Thursday 19 January 2012

January Farmland Visit

Tuesday saw me trudging along the bridleway to set the nets around the wild bird seed strip on Eastwood Farm in Lound. This is the third visit as part of the Waveney Bird Club project investigating the effectiveness of various farm stewardship options.

Once again the weather was sunny thus reducing the number of birds caught but despite this thirty new birds were caught although not having a single retrap was disappointing. There seemed to be an unusually high number of thrushes present in the hedgerows comprising almost a third of the total catch. One Song Thrush had a colour aberration in which the tips of the adult median and greater coverts were white.

  Regular Song Thrush, left, Song Thrush with colour aberration, right.
Both birds are 2 CY (5) with clearly visible retained juv. greater coverts.

Despite buntings and finches being somewhat elusive on this visit to the seed strip it was fantastic timing when the Ed, the tenant farmer turned up just as I was extracting five Yellowhammers and a couple of Goldfinches from one net.

 2 CY (5) male Goldfinch, left & 2 CY (5) male Yellowhammer, right.

Despite the bright conditions it was a reasonable session although it would have been good to see more finches and buntings as well as some retraps. Having had a good look at the seed strip it would seem that much of it has been eaten out already so Ed has kindly given us some wheat with a view to attracting birds to a whoosh netting area.

Totals - 30 new with no retraps
Dunnock - 5
Robin - 1
Blackbird - 8
Song Thrush - 3
Great Tit - 1
Blue Tit - 1
Goldfinch - 2
Yellowhammer - 5
Reed Bunting - 4




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