Turtle Dove

Yesterday I met Paul for another session in his garden ringing site with a view to catching more juvenile warblers. This goal was achieved with a good degree of success with all Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs proving to be young of this year.

In addition to the summer migrants and regular garden fayre of Blackbirds, Wrens, Robins, tits and finches this morning had some surprises in store. First came a new bird for Paul's garden in the form of Marsh Tit. Given his proximity to acres of grazing marsh and several stands of alder carr I was surprised to learn that he'd never previously seen a Marsh Tit in the garden. Needless to say I persuaded him to ring this 'first'.

Marsh Tit

To those reading this blog post the next unexpected species will be all too obvious but Paul and I were very excited to a hear a male Turtle Dove calling in his garden. It was even more exciting to discover a well grown Turtle Dove pullus sitting in what resembled a hurried construction of flimsy twigs built in a hawthorn tree next to a net ride. Then on a routine net round the unimaginable had happened; an adult Turtle Dove had flown from the nest straight into the net that had already been there for several hours. Paul immediately rushed over to extract it as whilst he has ringed Turtle Dove in his garden on several occasions he knew that it would be a new species for me. After ringing the bird a quick check with Baker confirmed it as a 6 female.

Adult female Turtle Dove

The final surprise of the day loudly announced its presence and both Paul and I looked up to see a juvenile Green Woodpecker trapped and calling incessantly. We quickly noticed another bird in the net beside it but before either of us had a chance to get moving an adult woodpecker had managed to escape. Needless to say I was quick to extract the juv before it too managed to beat a hasty retreat.

Juv. Green Woodpecker

Along with a good quantity of warblers and garden birds these three 'treats' made for a good morning ringing session.

Totals - 83 New, (11) retraps

Turtle Dove - 1

Green Woodpecker - 1

Wren - 2, (1)

Dunnock - 1, (1)

Robin - 5

Blackbird - 3, (3)

Cetti's Warbler - (2)

Reed Warbler - 1

Whitethroat - 2

Garden Warbler - 2

Blackcap - 15

Chiffchaff - 9

Long-tailed Tit - 5

Marsh Tit - 1

Blue Tit - 8, (2)

Great Tit - 11, (2)

Chaffinch - 1

Greenfinch - 6

Goldfinch - 8

Siskin - 1  first of this autumn