A Thermal Evening

We celebrated another successful year of our partnership with Tim the farm manager at Brewood Park Farm a couple of nights ago. Drinks, nibbles and plans for the future filled a very pleasant couple of hours--as you can see from the smiles on the faces of our team--with farmer Tim in the middle......

Not all of our team could make it but part of our planning discussions decided that this should be an annual event so maybe next year we will have a full turn out.

Tim loves to hear about the birds we catch during our thermal imaging sessions, and he was very pleased about the 10 Skylarks, 2 Grey Partridges, 2 Jack Snipe plus other species at our last session. But what really provides him with data to support his approach to farming ( see below) is when we provide him with a field by field analysis of the birds we see. So hearing about the 85 Skylarks, 30 Woodcock, 9 Grey Partridge and 3 Jack Snipe ( among others) we saw in his fields gave him a great deal of satisfaction.

Tim is gaining a national and indeed international profile, and his farming methods have been recognised by the RSPB, who are consulting with him about wildlife friendly farming for their farms. Probably the best way of helping you understand his passion is to have a look at the following video.

 

 

Two new species for the year!!

 It's great to catch large numbers of birds as it increases the chance of some of them being found again--but now and again ( just like in birding generally) it's exciting to ring unusual species or ones that although familiar, are rarely caught.

This week, two of our team, Gareth and Liz had the excitement of new species-which also happened to be new species for the group this year.

Over the last 20 or so years, Buzzards have become so much more common than previously. However, they are difficult to catch--especially in mist nets, because, they tend not to fly low enough, and also because of their size, they tend to flop out of nets in the unlikely event that they fly into one. Imagine the surprise then last Sunday when this fabulous bird was sitting in the bottom shelf of a mist net near one of our feeding sites....

Buzzards are very variable in plumage but this one is pretty typical--an absolute stunner.

Certainly not as stunning in the conventional way, or as big; Gareth's new species was equally exciting and quite unusual in our mist nets. Jackdaws are pretty common in towns and villages, but being members of the crow family they tend to be extremely wary and suspicious of mist nets or any other strange objects in their vicinity. 

Considering crows are regarded as simply fairly large black birds--the subtlety is stunning. The really bright silvery/white iris really stands out; and the grey hood gives the Jackdaw a really distinctive look.

And finally, a portrait of a much underrated bird. Buntings are generally little brown jobs--especially the females--and as such are often overlooked as sparrows in gardens. This is a female Reed Bunting, and as you an see the markings around the head are very distinctive....and not at all like a sparrow. It's worth looking carefully, especially during cold spells because this is when Reed Buntings often visit garden feeding stations.

The last blog of 2022 is coming soon, and will give a preliminary report on how well we have done during the year.

Sorry for the absence!!

 Apologies for the lack of posts for almost 2 months!! It's been pretty manic on several fronts--but that's quite a lame excuse considering all the excellent effort put in by the team. So here is an attempt to redress the balance.

The headline is that in November we ringed an astonishing 1400 new birds! The great majority were Redwings, which finally arrived a couple of weeks later than normal--and teams were out in force to ring them. Actually, the numbers about were unusually variable, but we have still ringed almost 1500 as of now.

Feeding stations and demonstrations have filled most of the rest of the time, and Gareth and Kevin started to get to know one of our sewerage treatment works ( never let anyone tell you ringers don't go to superb places for their hobby......) These first three pictures are from one of their visits to the works:-

This is a very familiar Pied Wagtail--lots of these find plenty of insects on the filter beds...

This very smart bird is a Grey Wagtail--easily identified by its grey back with prominent yellow under the tail.

This is a Meadow Pipit ( related to wagtails) which also find insects on the beds--and although it's cold as I write this, it was very mild when this was caught-meaning lots stayed around. I suspect this frosty weather will have pushed most of them south and west looking for milder conditions.

This is a male Blackcap--a warbler which is increasingly being found in the UK during winter. Milder weather, and lots of available food in gardens seems to be altering the migratory patterns of at least some of these birds--this one was at Patshull while Kev was catching Redwings.

Some people wonder if they have seen a female Blackbird-or a Song Thrush. This is a classic female Blackbird, with brown splodges on a brown background. Song Thrush has black spots on a white background. So what on earth is this............

This is actually a juvenile male Blackbird which has a type of genetic mutation causing some of the feathers to be light brown--a bit weird in the field.

This is a stunning adult male Kestrel. We catch very few of these so this bird was a real treat for the ringers involved--as it was for the audience at the demonstration. Another 'wow' bird turned up at another demo......

Jays are stunning birds--and always impress visitors. They are also very feisty, and the ringer involved always comes away from an interaction with a Jay--with several bloody scars on their hands.

The moon and weather conditions haven't been very good for our thermal imaging catches, but Jen managed to catch this Common Snipe--as can be seen by the very long straight bill. These are particularly difficult to catch so well done to the team.

Pat at his Siskin City garden has not been as active as he hoped after tearing a muscle in a sporting accident. However, he 's been soldiering on --even though Siskins are in short supply so far. This picture of a tiny Treecreeper shows the bill very well,

This illustrates brilliantly how evolution has resulted in this long curved bill--just the job for a bird which feeds on insects and spiders deep in bark crevices--perfect!!

We are nearing the end of the year and the annual report will need to be written soon. We are getting very close to a record catch for a year--but this very cold spell has cut down on our catching so that birds can feed--so we may not make it. I'll post the actual result in my next post--which I promise will be in good time!!