Doing the double.

Today (27th October)

Owling from midnight onwards proved rewarding at 2 am when I extracted the 3rd Tengmalm's Owl for Denmark this autumn from on of the nets in the garden. Rune was more than happy to be woken up by this as it was his first for Denmark. As would be expected this bird was a Juvenile (presumed female) and is part of the invasion sweeping across Fenno-scandia this year. The origins or destination for this bird can only be guessed at but Norway or Northern Sweden would probably be the origin and destination a forest somewhere in Germany?

Around 4am I woke Rune once more with the second Tengmalm's of the night! This time a 2nd Calendar year Female. This bird was sat up in a bush and I managed to take it by hand (regretably giving the bird chance to butcher my left hand - but well worth the pain.

6 am came around quickly and the tapes were turned off ready for the morning's standardised ringing, as I went around the nets to shake off the dew I flushed a Long-Eared owl into one net, I managed to run and catch it just before it escaped the net. Not a bad night for Owling then with 2 gorgeous species of owls caught.

Standardised was quite busy today with 75 new birds, 20 Goldcrests, 17 Robins, 10 Wrens, a few of each Blackbird, Redwing,Lesser redpoll, Great and Blue Tit. Singles of Song Thrush and Northern Bullfinch.

Finch migration overhead was impressive with 1500+ Chaffinch/Brambling. 1000 Siskin, 200 Redpoll, 20 Bullfinch, 10 Crossbill, a few Greenfinch, Linnet and Twite and a single Hawfinch. Rough-legged buzzards powered through the mist and over the sea as did a few Sparrowhawks.

Rune left this afternoon and I'm very thankful for his help without him we wouldn't have been able to cover the whole night and catch these owls.

Craig Brookes

Raptor day

Today (25th October) was a different kind of a morning, the wind whipped across us from the South-East and turning more easterly as the day went by. However the show put on by raptors today was quite impressive.

Whilst setting the nets in half light I flushed both Tengmalm's and Long-eared Owl as well as seeing the says first Sparrowhawks, Rough-legged Buzzards and 3 Red Kites! I quickly erected the Sparrowhawk nets and within 5 minutes a big adult female was in the net.

Passerines were scarce this morning and represented only by a couple of Goldcrest, Blackbirds, Chiffchaffs, Wrens, Robins, Great tit and a few flocks of Chaffinch/Bramblings. Also a scarcity which we caught this morning. 

Firecrest - (Regulus ignicapilla) Juvenile Female.

The next round came and as I had already woken Rune up with the Firecrest he decided to join me rather than returning to bed. It was again a slow round. As we approached the last net we had drawn a blank and then suddenly from no where the Long-Eared Owl I had seen earlier jumped into the net.

Long-Eared Owl - (Asio otus) Juvenile Female.

Apologies for my ugly mug showing up on the blog there but it is a gorgeous bird so I think I'll be forgiven. As the day progressed then we struggled to a catch many more birds. Sparrowhawks and Red kites came over the garden often and a few times I ran towards the nets to see the Red Kites had actually just missed the nets... In total 6 Red Kites, 10 Rough-Legged Buzzards and at least 20 Sparrowhawks today (these are just the birds I saw, most of the time I was busy checking empty nets). Rune took a couple of hours Sea-watching this afternoon as saw around 60 Little Gull (Hydrocoloeus minus) along with a possible Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) conditions out there at the point were horrendous today so Rune can be forgiven for not possitively identifying this small wader as it whizzed over the surf through his wobbling telescope lens.

Craig Brookes