Another Early Morning

Sunday, May 15th 2016

Well wrapped up bird ringers arrived at Foxglove at 5am.  A different walk, over the moor saw a delightful sky.  There is a hint of blue in the sky and on the ground on the Bluebell bank.  Bluebells are indicators of ancient woodland.  I wonder what the moor looked like when covered in trees?

Great Spotted Woddpeckers were drumming.  The first Cuckoo of spring was heard.  A Roe Deer was barking.  It then jumped the gate to the middle moor before elegantly stretching its legs to fly over the boundary fence and disappear onto the training area.

CES 2 is always quiet as many of the birds now have territories and are not moving around.  Females are sitting on nests and the males are guarding them.  The resulting data shows more retraps and more males on this day.  In total 161birds were processed including the first juvenile Song Thrushes.  Other birds included Siskin, Robin, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and our first Sedge Warbler of the year..  Interestingly the Lesser Redpolls have moved on and not a single one was caught. This was the fourth highest total for CES 2 in 24 years.

Some of the bird ringers were out checking nest boxes and the cold weather has obviously had an affect;  some nests were not finished yet and the females were not sitting on their completed clutches of eggs.

This is the entrance to a Nuthatch's nest.  The hole is made smaller by lining it with mud.

The large nest boxes have all now had one visit and plans are ready for their next.  Today was the start of the small boxes and emails and phone calls will happen over the next few days to organise visits to various woods.  A really busy time for the ringers.  Thank you for all your hard work.

Already some of the spring flowers are setting seed as this Dandelion shows.

Cotton Grass is beginning to flower in the Scrapes but does not look as appealing as it will later on once the seeds set and the white fluffy cotton heads dance in the gentle breeze.

Judging by the temperature over the weekend 'our clouts' must remain to hand as May is only half way through and the May blossom still has some developing to do.

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