Kvismare fågelstation, Sweden - Day 7

juvenile Thrush Nightingale and juvenile Robin

This morning's CES was very slow indeed with only 16 new birds caught in 6 hours! This did however include 4 juvenile Thrush Nightingale which, from a British birders perspective, can hardly be included in a slow morning's ringing! The lack of quantity allowed me to really look at the finer detail of this species including the stunning vermiculations on the breast and the much darker colour of tail and body compared to the Common Nightingale I have seen before. I am yet to see an adult up close, so am excited for this day and they are a bird I would love to find in Britain.
Other birds from the morning included, Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Robin, Blackbird, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Reed Bunting and Chaffinch.

One thing that I've noticed whilst being in Sweden is that the Blue Tits are MASSIVE! I've had birds with wings over 70mm which is crazy when I'm used to 59's in Britain and the female Blackbirds seem different in this county being darker and appear to have white 'souls' of their feet which really stands out.

Kvismare fågelstation, Sweden - Day 6

 Hammarmaden at 10.30pm

 Juvenile Common Snipe

 Yesterday Craig, Jalle, Daniel and I went onto the marsh at Hammarmarden to try and catch some waders. It was looking really good when we arrived as birds flying around the marsh included Temminck's Stint, Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Grey Plover, Golden Plover, Greenshank, Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Snipe, Common, Green and Wood Sandpiper.
Throughout the night we only managed to catch 1 bird, but it was a lovely fresh juvenile Common Snipe which is a bird I've wanted to see in the hand for quite some time, so was very pleased to ring it.
One very strange occurrence occurred during the night. When we had finished taking down the nets at 1.30, Craig and my binoculars were both missing from our 'base camp'. We looked everywhere but there was no sign at all. We searched every nook and cranny around the area of base camp and emptied every bag twice to make sure. Jalle went for a short wander and found Craig's binoculars 10 meters from our base camp but they were soaking and covered in mud. My binoculars were c2 meters away from these again covered in mud and soaking. Both binoculars were found in places we had never set foot in and mine has teeth marks in the strap! We can only assume that the culprit was a Fox, because there was a young animal that came withing about 15 feet of us at the start of the night........one of the weirdest things that has ever happened to me!

 adult Sand Martin

 juvenile Sand Martin

2cy male Kestrel

This morning, there was a large storm brewing so we decided to give the CES a miss and get some well earned sleep. Instead, we set up 10 nets in the garden and caught a nice selection of 5 Pied Flycatcher, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Marsh Tit, Chaffinch, Robin and Blackcap.
After tea, Craig, Heather and I went to the local Sand Martin colony, where we erected 2 nets in front of the sand bank and sat back, waiting for them to go in. We caught about 25 birds in total with 2 recaptures. This is a new species for me and I was amazed at how small they were and how smart the adults were and how beautiful the pale fringing made the juveniles appear. Incredible little birds, with the smallest legs you've ever seen! I hear Swifts have even smaller legs.
We could have caught more birds, but I had to get up and leg it to the net because a 2cy male Kestrel attempted to attack the colony and got caught himself. This was a retrap, ringed in the spring by Craig, but was my first adult bird of prey I have handled. What a stunning bird!

Lapwing chick

We ended the day by nipping back to Hammarmaden and I ran and caught a juvenile Lapwing which was ringed and quickly put back. A very cute little bird.

Kvismare fågelstation, Sweden - Day 5

juvenile female Whinchat

Limited white in base of primary coverts and inner median and greater coverts sex this as female.

Garden Warbler

Craig and a juvenile Sedge Warbler

My first caught Grass Snake (don't worry, we didn't put a ring on it!)

A really enjoyable CES this morning with 59 birds being caught at Vallen. The weather was really nice, so lots of snakes were basking including lots of Adders and many Grass Snake. Ringing highlights came in the form of a stunning juvenile female Whinchat. I really wasn't expecting to catch one of these so my eyes lit up when I pulled it out of the bird bag. I was really surprised how big it was!
Other species caught were: Garden Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Fieldfare and Thrush Nightingale. The most regularly caught species was Reed Warbler with lots of juveniles being caught every net round.
If the weather is right this evening, we intend on trying to catch some waders as wader passage seems obvious over the past 24 hours. Here's hoping!

Kvismare fågelstation, Sweden - Day 4

Adult and Juvenile Marsh Tit

Juvenile Marsh Tit

Juvenile Pied Flycatcher

Today in Kvismaren it is very windy indeed so CES was short, finishing at 8.30 instead of 10.30 due to the nets not catching due to wind. We caught 9 new birds including: Greenfinch, Great Tit, Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Robin and Blackbird.
I did however manage to find an adult summer Curlew Sandpiper on a small mud spit with 4 Dunlin. I also had fantastic views of a Black Woodpecker.

After lunch I put up three nets in the garden and caught 2 Marsh Tit (1 recap female), juvenile Pied Flycatcher, 4 Great Tit and a Blackcap.

The strong south-westerlies made migration look promising over the course of the day. Black-headed Gulls and Swifts were the most obvious with 1000's of gulls and 100's of swifts all heading in the same direction in big flocks.
Raptors provided excitement for the day with adult female Montagu's Harrier, Honey Buzzard, White-tailed Eagle, 6 Osprey in the sky at once, Hobby, 4 Marsh Harrier and 4 Common Buzzard all seen within a couple of hours of each other from our garden! A flock of 4 Curlew Sandpiper was also seen by Daniel from here (I was off extracting a Pied Flycatcher at the time)

Kvismare fågelstation, Sweden - Day 3

adult Great Reed Warbler

adult Penduline Tit (colour-ringed Brown above metal on right, Dark Green above Light Blue on left)

juvenile Penduline Tit

6 juvenile Penduline Tits!

Juvenile Fieldfare

Today we went to CES at Vallen which allowed me to visit their biggest CES site for the first time. Here there are 24x 9 meter nets and we caught 50+ birds this morning.
One of my top two targets of the trip to ring was Great Reed Warbler so was delighted to find out that one had been caught in the 2nd net round and even more so when I was told I could ring it! A fantastic bird and it's hard to believe they are even loosely related to Willow Warblers etc as they are massive!
My second new species of the day was Penduline Tit of which the first 'lot' that came to the ringing station was a flock of 6 stunning juveniles! In addition we also caught a further adult and juvenile and a single juvenile bringing the day total to 9 birds! Amazing!
I got a third new handling species this morning which was a juvenile Fieldfare that was a very nice bird and this is the first time I've seen this age shown in this UK Winter visitor.
Other species caught this morning included: juvenile White Wagtail (subspecies handling tick), Yellowhammer, Robin, Thrush Nightingale, Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Blackbird, Reed Bunting, Greenfinch, Great Tit and Blue Tit.

Non-ringing sightings included 2 Osprey, Short-eared Owl, heard only Bearded Tits, Black Terns and 2 fantastic Caspian Terns which were fishing 60 meters from the ringing station.

A really enjoyable morning!

Kvismare fågelstation, Sweden - Day 1 & 2

1cy Thrush Nightingale

Adult Icterine Warbler (above and below)

Common Cranes

Osprey

I arrived at Kvismaren yesterday after a very long commute from Manchester Airport. Arriving at Kvismare for c8pm I didn't have too long to get acquainted with the grounds but still managed to see White-tailed Eagle, Black Tern, Common Crane, Spotted Flycatchers, flava Yellow Wagtails and heard Quail.
We woke up this morning at 03.15 for CES at the largest lake on the site. Here I had my first lifer of the trip which was Thrush Nightingale. We caught several juveniles throughout the morning and they were really stunning birds despite the bad press they sometimes get! I managed to handle 3 new species (in terms of ringing) this morning in the form of Icterine Warbler (A stunning adult bird that was very striking indeed), Marsh Tit and Garden Warbler. In addition to this we caught Robin, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Reed Bunting, Goldfinch, Chaffinch and several Pied Flycatcher
Non-ringing highlights were fishing Osprey, White-tailed Eagle, lots of Common Crane around the reserve, Goshawk, Hobby, summer plumage Red-necked Grebe and Slavonian Grebe, Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Black Woodpecker.

After tea we headed out to try and catch some Bearded Tits but the rain soon came in and prevented us from catching. I did however see my first Penduline Tit which was a very cute juvenile with a cream head calling fromt he top of a bullrush head. In addition to this I saw my first Adder of the trip which was sat out in the open providing fantastic views. Today happens to mark the 1 year anniversary of my Adder bite in 2011 and this is the first one I have seen since the bite! Very weird! I'm glad to say the only lasting impression this one left was on my memory card!

I will try and update my blog every day of ringing totals and other ornithological and non-ornithological highlights.

Brandon Marsh NR/Rugby - 7th July 2012

I visited Brucey this weekend in Rugby to drop off my pet snakes before my trip to Sweden next week, and to visit him in general. We took a trip to Brandom Marsh which is Brucey's local patch where we went on Thursday evening. We saw Hobby, Green Sandpiper, Kingfisher, breeding Common Terns and the best bird being a female/immature Ruff, which isn't a bad bird for an inland site.

The main reason for going to Brandon, apart from being shown around Brucey's patch, was to look for Odonata and Reptiles as it is a good site for Grass Snake, Slow Worm and several odonata species. We managed to see lots of the above Red-eyed Damselfly, Azure Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Large Red Damselfly, Banded Demoiselle and Brown Hawker. The Red-eyed was a new species for me and was great to see in such good number and interspersed with it's lookalikes.
Butterflies were made up of Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Comma, Red Admiral and Green-veined White.

Rabbit - There were loads of rabbits around the reserve including lots of small juveniles including this very photogenic individual.

Volucella pellucens - A very large Hoverfly species that is found throughout Britain, but is the most obliging hoverfly I have witnessed in flight. They usually provide 1 second of hover and then move away from you, whereas this one provided 10+ close range hovers.

Also on Thursday night, I watched this above 2nd summer large gull which I believe to be a Yellow-legged Gull. I would be 100% certain of the ID if the mantle was a slight darker shade of grey. I will hopefully get the ID sorted over the next day or so.

North Yorkshire Moors - 3rd July 2012

Whilst visiting my girlfriend, Amy, in Yorkshire, we took a trip up to the North Yorkshire Moors to have a look for Adders. Sadly we weren't able to find any, but we saw a flock of 11 very vocal Common Crossbills. This is the first time I have been able to photograph this species and the vast majority of sightings I have had of this species have been in flight.

In addition to the crossbills, there was a very vocal male Whinchat, several Common Frogs and Smooth Newts, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Small Heath and Small Copper.

Despite the lack of Vipera berus, it was a really enjoyable day.

Little Swift - New Brighton - 22nd June 2012

Without a car, I was feeling almost physically sick when I heard about the Little Swift at New Brighton, Wirral. It was made even worse when I found out that the bird was showing very very well down to 4 feet at times as it fed in the rain with the breeding Common Swifts. Luckily, several texts to local birders paid off with a phonecall from Bill Aspin telling me he was about to set off and would i like to be picked up from j32 of the M6. We were soon on our way in the horrendous conditions, but an hour and a half later, we pulled upto New Brighton's front and the assembled group of 30+ birders.
The bird was in view almost straight away and hawked above us throughout our whole visit. It hawked high up, low down and at times, even came so close that it must have been only 4 feet away from our heads! It was so close that you could even hear it's wings cutting through the strong wind! I am very pleased with my photos as I've taken swift photos before and it certainly isn't easy. Combine the subject with terrible light, strong wings and a very shaky twitcher, and you've got a real challenge!
I was amazed how Storm-petrel like the bird appeared when it flew away from us (especially when it flew low over the waves into the wind!) It was a fantastically educational bird which, after several prolonged views of flight behaviour, was really easy to pick out of the flock, even without seeing the white rump.

One of the best birds I've ever seen without a doubt! A huge thanks to Bill Aspin for letting me know he was on his way and for driving the whole way. Huge congratulations must go to the travelling midlands birder who found this mind-blowing bird!

Gull-ringing - Ribble Estuary - 20th June 2012

 Juvenile Herring Gull

Juvenile Great Black-backed Gull

Today I visited the Ribble Marshes for my 2nd trip helping with the Herring and Lesser Black-back project. This is the first time I've been to a large gull colony ringing so it was rather exciting. We caught about 30 birds with 3 Lesser Black-backs, c27 Herring, plus 2 Greater Black-backs that we didn't ring due to lack of H rings. Still very impressive birds to handle (the weight difference is incredible!)
It was a very hot day and I now qualify to live in the deep south of America being a red neck!
I have also never been onto the deep Ribble marshes so it was a very unique experience. A thoroughly enjoyable day.

Entemology - Foulshaw Moss - 18th June 2012

I visited Foulshaw Moss today in search of White-faced Darter dragonfly. Sadly they have not yet emerged so wasn't able to see these infamous odonata. I did however get a chance to have a second look at Large Heath which I last saw on the day I got bitten an Adder last year, so the views weren't exactly prolonged!
Today however, I was able to get really close an personal with these rather flighty butterflies. Other lepidoptera included Laticed Heath and Green-veined White.

Foulshaw is a great place to see Emerald Damselfly so was able to get some pleasing shots of these pretty damselfly.

4 commoner species of damselfly were also present including lots of Azure Damselfly, Large Red Damselfly and smaller numbers of Common Blue Damsel and Blue Tailed Damsel. In addition, there were lots of Four-spotted Chaser reeking havoc on the pools and 2 Emperors patrolling the moss.

Common Sundew Drosera rotundifolia is found all across the moss which is really interesting to see as it's one of Britain's only carnivorous plants.
In addition to these sightings, I was able to see my 18th and 19th Ospreys of the year as they flew distantly over the south of the moss and on the Kent Estuary.