Sunday 23 March 2014

Goodbye to the Brambling until Next Year

Yesterday I was up reasonably early for ringing. As the days are getting longer, you need to have the nets up before dawn, which meant me and my dad were up at 3:30am for a 5am start. The birds were out and about very early too even though it was freezing cold. Soon to be leaving this country, we caught the second Brambling of the year (my brother ringed the first). Numbers we have caught this year are way down on last year, maybe due to the mild winter. This one will soon be heading off to Scandinavia. This was a great and hopeful start to the session, which continued to impress.


We also caught a large bird today, an old enemy to my dad the JAY!!! I let my dad ring this, and I've got to say I was really proud of him, he focused really hard and when it came to measuring the wing my dad was only 1mm out.


 On close inspection we found that this fabulous bird was a juvenile. They are lovely birds when you see them up close but you have to respect that beak and claws.


We were catching a steady number of Chaffinches yesterday, and because it is coming into the breeding season, the chaffinches are starting to come into their breeding plumage. As you can see in this picture below, there is a huge difference between the two. The one on the left has worn away all it's brown on the feathers and this has given way to the beautiful blue crown. The male on the right has still not worn off the brown on the feathers. There is also another difference because if you look at the bill you can see the one on the left has got a blue breeding plumage bill and the one on the right hasn't, instead it's got more of a dull orange bill.


 The site we were at is made up of lots of small trees, unlike the habitat of a Nuthatch, so it was really nice and quite unusual to catch one today. I was really quite pleased with the variety of birds we got to ring today (this Nuthatch was a female, the male has a much richer, chestnutty coloured flanks).


It wasn't just birds we saw today, the flowers were all starting to come out including this Colts Foot and also a few Cow Slips and even a small tortoiseshell butterfly made an appearance. 


As spring is now here I am very much looking forward to some new arrivals - I reckon Sylvia Atricapilla is only a couple of weeks away.

Other birds today included Chiffchaff, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Lesser Redpoll, Robin, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Song Thrush and Coal Tit.

16 comments:

  1. A great selection of birds caught Findlay, worth getting up early for!! The Jay is a beauty and good info re. the Chaffinches. Good luck with the Blackcaps, there's been sightings around here, so not long before they reach you!...[;o)

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  2. That is an early start. Must be very satisfying to ring such a variety of birds at one time. We rarely see jays or magpies here. They were shooting nearby yesterday.Do not know how they can do it.

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  3. you get up close to some beautiful birds!

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  4. Hi Findlay ...A wonderful education in nature you will have with you forever, and the opportunities with on site learning is a blessing!!

    We still have snow on the ground so it will be awhile before I see any plants and flower, so thanks for the peek into your world!!

    Grace

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  5. Really great images Findlay, and being a ringer, fantastic.

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  6. Findlay, your blogs get better and better.
    I didn't know about the differences between male and female Nuthatches, so thanks for that.
    Early start, but it's certainly the best time of the day.

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  7. I too learnt something today about nuthatches thanks Findlay, that Jay looks a bit "snappy".

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  8. Another very enjoyable and informative post, Findlay. Thank you.

    We had a female Brambling visiting our garden several times a day until a week ago, and then she was gone. The previous winter we had several visiting regularly, but this year (until this female arrived) visits were extremely sparse. However, I take great pleasure in the knowledge that it's almost certainly because the birds have not had such a hard time of it this last winter.

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  9. Great post Findlay. Three of my favourite birds too the Nuthatch, Jay and Brambling, such great birds. It must be great being able to get that close to them :)

    Eve

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  10. Good old Dad. Dads come in useful sometimes, if only to ring the Jays. I hope your fingers dont hurt too much Dad.

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  11. Hi Finlay it is wonderful to be able to handle these birds and see them so close. Good to get up early,

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  12. Well worth the 3:30 a.m. start. Interesting post. I actually learned a few things. Thanks!

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  13. I love the Jay a well. Have seen more of them this winter then I usually do. I like that.

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  14. Any place that has nuthatches is good as far as I can tell - remarkable difference between the two chaffinches.

    Nice set of pictures.

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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  15. Hey Finlay, looks like another banner week for you. You are such a fortunate and blessed young ma to be able to be so close to birds...are they not just absolute treasures...have a great weekend~

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