Hedgerows

I had a pleasant job this morning and this was surveying some hedgerows for a farmer client of mine who wanted to restore a number of his hedges over the next five years. He isn't being funded for this but wants to make sure that his hedgerows remain good for wildlife and provide shelter for stock in wet, windy or hot weather. The farm is a dairy farm and on such farms as the grassland is such a premium it is in the hedgerows that the farmer can encourgae wildlife.

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours this morning walking along the length of seven hedgerows in total and coming up with a species composition for the hedges, noting when they can be layed, suggesting some hedgerow tree species for small gaps and coming up with a list of species to plant in larger gaps.

 A couple of the typical hedgerows (above & below) that I surveyed this

morning

As well as having one eye on the hedge I was surveying, I also had one eye looking out for birds and both ears listening out! I came across a couple of young Coal Tits in a mature hedge/ribbon of woodland alongisde a stream and a Chiffchaff sang here as well as from a block of woodland further on. The only butterflies I had on the wing this morning were a couple each of Small Tortoiseshells and Small Whites.

I had a number of Brown Hares, 12 in total, and in one field I had a group of eight. The only other mammal I saw was a Roe Deer in a field of Wheat.

It is very much raptor weather at the moment with the hot sun causing thermals for them to soar on and this morning I had two Buzzards making use of such thermals. One of the Buzzards was joined by a Grey Heron and the pair of them thermalled to a great height.

On one particular stretch of hedgerow with a number of mature Oak trees in it I came across a monster Tit flock consisiting of 41 Long-tailed Tits, 13 Blue Tits and two Great Tits. I had a single Nuthatch calling from some woodland and a single Skylark singing from a field of Wheat.

It's a bit of reed cutting for Ian and I this evening, hopefully followed by some Swallow ringing. A small roost, c. 1,000 birds, has formed in one of the reedbeds and over the next couple of weeks if the roost builds we should be able to ring a few. I'll keep you posted as always.

June Ringing Totals

Over on the right I have updated the totals for Fylde Ringing Group for 2013 up until the end of June. We have ringed 1,347 birds of 56 species so far, which is 272 down on this time last year. New species for the year ringed in June were Shelduck, Kestrel, Ringed Plover and Great Spotted Woodpecker.

The top five species ringed in June were as follows:

1. Pied Flycatcher - 56
2. Great Tit - 33
3. Blue Tit - 31
4. Tree Sparrow - 18
5. Reed Warbler - 11

The top ten 'movers and shakers' for the year so far are:

1. Willow Warbler - 115 (up from 2nd)
    Chaffinch - 115 (down from 1st)
    Goldfinch - 115 (down from 2nd)
4. Tree Sparrow - 81 (up from 8th)
5. Lesser Redpoll - 79 (down from 4th)
6. Great Tit - 77 (up from 10th)
7. Blue Tit - 66 (straight in)
8. Pied Flycatcher - 58 (straight in)
9. Meadow Pipit - 56 (down from 5th)
    Reed Bunting - 56 (down from 5th)

Back In The Reeds

Ian and I were back in the reeds this morning and the alarm call wasn't any earlier! We had perfect conditions for operating mist nets with no wind and two oktas cloud cover. Part of the reedbed is very wet and we still can't access that area easily so three nets were put up in the reeds and willow scrub.

 Great Tit

We managed to ring a further 32 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Great Tit - 3
Reed Warbler - 3 (4)
Blue Tit - 3
Whitethroat - 7 (1)
Dunnock - 1
Wren - 3
Willow Warbler - 6
Greenfinch - 4 (1)
Reed Bunting - 1
Lesser Whitethroat - 1

 Lesser Whitethroat

The birding was less exciting with just two Snipe, five Lapwings, ten Swifts, four Greenfinches, 21 Pied Wagtails, three Linnets and seven Goldfinches.

 Whitethroat

I need to update Fylde Ringing Groups totals up until the end of June and let you know the details of some interesting recoveries we recently received from the BTO so I'll do that in the next few days.

 Willow Warbler

The Early Bird (Ringer) Catches The......Well Erm......Birds!

It was an early start yesterday morning for Ian and Me, but not as early as it could be as we met at the reedbeds at 4.30 a.m. We could have made it 4.00 a.m. but setting your alarm for 3.30 a.m. is so uncivilised and for some reasons, psychological (?), a 4.00 a.m. alarm call feels better!

 Sedge Warbler

Driving towards the reedbeds I had my first bird for the morning in the form of a Barn Owl hunting the rank grassland and plantation woodland alongside the road and a party of Swifts feeding low down on aerial insects that hadn't gained any height as yet in the cooler early morning air. It was a pleasant start to what turned out to be a good morning.

 Reed Warbler

A few Swallows were exiting the roost, but it was difficult to tell how many, and this did reemphasise the fact that it is indeed Autumn. Another autumnal bird was a Grey Wagtail that flew into the pools to feed. Other than that the birding was slow but the ringing certainly wasn't. We ringed 45 birds of 14 species as follows (recaptures in brackets):

Reed Warbler - 8
Robin - 2
Goldfinch - 3
Sedge Warbler - 2 (1)
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Whitethroat - 9 (1)
Greenfinch - 10
Wren - 1
Willow Warbler - 1
Blackbird - 1
Blue Tit - 2
Chaffinch - 1
Blackcap - 1
Chiffchaff - 3 

 Chiffchaff

I have a busy week work wise this week, so I might struggle to get out before work, but I will certainly try!

More Prep

I had a late start this morning and didn't get to the obs until 0620. I had clear skies with a light west-southwesterly breeze. I didn't expect much, and my expectations were realised, but it was just good to be out on the patch again.

First up was a Kestrel carrying prey and heading towards the box where we ringed five chicks from in mid-June, so hopefully they are all thriving. I didn't have any other raptors, in fact I had very little at all, and the only things just about worth mentioning were 11 Woodpigeons heading north, a singing Willow Warbler, three singing male Reed Buntings, two Linnets, 14 Goldfinches and two Sedge Warblers.

I had a look on the sea but had nothing at all. Well I gave it ten minutes, had nothing and carried on walking. As I had my tools with me I foolishly decided to prepare three of the net rides without the strimmer! I got the job done and in the heat it gave me one hell of a work out!

The forecast is good for tomorrow so it will be one heck of an early alarm call for a ringing session in the reedbed. I'll let you know how we get on.

Reed Cutting

It's that time of year again when gardening duties call and mist net rides need a hair cut. Ian and I headed to the reedbed yesterday evening and spent a good hour trimming the willows and cutting the reeds. The net rides were still fairly open as we had used them in the Spring, but they weren't open enough to enable to put mist nets up.

Below are before and after shots in one of the rides (apologies for them being a little dark).

 Before

 After

The forecast for the weekend is looking good in terms of wind strength so hopefully I'll get some ringing done. I'll keep you posted.

North To The Land Of The Bonxies

Gail and I have just returned from a week on Orkney and what a fantastic week we had. Although not strictly a birding holiday we did spend some time birding as well as looking round all the amazing archaeological sites. Rather than ramble on in words I have just included a few pictures below of some of the birds we encountered. And even though I have used the word 'Bonxie' in the title I didn't manage to get any pictures of them. However, we encountered them everywhere and at first it seemed a bit surreal to see them flying over agricultural land when I am used to seeing them when I am staring into the teeth of a westerly gale!

 Atlantic Grey Seal. We came across this young animal whilst walking

round Hoxa Head.

Black Guillemots. We saw these at several sites.

Common Gull. Although this was an adult is was quite novel seeing

chicks at several locations.

Fulmars. We came across Fulmars anywhere there was any half decent nest

sites for them.

Guillemots at Marwick Head.

Lapwing. There were good numbers of breeding waders, mainly Curlew 

and Oystercatcher.

Distant Long-tailed Duck, quite a good record for June on Orkney.

Oystercatcher was b y far the commonest breeding wader.

Agitated Redshank guarding young.

Juvenile Wheatear. We encountered Wheatears all along the coast

along with Rock Pipits.

Twite

It's back to normal now and I can't wait to get back out at the obs now that autumn is here!