Nearly There

I'm 'nearly there' in terms of finishing off monitoring my boxes for this year and also I just have one more Great Crested Newt survey to complete and then I'll be able to get back out birding again with some regularity, just in time for it to get really quiet! Mind you it will soon be autumn and I always think that in the birding world there isn't really a summer; it's spring from early March until mid-June, autumn from mid-June until mid-November and winter from mid-November until the end of Feb!

On Sunday Gail and I checked our boxes in the Hodder Valley and then a few boxes at our friend's farm near Nateby. In the Hodder Valley we ringed 31 pulli; four Great Tits, 16 Pied Flycatchers and eleven Blue Tits. One of the Pied Flycatcher broods totalled nine chicks, which is the largest brood I've ever ringed. We have four broods of Pied Flycatchers to go back for next weekend.

 Pied Flycatchers

Great Tit

On the way back home we called at Robert and Diana's at Nateby. We had a brood of two Stock Doves to ring as they were too small just over a week ago. As you will see from the picture below they are quite prehistoric looking and as Diana commented 'ugly cute'!

Gail holding a young Stock Dove