The mornings are dark and alarm calls getting later. The buzzer woke me at 0530, enough time for the essentials before a timed to perfection drive over switchback moss roads and up to Oakenclough. That’s thirty minutes early morning and forty minutes…
Saturday was cool, blustery and showery just like the week gone by when there was no birding and no ringing. Hopefully the showers would not turn to rain and I could at least get a little birding done. With so few Swallows of late one could be f…
The publication of new books was another casualty of world events in 2020 but thankfully we are back on track with the appearance of new titles from a number of publishers. Princeton University Press is in the process of catching up with their releases…
Weeks had slipped by since our last visit to Oakenclough . The last one was 14th August 2020 when we still caught Tree Pipits and Willow Warblers even though the cool morning air suggested autumn was close and that warblers might morph into finches and…
With a dry sunny morning but a 20mph stiff northerly there was no chance of a ringing session at our exposed ringing sites. I set off for the usual birding spots with the car heater turned to ‘max’ and four layers on top. Summer had turned to autu…
Wednesday morning – “The Met Office has issued an 18-hour warning for strong winds in Somerset as Storm Ellen batters Britain and the West Country. The storm contains the remnants of Tropical Storm Kyle and will bring gales as it hits Ireland, before s…
We returned to Oakenclough today. I arrived at 0620, Andy at 0625 for the appointed 0630. That’s just one of the many disciplines of becoming a bird ringer – punctual and dependable timekeeping. Sadly, many a trainee ringer falls at this very first …
Seven Tree Pipits caught this morning during the ringing session at Oakenclough. Seven in one morning is something of a record number for birders who see Tree Pipits in Spring and Autumn only. We are at the peak of Tree Pipit migration. A fellow ri…
There was patchy rain around at early doors. When at 0630 the three of us arrived from our respective but different journeys, Andy said he drove through a few showers, Bryan experienced the same, but my journey had been rain free. At Oakenclough all…
I missed out on Monday’s ringing when Andy caught another 32 birds up at Oakenclough – 9 more Willow Warblers, more Blackcaps, yet another Garden Warbler and one each of Siskin and Lesser Redpoll. We decided on a change of venue today when a post-…