Hello old friends!

 This morning we finally got the Belvide season off to a start. Weather was pretty well perfect but we were worried during recent birding visits at the lack of activity at the site.

We did get off to a slow start but catching was steady till we finished with a respectable total of 65 new birds and 24 retraps ( birds we had ringed at the site in previous years).

The 'old friends' actually were not that old but we did catch a Garden Warble we ringed in 2019, and a Sedge Warbler in 2018. Most of the others were birds ringed during 2020--but it does provide useful data about survival and return to natal areas.

Of the new birds, only half were warblers--a much lower proportion than normal; and of these there was a smaller number of juveniles. We are hoping that the breeding season is just a bit later than recent years due to the cold May we had but time will tell.The most numerous warbler was Chiffchaff with 15, then Blackcap with 8, but Sedge and Reed Warblers only scored 4 each.

I've included a couple of pictures of juvenile resident birds:-

This is a juvenile Robin--all brown and buff speckles--which cause some confusion for the unwary. It's thought the lack of red cuts down any aggression from the adults--until the red feathers grow through by about September--then they are on their own!

This second picture is of a Great Tit known to his mates as 'Whiteclaw' for obvious reasons.....

This afternoon we looked at the Kestrel box which last week had only one of the chicks surviving for a young pair of adults. Fortunately the chick is doing really well ( only one for the parents to feed!!) and was nicely ready to be ringed. Young falcons are particularly feisty and if given half a chance will give as good as they get with their needle sharp talons....

It'll be a while yet until it fledges but we'll keep everything crossed that the parents will be attentive and provide sufficient for items for it to develop properly