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.