Wild Places Blog :: Birding and Ringing

Well folks, i think we all know about the carnage that happens in Malta during the Spring and Autumn hunting seasons. For many years i’ve tried to discourage friends from holidaying there, passing on to them my reasons for boycotting the place. The Times of Malta is currently running an online poll to vote as to whether there should be a Spring hunting season this year. For goodness sake get over to the Times of Malta site and vote “NO”!!

Make sure you also sign the Birdlife Malta petition.

To quote the Birdlife Malta website:-

“…migratory birds are in peril as they fly over Malta, where they continue to be gunned down. Every year, protected species are killed; every spring and every autumn. Law enforcement is under resourced and unable to control the scale of illegal hunting.

There are nearly 12,000 hunters on the small island.

Whereas spring hunting is not permitted under the EU Birds Directive because this is the breeding season and a chance for birds to replenish their numbers, Malta has opened the spring hunting season every year since it joined the EU in 2004.

Over the last years, BirdLife Malta has been instrumental in ensuring that Malta strengthens its bird protection laws through its public and advocacy campaigns.

Spring hunting was not allowed in 2008 and 2009 thanks to an interim measure issued by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Last year, the ECJ found that Malta had been in breach of European law for allowing spring hunting (of turtle dove and quail) without meeting the conditions of a derogation since it became a member state.

In spite of this, the Maltese government is still considering opening what it calls a “limited spring hunting season” in 2010. The government also continues to undermine the true scale and seriousness of illegal hunting”

and here’s a gruesome pic i pinched from the Birdlife Malta web site

Heron, injured by Maltese hunters

A chance to see the family and do a little ringing in and around mum and dad’s Shropshire garden. We were there from New Years Day until the 7th January and it was fairly cold. We didn’t have any snow until the evening of Tuesday 5th January - being soppy old tarts we let the birds get on with the important job of feeding for the morning on the 6th and went for a walk down the country lanes instead  - good views of Yellowhammer, Fieldfare and plenty of Redwing around and just a few birds ringed that afternoon.

We ringed 80 new birds between the 2nd and the 6th. We captured 3 control birds (birds that weren’t originally ringed by us) all Greenfinches. Other unusual birds and all firsts for the garden were 2 male Bullfinches captured in the same net at the same time, 2 Pied Wagtails and a Redwing.

One of the two male Bullfinches captured and ringed

Pied Wagtail - the first time we'd ringed them in the garden

Plenty of Redwing around but only one in the net

Here’s wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and all best wishes for 2010 - i hope your birding and ringing will be all you wish for.

Thanks for following my blog this year - the first trip of the year is already planned out: we’ll be off to the small Greek island (population 45) of Antikythera to stay at the bird observatory there from mid March until mid to late May. the birding and ringing looks great!

Photo taken during our amazing trip to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada

Today our birding had focus! - we went out to bird with the intention of gathering some Roving Records for the BTO Atlas. And what a pleasant way to spend a few hours on a sunny Autumn day. We wandered along Back Lane Roman Road, typically English countryside. Back Lane is a bridleway so no traffic apart from walkers and horseriders (we only saw 4 people and 1 horse over the 5 hours we were out!). The pathway is bordered by open arable land, hedgerows but very little sign of human habitation.

Back Lane Roman Road

The most numerous bird of the day was Fieldfare - at nearly 400 birds they even outnumbered the Woodpigeons! Lots of Long-tailed Tits moving along the trees and the usual Blackbirds, Robins, Blue Tits and Great Tits. A single Marsh Tit was nice as was a small flock of Bullfinches. A Yellowhammer was spotted pecking about on a ploughed field. We only saw 1 Greenfinch and in the 3 tetrads (2km x 2km squares) we passed through we didn’t see a single Dunnock.

A few days in Shropshire, catching up with the family and of course we had some nets up in and around the garden. the house next door is STILL derelict and no sign of anything being done with that. The local authority had very kindly strimmed the grass in the back garden and trimmed the beautiful Hawthorn hedge.

We took the opportunity to do some net mending. Dad’s driveway is quite long so we were able to put a net up between two poles and work our way along, fixing any holes and mending where the netting had come away from the side or shelf strings. It is a fact of life that nets are expensive and, speaking as one who is eternally skint, i like to lengthen their lifespan for as long as possible. Mending is a simple enough task but fairly time-consuming.

Net mending

A nice selection of birds were captured and ringed over the weekend. Also captured were two birds that already had rings, but hadn’t originally been ringed by me - a Greenfinch and a Goldfinch. We’ll have to wait a while to find out where they have come from.

Coal Tit

Well, here i am back in the UK! Said goodbye to all those lovely North American birds - the two days before leaving Delta there were so many birds around, we could have caught literally hundreds and hundreds of sparrows and juncoes but had to pack up the nets and clear everything away for the winter then finalise the data and paperwork.

So, this weekend found us heading to Lincolnshire for the opportunity of ringing with our friend James at his site on the Lincs coast. The weather forecast was looking fairly good and there is always the lure of that rarity in the net.  Saturday dawned grey, blustery and distinctly chilly. We put nets up in the coastal scrub although we weren’t able to open them all at first because the wind was initially too strong.

Next we put nets up in the garden of local resident and birder, Phil - he lives in an amazing position, right on the coast - just the sea defence bank separating his house from the beach. Phil has a good feeding station with a great variety of birds visiting.

First bird out of the garden net was a Yellowhammer - a bird i haven’t seen in the hand for a couple of years.

Yellowhammer

Phil keeps a couple of pigs in his garden, a rare breed called the British Lop. I love pigs and couldn’t resist photographing them.

Phil's two British Lop pigs. I'll try and refrain from saying "mmm bacon" under my breath when i'm there.

Plenty of Tree Sparrows visiting the feeders and it wasn’t long before we had some in the net.

Tree Sparrow

The wind dropped down a little and the other 2 nets in the coastal scrub were able to be opened but not much was caught down there. The garden had a steady stream of Blue Tits and Great Tits. It was rather galling to hear the news that Spurn Bird Obs had caught and ringed Red-flanked Bluetail and Radde’s Warbler - we can see Spurn from here!

Sunday morning was much improved wind-wise although the direction was now north-westerly. First bird out of the coastal scrub nets was a Redwing - my first one of the Autumn!

Redwing

Redwing wing showing juvenile-type tertials and some retained greater coverts.

And what ringing session in the UK would be complete with these two “bread and butter” birds…

Robin

Blue Tit - it seemed much more interested in pecking lumps out of my finger than in having it's photo taken!

A very enjoyable weekend and 14 species ringed - Blackbird, Yellowhammer, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Goldcrest, Redwing, Tree Sparrow and House Sparrow. We also caught two birds which had already been ringed - a Blue Tit and a Goldfinch - the ring numbers weren’t James’ and didn’t belong to another local ringer so we will wait with anticipation to find out where they came from.

My first Whooper Swans of the winter were seen and there were Golden Plover and Lapwings on the fields. As we were concentrating on the ringing rather than birding our weekend list isn’t very impressive: Mute Swan, Whooper Swan, Teal, Pheasant, Cormorant, Grey Heron, Marsh Harrier, Sparrowhawk, Moorhen, Golden Plover, Lapwing, Redshank, Wood Pigeon, Stock Dove, Collared Dove, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Redwing, Fieldfare, Goldcrest, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow, Starling, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Linnet, Yellowhammer.

25th September 2009

A very smart-looking adult male Slate-coloured Junco

Adult-type Junco tail

Apart from the “morning rush” of sparrows things were pretty quiet. A sharpie got caught in net 7 - i think he was after the Slate-coloured Junco in there but ended up well tangled around his feet before he could do any damage.

Lots of Geese on the move and Blue Jays are moving through. Merlin seen flying down the ridge. The atlas-eers once again had Harris’s Sparrow but it’s evading us still - get in the net!

Afternoon birding was pretty quiet but the Red-necked Grebe was on the usual pool and we saw an Osprey coming in off the lake. The weather is hot, hot, hot and can you believe it we are still getting bitten by mosquitoes!

The Lodge has filled up with balls of wool, spinning wheels and lots of ladies in home-made clothing - it’s the fibre workshop weekend.

26th September 2009

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, adult

Steady stream of birds right from the first round this morning. Plenty of Myrtle Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creepers and White-throated Sparrows. Once again we caught a Sharp-shinned Hawk - this time i was standing at the end of net 2 extracting a Myrtle Warbler and whack! the sharpie flew straight into the other end of the net, dropping it’s rather gruesome, headless, Swamp Sparrow breakfast which it had been carrying. Ian grabbed the sharpie, a nice hatch year female.

Not so many geese around today but there were 6 Tundra Swans flying over the lake. Clouded up in the afternoon and feels pleasantly cooler.

27th September 2009

Yes! Harris’s Sparrow in the net. This now makes us up to 88 species for the Autumn - the most ever banded at Delta.

Adult Harris's Sparrow

Head shot of the adult Harris's Sparrow

Hatch year Harris's Sparrow

Head shot of the hatch year Harris's Sparrow

Harris's Sparrow - on the left the adult tail and on the right the hatch year tail

A good morning with 225 birds - 168 of them Myrtle Warbler!

Not much afternoon birding, we didn’t finish paperwork and lunch until 3pm then entered data and had a kip (tired after a couple of nights disturbed sleep!). When we woke up the Lodge was wonderfully peaceful - all the multi-coloured fibre workshop vegans had disappeared.

Thousands of Snow, Canada and Cackling Geese out on the fields around the marsh. Searched in vain for a Ross’s Goose - there has to be one in there somewhere!

28th September 2009

A VERY windy day - the wind was gusting to force 8 when we started this morning and it was difficult to find any nets sheltered enough to open. Nets 6, 8 and 12 were OK but we did net checks every 15 minutes and managed to catch a few birds. Once again the Bald Eagles were enjoying the wind and just hanging in the air above us.

Ian did census and looked frozen! Such a change from just a few days ago when we were sweltering. Quite a few Juncos, Myrtle Warblers and White-throated Sparrows around but not much else.

29th September 2009

Primary coverts of the Brown Creeper - can these be used for accurate ageing?

-2′C at opening time at 7am. Still and calm and all nets open for the full 6 hours. Pretty quiet morning though with only 57 birds, most of which were Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. A couple of White-breasted Nuthatches were interesting and a late Northern Waterthrush was another surprise.

30th September 2009

The last day of the Fall Migration Monitoring Programme! I suppose you could say that our last official day of ringing was a bit of an anti-climax as we only caught 3 birds! However, we enjoyed ourselves. It felt very cold and we were in our hats and gloves. The wind got up and we finally closed the nets at 10am when it just got too blustery. It took ages to close the 3 nets that we had open as they were full of leaves.

Ian had a pretty quiet census but there were plenty of geese and more Tundra Swans passing over.

So, our final total for Autumn 2009 is 5548 birds of 88 species!

Afternoon birding: Quiet along the diversion road. Walked into one of the reedy areas that runs parallel to Donald Bain Drive. There were 72 Short-billed Dowitchers and a handful of Long-billed Dowitchers plus 6 Greater Yellowlegs. We returned to the lodge and got wellies to make three access points into the pool.

Evening birding: Took the ’scope out to the pool. a few Dowitchers still there and some legs. The ducks were really skittish (mind you we hear the hunters blasting away at them nearby most days so it’s hardly surprising!). Mostly Mallard, Green-winged Teal and Shoveler. An American Bittern was a good spot, our first sighting of one for a couple of weeks.

The diversion road was pretty quiet apart from a lone Brewer’s Blackbird sitting on a bale and a few hundred Snow and Canada Geese in the fields.

1st October 2009

So, just what do you do when you’ve worked, ringing, 83 days straight, getting up early every morning? We could’ve had a lie-in, lazed around all day, just chilled out. But no, we got up early, opened the nets and ringed! Another first for Delta - ringing outside of the standard migration monitoring period. We’re curious to see what else is out there to catch. We have less than a week left here now

It turned out to be quite a slow morning with only 13 birds ringed but we enjoyed it

I’ve been in touch with the employment agency back in the UK and am trawling the internet for jobs for the winter…

18th September 2009

A slowish day with a brisk southerly wind. Plenty of Orange-crowned Warblers (11) and a few Nashville and Myrtle Warblers. We caught and ringed a Yellow-shafted Flicker - always a fun (and VERY noisy) bird to handle.

19th September 2009

The first Brown Creeper of the Autumn seen and ringed today.

Brown Creeper

Saw our first Snow Geese flying over. Plenty of visible migration today. We ringed just over 200 birds with a good range of species (28) - plenty of Myrtle Warblers (53) and White-throated Sparrows (27)

20th September 2009

A slow day with strong southerly winds. The first Fox Sparrow of the season turned up in the net, i just love these big chunky sparrows.

Fox Sparrow

Also the first Winter Wren of the Autumn. Unlike Europe, North America has a variety of wrens - here at Delta we have House, Marsh, Sedge and Winter Wrens - the Winter Wren being the same species as in the UK.

Winter Wren

Black-capped chickadee. Only a few a year caught here at Delta.

Out in the evening to see our friends Alicia and her husband Aaron, had a lovely dinner and it was good to spend time chatting with them.

At Alicia and Aaron's house

21st September 2009

The wind has now swung right round to the north - perhaps it will push some birds down from that direction? We caught a rather late Eastern Wood Pewee and perhaps the last Black and White Warbler of the season.

A lovely adult male Black and White Warbler, probably the last we'll see this year.

The wind continued to increase as the morning went on and all nets were closed by 10.30

Census was a record breaker for all the wrong reasons - the least species of birds ever (12!), even beating Becky’s record low of 15 birds in the worst Autumn ever (2004).

Thousands of gulls (mainly Ring-billed with some Franklins plus the odd Bonaparte’s and Herring Gull)  flying round over the lake made an impressive sight. The Bald Eagles just seem to thrive in this wind as two of them spent the morning effortlessly drifting up and down the ridge.

22nd September 2009

First Yellow-bellied Sapsucker of the season.

Hatch year male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - you can see the red coming in on the throat.

Yesterday’s northerly seems to have brought us some birds with a total today of 190 birds (20 species), 108 of these were Myrtle Warblers, 26 Ruby-crowned Kinglets and a fair smattering of other interesting stuff - Hermit Thrush, Swainson’s Thrush, Chipping Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Blackpoll Warbler and a single American Redstart.

Thousands of Snow Geese out on the fields in the evening.

23rd September 2009

Golden-crowned Kinglet turned up today.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Our first hatch year White-crowned Sparrow which was actually the first hatch year bird i’d seen and confused the hell out of me briefly - i’ve only seen them in adult plumage before. It was the first bird i’d taken out of the net this year and said “what the heck…???”. There’s always one isn’t there - last year it was a summer plumage American Pipit which gave me a brief moment of “duh…??”. Just over a hundred birds today and again a really good mix of species.

White-crowned Sparrow - a hatch year bird, very different plumage from the adult birds!

Spent the evening at Heidi’s house and later went with Chris on an owl net check - two owls were in there so Ian and i ringed one each.

Ringing the Northern Saw-whet Owl. The owl ringing programme here at Delta runs from the 15th September up to the end of October with the peak catch usually during the first 2 weeks of October.

Bit of a dark photo but we were asked not to use flash.

24th September 2009 - ringing the 5,000th bird of Autumn

Plenty of birders around this morning as there is to be a two-day meeting to discuss the technical aspects of the forthcoming Manitoba Bird Atlas project. We had the usual (for this week) early morning sparrow invasion. No new species today and everyone, it seemed, was on the hunt for Harris’s Sparrow with no luck.

Rather smart American Robin which is actually a thrush unlike a "proper" Robin of the sort we have in the UK!

Things quietened down so Ian set off on census - only to return for bags and his bike because when he got as far as nets 8 and 9 he found the birds flinging themselves in and we had a busy time for the next hour. Chris turned up and very kindly continued on census for us.  We ringed the 5,000th bird of the Autumn season - a White-throated Sparrow. We ended the morning with 100 birds.

Afternoon birding was pretty quiet but plenty of Snow, Canada and Cackling Geese on the fields in the evening. Popped into the ringing room to see if there were any owls, there weren’t but one of the atlas-eers was in there and he’d had Harris’s Sparrow down the ridge during the evening.

A pretty slow week ringing-wise with only 357 birds captured. Great week for visible migration though with plenty of Sandhill Cranes, Canada Geese, duck (mainly Mallard but some Pintail, Gadwall and American Wigeon) and gulls (Ring-billed and Franklins).

11th September 2009

A slow and drizzly day cut short when the rain came down heavier at 10am. There was a large movement of Ring-billed Gulls throughout the morning (do they know something we don’t?). Only 22 birds caught and ringed, nothing unusual. I did census and managed 23 species, the only warblers being Myrtles, Northern Waterthrush and Common Yellowthroat. The number of swallows is noticeably fewer now. Had over 330 Ring-billed Gulls and 70 Double-crested Cormorants. A couple of adult Bald Eagles flying low over the ridge made an impressive sight.

Saw this on our way out for evening birding

12th September 2009

Quiet peaceful day - no students, no tourists, no visitors - not that we’re anti-social or anything Two new species for the Autumn - a Slate-coloured Junco that was, unbelieveably, still in juvenile plumage, something neither of us had ever seen before.

Slate-coloured Junco which hasn't yet undergone it's post-juvenile moult

We also caught our first Western Palm Warbler for the Autumn. Net 8 caught a family party of Hairy Woodpeckers - the adult male and female were already ringed - by us in 2006 when they were both aged as second year birds. Along with the adults was a hatch year bird.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

13th September 2009

A very foggy start! The fog hung around for a couple of hours and certainly didn’t make for an easy census.

Swamp Sparrow

Very few birds around today, the most common bird today being Common Yellowthroat with 8 captured and ringed.

Red-eyed Vireo

14th September 2009

Yet another excruciatingly slow day. Plenty of time for general observations - good passage of Cedar Waxwings and a couple of Sharp-shinned Hawks passed overhead. We kept hearing Sandhill Cranes and a few flocks went over. I love that sound. My turn for census and it was bit of a struggle to find birds - lots of gulls at the diversion though. We ended the morning with only 15 birds ringed.

Chris arrived back from the UK where he had spent spring and summer in Cornwall helping out on some RSPB Chough and Corn Bunting work (and surfing when he could). Chris runs the Saw-whet Owl ringing program here at Delta and had come to get things set up ready to start owl ringing tomorrow night. Chris is also the owner of Rupert, the car we’ve been using all spring and summer so it looks like we’ll be handing the keys back over very soon

Our afternoon birding session was good, even though it was stiflingly hot. We stood at the diversion watching flocks of Sandhill Cranes come drifting in. We also had an Osprey and 4 more Sharpies.

Evening birding brought lots more Sandhill Cranes plus an unexpected Great Egret on one of the diversion pools. A single Golden Plover was looking a little lost all on it’s own and we had good views of Black-crowned Night Heron and Great Blue Heron.

15th September 2009

Where are all the birds?? Still up north i reckon. Sooooo slow again today. However, life livened up around 9am. Ian was on census and i was on my own, in the process of ringing a Sharp-shinned Hawk when the alarms started going off in Mallard Lodge. I kept thinking “Jeff will appear soon to sort it out” (Jeff is the stations maintenance guy). But no-one appeared so i quickly finished off the sharpie and dashed over to the office. Heidi and Jeff couldn’t hear the alarm! The fire truck from Portage la Prairie arrived 10 minutes later. The fire crew had to look all around the building to make sure there wasn’t a real emergency. It was, as we suspected a false alarm. Probably Murray set it off - The Lodge is supposed to be haunted by the ghost of the ex-caretaker (Murray) and his dog but i’ve never had any spooky experiences in the 3 times i’ve stayed here.

Smart fire truck!

More Sandhill Cranes over today and a Cooper’s Hawk. A House Sparrow (an introduced species to North America) is hanging around by the buildings here and sounds very English.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Another 400 or so Sandhills over in the afternoon and more Sharp-shinned Hawks.

As it was Chris’s first night owl ringing we sat in the ringing hut chatting with him when it was beer o’clock. He caught one Northern Saw-whet Owl during tonight’s session but not until late on, after we had gone to bed. He’s under strict instructions to come and wake us up if he catches any owls that aren’t Saw-whets.

16th September 2009

Northern (Yellow-shafted) Flicker

A steady day with birds coming in from the first round - only slowing down as the weather warmed up from 11.30am onwards. We roped Chris in to help us - he’d arrived at the ringing room to say good morning just as Ian had brought back a Northern Parula. Lovely bird! Not a species caught here very often.

Northern Parula

Afternoon birding was quiet, there was no wind and no soaring birds. Coyote in the usual place along the diversion road looked like it was catching grasshoppers.

Evening birding also fairly quiet, the Great Egret has moved on but we did get Black-crowned Night Heron and good numbers of duck including a single Bufflehead.

17th September 2009

Could hear coyotes howling and barking when i opened the nets this morning, they sounded quite close. Don’t know how many of them there are, we’ve only seen a maximum of 2 when out and about. When i was here in Spring 2007 i saw a pack of 8 of them crossing the road ahead of me when i was out birding on my own which was a little worrying.

Ian had gone to open the nets at the other end of the ridge and had found a Virginia Rail walking around by net 4, he chased it around for a while trying to catch it and only lost it when it headed into thick vegetation. What it was doing on the ridge we have no idea!

Ringing fairly slow with only 54 birds but we did catch our first Blue Jay of the season. I love Blue Jays they have so much character!

Blue Jay

Ian spotted this sticker in the back of a car. Well, i think i’ve seen it all now!

Least said the better really...

A SLOW week! The weather was settled all week, the southerly winds meaning birds were only trickling through so not much to tell this week. Things are slowly changing and we’ve woken up to the sound of Canada Geese passing overhead a few mornings this week. No Snow Geese through yet, but soon…

4th September 2009

An excruciatingly slow day with only 15 birds ringed! Yellow-bellied Flycatcher was a nice catch although my photo didn’t come out as well as i’d hoped so i haven’t posted it on here.

Moulting Eastern Phoebe

Although, the Phoebe seems to be doing strange things with it's tail moult - birds usually moult their tail starting with the central tail feathers and moult proceeds towards the outer tail.

Found outside the ringing room. From what i can find out from the internet this is the caterpillar of the Banded Tussock Moth (Halysidota tessellaris).

Our afternoon birding session was a bit more lively and we increased our 2009 Manitoba list to 264 with a 15 minute view of a juvenile Least Bittern.

5th September 2009

Melanie and Kyle had arrived late last night and were here for the long weekend to help us. Kyle studies seabirds (mainly Murres and Murrelets) and as things were pretty slow again today he amused us with tales of some of his experiences above the arctic circle.

As the wind increased through the morning the nets gradually got closed up. We’re still getting mozzed

Most of the birds seemed to passing through high in the canopy today, too high for the nets - Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches, Warbling Vireo, Myrtle Warbler, Yellow-shafted flicker, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Waterthrush and Marsh Wren plus a species we haven’t seen around for a while - American Crow.

Veery

Swainson's Thrush

6th September 2009

A couple of small mixed flocks hit the nets during the morning, bringing our daily total ringed to 77 birds. We ringed our first Lincoln’s Sparrow of the Autumn. Sharp-shinned Hawk, Philadelphia and Blue-headed Vireos were good birds for the day.

Lincoln's Sparrow

Afternoon birding, data entry, supper, evening birding then a bonfire and beer o’clock on the beach.

7th September 2009

Watching paint dry or watching grass grow would surely have been a more interesting task for us today - only 13 birds captured in 6 hours! Mind you, there were certainly birds around as with general observations, census and ringing we logged 52 species during the 6 hour ringing period, so i shouldn’t really be whinging!

There are quite a few dragonflies around at the moment, i don't know the identity of this one, i couldn't find an id book in the field station library.

Spent the evening at Heidi’s cabin drinking beer and playing Settlers of Catan. She had bought a new add-on when we were in Winnipeg last week - Traders and Barbarians. Like it, a good add-on for the game and will probably get it myself when i get back to the UK. (I can recommend Gameslore which is based in Shropshire for board and tabletop games).

Heidi's new Settlers add-on (you need the original Settlers of Catan to be able to play with this extension set).

8th September 2009

Woke up to terrific thunder, lightening and heavy rain which continued for most of the day. A day for data entry, although we are virtually up to date with that. Reading (currently reading The Time Traveller’s Wife) and generally sitting around drinking beer. A birdless day

9th September 2009

Another deadly quiet day with no birds captured after 10.30am although we did have a new species for the Autumn - Orange-crowned Warbler. A few Myrtles around. Sat outside at the bench for a few hours between net checks and saw virtually nothing! A couple of small flocks of mixed warblers and sparrows on census. There wasn’t even much at the diversion apart from Ring-billed Gulls.

Orange-crowned Warbler

Ian did some maintenance - put some roofing felt onto the ringing room steps as i’d nearly fallen over yesterday when it was wet and slippery. Ian DID fall over on them last week so it needed doing. Mind you, i’ve eaten so many of the station’s homemade cookies, muffins, granola and desserts since i got here in April that i probably have too much padding on my backside to have felt any pain if i had fallen over

10th September 2009

The morning didn’t start well when i got gnashed by a Rose-breasted Grosbeak - a VERY aggressive hatch year male which got hold of the fleshy part of my finger and wouldn’t let go. Pain, aarrgghh. Brought tears to my eyes. Ian thought it was highly amusing especially as i usually tell people “oh don’t be such a wuss they won’t hurt you”. I tell you, even the birth of 3 children didn’t make me cry but that bloody Grosbeak did!

Census was slow again and Ian only managed one more species than i got yesterday. The numbers of Myrtle Warblers seem to be building up.

During our usual afternoon and evening birding the duck numbers have dropped right down. We’re still getting the odd wader - Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitcher, Least, Semi-palmated, Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers. A few skeins of Canada Geese over - amounting to about 1200 birds.