October round-up

October has been a really interesting month, hampered by strong winds that made mist-netting difficult on several occasions. During this month, I've ringed at Bromham Mill, Cardington, Harrold-Odell Country Park and Marston Vale Millennium Country Park.

Total numbers of birds ringed during these sessions are listed below, with retraps shown in brackets.

• Tawny Owl 1


• Meadow Pipit 1 (photo below - ringed at Marston C.P. on 29/10/11)


• Wren 5


• Dunnock 3 (4)


• Robin 4


• Blackbird 2


• Song Thrush 1


• Redwing 1


• Blackcap 1


• Goldcrest 2


• Long-tailed Tit 11


• Marsh Tit 1


• Coal Tit 1


• Blue Tit 43 (15)


• Great Tit 15 (9)


• Chaffinch 3


• Greenfinch 1


• Goldfinch 4


• Bullfinch 2 (1)


• Reed Bunting 9



• TOTAL: 113 of 20 species (plus 29 retraps of 4 species)

Totals ringed for the year are 839 birds of 41 species (plus 88 retraps of 15 species). Swallow is still the top species with 278 ringed, but now being chased by Blue Tit with 162 ringed - will Blue Tit be top by end of the year?

Most of the retraps were birds ringed in the summer or early autumn. The sole retrap ringed before this year was the Bullfinch retrapped at Cardington, originally ringed there on 27/12/2010.

Thank you to the other ringers and helpers for your assistance during the month. Here's hoping for a great November!

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.

First Swallows make a summer for me

Having just written that it was 'on to Swallows', I ringed my first brood of Swallows for the year tonight in Cardington. 5 well grown young. The primaries were emerging from pin (just about in 'FM' stage - one to two thirds emerged).

The Swallows had apparently returned on about 23rd March and have re-used an old nest. It is well lined with horse-hair - but is going to be tight squeeze as they get bigger!

The other pair nesting in the shed and a pair just across the road were still on eggs.

P.S. We had the first 'significant' rain in Bedford today for many weeks (possibly since March). But when I say 'significant' it did nothing more than wet the ground during the afternoon; by the evening it had mostly dried up. This has been the driest spring that I can recall since moving here in 1980.

Fat Robins at Cardington, 9th January 2011

A short session at Cardington, with nets open from 10:30am until 1pm. There was still some frost and puddles were frozen (see right), the sun was burning the frost off and the streams were flowing. Not too many birds around, there were fewer Fieldfares in the area than the previous week, 1 or 2 Goldcrests in the bushes, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker calling.

Totals for the session were as follows (retraps in brackets):

• Blue Tit 1 (2)
• Goldfinch 2
• Great Tit 3
• Long-tailed Tit (1)
• Robin (2)

The retraps included 3 birds initially ringed in the autumn of 2009 (1 Robin and 2 Blue Tits).

Both retrap Robins were above the maximum expected by the IPMR software - which expects the maximum weight for a Robin to be 24.5g:

• P546652 had fledged in 2009. It was ringed on 31/8/9 and weighed 19.6g. When retrapped on 9/1/11 it weighed 25.6g.


• P546799 was ringed on 28/11/10, but was not weighed that day. When retrapped on 9/1/11 it weighed 26.9g.

The two species that appear to be putting on more weight than any others are Robin and Dunnock. Perhaps I should stop offering sunflower hearts, but provide a less-energy packed food instead.

In the snow at Cardington

Though today started out with snow still on the ground, hard and icy, a thaw has at last set in. Temperatures reached 3 degrees Centrigrade by 1pm.

Small numbers of Fieldfares were around the area, a Buzzard flew over, two Marsh Tits were in the bushes. There seemed to be fewer Blue and Great Tits around, which was reflected in the ringing totals.

Between 10:30am and 1:50pm, 13 new birds and 11 retraps (shown in brackets below) were caught:

• Blue Tit 2 (1)
• Bullfinch 1
• Goldfinch 4 (1)
• Greenfinch 2
• Long-tailed Tit 1 (4)
• Marsh Tit 1
• Robin 1 (1)
• Song Thrush 1
• Dunnock (3)
• Great-spotted Woodpecker (1)

The female Bullfinch (see left) was only the 2nd ringed at the site this year (the first being ringed in May).

The retrap Great-spotted Woodpecker was first ringed on 30th October.


It was good to actually retrap a Goldfinch at last - this was the first bird retrapped, with a total of 27 now having been ringed so far this year.



Lastly, the Marsh Tit (see left) was the 2nd ringed at the site so far this year.

Thank goodness I like retraps

A short session in Cardington on Saturday 4th December. The temperature was marginally 'warmer' - reaching approx 1 degree C. 3 new birds were ringed and 10 retraps were caught (retraps are shown in brackets):

• Long-tailed Tit 1 (1)


• Dunnock 1


• Blue Tit 1 (6)


• Great Tit (1)


• Marsh Tit (1)


• Great Spotted Woodpecker (1)

The 2 Long-tailed Tits were part of a small party. They are fantastic birds - very sociable and it is amazing how they survive the harsh conditions of a Bedfordshire winter. Saturday's birds weighed 7.3g and 7.5g, not much more than the weight of a 10p piece (6.5g).

Cardington, 28th November 2010

Sunday morning was very cold. The pond at Bedford Park was mostly frozen, as was Longholme Lake. The River Ouse by the Embankment also had ice. At Cardington, the temperature was initially about -7.5 degree Centigrade. The ground was frozen hard, but we had escaped the snow. The good news was that there was no wind. I kept a very close eye on the nets; the aim was to remove birds quickly from the nets and process them as soon as possible. In order to do this more quickly, fewer measurements were taken than normal.


Totals for the day were 28 new birds ringed and 14 retraps (retrap totals shown in brackets):

Blackbird 1
Blue Tit 4 (7)
Chaffinch 2 (1)
Dunnock 1 (4)
Goldfinch 7
Great Spotted Woodpecker (1)
Great Tit 2
Greenfinch 5
Magpie 1
Robin 2 (1)
Siskin 1
Song Thrush 1
Wren 1

The Great Spotted Woodpecker retrapped was one of the young male birds I ringed at the same site on 30th October 2010.



The Magpie and Siskin (see right for a photo of the female Siskin) was the first bird of either species that I have ringed at the site.


The male Greenfinches were looking amazing, really bright yellow/green and very smart.





The total of 14 retraps suggests that many of the birds previously ringed are resident locally. Perhaps of particular interest are the 4 retrap Dunnocks:

Ring No. Date ringed Retrap history
P546608 21/06/09 05/07/09, 23/05/10, 30/10/10, 28/11/10
P546635 27/06/09 28/11/10
P546665 31/01/10 06/11/10, 28/11/10
P546687 26/09/10 30/10/10, 28/11/10

The fact that 608 has been caught 5 times now suggests it lives on the site most of the time. But what about 635? It was ringed a week later than 608 but today was the first time it has been retrapped. Where has it been in the mean time?

I am also getting a good number of Blue Tit retraps, but so far no Greenfinch or Goldfinch retraps - this could suggest that either the population is big and so the chances of getting a retrap are small, or the birds are moving through the area and not staying put. Time will tell.

Apart from the birds ringed, about 10 Lapwings drifted over and were in one of the fields near the village later on. There was one Goldcrest on site. A small flock of Fieldfares were in the hedgerow down the road as I left.