zondag 11 november 2012

Four surprises in the net!

During the weekends - when I'm not in Wageningen - I try to do some ringing in my garden, and once you're doing it it's quite addictive! Today I had quite a few surprises in my net. I ringed four new species for my garden!
 Goldcrest (Regulus regulus), 1cy female
 Coal Tit (Periparus ater), 1cy
 Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris), 1cy based on the retained tertails, pointed tailfeathers and 3-4 old GC's. First time I've seen (and ringed it!) it in my garden
 Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto), finally got one!!!

Tammo with the dove.

There was also a good movement of tits, with some 10 being caught. I also retrapped a Dunnock I ringed on 13-10. Few Great Tits were also ringed. 

zaterdag 3 november 2012

I feel it in my fingers

I would like to thank the Jay that I caught today in my garden, for being so kind to my fingers - just like always! 

Up to five Jays and two Magpies had been in the garden this morning, but I didn't have the net up. From 12:30 to 16:30 I set up the net and hoped for some birds! During those four hours it was raining quite a bit and there it was windy. Nevertheless, there were many birds present in the garden.

A few times a Jay had been near the net, but as it was flying towards it, it bend off because it saw the net. But in the end one ended up in the net, yay! I was unlucky with a Collared Dove though that flew in to the net and staying in the net bag quietly, but as I walked to the bird the sh*tter got out... :( 3rd time this happens to me in my garden... In total I got 20 birds, not bad!

Blackbird 1 -
Blue Tit 5 - 1 one retrap from 13-10
Great Tit 1 -
Greenfinch 1 - 1cy female
House Sparrow 9 - 1 daily record! 1 retrap of a male ringed on 20-03-2011 (2nd time I ever retrap a HS)
Jay 1 - adult bird

Jay (Garrulus garrulus), adult

donderdag 1 november 2012

''Just an afternoon twitch''

A Steppe Grey Shrike has been present on Texel since Saturday. In the weekend I didn't have the time to twitch it, but because it's such a rare bird, I couldn't resist to go there. With two friends from my study we made the plan to go yesterday!

After we'd had our math lesson in the morning we got on the bus and there we went. After a 2:50 hour lasting train ride to Den-Helder, arriving there 13:45, we got on the ferry of 14:30. Everything went smooth and just before we entered the harbor of Texel we had a nice fly-by of a Woodcock, barely managing not to drown in the water.

Around 14:50 we had finally entered the island. We rented a bike and off we went. The place where the bird had been seen was quite close to the harbour, so it took us only 10 minutes to get there.

As we arrived, the bird was in view immediately! Awesome! It did some foraging on the field, sitting on some small poles and it sat perched in a bush. We only had our binoculars with us, but we could watch through someone else's scope, but that was not really needed since the bird showed at 5-10 metres distance, haha.

The bird is 1cy bird, amongst others, it has moulted 1 of its primaries, and about half of its greater coverts are moulted, it shows a really clear moult limit!

We enjoyed the bird and took some Iphone-scoped photos, with a very pleasing result.

Steppe Grey Shrike (Lanius pallidirostris), 1cy iPhone-scoped
Tommy and Koen at the twitch

Enjoying the bird for one hour or so - seeing it catch a mouse - we decided to check some other birding places too. We wanted to look for the reported Black Stork just north-east of the harbour. It was a pity that we weren't able to find it, but we saw 100s of Fieldfares, Blackbirds and Redwings, together with some 60 Snipes and a late Barn Swallow!

And then at last, a long trip home was awaiting us again!