FS - Thurs 29th Jan

Jason has returned from his two year stay in Vilnius; so he joined EN to continue his training.

Aberrant primary moult - female Great Tit
NNNONNOOO = 25

This partial moult was first noticed on the primary coverts - air force blue versus sooty-grey plus abrasion.

First net round was at 10:00 and the last at 12:00. A 40' at the old feeders & a 30' at the new feeders. Some squirrel activity. 28 birds netted of which 12 were new birds (and 16 were re-traps)

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker

Today's tally was (new/rt):
Grswo 1/0 (a male, see photos), Dunno 0/1, Robin 0/1, Lotti 0/5, Bluti 2/6 (incl. 2 from Box 1), Greti 8/3 (6 new ad.M, 2 new imm.F & 2 new ad.F), Treec 1/0. The number of new Greti was not expected; they probably come from further afield than the immediate park, drawn in to the feeders ("civilisation") as the winter progresses.

Treecreeper (JRC)

We need some new 'Woodcrete' style nest boxes of both hole sizes (CJW's are cheaper @ £20) and to have them erected by the end of next month. The 'peckers may leave them alone, then.
Quantity needed - 10, and another 10 for next year? The wooden boxes have been up 7 years now and quickly becoming useless.

Priory - 14th Jan

A young Long-tailed Tit
... but not today's main story!

Today, after half an hour setting up in the cold and frost, we had two and a half hours of netting at the feeding station in 'the rough'. All told, we caught 21 new birds and 22 re-traps of 8 spp. The highlight of the morning was a scattered group of Long-tailed Tits, 4 'old' and 3 'new'.

The "grandaddy" of the party was 4G9203, which was first ringed on 15th October 2000. This means it is 8 years and 3 months since it was ringed; the national longevity record is just over 8 years and 8 months.

The list for the day is as follows (new, retraps):
Gresp 0/1 (a 5F), Dunno 1/1 (r/t from Nov '05), Robin 0/1 (r/t from Jan '06, a female), Goldc 1/0 (a male), Lotti 4/3, Bluti 5,8 (oldest from Oct '05), Greti 9/8 (oldest from Nov '07), Chaff 1/0.

Broom - 11th Jan

A bit of 'whoosh netting' practice this morning, just before the thaw started to set in. Object - to catch some Brambling and to check on species' 'cold weather' weights.

Tally
Brambling 6; first 2 = fat0, pec1, wt 21.0(6M), 19.2(5F); second 2 = fat4/4.5, pec 2, wt 28.4(5M), 25.8(6F); last 2 = fat1.5, pec 2, wt 23.6(5M), 24.1(5F). The first two were quite tame and obviously distressed but were adding weight at >0.5gm/hr. With temperatures improving, they might put on enough weight to survive and may even make the return migration.
Greenfinch19; the majority (13) were 5F's with wt range 25.8-33.5, all bar one in "good nick" (that one had probably moved recently but had a good weight, despite being short of pec muscle). Also 4x 5M's (wt 28.4-31.3) & 1x 6M that had low fat but good muscle (a local?).
Chaffinch 2; quite a few around but very flighty; both birds were adults, wt 17.5(M), 18.6(F) & poor fat/muscle scores.
Blackbird 2; both adult females, one "foreign" (wl 134, wt 138), one "local" (wl 129, wt 117)

We [EN & GA] have been invited back again in a months time for more ... Bramblings?