Boxing Day

This morning Gail and I headed up into Bowland to check our boxes in the Hodder Valley. We have 38 boxes up at this site with the aim of providing nest sites for Pied Flycatchers and other hole nesting woodland bird species. Out of 38 boxes we had 8 boxes occupied by Pied Flycatchers, 8 by Blue Tits, 6 by Great Tits and one by Nuthatch.

The Hodder Valley

I lifted a female Pied Flycatcher off the nest from one box and she was ringed and on checking on the computer back home I had ringed her as a chick out of one of the boxes at this site in 2010. We also ringed a brood of 8 Nuthatches.

Nuthatch

Walking through the woodland we had singing Blackcap, Garden Warbler and Willlow Warbler. Other birds included Jay and a calling male Tawny Owl. Orange Tip and Green-veined White Butterflies were on the wing and plenty of woodland plants were flowering including Bluebell, Wood Anemone, Ramsons, Herb Robert, Lesser Celandine and Bugle.

 Bugle

Heading back to the 'flatlands' of the Fylde we checked our boxes on Rawcliffe Moss where we just have 14 up at this particular site for Tree Sparrows. Out of the 14 boxes 12 were occupied and we ringed two broods of four. There should be plenty to ring next week.

 Tree Sparrow

I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about a new blog that I have set up with my good mate Ian Gardner (in fact it is Ian that does most of the birding at the obs) called Fleetwood Bird Observatory (click to access) which details the daily bird movements through what we call the 'obs'. It is in its infancy at the moment and will change, so please bear with us until we have got it right.