first of spring

A good day 10 Goldfinch ringed up at Ringstone edge this Morning in woosh net. Then home for a coffee and a warm up and a Collard Dove ringed in the garden. I shot of up to Wholestone Moor to look for skylarks and wheatear, found the Skylarks 6 feeding in fields but no luck. Then i bumped into John B and we had a walk around and found a cracking Male Wheatear. The weather set in so we shot off home another coffee and an hour later the wind and snow had gone and the sun was out . Off i went again and this time i set up for the Wheatear and yes after about an hour, 1 Wheatear ringed hopefully the start of many. OOH and i bumped into JB again , who took the photos.

other birds about 240 Golden Plover , 1 sparrow Hawk, 1 Kestrel and one very special Wheatear

Tawny Owl Box Checking

A busy morning on Thursday with Andy, checking most of the Tawny Boxes we put up in December and January a good couple of results with Birds on eggs. Got the Nissan stuck in a field which was a bit of a laugh thanks to the guy with the big dumper truck who pulled us out

it took 3 jet washes to clean it up. Wish i had took a photo of it now.

Busy couple of days

Went to Deer Hill on Wednesday morning . I was greeted to 11 Twite on the wires near the feeding station so i set up and waited. 6 Birds caught with 2 retraps from Deer Hill, last caught here in August 07. A Control from Whiteholme reservoir and 3 new birds which is always good.

All the Twite caught so far from whiteholme and Deer Hill in March 08 have all been male birds showing good pink rumps.

Pictures showing different Tail Shapes

Adult Bird nice and rounded Tail feathers

Last years young showing Pointed worn thin feathers

Good afternoon

One of the first mornings where there hasn't been any wind and i was stuck in waiting for BT to come. Out for 1 pm so i went for a drive round . Tim at the Old Bridge inn Ripponden had given me permission to put a net across the stream and asked his neighbours as well if it was OK. I went down for a recce at 3 o'clock and set up, an hour and a half later a cracking male Dipper had been ringed. Thanks to Tim who has always supported what i do.

Twite at Whiteholme

Popped up to whiteholme reservoir at 1230 looking for wheatears in the thick fog . After weeks of putting seed down for the Twite and not seeing any in good numbers. Today i had 30+ on the seed so i set up. 11 Twite caught, 5 of which were new birds the other 6 were a mixture. 1 from Deer Hill 1 from Cant Clough 4 from whiteholme.

The five new birds today have all been indevidually colour coded on the right leg with the BTO metal ring .

On the left we are now using White Blue for the year 2008 Jan>June

and Blue White July>Dec.

The sites are going to be bright pink for Deer Hill and Flyflats on Left leg with year ring

Cant Clough and Whiteholme are now going to be Red on Left leg with year ring.

Last Week very quite Due to awful weather a pair off Bullfinches at Stainland Dean ringed .

More Grey Wagtails

A day over at Wharfedale, Target species today was wagtails and we had a nice pair of Grey Wagtails near Thruscross reservoir.

A good morning out of the wind.

Stainland Dean

A quick visit to Stainland Dean this afternoon 1 Grey Wagtail Ringed and a Goldcrest.

other birds about

Dipper

Mallard

Moorhen

Kingfisher

Gt Spotted Woodpecker

Bullfinch

Jay

Heron

+ all the usual

Plastic Dustbins

Your eyes do not deceive you Andy was out and about at the weekend putting more Barn Owl Boxes up these ones very contemporary. A big thank you to Paul Thompson the man who built them.

Skylarks at Whiteholme

Up to Whiteholme to put the seed down for Twite ,no sign of any but there were 8 Skylark flitting around. So i set up for them.

Collared Dove

1 of the 3 Collared Doves that visit my Garden ringed today

Grey Wagtail at Clifton

The Last few Visits to Clifton i have noticed the activity around the Manure heap. So off i went this afternoon to ask the farmers permission to set a few spring traps for Wagtails. 20 minutes later a gorgeous Male Grey Wagtail ringed.

Stonechats and Tree Sparrows

Another steady week i wish this wind would stop. Went to put seed down at Deer Hill and whiteholme on Friday no sign of Twite as yet. A male Stonechat was ringed at Deer Hill on Wednesday. On Thursday went to Clifton for the Tree Sparrows and processed another 3, bringing the total so far ringed up to 7 with two other unringed birds about. In the afternoon had a quick visit to Deanhead, i had ringed a Male Stonechat there in January and went to see if anymore were about, i got a female retrap it was the female i had ringed at ringstone edge on the 28 January paired up with the Deanhead Male . Interesting.