matt prior

The garden moth list is really coming on nicely. Pine Hawkmoth and Least Carpet are new for the garden. The Nut Tree Tussock is more common but is a beautifully patterned moth

A special moment today. This is the first Swift nestling ringed from a nest box in Wiltshire. The box was put up by a pair of neighbours and they plan to put up more around the village. We will definitely be copying this box design in our future work.

This is a very bad year for Barn Owls. Many pairs are just staying together but not breeding. These are the first two nestlings that we have ringed this year.

We originally ringed this handsome male Barn Owl as a nestling 3km away from his breeding site. That was 9 years ago, it's fantastic to see him still going strong.

Swifts are incredible in the air. We have a couple of sites where we are able to catch and ring them year after year, this one is at least 7 years old (probably 9). They lack nesting sites so as a country we need to put up more nest boxes for them. Watch this space for more!

We are having a good year for Whinchats, and it is particularly good to retrap some from previous years. Today we retrapped a male at 4 years old and a 2 year old female. The male is quite shabby now that he is moulting. Today we ringed the first fledged juv of the year - lovely!

Last night was the highest number of Yellow Wagtails I have ever seen in the UK. There were at least 500 present, and we managed to ring 111 of them. This male was star of the show, we ringed him as a juvenile in July 2020!

If you are a Swallow, is there a cooler place to nest than in a 6000 year old neolithic longbarrow?

On a recent post, folk got confused about which species of Sparrow they have. We had a great session tonight and caught both species. In the pics Tree Sparrows are on the left and House Sparrows on the right. 1st pic are adults, 2nd pic are juveniles. Tree Sparrow is the rare one

Lots of people moan about the state of nature in the UK, and they are right to do so. But there are pockets of excellence. I was at one yesterday. There were 3-400 Linnets including this stunning male that we ringed as a juvenile 3 years ago. Plus 200 Corn Buntings & 40 Skylarks!

Last night saw the appearance of 2-300 Yellow Wagtails. They breed locally in very good numbers, but the fledged young suddenly appeared en-masse. We ringed 21 Yellow Wagtails including 10 juveniles. They are taking advantage of dewponds funded by @NWDLT vital in this weather!

What an amazing record!

To me, the most beautiful bird in the world. A recently fledged Tree Sparrow. I have spent nearly half my life trying to save these beautiful birds in Wiltshire, and I will fight til my last breath to save them❤️.

We are half way through Tree Sparrow second broods. But already we have the first third brood being laid! Once they get going they really don't hang about.

Goldcrest is a rare capture on our @_BTO Constant Effort Site at Swindon STW. This one is locally bred, it is so young it hasn't got its crown feathers yet. They are very common in conifer trees across the UK but unusual in our scrub and marsh.

This is peak second brood time for Tree Sparrows. We ringed 68 from 13 broods - 5.2 per brood is pretty spectacular. They are in stunning condition as well, this one is only 8 days old.

We ringed the Cuckoo chick last night. It completely fills the Reed Warbler nest now. We can't check it any more because we could disturb it and cause it to jump, because as it grows it will sit on top of the nest quite precariously and it will get very jumpy.

Last of our moth blitz for the day were these stunning hawk moths. 4 Elephants and 2 Privets. Plus I saw a fantastic Hummingbird Hawk Moth.

This warm weather is brilliant for moths. More great moths for the new garden were Scarlet Tiger Moth and Drinker Moth. Both pretty spectacular in their own way.

This little beauty is an Orange-tailed Clearwing Moth. They are rare in Wiltshire. We had a phenomenal 8 in the garden today. They constitute only the 17th record for Wiltshire!