A good day --at last!!

 For some reason we've been really struggling to ring decent numbers of birds so far this year--and it's not for the want of effort! Feeding stations, sewage works and lamping fields have all proved difficult, even when there's been a lot of birds about, they have been super difficult to catch. I's really pushed our lexicon of excuses about why this is happening to the absolute limits......

Anyway, yesterday dawned cloudy but mild after a night of showers, and pretty soon Pat over at Siskin Towers realised that something special was on. The previous day, Pete and Paul had dropped in to see Pat and had experienced yet another '' why can't we catch anything'' days. But suddenly the feeders were full of Siskin with loads feeding on the ground also. The intrepid Pat opened his net and those of us sitting here in South Staffs were treated to regular updates with pictures until around lunchtime when pat reported ringing around 50 Siskin--with the prize being this bird....

It's a pretty regular Siskin, until Pat realised it was already ringed ( not unusual), but on closer inspection he noticed the ring carried the address in Gdansk--the Polish ringing centre!! So not only had there been lots of birds around--who knows where there came from with this little gem amongst them? This is the first bird the group has controlled from Poland. Pat reports that just after lunchtime the main flock flew off never to be seen again. But by this time he had decided to leave the nets open just in case..... And sure enough another group appeared--but this time with lots of re-trapped birds which he had already ringed, so these seemed much more of a local flock. However there was to be one more twist...

This was a quite intriguing bird. It's a bit like a Siskin but not quite right--and it's a bit like a Redpoll but again, not quite right. So, is it a hybrid between the two-(-a 'Redskin' perhaps??), or is it a Redpoll carrying a genetic mutation producing strange coloured feathers--we'll never know I guess.

Pat eventually finished later in the afternoon, tired but buzzing after an exciting day with 85 Siskin, 3 Redpoll and 1 Robin ringed in the day--superb.

Later that evening an intrepid experimental group headed out to our estate in Teddesley to test out a theory for one aspect of our poor catching recently. It had been suggested that we were going out a bit too early to catch Woodcock, ( we had seen loads but couldn't get near them), and that if we went out later they tended to sit tight after they had had time to fill their bellies with worms.

Unfortunately that theory failed the test........!

However, there were lots of birds about and we ended on a very pleasing total of 18 Skylark, 6 Fieldfare and 1 Woodcock. Just a few years ago, catching 18 Skylarks would have been unheard of ( between 1979 and 2016 I had caught only 2!!) but such has been the game changing impact of thermal imaging. We need more ringers around the UK and Europe to get into this technique so that we can find out so much more abut the movements of this species. A few pics from last night to end with..... 

This is a Fieldfare--the lack of thick black streaks on the head shows this to be a female.

This Skylark shows the long hind claw, characteristic of many ground dwelling songbirds

This gorgeous Woodcock must have been a bit sleepy. They are really stunning birds. Will this one stay in UK to breed or is it one of the many individuals of this species which visit us for norther and eastern Europe....... 

Spreading the thermal word!!

 I need to apologise again for the lack of posts......in my defence it has been Christmas, but most of all we have been a bit consumed in putting together our annual report of ringing for 2022. It's in the final stages now and should be available very soon.

However, a couple of weeks ago, farm manager Tim had a visit from Georgina and Sophie, the farm manager and her assistant manager from the very well known, flagship RSPB Hope Farm in Cambridgeshire. They had come to find out more from Tim about his no-till farming strategy and how it could be adopted by them to further increase the wildlife friendly regime they run at Hope Farm.

During their talks Tim mentioned about the data we provide him from our thermal imaging sessions--things developed, and from that I was invited across earlier this week to demonstrate for them how thermal imagery can be used to monitor the night-time bird and mammal populations on Hope Farm. I was able to let Georgina and Sophie use my imager as we walked their fields--because our very generous supplier, Danel James of Shooting Sports UK, loaned me another imager to enable me to guide them to heat sources. It wasn't long before they got the hang of things and were finding Grey Partridges and Skylarks in the stubble fields, and roosting Reed Buntings, Blackbirds, Redwings and Yellowhammers in the small reedbed and well managed hedgerows. 

Here they are having a practice run before we set out.....

 They've already got smiles on their faces--and that's how a very enjoyable and eye-opening evening continued.

This picture of a Skylark, taken with a mobile phone, amply demonstrated to them how well camouflaged these birds are--and therefore how difficult they are to census without the aid of a thermal imager.

It's right in the middle of the frame--and still quite difficult to see!!

Although the evening went really well, we were all puzzled as to why we hadn't seen any of the woodcock that they had seen regularly coming out of the woodland areas. Until the last field we scanned! We had seen lots of rabbits during the evening, and the initial thought was that there were quite a lot of them in this field too. However, as we moved closer it became clear that although there were some rabbits, there were also 7 superb Woodcock feeding amongst them. As a final thought -provoking moment to end my trip this was perfect. We had been discussing the stark differences in how many and what species of birds we had seen depending on the crop and soil treatment--and this field being so attractive for Woodcock really emphasised the point.

I do hope Georgina and Sophie will decide to join the 'thermal family' -- we'll certainly keep in touch and provide whatever help we can to them and any of their RSPB colleagues.