Dairy Farm Diary

It's always really satisfying to see our younger members developing new ringing sites and extending their experience. I mentioned in my last post that I was intending to join Gareth ( and his dad Kev) at Gareth's relatively new site at Dairy Farm. As well as giving them both a hand ( not that they need it!) it gave me a chance to get to know the site which I hope will make it easier for me to make future posts from there more meaningful

It was a lovely morning with no wind and light cloud, and we had a steady catch resulting in 36 new birds of 14 species--a couple of which are pictured below:-

It's always a privilege to catch a gorgeous Kingfisher--but this one was particularly informative. If you check my recent blog, you will know that it's a male due to lack of red on the lower mandible. But second, by comparing this juvenile bird with the adult in the recent post you will be able to make sense of one of the ageing criteria used in our guide books-

Juveniles are said to be ''greeny-blue''  while adults are said to be '' bluey-green''   EASY!!?

Again in a recent post I pointed out that juvenile Willow Warblers were bright yellow on the underparts from chin to tail; while adults are:-

Yellow on the chin and breast but much whiter on the belly and under tail, just like this one.

All in all it was a lovely session at a site which gives Gareth great scope for the future--but like all new, big sites it will take him some time to work out which net sites are best at which times of the year--I'm confident he'll get there.!!