A dry day for a change

Weather wise it has been another miserable week. Yesterday was a complete washout so a dry day with sunshine was very welcome to say the least. It was too windy for any mist-netting but it was just nice to see some blue sky for a change.



Blue sky and some Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)

I was having a cup of coffee when I noticed a male Blackcap on one of the fat feeders in the front garden. I assumed it was the bird I had ringed 10 days ago but when I got my bins on it I could see it wasn’t ringed. Blackcaps can be quite acrobatic on feeders and this bird was no exception.

 

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

A few coffees later I walked over the road to Orrell Water Park to check out the Black-headed Gulls for rings. About 100 gulls were present but only one was wearing a ring and that was the German ringed bird that I have photographed several times since late October.



German ringed Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)



Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)
I can't resist taking the odd flight shot.

I needed to do some Christmas errands in the afternoon and also top up the feeders at Haigh so I decided to call in at Three Sisters on route to check out the Black-headed Gulls there. There were about 120 gulls on the small lake and I soon spotted a bird with a metal ring when I started to feed them. I would have got the number quite quickly but for other people feeding the birds in the water rather than on the bank. Anyway around 50 shots and a loaf later I had the full number and address photographed. It was a Swedish ringed bird.

 

Swedish ringed Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)



Swedish ringed Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus). It is not always easy to get shots all round the ring especially on a windy day when birds birds face the wind most of the time,