BTO Bird ringers, if you have been collecting flat flies for the Mapping the UK's Flat Flies Project, please can you send them to me in the next few weeks.
I'm hoping to complete the IDs over Xmas and to analyse the data in early January and it would be a pity to miss any.
@_bto
Massive thanks @bbowt & @UpperThamesBC & @chilternrangers for hosting & leading @ChilternsCCC#newshoots session at Yoesdon Bank NR. Great session on butterfly ID & intro. to Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey. Great butterflies incl. Chalk-hill & Adonis Blue … what top spot …
Some footage from the chicks in box 24 and not long now before they fledge, I caught the adult returning too which shows the difference in appearance quite well. #Swifts
Northern White-faced Owl, Ptilopsis leucotis, caught and ringed by the team very early this morning.
We have caught very few of this species as they are extremely nocturnal. Attempts to catch them at night frequently involve bi-catches of bats, which we always seek to avoid.
Here’s an article on what the BOURC is and what it does. I encourage all birders to read it and understand the BOURC’s work in maintaining the #BritishList - the official list of wild birds recorded for Britain. Not just British firsts but also Cat C and those pesky escapes.
An excellent control of a KBO ringed Nightingale breeding in Somerset, England. This is the most westerly record of a Gambian ringed Nightingale. Previous records have been from Suffolk Essex and Kent. This female was ringed in January 2018 and retrapped at KBO in November 2018.
A polite reminder: birds are at their limits in the breeding season: building nests, defending territories, feeding young and also surviving.
I’m aware of people putting additional strain on some of our heathland birds and owls just for *that* special photo.
PLEASE DON’T!!
I never realised Little Egrets have green skin! They use those long toes & claws to good effect scrambling around the branches outside their nests.
Another field season in @WythamWoods draws to a close - still seeing high nestling survival, very little asynchrony in broods & caterpillar abundance still high. The traditional field team photograph - it would be impossible to do this work without this fantastic team!
I’ve spent most of the last week in the woods monitoring Pied Flycatchers. There are a lot of signs that the adults are struggling to find enough food for their young. They are on the ground looking for food and bringing in Caddis Flies, Craneflies and things which look 1/2
The Corn Bunting nesting season is the busiest time of year for our team and is fast approaching. At one farm today, we located five colour-ringed male birds (E43, E58, E93, J49 & M49) setting up their territories on the same song posts they have used in the past four seasons.
📳 Is scaffolding blocking access to an active swift nest?
📳 Film it. Note the exact location. Report it
📳 Ring 101 and ask to speak to a Wildlife Crime Officer
📳 Ask for an incident number so it's logged
https://t.co/Nakbq83z3t