Chris's Bird Ringing

Tuesday, 27 April 2010

Evening yearticking at Conwy..

Female Wheatear

This is more like it.. The spring migrants are back 'en masse'.. Still loads more to come in though.
Monday 19th April was the first time in 10 days in that I had been out birding properly.. After an extremely hectic day at uni, I hopped on an evening train at Bangor and had a few hours of productive birding at Conwy RSPB..

Over the past few days there had been a Lesser whitethroat and a Yellow wagtail on the reserve so these were the targets for the night.. A phonecall from Alex revealed him to have just arrived at Conwy and 5 minutes later and I was in the car with him as he had picked me up from Llandudno station - handy!

Male Wheatear

Once through the visitor centre, the birding began.. Sand martins galore and 2 House martins flitted around {both yearticks}, Lots of Swallows and White wagtails totalling at least 80+ {yeartick} and about 7 Wheatears along the coastal path that runs around the perimeter of the reserve.. 4 Yearticks in less than 20 minutes - great stuff!! Met up with Rob sandham at the Lesthroat site and a good listen and scan of the scrub for half an hour, revealed no Lesser whitethroat.. Oh well, maybe next week?? No Yellow wagtail either so we called it a night..

A few Blackcaps, Willow warblers, Chiffchaffs and a Common sandpiper called around the reserve..

White wagtail

Not a bad few hours birding with 4 yearticks added to the 2010 yearlist...

Whimbrels at Wigg...

Whimbrel

I do hope you all enjoyed the Catalunya trip report and the pictures... Whilst in Spain it was non-stop digiscoping for me as Alex and Menzie will know, over 900 pictures were taken, with only 350 decent ones.. Moving on now and back in sunny Britain..

Once we landed in Liverpool on 9th April, I didn't want to see another bird for at least a week, never mind have my bins around my neck, but.. as always this was to much of a challenge... I did however last until 17th April when I ventured out for a light spot birding..

On the evening of 17th April, myself, Steve and Rachel had evening's mist-netting session at 'Wigg' near Paenmenmawr in North wales. On arrival and once stepping out of the truck, a few Whimbrels could be heard whistling out over the Menai straits.. The words - ''Would we catch one of those tonight'' went through my head... A quick scan over the pool was in order to see if there was anything around the pools, but only the odd Redshank and Canada goose were evident.. After the decision was made on where to set the nets, half an hour or so later and all were set ready..

Whimbrel

We did however, have a 3 and 1/2 bour wait until high tide.. This was no big deal as the stars were out 'en masse' tonight, clear skies and not a breath on wind! When the tide came in, we soon realised that there were very few birds present, the odd Curlew and Redshank called but that was about it.. What would we catch?

During the night we managed to catch:

12 Curlew {Ringed 10}

8 Redshank {Ringed 4}

2 Whimbrel {Ringed 1}

Whimbrel

Oh yes... you have read that right indeed, we did in fact catch 2 Whimbrel within 15 minutes of each other.. You can imagine what was going through my kind when we caught the first one: ''I hope they have both ringed one'' Once back at the truck, Steve passed me the Whimbrel in the sack and at that point I knew it was mine to ring!! The second bird was caught 15 minutes later and was ringed by Rachel...

An extremely long night as we finished at 2:30am...

Monday, 26 April 2010

Penduline tit and Nightingale...

Penduline tit

Penduline tit

Nightingale

Nightingale

I hope you all enjoyed scrolling through that report and the pictures, I certainly did.. More tomorrow on ringing and birding back in North Wales...

Yellow wagtail ssp, Subalpine warbler and Corn bunting...

Corn bunting

{5} Male Subalpine warbler

Yellow wagtail ssp...{5} - {This bird was a very interesting bird as it had moulted 2 of it's Tertials.. {not visible} As well as 3/4 Greater coverts and about 4 Median coverts.. Hmmmmm. Cracking bird in the hand though!

What a colour!!!

Nice!!

Wood warbler...

Wood warbler

Wood warbler

Wood warbler

Great reed warbler...

Great reed warbler in my hand...

Great reed warbler again...

Great reed warbler, once more...

Look at the size of the beak

Just incase you are wondering I am still in Spain at this point.....

More ringing pictures from Catalunya...

Aquatic warbler

Aquatic warbler

Aquatic warbler

Aquatic warbler

Right wing of a Male Blackcap - Age 5

{5} Blackcap - Contrast between Primary coverts and Greater coverts as well as Alula..

More clear here - Still in Post-juvenile plumage - This bird hasn't moulted it's Alula...

Scops owl

Scops owl

In the process of ageing the Scops owl

What a bird!!!!!!

Bird ringing whilst in Catalunya...

Bluethroat - Male

Whilst myself and Alex were in Spain I was lucky enough to help out with 2 morning ringing session's with Menzie's Boss... This took place in the last few days of my stay..

Redstart - Male

Bluethroat - Female

Reed warbler

During both mornings I witnessed ringing in a whole new world... This was ofcourse seeing a different array of birds in the hand - Spanish birds in the hand! I was lucky enough to see the beauty of some extra special birds in the hand and a few of them I was able to ring.....

Birds ringed by myself during both mornings....

10 Blackcap, 7 Willow warbler, 3 Chiffchaff, 1 Whitethroat, 1 Wood warbler, 2 Sedge warbler, 2 Reed warbler, 1 Nightingale, 2 Redstart, 5 Sand martin and 1 Bluethroat...

A total of 35 birds were ringed by myself of 11 species - absolutely fantastic ringing!!

There were also other birds caught within my 2 mornings which included: Corn bunting and Blue-headed wagtail..

Throughout the week I also had in the hand: Scops owl, Aquatic warbler, Great-reed warbler, Subalpine warbler and Cetti's warbler.... The first 3 species ofcourse were the best..

More pictures on the next post....