Thursday 20 October 2016

South Northants Ringing

Hello

Chris Payne was busy ringing down at Bradden yesterday catching 59 birds made up of 30 Blue Tits, 19 Great Tits, 2 Robins, 3 Long-tailed Tits, 2 Coal Tits, a Chaffinch, a Dunnock and a Nuthatch.

Today it was the turn of his garden at Greens Norton where the configuration of nets and feeders are positioned for optimum catching opportunities. Chris caught 41 new birds and no re-traps, Goldfinches easily being the most common bird with 28 individuals, the majority of them being birds hatched this year. Other birds amounted to 5 Greenfinches, 4 Blue Tits, a Great Tit, a Goldcrest, a Coal Tit and a Blackbird.

Birds at Blueberry Farm, Maidwell prompted two visits there today providing sightings of a Tree Pipit, a pair of Stonechat, probably about ten Bramblings, four redpoll sp flying over, a Corn Bunting, about a hundred Fieldfares and over three hundred Redwings. Eight Red Kites were again following a tractor.

At Harrington Airfield this afternoon birds amounted to four Ravens, at least two Bramblings, two or more redpoll sp and about ten Golden Plovers.

A brief stop at Pitsford Reservoir this afternoon in the vicinity of the Sailing Club was sufficient to see the Ruddy Shelduck, plus an adult Yellow-legged Gull and fly-over singles of Brambling and a redpoll sp.

Regards

Neil M



Another view of the furtive
Siberian Accentor from yesterday...

First Winter
Mediterranean Gull.

Chiffchaff. At this time of the year
Chiffchaffs come in all different plumage
tones and colours and make a confusing array of
contact calls. Many of these individuals
are likely to be from far-flung lands and trying
to assign them to specific races is at the least
problematic. For the unwary, some of the shrill
 single and double note calls closely resemble other
 rarer phylloscopus species...

And of course it is the
season of the Redwing! These
very dapper winter thrushes
are true nomads and their impetus
to migrate always seems so strong...

No comments: