Autumn A Great Time for Garden Bird Watching

The number and variety of birds visiting our small housing estate garden is quite amazing and I think Autumn heralds the start of a great time for Garden Bird Watching.
The hours of daylight are reducing more and more and so the birds must concentrate all their feeding into a much shorter time period than they did in the summer. They also require plenty of food for their fragile bodies to process

The number and variety of birds visiting our small housing estate garden is quite amazing and I think Autumn heralds the start of a great time for Garden Bird Watching.
The hours of daylight are reducing more and more and so the birds must concentrate all their feeding into a much shorter time period than they did in the summer. They also require plenty of food for their fragile bodies to process

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Port Mooar

A couple of hours at Port Mooar yesterday afternoon saw 28 birds ringed

13 Long Tailed Tits

2 Goldcrests

1 Chaffinch

1 Wren

6 Blue Tits

1 Robin

2 Dunnock

1 Gt Tit

1 Coal Tit

decided to try for Rock Pipits but on the way down to Port Mooar i saw a big flock of Chaffinch dive into scrub in front of car, on closer inspection up to 12 Brambling in with them so the spring traps got left and the mist net went up.

Went down this morning at high tide as i left the house i did think shall i take the big camera with me, will from now on.

I set up for Rock Pipits and sat in car watching the BH Gull taking flies of the sea. Then out of the corner of my eye a white winged Gull. Glaucous i thought mega, shit no big lens so looked in glove box where i have A 200 sigma lens stuck that on my 40D and started taking shots. The bird moved a bit closer and then flew to the right. I live about 2 miles from Port Mooar so i packed up and headed off for the big lens. Took me about 6 mins there and back and NO GULLS.

Got Home looked at photos and decided on Iceland Gull only seen one before 

ooh and a retrap Rock Pipit  from October now has colour rings on 

Iceland Gull

11 Rock Pipits individually colour ringed this week 

A couple of hours at Port Mooar yesterday afternoon saw 28 birds ringed

13 Long Tailed Tits

2 Goldcrests

1 Chaffinch

1 Wren

6 Blue Tits

1 Robin

2 Dunnock

1 Gt Tit

1 Coal Tit

decided to try for Rock Pipits but on the way down to Port Mooar i saw a big flock of Chaffinch dive into scrub in front of car, on closer inspection up to 12 Brambling in with them so the spring traps got left and the mist net went up.

Went down this morning at high tide as i left the house i did think shall i take the big camera with me, will from now on.

I set up for Rock Pipits and sat in car watching the BH Gull taking flies of the sea. Then out of the corner of my eye a white winged Gull. Glaucous i thought mega, shit no big lens so looked in glove box where i have A 200 sigma lens stuck that on my 40D and started taking shots. The bird moved a bit closer and then flew to the right. I live about 2 miles from Port Mooar so i packed up and headed off for the big lens. Took me about 6 mins there and back and NO GULLS.

Got Home looked at photos and decided on Iceland Gull only seen one before 

ooh and a retrap Rock Pipit  from October now has colour rings on 

Iceland Gull

11 Rock Pipits individually colour ringed this week 

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Tit for tat

On the 14 October i controlled a Blue Tit that had been ringed at the Calf Of Man Bird Observatory.

Kev rang me up today to say that Sarah the warden on the Calf had controlled one of my Blue Tits on the 10 October.

When i moved over to the island back in March i posted on this blog that the first thing i did was put up some nest boxes in the garden. I had a pair of Blue Tits nesting in one of these boxes and i ringed 5 chicks from the nest. Sarah controlled one of these chicks,  i have ringed a lot of Blue Tits in the nest and never seen or heard of them again so well chuffed today.

On the 14 October i controlled a Blue Tit that had been ringed at the Calf Of Man Bird Observatory.

Kev rang me up today to say that Sarah the warden on the Calf had controlled one of my Blue Tits on the 10 October.

When i moved over to the island back in March i posted on this blog that the first thing i did was put up some nest boxes in the garden. I had a pair of Blue Tits nesting in one of these boxes and i ringed 5 chicks from the nest. Sarah controlled one of these chicks,  i have ringed a lot of Blue Tits in the nest and never seen or heard of them again so well chuffed today.

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Wordless Wednesday Woodpigeons

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PRESS REPORTS OF VULTURES IN EXTREMADURA

Monk Vulture (Aegypius monachus). Llanos de Cáceres, 1-11-2010 (Carlos Fernández)

There have recently been some press reports of vultures in Extremadura (read here, read here). With the logical caveats, we pass on some of this information below.

- Since 1993 Extremadura has donated 71 Monk Vultures, 151 Griffon Vultures and 5 Egyptian Vultures to reintroduction projects in Catalunya, the Balearics, France, Italy, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Greece, among others. Most were juveniles from wildlife rescue centres.

- In the last ten years the Los Hornos Wildlife Rescue Centre (Centro de Recuperación Los Hornos) in Sierra de Fuentes has taken in and cared for 938 Griffon Vultures, 217 Monk Vultures and 32 Egyptian Vultures. Malnutrition cases have soared since 2005.

- In the whole region, according to government figures, there are 859 pairs of Monk Vulture and 166 pairs of Egyptian Vulture. Sierra de San Pedro and Monfragüe boast the biggest colonies of Monk Vulture, with 352 and 315 pairs respectively; the colony of Sierra de Gata is home to 54 pairs [N.B. in none of these cases is the year mentioned].

- Since 2003 the Regional Council of Extremadura (Junta de Extremadura) has verified 98 cases of vulture poisoning.

Check out related blog entries: Egyptian Vulture, Griffon Vulture, Rüppell's Vulture, Monk Vulture

Monk Vulture (Aegypius monachus). Llanos de Cáceres, 1-11-2010 (Carlos Fernández)

There have recently been some press reports of vultures in Extremadura (read here, read here). With the logical caveats, we pass on some of this information below.

- Since 1993 Extremadura has donated 71 Monk Vultures, 151 Griffon Vultures and 5 Egyptian Vultures to reintroduction projects in Catalunya, the Balearics, France, Italy, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Greece, among others. Most were juveniles from wildlife rescue centres.

- In the last ten years the Los Hornos Wildlife Rescue Centre (Centro de Recuperación Los Hornos) in Sierra de Fuentes has taken in and cared for 938 Griffon Vultures, 217 Monk Vultures and 32 Egyptian Vultures. Malnutrition cases have soared since 2005.

- In the whole region, according to government figures, there are 859 pairs of Monk Vulture and 166 pairs of Egyptian Vulture. Sierra de San Pedro and Monfragüe boast the biggest colonies of Monk Vulture, with 352 and 315 pairs respectively; the colony of Sierra de Gata is home to 54 pairs [N.B. in none of these cases is the year mentioned].

- Since 2003 the Regional Council of Extremadura (Junta de Extremadura) has verified 98 cases of vulture poisoning.

Check out related blog entries: Egyptian Vulture, Griffon Vulture, Rüppell's Vulture, Monk Vulture

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Whooos that

The Mission to try and read colour ring 

A lone Whooper swan in Glascoe field, along way off in long grass with a colour ring on in the rain no access to field .

Pull up along side field and attach 2x convertor to 500 lens. Take over 150 shots of the swan and hope it turns round or lifts it leg .

Bingo

P9X

Forward sighting on to  Kane Brides at WWT and all is revealed

Whooper Swan  P9X was ringed on 08/05/2008 in Iceland

at Vatnshlid Skagafjordur as an Adult Male

it was then seen at Lock Connell in Dumfries on 21 March 2009 by Kane

Then it wintered at Caerlaverock from October 2009 until it left in April 2010

That was the last report until now.

Mission accomplished 

thanks Kane for all the info, and off the top of your head . 

The Mission to try and read colour ring 

A lone Whooper swan in Glascoe field, along way off in long grass with a colour ring on in the rain no access to field .

Pull up along side field and attach 2x convertor to 500 lens. Take over 150 shots of the swan and hope it turns round or lifts it leg .

Bingo

P9X

Forward sighting on to  Kane Brides at WWT and all is revealed

Whooper Swan  P9X was ringed on 08/05/2008 in Iceland

at Vatnshlid Skagafjordur as an Adult Male

it was then seen at Lock Connell in Dumfries on 21 March 2009 by Kane

Then it wintered at Caerlaverock from October 2009 until it left in April 2010

That was the last report until now.

Mission accomplished 

thanks Kane for all the info, and off the top of your head . 

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Rockits get lift off

Kev and i met at Niarbyl at 10:00am to start our colour ringing of Rock Pipits. Even though birds were about it took a good 40 minutes to catch the first one to get the project underway. The reasons for this project are as follows.

To find out about Dispersal habits of these birds

After the breeding season ends birds seem to move to small coves in numbers and winter there feeding on seaweed fly larvae. Places like Port Moore, Niarbyl, Ramsey Harbour sea defence. 

As spring start these birds disperse from these areas and breed along the high rocky cliffs and coves of the island

Also the isle of Man gets reports of the Fennoscandian subspecies littoralis as a winter visitor so hopefully we might be able to colour ring a few of these wintering migrants as well.

2 Rock Pipits colour ringed at Niarbyll this morning.

We moved on to Fenella beach car park at Peel to set up there. The birds were more obliging here with 3 more colour ringed. 

Kev and i met at Niarbyl at 10:00am to start our colour ringing of Rock Pipits. Even though birds were about it took a good 40 minutes to catch the first one to get the project underway. The reasons for this project are as follows.

To find out about Dispersal habits of these birds

After the breeding season ends birds seem to move to small coves in numbers and winter there feeding on seaweed fly larvae. Places like Port Moore, Niarbyl, Ramsey Harbour sea defence. 

As spring start these birds disperse from these areas and breed along the high rocky cliffs and coves of the island

Also the isle of Man gets reports of the Fennoscandian subspecies littoralis as a winter visitor so hopefully we might be able to colour ring a few of these wintering migrants as well.

2 Rock Pipits colour ringed at Niarbyll this morning.

We moved on to Fenella beach car park at Peel to set up there. The birds were more obliging here with 3 more colour ringed. 

reade more... Résuméabuiyad