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?

FS - 20th Dec

Ed and I did the FS in the rough this morning, probably the last visit of the year here.

23 birds of which a mere 7 were newbies. No Grefi today - perhaps we stopped too early (the wind was picking up).

[New/retraps]
Robin - 0 / 1ad, 1 imm (father & son?)
Blabi - 0 / 1ad male
Lotti - 0/ 2ad (more around)
Bluti - 2ad, 2imm / 2ad, 3imm
Greti - 1imm / 1ad, 5imm
Chaff - 1ad fem / 0
Goldf - 1imm male / 0 (half dozen more in the trees!)

Birds over of note incl. Gt.Spot, Redwing, Siskin & Mipit

Priory - 12/12

The weather was a bit more conducive for ringing today, more especially during the middle of the day. That's why we (+AXC) strung a line of nets up about 10 o'clock for a few hours.

Not many new birds - a 4F wren, a 3F Robin, a 3F continental Blabi, a 3F Bluti & a 3M Greti. Best bird was a retrap Bluti not recorded since it was ringed here as a 3M on 05-11-05 (1133 days).

The other 23 birds were all retraps - Lotti 3, Wren 1, Robin 2, Blabi 2, Bluti 9, Greti 6. There were just peanuts in the feeders. The squirrels have wrecked the big "squirrel proof" seed feeder by knawing through the top cover (as well as the ring and the bottom); replacements have been erected (at no cost) on very long 'wires'!.

Looks like no ringing tomorrow (Sat) - heavy rain forecast all day.

Other news - not much activity in the gardens after the (freezing) dawn rush of ringed/local birds. 11 new birds this week; Dunno, Bluti 2, Starl 3, Grefi 3 & Goldf 2. Norfolk - 76 all told incl. a new & r/t Marti and 15 new & 5 r/t Lottis, these in one "hit".

First week of Dec.

Not many birds about, too much rain and wind, therefore few birds caught.
16 birds of 4 spp. at Elms Farm, namely - Bluti 1/1, Starl 2/1, Grefi 2/1, Goldf 2/6.

Norfolk garden on Sat am yielded 50 in 3 hours incl. 20 Lotti (5 r/t) & 11 Coati (4 r/t incl 1 from Dec05) 9 Greti, 8 Bluti, & 2 Chaff. Net taken in ahead of expected hard frost tomorrow am.

This week

Just a catch-up on what's been caught during the last week.

EN was in Norfolk last weekend; he caught 38 new birds & 30 retraps at the feeding station in the garden, which backs onto wet woodland. The new birds were - Goldc 5, Lotti 5, Coati 7, Bluti 12, Greti 7, Chaff 1 & Grefi 1.

On Thurs. a short session with DTH at the F/S at Priory saw just 16 birds in the bag(s). New/retrapped totals - Wren 1/1, Dunno 0/3, Bluti 1/4, Greti 0/2, Chaff 1/0 (a whopping male), & Grefi 2/1. It might have been better if the feeders had been refilled earlier (probably empty for 2 days prior to Weds).

A photo of some of the "Nest-box Abuse" that is going on around the Park. This one overlooks a net ride.

At Elms Farm, 3 morning sessions produced 49 new birds and 6 retraps; that's better!
Again, new/retraps - Woopi 1/0 (right fat b*st*rd), Wren 1/1, Dunno 0/1, Lotti 9/0, Coati 1/0 (an uncommon bird, hereabouts), Bluti 1/0, Housp 2/0, Starl 4/1, Chaff 2/0, Grefi 19/2 & Goldf 9/2.

These pictures show the difference between male and female upper tail coverts and adult and 'juvenile' tail feathers. The distinguishing points are the width of the feather edges and/or the diffuseness of the edge pattern.


One for the pot?