20/12/11 - Duff Rewards

Early this morning Mike & Craig headed to Wheldrake, it was completely frozen & the traps were empty. On to Duffield next and one of the poles for the new whoosh net had fallen over! Meaning they couldn’t take a catch which was frustrating as there were lots of Wigeon milling about on the river infront of the area! The Top Pond was frozen but a Wigeon & Mallard had made their way into the duck trap.

Today whilst working down at Duffield we decided to try the new feeding station which was put in place a few weeks ago. Two nets were put up by the feeders whilst we worked nearby, a good catch was had, 34 birds over a couple of hours, the highlights being a Fieldfare & Great Spotted Woodpecker!

 

Fieldfare  

                                            Great Spotted Woodpecker

Total catch:

Blackbird 4

Blue Tit 3

Chaffinch 3

Dunnock 2

Fieldfare 1

Goldfinch 7

Great Spotted Woodpecker 1

Great Tit 1

Greenfinch 8

Reed Bunting 1

Robin 1

Tree Sparrow 2

19/12/11 - Teal Fest!

The last few days have seen very few Wigeon caught and instead a good number of Teal, 34 since Thursday! These have been mainly from the duck trap at North Duffield and the whoosh net at Wheldrake. 

 

Today (Monday 19^th) Wheldrake & the Top Pond at North Duffield were both frozen again but 5 new Teal were in the duck trap on the Top Pond island. A few photos were taken to show the comparison between the adult and juvenile male birds, although darkness was fast approaching so they’re not the best quality!

Adult male Teal 

The adult male is on the left and the two juvenile birds are middle and right. The adult bird had a very white breast compared to the browny coloured juveniles.

One adult (left) with two young male Teal 

Along with looking at the breast and tails, the feathers on their back (shown below) can separate the adults and juveniles, which still have a lot of brown feathers and are yet to gain their full adult plumage.

Showing the contrast 

There were hundreds of birds on the river so a whoosh net was rigged up this afternoon on the banking, Craig had started to grain it up on Saturday so we hope to get a catch in this week!

At the weekend Mike had a few more birds to add to the totals. Yesterday (Sunday 18^th) both Wheldrake & the Top Pond were still frozen over, 3 new Teal were in the duck trap at North Duffield early in the morning, then a check again in the afternoon found another 3 new Teal plus a Mallard & Wigeon.

Saturday (17^th) both pools were frozen over so no birds were around although approximately 1500 Wigeon/Teal were on the river. Two more Teal were in the duck trap at North Duffield.

 

On Friday (16^th) Craig & Mike checked Wheldrake early am, lots of birds were on the pool but there was nothing in the area to fire on. A visit to the Top Pond at North Duffield found just the one Teal in the duck trap. Late afternoon Mike, Fal & Lucy headed to Wheldrake to try for a catch, there were hundreds of birds on the pool on arrival (around 4pm), mainly Wigeon and Teal, along with a couple of Pintail and Curlew. A flock of Lapwing dropped in low down, gliding over the whoosh net! Nothing was in the area on arrival but after a 45 minute wait a few Teal made their way up to the grain, so it took awhile but the net was eventually fired just as daylight was fading! Had to extract by torchlight! A catch of 15 Teal, well worth the wait!

Thursday (15^th) Craig headed to Wheldrake early am, there was nothing in the area but a few birds on the pool. Moving on from Wheldrake a check of the duck trap at North Duffield found 5 new Teal! Late afternoon (just before dark) Craig & Fal headed back to Wheldrake, hundreds of birds were on the pool including 10 Curlew. After a bit of a wait they eventually fired on a few Canada & 4 Mallards. The geese escaped leaving them with just the 4 ducks to ring!

15/12/11 - December Recoveries

Today we received a couple more recoveries, two Teal, both ringed last year on Skipwith Common.

Teal (EX26592) ringed as a 4F on 02/11/10 on Skipwith Common, recovered on 26/11/11 in Denmark (shot).

Teal (EW65175) ringed as a 4M on 17/10/10 on Skipwith Common, recovered on 14/11/11 near Petworth, West Sussex (found dead).

13/12/11 - Patience needed...!

Yesterday morning saw an early start at the base, we met at half 7 to allow enough time to get down to Duffield & into position before the majority of the Whooper Swans arrived. The birds started coming in early, by 07.50 the first 10 were on the grain so it was looking good, but gradually went downhill....! As more birds started to arrive they seemed to unsettle each other. They were very flighty and kept taking off in threes and fours, circling the fields and then landing again. Two birds with different darvic rings were spotted, meaning new birds had arrived over night. We believe that the new birds had unsettled the flock which had been there over the last couple of weeks. Also the strong winds meant that instead of feeding on the grain the majority of birds that were in the field had their heads down instead and were sheltering.

We waited patiently until around half past 12 before trying anything, during this time the birds had been to’ing and fro’ing & had been nowhere near the catching area. Also the count had reached 77!

It was decided that we’d have to try something or accept that we might be going home empty handed, and so one of the Landrovers was sent along the edge of the field behind where the birds were. Creeping along slowly resulted in the whole flock taking off and landing back in the field where the net was. Not long after the birds seemed to become more active and found their way onto the grain. Atlast!

When it was believed that approximately 20 birds were in the catching area the decision was taken to fire (around 2pm), however as the day had gone on the wind had increased in speed & so it had become very windy indeed! With the net facing into the wind as it fired it lifted high up into the air and came down so slowly allowing plenty of time for the majority of birds to take off! We caught 5 in the net but 1 escaped leaving us with just 4 birds to ring. Better than no birds though!

                       Chris & Chris with their hands full!

All birds caught were adults and each one was fitted with a darvic ring, in sequence – G5A, G5B, G5C and G5D. Let’s hope these birds make their way back and return again next year! A photograph of each bird was taken with the darvic ring before it was fitted to assist in a study of Whooper Swans which is looking at if they can be identified by individual beak patterns like Bewick Swans. 

                       Whooper Swan G5C

Many thanks to Mark & Robin for providing their expertise & all the gear which allowed the catch to go ahead. The LDV team were also joined by Chris & Eric from the Tees Ringing Group & Chris Blakeley from the EYRG - ringing a Whooper Swan was a new bird for all 3 making it extra special for them!

                                  Chris - very pleased with his new bird! 

After the catch we took the guys on a quick tour of the valley and checked the duck traps, there was a re-trap Wigeon, Mallard & Coot at Duffield and nothing at Wheldrake but hundreds of Wigeon & Teal on the pool. 

A worthwhile day in the end!

12/12/11 - Start of the freeze...

Saturday morning (10^th) Mike headed down to Wheldrake with the hope of a catch only to find it completely frozen! The same was found at the Top Pond at North Duffield so there wasn’t a bird in sight other than 5 new Mallard, 1 Wigeon and 2 new male Pintail(!) in the duck trap, the only bit of water which hadn’t frozen. 25 Whoopers were counted feeding on the grain. 

Male Pintail

Sunday morning (11^th) both pools of water were still frozen and the only bird in the duck trap on Wheldrake was a surprise Fieldfare! Mike went down with a couple of buckets to grain up the area for Whoopers and counted 61!

Today (Monday 12^th) no birds were in either whoosh net area early in the morning or late afternoon, however 4 Moorhen were in the duck trap on Wheldrake, only one new bird though and 3 re-traps.  

The count of Whoopers reached 69 this afternoon, all were spotted feeding on the grain. We waited until they headed off to roost (around half past 4) and then set the net in the dark! Fingers crossed tomorrow comes off!