The rain and wind overnight were terrible so there could be no
ringing until the wind calmed. We had a lazy start on this Sunday
morning and, after breakfast, Chris went to the tip where he enjoyed
watching the passage of Common Buzzard and Sparrowhawk.
I hadn't fail to notice the numbers of Buzzard and Sparrowhawk drifting above, or hurtling around the house on a couple of ocassions, so decided that by 10am it should be possible to drop the large mesh nets on the lawn. I arrived to find one net down due to a peg having pulled out - that really had been some bad weather last night! So, only one net was dropped while I returned to the house for some cord to get the second net properly secured and back in working order. The first Sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg), a big female that weighed in at 291g with wing length of 249mm (that's only the measurement from the carpel joint to feather tip) was already in the net when I got back.
When she had been processed I went back to do my net maintenance and had only just completed that when the first net check found another captured female Sparrowhawk, this time an adult
I had just finished collecting all her data when Chris got back so we were able to photograph her before release.
With the wind a little less strong now, Chris opened a few very sheltered nets and used an audiolure for Goldcrest (Fuglekonge), we only got a couple (and there were technical difficulties as the MP3 player kept turning off) so we tried a different player and played Redpoll (Gråsisken) later in the afternoon. There was a bit more success from that - the Redpolls even brought a few other finches with them.
There were a couple more Sparrowhawks, this time much smaller males, but the birds that had been hunting in the strong winds of the early morning had disappeared by mid afternoon. Many probably migrated as Chris had seen about 20 birds leave from the tip in the short time he was there.
I hadn't fail to notice the numbers of Buzzard and Sparrowhawk drifting above, or hurtling around the house on a couple of ocassions, so decided that by 10am it should be possible to drop the large mesh nets on the lawn. I arrived to find one net down due to a peg having pulled out - that really had been some bad weather last night! So, only one net was dropped while I returned to the house for some cord to get the second net properly secured and back in working order. The first Sparrowhawk (Spurvehøg), a big female that weighed in at 291g with wing length of 249mm (that's only the measurement from the carpel joint to feather tip) was already in the net when I got back.
When she had been processed I went back to do my net maintenance and had only just completed that when the first net check found another captured female Sparrowhawk, this time an adult
I had just finished collecting all her data when Chris got back so we were able to photograph her before release.
Adult Sparrowhawk female ( 2k+ Sparrowhawk hun)
With the wind a little less strong now, Chris opened a few very sheltered nets and used an audiolure for Goldcrest (Fuglekonge), we only got a couple (and there were technical difficulties as the MP3 player kept turning off) so we tried a different player and played Redpoll (Gråsisken) later in the afternoon. There was a bit more success from that - the Redpolls even brought a few other finches with them.
There were a couple more Sparrowhawks, this time much smaller males, but the birds that had been hunting in the strong winds of the early morning had disappeared by mid afternoon. Many probably migrated as Chris had seen about 20 birds leave from the tip in the short time he was there.
Juvenile male Sparrowhawk (1k han Spurvehøg)
Totals:21 (5)
Spurvehøg / Sparrowhawk - 4
Rødhals / Robin - 0 (2)
Solsort / Blackbird - 0 (1)
Fuglekonge / Goldcrest - 2 (2)
Musvit / Great Tit - 0 (1)
Rødhals / Robin - 0 (2)
Solsort / Blackbird - 0 (1)
Fuglekonge / Goldcrest - 2 (2)
Musvit / Great Tit - 0 (1)
Grønirisk / Greenfinch - 2
Tornirisk / Linnet - 1
Nordlig Gråsisken / Common Redpoll - 1
Lille Gråsisken / Lesser Redpoll - 11
Tornirisk / Linnet - 1
Nordlig Gråsisken / Common Redpoll - 1
Lille Gråsisken / Lesser Redpoll - 11