A Blue Sunday

The balmy temperatures that brought about some half decent Moffing on Tuesday night have faded fast leaving a damn cold and breezy bank holiday weekend. The Herald and Purple Thorn were in the trap on Wednesday morning and a welcome addition to the dawn chorus was the Turtle Dove pictured.

Sunday morning saw Kes and me on the Long Nab headland at Scarborough along with four other members of Scarborough birders trying our best to keep warm and find hidden reserves of

enthusiasum for sea watching, as it turned out all our enthusiasum was miss placed and after a couple of hours it was off for some bush bashing, three Lesser Whitethroats a Garden Warbler and a Chiffchaff were just enough to keep me interested but alas they were all that showed.

Whilst sat in the van enjoying a much needed warm coffee the pager alerted me to a Blue Winged Teal near Northallerton, which with some creative driving I could hopefully collect on the way home. After a frustrating 20 mins when I could see the lake the bird had been reported from but not the way in, a friendly local pointed me in the right direction and there it was in its full glory a male Blue Winged Teal. A blue end to a day most brass monkies will be glad is over.

A Damp Squib

A day that started with such promise soon spiralled into a wet dull morning. We managed two net rounds before rain stopped play. 23 new birds were caght including the first Garden and Grasshopper Warblers. We also had a Turtle Dove singing from the wood behind the ringing lab. I called into the Army Camp on the way home and was rewarded with two Common Sandpipers making four year ticks for the day and me upto 184 for the year.

Moths were also a bit of a let down with only Streamer new for the year. The Comma pictured was taken yesterday in the sunshine.

Scores on the Doors

The weather in Trondelag allowed Ticker to get out on his usual thursday morning birding trip before work and he was rewarded with another six ticks including Coot, bringing him upto 103, I was lucky this morning to be working outside the workshop when a Lesser Whitethroat struck up bringing my total to 179. I think that ticker will pull back some more this weekend as the weather looks set fair and migrants are arriving enmass in central Norway.

A Hectic Weekend

The fine weather and sunshine encouraged me to take a walk round Bishop Monkton on friday evening and after locating two drumming male Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers and fresh tracks of Otter as I headed back to the van I was in good spirits. Alas this did not last long as lying at the side of the road I found a freshly dead Otter, what a blow for a small population trying to establish its self.



Saturday saw me up before the larks and heading out into the Yorkshire Dales looking for Black Grouse. Despite the highways agencys best efforts to thwart my intentions I arrived on site at 06:30 and was rewarded with 12 fantastic birds bubbling away and putting on a fine show, with Lapwing, Curlew, Snipe, Redshank and Golden Plover in the same area and Skylarks and Meadow Pipits singing overhead I had a wonderful 2 hours in a bright sunlit but cold morning. Unfortunately the pub was not open for breakfast so I wandered home over the tops and picked up another three Blackcock and at least five Ringouzels. Afternoon spent gardening and housework, well its got to be done.


Sunday brought anothere early start this time ringing at BMI where a total of 48 birds were caught, I considered this a little slow but Natasha and David my keen trainees enjoyed it. A big bonus here was a male Goshawk which put on a good display over the bottom wood. There was also several butterflys on the wing which added some colour and insect interest, it had been far too cold overnight to run the moth traps. Despite wandering round several spots in the afternoon nothing new materialised, both Kes and me were well knackered by dinner time.


Back to work in the morning for a rest !!!

Score update

With Ticker now back in Norway and back scoring points a quick update on the score so far. Ticker is on 84, Uncle Birdy 176.

Spring "its official"

Ringing group "salad"

Moth traps and mistnets this morning. The moth traps produced a good quantity of moths but only 19 species, the undoubted highlight was two Grey-shoulder Knots which were new for the BM Ings site, the supporting cast included six Pine Beautys, four Shoulder Stripes, Five Water Carpets, a Satellite and four Early Tooth-striped. 184 Hebrew Characters provided the bulk.

Despite the most welcome warm bright sunshine we caught 53 birds, 38 new and 15 retraps. This total included the first Willow Warbler and Chiffchaffs of the year as well as eight Yellowhammers and five Tree Sparrows. A year tick also flew over in the guise of a Yellow Wagtail.

The first flush of butterflys also appeared with Comma, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell and Brimstone all showing well.

Easter in Suffolk. Birds, Moths and Adnams Ale

A long weekend in Suffolk visiting an old birding pal proved very productive for the year list with nine species added and with ticker on a family holiday in Sardinia I have moved further ahead. Scores on the doors are now Trondelag Ticker 80, Uncle Birdy 177.

The usual Suffolk candidates were added with Cettis Warbler, Dartford Warbler, Firecrest, Wood Lark and Bearded Tit along with Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Swallow and the very confiding Pallid Swift at Kessingland adding a little bonus. All told I managed 112 species for the weekend, which I considered a fair result.

We ran the moth trap on two nights which produced a few moths with three very nice ones in Oak Beauty, Brindled Beauty and Shoulder-stripe. Other new for the year for me included Red Chestnut, Small Quaker, Twin-spot Quaker and Powdered Quaker.