The two birds were ringed together as part of a group of 14 chicks from 5 nests in the same tree in the Bangor area of North Wales on 13th June this year.
Neither of the birds had been resighted prior to being recorded on the IOM.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Colour ringed Little Egrets - update
I have received the information today on the origins of the 2 colour ringed Little Egrets that are in the Langness area at the moment, my thanks to Richard Hearn (coordinator) and Tony Cross (ringer) for their prompt replies.
The two birds were ringed together as part of a group of 14 chicks from 5 nests in the same tree in the Bangor area of North Wales on 13th June this year.
Neither of the birds had been resighted prior to being recorded on the IOM.
The two birds were ringed together as part of a group of 14 chicks from 5 nests in the same tree in the Bangor area of North Wales on 13th June this year.
Neither of the birds had been resighted prior to being recorded on the IOM.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Still Windy!
Still no ringing as the wind remains too strong.
There were still 4 Chiffchaffs in the garden this morning, really good numbers of them this Autumn, more so than any previous year. 2 Choughs landed briefly on the roof of the house this morning, they regularly fly over and feed in the field behind the garden but I hadn't previously seen them land on the house.
I met Chris at Strandhall ealry afternoon after he had spent the day surveying from Sandwick along the coast passed Scarlett. We had 2 Light-bellied Brent Geese feeding on the Sea Lettuce in the rock pools and then a Merlin sped passed, flushing the flock of 65 Ringed Plovers on the beach up in a mad panic. The Wigeon numbers are starting to build up here too with at least 50 present.
Late afternoon I had a female Hen Harrier hutning over the fields up at Lower Ballafodda, Ronague.
There were still 4 Chiffchaffs in the garden this morning, really good numbers of them this Autumn, more so than any previous year. 2 Choughs landed briefly on the roof of the house this morning, they regularly fly over and feed in the field behind the garden but I hadn't previously seen them land on the house.
I met Chris at Strandhall ealry afternoon after he had spent the day surveying from Sandwick along the coast passed Scarlett. We had 2 Light-bellied Brent Geese feeding on the Sea Lettuce in the rock pools and then a Merlin sped passed, flushing the flock of 65 Ringed Plovers on the beach up in a mad panic. The Wigeon numbers are starting to build up here too with at least 50 present.
Late afternoon I had a female Hen Harrier hutning over the fields up at Lower Ballafodda, Ronague.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Langness survey
Still too windy to open the nets today! Rather frustrating given that there were 5 Chiffchaffs present in the garden as well as plenty of finches coming to the feeders this morning.
I met up with Chris to do one of the regular Manx Bird Life surveys around the Derbyhaven/Langness area today. I joined him at the Aero Club at Derbyhaven where there was a single Light-bellied Brent Goose on the "Wigeon Pool".
There were c.80 Golden Plover, 45 Ringed Plover and a Knot on the shore on the North side of Derbyhaven Bay.
Three Wheatears along the East coast of Langness along with a small movement of Meadow Pipits and 2 Skylark flying West were the only migrant passerines seen.
The 2 colour ringed Little Egrets were feeding on the rocks below Sandwick and there were 4 juv Bar-tailed Godwits and a Knot feeding on the upper shore there.
I met up with Chris to do one of the regular Manx Bird Life surveys around the Derbyhaven/Langness area today. I joined him at the Aero Club at Derbyhaven where there was a single Light-bellied Brent Goose on the "Wigeon Pool".
There were c.80 Golden Plover, 45 Ringed Plover and a Knot on the shore on the North side of Derbyhaven Bay.
Three Wheatears along the East coast of Langness along with a small movement of Meadow Pipits and 2 Skylark flying West were the only migrant passerines seen.
The 2 colour ringed Little Egrets were feeding on the rocks below Sandwick and there were 4 juv Bar-tailed Godwits and a Knot feeding on the upper shore there.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Loads of Mipits
No garden ringing for the last few days due to the wind strength and the moon is now out of phase for dazzling too.
However, there was a very noticeable passage of Meadow Pipits overhead today. Groups were passing over the house heading South West most of the day, some flocks upto 40 strong.
There have also been a few juv Grey Wagtails hanging around the garden stream and local area over the last few days. They always appear about this time of year and I think they must be passage birds rather than the offspring of the local pair. We used to catch good numbers of passage Grey Wags at the (now defunct) Sewage works nearby at this time of year hence my presumption that these are passage birds.
Here's hoping for some light winds soon so I can get a net open!
However, there was a very noticeable passage of Meadow Pipits overhead today. Groups were passing over the house heading South West most of the day, some flocks upto 40 strong.
There have also been a few juv Grey Wagtails hanging around the garden stream and local area over the last few days. They always appear about this time of year and I think they must be passage birds rather than the offspring of the local pair. We used to catch good numbers of passage Grey Wags at the (now defunct) Sewage works nearby at this time of year hence my presumption that these are passage birds.
Here's hoping for some light winds soon so I can get a net open!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Diver Dash.
Took a quick trip up to the Ayres this morning to see what was around.
5 Common Gull amongst the roosting flock of 220 Herring Gull were nice to see at Ballaugh Cronk.
At Ballaghennie I spent a while scanning offshore and came up with a Black-throated Diver, 4 Red-throated Divers (all of which were moulting adults), 38 Razrobill and 6 Black Guillemot.
A quick check at Glascoe Dubh produced nothing more than a Common Snipe sat amongst the dead Dock plants and a Tufted Duck on the Dubh.
9 Sandwich Tern (6 juvs and 3 adults) were on the beach at the Vollan, Mooragh Promenade.
Back South there were 2 Chiffchaff in the garden this afternoon but conditions are still too windy to open the net.
Chris was surveying Derbyhaven/Langness this morning and had the first Light-bellied Brent Goose of the Autumn fly into the bay. Also the 3 Little Egret were seen from a distance but once nearer only 2 were still present, however he was able to see that one was not colour ringed and the other was one of the colour ringed birds, probably "B/H".
5 Common Gull amongst the roosting flock of 220 Herring Gull were nice to see at Ballaugh Cronk.
At Ballaghennie I spent a while scanning offshore and came up with a Black-throated Diver, 4 Red-throated Divers (all of which were moulting adults), 38 Razrobill and 6 Black Guillemot.
A quick check at Glascoe Dubh produced nothing more than a Common Snipe sat amongst the dead Dock plants and a Tufted Duck on the Dubh.
9 Sandwich Tern (6 juvs and 3 adults) were on the beach at the Vollan, Mooragh Promenade.
Back South there were 2 Chiffchaff in the garden this afternoon but conditions are still too windy to open the net.
Chris was surveying Derbyhaven/Langness this morning and had the first Light-bellied Brent Goose of the Autumn fly into the bay. Also the 3 Little Egret were seen from a distance but once nearer only 2 were still present, however he was able to see that one was not colour ringed and the other was one of the colour ringed birds, probably "B/H".
Monday, September 21, 2009
Two colour ringed Little Egrets!
Checked Langness on the High Water this afternoon as there are big Spring tides at the moment.
There were 2 Bar-tailed Godwits roosting with the Curlew flock at the usual roost just North of the Stinking Dubh.
At the Stinking Dubh itself was a first year Little Egret, colour ringed with White ring "B" on the Left leg and Yellow ring "J" on the Right leg.
This is the second colour ringed Little Egret to be seen recently, the other one being White "B" on left leg, Yellow "H" on Right leg. That one was ringed as a chick in North Wales in June this year.
There have been sightings of upto 3 Little Egrets in the Langness area recently so it looks like a group of siblings have made the journey together from North Wales to Manx shores.
Teal and Wigeon numbers have increased noticeabley too in recent weeks with at least 50 Teal and 30 Wigeon below Madoc's memorial.
There were 2 Bar-tailed Godwits roosting with the Curlew flock at the usual roost just North of the Stinking Dubh.
At the Stinking Dubh itself was a first year Little Egret, colour ringed with White ring "B" on the Left leg and Yellow ring "J" on the Right leg.
This is the second colour ringed Little Egret to be seen recently, the other one being White "B" on left leg, Yellow "H" on Right leg. That one was ringed as a chick in North Wales in June this year.
There have been sightings of upto 3 Little Egrets in the Langness area recently so it looks like a group of siblings have made the journey together from North Wales to Manx shores.
Teal and Wigeon numbers have increased noticeabley too in recent weeks with at least 50 Teal and 30 Wigeon below Madoc's memorial.
Dazzling for waders - that's more like it!
I went dazzling last night at Rue Point. Weather conditions were mixed though. It is a New Moon at the moment so it was certainly dark enough, however the wind was strengthening all the time I was there which makes the birds a bit flighty and controlling the landing net a bit more difficult.
In the end I finished with a resepctable total of 8 birds:
6 Turnstone
1 Dunlin
1 Osytercatcher
In the end I finished with a resepctable total of 8 birds:
6 Turnstone
1 Dunlin
1 Osytercatcher
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Still garden ringing!
Another garden session today whislt the good weather holds. Very quiet today though. Caught an adult female Greenfinch which was a good way through its complete moult as shown in the picture below.
Virtually all passerines moult their wing feathers starting in the middle of the wing at the junction of the primaries (outer wing feathers) and secondaries (inner wing feathers).
In this Greenfinch the outer most primary (p3 - the first two primaries are hidden) is from last year and is obviously faded and abraded at the tip. The next primary in (p4) has only recently started growing and can just be seen toward the base of the primaries between p3 and p5. P5 is almost fully grown and from p6 to p10 all primaries are fully grown.
Also caught 3 Long-tailed Tits towards dusk, 2 new ones and a retrap which I had originally ringed in the garden on New Years eve last year.
Virtually all passerines moult their wing feathers starting in the middle of the wing at the junction of the primaries (outer wing feathers) and secondaries (inner wing feathers).
In this Greenfinch the outer most primary (p3 - the first two primaries are hidden) is from last year and is obviously faded and abraded at the tip. The next primary in (p4) has only recently started growing and can just be seen toward the base of the primaries between p3 and p5. P5 is almost fully grown and from p6 to p10 all primaries are fully grown.
Also caught 3 Long-tailed Tits towards dusk, 2 new ones and a retrap which I had originally ringed in the garden on New Years eve last year.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Garden ringing again
Garden ringing again today. Totals were 9 Blue Tit (1 retrap), 2 Goldfinch, 2 Greenfinch, 2 Dunnock and a Great Tit.
The retrap Blue Tit was one I had caught here on 5th November last year. It had not been caught since then.
A lot of the Blue and Great Tits I catch over the Autumn/Winter stay in the area and get retrapped regularly but then disappear from the area come Spring. They then begin returning to the garden at the end of the Summer again. This can be explained by the birds dispersing to find breeding territories in Spring.
Come the late Summer/Autumn, large roaming flocks of mixed Tit species are a common site as "gangs" of juveniles explore the area. In the last few years this is when there have been a good number of interchanges of birds between my garden and the Calf of Man Bird Obs.
Several birds have made a round trip, being originally caught in my garden in Croit-e-Caley, retrapped on the Calf, then retrapped back in my garden again later in the Winter.
One Blue Tit did this round trip in 8 days during October 2007!
The retrap Blue Tit was one I had caught here on 5th November last year. It had not been caught since then.
A lot of the Blue and Great Tits I catch over the Autumn/Winter stay in the area and get retrapped regularly but then disappear from the area come Spring. They then begin returning to the garden at the end of the Summer again. This can be explained by the birds dispersing to find breeding territories in Spring.
Come the late Summer/Autumn, large roaming flocks of mixed Tit species are a common site as "gangs" of juveniles explore the area. In the last few years this is when there have been a good number of interchanges of birds between my garden and the Calf of Man Bird Obs.
Several birds have made a round trip, being originally caught in my garden in Croit-e-Caley, retrapped on the Calf, then retrapped back in my garden again later in the Winter.
One Blue Tit did this round trip in 8 days during October 2007!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Grown-up Goldies and Chiffchaffs galore!
Opened the mist net in my garden for a few hours this morning. Caught the usual mix of Goldfinches and Blue & Great Tits. Unusually most of the Goldfinch were adults, all of which were coming to the end of their full Summer moult. In the picture above you can see the old, longest primary (wing feather) is faded and grey compared to the new, black inner primaries.
The same difference between old and new freathers can be seen in the tail.
The same difference between old and new freathers can be seen in the tail.
The picture above shows one of the juvenile Goldfinches caught this morning. This one had started its partial post-juvenile moult.
I also caught this Chiffchaff this morning, the third in two days. I've only ever caught 3 in total previously in the garden. There was a Garden Warbler in the Willow hedge this morning but it didn't venture into the net unfortunately. Some nice "vis mig" (visual migration - birds flying overhead) took place in the first hour or so too. Several groups of Skylark and Meadow Pipit were heading East over the house.
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