Almost dipped on first pulli.

I had a late one last night and when the forecast for heavy rain didn't materialise this morning I was left it in a bit of a quandary as to what to do. Anyway I finally sent a text to Wayne mid-morning and suggested that I show him one of the potential Dipper sites with a view to nest recording if they were present. We got there at around mid-day but there were no obvious signs of Dipper activity. We went downstream and put a net across the river while we surveyed the areas both up and down stream.

We hadn't been there that long when we realised that a Robin was feeding young close by. After a bit of watching back and forth we quickly realised it was feeding young in the bank near one of the net poles. The first search found the nest site and it was in within two feet of the site of a Blackbird's nesting site that I found last spring and in very similar circumstances too. Five pulli Robins were duly ringed and were Wayne's and our first pulli ringed for the year. Only a  thousand pullus to go so no pressure there Wayne as these don't count towards that total (private joke).

Judging by its development this Robin chick will be 5 days old.

First pulli or should I say pullus (no masters of Latin here) of the year ringed were capped off in fine style with a Dipper, and what a powerful bird they are. These Water Ouzels are something else and it was magic to see Wayne's appreciation of a new species when it found its way into the net.

On  woodland flowery note it was also nice to see Wood Anemones in full flower and Bluebells not that far behind. Spring is really here.

All Smiles

It has been a busy week at work and the weather has been poor so I haven't been up to much recently. However, I have been keeping an eye on the Great Tits nesting in the garden and decided it was time to ring the nestlings this evening. The following photographs show their development over the last week or so. Only five nestlings were in the box which is a fairly small brood and they have been reared with the help of artificial food supplies because of the cold conditions.


03/05/12 Great Tit nestlings



07/05/12 Great Tit nestlings



07/05/12 Great Tit nestling. A face only a mother can love.



11/05/12 Great Tit nestlings



11/05/12 Great Tit nestling. Looking more like the real deal.



11/05/12 Great Tit nestling just ringed.

The ring has been darkened with a felt tip marker to make it less noticeable to the parent birds. The young are at least a week off fledging so still have some way to go.