A Little Owl in a box and a few others.

 A bit of a late post I am afraid as our internet was out for a couple of days. On Tuesday, 23 Nov Ruud and I checked out some of the Little Owl nest boxes we have erected during the last six months. The first one we checked had a Starling's nest with 3 bandable chicks which were duly given some bling. The next was empty except for the possible start of a nest, again probably Starling. This box was the original one that we banded a couple of chicks in last year. But the third was occupied by Mrs Owl well I presume it was female as all the books say it should be. But then again not sure that Owls read about what Owls should be doing. She was sitting on two fresh looking eggs, as we had checked this box a couple of weeks ago and found it empty this was a bit of a pleasant surprise. This is the first box of the eight boxes we have erected that has been occupied by an owl. She was duly banded and returned to her duties.

A rather startled looking Little Owl

A vey happy chappy with a rather bemused looking bird.

Photos courtesy of Ruud, "the Bug Man"

 

We later visited a nursery where we had banded a brood of Welcome Swallows last year. Although they had moved the nest position it had a couple of large chicks which we duly banded.

All in all a couple of successful hours.

Halswell Quarry Fri 5 Nov - Another pleasant morning at the Quarry

 We had a session at the Quarry this morning. The nets were put up at a new site which is several hundred meters from previous sites. Jan suggested this area and although I had some misgivings we gave it a go. We ended up with 24 birds of 6 species processed with 17 new and 5 recaptures. The number of recaptures was a pleasant surprise and it shows the benefit of nets in a new position.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)

House Sparrow - 9 (0) the first 5 were Males and then we got a couple of girls.

Coralie displaying one of her boys.

Blackbird - 4 (1) all the new birds were Juveniles but the recap was an old girl, banded in May 2018 it is now at 1260 days from banding our oldest Blackbird.

The old Blackbird

Starling - 1 (0)

Song Thrush - 1 (0)

Dunnock - 1 (1)

Silvereye - 1 (3) one of the recaps was banded Feb 2018 and is at 1373 days from banding our oldest recap of any species.

Hazel & Ruud sharing a joke - perhaps about the size of their birds?