Friday 12th December 2008 - Trip to Hilbre..Peregrine and waders delight..

A days holiday so a trip to Hilbre and the Bird Obs (see link on blog) - myself, Kenny Mac and Colin Jones (the two baffled looking blokes pictured) set off across the sands from Dee Lane at 07.10hrs, we travelled via Little Eye passing Barry B who drove over. As we passed between Middle and the main island, 2 Snow Buntings flew past - a male bird being located on Little Eye as we returned home later in the day.
With the high tide coming in, Middle Eye became rammed with the usual Oystercatchers (pictured)and were harassed by a Peregrine on and off throughout the high tide(pictured).
The same bird decided to spook the waders in Niffy Bay and allowed me to take a close up shot (not a brilliant pic) surprisingly some birds just stayed put, seemingly unperturbed by its presence.
A trip down to the North end produced singles of Great Crested Grebe, Common Scoter and Shag and enabled me to take a few pics of a colour ringed Purple Sandpiper.
Walking back through the Old Obs garden, Kenny pointed out 5 tadpoles moving around the pond - the first we had both seen in December. Short Tailed Field Voles were spotted in a couple of places and Song Thrush were numerous - not surprising with the amount of snails on the island.
Derek Bates joined us after the tide, he managed some good numbers of Grey Plover on his way over.
We left around 14.30hrs managing to see a flock of 60 Golden Plover and 6 Ringed Plover on our way back as well as the male Snow Bunting on Little Eye.
Overall a very enjoyable day.

AEH,CJ,KMcN,BB,DB.

Friday 5th/Saturday 6th December 2008 - More Redpoll and frozen nets abandon play..

Friday and Saturday were both cold days - AH and DR ringing on both days, but I was forced to close the nets early on Saturday due to my nets being frost bound.

The Peregrine was in its usual roosting spot on Friday morning (both m&f were present Sun per JB/TD) and there was lots of movement of duck up and down the ship canal, mostly Tufted and Mallard but also a Drake Shoveler.

As last week there were a few Woodcock about - 3 Friday and 2 on Saturday morning - 1 evading capture by a matter of inches...its been about 20 years since I last ringed one.

Redpoll were about again - 3 being ringed on Friday and a flock of 12 looking at the frozen Birch net on Saturday.

There was a good movement of Starlings on Sat morning - over 500 heading North and a Bullfinch was retrapped at the feeding station (pictured).

An interesting retrap was BHK751 a Wren ringed as an adult on 3-11-2007 and was not seen again until it was retrapped on Sat morning, were has it been for over a year? Also Great Tit TE26174 was re-captured having been ringed as a pullus on 19-05-2007 it was 1 of a brood of 8 pullus ringed.

My ringing totals were (new)

Greenfinch - 4

Lesser Redpoll - 3

Reed Bunting -1

Blue Tit -1

Total = 9

AEH,RDR,EK,MA,JB,TD

Friday 28th -Saturday 29th November 2008 - Woodcock and lots of Chaffinch..

Friday afternoon was cold 3'C dropping to 0'C later with thick fog engulfing the bed.

A single Kingfisher sat on the canal by the viaduct and one of the Peregrines came into roost late on.

Other sightings of note were singles of Woodcock, Lesser Redpoll and Siskin. Around 30 Blackbirds came into roost along with several Redwing and the usual Magpie roost had at least 40 birds present.

Saturday morning started the same as Friday finished -freezing fog...myself, DR +1 and Sam, a visiting C permit holder from Sussex, arrived first - followed by Ste Menzie who was having an attack of lazyitis, then, part-time ringers John & Tony (pictured) graced us at 08.09hrs (as requested JB) to start their latest project of building duck traps, to then lose interest and disappear for another 6 months!!!!....

Sightings included at least 3 Woodcock, 3 Tawny Owl, upto 60 Chaffinch (19 caught), Yellowhammer and 6 Teal.

My ringing totals (new) were -

Magpie -1

Blackbird -1 (Stockamsel type)

Chaffinch -13

Greenfinch-12

Dunnock-1

Goldcrest-1

Total - 19

AEH,RDR,SDM,JB,TD,SB & Kath.