at the nest these birds don't land so they are very difficult to catch. If the weather is cold--such as it was this morning, they must fly low in order to catch the flying insects they need for food. This gives us a bit of a chance, and the most effective way is to use what is called 'flick netting'. This consists of setting up a long net at a fixed end then letting it lay on the ground and holding the other end of the net on a horizontal pole. When (IF !!) a swift flies over the net the idea is to raise it quickly and safely catch the bird in the pockets of the net. Here's what a successful 'flick' looks like:-

We only caught a small number this morning but it was just great getting out again.Swifts are very interesting in so many ways--for now here are a couple of structural features:-

Just look at the size of their eyes--just what you need when flying at high speed and need to catch flying insects! Also see how small the beak is--but look a bit closer at the line of the gape. It leads from the base of the beak to just under the front of the eye depression. This means that they have a very large 'mouth opening' in order to scoop up the insects.

This shot tries to show the structure of the legs and feet. Swifts belong to a group called the 'Apodiformes'--meaning no legs. The legs are there but very short, which means that if they are forced to land on the ground they find it very difficult if not impossible to lift off again. More usually they nest in holes where the birds grasp onto a vertical entrance then haul themselves into the hole/crevice. For this they need very strong toes and sharp claws. What you can't see is the pain on my face as the needle-sharp claws are piercing my fingers as the feet grasp very tightly. It's worth it though for the privilege of getting close to such a fantastic bird. We still don't know a great deal about the detail of their movements, so we always hope that the next Swift we ring will be found somewhere which adds another bit of data to the solution.