30 Days Wild - Day 20

 30 Days Wild - Day 20 ~ 20th June 2015 ~

I had a great day today as I spent pretty much all day (bar a 20-25minute power nap) doing bird ringing.

This morning I attended the 5th CES (Constant Effort Site) session of the year at Wraysbury GP. It was really nice to be back as I haven't been to Wraysbury since (I think) August last year so it was really good to catch up with those of the group who were there; great company and a good laugh as always! We also caught some lovely birds, with 4 Lesser Whitethroats, 2 Reed Buntings, 2 Sedge Warblers and a young Goldcrest being my personal highlights. In total we ringed 44 new birds and processed 12 recaptures.

Here are some photos from Wraysbury:

Juvenile (3JJ) Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

The track down to our ringing base

Some Woodlice

Adult (4) Sedge Warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus)

Labyrinth spider's funnel shaped-web

Dog-rose (Rosa canina)

This afternoon I went out with some nesters and ringers to do some pulli ringing. The two guys I went out with are both really knowledgable about nest finding and I'm very lucky to live in an area where there are some really, really cool species to ring as well.

Today we colour ringed two more broods of Woodlark (4 and 3 young in the two broods) as well as metal ringing a brood of 5 Stonechat, a brood of 4 Tree Pipits and much to my excitement I also got to ring 2 broods of Nightjar (each brood had 2 nestlings)!!

Although it is a real privilege to handle and ring all species of bird, I was particularly excited about the prospect of ringing Nightjar chicks because not only are they an extremely secretive species, but they are also my favourite UK species of bird!!

It was an awesome afternoon/evening and feel extremely lucky to have had this opportunity so if you're reading this, thank you very much guys for continuing to invite me and allow me to gain this incredible experience, it is very much appreciated!!!

All ringing was done under the appropriate licenses and carried out in accordance with BTO guidelines.

Here are some photos of the Nightjars (adult and pulli):

Adult Nightjar keeping watch while we ringed the chicks.

Adult Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus)

Juvenile Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus)

Juvenile Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus) close up

So well camouflaged!!

Adult male Nightjar sat on two nestlings - you can just
about see a young one's head beneath the adult

Juvenile Nightjars (Caprimulgus europaeus)

I don't like having pictures taken of myself, but I couldn't
stop grinning after ringing the Nightjars!

30 Days Wild - Day 17

 30 Days Wild - Day 17 ~ 17th June 2015 ~

This evening I helped lead a Nightjar walk on my local patch. It was a bit windy and I thought this might put the birds off a bit, but thankfully it didn't and we had fantastic views of the birds flying around above our heads, as well as hearing at least 4 males churring, with some wing-clapping and lots of contact calls as well. 

It was a lovely evening, nice and warm too and because of the wind, the midges and mosquitos were kept at bay which made a nice change! Everyone on the walk seemed to enjoy themselves and it was nice chatting to everyone - I'm just so relieved that the birds performed for us! 

30 Days Wild - Day 15

 30 Days Wild - Day 15 ~ 15th June 2015 ~

This afternoon I met Jo, one of my local Countryside Rangers, up on my patch to talk about a Nightjar walk I am helping with this coming Wednesday (17th).

It was really sunny and warm and a lovely day to be out and about and once we'd finished chatting I made the most of it and spent ages wandering round my patch, checking some reptile tins, making a note of the birds I saw/heard and using my phone to take some photos.

The highlights of my walk were watching an adult Robin get pestered for food by a juvenile, seeing a couple of sunbathing Lizards and butterflies on the boardwalk and enjoying the wildflower meadow which is just off the path I walked home on.

Here are my favourite photos from this afternoon (there's more text below the pics btw):

This evening I decided to head back to patch in order to check the pools quickly and to stay and see if the Nightjars were active. Unusually, I carried the scope with me when we headed for the Nightjars, something I don't usually do as it's usually too dark for it to be of any use, but I did, and it's a good job I did too! 

We had almost reached the area we were heading too when something flew in front of us and landed on one of the fence posts up ahead. Despite the twilight making it difficult to focus, I instantly knew what it was - the shape is so distinctive and the two big white splodges!! 

It was, of course a male Nightjar. It sat on one post, a fair distance away and then flew closer and landed on another post. I got the scope set up as quickly and quietly as I could and had a good look through and so did my dad, before I took some photos through it using my phone.

It was a really memorable encounter an definitely one that will stay with me for a long time to come!

European Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus)

An evening of surprise

Chobham Common ~ 1st July 2014 ~ 

Yesterday evening I was invited by CL and DKL to join them and EP to try our luck at ringing Nightjars on Chobham Common.

The wind was low and it started off fairly warm - the conditions seemed perfect but there was just one problem...there were no birds about! None at all...not even a Blue Tit! As it started to get dark some birds did make their presence known, with a few Chiffchaffs belting out a few notes, a Blackbird making a brief appearance and a Woodcock flying over making the usual squeaky call that they do.

CL and DKL decided that if we hadn't caught anything by 11pm then we would start taking down nets as there wasn't much point keeping them up any longer. Time passed fairly quickly and before we knew it it was 20 minutes to 11pm so CL went to check some of the nets. He came back and we were all very pleased to see that in his hand was a Nightjar!!! I'm not sure I stopped grinning from that moment until I went to sleep!

The wing - used for ageing and sexing. Note the white patches on
the 3rd and 4th primaries which indicate this to be a male.

I always feel very privileged when out ringing as there are not many people that get to see our avian counterparts up close and personal in the way that ringers do. Being able to ring, hold and examine the Nightjar was especially amazing because not only was it my 6th time out trying to catch them, but also because I have had a long fascination with them and am lucky enough to have them breeding on my patch!

Apologies for the bad photo, but what a stunning
and bizarre bird nonetheless!

Unfortunately that was all we caught but in my opinion it was well worth the effort! The only other things of note were the two Roe Deer chasing each other around the heath early on in the evening and a Toad that was hopping about on the path (and EP's shoe) on our way back to the car park.

All in all a absolutely fantastic experience and not one I will be forgetting any time soon (and yes, I know I said that about the Gull and Tern ringing the other day too - they are both awesome experiences that I feel very lucky to have had)!!

Many thanks for reading - I hope you've enjoyed it! Don't forget you can keep up with my activity on my website here, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.