Busy Weekend

This weekend I have been very busy with ringing and birding. After Friday night's trip to Ladybower Woods I was out on Saturday and Sunday morning ringing with members of the group, adding another 23 Blue Tits, 2 Great Tits, 2 Pied Flycatchers and 1 Little Owl pullus to the total. As well as the ringing I also managed an addition to my "Year List" with a singing Quail in fields near Shilito Woods (thanks for the tip off Sylvia).

Saturday morning's ringing session took place at a new site for me, Greenwood Farm, an area of land in the Peak District, owned by the National Trust, and part of the Longshaw Estate. Over a three hour visit we managed to ring 2 broods of Pied Flycatchers, as well as several Blue and Great Tit clutches, including 1 Blue Tit nest with 15 well grown pulli, the highest number I've ever seen.

Sunday morning started with the year tick, when I went to listen to a singing Quail. The song is very distinctive, listen here, but the bird is very elusive and rarely seen. Afterwards I drove up to Linacre, where the group ringed another 44 more pulli, including a Little Owl chick from the nest where we ringed the female bird in May (see here). Back in May she had laid 2 eggs, but when we checked yesterday only 1 had hatched.

Little Owl pullus

There were three boxes with pulli still to ring, so when they're done next week I'll give a round up of this year's successes.

After the ringing we popped down to the ringing site to check on the net lanes and whilst down there we spotted this beautiful day-flying moth, which according to Ispot and UKMoths is a Forester. It's a new species for Linacre and it posed nicely for this photo.

Forrester

Year List:

144- Quail