4th - 11th May 2010 - Nests, Nests, Nests

This week has seen Wes do a session at the Capel reserve which resulted in the highlight of four Garden Warblers, but even better was his nest ringing being a nest of Rook involving three nestlings, a nest of six Robin and a Tawny Owl chick!

Whilst, today (11th) I managed to get the nets up briefly in my Warnham garden catching just nine birds including five new which involved the first fledglings of the year - a Greenfinch (below), a Dunnock and a Song Thrush.
I also checked a could of other nests, thankfully the Blackbirds are still OK now with small young, while the Blue Tits in the House Sparrow terrace have nine eggs and a neighbour's Blue Tit box also has nine eggs. But the letter box Great Tits just down the road had six large young which were duly ringed (below).
Also a Great-spotted Woodpecker that was ringed in July 2001 as a juvenile at Payne's Green was found freshly dead less than a kilometre away this week, making it a new Surrey longevity record of 8 years 10 months. A really good age for a woodpecker with the national record only 10 years 10 months.

And just to finish I can't resist including a very poor photo of a Hoopoe that I nearly ran down this week whilst on holiday in Mallorca (below). I then followed this bird with great success to its nest in a stone wall where three young were poking there heads out of a hole and four pairs of Bee-eater nesting nearby as well!
Birds ringed:
Great Tit - 1 (1) + 6 nestlings
Goldfinch - 1 (1)
Dunnock - 1
Greenfinch - 1
Song Thrush - 1
Robin - 1 (2) + 6 nestlings
Garden Warbler - 4
Whitethroat - 3
House Sparrow - 1
Willow Warbler - 1
Ciffchaff - 1
Wren - 1
Rook - 3 nestlings
Tawny Owl - 1 nestling