Trail camera success...

After capturing several videos of sheep on my trail camera, I finally managed to get what I was after!!

I will find them...

 Over the past week, I've been finding more and more Wild Boar tracks in the forests surrounding Cluj. Knowing that they are mostly nocturnal, myself and Silvia decided to come back from the cinema (it was about 03:00) via the woods near to the flat. Despite being extremely quite, we didn't see a thing! What made it even more frustrating was finding some fresh tracks today right where we had been walking.

Hopefully when the snow starts to fall, they'll become a bit easier to track!

Definitely not camera shy...

My luck was in today while strolling around the woods (thankfully I had remembered to put the memory card in the camera today, something I didn't manage to do yesterday!!). Usually when a Red Squirrel is on the ground and it spots you, it'll run up to the top of the nearest tree and stay there! However this one was different. It just hopped a short way up the tree, and let me get within 15 feet of him!! Hopefully this will be the first of many close encounters with these awesome creatures.

Moments before, this little chap came down to to puddle in front of me for a drink. Unfortunately this one wasn't so approachable! 

This is a Middle Spotted Woodpecker. As it's name would suggest, it's larger that the Lesser Spotted and smaller than the Great Spotted but very similar in plumage. All three species are present in this woodland, along with their bigger cousins the Green and Black Woodpecker.

Just another day in the woods..

After a very misty morning, it was nice to see the sun shining in the afternoon, so I decided to go for a stroll in the woods. Despite all of the leaves now being on the floor, there was still plenty of wildlife in the trees, including several Great Spotted Woodpeckers.

I saw some interesting behavior from this chap above. He would take the Beech mast while on the wing, then fly back to the tree trunk to crack it open! There seems to be a good crop of beech mast this year, this was one of several Red Squirrels seen making the most of it.

Other birds of note today included 100+ Hawfinches, 20+ Long-tailed tits, 40+ Blackbirds and at least 3 of these little Treecreepers.

(I decided to try black and white with this image. Believe me it looks a lot better like this, than in colour)

Still finding new species...

Despite the cold weather finally starting to arrive here (although not as cold as the UK yet), I'm still managing to add new (none weather related) species to my wildlife lists! This week I've added Mandarin (female pictured) and Yellow-legged Gull to my bird list. I'm actually looking forward  for the snow to arrive, I'm hoping it will bring in species like Redpoll, Fieldfare, Waxwing, Rough-legged Buzzard or something a bit rarer!!

Female Wood Duck and Mandarin can be difficult to distinguish! Thing to look out for are: the colour of the bill (Mandarins have a pale 'nail' on the end, whereas the Wood Duck's is dark), the spots on the flanks (Mandarins have rounded spots, whereas the Wood Duck's are much thinner) and the white around the eye (Mandarins have a lot less white, and usually looks a lot neater)

This is a Drake Mandarin (picture taken back at home in Wales). They are a lot more colourful than the females, and very different from the Drake Wood Duck.

Little bit of bread no cheese...

Despite there being very few birds around Crit, it was great to see good numbers of Yellowhammers around the farms. Yellowhammers are one of the several 'farmland species' that have suffered in the UK from intense farming and the use of pesticides!! Traditional farming methods are still used in Crit, and the benefits to the wildlife are easy to see.

Other notable wildlife seen over the weekend included 2 Sparrowhawks, 1 Goshawk, 10+ Common Buzzards, 4 Great Grey Shrikes, 2 Little Owls, good numbers of Hawfinch and Tree Sparrow, 4 Danube Clouded Yellows, 1 Meleager's Blue, 2 Small Whites and lots of evidence of Bear!!

Darting around...

Despite the glorious sunshine, I was struggling to find much in the way of wildlife around the village of Crit today. So I decided to head down to the river to see if there were any frogs and toads still around. There were a few, but none of them wanted to pose for the Camera. My attention was soon drawn to a handful of Common Darters (I think that's what they are??)

They were pretty hard to keep in the camera lens - as their name suggest they are very mobile and agile! But with a lot of patience I managed to fire off a couple of photos which I'm over the moon with!!

The two photos above show the pair in the position known as 'Tandem Linkage'. It's a way for the male to keep a hold of 'his' female while they're looking for places to lay the eggs. Dragonflies only live for a few weekss once they are out of their nymph stage, so not letting is quite important!! 

A much easier Darter to photograph!

What were they thinking...

If you think the English name for this bird (a Hawfinch) sounds a bit dodgey, then you should check out it's Latin name! Although we have a small breeding population of these birds in the UK, numbers increase during the winter months when several birds from main land Europe escape the colder climates for our 'much warmer' winter!! These birds are very shy, and despite there being large numbers of them here in Cluj, I'm still not able to get that close to them (this photo has been heavily cropped) .

Back in the UK, I've been lucky enough to help Tony Cross ring several of these birds in North Wales. They may look harmless, but believe me that beak is a lethal weapon. It can crack open cherry stones, so if you're not to careful when handling them, there's a good chance of losing part of your finger!

(one of the colour ringed birds from our North Wales project. For more info on these and other bird ringing in Mid Wales visit www.midwalesringers.blogspot.com )

Other winged creatures...

While out for a walk with Silvia, Marcela and Tudor at Turda's Keys today (we walked the around and over the right hand part of it),

we found several winged creatures apart from birds. The highlight for all of us was this Noctule Bat.

Closely followed by this preying Mantis.

Other sightings included this very well camouflaged Moth,

several species of butterfly, including Red Admiral, Clouded Yellow, Danube Clouded Yellow and a couple of others that we couldn't identify. Then there was this pretty cool looking spider (I think a Garden Spider), which was only about the size of a 5p coin, but still didn't look like he wanted to be messed with!!

(pic taken by Silvia)

Urban hoodies...

Fortunately not the hooded chavs we get back in the UK. These guys are Hooded Crows, similar to the Carrion Crows that you usually seen on England and Wales, but they look a lot cooler! At the moment in Cluj, it seems like we have the whole  of the Romania population roosting at night in the city. Thousands of them gather at night along with larger numbers of Rooks and Jackdaws. It's quite a spectacle!!

During the day there are far fewer around (as most of them travel quite a long way to go and feed), but still plenty enough to see and photograph. The river is always a favored spot for them

A very slow worm...

I found this little (only about 10 cm long) chap today, on a cold damp shaded bit of clay/mud hardly moving. So I picked him and moved him to a patch where the sun was shining.

Within minutes he seemed to perk up, and was soon searching for a meal amongst the leaf litter.

It's was nice to finally find one alive, as unfortunately the other two I found the week were road casualties!! 

Don't they know it's nearly winter...

After our  first frost here a few days ago, and a very little snow fall, I'm surprised that I keep seeing butterflies! Most of them have been Red Admirals and Small Whites, but I have also managed to pick out 1 Clouded Yellow,

and this one, which is a female Brown Hairstreak (thanks to guys who identified this one for me).

Hide and seek...

While out exploring the woods behind the flat again, I heard a very strange noise coming towards me. Not long after, a huge Woodpecker flew over my head and landed in the trees in front of me. Sure enough it was a Black Woodpecker (Europe's largest Woodpecker - roughly the size of a Crow!!). At first he would only take a quick look at me, and then hide behind the tree! This continued for a while.

But eventually he got used to me being there, and decided to come over and introduce himself.

This bird looks quite scruffy, because he's molting his feathers. This is something birds do every year. From this picture though, I can tell that it's a male - the red on the crown covers the whole of the head (only the back half is red on a female), and if you look at the primary feathers on his wing, at least one of them is browner in colour (this one hasn't been molted). Juvenile feathers are a lot duller/browner in colour in Black Woodpeckers.

Forest fire...

Well not quite, but this little gem - a Firecrest deserves a punchy title. I've only seen a handful of these in the UK, so I was very pleased to find some where I'm staying at the moment in Cluj.

Despite being around 9 cm in length and weighing little more than s 20 pence piece (around 6 g), these guys will travel long distances to avoid the cold weather.

Europe's smallest...

This little bird - a Goldcrest, is Europe's smallest bird! It's about 9 cm from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail, and weighs around 5 g!! They breed through most of Europe, but as winter comes they are forced to move to warmer countries in the in the south and west. Several of them are present here in Cluj at the moment, but I dare say numbers will drop rapidly as the weather gets more wintery!!

Many come to the UK, as our winters are a lot milder than those in more northern and eastern parts!

I think I'm going to like it here...

Decided to venture out in to the woods behind my new flat in Cluj (Romania) today. Despite only 'exploring' less that 5% of the woods, I was so excited to find Red Squirrels!! I've only ever seen these guys in Scotland before, and this summer when I first visited Romania.

I'm hoping that as it gets colder, and food gets a bit harder to find for them to find, I'll be able to set up a 'feeding station' so I can get a lot closer to them for some better photos. But I'm pretty happy with what I've managed to take so far.

Well I wasn't expecting that...

After a long day surveying, it was time to 'chill' before heading back home. So me and Tony put a mist nest across a stretch of river where he had caught Dippers before. After about an hour we had a respectful catch of 3 Dippers, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Grey Wagtails and this Giant!!

A Grey Heron (I know what you're thinking - how do I make short and wellies look so good). Earlier in the day we had manged to catch a few more birds: 7 Meadow Pipit, 3 Chaffinches, 4 Goldcrests, 2 Wrens, 1 Treecreeper and 1 Blackbird.

I was also so a great day for spotting raptors, by the end of the day I'd seen 1 Merlin, 1 Hobby, 2 Sparrowhawk, 4 goshawks, 2 Kestrels and numerous Buzzards and Red Kites! A damn good day!

Finally...

After narrowly missing this Barn Owl on several occasions, it was nice to finally catch it (with help from Tony), and ring it. Tony had notice it in a barn several months ago, so I put a box up for it and was delighted to see that it had been using it.

Although it's too late (technically, although Barn Owls can breed throughout the year if conditions are right!) for him to breed this year, hopefully he can attract a mate next year and help boost the mid Wales Barn Owl population. With three out of the last four winters being very cold, and with lots of snow, Barn Owl numbers have plummeted. Lets this winter is a bit milder.

I also got to ring my second brood of Stock Doves from this barn this year. Presumably from the same parents that raised them in June.

Unfortunately, the younger sibling was a little camera shy!!

Things are on the move...

It's now well in to September, and a good time to see/hear migrating birds. This morning myself and Tony headed to one of our local ringing sites (Gahrhiw) in an attempt to catch some Meadow Pipits. Despite there not appearing to be too many about, after 3 hours of catching we ended up catching 47 different birds. So although we never saw more than 20 or so at a time, it proved that many different birds were indeed passing through this area!

This little chap was trying to hitch a free ride!

Where are all the birds...

This evening I headed off to the coast again, to try and catch wading birds on the rising tides. Usually around this time of year there are several hundred birds, and it's not uncommon for us to catch and ring over fifty birds! But for some reason the birds just aren't there in their number this year! So a catch of 5 Ringed Plovers and 4 Dunlin was actually quite a lot!!

One of the Dunlin caught this evening.

A welcome new lodger...

While travelling back from the coast after an 'unsuccessful ' wader ring trip (despite catching & Ringed Plovers and 7 Dunlin, this is a very low catch for this time of year!), I noticed a Hedgehog in the main road near lo something that had recently been run over!! Not wanting to see it end up the same way, the car was quickly stopped and he was removed from the road. In fear that it would wonder straight back in to the road, I put it in the car and released it a bit further down the road in my sisters garden where it will hopefully be a  lot safer and happier.

A new visitor to the garden...

While out in the garden today, I noticed a different  butterfly on the buddleia. Sure enough it was a Comma.

Several other butterflies were also using the buddleia including 3 Red Admirals, 15 + Small Tortoiseshells, a couple of unidentified Whites and this Painted Lady.

Three Kings...

A trip down to Glasbury to another one or our ringing sites early this morning, resulted in a very small catch. Mainly because there were very few birds to catch. But when almost half the catch is made up of Kingfishers a small catch doesn't seem to matter!

From left to right: Female - note the red on the lower mandible, Male - no red on the mandible anda  recently fledged juvenile - not the shorter bill and much duller plumage. Kingfishers are aged by the colour of their feet. If they are bright orange then its an adult, if they are a dull dirty colour then they are a juvenile. 

Malancrav 10/07 - 14/07

A new set of villages, and a new set of students/volunteers. Although I know I'm here to identify and record the birds, it's very easy to get distracted by all the other wildlife. For instance, this (I think a Balkan Wall) Lizard used to sunbathe just outside my tent every day. 

I also spotted my first Red Squirrel of the trip from the campsite to. As well as lots of Lizards, there were to be good number of snakes here too, again proving the abundance of general wildlife. Having only ever seen two Snakes in the UK, I was very pleased to be able to get great views of this Grass Snake.

Anyway back to the birds (as that's why I'm here). This particular village had a large orchard on one of the hills, which was full of bird life (presumably because they don't use pesticides?) including Bee-eater, Red-backed Shrike, Golden Oriole and at least 4 species of Woodpecker. We did manage a few hours mist netting here, which again resulted in only catching a few birds. But  we did manage to catch 2 Woodpeckers, a Green and this awesome Lesser Spot.

Serin was also added to the species list here, with other notable species seen again including Scops Owl, Woodlark, Hobby, Honey Buzzard, Black Redstart, Wryneck, Tree Sparrow and Hawfinch.

Viscri 05/07 - 08/07

I can't believe two week has passed by already!! But we're still managing to pick up new species. On the bird front new species were Jackdaw, Rook, and unidentified large Warbler sp and this handsome Little Owl. There turned out to be a family of six at the farm where we found him.

Although we're finding lost of evidence of large mammals (footprints and scats), we're still not seeing many so it was nice to see a Roe Deer and 2 Brown Hares on the walk from Mesendorf to Viscri. We also found a very large dog paw print, which from the size we think was probably from a Wolf?!?

I've added this picture for comedy value. While out on one of the surveys, Maria spotted this Grasshopper. She thought it was giving birth and said 'what a magical moment', only for do to be doing  poo!!

Mesendorf 01/07 - 04/07

On the walk from Crit to Mesendorf we were already seeing some good Species including this displaying Honey Buzzard carrying some food to its 'screaming' mate.

The birds life was much the same again here, with a few more notable species Golden Oriole, Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Tawny Owl and Scops Owl.

The mist nets finally turned up while we were here. This meant myself and Alex could demonstrate to the students how mist netting works, and why it's such a useful way of monitoring birds. Despite only actually five birds in this village, we weren't complaining as they were Marsh Tit, Common Whitethroat, Hawfinch, Middle Spotted Woodpecker and a SCOPS OWL!!!

(a very happy Alex Tozer)

(the Middle Spotted Woodpecker, with an excited Matt Payne in the back ground)