Happy New Year and January quiz picture.

Well here it is, the end of another year and the expectations for 2011...... is it just me or do others find the Year end a bit sad?

Thanks to everyone that has visited the blog over the last few months and left comments, I hope you continue to visit next year.

The quiz picture should not present many problems this month :-)  but tell me the age as well this time!

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND GOOD BIRDING IN 2011

Pottering around.

Blackbird in Potter Trap

Have had some good results with a Potter trap in my front garden border, three days of ringing has produced:

Blackbirds  11 new and 2 retraps

Robins         4 new and 1 retrap

Dunnock      1 new

Great tit        1new

One of the retrap Blackbirds of interest first ringed in same location 20/02/08 as a Juv male but has not been retrapped since.



My fingers are in shreds!

Nets up in garden at first light, lots of birds in the immediate vicinity including 30+ Fieldfare.

Brilliant days ringing as the following totals show, including retraps

Robin         2 new        1 retrap
Blackbird   3 new
Blue tit       44 new !!   2 retrap
Great tit     11 new
Dunnock    3 new
Chaffinch   1 new         1 retrap
Coal tit      2 new         1 retrap
Yellowhammer 1 new

The yellowhammer was star bird, first for garden and my first for over ten years! The 46 Blue tits were just downright painful!

All these in mostly an 18ft net.  One downside was the state of my "new" 40ft jap mist net.  Only the second outing for this net and a few flaws already becoming apparent.

Net will go up again in the morning for a few hours to see if  the Blue tits are gone or hanging around the area.

December Quiz take 2

Time to update the First December quiz. The answer was male Long tailed duck, if you look carefully you can just make out the tail feather disappearing into the depths!



Quiz bird 2 is easier and fairly topical at this time of year, once again good luck, and remember it's just for fun!



 Whats that bird?

December Quiz (Bumped)

During the many trips in the field trying out the new digiscoping kit, I manage to capture some (a lot!) of less than perfect images.

So to that end I will publish a new image every month and see how many correct identifications I recieve.  If I get a good response I will go to weekly images (believe me I have loads I can use!) 

Good luck and enjoy.

Whats that bird?

Just for a laugh and to test your brain during the long winter nights!!

The freeze continues.

Still no let up in the sub-zero conditions and I'm having to think about a second mortgage to keep the birds in food!

Noticed a vast increase in Redwing and Fieldfare numbers today, a new wave of migrants arrived?  Also my Brambling has moved on, just as well as I have over 300 photo's of it now!

Missing getting out and about to my usual locations and my King Eider should be getting near to full plumage and just begging to be photographed.  Maybe next week....

Redwing

A little bit of cheeeeeeeeese......

Yellowhammer

A pretty poor shot of the latest addition to the garden list, this Yellowhammer was at the feeding station first thing, just in the pre-dawn light.

Weather is still very cold and very snowy, today is minus 8.5 and snow still about a foot deep.

Rooks and Starlings have now found the feeding station, which can be a pain, so it is now a balancing act of letting them get some food but allowing the smaller stuff time to feed as well.

Finally I would like to thank the people from the UK and across the world that are visiting this site, hope you like it and call back regularily (maybe let me know what birds you're getting in your area?)

A little bit of Bully.....

Male Bullfinch

A quieter day birdwise, with very few birds visiting the feeding station first thing in the morning.  They did however return later on in the morning.

The Bullfinch pictured above is quite a scarce visitor to the garden, and yet another sign the birds are being forced nearer to habitation to find food.  The Brambling was present again as was one fieldfare.

Tempreture soared to a positively roasting  + 0.4 and I was in the process of looking out my deck chair, flip flops, suntan lotion and BBQ when the blizzards returned and the temp dropped to -1.0

Forecast is not looking good for a break in this weather, so will have to do a re-stock on birdfood!

Brambling, Fieldfare and Caper!!

Well what a brilliant birding day, and most done from my living room!

The day started well when I opened the curtains and was greeted by a Fieldfare feeding on the seeds left over from yesterday.

Fieldfare

Next on the list was a  Brambling, really pleased to get this in the garden and a lifer for my girlfriend.

Brambling

The last bird was not photographed sadly, however when we were out for a stroll a male Capercallie flew out from woodland, across the village and headed back into the far side of  the forest. Think it must have been disturbed by a local Pheasant shoot.

No let up in the weather still, minus 12.4 last night and never got above minus 4.5 all day.  Beautiful scenery though.

Wonder what tomorrow will bring?