Today was a lovely day - beautifully warm with a warm breeze as well!
For the last couple of days I have been putting out suet blocks and dried mealworms in my garden for the birds, mainly the Starlings, with the plan of catching them to ring them. Unfortunately the weather hasn't been very conducive for opening the net lately, so this morning I set my potter trap and put a big handful of mealworms inside to try and coax some birds into it.
No sooner had I come inside than a large flock of Starlings descended upon the feeders and some were pushed down onto the ground too. It was fantastic watching them and provided a lot of entertainment when they started squabbling!!
I had quite a bit of luck with the potter trap and in total caught 4 Starlings - 3 adults and 1 juvenile and I also caught a Magpie! I can't say Magpies are my favourite birds to ring, quite far from it actually as they're usually very aggressive, making the most of their sharp claws and strong beak! However the one I caught this morning was a young bird, hatched this year and was very calm. Magpies are stunning birds up close - their feathers aren't black at all and in the right light they glint with an amazing iridescence!
Some of the adult Starlings I caught were just starting their wing moult so that meant I also got the chance to do some moult scores as well as the usual biometrics (wing length, weight etc...).
Here are some photos from this morning:
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| Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) |
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| Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) |
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| Wing moult on a Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) |
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| Wing moult on a Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) |
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| Juvenile Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) |
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| Juvenile Magpie (Pica pica) |
Nice! I've never even seen a starling in the hand!
ReplyDeleteReally Liz?! Wow, well get yourself a potter trap and lots of mealworms and some Starlings and you should get yourself some Starlings :)
DeleteOr pop round here one morning and I'll hopefully have some to ring! Loads of adults & juvs coming to the garden now so should be set for ringing quite a few over the next few days/weeks! :)
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