A Spoonbill Great Tit and So Much More

Morning Ringing With Scouse Ringer...

The day started off reasonably well, with 3 Robins firstly out of the net. Soon afterwards we were joined by a few Blue Tits and quite a few Great Tits. You would never guess what I held in my hand today; a "Spoon Billed" Great Tit, I mean who would of thought it.

We caught this Great Tit during the morning ringing session.

Birds bills can occur like that sometimes, and how it has fed I will never know, but it appeared to be quite healthy (at least it didn't give me a painful bite). The BTO have a page on their website about deformed beaks called the Big Garden Beak Watch

There was quite a bit of Coal Tit action going on today, probably one of my favorite tits.

We were joined by a special guest from Anglesey today called Kathy James. She joined us in the roost session; she seemed really enthusiastic about bird watching and ringing. Kathy's website is called Nature Bites.

Lunch at Hightown

After the first session of ringing we were told we were meeting Kathy at two o clock, which gave us time to have lunch and do a bit of wader bird watching at Hightown. On the far side you can see Common Redshank.

This big flock of gulls and waders was disturbed by a rather scruffy Peregrine Falcon.

Probably one of my favorite waders, Redshank were everywhere on the mudflats. 

Some very lazy Shell Duck were sat motionless on the mud, however as we approached they soon fled.

 There were plenty of huge ships cruising across the water.

I am getting kind of excited because this gull looks a bit like a Ring Billed Gull, could someone please help identify it for me? I know Ring Billed Gulls are usually found in North America, but this bird is puzzling and some have been seen in this country in the past. It had the black tipped wings and the end of it's beak was black like the juvenile Ring Billed Gulls. I know it might just be a 1st Winter Common Gull, but it seemed to stand out a bit.

Evening Roost Ringing

As we started on our evening roost, one of the first birds we had was a Tree Creeper.

They are truly remarkable birds. Just look at those feet for climbing. I felt it's tail which is really stiff which helps it to wedge in to trees.

And guess what, I got to ring one!!!

In the end we caught two, I rung one and Kathy rung the other.

Another perfect Scouse Ringing day.....

Don't forget it's my Good Question Quiz tomorrow night.

Wild Bird Wednesday

Fox Prints in the Snow

The snowy weather has finally stopped; fortunate for some unfortunate for others, like my dog (Jura) the animal in the house that goes crazy about snow.

As you can see he loves it! However Jura, it will be another year before you have a chance to play in the snow.

I wasn't just having snow ball fights when it snowed, in fact I spent a whole afternoon tracking foxes foot prints and succeeded by finding about 6 holes in the fence along side the second field! I could clearly see the tracks where the fox comes in and out of the field.

I now know exactly where to put the camera, and thankfully my detective work has payed off.  I managed to get a great fox picture on my trail cam, which made a nice change from cats.

Good Question

I have thought it would be nice that every Tuesday we could have a quiz night just for a bit of weekly fun, due to Scouse Ringer giving me a question every week. I thought it would be nice to have a bit of a quiz night.

So tonight's Tuesday night quiz question is:

In Britain a Cuckoo has 3 main host species of bird that they use for raising their young, what are the 3 species? 

See if you can have a go without using google. I will post the answer tomorrow night.

A Well Earned Roost

It's been another great week and I have so much to blog about, so I will have to split all the information across a few blogs. Later in the week I will be blogging about some more fox cam success and about some filming this weekend.  

Hope you all enjoyed doing your RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch this week - what did you get? We got Reed Buntings, Rooks, House Sparrows, Tits, Blackbirds and even 6 Black Head Gulls feeding from the back tray in the snow.

 Scouse Ringer set me a challenge this week, and I had to pass it to go on a roost ringing session with him. I think we caught the most species on the first net round, catching Chaffinches, a Blackbird and a stunning male Gold Crest. I was lucky enough to ring it which was a real treat!

They take a AA ring type. I was really addicted to the fiery head - amazing colours.

Another small bird that we caught taking an AA ring was a Wren, the first for me this year.

Here we are comparing the size of a Gold Crest and a Wren; in comparison the Goldcrest is quite a bit smaller than the Wren, although it doesn't show this so well in the picture. Check out Charlies thumbnail compared to the size of the Goldcrest.

When I was ringing the birds I was checking if they were male or female, juvenile or adult and all this information is recorded.

I think I got most of them right.

Some of the Chaffinches were almost in full breeding plumage especially the males, however the males' bills weren't blue yet. I was taking a few birds out of the bags and I think I did quite well.

I rung a new tit species today (a Coal Tit) one of my favorite birds.

A fabulous day with lots more great teaching from Peter. I also got to see a Peregrine, Woodcock, Teal, 2 Ravens and a single Grey Lag Goose flying over. 

(And no wellie disasters this week!).

Scouse Ringer's challenge was to name the only group of birds that can't walk if any of you want to have a go.

Wild Bird Wednesday

The Yellowhammer and the Missing Wellie

I was up early today as I was lucky to be taking part in another ringing session - with the scouse ringer. I really can't tell  you how very lucky I am to be able to do this sort of thing, not many children my age get to do this. 

A cold and white start to the day brought some mega birds for me. The first net round probably gave us the most birds; the long net along the field brought us two Yellowhammer, a few Chaffinch and two Fieldfare. 

I can't believe I was lucky enough to hold one of these stunning Fieldfares.

It doesn't get any better than this, I was allowed to ring a Fieldfare (with a size C ring). When I got home I was watching a few Fieldfare in the garden and thinking that I had actually had one in my hand.

As great as it is to hold them, it  is also amazing to watch them fly free again....

Another stunning bird that turned up was the Yellowhammer...

I was lucky enough to hold one as well and I am getting more comfortable holding the birds now.

After I had ringed the bird, I kept hold of it for a while to study it closely. 

It was the female that I ringed, however I still got to hold and study the males.

We caught quite a few Blackbirds in the nets today, so I got to handle a few of my favorite birds.

This particular blackbird had been feeding well and was  rather fat and you could see the fat layer under its feathers. It was weighed also to compare with other birds.

Even though it was another perfect ringing session, I went down a path I have never been down before and it was really muddy; so when I lifted my leg up to take another step I hadn't noticed my welly had come off, and when I finally noticed my sock was a meter down in mud! 

Another brilliant weekend.

Wild Bird Wednesday

Armchair Birdwatching

Because of the snow, football was cancelled today so I was excited to see what Winter birds the snow had brought to the garden. By the end of the day I think I got a good result.

This beautiful male Reed Bunting had joined a Chaffinch flock; he stayed for about 20 minutes then took off with a few Chaffinches. Chaffinches were everywhere today, I counted about 12 the most I've ever had at once.

The Great Tits were enjoying the seed today, whereas the Blue Tits preferred the nuts. The Starlings just ate anything of course! 

I was looking for the Great Spotted Woodpecker all day today and finally succeeded; capturing it feeding on the fat balls for a good ten minutes.

A flock of ten Fieldfare kept on visiting the garden, (the most I've had this Winter).

This Wood Pigeon had visited my tray today, which is brilliant because I haven't seen him/her for ages.

3 Collared Doves were enjoying their share of the food.

The Robin was coming right up to the door, probably due to the snowy weather.

All the birds were trying out the bird table today, especially the Robin.

More Chaffinches in the snow, this one had a cold foot!

Another exciting thing that happened this week was getting this really old book called Birds of the Wayside and Woodland.

It is really interesting because it is has loads of information in, so it should help me with my bird identifications. 

 Thank you very much to Stephen Entwistle, the very kind man who has given me the book. He buys and sells old books at auctions. The paintings in the book are marvelous as well.

I hope there is snowy weather next week, ready for the RSPB big garden bird watch.