Saturday 6th June 2015
Nest Boxes Upper Thames Valley, that's what I did this morning accompanied by my good friend Nick.
Due to other commitments I've missed the Tit broods that I hadn't ringed which is a shame but it does look like the majority fledged ok, however one box which originally had 10 nestlings was not so lucky, four had died within days of hatching, one had died with days of fledging and the remaining five I can only guess exited the nest safely.
What was great to see was that the Sparrows had nested again, I only hope they are the Tree Sparrows we are trying to save, and not the House Sparrows who have plenty of other nesting sites around the farms to use, since the eggs and small young look similar we don't confirm identity until we are 100% certain.
We managed to ring two stock dove squabs (that's what young of the pigeon family are called) which was good, they are however quite dirty nesters and the first handful I grabbed was not a bird but a pile of sticky poo; nice!
It wasn't all birds and in less than perfect conditions, (it was windy) we found a few damselflies on the wing, Large Red Damsel, and Common Blue, we also found a stunning Hornet in one of the boxes and I wasn't about to poke it to turn around so its a "bum," shot.
Due to other commitments I've missed the Tit broods that I hadn't ringed which is a shame but it does look like the majority fledged ok, however one box which originally had 10 nestlings was not so lucky, four had died within days of hatching, one had died with days of fledging and the remaining five I can only guess exited the nest safely.
What was great to see was that the Sparrows had nested again, I only hope they are the Tree Sparrows we are trying to save, and not the House Sparrows who have plenty of other nesting sites around the farms to use, since the eggs and small young look similar we don't confirm identity until we are 100% certain.
We managed to ring two stock dove squabs (that's what young of the pigeon family are called) which was good, they are however quite dirty nesters and the first handful I grabbed was not a bird but a pile of sticky poo; nice!
It wasn't all birds and in less than perfect conditions, (it was windy) we found a few damselflies on the wing, Large Red Damsel, and Common Blue, we also found a stunning Hornet in one of the boxes and I wasn't about to poke it to turn around so its a "bum," shot.
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| Large Red Damsel |
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| Common Blue Damsel |
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| Hornet |
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