INTRODUCTION

This is foreseen to be an occasional blog relating to bird ringing at Abbotsbury Swannery. The site has operated as a BTO Constant Effort Site since 1995 and has taken part in the BTO Swallow Roost Project. In recent years we have concentrated in the autumn with both Yellow and Pied/White Wagtails. In 2009 we joined the Woodcock Network.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Luke scores.............

As Luke has mentioned on his blog earlier this week we finally caught a Woodcock this winter. The conditions were almost tropical. It was +10C as we wandered around the water meadows. No crunching about in the frosty grass and no rock hard mud. A few more pictures of these magnificent birds. They really are a treat to have in the hand.




















We always ring and process the birds over the net. That way you do not walk off afterwards  leaving the pliers or the rings in the grass in the dark. A tidy way to work and cost effective. A colder weekend is forecast so hopefully Luke and his net will work up some more magic!

Saturday 7 January 2012

Another painful morning!

The first calm morning this year was not wasted. An invitation to Doug from the Axe Estuary Ringing Group to join in proved to be a useful morning.  No exotics and the woodpeckers were there but  they turned shy on  seeing my guest. Even the Treecreepers teased us by feeding on the trees adjacent to the nets but not actually connecting with them.

Plenty of Blue and Great Tits at the feeders and also good numbers of Greenfinchs. A small highlight was trapping one of Lukes Greenfinchs from nearby Clouds Hill.

Blue Tit joining in where the  last woodpecker left off!


Even the Great Tit joined in!


A placid Dunnock

A couple of Goldfinch were also trapped. Not too many of these are trapped at the Swannery so these were a couple of good birds for the morning.

Male Goldfinch

Male Greenfinch

The morning ended assisting Dave with feeding the Mute Swans. Pochard and Tufted gleamed in the morning sunshine. Following on from this 'duck' link is the visit to Seaton Sunday morning when the next cannon net session will take place.  Luke and I are hoping for Godwits but expect Shelduck will  prevail. At least they have blunt bills!