Sunday 31st of October

Birds ringed:
Redwing 3-0
Wren 1-1
Coal tit 5-0
Great tit 22-2
Blue tit 26-0
Blackcap 1-0
Short toed treecreeper 1-0
Goldcrest 1-0
Total 61-3

Krammers!

The thrushes are now really conspicuous everywhere. Yesterday I had a large group of Redwings and Fieldfares flying overhead at home. Today they were numberous at every part of the Hoog Buurlosche heide.
I did a migration count from 8.30 till 10.30. The higlights included 5 Redpolls. I also had a probable group of 3 Grey wag's but I could only see a black silhouet and they didn't call so I left them unidentified. While cycling to the HB-heide this morning I had a Grey Wag flying over so I had at least 1 Grey wag today;)
The totals are:

Also see: http://trektellen.nl/trektelling.asp?telpost=277&land=1&site=0&datum=20101022&

                                                             Jackdaws on the move

After the count I decided to check a large cropfield situated on the northern side of the heathland.  That was a good choice. The cropfield was filled with thrushes. Approximately 250 Redwings, 50 Fieldfares (excluding a group of 150 flying by), 100 Chaffinches, 15 Bramblings, 3 Mistle Thrushes and 3 Song Thrushes. There was also a pair of noisy Black Woodpeckers present. There were also 5 Stonechats present. Amongst all these birds I found a Water Pipit! It was foraging on the crop field and showed well. I didn't expect to find a Water pipit near the heathland. Therefore it was also a new Hoog-Buurlosche heide species for me.

Sunday & Monday at Ooijse Graaf

The sunday and monday of my Autumn break were spent ringing at the Ooijse Graaf, with Bram. We didn't trap that many birds but we had some quality though. On sunday we trapped the following:
Kingfisher 0-1
Wren  2-1
Dunnock 3-0
Robin 6-2
Blackbird 3-0
Song thrush 3-0
Redwing 6-0
Chiffchaff 3-0
Willow tit 0-2
Blue tit 16-15
Great tit 9-4
Short toed treecreeper 2-0
Starling 1-0
Tree Sparrow 1-0
Reed bunting 6-0
Total 61-25 = 86
A Water Rail hanged in the nets for 5 seconds but unfortunately escaped.

Starlings have got a beautiful plumage in October as you can see above!

The bird on the left is a first 1Y : notice the greyish colourings in the eye. The bird on the right is a >1: the eye is reddish and brownish (maroon).

Redwing adult bird

Tree Sparrow

In the evening we went to the Ooijse Graaf again to try to catch some starlings because there is a huuuge party of Starlings roosting there, approximately 10.000 birds. There was one leucistic birds amongst the starlings.
We trapped :
Redwing 1-0
Long tailed tit- 5-0
Blue tit 0-1
Great it 1-1
Starling 14-0
Reed Bunting 3-0
Total 24-2 = 26

We only trapped 14 Starlings because they dropped in the reedbeds fairly quickly and because the roosting place was about 150 meters next to the mistnets.

On Monday we got out of bed very early for a (failed!) attempt to trap some skylarks early in the morning on a cropfield. We didn't succeed but we did lure 40 Skylarks around the mistnets.
The rest of the morning was quiet with a lack of birds (in the mistnets). We did trap a splendid Bearded Tit though! There was some good passage from thrushes,finches and skylarks overhead.
Results:
Wren 1-1
Robin 8-0
Blackbird 3-0
Song thrush 1-0
Redwing 3-0
Blackcap 1-0
Chiffchaff 1-0
Goldcrests 2-0
Bearded tit 1-0
Blue tit 7-3
Great tit 9-3 -> one with unknown colourrings!
Reed Bunting 6-0
Total 43-7 = 50

Out of the 8 Robins we trapped two Adult birds. On this photo you can clearly see the difference in tail shape of a 1Y bird and Adult bird. The one on the left is a first year, the tail feathers are round (but smaller) but pointed at the tip. The tail feathers of the bird on the left are clearly rounded (and broader).

Female Bearded tit.

Is it winter already?

Yesterday we checked the weather forecast and today was forecasted as a rather good day, with only showers in the western part of the Netherlands and with a faint wind blowing... but somehow these meteorologist cannot predict the weather one day in advance. At arrival the weather was pleasant and it was not too cold, about 12 degrees (ahum). Until 9 o' clock it was pleasant outside but after nine the wind became much stronger and big shower set in and it rained for about one hour, quite heavily. And the temperature was also dropping immediatly, it felt like winter! The wind was way too strong and the only things hanging in the nets were leaves. We trapped a dramatic amount of birds, circa 20. A welcomed surprise though were two White wagtails caught with the clapnet. ''Two in one hit.'' Two grey wagtails could also have been caught with the clapnet but unfortunately something went wrong with the clapnet and the wagtails were gone. But the white wagtails were the compensation;) Also, the first Redwing of the year was trapped and ringed, a first calenderyear. Moreover we trapped a male Nuthatch and some of the more commoner birds.
The weather was definitively the wet blanket today.. More luck next time I hope.

Tit invasion!

This morning became a memorable day! We trapped a total of 86 Blue tits and 45 Great tits, a record!
Furthermore we had 3 Coal Tits, 1 Siskins (new for me in the hand), 6 Goldcrests and 2 Kingfishers.A total amount of 160 birds was trapped and ringed.

Ferruginous duck!

Twitched a female Ferruginous duck this evening in my county, a new county tick! It was discovered yesterday by Maarten Kaales, thanks for that!
A full story will be added later.
Pic's below:

Grey wag

Yesterday we trapped this elegant first calenderyear Grey Wagtail.

Grey wagtails are one of my favourite birds (just realized this yesterday haha) with their yellow undertailcoverts combined with a grey plumage and a buffish breast (the latter is only the case with 1cy)

 

 I also still want to show you this impressive male Red Deer that passed us in a close of fog last week. It was quite curious and I was able to take a few photos although the conditions were foggy. I like the photo because of the created ''atmosphere'':