Back with a Bang!!

 Sorry for the absence of almost a month. There's a couple of reasons for this, first I've been busy with a holiday and a big birthday, but just as important is that this is generally the time of year that we do very little actual catching because we like to leave the birds to get on with their breeding season.

However, this doesn't mean we have been completely inactive. The ''bang'' referred to in the title relates to two activities of the 'Clements Boys' ( Kevin and son Gareth) who have two bits of stunning news to give you. As I write they are on their way back from a fantastic trip to Shetland which they will be reporting on when they get back-with some stunning photographs of rare and unusual birds they encountered. Kevin also has some brilliant news from our Patshull farm project about a key species we are trying to attract to the site.

In the meantime, a few bits of news from the team:-

- Jennie isn't around at the moment because she got an invite to be a long term volunteer on the Welsh island of Skokholm which houses a Bird Observatory.  Internet connection isn't great but she's having a great time with some great birds over recent weeks such as an adult male Common Rosefinch, a Bonelli's Warbler and a Subalpine Warbler ringed.

- Pat over a 'Siskin City' has been hard at it working on his house but has done a couple of sessions and has started to catch some juvenile Siskins from the population breeding in the Welsh forests--more on that soon. He's also been getting news of some controls which I will report when we get the data.

-On a similar theme, the birders at Belvide noticed that one of the Little Ringed Plovers at the site was ringed and they managed to read the ring with a telescope--and patience!! We are waiting for this data at the moment.

- Speaking with the manager, Tim at another of our sites yesterday revealed that he thinks that 7 pairs of Lapwings have managed to raise chicks--the best season for many years on the farm so we hope we can maintain this improvement. We also hope to bring you some news about owl and Kestrel nestboxes very soon........

-Finally, I've recently reported on the satisfaction it gives us to see our recently qualified ringers getting themselves established and using their licences to continue to develop their skills. So it's been for our newest qualified ringer Sam--who's been getting to grips with the birds in his garden. He sent me a report a couple of days ago saying he had reached 100 birds in the last month--made up of the typical garden species --Blue, Great and Coal tits, with others such as Dunnock, Blackbird and Great Spotted Woodpecker thrown in. Included have been some healthy numbers of juvenile birds suggesting breeding around his area has been good. By far his most numerous catch has been of Starlings. Their fortunes have been of some concern nationally so it's good to see them doing well on his patch. He's taken a few photos which I hope will be helpful :-

Sexing Starlings in the breeding season is quite easy with a good view of the bill:-

This is the head of a female Starling --showing the PINK base to the bill. This is only relevant during the breeding season-but pink for a girl is easy to remember ( if just a tad sexist!?) The other female feature which you can see is the fact that the iris is brown on the outside but black towards the middle. This remains so all year--but is a bit more difficult to see in the field!!

This is the head of a male Starling showing the two features again--but this time the base of the bill has a BLUE tinge ( for a boy...). This photo unfortunately hasn't picked up the blue as well as it looks in real life. And the iris is a consistent black colour with no lighter outer ring. There is another feature which is helpful but not diagnostic because it varies quite a bit--but you can see that in this male the feathers around the head and neck have either no, or very small white tips. In the female above these tips are much more prominent.

At this time of year, many of you will also have juvenile ( newly fledged) Starlings in the garden too. These are totally brown at this time of year:-

Here's a juvenile Starling--but if you do get them in your garden keep an eye out as the years moves on, because during late summer/autumn you'll start to see quite weired looking juvenile Starlings with varying amounts of brown and speckled black as the birds gradually moult out their juvenile feathers and grow in their post juvenile set. 

Please look out for some exciting news in the next few days--and some stunning pictures.........