Please follow the monthly links to view my diary of bird ringing or scroll down this page to view the entire diary.

13th October 2006

An interesting photograph showing the two stages of Goldcrest tail feathers.

7th October 2006

Not a new ringing tick for me, however I have some new pictures of a single Meadow Pipit attracted by tape.

18th September 2006

It has been quite a long break from ringing but with all efforts put into my University course something had to give. My first days back were quite exciting to see so many warblers; especially Blackcaps, Willow Warblers and Chiffchaff's. The best catch so far has was his Grasshopper Warbler.

8th February 2005

Well, I never knew work could be so much fun! After first reporting 60 waxwings on 1st February outside my office window I kept a close eye on their activities and on the evening of 7th February there were over 250. The following lunchtime the light had improved for the very first time and the skies turned blue. I 'ran' over the road with my camera next to the cricket field to take some shots of the flocks in the small, berry-laden trees. I bumped into a fellow ringer who had set up his gear to catch some of the birds and then ring them. I introduced myself and I was allowed under supervision to ring 4 (beautiful) birds (3 females and 1 male). Here are the images from this wonderful experience. Finally I must pass on my thanks to Dave Nevitt for his support.

14th October 2004

My first evening ringing session and the pressure certainly seems to be on. It's tricky enough trying to extract birds in the daylight but in the dark with only a head torch for light it is, for me, very unnerving. One nice surprise was a goldcrest that I extracted. It was first ringed on 29th August 2001 - an old bird!

1st October 2004

We decided to try and attract meadow pipits on this visit and we put on our tape players and attracted two birds to the nets. Forty-seven birds caught today including a late reed and willow warbler. Best of luck on your migration!! 

16th September 2004

A beautiful sunny morning down on the reserve was attractive not only to Lyndon and myself but also to a large quantity of birds. Eighty-two were caught today including another new bird for me; treecreeper. Not to be content with just one bird but two were caught in the same round of the nets! The blackcaps are going through in greater numbers too and today we caught 44 juvenile birds. Gordano Valley claims to be within the top two best sites for migrating blackcaps in the country. Lets hope they make it safely back to the Mediterranean and maybe we'll catch some again next year.

12th September 2004

Another eventful day at Gordano. Arriving at 6am, a little later now that the mornings are much darker I set up the nets in the hope of a good catch. And what a catch we had; 80 birds in total of 13 different species. The highlights of the day for me were new ringing ticks of a juvenile grasshopper warbler and a juvenile female redstart. The warbler was caught before I had even completed my round of putting the nets up but the light had dulled so I didn't take a picture. Certainly there'll be another chance. A little later after a couple of large hauls we had a redstart. The first of the season and with a chance of only a couple more before they depart to warmer climes I was truly thrilled.

2nd September 2004

Another good day down on the reserve. Fifty-three birds of thirteen species caught in all. No unusual ones today but a nice variety of warblers and other passerines. The weather was fine indeed and allowed some photography to take place.

12th August 2004

Sixty-two birds was a good total in the end after a bright start followed by rain and thunder! 2 garden warblers, 3 whitethroats and a spotted flycatcher were the pick of the bunch and for me another ringing tick.

8th August 2004

Having not been ringing at Gordano for a few weeks I was really looking forward to a good morning's catch. August and September are the best months in the valley and can produce a great variety of species and in large numbers. We set the nets up the night before and aimed for a 5am start. On arrival to site the wind had picked up considerably and Lyndon thought it was not going to be possible to open the nets. We decided to give it a go and see if the weather changed for the better. After the first round of about 8 birds the weather slightly improved and we decided to stay put. On the second round we approached the first 2 nets to find nearly 30 birds had been caught. After that round nearly 60 birds were extracted altogether. It was then my turn to scribe as with that number of birds it would have taken me most of the day to process so Lyndon took over until later on when the numbers subsided. The rest of the day continued in a similar way and here is the tally of what we caught. The numbers in brackets are the number of birds I processed. This as it happens was the 10th largest catch for Gordano, the most being 182!!

It truly was an amazing day and the best moment was when Pete brought a juvenile male sparrowhawk along to be ringed and released on site. I had the pleasure of ringing this amazing bird. See some of the pictures below.

21st & 23rd July 2004

After visiting Handa Island in May, I made a return trip to see the changes in breeding programme and also to ring some of the recently hatched skua chicks. It was a great crack as the warden and her assistant (studying skuas as part of her MSc project) took me along to help in ringing some great are arctic skua chicks. As the couple of pictures will show they are still in their juvenile plumage and very hard to locate in the grass and heather. Clare had plotted all the nest sites using GPS and so gave us a great starting point when locating the territories and eventually tracking down the youngsters. Usually we would space out and then walk (slowly) in an ever-increasing circle from the nest site in an attempt to stumble upon the hidden chick. Sometimes the adult birds would give away the presence of the chick by flying over and then looking down. By keeping half an eye on the adults we were often able to locate the chicks in this way.

27th June 2004

I have been ringing now for just over 3 months and have just received my trainee permit, which basically means that I officially have a trainer who is willing to guide me through all the relevant steps to become competent in the skill of ringing. It has been  a great experience so far with some excellent birds including willow warblers, spotted flycatcher, goldfinch, long tailed tit. song thrush and today a buzzard. Lyndon, Robin and I went to a local site where there were originally two chicks but sadly one has died. Robin did the climbing and I was allowed to ring my first buzzard. Excellent! Check out a couple of the pictures below.

13th March 2004

After my introduction into bird ringing in August 2003, I have finally found myself a trainer at the Gordano Valley Ringing Group. I visited for the first time on Saturday 13th March and spent four hours ringing. We caught 19 birds altogether and I ringed 8 birds and checked 6 more that were re-trapped. The most exciting of the day were 2 male siskins and 2 male great spotted woodpeckers. The woodpecker I ringed certainly enjoyed using my fingers as drilling posts but I certainly enjoyed viewing the birds up close. The process involved extracting the birds from the mist nets followed by ringing, species identification, ageing, sexing, measuring wing length, weighing and checking for fat content. The hardest part is ageing a bird but that all comes with experience. I found measuring the wing length somewhat tricky and I often fell one millimetre short. When it comes to a blue tit, I suppose it is quite important! By the end of the morning I had worked hard on my technique and was getting more right than wrong. We also ringed blue and great tits, a male greenfinch and both male and female chaffinches. I can't wait until the next day out. Here are a couple of the best images from the day.