Phew! Rain at last

With the exception of bringing you the breaking news on the Nightjar I've been too busy to update my blog of late. So here's a photographic snapshot of my ringing over the past week.

What's with the white egg?

Oh how cute

Krazy with a K

Feel the pain

Our new line of insect houses

Makes all the Blue Tits worth while

Slim chance of ringing these

How can you fall in love with this?

The best of neighbours

Seeing red

This one had some buzz about it

With thanks to Pete, Colin, Andy, Kane, the climbers, and everybody else that came along too.

Looking better for the weekend

It’s been a wet and windy week but I still got out with Andy one evening. The disappointment of fledged Redstarts soon passed when I got to ring a brood of 5 Kestrels and a brood of 3 Long-eared Owls. It seams to have been a good year for Long-eared Owls.

With a bit of luck I should get the chance to ring Red Kite and Buzzard this weekend so fingers crossed.

Kestrel – Ringed on 7/6/2010

Long-eared Owl – Ringed on 7/6/2010

Barn Owl Boxes

A small group of us joined Andy today checking Barn Owl boxes in countryside to the north and west of Leeds - 6 Barn Owls in total with 3 being ringed for the first time. There were also 3 clutches of eggs so fingers crossed there will be plenty of chicks to ring in just over a months time.

We also ringed 2 Stock Dove chicks and re-caught a Kestrel ringed by Andy in a previous year.

So far it’s looking like it could be a good year for Barn and Tawny Owls.

Barn Owl – Ringed on 2/5/2010

Kestrel – Ringed in a previous year