Early nests

A male frogmouth sits tight on his nest, with unusually little cover above him, on a wild wet and windy day.

It has been quite a wet winter in Canberra this year and in response, several tawny frogmouths have began nesting early. Some laid eggs on the 12th August, three weeks earlier than recorded in previous years. However, in the past week or so there have been some very wet and windy days, with snow lying in the nearby hills, and heavy snowfall in the Snowy Mtns, where I have just had a great day out on the snowboard.

Other birds which had built nests did not lay, and they have been sitting nearby, probably waiting for warmer weather to return before laying. I expect things to pick up again this week as there is warmer settled weather coming in.

A female frogmouth sits in a more sheltered spot in the lee of a tree stem while her mate sits on the nest above.

Greenshank sighting

One of the adult greenshanks which we caught in Sutherland in May has been seen on the tideline of the River Stour at Mistley, south-east England. The bird was spotted and photographed by John Keep.



Here is a photo of the bird being ringed by Ruth Croger.

And a map showing the ringing and sighting areas, where this bird was seen and another which was caught at Montrose last autumn and controlled in Sutherland in May.

This colour-ringing project is being co-ordinated by several Greenshank enthusiasts and records of other birds ringed and re-sighted can be accessed via The Greenshank Migration Story website at

http://www.greenshank.info/

Many thanks to Pete Potts for organising such a fulfilling study.