best birds: June 2010

Hen Harriers

Over the last 6 weeks i have been lucky enough to be involved in the Hen Harrier survey on the island with Manx birdlife. Today after spending hours on vantage points trying to pinpoint these birds was a day to go into known sites and ring the young. I met up with Adam from Manxbirdlife and Katie who is doing a masters on Hen Harrier nests site, measuring depth of slope, altitude habitat so on .
A full day with 7 nests visited and 12 chicks ringed broods of 4 3 2 and 1 and a nest that had fledged 2. 4 more nests were ringed on Saturday and there are some more still to do. A CRACKING DAY.
Thanks to Chris, Adam, Kevin and Katie

Port Lawaigue

2 Nets put up at Port Lawaigue yesterday.

A nice steady morning with a few newly fledged birds about

3 Willow Warblers 3j {still in juvenile plumage}

6 Blackcaps 3 3j 2 adult females and a male

3 Chiffchaff all 3j

1 Dunnock 3j

1 Wood Pigeon just fledged

9 Blue Tits 5 3j birds 4 adults

2 Gt Tit 1 adult female 1 3j

2 Song Thrush 1= 3 1 adult

1 Chaffinch adult female retrap from 26/03/10 from my garden

1 Blackbird adult female

3 Starlings

Young Blackcap

You Can't see me

I Met up with Erica { Warden of the Ayres} today to check one of the small colonies of Little Tern on the island.

2 Little Tern Chicks ringed and a Ringed Plover Chick.

Thanks to Erica for the invite an enjoyable afternoon.

The rest of the week

After the Cormorants and a few good showers

Sure i can still Smell them.

I set up for Gulls on Friday afternoon another 10 Herring Gulls ringed and a Darvic put on the left leg.

All the Gulls i have ringed in the garden so far have been Adult Birds euro age 10 {4 Years or older}

On Friday got a nice 2nd year Herring Gull

These are the Numbers we are now using in the isle of Man

Darvic series * = number 0-9

T*TR -T*TZ 90

T*UA -TUZ 220

T*VA -T*VZ 220

T*WA -T*WZ 220

T*XA - T*XZ 220

T*YA - T*YZ 230

T*ZA - T*ZZ 220

On Saturday another Ringed Plover caught.

Check out Kevs site for Cormorant Controls the island has had

A Cute Fledgling House Sparrow

His dad led him to the safety of the Holly bush, and told him to stay there where he would be safe. such a cute little fledgling House Sparrow.

He kept watching out for his dad in the hope that he would soon return.

You can see from the yellow at the base of it's beak that this youngster has not been long from the nest.

After sitting in the sun and preening ones self, there is nothing quite

5 Jun 10 - 5 (Five) Black-winged Stilts!

It took a bit of racing about, but I finally connected with 5 Black-winged Stilts at Titchwell RSPB.
I was just arriving in Holt when the pager bleeped to tell me there were 4 Black-winged Stilts at Titchwell, so I drove passed my exit to Cley and headed off to Titchwell. By the time I arrived, the number had grown to 5, a Norfolk record, so I quickly parked up and head out onto the marsh only to meet Paul Eele who informed me they'd just flew off east, but may have landed just over the bank at the end of Gypsy Lane.
I dashed back to my car and headed off to Gypsy Lane. After 10 minutes I was nicely situated in the middle of the saltmarsh when my pager bleeped to tell me they'd returned to Titchwell - doh!
Anyway, I headed back to Titchwell to find all 5 birds feeding on the freshmarsh.
Although they were fairly distant and didn't stay together as a group very much, I did manage to get a couple of shots of 4 birds together.

9 May 2010 - Winterton Dunes

It's been ages since I updated my blog. I blame this on Stoke City's great season and my general tardiness.
Anyway, I got down to Winterton Dunes this afternoon to see the rather showy Woodchat Shrike that had been hanging around.

Coooormorant Ringing

I met Kevin and Adam at 12:30 to go and see if we could ring a few Cormorants. A Great afternoon shame it was so hot the smell from this colony was amazing. But a great time was had, a right mixed bag as sizes go,with Eggs still in nests, young Hatching, Feathers Short, Medium and Long. 63 young Cormorants ringed.

Thanks to Kevin and Adam.

MAY 2010: Notable bird sightings in Extremadura

A list is given below of the most interesting records sent to the GOCE forum in May 2010. Our intention is to publish monthly summaries from now on. The merit of compiling and selecting the records is due to Sergio Mayordomo and the photo, a Honey Buzzard, is by Sammy Langlois.

- Honey Buzzard: First sighting on 02/05 in Plasencia (Jenny and Michel Viskens)
- Osprey: One in Arrocampo reservoir on 04/05 (Godfried Schreur) and another in Zarza la Mayor reservoir on 22/05 (Javier Mahillo)
- Bar-Tailed Godwit: two birds in Portaje reservoir on 07/05 (Sergio Mayordomo)
- Hobby: First sighting on 04/05 in Arrocampo reservoir(Godfried Schreur)
- Lesser Kestrel: New breeding colony, at least two pairs in Tejeda del Tiétar (Javier Prieta)
- Golden Plover: One very late bird seen on 11/05 in Campo Lugar (E. Barnes and P. Barnes)
- Grey Plover: Four birds in breeding plumage in Portaje reservoir on 7/05 and 16/05 (Sergio Mayordomo).
- Dunlin: Last observation of three birds in breeding plumage in Portaje reservoir on 16/05 (Sergio Mayordomo)
- Garden Warbler: One on 20/05 in Villanueva de la Vera (Dave Langlois).
- Spoonbill: late passage of 13 birds in Galisteo lake on 15/05 (Sergio Mayordomo)
- Little Egret: New breeding colony in Portaje reservoir (César Clemente, Javier Mahillo and Sergio Mayordomo)
- Great White Egret: 11 birds in flight over Villanueva de la Vera on 12/05 (Dave Langlois)
- Cattle Egret: New breeding in Portaje reservoir(César Clemente, Javier Mahillo and Sergio Mayordomo)
- Penduline Tit: Confirmed breeding along River Jerte in Plasencia, at least two nests with young (Javier Prieta, Ricardo Montero and Sergio Mayordomo)
- Tufted Duck: One pair on 28/05 in Charca de Juana Morena, Talaván (Sergio Mayordomo)
- Wryneck: Possible breeding in Plasencia, at least two pairs (Ricardo Montero and Javier Prieta) and in Villanueva de la Vera (Dave Langlois)
- White-Rumped Swift: first sightings on 25/04, one bird in Portilla del Tiétar and another in Salto del Gitano, Monfragüe (Martin Kelsey)
- Pied-Billed Grebe: one in Huertas de la Magdalena, Trujillo, on 13/05 (Nigel Milbourne, John Barnet, Jack Willmott, Pete Massey and Jesús Porras), 14/05 (Pieter Vantieghem) and 15/05 (Nigel Milbourne).

Crows are a Threat to My Garden Birds

I have been deliberating lately as to whether the Crows (see recent posts) are actually a significant threat to my garden birds, especially the youngsters.
The trio of Crows (The Crows Around my Garden) became four and have then been joined off and on by other itinerant individuals. I mentioned before how I found them amusing and enjoyed watching their antics and comic displays but began to be

Start the week right

2hg090409

On Saturday i controlled a Herring Gull in the Garden.

Today Kevin Scott Told me it was ringed in 1994 as an Adult bird

by are very own Chris Sharpe whilst Canon netting in Ramsey.

No great distant travelled but a Gull which is 20 years old and maybe then some. Nice One

Today i was out with Kevin just checking sites and seeing how some of the nesting birds are coming on.

1 Ringed Plover Ringed

and

1 Oystercatcher

a nice morning

Babies in the Garden

Following my last post about the Crows, I did begin to wonder if their prescence did actually have some sinister consequences, namely the lack of young birds. Very few babies of the feathered variety had been seen in my garden.
There was the flurry of young House Sparrows, but no sign of fledgling Starlings, Blackbirds or Robins which we would normally have seen by now. But fear not, things have

Became a tourist today

It has been quite windy this week so not a lot of ringing done

4 More willow warblers and 5 more Gulls with Darvic rings on

plus a few more House Sparrows in Garden

Today i went for a good look round up at the point of Ayre but again it was very quite so i stopped of in Ramsey and thought i would watch the last day of the TT.

Turned out to be great with The boy from Bingley winning again today that's 5 wins out of 5 . I had my camera with me so set up and got some great shots.

Guy Martin, Last Lap before he crashed out

Ian Hutchinson, on his way to win 5 TTS out of 5 last lap .

ianhutch

A RÜPPELL’S VULTURE IN MONFRAGÜE

The normal range of the Rüppell’s vulture(Gyps rueppellii), also known as Ruppell’s Griffon or Rueppell’s Vulture, takes in Subsaharan Africa, north of the equator from Guinea to Tanzania. It is catalogued worldwide as Near Threatened due to its recent decline. It is considered to be a rarity in Spain with only 31 sightings involving at least 43 birds accepted by SEO’s Rarities Committee up to 2007. Most were seen in Andalucía, especially near the Straits, and further inland. In Extremadura it has been spotted on several occasions although only three records have been officially accepted: one bird in May and June 1992 in Valencia de Alcántara and Santiago de Alcántara, an immature bird in Oliva de Mérida in May 2000 and an adult in June 2004, again in Valencia de Alcántara. Other claimed sightings since 1990 were not accepted. As for Monfragüe there is only one sighting pending acceptance, of an immature seen at the Portilla del Tiétar in May 2008, backed up by on-the-spot photos.

Another immature Rüppell’s has now turned up in Extremadura, observed on 5 and 6 June 2010 in the famous birdwatching spot called Salto del Gitano in Monfragüe. As part of the "Aves en vivo y en directo" (Birds live and on the spot) programme, SEO/BirdLife have been running a weekend and holiday information stand on this spot from 13 March to 6 June 2010, patiently manned by Sergio Mayordomo and Manuel García del Rey. On the morning of 5 June a local guide called Jesús Porras spotted the Rüppell’s Vulture in flight from the lookout point, whereupon it was also seen by the other people present at the time. Ernest García, ex-member of SEO’s rarities committee, happened to be in the area that weekend and also saw the bird on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, duly confirming the identification. The photos at the start and end of this blog entry clearly show an immature Rüppell’s Vulture, possibly a juvenile born in 2009 making its first moult. This therefore represents the fifth Extremadura record, all in the months of May and June, at which time immature birds in post-breeding dispersal probably join up with flocks of Griffon Vultures wintering in Africa and return with them to Europe in spring. Nonetheless, adult birds have also been recorded on the border between Cáceres and Portugal, including a bird sitting on a nest in 1998 on the Portuguese side of the border.

The Crows Around my Garden

A trio of Crows have recently decided to make a home of our neighbourhood. For some weeks now I have seen them every day, usually on the rooftops of the surrounding houses but also coming down to our garage roof to feed on the soaked bread we put there. Despite being large powerful birds they always seem to be rather skittish and nervous, flying off at the slightest noise or movement.

Why these

Nest box in Garden

When we moved here in March the first thing i did was put up some nest boxes in the Garden . Today i ringed 5 Blue Tit Chicks all Feathers Long in one of the boxes. Its a Start.

Also went out with the lads from Manx Birdlife on a fishing, Birding Dolphin Basking Shark expedition yesterday, had a great afternoon the weather was fantastic so was the wildlife.

Mother and Baby

Baby Birds in My Garden | House Sparrows

Seems like it's Baby Bird time in the garden again, there have been quite a number of fledgling House Sparrows around during the weekend. Male and Females of the species were very conscientiously feeding individuals amongst the foliage of the Pear tree.
Monday seemed to be play school day, the youngsters were having fun like they were in the kindergarten, flying together in groups and I'm sure