Another Busy Week

Two sessions on Leith Hill, two sessions at home, a morning doing the rounds of the Horsham Barn Owl boxes, another duck rescue at Horsham Hospital and a few more nests!  In total, 193 new birds ringed this week of 26 species.

Sunday at Leith Hill was ended early with only two hours of ringing due to the onset of rain and just four new Siskin were caught along with a handful of Great Tits and the first juvenile Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler of the year.  Whilst the session this morning had to close the nets early because of too many birds!  Siskins were everywhere, with 36 caught (22 new) along with three Blackcaps, two Whitethroat, a juvenile Treecreeper, a juvenile Goldcrest and two Willow Warbler being the highlights which mainly came in one check of the nets!

The two sessions at home were again dominated by tits, but a few highlights included my first juvenile Goldfinch (above) and Long-tailed Tit (below) of the year, another five juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker (making 19 for the year so far) and a Jay.  The extra surprise was the pair of Spotted Flycatchers that had taken up residence this week, hopefully they will breed which will be a first for my garden.  Fingers crossed!

A trip round the remaining Horsham Barn Owl boxes was very successful.  Being joined by Barrie and Graham we visited four boxes of which one was empty, one held three chicks and two had four chicks (photos below).  Which were all ringed as well as an adult male, whilst an adult female was retrapped that was originally ringed as a chick in nearby Lambs Green in 2005. 

Graham with his first Barn Owl



Barn Owl chick being weighed

Adult male Barn Owl

Whilst doing the owls, one barn also had a pair of Stock Dove nesting on a ledge which had two perfect sized chicks.  Whilst other nests done this week were five Pied Wagtail chicks at my Leith Hill office and ten Swallow chicks (below) from three nests local to home.

The last ringing of the week was a return to Horsham Hospital where Linda and I rescued another family of five Mallard ducklings and rehomed them onto Horsham Park pond next door!

Birds ringed:
Great Tit - 57
Siskin - 26
Blue Tit - 24
Robin - 3
Chaffinch - 4
Blackcap - 3
Whitethroat - 2
Swallow - 10 nestlings
Pied Wagtail - 5 nestlings
Goldfinch - 5
Dunnock - 2
Wren - 1
Chiffchaff - 3
Willow Warbler - 3
Treecreeper - 3
Goldcrest - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 4
Greenfinch - 8
House Sparrow - 1
Nuthatch - 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 5
Song Thrush - 1
Mallard - 5 ducklings
Stock Dove - 2 nestlings
Jay - 1
Barn Owl - 1 + 11 nestlings