Whooooo... your crest is on fire!

As the Kings of Leon sang...

Trapped and ringed two Firecrest in the garden this morning. There have been a few around for the past few weeks. A nice calm frosty morning prompted me to pop up a net at my feeders in the hope of them being busy. For some reason my garden feeders weren't at all busy so the Firecrests made up the bulk of the catch this morning however a male Bullfinch made it into the totals.

Here’s a proper picture of one of the little chaps.

As part of work I’ve been keeping an eye on some Peregrines in Dorchester which put on a brilliant show. Took this the other day.

A busy day

It all started at 5am when we (Steve, his trainee Teresa and myself) headed off to Seaton for the first canon net catch of the winter. A few visits to the catch site by Axe Estuary group volunteers a few days ago revealed a reasonable number of ducks using the site. Overnight frost must have brought in a few extras as the catch was a very respectable 105 birds. Just three species were caught but whose complaining when there’s plenty of Wigeon and Teal to go around!

After a mighty breakfast in Seaton we headed back to Weymouth and before we went our separate ways talked about the possibility of catching a few wagtails this evening. As you can gather from my last post, my last attempt didn’t got that well so I was very pleased to pull off decent catch with Teresa and Steve. 41 Pied Wagtails caught, 39 of which now have colour rings. Also got a re-trap Cetti’s Warbler and a new Robin.

I’ve finally sat down with a cup of tea though I’m pretty sure I’m going to get dragged away from the computer any second to watch the Strictly dancing rubbish.

An interesting Wagtail catch

This evening I decided to give the Pied Wagtail roost at Radipole a try as they have recently been roosting a few hundred yards from my current net site on the reserve. The evening went really well except for the lack of wagtails in the net. In fact, I only caught one! They insisted on roosting in their favourite spot... a few hundred yards from the nets. However, I did catch in the 50 minute session 2 Cetti’s Warbler, 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Robin, 2 Wren, 1 Reed Bunting and this rather handsome chappy.

There were plenty in the area so might try a few more evenings as Bearded Tits are something of mystery with their movements so the more with the rings on the better. They are still showing signs of dispersing which I think is quite late in the season for this to be happening still. A few more evenings targeting the wagtails is certainly on the cards as well, especially as there were over 300 there this evening. A good size catch will really help our colour ringing this autumn!

A last flurry of finches

Have been managing to get out on the fleet most mornings this week before work though visits haven’t been particularly productive. Ringing totals certainly suggest that we are pretty much at the tail end of the autumn migration though Finches have still been trickling overhead. Abbotsbury produced 4 Redpoll yesterday morning and Clouds Hill produced another one this morning. All Lesser Redpolls though but nothing wrong with that!

A couple of Redpoll tails, firstly one belonging to a 1^st winter bird. Secondly, one of an adult. Note the rounded tips on the adult and the pointy tips on the 1^st winter bird.

Bramblings still seem to be going over in numbers, this morning another 12 went over which was a fair percentage of the mornings finch migration. Haven’t managed to catch any though!

This morning saw a couple of scarcities at Clouds Hill. The morning started with a very early rising Lapland Bunting which appeared to have spent the night in the adjacent field (suppose they roost on the ground?) before heading off up the fleet. Then later a female Long-tailed Duck flew past the ringing station towards the Swannery but clearly didn’t make it that far as I flushed if from the edge of the fleet whilst taking down a net later in the morning. It unfortunately if went straight over the beach and out to sea so must apologise to duck for disturbing it.

No photo of the Duck but here’s a Chaffinch as compensation...

Brambling along...

All a little bit quiet on the ringing front this morning which was somewhat of a surprise given the light NE wind and a large bank of cloud through the English Channel which would have stopped anything thinking about heading over it. Caught 4 new Robins and a Song Thrush on the first net round not long after first light and then all went quiet except for a few of the resident Wrens and a Dunnock later on. Overhead passage was largely made up of finches and it was quite busy. Between 6am and 8am an impressive 35 Brambling in total went over plus several which roosted overnight in Clouds Hill. About 250 Chaffinch also went over, plus at least 80 Goldfinch and about a dozen Redpolls. Meadow Pipits were also on the move. Highlight of the morning was a Firecrest which avoided the nets. They are quite scarce at Clouds Hill compared to nearby Abbotsbury Swannery though the habitats are quite different so perhaps that’s not such a surprise.

Hopefully more to report over the next few days.

Can't beat a bit of bully

Despite a pretty dodgy weather forecast I ventured out onto the fleet a little bit before first light in the hope of doing a bit of ringing. Some net rides were fairly sheltered so I decided to give it a try though distant thunder and lightning had me a little concerned but thankfully it passed me by but managed to hit Portland where I’m sure there were several eager ringers waiting for the weather to pass.

The morning proved worthwhile as just under 30 birds were trapped, not all new birds as the resident Long-tailed Tit flock arrived with several carrying rings from last Autumn. Nice to know they are still about. A Bullfinch (which I forgot to take a photo of) was a nice capture, my first there this autumn (not that I’ve been at clouds hill much this autumn) but little else in the way of new arrivals. A few Chiffchaff and Goldcrest were also caught but all the Robins from Tuesdays visit were long gone. As had the Ring Ouzels and other thrushes. Strong westerlies look set in for a next week so probably no big arrivals of finches or thrushes are on the cards.

A shot of one of the Chiffchaffs this morning. Would have been a picture of the Bullfinch which would have been much more fitting given my choice of blog title but as I said early, I forgot to get the camera out! Chiffchaffs are nice though...

It's been a while!

As you may have noticed, It’s been quite a while since my last post. Since then and now some pretty crap things have happened, crappest of all was my friend, house mate and colleague past away back at the start of September. Nick Quintrell was an amazing bloke confirmed last night at a memorial evening held at Radipole last night where nearly one hundred people turn up to pay their respects. There’s a cracking blog post on the RSPB blog which contains  memories and tributes to Nick, its well worth a read. www.rspb.org.uk/weymouthwetlandsblog

Birding was almost non-existent through September and ringing was pretty much limited to a goldcrest and a blue tit one morning in my garden but life is starting to get back on track and  I got back Saturday from having a week on Lundy. I went for the first time last autumn and had a great week though we saw nothing amazingly crippling. This visit was quite different, full of hope after seeing a forecast for stiff easterly winds for much of the week. In reality this ended up preventing us from ringing and birding was quite tricky at times with near gale force winds doing their best to unsteady my binoculars. However a few goodies did show up. A Little Bunting was skulking around in a field behind the church,  Lapland Bunting and Snow Bunting added a bit of interest however the biggy of the week unfortunately was one that got away. I flushed a very grey looking thrush from some juncus one afternoon. Instantly I thought Black-throated Thrush. It quickly went back down into cover but out of sight. A few minutes later it flushed again but this time with some redwings which resulted in it flying off with them. Views were limited to flight views as it went away from me except for a moment when I saw some rather white flanks. But frustratingly no other features were seen so this one will have to fade away into a distant memory.

Ringing was a little quiet but was great to catch a reasonable number of Redwing which I rather stupidly managed to not take any pictures of! Did take a picture of this Redstart though.

This eastern type Chiffchaff was nice to see. Showed quite a few tristis features but it decided to keep its beak shut on release and every other time I saw it in the field.

Possibly the highlight for me was my first Brambling in the hand! About time…

Whilst away I’ve managed to miss a Portland purple patch with the likes of a Durian Shrike, Subapline Warbler, Barred Warbler, Siberian Stonechat  showing up and a mystery warbler which remained a mystery to many birders during its short stay in a garden in Southwell.

Yesterday morning I went out to clouds hill for an early morning ringing session which got me just under 30 birds. Mainly Robins, Goldcrests and Blackbirds. Three Ring Ouzels were about but not near any of the nets!