Sunday February 25 - still kicking my heels

 Although I have been out of action again this week, others have stepped up to the plate.

Arguably the most interesting news comes from one of the commonest of birds. Tony and Leigh catch an awful lot of Blue Tits at Morton Bagot, and they regularly re-trap them. Occasionally one is recovered elsewhere, but given that Blue Tits are not really migrants, these are generally local. So news that one of their birds flew into a mist net in Oxwich on the Gower Peninsular was quite something. The bird was a juvenile when ringed at Morton Bagot on October 12 2023, and then moved 175 kilometres west south west before being caught on February 18 2024.

My garden Blue Tits are likely to be much more sedentary

The key to understanding this movement is the age of the bird. Juvenile dispersal is definitely a thing for most resident species, but only through ringing can the potential extent of these movements be revealed.

Staying with Tony's news. As darkness fell on February 20 he spent time with his trusty night-vision device surveying the fields around Morton Bagot and came up with a remarkable 11 Woodcocks. Only one of these was caught, and proved to be a re-trap of a bird he'd caught earlier in the winter. The surprise is that there are so many Woodcocks using the site. It just shows how day-time birding can miss the bigger picture.

Yesterday, there were two noteworthy reports. John Coombes texted me that he was watching a Short-eared Owl near Ragley balancing lake just west of the village of Arrow. This was right on the edge of my circle, so I convinced Lyn I could be there and back in an hour. It turned out that the bird remained for 15 minutes before being discovered by the local corvids and chased off towards Wixford. I arrived just as John texted news of its departure.

Meanwhile, John Chidwick was visiting Morton Bagot and discovered that a pair of Avocets was resident on the nearest flash. This is their earliest return to the patch. I chose not to push my luck by going for them too, particularly as they should remain for the spring. Ironically Dave went there this morning and they were no longer present. He did see a pair of Stonechats but not a lot else.

The other potential distraction is moths. Unfortunately the nights have got distinctly cold this week, with morning frost. Only a fool would put his moth trap out.

I put my moth trap out last night, and amazingly caught two moths. They were just Common Quakers, but I was very grateful for them.

Common Quaker on frosted foxglove leaf

What else can I tell you? Earlswood remains very quiet, the stand-out being a male Brambling on a garden feeder in the village. The long-staying Tundra Bean Goose at Bittell Reservoir was discovered along Watery Lane, Lea End a mile east of the reservoirs yesterday.

Hopefully I'll be birding again before too long.