Yesterday

I was up and off at 630 to meet up with Andy . Because the weather has been so crap for mist netting we decided to get permission to try and catch a few Wildfowl around some local ponds and reservoir. Always nice to try a few different things . 2 Male Mallards caught just by using the bread and grab technique. On the way home stopped off at Cooper Bridge for 2 hours . The wind had died down so put up a 30ft net.

Gt Spotted Woodpecker ringed

with 4 Blue Tits

Coal Tit

6 Gt Tits

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Blackbird likes the Holly Berries

Yes I know, that is a picture of a Wood pigeon, yet again. But they are always around and this one was having such a nice rest. I could not resist taking a picture as it posed so nicely.

I have started to gather some pictures of Woodpigeons in an attempt to see if it is possible to identify individual birds by differences in their markings.






As I began to photograph this bird that happens

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Greedy Woodpigeon

This is one of my feathered friends I saw this morning, but he is a rather greedy Woodpigeon.

The mixed bird feed is suitable for a variety of birds, containing all of the popular, favourite seeds.

This mesh tray fixed to the upright metal pole is good during this very wet weather (we seem to have had endless rain here recently) because any rain easily passes through, therefore the food does

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Oldest and furthest Twite

From Dave Sowter

Twite seen on Priest Island on 15 June 2009 by Jacquie Heaton of Highland Ringing Group. This bird had BTO ring R547*** identified and red over yellow on left. So it was a bird ringed between Jan and end of June 2003 at cant Clough. checking ring series there were 159 rings used R547001 - 260 between Jan and end of June 2003. BTO Used ringing date as 15 march 2003

Duration is 2284 days or 6yr 92days and the distance is 510 km.

I reckon this is probably the longest UK distance for a Twite and longevity record for twite

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Martin Mere another season starts

I woke at 0530 to the sound of wind and rain on the window . Surely they wont be ringing today i thought. No text message had come through to say otherwise so i set off at 6am over the Pennines .God the weather was atrocious. By the time i got to Martin Mere at 0730, the rain had nearly stopped.

After a quick meeting about the weather and how they thought a catch could be done , mainly going for Duck and a few Whoopers. We all got are waders and waterproofs on and off we went.

1

3 Hours later 110 birds caught.

.

52 Mallard all new birds and 1 retrap

18 new Shelduck and 13 retraps

13 Pintail

7 Pochard

.

1 Wigeon

.

1 Greylag Goose

.

and

3 Whooper Swans 1 Mute Swan

A cracking start to the season. A big thank you to everyone involved.

Please check out the link below to follow the Whooper Swans and see the work

The WWT are doing

http://whooper.wwt.org.uk/whooper

Also check this page out on Kanes site showing the methods used in catching Swans and Ducks at Caerlaverock and Martin Mere

http://birdringing.blogspot.com/2009/11/caerlaverock-swan-catch.html

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Thankyou for the Food

Last night as the light was first starting to fade, the Woodpigeon stood on the edge of the garage roof, looking towards me. I was likewise stood in front of the kitchen sink looking through the window towards the Pigeon. It showed no inclination to fly away but rather seemed to make motions towards the bird feeder in an attempt I am sure to make me realise that the mesh plate used to hold the

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Out for an Airing

Great morning at Cooper bridge this morning with Dave Sowter. Nice to see him out in the fresh air again.

23 Birds Caught mainly Blue Tits and Gt Tits with a few Bullfinch, Greenfinch, Robin, Blackbird and Long Tailed Tits.

Back Home in the garden this week 13 More Starlings Ringed, the markings on these birds are fantastic.

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Nice Weather for Coots

After an awful week weather wise,

{only been out once to Cooper Bridge which was quite with a new Gt Spotted Woodpecker ringed in with a few more Tits and Greenfinch}

Today I was invited out with Kane to catch and colour ring Coots.

Kane Brides and Steve Christmas have started Colour ringing Coot in the North west area to look at wintering site fidelity/dispersal to breeding and moulting sites and to get more understanding on Coot movement.

I met up with Kane at his house for 8am and of we went loaded up with 4 loafs of bread and all the gear, well rings and pliers.

A fantastic day with 10 more Coots Colour ringed

Over 60 Coots have now been individually colour coded so far.

Also ringed today

2 Male Mallard

1Male Tufted Duck

4 Canada Geese

9 Mute Swans 6 of them ringed 3 being retraps

Coots are being ringed with 3 colour rings 2 on left leg and 1 above metal BTO on Right leg

Colours being used are Light Blue Dark Blue White Black Green Red Orange Yellow Pink and Purple

Any sightings of these birds would be gratefully received and can be sent to kanebrides@googlemail.com

or reported to

http://www.ring.ac/

All sightings will be acknowledge with full ringing and re sighting information.

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British Garden Birds

I hoped you liked that previous post where I showed you a few of the birds I encountered during my holiday in Australia. But what of the birds back in my own British Garden?Well I returned to find that Autumn was well under way with most of the leaves having fallen from the trees. The ground is muddy and strewn with leaf debris and that unmistakable damp autumnal feeling is in the air. And the

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Western Australia Birds

As some of my regular visitors may know, I have spent the last month in Western Australia. I thought before I returned to blogging about my garden birds I would show you a few of the birds I saw while I was there.The GalahThe Galah is easily identified by its rose-pink head, neck and underparts, a paler pink crown, and a grey back, wings and undertail. Galahs are quite common in the areas

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Fame at last!

The BBC News 24 team obviously saw my potential and singled me out of the crowd of c700 birders at the Eastern Crowned Warbler for this interview. I'm just waiting for the TV offers to come flooding in. Expect to see me on Springwatch next year...

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Yesterday

Out Yesterday with Andy and Aiden from Bishop Monkton Ringers. We set 3 nets at Timble for Redpoll , Redwing and Goldcrest . A steady morning with only 4 Redwing and another 6 Redpoll , 10 Goldcrests 2 Reed Bunting and a Gt Tit.

Also ringed at Ringstone edge this week with 10 Goldfinch 4 Bullfinch 2 Blackbirds

4 Starlings and a Wren ringed.

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