Sunday 29 May 2011

Peregrines 27/05/2011

What a morning! After reaching St Wulframs in Grantham, we took some time to scope the male bird to check for rings. Turns out he isnt ringed. The Female is a known bird ringed as a chick in Lancs.

Mrs Peg

Ever since I was little I've never been particularly good with heights, so climbing the spiral staircase to the roof wasnt a life highlight by any means. However after accending the church the sight of 3 plump chicks was excellent.


Sunday 22 May 2011

Nightingales, Owls galore and the odd Kestrel too!

After a couple of weeks of silence I shall elaborate on what has been a productive period of time.

30/04- Owl season is is starting to liven up. Little Owls being the main target as these are single brood early nesters.

Nice start to the day, what a beauty!

One of 53 females this year so far.

Personally one of my favourite shots, the 'Owlman' with his owls.

Thats a photo of each of the targetted species for Bob, Alan, I and others in the summer.

12/05 A new 'Ring Tick'.

This one involved boats, an added complication but a good laugh! Little Egret's were the target, very lovely little chicks to ring, an added bonus as I did my first at the same time as Alan did his!



14/05- Nightingales take two!

After another earlyish start we went on search of the same Nightingale that had evaded us previous attempt. With prior knowledge the bird was likely to be a retrap of last years individual, my spirits remained undamped as to glance upon the best of british bird songstars in the hand.
A good Whitethroat comparison shot, Common on the left, Lesser to the right.
Next came Mr Nightingale, a retrap as I expected, the 100th bird to be ringed by the group since its beginnings.

After the sucessful completition of missing Nightingale we decided to have a run around the Tawny boxes and pick off the few remaining chicks unrung in Bob's boxes. It has been a great year with 60+ birds ringed.


Cute as you like!
And finally onto today 22/05. We started by doing the tit boxes in the local woods with a near enough 100% occupancy (but not quite, weirdly enough box number 13 was empty, talk about unlucky for some!)


After getting through the tits, we went and did a bit of owling but with an added little ring tick surprise!

Lapwing chick, few and far between with the mass of corvids on the prowl. Another beautiful bird!

So ends the update, Peregrine chicks loom on yonder horizon...

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Grantham Peregrines

http://pegcam.blogspot.com/



Anyone who birds in Lincolnshire is likely to know about the pair of Peregrines on St Wulframs church in Grantham. They have been present for a few years now and 3 chicks have now hatched from the 4 eggs. If ever your spare of time wandering the endless corners of cyberspace, it's always worth a check; you never know, you may be lucky enough to view feeding time!

More details on the website and the shot is taken from the blog linked above.

Friday 6 May 2011

Yearlist:151; latest addition- Swift

Let Owling commence!

Finches finished, nests started, owls to be rung!

Last weekend saw the first owling day, mixed news but I think overall positive first signs. The long weekend produced 37 pairs of Owls and Kestrels, a good start. The hard winter seems not to have decimated the numbers but effects so far seem to be mixed; lost a few regular sites but gained more new ones. Very much a sense of in with the new, out with the old. Having said that there are still older birds around. Little Owls look to be on chicks in not too long with clutches being laid early in the dry weather. How they will fair with the dry conditions will shall have to wait for, but a couple of owls seem to have been able to go worming in the hard ground (or so their faecal matter suggested >.<)

More Owling tomorrow.