Firecrest, Redstarts and the start of the juvenile season

The last couple of weeks has seen a real increase in the number of birds being caught per session with the now evident presence of juvenile birds.

North River

The weather prevented more than a single session at my CES site over the last two weeks, but this session did yield 13 new and eight retraps with the new birds involving ten juveniles.  This included a Song Thrush, the first two Blackcap and Chiffchaff and Goldcrest (below).

Warnham Garden

As usual for the summer I have done very little in my garden although the potter trap has produced another new juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Jay that I originally ringed here on 19th Feb 2011.

Although I did ring two Swallow nests in a neighbours stables of five and three young in each.

Leith Hill

Two sessions here produced 77 new birds which included a couple of surprises.  Amongst the juvenile Blue Tits and Great Tits were 15 Siskin (seven juvenile), two Whitethroat (amazingly only the 3rd and 4th to be ringed up here this year), 14 juv Willow Warbler, four juv Chiffchaff and three Goldcrest.  But the biggest surprise was a newly fledged Firecrest (below top) on 25th June and two Tree Pipit and four Redstart (three juveniles and an adult male - below bottom).

Juvenile Firecrest - note the yellow stripe over the eye and the black stripe through the eye, unlike the juvenile Goldcrest above.

Case's Yard

Another nest of three Swallows were ringed.

Barn Owl Boxes

The last two weeks has also seen me complete my Barn Owl box ringing locally, which has been very successful. Of the six nestboxes that contained breeding birds all were successful with broods of two (1), three (3) and four (2).  In addition I was able to capture five of the adult birds of which three were new, and two were controls.  The first being a female that had originally been ringed as a chick in Rowhook about 3km away from this nest in 2005, whilst the other GC41832 also a female is yet to be found out.


Claire assisting me with a Barn Owl chick - yes you are not mistaken, that is sunshine in the background.....I had nearly forgotten what it looked like!!

In addition I also helped Wes to ring a nest of Kestrel chicks locally which were very smart birds indeed (below top) and had a fantastic weekend at Dungeness Bird Observatory helping to construct a new Heligoland trap (below bottom), some great pictures of this at Plodding Birder Blog.  First time I have visited Dungeness and not picked up my binoculars!!!

Birds ringed:

Barn Owl - 3 + 19 nestlings
Swallow - 12 nestlings
Blue Tit - 17
Blackcap - 3
Great Tit - 8
Robin - 2
Siskin - 15
Chaffinch - 2
Dunnock - 3
Garden Warbler - 1
Redstart - 4
Tree Pipit - 2
Whitethroat - 2
Goldfinch - 1
Coal Tit - 1
Willow Warbler - 14
Goldcrest - 4
Long-tailed Tit - 1
Chiffchaff - 5
Wren - 1
Firecrest - 1
Blackbird - 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1
Song Thrush - 2