Red Kite ringing success

Went ringing Saturday morning with Paul R, Rob and Louise and caught a good number of species before the heat became too much for the birds being processed. Wood Pigeon, Blackcap, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Dunnock, Robin, Wren and Green Finches were all scribed in the book. The highlights though were a yellow wing tagged Red Kite ringed by our group at a nest site this summer as a chick was trapped to prove successful fledging.

Our re trapped Red Kite above.

Just like Buses, another Red Kite came in but this young bird was unringed which I was over the moon to be able to ring my first one and Paul added the wing tag- an amazing experience!

Please report any sightings of the above as it's so important to the group-thanks....

Kentish Plovers in Cape Verde

With over 400 images taken in one session just on the Kentish Plovers in Cape Verde. Here are just a few of my favourites.


Juvenile

Adult Male

Hoopoe Lark in Cape Verde

Spent 11 days on holiday in Cape Verde on the island of Sal with the family and had an amazing time. Most evenings I would pop out behind our hotel in the sand dunes or around the receding saline pool for the last hour of light before enjoying the delights of the all-inclusive hotel.

The Hoopoe Lark was my favourite bird to see but the hardest to photograph-they don't stop moving/running catching prey. Superb birds.....

Fairly tame but they do keep running  but when the fly Wow! the black and white underwing is so smart.

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.