In partnership with an Ambassador!!

We work with several farmers in the area, and we have forged really good relationships with them all. Our longest relationship has been with the farm manager, Tim at Brewood Park Farm, and we are delighted to announce that he has now become a Global Ambassador for his "no till" farming technique. Essentially this means maintaining the integrity of the soil structure and the biological mechanisms that promote plant growth. So he does not plough the fields, nor does he use pesticides or fertilizers. As a result he is able to make his arable farms both nature friendly and financially viable.

Tim's reputation is growing both here and worldwide. As a result he is regularly invited to speak to groups of farmers nationally including Ireland; but this has now progressed across the globe! 

During the early part of this year BPF was visited by farmers from Poland and Ukraine to learn more about the nature friendly technique. He was also was invited to give a talk at Westminster to Politicians, Bankers and Investors. He was then invited to Denmark where he provided farmers with advice on moving to a no till strategy. A few weeks ago he was in Australia having been invited by the Aussie Government to give numerous talks, radio interviews and newspaper articles across the country to convey his passion in making farms nature friendly.

 

Most recently, Tim has been invited by the Turkish Government to give talks to farmers and politicians in that country this autumn. 

We are so lucky to be on this journey with Tim, and it's really satisfying to know that he uses our ringing data to support and promote his nature friendly farming technique.

 

We would like to congratulate Tim on his success at convincing more and more farmers that farming can be profitable, while still benefitting nature which, in the end of course, is a benefit to us all.

WELL DONE TIM!!

Team members have been busy again this week. This morning Paul put on a training session for our newest trainees which was superb. Almost 100 birds meant there were plenty of birds to practice on, most of which were Blue and Great tits, providing excellent opportunities to learn how to extract these from mist nets.
Elsewhere, Kevin and Jenni, both caught our first and second Marsh Tits of the year. The ID of Marsh v Willow tits causes many headaches ( unless the bird calls -- which they don't often do in the hand). However, recent studies especially by ringer Richard Broughton have uncovered a really useful and simple ID feature.....

Kevin's bird was an adult female

Jen's was a juvenile. They both show a little white spot/smudge on the cutting edge of the upper mandible, near to the head. This is a cast iron feature, which Willow Tits don't have.

Kevin was operating a site for the first time this year and he had a good selection of mainly migrant warblers. I thought I would show this picture however, because seeing this bird in the field can sometimes cause a problem for the unwary....

It's the same size and shape as a Goldcrest, but there is no colour on the top of the head.......yet! It is a juvenile Goldcrest, which has a very bland head in the early days after fledging--the typical marks on the top of the head come through over the next few weeks. 

Lovely day lovely birds!

 This morning dawned still and bright--would have liked a bit of cloud--but after all this rain it was a delight to be out without constantly looking skywards for heavy clouds.

To be honest the first round was disappointing and we thought we were in for a short visit, but things picked up and by close of net time we had ringed 86 new birds and processed 18 birds we had previously ringed at Belvide.

We had a strong team out with 4 trainees at different stages--so there was always something interesting and useful for them to further their knowledge and skills,

Most of the catch was, as expected, migrant warblers after they have bred on or near Belvide. I thought I would show this next picture because it shows very clearly the difference between juveniles of two species which aren't always easy to separate:-

At this age Chiffchaff ( left) and Willow Warbler (right) are pretty easy to identify. Willow Warbler juveniles at this time of year tend to be bright yellow on the breast and belly--with a bright, long, yellow stripe above the eye ( called a supercilium). No real need to describe the Chiffchaff because it is so different. Unfortunately they are not as easy to separate, when they are a bit older.

Great effort in rubbish weather

 Such is the enthusiasm of team members that even when the weather has been pretty wretched with rain and strong winds--they have been ready to exploit breaks and as a result, we have had some pretty decent catches.

Paul and Roy managed 11 Swallows at BP farm on Wednesday.

Gareth  ringed another 34 new birds at his new quarry site, including these two beauties today..

This is a juvenile Common Whitethroat--the brown edges to many of the wing feathers and the greyish brown head ID it as a Whitethroat.

This next bird is much underrated, because of it's very sober plumage....

It's a Garden Warbler, rather a chunky warbler with a subtle hint of buff under the wing, plain grey brown upperparts, white underneath and grey legs. I love em!

 

Two sessions at Belvide this week returned 99  new birds and some interesting recoveries of local birds. We though you might like these two pics of the same species.....

This is a head shot of a juvenile Reed Warbler. Two features to look at are the sloping forehead merging into a relatively long narrow beak. A juvenile feature is that the iris of the eye is only slightly lighter than the black pupil. This contrasts with an adult Reed Warbler below.....

First look how the iris is much lighter than the pupil in an adult bird. To be honest, this individual bird took us aback a little by the rather extreme length of its beak, a bit of natural variation.

Migration will be starting in earnest very soon--who knows what will turn up in our nets.

 

Team effort is ramping up

 Yesterday, was a sad day for the group, as we finally said goodbye to Glynn at his funeral. There was a great turnout reflecting how well his friends thought of him.

The day before, saw our first Belvide session of the season, sadly without Glynn; but I'm sure he would have been delighted with our total of 48 new birds, mostly migrant warblers. As is usual at this time of year the most numerous birds were Sedge and Reed Warblers--including many juveniles giving us a good idea of the success of the breeding season. Here is a picture of the throat of a fledgling Sedge Warbler showing how birders in the field can tell if they are looking at a juvenile of this species.....

On this bird you can clearly see the 'necklace' of brown spots--which in Sedgies is a clear sign of having recently left the nest. Not every bird has this so well developed. but most do have at least some speckles.

It's exciting when as well as birds you know will be around, something unusual turns up. We hope this juvenile Redstart sets the scene for other unusual birds this season.

We can tell it's a Redstart from the tail obviously, and it is too pale overall to be a Black Redstart. The pale buff edges and blotches over the back and wing feathers is a juvenile feature which are gradually replaced, The extent of these feathers leads us to believe that this bird has recently left the nest--but where from? The nearest breeding Redstarts that we are aware of are on Cannock Chase; but are there some nearer?

Away from Belvide, group members have been very active and as the season moves on I will try to keep up with their activities.......

Paul and Roy have been helping licenced Barn Owl ringer Roger, to check the boxes on two of our farms and they have had some great success, with 10 baby Barn Owls ringed between the two farms. They are pretty cool birds....

Together with Pete, they have also been having some good success with over 70 Sand Martins ringed at a new colony

Meanwhile, Gareth has had more success at his new site including a juvenile Reed Warbler--significant because this species doesn't breed at the site so this is a bird already wandering from it's breeding site.

Dad, Kev has enjoyed the frustration of watching lots of birds on his garden feeders before and after he set his nets......and Pat reports exactly the same situation from his garden in mid Wales. Keep on trying chaps......

Finally for now, Jenni caught a couple og Great Spotted Woodpeckers at her Kingswood site, and two of our new trainees report that they managed to catch and ring their first ever Storm Petrels on an expedition they have joined up in Scotland--I hope to have some pics when they return.

 

 

Hopes beginning to be fulfilled !

 On 30th April, I posted about a new site that one of our team, Gareth, was taking on--and at that time we had high hopes for this new site.

After a bit of a false start last week, when Gareth turned up very early in the morning to find that the site had been vandalised. He acted quickly and reported the incident, the owners were really grateful for the tip off, and have introduced more security.

Early this morning Gareth turned up to try again with some help from Dad, Kevin and friend Paul. The great news is that it looks like our hopes for the site are being realised. With only 3 net sites open, they ringed a smashing total of 55 new birds and a couple of retraps. The new birds included some top quality birds, including 2 Kingfishers, a juvenile Common Redstart, 10 Common Whitethroat, 13 Chiffchaff and 5 Blackcap!!

Here is a picture of one of the Kingfishers..

As you can clearly see, both upper and lower mandibles of the beak are black--meaning this is a male bird ( females have an orange lower mandible)

This is a recently fledged Common Redstart. We can tell it's a Redstart by the orange tail, And that it's a recently fledged bird because of the buff tips to many of the feathers on the head, breast and upper back. The bird will quite quickly replace most of these over the coming weeks, then it will begin to look much more like a Redstart should.

So, great news for Gareth and the group--he is already looking forward to visiting again soon, when he hopes to be able to set a few more nets to see what else he can ring.