Garganey At Haydns Pool

This morning I went to my feeding station, because it had been at least a week since I last checked and visited; the woodpeckers were about, but I didn't see them visit the nest hole. On the way back I got a nice surprise, a female Wheatear was in one of the fields.  After the feeding station me, Harley and my dad visited Haydn's Pool and once again I got a nice surprise, the Garganey.

This was a male, so it looked stunning. They are very busy birds and it made me laugh quite a lot. 

It was the first  time I had seen a Garganey . They are an Amber status bird on the RSPB's conservation importance list as there are only 23 - 115 breeding pairs in the UK

I need to say a big thank you to some body I met who pointed the Garganey out to me. I would also like to say thank you to Harley for taking all the photographs of today and letting me use them.

Other Good Stuff

I heard my first Cuckoo of the year today, and saw Oyster Catcher, Black Headed Gull, Shellduck, Gadwall, Mallard, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Pied Wagtail, Raven, Carrion Crow, Wood Pigeon, Feral Pigeon, Swallow, House Martin, Sand Martin, Swift and Great Spotted Woodpecker .

Feeding Station Update

As you know, all the birds are starting to pair up now, including the Great Spotted Woodpeckers. This species of woodpecker is my favorite, and they have a nest not far from my new feeding station. 

 As you can see, it is in the back of the wood, so it makes it rather difficult to see, however I can quite easily manage. I have just arrived back and once again the woodpeckers were right by the hole, however I didn't have time to stay and watch to see if they went in (that doesn't matter really anyway because I have seen them go in plenty of time before).

This was another hole that the woodies had made, however they don't use this one.

Other birds I saw today included: Willow Warbler, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Robin, Nuthatch, Tree Creeper, Buzzard, Wood Pigeon, Blackbird, Swallows and House Martins.

My little brother has now started a blog to share his brilliant photos. Have a look if you get chance:

http://Wilde-LifePhotography.blogspot.co.uk 

Happy Birthday to Frodsham Marsh Blog

I wanted to write about Frodsham Marsh tonight to help Bill Morton celebrate 1 year of his Frodsham Marsh Blog. Bill knows everything about the marsh and is so knowledgeable whenever I meet him there; although I did teach him about the “unkindness of Ravens”! He updates the Frodsham Marsh blog everyday with all the sightings visitors have seen and some stories from the olden days.

Frodsham Marsh is an amazing place where you can find anything from a Redshank to a Hooded Crow or from a rabbit to a badger. Frodsham Marshes isn’t an official nature reserve, it is just land owned by farmers and the Manchester Ship Canal, which is great because it isn’t busy which means there is always birds about. 

Everything about the Marshes is so enticing, it is always offering me and probably everyone else that visits so much wildlife to see and listen to; I like it that much that I can’t go bird watching there and not enjoy myself. 

The main bits of the marsh me and my family visit are number six tank, number five tank, number three tank and Lordship Marsh. The tanks that I have mentioned to you are basically a big area of land which is filled with silt and mud from the Mersey Estuary and the Manchester Ship Canal. Number six tank is currently the only one being used; due to the other five have already been filled and are no longer usable; however all these tanks are a bird heaven not only for Waders but for Geese, Pipit Species and raptors.

Talking of Raptors, the area of land is filled with miles of reed bed and marsh which is great for Hen Harrier and Marsh Harrier which I have both seen myself.

Now that sunny weather is approaching at Frodsham Marshes I am starting to see most of our summer visitors, so far at the Marshes I have seen Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Wheater, Whinchat, Whitethroat, Swifts and Swallows; however all these fantastic birds I have seen were not all spotted by me, so I would really like to thank Bill for all the help he has given me whenever I see him at the marsh.

My brother Harley really enjoys it there too, as he is enjoying taking pictures. This is his picture of the first Bluebell to come up at the marsh.

If you get a chance, you really should visit it, you will probably bump into Bill because he just about lives there.

This is a brilliant photo that Bill put together for me.

Grasshopper Warbler

A few days before I went ringing on Saturday, I was talking to Bill Morton at Frodsham Marsh (after school) about how desperate I was to see a Grasshopper Warbler. Bill explained to me the noise to listen out for. If you turn your bike upside down and then spin the back wheel round, that constant derderderder noise is just like the call of the Grasshopper Warbler.

Anyway when I arrived at High Town (where I was ringing on Saturday) me, Dan, my dad and Peter all heard at least three of these remarkable warblers singing at once. We decided to set up near where the warbler was singing to see if we could get any success, and the first time we went back to check that net there was one solitary Grasshopper Warbler. It was brilliant being able to study it close up, as normally they stay very low down in the grass and are hard to spot.

It wasn't just Grasshopper Warblers that were showing well on Saturday, a pair of White Throats also appeared for us. Me and Dan got to hold and ring one each, so I was really pleased with that.

Once again I want to say a massive thank you to Peter and my dad for letting me learn from this flabbergasping experience.

Overall we caught; Grasshopper Warbler, Wheatear, White Throat, Willow Warbler, Chiff Chaff, Great Tit, Blue Tit and Blackbird.

Wild Bird Wednesday

Good Question 9

Quiz Night Tuesday is back now that the Easter holidays are finished.

And tonight's challenge is; how many species of bird can you identify and name in this picture taken at RSPB Burton Mere. If you click on the picture is does go bigger.

Good luck, I will post my thoughts tomorrow evening.

Answer

The birds I can see are Avocet, Black Headed Gull and Common Gull. 

Weekend Round Up

New Feeding Station News

It was a rather early start for me and my mum on Saturday (half five), because I was going to my new feeding station to put up some of my new feeders and supplies from Adrian (from a bird feed company), Sam (from mum's work) and the brilliant BTO. They had all heard about my vandalised feeding station and had sent me some supplies to get started again. It really made me feel positive again to see how kind and generous they were.  

On the way there, through the frosty fields, we saw two foxes together that ran off into the wood as we approached. 

We came back to the feeding station in the afternoon after football to see how the new feeders were, and to my surprise all of the new feeders had been used.

There were a pair of Treecreepers that stayed with us all afternoon and all morning, and because we stood still, they seemed to cautiously approach us. 

This is one of my favorite feeders, me and my dads home made tray, the birds love it, in-fact there was a male Blackcap that went to go on it but then thought "oh there's an insect" and ate that instead. The hanging feeding tray is on a pulley system, so we can lower it if we need to.

And here is the insect munching Blackcap.

As we headed back to the farm we saw about ten to fifteen to twenty Swallows, they are one of my favorite birds to look at. These two were having a mid air tussle.

Frodsham Marsh News

I visited Frodsham Marshes on Saturday afternoon as well, and when we reached the top of the six tank we saw a male Marsh Harrier quartering the reed bed.

I also met up with Guido, who was watching a flock of about twenty Wheatear joined by two Whinchat, as shown by the picture below. If you click on the picture it does go bigger.

Here is a male Wheatear.

On the way back along six tank we met up with Bill Morton who was half way up the bank hiding in the bushes, but not that well camouflaged as I could see him.

 Ringing News

It was dads turn to get up early today - 4:15am this time!

Even though Wheatears look cracking through binoculars, today I had one in my hand and trust me I nearly fainted, they were absolutely beautiful. Today's count also included  Blackcap, Wren, Dunnock, Goldcrest, Blackbird and Chiffchaff.

I'd better not mention dad fallen over.

Football News

Finally we won 5 - 4  against Tytherington on Saturday.  We now should have a good chance of finishing third in the league. My 2nd cup final match is next weekend. 

Hope you all had a brilliant weekend too.

Our World Tuesday

Blackcaps Are Back

Last weekend I went ringing with Scouse Ringer and we got some great success; we had the first Blackcap of the year, and  I got to ring it. This species of warbler takes an A size ring.

We found that this bird wasn't resident at this site, due to it having quite a bit of fat left (you can see these fat reserves in the picture below). We think it was just passing through and it would be great to know where it ends up for the Summer if another ringing group retrap it.

This Blackcap was a male bird, however my favorite bird experience of last week was a Goldfinch mainly because it was the first bird I held and ringed all by myself (unfortunately my dad didn't get a picture because he was talking to some one). 

This Blackcap has to be one of my most handsome of the year so far. The colours are simple but still quite striking.

Two warblers in one day... The next warblers we had were 4 Chiffchaff. All four of these birds had sticky pollen above their beaks due to them feeding on it.

We also caught three Goldcrest last week, the smallest bird in Europe; A stunning male below.

I was really looking forward to catching some male Chaffinch today, mainly because there beaks were changing colour and they were starting to get that really nice oily black colour just above there beak.

We also caught one female Goldcrest that had quite a bad case of feather mites (a harmless type of parasite).

You can read all about Scouse Ringers version of the day here on his Wilde About Worms post!

Wild Bird Wednesday