End of month update

 There's only one word to sum up this month-frustrating!! The weather hasn't been kind to us with long periods of strong winds and rain as a series of storms passed over us; added to that bird numbers at our feeding stations has been generally inconsistent and to top things off the birds during our nocturnal thermal sessions have been ultra jumpy.

However our intrepid team members have again shown their determination and resourcefulness and grabbed any opportunity presented to them to push on with our activities-- here are but a few of their exploits.......

Some of the feeders at Brewood Park Farm have attracted the local pheasants which are growing fat on our seed meant for other wild birds--which arrive to find the seed has already been hoovered up by the pheasants. Our catch has been reduced but nevertheless, Paul has managed a few Yellowhammer, Starling, and Reed Buntings. One of the Reed Buntings was carrying a ring-

As you can see from the head and throat pattern, this is a male because of all the black feathers. Although the head looks partly brown, this is because the black feathers have brown tips to reduce aggression between males in winter. The brown tips wear off ready for the black to show through for the breeding season. This particular bird was an adult male, and when we checked the ring we had ringed it on 14th September 2020 at our site at Belvide as a juvenile. Paul retrapped it at BPF on 23rd February 2022. Has it been touring the area for a couple of years--or has it been breeding at a distant site and spending the winter here?

Jenni has been working very hard at feeders and at thermal sessions and has had a good selection of species while also keeping a range of interested friends happy by ringing at their garden feeders. Her first visit of the season to Abi's garden produced a good selection of birds ( although not the big numbers of Siskin as last year)--with one of the first birds caught being this smart Redpoll

At another friends house ( Murray and Dawn), she has caught lots of tits--but also a couple of smart Brambling like this young male.....

Like the rest of us she has been frustrated by the jumpiness of birds during thermal sessions, but she has still had a decent number of Woodcock and Fieldfare....

Fieldfare are superb looking birds-what a lot of people don't see well is the white 'armpit' which is quite distinctive....

Trainee Shaun had a good night with us thermalling,and got two new ringing ticks for his efforts. Here are pics of one of the Meadow Pipits, and a smart adult male Yellowhammer....

Meadow Pipit

Yellowhammer.

He also had a couple of Woodcock and Grey Partridge. The following pic of a Grey Partridge shows the chestnut markings on the breast making it a male...

And the pic of the Woodcock wing shows the tips of the primary coverts ( marked in white)--showing wide brown tips to the feathers--showing it to be a juvenile; adults have thin white tips to these feathers....

Meanwhile at 'Powell Towers', Pat has had inconsistent catches/visits from his speciality species Siskin--but as I write I've just had word from him that he's had a good Siskin day today with over thirty ringed including this smart male. The white mark shows that the tips of some of the greater coverts are white, showing this to be a juvenile male born last year...

Finally, several of our group managed to persuade us old timers to run a couple of roost netting sessions in Rhododendron patches -thereby re-creating the old days when this was the main method of catching Redwing ( before the introduction of the sound lure we now use).

Pete and Paul took Sam out last week, and I took a small group out last night. The result was 1 Redwing and a selection of other birds including this ( one of 5) Goldcrest last night.

The main thing was that the younger team members enjoyed themselves and they now know what is involved so I'm pretty sure that they will give it another try earlier next winter.

I'll provide some more details soon when I've got all the data in as to how we are doing compared to this time last year. 

It looks a bit cross!

 Birds sometimes show a variety of abnormalities--beak shape being one of the commoner issues we see. Top Belvide birder, Steve Nuttall, sent me a picture yesterday of a Great Tit on one of the feeders we have set up at the reserve.

As you can clearly see both the upper and lower mandibles have grown extra long and are curling very much in the manner of a Crossbill. Steve reports that the bird was feeding well on fat balls which it broke bits off before swallowing. It's remarkable how adaptable birds are in this way. We checked the number on the ring and this bird was ringed as a juvenile in autumn 2019-showing that it seems to be doing ok despite the deformity--let's hope it continues.

Meanwhile, we are continuing to ring at some of the many feeding stations we have access to. We visited our friends Dawn and Murray's feeder a couple of times in the last few days as they reported lots of feeding activity with at least two very interesting birds coming in regularly. Brambling are always a great birds to ring because apart from the fact they are beautiful, we also know that the nearest place they have come from is central northern Norway. Here is a juvenile male showing black areas on the head where the brown feather tips are wearing off to allow the black lower parts of the feathers to show through ready for the breeding season:-

The other bird was a canary yellow bird which had us a bit puzzled until we got a really good look at it. We didn't catch it so can't give you a better look-here it is on the feeder-

So we have identified it as a partially leucistic ( yellow) Greenfinch. You can also see a female Brambling on the other side of the feeder.

A bit of a Ticking off ??!!

 I'm using this title as a bit of a play on words.....

First of all-apologies for the lack of posts recently. It's a pathetic excuse but it has been a very busy period trying to get our annual report, our AGM, and a couple of scientific papers I'm working on--all sorted out. But most are done now so I hope blogs will follow more frequently. I must try harder so I don't get another 'ticking off' from a reader..........

Teams have been out quite regularly during January, and we have ringed over 500 new birds as a result. It's been hard going though with feeders being occupied inconsistently and those finches that are present being even more difficult than usual to catch. A similar story is coming from thermal imaging teams who are finding plenty of birds but equally are finding it difficult to catch them.

Here's a a picture which could be from the latest 'Alien' movie.....

It's a blood sucking tick which we took off a bird last week ( ticking off......). It;s only a few millimetres in length but by the size of this one's abdomen it's just had a good feed..

We've been asked to do some surveying work on a couple of new farms in the last week, and these are looking good with plenty of Skylarks and Woodcock in particular to ring. I've collected a few pictures of some of the species we've been ringing to get the blog rolling again:-

This is a Grey Partridge which are always a good sign for the farmer that good wildlife things are happening on the farm

This is a Brambling- a finch which breeds in northern latitudes visiting southern Europe during the winter months. Reporst from around the UK suggest that this year there are lots of Brambling around--and that is supported by the fact that we are catching a few much earlier than normal

This is a Lesser Redpoll--these are beginning to venture to feeding stations as their natural food runs out so we are hoping for more of these. They seem to wander far and wide in search of food so we can get some good recoveries

Here's a classic collection of birds from a garden feeder at this time of year. From the top

House Sparrow. Goldfinch and Nuthatch.

I hope to have more for you soon--must avoid another ticking off..........