Paul's Blog - All comments and views are my own,

Spent the day (10 hrs anyway) with friends from the North Wilts Ringing Group on what we cheekily call a "safari" on the downs in North Wiltshire. Having a great relationship with landowners is really important and today was no exception. Most ringers would have stayed in bed today, in fact we had a ball with plenty of nest boxes checked and two impromptu mist netting sessions. As I will be leaving the area shortly today was quite special with some of my favourite birds ringed House Martin   Kestrel nestlings Kestrel nestling Little Owl - owlets  

This ,morning had been set aside to ring some Canada Goose goslings, originally there were two broods to ring on a private Cotswold estate, unfortunately Mr Fox beat me to one of the broods so only a brood of 6 left to ring. Geese obviously need larger sized rings, the opportunity to use large rings doesn't come along too often so I invited Anna another ringer to help with the session. When I last saw the goslings they were cute and yellow, today at four/five weeks old they were grey and much bigger than I imagined but perfect for ringing. With the assistance of the gamekeeper and his wife, manning the boat, we managed to trap just three of them, given the size of the lake and the sloping ground I was happy with three. We checked a coupe of nest boxes and found Stock Doves using two of them and a female Barn Owl roosting near another.

Hi, taken a day off from house sorting and packing so here are some flowers/plants to identify use the comments box to reply or use the contact page on my website nativewildliferesearschandnaturallesvos.com. Plus some cute Lapwings

Today saw me out with the team from the North Wilts Ringing Group  (NWRG), for the fourth CES session of the season, a 4am start on site and it was already light!! Much quieter today we think that the poor weather in May has had a negative effect on the early nesters, the beauty of the CES science is that it can monitor such an event. There were a few highlights with young Robins, Dunnocks and Great Tits evident plus smart, recently fledged, Greenfinch, Reed Warbler and a family of four Chiffchaffs and best of all a Lesser Whitethroat which had clearly left the nest this morning. Lesser Whitethroats are remarkable warblers spending the summers in the UK and Europe then migrating south of the Sahara for the winter, the entire world population is thought to follow the eastern Mediterranean coast into Israel/Jordan before hitting Africa... amazing Tree Creeper fledgling Reed Warbler Fledgling  Common Blue butterfly, female  Slow Worm, female Lesser White

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; n

Due to a technical difficulty, no ladder!, I was unable to visit the nest boxes in the Upper Thames Valley today, so I decided to carry on with a survey I started on a piece of Calcareous grassland in the Cotswolds.  Cow Parsley Quaking Grass The weather at last seems to have turned a corner and it was pleasure to be out, although still too early for the main flush of Orchids there were signs of Common Spotted and Greater Butterfly and Common Twayblade orchids, as well as Field Forget-me-Not, Horseshoe Vetch, Germander Speedwell and Meadow Buttercup.        Field Forget-me-Not             Greater Butterfly Orchid       Garden Chafer     Kidney Vetch        Lapwing, once a common nesting bird on many farms, often seen in flocks during the winter months.    

Not much going on today, still house hunting so organising viewings has been the priority. I did notice the Blue Tits were being particularly noisy and when I looked it was clear they are soon going to fledge the nest and take their chances in the garden. I had planned to ring them but with the weather having been so cool and windy I left them, and its too late now!!!