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.
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