Ringing at... a sewage works?

Whilst the cold becomes the main bane of bird ringers lives at this time of year, the frost it leaves on the ground does create some impressive scenery. This was on full display at a sewage works site in Bakewell that I visited earlier this year, where the minus temperatures almost had the effect of making a sewage works look pretty!

We weren’t there to admire the scenery however and after the six nets went up the birds started rolling in. There were around 100 Pied Wagtails feeding on the filter beds all morning and it was these that made up the

 majority of our catch, with about 30 of the 60 birds caught being this species. There were also a handful of Meadow Pipits on the beds and a few of those manged to find their way into the nets, an unusual catch for winter ringing in our group.

I was also able to bag a couple of new species. A nice Grey Wagtail was a special treat, but I was more impressed with the 4 Starlings I was able to ring. These were a bird that I have had many close shaves with in the past, and a species I really wanted experience of to complete the list of common birds I'm likely to encounter when I ring in my garden. They are notoriously difficult to extract from nets and have a tendency to get the net twisted around the carpel (shoulder) of the wing. This can be quite daunting when first encountered, but with a bit of practice the knack makes for an easy extraction. They really are worth the trouble too. Absolutely gorgeous birds, even in their winter plumage, and truly underrated in every way.

A great morning all in all and a nice change from the usual winter ringing at feeding stations. 

Pied Wagtails were all over the place!

This little gem of a Grey Wagtail brightened up the day.

My favourite birds of the morning. Finally getting my hands on some Starlings!

Ringing in a Winter Wood-erland

New Years Eve.

To most 21 year old's, those three words only mean one thing. Getting so unbelievably hammered that by the time you've stumbled home you'd have added about 35 new birds to your life list after misidentifying lampposts and postboxes as birds that didn't exist before you pulled them out the imagination of your intoxicated brain.

To me however, it meant something slightly different. The morning of NYE (which is apparently an abbreviation thing that everyone does now), I was off out into the snowy woodland to try and catch some birds. We went to a feeding station deep in the woodland that had been diligently fed by a member of our ringing group and was attracting great numbers of birds.

The path down to the feeding station. Half expected to see a fawn stood under a lamppost down there.

The ringing didn't disappoint either. We finished on around 70 birds and got a great mix of species including 4 species of Tit, Chaffinch, Blackbird, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch and 2 Jays.

Always a joy to catch these. A loud joy, but a joy nonetheless.

With feathers like this I think I can forgive them.

Nuthatch. Not seen one of these in the hand for a while!

GS Woodpecker in strike pose. A millisecond after this photo was taken, blood was drawn.

The day before I had been out ringing with another chap from my ringing group to ring a garden that has large finch flocks coming to the feeders. I was expecting to do brilliantly due to the snow bringing the birds to the feeders but when we arrived it was a fairly breezy morning. Unfortunately we only finished on 10 birds and I think it was a combination of the wind blowing the net and it being against the white snow covered background of the fields that made the nets too visible. I did see my first Lesser Redpoll of the winter however, with 6 seen on the feeders and one managing to find its way into the net.


Definitely worth getting up for.

Lesser Redpoll. Nothing "Lesser" about it.

A Boxing Day showdown with an old foe

It was a cold, crisp Boxing Day morning. The sun hadn't yet risen above the horizon and all was dark and calm. One by one, cars rolled up into the field and dark figures came walking through the grassland with handheld torches lighting the way through the icy darkness. The bird ringing team was being assembled, Avengers style, for what was going to become one of the most monumental mornings of mist netting there had ever been.

The nets went up, hoisted high to catch winter thrushes and weaved through hedgerows to intersect flyways to give us the best possible chance of a high capture rate. The light came up and the birds started coming in. Each net round resulted in a about 5-10 birds at least and we finished on a total of 60. It wasn't the numbers that made this morning special however, it was one very special guest that paid us a visit.

You see, there has been one bird that's given us the run around ever since I've been out ringing and has been taunting my trainer for the whole ten years she's been ringing the site. It usually makes at least one appearance a morning and you usually hear it before you see it. As we're stood processing the birds or enjoying a drink, a laugh will come drifting across the grassland. Then comes the culprit, a flash of a lime green rump as it flies in its up and down fashion across the landscape. It will land somewhere just out of sight and then laugh again - "You can't catch me!".

And let me tell you, we've tried. We've tried nets in every position with tape lures underneath them but all that's ever achieved is bringing it closer to the net before it lets out a laugh (known as a Yaffle) and disappears off into the trees on the edge of the wood where we suspect they breed. I am, of course, talking about the Green Woodpecker.

We've had near misses too, where it's skipped up out the grass  from where its been eating ants and flew agonising close to the net. Even more traumatising was my trainer's experience of seeing it in the net, only for it to get out as she approached and fly away, laughing. It's been an on going duel, a battle for the ages, a showdown between human and bird that has seen the feathered side come out tops every single time.

But not this day.

My trainer returned from a net round with a beaming smile across her face. It had taken no tape luring, no chasing it into the net, it had just found its own way there. A gorgeous adult male - a final festive gift before we head into the New Year.

Luckily I had bought my camera with me too.

Now THAT'S a bird!

That rump - Phwwooaarrr

Things like the red line under the eye are things that go completely unnoticed until you get so close.

One of the best birds I've had the privileged to see in the hand.

Roadside Ringing and more Fieldfares!

Next to a roadside isn't the first place you would think to put up some nets and do a spot of bird ringing but, earlier this week, I found myself in this exact position. Granted, it wasn't directly by the roadside - rather it was in an orchard separated from the road by a hedgerow. Even so it was still strange to have cars hurtling past at 50 miles an hour while you're extracting a Robin from a net.

I was out ringing with a fellow called Chris Lilley, a member of my ringing group who had kindly invited me out with him to a few sites I had never been too. The week before we had ringed over 20 Goldfinches in a garden of one of his family members which gave a perfect opportunity to compare and contrast many individuals of the same species. One thing I like about catching one species regularly is the chance you get to learn how to age or sex them. I had the chance earlier in the year to do the same with Yellowhammers, and it really gets ingrained in your brain how to process the bird when you deal with such a large number of them!

The orchard, which was in somebodies large garden, contained a number of feeders and brought in many different species. We saw lots of different birds, such as Yellowhammer, Fieldfare, Collard Dove, Redwing etc, but catch rates were slow throughout the day and we finished on a meagre total of about 15 birds for about 3 hours of ringing. It wasn't an unenjoyable morning by any means however as it was nice to see a new site, talk to Chris and get my hands on my first Tree Sparrows in what must be at least 2/3 years.

Nice to see these little guys in the hand again.

Fast forward the week to yesterday (Saturday), and I was back at the old stomping ground with the usual group trying our hand at catching the winter thrushes again. This time we were more successful than ever with an impressive haul of 3 Redwings and 3 Fieldfares on the first net round before I had to leave early for work. Well worth getting up in the dark and freezing your toes off for!

It'll take something special to beat this bit of winter ringing!