Hello
Not much in our neck of the woods today, Eleanor saw plenty of Fieldfares in the horse paddocks at Blueberry Farm today but not the hoped-for Ring Ouzels. As in many places now there were singing Blackcaps and Willow Warblers too. A Yellow Wagtail was in the field behind our garden at Hanging Houghton and single Ravens were seen at two sites locally.
Currently our 'birds recorded from the garden' list since 1st April now stands at 52 species, and no we still haven't recorded a Song Thrush yet! Like most days there was a couple of small flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing around the village for parts of the morning and there are a couple each of singing Blackcap and Chiffchaff and this afternoon there were three Swallows flying around singing.
The butterflies have really responded in a flourish to this period of dry, sunny days and most early season species are on the wing now.
A couple more bird ringing recoveries as follows:-
1. A first year Chiffchaff ringed at Harrington Airfield in August last year has been processed twice in recent days by Northants Ringing Group ringer Rory Akam in his Buckinghamshire garden at Dadford (not far over the border). In the meantime it is likely that this bird has at least wintered in Iberia and possibly even Africa so the distance between Harrington and Dadford is pretty academic!
2. An adult female Goldfinch was caught and ringed at Townhead, Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland on 30th October 2019 and this bird turned up in a mist net operated by me at Hanging Houghton on 1st April. That is a duration of 154 days with the distance between the two sites being 412km. This recovery fits the pattern of breeding birds in Scotland moving south in the winter and then heading back up in the spring. The likelihood is that this bird probably wintered to the south or east of Northants and is on her way back.
Regards
Neil M
Not much in our neck of the woods today, Eleanor saw plenty of Fieldfares in the horse paddocks at Blueberry Farm today but not the hoped-for Ring Ouzels. As in many places now there were singing Blackcaps and Willow Warblers too. A Yellow Wagtail was in the field behind our garden at Hanging Houghton and single Ravens were seen at two sites locally.
Currently our 'birds recorded from the garden' list since 1st April now stands at 52 species, and no we still haven't recorded a Song Thrush yet! Like most days there was a couple of small flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing around the village for parts of the morning and there are a couple each of singing Blackcap and Chiffchaff and this afternoon there were three Swallows flying around singing.
The butterflies have really responded in a flourish to this period of dry, sunny days and most early season species are on the wing now.
A couple more bird ringing recoveries as follows:-
1. A first year Chiffchaff ringed at Harrington Airfield in August last year has been processed twice in recent days by Northants Ringing Group ringer Rory Akam in his Buckinghamshire garden at Dadford (not far over the border). In the meantime it is likely that this bird has at least wintered in Iberia and possibly even Africa so the distance between Harrington and Dadford is pretty academic!
2. An adult female Goldfinch was caught and ringed at Townhead, Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland on 30th October 2019 and this bird turned up in a mist net operated by me at Hanging Houghton on 1st April. That is a duration of 154 days with the distance between the two sites being 412km. This recovery fits the pattern of breeding birds in Scotland moving south in the winter and then heading back up in the spring. The likelihood is that this bird probably wintered to the south or east of Northants and is on her way back.
Regards
Neil M
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| Chiffchaff. |
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| Goldfinch. Both images courtesy of John Tilly. |
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