Sparrowssss

Had my 6m net open in the garden this morning again. I managed to capture 7 House sparrows (6 juvies and 1 adult male) and a Blue Tit. It's all not too exciting but it's better than nothing! My garden will get exciting again from November on when finches, thrushes and tits will be around again!

I've been catching birds in my garden since the end of March now and the results so far are:

House Sparrow - 40 (of which 31 colourringed)
Great Tit - 9
Blue Tit - 8
Dunnock -3
Blackbird - 3
Chaffinch - 2
Siskin - 2
Greenfinch - 3
Magpie - 1
Chiffchaff - 1
Total 72 new

I've only retrapped two birds: a Dunnock and a House Sparrow.
A total of 74 birds with one 6m mistnet is not bad I'd say :)!

Tomorrow I'm off to La Brenne en France for two weeks, so good bye for now.

Magpie!

This morning I decided to open the net in my garden again. I had it opened from 6 till 12. I caught most birds during 6 and 8 'o clock in the morning.
Results:
Great Tit 7-0
Blue Tit 2-0
Chiffchaff 1-0 (new for the garden)
House Sparrow 1-0
Magpie 1-0

Total 12-0

The Magpie was a new ringing species for me. I saw it flying into the net and quickly grabbed it. I was lucky because his head was the only thing that had kept him in the net..!

Chiffchaff, adult male

Blue Tit, juvenile

Great Tit, juvenile

Magpie, juvenile

House Sparrow, juvenile male undergoing post-juvenile moult. From inner to outer: P10,9 and 8 are completely renewed (three 5's), P7 is a 3, P6 is a 1 = a moult score of 19. P1-5 are old.

Long-tailed Tits!

I had a ringing session today again, at my own site, and the results weren't  bad at all! A nice variety of species was trapped, see numbers and species below.

Boomkruiper (Short-toed Treecreeper) 2-0
Bonte vliegenvanger (Pied Flycatcher) 1-0
Boompieper (Tree Pipit) 1-0
Fitis (Willow Warbler) 2-0
Gekraagde Roodstaart (Redstart) 1-1
Grote Bonte Specht (Greater Spotted Woodpecker) 1-0
Koolmees (Great Tit) 4-0
Kuifmees (Crested Tit) 1-0
Merel (Blackbird) 2-0
Pimpelmees (Blue Tit) 2-0
Roodborst (Robin) 5-1
Staartmees (Long-tailed Tit) 16-1
Tjiftjaf (Chiffchaff) 3-0
Vink (Chaffinch) 1-0

Total 42-3 = 45

Ugly worn Tree Pipit, adult male

Pied Flycatcher, juvenile

Two juvenile Willow Warblers, note the striking colour difference..

Stunning adult male Redstart

Crested Tit, juvenile

My sister holding a Long-tailed Tit.

Black Tern yay!

Bram and I had planned to do a CES session at his site yesterday so this meant that on the evening of the 7th of July we went there and already placed the mistnets. Since the site exist most out of reedbeds and since it is a known place for swallow-roosts we tried to catch some swallows that evening with 3 nets in the reeds.

It resulted in 42 swallows and 2 Sand Martins, along with some other birds, including 2 Stonechats, a Bluethroat and a Reed bunting. We went to bed late and only had 2 hours of sleep before the alarmclock went off! While opening the mistnets we had a Long-eared Owl that had slept in a small bush next to the mistnets, unfortunately the mistnets were still closed when the owl flew out.. The surprise (well, we had expected to catch this bird with a bit of luck) was a Black Tern hanging in a net, situated along the small lake nearby. Furthermore we trapped the following birds:
IJsvogel (Kingfisher) 1-0
Winterkoning (Wren) 1-1
Blauwborst (Bluethroat) 2-4
Stonechat (Roodborsttapuit) 2-0
Zanglijster (Songthrush) 1-2
Sprinkhaanzanger (Grashopper Warbler) 0-2
Bosrietzanger (Marsh Warbler) 4-2
Kleine Karekiet (Reed Warbler) 5-3
Grasmus (Whitethroat) 8-0
Tuinfluiter (Garden Warbler) 14-2
Zwartkop (Blackcap) 18-1
Tjiftjaf (Chiffchaff) 29-7
Fitis (Willow Warbler) 3-0
Pimpelmees (Blue tit) 3-2
Koolmees (Great tit) 2-3
Boomkruiper (Short-toed Treecreeper) 1-0
Rietgors (Reed bunting) 1-1
Total: 127 (96 new, 31 retrap) birds, 19 species

Bram, happy with the Black Tern

Kingfisher, female 1cy

Bluethroat, adult male

Bluethroats! Adult male, old + young juvenile

Stonechat, 2cy Male

Stonechat, juvenile

Grashopper Warbler, adult female

On our way back to home we ringed another 11 Goldfinch nestlings, in willows along a path.

CES 9

Bosrietzanger (Marsh Warbler) 2-1
Fitis (Willow Warbler) 2-0
Gaai (Jay) 1-0
Goudvink (Bullfinch) 0-1
Gr. Bonte Specht (Gr. Spotted Woodpecker) 1-0
Heggenmus (Dunnock) 0-1
IJsvogel (Kingfisher) 1-0
Kleine karekiet (Reed Warbler) 1-0
Koolmees (Great tit) 6-4
Matkop (Willow Tit) 1-0
Merel (Blackbird) 1-1
Pimpelmees (Blue Tit) 1-0
Staartmees (Long-tailed Tit) 0-3
Tjiftjaf (Chiffchaff) 9-3
Tuinfluiter (Garden Warbler) 5-2
Winterkoning (Wren) 1-2
Zwartkop (Blackcap) 16-2
Total: 48-20 = 68

Marsh Warbler, adulte male

Willow Warbler, juvenile

Bullfinch, adult male

Funky Jay! adult female

Great Spotted Woodpecker, juvenile