Slightly less foggy...

Following a foggy morning at Crosby Hall on Saturday, we headed out to Ince on Sunday morning to reap the bounty that our feeders may provide. I swear the birds in our area are the best fed in the land (that applies to the Blue Tits, Chaffinches, Great Tits etc)!!!

Bird 'Flu makes a comeback

The catch rate was steady and as usual it was dominated by titmice but there were more Chaffinches around compared to the last time we ringed at Ince. The fog rolled in temporarily and soon lifted, with temperatures much warmer than the day before, it was a whole lot more comfortable all round.
It is good that we are starting to catch more Chaffinches and Robins (boosting the numbers for the Blackbird Project) but we are still looking for new sites that may offer us a different species diversity to our current woodland sites.

Here are the totals for Sunday:

Great Tit - 9 (30)
Blue Tit - 21 (45)
Coal Tit - 1 (9)
L.T.Tit - (1)
Treecreeper - 1
Goldcrest - (1)
Robin - 4 (4)
Chaffinch - 5 (2)
Blackbird - 1
Dunnock - (1)

TOTAL: 42 (93)

Through the fog...

One word summarises today perfectly - grey! Following highs of 10 degrees yesterday, the overnight frost will have taken a significant amount of body mass from the birds - so we predicted a certain level of activity at the feeders at Crosby Hall.

The early sunshine soon disappeared and the fog rolled in, our expectations of a bumper catch started to wane. My experiences in Canada and Portugal have always been that during misty/foggy conditions, the birds are reluctant to move around. Luckily though the birds in Liverpool don't pay much attention to their foreign relatives and the birds were quite active around the feeders.

A male Sparrowhawk was seen keeping a watchful eye on the feeding station as the Jays squawked through the Rhodies - still yet to catch either of these species here at CH.

Having only caught two Greenfinches here before, it was pleasing to catch five today, two of them being controls! We'll have to wait for that data though!

We were visited this morning by members of the Blundell family and young Matthew revealed himself as quite an expert with the Blue Tits! The sight of a youngster letting their first bird go from their hands, the expression of delight and wonder will never get old! New trainee maybe?

Blue Tit - 14 (26)
Great Tit - 3 (7)
Coal Tit - (3)
Robin - 3 (5)
Dunnock - (2)
L.T.Tit - 1 (5)
Greenfinch - 3 ((2))
Goldcrest - (1)
Blackbird - 1 (2)
Chaffinch - 3
Nuthatch - (1)

TOTAL: 28 (52) 2 controls

Tomorrows plans are to head to Ince early on and stick it out there, weather permitting.

A change in diversity.

Having hoped for a double-header this weekend, but being unable to get out on Saturday (despite perfect conditions) due to a combination of Girl Guides and pigeon shooters, we finally got out to the Woodhams on Sunday morning. I must point out that these were seperate events and not 12-gauge toting Brownies!

Moxey keeps a watchful eye out for any sneaky Girl Guides with sniper rifles!

After some over-night hail left the ground rather crunchy and the roads rather slippery, at the corner of the wood, a Ford Ka had fancied doing a bit of off-roading quite unsuccessfully - didn't look like anyone was hurt though!


From the offset there was a lot more Chaffinch chatter than we had experienced the week before at Ince which gave early promise but there wasn't much thrush activity in the woods. Although we were catching a lot of titmice, they were mainly retraps with some movement in between the woods.

One of three Goldcrests caught

It was promising to catch three Goldcrests in total, one retrap from before the cold snap and two new birds - this is our highest single day total this winter, unsuprising given the low numbers that have been found in the UK this winter.

Great Tit with a tick

I'm not an expert with parasites, but conversations with farmers while we have been ringing the Barn Owls have highlighted the influx of ticks into certain areas (predominantly sheep farmed areas). It seems that maybe these ticks are now finding their way into woodland areas as we caught a young male Great Tit with one feeding under its eye. If anyone has any more information about these ticks I would be interested to hear from you.

Song Thrush - 1
Blackbird - 2 (2)
Blue Tit - 3 (33)
Great Tit - 4 (13)
Coal Tit - (3)
L.T.Tit - 12 (5)
G.S.Woodpecker - (1)
Treecreeper - (1)
Goldcrest - 2 (1)
Chaffinch - 7 (3)
Goldfinch - 6 (1)
Dunnock - 4
Robin - 4 (2)
Wren - 1

TOTALS: 46 (65)

The Blackbird Project is now in full swing with data starting to be collected in decent quantities - we're looking for as broader geographic spread as possible, so if you can help, get in touch!

Suprise on a Dull, Damp Saturday

With the forecast for Sunday looking rather moist, a Friday night call from Moxey switched our ringing session to Saturday. The feeding stations have been pretty active over the last three weeks, especially so since the cold snap - very often artificial feeding is what keeps these birds going through periods of harsh weather. We feed a variety of foods, a mixture of black sunflower and sunflower hearts from feeders, peanuts from feeders with fat balls and homemade suet coconuts/blocks.

Catch rate was steady through the day and in total 132 birds were caught, which was good, especially considering the foggy, cool conditions. Interestingly, the morning session was dominated by Blue Tits which became scarce in the afternoon, the opposite was true of Great Tits.

The debate ensues.

The lack of Chaffinches and Thrushes was painfully obvious however, only one Blackbird caught and only one Chaffinch heard. The resident Nuthatches were in good voice however and a retrap was caught at the feeding station. Two Jays also made a noisy and rather painful appearance but did give us some cause for debate on their ages - I do love a good debate!

The suprise of the day however, was the appearance of a young male Kestrel in the middle of the wood, much dancing on the spot and woop, wooping followed.

Young Male Kestrel

Kestrel - 1
Blackbird - 1
Coal Tit - 3 (7)
Blue Tit - 20 (35)
Great Tit - 6 (39)
L.T.Tit - 1 (4)
Goldcrest - (1)
Dunnock - 1 (2)
Jay - 2
Robin - 5 (3)
Nuthatch - (1)

TOTAL: 40 (92)

It was encouraging that one of the three Goldcrests ringed at Ince in 2009, made it through the recent cold snap. It has been a particularly poor winter for Goldcrests across the country so it is reassuring to see that the few that are around are managing to survive.

Good Times

Another early start for Moxey and me as we headed off the Crosby Hall for a session in the woods. Right from the start there were plenty of Pink-footed Geese airbourne with the over-active Jays adding to the racket! The Blackbird activity of the other week had completely subsided however and we were unable to catch a single bird. The theme of the day was 'steady' with a constant stream of birds from the feeding station supplemented with a reliable abundance elsewhere in the wood. Of the six Chaffinches, two were already ringed and on the left leg (an instant indication that they weren't 'our' birds).

Juvenile female Nuthatch

Early afternoon we spotted a weasel scampering along the hedge at the side of the wood, my first for the year. Despite the lack of Blackbirds, we were still able to collect biometrics on the secondary species (Blue Tit, Chaffinch and Robin) which kick-started the project.

Adult male Nuthatch (notice the bold chestnut on the flanks and under-tail coverts).

Blue Tit - 34 (17)
Coal Tit - (2)
Great Tit - 2 (18)
Chaffinch - 4 ((2))
Goldfinch - 1
Greenfinch - 1
Robin - 4
L.T.Tit - 9
Goldcrest - 1
Dunnock - 2
Treecreeper - 1
Nuthatch - 1 (1)

TOTAL: 60 (38) ((2))

More Tufties!

Moxey and Thomas headed down to Southport Marina again at lunchtime to have a go for more Coot as part of Kanes colour ringing project. Unfortunately the Coot weren't that interested however that didn't deter Thomas from getting his arms wet (and rather cold). Using grain in the slip-way, the pair were quite successful with the Tufties! I'll have to wait until Saturday for my chance!

Tufted Duck: 24
Mute Swan: 1

Total: 25

A Tuesday Morning Coot Party!

With conditions good for snaffling a few Coot, Moxey and Thomas (my younger, bigger brother) headed off to Southport Marina this morning, stopping by L20 before I left for school to pick up the colour rings, G's and sheets.

While I drove bleary-eyed and jealous through the Mersey Tunnel, Moxey and Thomas were heading up the A565 to stalk the margins of the marina (at the posh end of Sefton). My colleague David (a Sandgrounder himself) couldn't really fathom the depths of my lament, however I had GCSE Chemistry Revision with Year 11 to liven my spirits (?).

Moxey and Thomas had company, with Kane and Sean Gray also present, according to Moxey it was just as well because these guys were pro's when it came to grabbing Coot. I only wish I could have been there so that to learn from The Master!

Sean and Thomas (and a bunch of Tufties)

'It wasn't me Officer'

Thomas with an auld Coot

Many thanks to Kane and Sean for showing the better-looking Fearon Duo how to do the business with the Coot, early plans are to go out again tomorrow before the ice melts.

With both Kane and Sean's updates already posted, this could possibly be the most-blogged about ringing session in recent times!

I just wish I had a job that offered more flexibilty!