:: Wild Places Blog ::

Just a few days in Shropshire as i wanted to see all the family before heading off to Greece on the 16th March.

Weather cold with frosty mornings - it will be so lovely to experience warmth, blue skies and sunshine - this winter seems to have gone on for so long!

Only ringed Monday am, Tuesday and Wednesday. Nothing has happened yet with the derelict houses next door though i believe there is now planning permission for 4 houses to be built there - it’s going to be very sad if the hawthorn hedge gets ripped out, there are birds in it all the time.

Not a bad selection of birds - 43 new of which 18 were Goldfinches! The Goldies seem to love the sunflower hearts that mum puts out for them. We re-trapped a Dunnock which we had originally ringed in October 2006 and we captured a Goldfinch and a Greenfinch with rings that weren’t ours, will have to wait and see where they were ringed. Also had a House Sparrow retrap, one i’d originally ringed in April 2007 - it would have hatched in 2006 or before - so a minimum of almost 4 years old.

Sparrowhawk is a frequent visitor to the garden here but was a new species to be captured - aged as a 7 (meaning it was hatched not last year but the year before, i.e. 2008).

Sparrowhawk

Just a few remaining juvenile (worn and brownish) feathers on the rump

Also had a chance to see my neice Kerrie and her son, Seth who was born 1st January - hadn’t seen him since he just came home from hospital so got some practice at being a Great Aunt in and had some cuddles.

Great Aunt Yvonne and Seth. I did wonder after if i should perhaps have taken off my rather minty BTO ringing smock. Ah well, good to test a child's immune system i suppose!

Birds ringed: Sparrowhawk, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Great Tit, Starling, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch. Retraps: Song Thrush, Dunnock, Robin, House Sparrow,