Otley Gravel Pits

I walked in this morning to the sound of 200 Curlew taking flight from their roost and a pair of Mute Swans shattering a thin layer of ice that had formed over night.

Met up with Andy and Sean - No luck with Water Rail or Reed Bunting so we moved round to the feeders where we caught about 30 birds including Chaffinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit and Bullfinch.

Traps are set at Bishop Monkton tonight so hopefully I’ll have something to report tomorrow!

A slow start at Bishop Monkton

For the first time this year we put the nets up at our Bishop Monkton site. It was a quiet day with only 4 new birds and a few retraps. Our best retrap being a male Reed Bunting that we ringed on 28 March 2005 – Making this bird 5 years old.

On a walk around our site we managed to flush out Woodcock, Snipe and Jack Snipe. Later in the week we may have a go a trying to catch a few.

4 New birds and (9) retraps – Dunnock 1(8), Goldfinch 3, Reed Bunting (1).

Boom time

Today I met Andy, Shaun and Ian down Otley Gravel Pits. We had no luck in trapping the Water Rail or Red Kites that were around. However, all was not lost as we got to see the Bittern that’s been there this week – At around midday it flew over our heads and then spent about 30 minutes sitting about 40ft up a distant tree.

We also erected a mist net a the side of the track and caught a small number of birds including Robin, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Chaffinch and Goldfinch.

2009 Totals

Six months ago today I ringed my first bird - 3J Sand Martin. Since then I've learnt alot about birds, made a number of new friends along the way and recently become an IPMR expert. Below are my 2009 totals for our Bishop Monkton site.

New Birds Woodpigeon 1 Tawny Owl 1 Kingfisher 1 Sand Martin 6 Swallow 110 Meadow Pipit 21 Pied/White Wagtail 2 Wren 15 Dunnock 25 Robin 18 Redstart 1 Blackbird 23 Song Thrush 29 Redwing 2 Grasshopper Warbler 5 Sedge Warbler 43 Reed Warbler 13 Lesser Whitethroat 6 Whitethroat 19 Garden Warbler 12 Blackcap 208 Chiffchaff 51 Willow Warbler 44 Goldcrest 1 Long-tailed Tit 4 Blue Tit 11 Great Tit 11 Treecreeper 3 Jay 1 Starling 1 Tree Sparrow 15 Chaffinch 22 Greenfinch 10 Goldfinch 131 Linnet 1 Lesser Redpoll 34 Bullfinch 16 Yellowhammer 1 Reed Bunting 21 Grand Total: 939 Total Species: 39

Gone skiing

While I haven’t been ringing this week (to busy skiing) I did get chance to fill the smaller feeders up at our site; they’ve taken quite a hit recently. Amongst the birds still around were numerous Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer - Dave’s heading down with the tractor tomorrow to fill the larger grain feeders so hopefully we’ll get the weather to ring the birds I saw in the next few weeks.

The big freeze continues to draw birds to our towns and cities; ticks for my garden and work (Leeds centre) this week included the occasional Fieldfare and now frequent Redwing.

Nyjer Feeders (A Smith)

Buzzards, Red Kites and Carrion Crows

Out with Andy and Shaun today trying to trap Buzzards or Red Kites - The Buzzards just flew past, the Red Kites sat in trees and the Carrion Crow snacked on our rabbit without triggering the trap!