Ahhhh... Babies!

Todays bird ringing session - CES visit 5 at Priory Country Park - was dominated by juvenile birds.

41 birds of 13 species, 32 new & 9 retraps (retraps in brackets).

Chiffchaff 4 (2) - 5 of these were juveniles
Great Tit 4 (0) - all 4 juveniles
Wren 1 (1)
Blue Tit 7 (0) - all 7 juveniles
Long Tailed Tit 1 (0) - a juvenile
Bullfinch 1 (0) - a juvenile
Dunnock 1 (2) - of these 2 were juveniles (the other being a retrap adult)
Blackbird 4 (0) - 4 new juveniles
Robin 2 (1) - including 1 new juvenile
Blackcap 4 (2) - including 1 new juvenile
Greenfinch 1 (0)
Chaffinch 1 (0)
Song Thrush 1 (0) - a juvenile

That's a total of 27 juveniles. If you are interested in totals from our other CES visits, please click here.

Here are some of the cast from today:

Above: A juvenile Blackbird on the left and an adult female on the right for comparison.

Above: A juvenile Song Thrush - note all the thorn shaped markings on the wing.



Above: A juvenile Chiffchaff.

Above: A juvenile Robin (left) and adult Robin (right) for comparison. It will be a while yet before the baby Robin gets its own red breast - it has to replace and grow more feathers before that happens.

Above: A juvenile Bullfinch

Last weekend, we made a visit to 'the crescent' where we caught 20 different adult Reed Warblers moving between the reed bed and surrounding vegetation. Of the other 10 birds we caught, of note was our first juvenile Blackcap of the year.

Blackbird Recovery

News came through yesterday of a Blackbird ringed at Priory Country Park on 9th December 2009 as a juvenile male. Unfortunately, it had met a sad end - this is a common way for ringers to find out what happens to some of our birds. The fortune this time was on our side as it had made its way to FINLAND!

It was found on 23rd September 2011, at Vistanvagen, Soderudden, Vaasa, Finland - 653 days after it was ringed in Bedford - a distance of 1775km in a North Easterly direction.

Details of the ringing session this bird was caught on can be found here (it was the first bird caught that day).

A small flurry

A small flurry of snow didn't stop the bird ringing session this morning in 'The Rough.' The birds came in small flurries themselves although there wasn't much movement or singing from them at all today. 12 fly over siskins, a bullfinch and a redwing were visual highlights.




Above: The 3rd Great Spotted Woodpecker (adult female) caught in 'the rough' during the last 2 sessions.

Below: An adult male blackbird. There are lots of these feasting on the berries at the moment.



Ringing Results

Saturday 27th Nov: 24 birds of 9 species: 2 Long Tailed Tits, 9 Blue Tits, 2 Great Tits, 1 Wren, 2 Dunnocks, 4 Blackbirds, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Robin.

Sunday 21st Nov: 30 birds of 10 species: 7 Long Tailed Tits, 6 Blue Tits, 5 Great Tits, 3 Wren, 1 Dunnock, 3 Blackbird, 1 Goldcrest, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, 1 Song Thrush and 1 Sparrowhawk.



Above: The sparrowhawk from last week sporting a big bluge - presumably its lunch!

w/e Sun 27th June

Midsummer birding is always steady with little change; that's 'cos we're in between the last of the spring and the first of the autumn movements. Saying this, some Black-headed Gulls have returned already from their breeding grounds.

There are still large numbers of moulting Canadas on the main lake (on the grass if you're out very early) and the Mute Swan flock continues to feed on the much unsolicited pondweed; 91 of each were counted on Sunday. Quotations have been sought to tackle the weed problem.
On Sunday, I conducted what is likely to be my last guided walk. Checking out a lone crow flying overhead, I scored a Rook instead. Most of the birdsong activity was coming from either Blackcaps or Song Thrushes; in contrast the Reed Warblers were very quiet this week.

During the week, we caught two juvenile Garden Warblers, which were moulting their median coverts. This is about as far as they go, preferring to finish their main moult on the wintering grounds in equatorial Africa.

One couldn't help noticing the young Jackdaws. Their squawking could be heard whereever you were in the conservation and new meadow areas. They mostly sat up in the trees between the Kramer hide and the old dipping platform, waiting for mum or dad to come back with food. Meantime, they "chatted each other up", as they do.

Another bird that was conspicuous was the Common Whitethroat. The males gave their short, scratchy song from the bush tops as they moved around looking for insects for their broods. The early birds are already going about having a second brood after sucessfully rearing their first.

We had a short early morning ringing session where we retrapped a female Blackbird. She had a broken tail as a result of a lack of food at a critical point in the moult cycle last autum. She had originally been ringed as a juvenile female five years previously - to the day.