Roadkill

Steve S found this Tawny Owl by the roadside in Brentwood on 20th June. Normally, I only get to hear Tawny Owls calling over the patch and very rarely see one anywhere now days. So I thought I would share these images as most birders don't get to see one up close?

A sad end to a beautiful night hunter.

Happy for my tern

 Friday evening along with a small group of experienced NTGG ringers I helped ringed 14 Common Tern chicks and colour ring some more Black-headed Gulls (yellow) following on from the other week at the same site. I did think the BHG chicks were smart but was blown away by the Tern chicks-superb. Some Tern chicks were to small to ring but the total number is higher than last years which is great!  As always with ringing just a few images taken with the camera as it's more important to return the birds quickly and safely. 

Common Tern

Common Tern

Black-headed Gull

I used the 35mm lens again which is small and easy to use. All images set at ISO 400 f7.1 1/1600

Thanks to Paul R and Paul H.......

Common Buzzard chicks

I spent most of Sunday ringing Common Buzzard chicks as part of a project run by Paul R, along with a professional climber, his girlfriend and another trainee ringer. Four trees were climbed with one of them having to be abandoned due to it being unsafe. Five gorgeous chicks were ringed, two by myself with a G' ring. All chicks were in very good condition and all around the same age. Prey was found to be similar  in each nest and definitely no Pheasant was found, which will be good news for the concerned farmers around the country. I used my 35mm lens for the images below, bought for £35 from ebay!

ISO 800

ISO 1000


Add in my first found coughed up Buzzard pellet containing fur and beetles below one of the nests, it was a really good day out-thanks Paul.

Gull ringing

It was a early start on Saturday morning with the NTGG for some colour ringing of Black-headed Gull chicks under the guidance of Paul R. A small team of five were chosen to quickly process and minimise disturbance. With 50+ chicks ringed and none of us falling out of the boat the morning went very well.

Drake Garganey

The patch was packed with new year ticks over the weekend with Yellow Wagtail, Cuckoo, Swift, House Martin, Sand Martin but best of all was a cracking  Drake Garganey that I found on Saturday at the viewing area. It stayed most of the day till at least 4.30pm and at times it was heard calling - smart birds.

Spring Ice

A fairly decent morning on the patch with Lesser Whitethroat and Common Tern bringing the total up to that magical number #100. As I said before it's the best start ever and hopefully a record breaking year.

A quick breakfast and I was back out again but over Rainham Marshes to twitch 3 Iceland Gulls near the stone barges - thanks to Jonathan Wasse for the heads up. I did manged 2 out of 3 with a 2cy and very smart 3cy.

The light was good so used ISO 400 1/2000 f7.1 and some brown bread for a closer view.

Arctic Skua

Despite the dull weather on Sunday afternoon and as I spent most of Sunday at work, I still went out on to the patch to twitch Paul's male Wheatear on Ingrebourne hill #97 - you can't beat a spring male on the patch.

With Barn Owl, Green Sandpiper, Blackcap,Swallow, Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler and another fly over Hawfinch, the patch has sprung into action over the last couple of weeks. With my opics getting wet from the rain and no sign of getting another year tick I done something different, I went to Rainham Marshes to check the river. With good conditions I stopped off at Ferry Lane and the first bird in the bins was a cracking dark phase Arctic Skua sitting on the Thames! A good scarce bird for the London recording area.

Only on view for a few minutes before it flew east chasing the Gulls.......