Team members have really been putting in the effort again recently and apart from Pat who is catching big numbers of Siskin intermittently, the rest of us are finding the going tough. However, Liz is enjoying using her new licence to ring in her garden and has a couple of interesting birds to show.....
First is the head of a Starling in breeding plumage...
This is a cracking picture and shows how you can sex Starlings in the breeding season quite easily. You can clearly see that the base of the bill is BLUE ( for a boy); and if it had been PINK ( it would have been a girl)--easy!!
The next couple of pictures are of Collared Dove. Quite a common garden bird but actually this was the first Collared Dove for the group since we reformed a couple of years ago. They are very difficult to catch in mist nets because they have big wings and short legs and claws--so they flap around and escape easily. Liz was using a small cage trap on the ground and the bird duly obliged.
Quite a smart bird actually, but what I think is class about them is the bright blood-red eye colour:-
The team are out and about regularly and if we have anything interesting to show you, I'll do so asap, fingers crossed!!
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