trapped Magpie

A slightly bizarre start to my school day. (It's amazing how often I get called to 'bird incidents' - do other ringers experience this?) "Mr Leonard! Mr Leonard! Come quickly! There's a baby bird trapped on the fence!"
What?
Well I went to investigate, and sure enough, a young Magpie had slipped from the top of a narrow picket fence and found itself trapped with it's head between two slats - the fence had an almost faultless ringers' grip. Anyway, apart from slight grazing on its head, it was fine and released after a brief lecture to the assembled crowds...
Pete

Final CES visit - Attenborough, Sun 27 June

Conditions were still, warm and slowly getting warmer....much warmer. Not expecting a great catch with the hot weather we were not disappointed with just 33 birds. All the usual species caught the only 'missing' birds were again juveniles of all species other than tits. We finished an hour early as the temperature rose above the mid-twenties and the nets were in the full sun.
Kev

Kestrel ringing in the Vale

A few pics from Keith...

News from the Shiants...

First messages back from Jim & his Shiants Auk Ring Group expedition are of not one but TWO new record-breaking Puffins, both 36 years old and new British longevity records!

Attenborough CES, visit 5 (second attempt...)

It started sunny and breezy and ended dull and very breezy but at least we managed to get in visit 5 on the last day of the period. The first round produced double figures of birds but then it went fairly quiet, not sure why as the breeze was not affecting the nets too much. The normal range of birds was caught totalling 31 in all. What was surprising was only 4 retraps were caught and other than 6 juvenile tits no other juveniles were caught. We had a few 3J Chiffchaffs on the last visit and there should have been juvenile Blackcaps and Garden Warblers this time but only adults were caught! Even the Robins, Dunnocks, Wrens etc were all adults. Let's hope this was a one off and does not indicate a poor breeding season generally. The final visit is planned for next weekend.
Kev

Hobby article

For those of you who don't see BTO News, here's an article just published by Jim. Click on the image to enlarge it.

From Inge in Spain

I had booked a single room in Granada... but soon after arrival I discovered I was actually sharing it, not with one but several "room mates": when I opened the window, two fast-asleep Swifts fell on my feet! The next day the cleaner had left the window open and, when I came back in the evening, I found a Swift inside the wardrobe! (they must be hotel-friendly birds because it didn't pooh on my clothing). As you can see from the photos, the
birds roost hanging from the blinds. Also included is a photo of the views that can be admired "after rolling-up the Swifts' fav perch".
From rainy Granada,
Inge

Gulls & terns at Attenborough

We had a great morning today, thanks to all. The totals were 176 Black-headed Gull chicks ringed and 17 Common Terns.
Kev
Pics from Tim & Gary

 

Wales pics from Tim

Wales pics from Ruth