Go Wild Barton Broad, Sunday May 13th.

The team and stand at Barton Demo.

For once the weather was on our side, the last couple of years have been hopeless for us at this event due to strong winds and scorching temperatures.

This year it was a bit of a lie in as the event didn't open until 11am, we arrived at 9 to sort out the stand and erect the nets, the usual ones were employed. We had already been over and cut the rides and put some feeders up, to try and build the numbers up. Dave went over again on Friday just to top the feeders up , unfortunately some had already been attacked by the local Grey Squirrels !

Also on the morning of the event we had checked a box and found it had 2 chicks inside, this was to become our star attraction.....

Dave in full flow

We had a steady flow of birds with a good cross section of species through the day which was ideal for a demo such as this.Everyone mucked in with Dave, Mel and I staying at the base with Gary and Tony doing most of the net rounds.

  

Tony and Gary getting in on the act.

A respectable 39 birds were processed with 36 new and 3 retraps. All the retraps were from the demo last year on 22/05/2011.

Wren 3

Robin 1 (1)

Blackbird 1

Grasshopper warbler 1  this proved a popular bird.

Sedge Warbler 4 (1)

Blackcap 1

Chiffchaff 1

Long-tailed Tit 2

Marsh Tit (1)

Blue Tit 6

Great Tit 9

House Sparrow 1

Chaffinch 3

Reed Bunting 1

Tawny Owl 2 pulli.

As mentioned earlier the 2 stars of the show were 2 Tawny Owl chicks from a nearby box.These were very popular with the visitors, with about 50+ people around the stand at this point !!! One of the Owlets even received a name, Ruby, because of its red eye lids.

Kev and one of the stars.

The stars of the show.

Thanks must go to Mel for all her hard work on the day and for sorting out the photos and stand. Also for inventing another quiz for the children , this time a young and adult bird matching quiz. 

A 20' net was erected near to base and Gary's bird finger puppets were again used to show how the birds get caught in the net, this also went down very well.

Several Speckled Wood  Butterflies were seen during the day as well as single Brimstone and male Orange Tip.

 A female Marsh Harrier was seen over the reed bed and a Water Rail was heard early on.

Still quiet.

Another visit to Winterton on 5th May turned out to be a quiet affair.
The intention was for more migrant Warblers but unfortunately the poor weather of late and a constant moderate NE put paid to this.
Only 12 new and 5 (retraps) were caught, these included the first Garden Warblers of the year.

Garden Warbler

Blackcap 4

Garden Warbler 2

Chaffinch (2) both from 2010

Willow Warbler 1

Robin 1

Great Tit 1

Goldfinch 1

Long-tailed Tit 1 (2) both ringed on 29/10/2011

Dunnock (1) Originally ringed  03/09/2005, a bird born that year.

Chiffchaff 1

Male Large Red Damselfly

The first Damselflies were on the wing, with a male Large Red seen. Also 2 Common Lizards were basking in the sun but no Adders were seen this time. 

Common Lizard, this individual was regrowing it's tail.

Later on in the week a visit to check boxes at Horning Hall turned out to be another quiet evening with the only  recent activity being a Treecreepers nest with young in a split in the trunk of a Cypress and a Male Barn Owl seen a couple of times taking food into a new site, we will check this out later in the season.

A poor photo of the Treecreepers nest.

The second evening trip of the week at Haddiscoe Island was another quiet affair apart from the bird and Mammal watching.

The Lapwing were virtually non existent with only one nest being found with eggs and no young seen.

The only positive note was at least 9 nests of Mute Swan being seen.

Lapwing.

Birds observed included a cracking Short-eared Owl sitting right in front of us, Whinchat, 6+ Wheatear,10 Whimbrel, at least 6 Marsh Harrier and 10+ Little Egret.  2 Stoat were seen hunting on the road, Chinese Water Deer on the river bank and amazing numbers of Hare's that seemed to be just about everywhere.

GO WILD AT BARTON BROAD

We will be doing a ringing demo at Barton Broad, Norfolk on Sunday May 13th.
Come along and meet the team and hopefully see some birds close up.

A couple of old friends.

At last the weather broke and it has stopped raining long enough to check some big boxes.
Some have had Tawny's with most of the others containing Jackdaws on eggs.

Arthur, Gary and box. (These aren't the only old friends!)

5 sites have produced Tawny Owls with 9 pulli being ringed and a retrapped female.

A brood of 3, one being too small to take a ring and will probably end up as dinner for its siblings.

Another older brood.

The boxes at Martham x2, Winterton and Rollesby  all had 2 chicks and Ormesby St. Michael had the brood of 3.  It was at Ormesby when we again became acquainted with one of our old friends GC18044.

This female was originally ringed on 07/05/2007 and has been retrapped at this site in 2009, 2011 and 2012.

Old Lady.

The second old friend this week turned out to be an adult male Sparrowhawk retrapped in the garden.

This bird obviously enjoys my garden very much as it was originally ringed 23/02/2008 and has been retrapped 5 times since! On 03/10/2008, 29/03/2009, 27 and 30/12/2010 and lastly 03/05/2012. 

Old boy.

Also in the garden on 06/05/2012 the first juveniles of the year were ringed, 2 Dunnock and a Blackbird. Hopefully there is more to come.

3J Dunnock

Saved the best until last.

The second trip to Winterton this year, Saturday 21st April, produced a few more birds than the last session.
The nets were erected on the Saturday morning rather than the night before as it was raining 'Cats and Dogs' Friday night.
However the mornings weather forecast was going to be fine up to about 11am, as it proved we were right to have a go with a good selection of birds being caught and seen.

Chiffchaff (5M) and Willow Warbler (4M)

The first Willow Warblers and Treecreepers for the year were caught , with the last bird of the day proving to be a Belgian ringed Goldfinch ! This is our first foreign ringed Goldfinch ,we have had 3 of 'ours' found in Belgium. 

Belgian 'King Harry' (5M)

39 birds were caught with 24 new, 14 retraps (in brackets) and 1 control.

Wren; 0 (3) 2 from 2011 and another ringed 02/10/10

Dunnock; 2 (4) 1 from 2010, 2 from 2009 and 1 originally ringed 21/04/2007

Blackbird; 0 (1)

Blackcap; 7 (2) 1 from April 2011 and the other ringed as an adult 19/09/2009

Chiffchaff; 3

Willow Warbler; 3

Long-tailed Tit; 2

Blue Tit; 2 (1)

Great Tit; 1 (1)

Treecreeper; 1 (2) both from Autumn last year.

Goldfinch; 2 (1) Belgian control.

One of the Treecreepers.

Bid watching included a Buzzard heard and seen, a pair of Sparrowhawk displaying and 5 trumpeting Cranes .

The Cranes had been heard all morning but then later on flew overhead with 3 of them flying noisily out to sea but eventually turning back towards land.

5 Cranes overhead but only a 50mm lens on the camera, doh !

As the morning warmed up a few Adders were again seen sunning themselves, they proved a bit too quick to get any decent photos!

One of the slippery customers.

Quick visit

With Dave celebrating a certain birthday, Gary on holiday and Arthur going to watch the Canaries it was left to Tony and I to have the last visit to Caister for the Linnets.
We met at 6.45am on Saturday 14th  to find a sharp frost and bright blue skies, the net was set then we waited and waited and waited.........
During the week there had been at least 50/60 in the area with up to 50 coming off the food on Wednesday night in one flock !
Eventually some went down and we managed to catch 10 new and another control, Y081630. The males are now looking pretty dandy in there finery.

Mr Dandy.

The only other sightings during the morning were of a Red Throated Diver flying north and 2 Sanderling on the beach, amazingly these were the first we have seen here this Winter. They normally occur all Winter and are usually quite common here.

2 Grey Seals were offshore, these seemed to give much excitement to a couple of holiday makers who were intent on getting a photograph.

With the sun up, the birds having other things on their mind and people everywhere we packed up early and headed for home.

5M Linnet (As above)

Cold, damp, windy Easter!

We were all looking forward to a nice Easter weekend with a bit of ringing, however it turned out to be cold, damp and windy with Easter Monday a complete washout .
We did manage a few bits and pieces, starting at Caister for the Linnets on Good Friday.
We arrived just before sunrise to be greeted with a hard frost, even the sand was frozen and a temperature of -4 ºC!
20 new and 5 retraps, 4 being recent and one from 12/03/2011 were caught.


Saturday morning we were hoping for some migrants at Winterton, unfortunately the day dawned with a cold NW putting a stop to any new arrivals.
Luckily some had already arrived and the first Blackcaps and Chiff's were duly caught, but not much else was going on.

Male Blackcap

Female Blackcap

Ringing consisted of only 16 birds with 13 new and 3 retraps.

Dunnock; 2 (1) originally ringed 04/04/2010

Robin; 1

Blackbird; 2

Blackcap; 2

Chiffchaff; 2 (1) This bird was ringed as a 3 on 10/09/2011, had it been here all winter ?

Goldcrest; 1

Great Tit; 1

Goldfinch; 2

Monty with 'his' Dunnock

Later on in the morning Arthur arrived with his Son and Grandson to explain the ringing, they both seemed at home with the birds and became very interested in them.

Dave explaining to Monty how to measure a Goldfinch wing.

As we took the nets down 3 Adders were seen basking in the sun?! They must have been desperate for a bit of heat.

On arriving home a Chiff was heard calling in the garden so one 40' net was quickly erected, resulting in it being caught with 2 Blackcaps, a nice end to the weekend as the weather deteriorated.

On Tuesday it was back to work, so of course the sun came out and the wind dropped!!! A phone call was received mid morning from Winterton to say a few more corvids had been caught. Luckily for us but not him Tony was at home instead of work as his car had broken down, so he was quickly deployed to go ring them. This resulted in another 27 Jackdaw and 2 Rook being ringed.