Cardington & Marston - Tawny Owl, Redwing & Reed Buntings

A short session on Friday evening at Cardington resulted in a Tawny Owl ringed and 2 Bullfinches caught (one new bird and one retrap).

There was a slight ground frost in some places on Saturday 15th October. A Redwing was an unexpected catch - the first I've ever ringed at Cardington. Other birds ringed were 2 Long-tailed Tits and 2 Wrens. 2 Buzzard flew over mewing, 1 Yellowhammer was back in the winter roosting area, a few Skylarks flew over, while a small group of Linnets were in the fields.

On Saturday afternoon, a session at Marston Vale Millennium Country Park was both successful and really pleasant - initially warm, as the evening wore on it became cold but the rising moon looked fantastic. Birds caught were:

• 1 Blue Tit


• 2 Wren


• 8 Reed Buntings


• 1 Blackcap

The Reed Buntings are roosting in the reed beds. Numbers of them seem to be building up slowly.

A nice day for ringing

The weather was good, the wind was down and I didn't have to get up at rediculous o'clock. All that was needed were some birds.


A visit to 'the rough' at Priory Country Park today (7.30am to 1pm) brought the following totals: 35 birds of 10 species - new (retrap):

Redwing 4 (0)
Blue Tit 2 (1)
Great Tit 2 (5)
Long Tailed Tit 0 (4)
Bullfinch 2 (1)
Robin 0 (3)
Dunnock 1 (4)
Blackbird 3 (0)
Greenfinch 1 (0)
Wren 2 (0)

The total catch was reasonable and the first of the autumn redwing arrivals were caught and ringed (juveniles and adults). It was a bit slow mid-morning but picked up later on.

The feeding station didn't attract many birds but perhaps it isn't cold enough yet to make them desperate enough to be lured in to the feeders.

The retrap Bullfinch had mange and one robin had a weird growth at the base of the upper mandible (bill) which it didn't have when it was first ringed.


Other things of note, a flock of 18 lapwing flew over heading towards the main lake and a weasel made 2 brief appearances (I've never seen one so close).

Blackwing Passage!

Reports have started coming in of the years first spring/summer migrants to enter Britain such as alpine swifts (having gone too far!) and sand martins (one having been seen at Priory Country Park this week), but we haven't forgotten about our winter migrants that are on passage back to their summer breeding grounds much further north or on the continent.

Today we put up several nets in the sheep pen at Priory CP hoping for blackbirds and we weren't disappointed.

The tally was - 16 new (3 retraps):

Long Tailed Tit - 3 (0)
Blue Tit - 0 (1)
Great Tit - 1 (1)
Blackbird - 6 (1)
Redwing - 5 (0)

We think 4 of the blackbirds were probably continental types (usually bigger/heavier than the British version and harder to age & sex!).



Above: One of 7 blackbirds we caught today (a male born last year).

The surprise were 5 redwing. There was no sign that any were around, we were walking around checking the nets and must have made them change location because a net that was empty 2 minutes before suddenly had 3 redwing!

As Errol wasn't looking, I put them safely into bags and pretended they were Song Thrushes. "Funny looking Song Thrush" said Errol when he finally got to clap an eye on one!



Above: Ageing Redwing in the hand is partly done by the white/cream/buff markings on the tips of the tertial feathers and Greater Coverts. The above bird (an adult), has little or none of these markings whereas the bird below (a juvenile) has the classic markings for its age. Though not shown here, sometimes there are 'inbetweeners' sent to confuse and test us!



Below: I can't think of a valid reason why I added this photo except that it was an excuse to show you a frontal picture of a Redwing rather than its back!



PS. If you look up into the sky occasionally, you may see flocks of Redwings and Fieldfares pass overhead on their way home (or sand martins coming here to breed)!