Wednesday 25 February 2009

25 February 2009 - East Malling

A quick scan of the playing field at work and, hey presto, a superb adult Med Gull wandering around looking for stuff (food, one asumes). Only the second site record - the first being seen by The Bearded One as he stared skyward a couple of years ago (I don't think his neck goes that far back now).

Managed to get Adam out of some bushes (just what was he doing there) and lined up to take a few pics.

Monday 16 February 2009

16 February 2009

This turned out to be the last image taken of our resident Tawney Owls as the following day they were disturbed by some tree felling near-by and took this as a final message to buzz off. Can only hope that they'll return to this tree in teh future - fingers crossed!

Tuesday 3 February 2009

3 Febuary 2009 - East Malling

Waxwings still around - and we're loving em!


The recent snow has congregated the thrushes into patches of apples that are clear. The Bearded One set some nets today and I joined him pre-work and during the lunch break for some ringing.

The result was probably the most exciting ringing session on site. The day's tally:

42 Fieldfare
5 Waxwing
26 Redwing
18 Blackbirds
2 Mistle Thrushes
11 Starling
3 Green Woodpeckers
14 Chaffinches
6 Robins
1 Blue Tit
1 Goldfinch
1 Goldcrest

Total of 130 birds

The site is usually excellent for the winter thrushes - providing some really interesting retrap data between winters of Fieldfare (up to about 10% of the national catch of Fieldfare have been ringed each year on this site).

The first Waxwing caught was this female (note the diffuse lower edge ofthe black bib)

Later this male (strong demarkation to the bib) was caught, allowing a useful comparison between the sexes.


And this one - we called him 'Steve'.

Sunday 1 February 2009

1 Febuary 2009 - Not at Pannel Valley NR, East Sussex

With occasional news of a Great Grey Shrike at Pannel Valley Nature Reserve, nr Rye, I decided that a photo opportunity was in my grasp.

I found Pannel Farm, I found Little or Lower Pannel something else - but could I work out how to get to the NR? Could I buggery! Some 'folk' drove out of Pannel Farm so I asked them the directions, they pointed back up the road and talked about canels. I suspect that I was parked in the right place (not that they said that) and could have easily walked to the site - but as they hadn't given me distances, I was clueless about what to do.

After lots of walking and driving around, I went home. The result - probably 100 miles driving and one Water Rail. Bollocks!