Royal Visit

LGRE, head of UK400, paid a fleeting visit to the Barnacle flock, currently in the sheep field at Willington. He click counted the flock and also kindly counted the red Darvics, noting the inscriptions of 20 of them.


"I decided to check the non-naturalised* flock of BARNACLE GEESE at
Willington, of which there were 337 of them and 2 Greylag Geese feeding on
beet in the sheep field. Some 33 individuals bore red plastic rings with white
letters, including inscriptions BA, LC, IP, BS, DP, IC, FS, CI, II, LS, AC, AL,
FA, JH, CA, BD, NU, DU, IZ and EV." [2 errors corrected. EN]

A set of 18 blank colour rings for UK Barnacle Geese

The Darvic inscriptions are actually seperated by a vertical white bar and are correctly signified as 'Red B bar A', for instance, read from the bottom up.

From the above record, 2 birds were ringed 6 years & 6 months ago as an adult and a youngster in July 2003. 3 adults were ringed in July 2004 and recaptured again in July 2007. 12 birds were ringed in July 2005, comprising 5 adults and 7 juveniles, 2 of the youngsters being recaught in July 2007. 3 birds were ringed in July 2007, all as adults. Just two of these 20 birds were recorded by another ring-reader here in October 2009.

The Barnacle Goose July 2007 catch - birds corralled for ringing

He, however, managed to 'scope just 13 colour rings; these were 'KS, KT, JH, AT, AC, BN, DH, DS, FZ, HX, HF, LL, LT'. These were made up of 1 adult (JH) from 2003, obviously something important in the hierarchy, a known female from the 2004 round-up, 7 birds first caught in 2005, 5 as adults and 2 as 'babies', with 1 adult (AC) picked out again by LGRE, and 5 birds from July 2007 that were full grown adults at the time.

Post-script: What is a "non-naturalised" flock? This flock's origins go back to the Solway (& Spitzbergen) in the late 'sixties and the ever increasing numbers have been living and breeding in north-east Bedfordshire since an inadvertent escape in the the 'seventies.
*BOU category C2 - naturalised established species, as evidenced here.

Chalton STW 17/01/2010

A good turnout today with 6 members present in the form of Mike, Roy, Sue, Toni, Paul and myself. With the nets up at 8am we ringed through until 13:30.

A Green Sandpiper put in a brief appearance though not in the net and also a kingfisher was seen over the lagoons. Ducks present were Mallard 126, Little Grebe 4, Coot 4, Tufted Duck 24, Gadwall 23, ingfisher 1, Moorhen 4, Teal 2 and wigeon 3. Seemed strange that there was a shortage of coot and moorhen.

A total of 35 were caught consisting of 20 new/15 retraps as follows:
Greti 3/6, Robin 2/2, Bluti 7/2, Lotti 3/4, Dunno 0/1, Chaff 4/0 and Redwi 1/0 .
The electricity isn't connected yet, hopefully for next time.

Dunnocks!

Had to fill the Priory feeding station anyway, so stayed and put a net up. Overnight, temperatures had dropped to minus 7C. It was still minus 3C when I arrived just before 10:30. Eventually it warmed to plus 1C but had dropped to minus 1C when I packed in at 14:00. There was a lovely hoar frost today, our first since the fog (and minus 9C) on 23rd Dec. even though we, too, have suffered the low temperatures - but thankfully, without any significant snowfall.


Three hours produced 28 birds: Dunnock (6), Robin (3), Lotti (2), Blue Tit 3 (2), Gt. Tit 4 (8).
The oldest Blue was caught last January as a 5F; the oldest Great was caught in March '08 as a 6F; both Lottis (a pair) were ringed 108 days before and this was their 4th recapture since.

The Robins were all caught and ringed as 3s; two males in August '08, having been recaught here 7 times and 6 times, and the female just twice more since last September.

The Dunnocks provided the most interest. The oldest was ringed as a 3J In August '04 and has been recaught 12 times in 5 years & 150 days. A second was ringed as a 4F in April '06 and has been retrapped 6 times in 3 years 267 days. A third was ringed as a 3J in July the same year; it turned out to be a male and has been retrapped 7 more times in 3 years 170 days. The forth and fifth birds were both ringed on the same day in July '07; these are both females, one being recaught 7 times and the other just 4. The last bird was a 3M in November '08 and has been retrapped 4 more times since it was ringed just 1 year 53 days ago.


There's going to be a bumper crop of Ivy berries; they're swelling nicely, too.

The only set-back today was a young dog chasing madly through the area (it is fenced off) and running through the only net! Fortunately it didn't tear it but I spent quite a while picking it off the vegetation!

Addendum: As we are suffering a 'cold snap', the average weight for Dunnock was 23.9g (lowest 22.5g), the 2 fem Robins were 17.2g & 20.0g and the male 22.4g, the 2 fem Bluti were ~10.4g whereas the males were ~12.4g, and the 6 fem Greti averaged 18.1g with the 6 males at 19.8g. These weights (apart from 1 fem Robin) do not currently give rise to any unease. The feeders and ground are topped up every other day.

10th day of Xmas

Quite a gathering of the clans at Chalton today. Repositioned feeding station attracted quite a few birds; a pity the majority were retraps but the new trainee, Roy, was pleased to get his eye in with them. Up near the offices, three nets fared a little better.

Graham set about finishing off the lining of the hut, ready for site staff to fix up the electrics (= light, heat and hot water). Mike was sent off to undo some (disused) gratings that we want to string across a ditch to allow the mower across.

Total catch for the session was 56 of which just 26 were new birds. Altogether, we handled 11 species.

Redwing - showing hut lining in the background!

Grey Wag 1, Pied Wag 3, Wren (1), Dunnock (2), Robin 5 (8), Blackie 5, Redwing 4, Blue Tit 3 (5), Gt Tit 4 (18), Chaffinch (1) & Greenfinch 1.

Just the one 2CY Redwing, an all too familiar trait this winter. The Robins were very variable, both in size (allowing for sex differences) and weights. Perhaps a few (long-winged) migrants mixed in with the locals.

Duck day.

Went along to help ring the catch at the Blunham trap from last night. Two days ago, we (Arnold and I) had inspected the south lake and the trap. Three-quarters of the lake was frozen over with an open channel from the boat right the way across to the trap. The trap was full of Tufted, there was a decent number of Gadwall, perhaps 150, about 70 Pochard and a handful of odds and sods. The water level was rising.

Ringer (Chris), winger (Paul) & flinger (Joe)

This catch was the first of the winter, mainly due to the lousy weather we've been having, but ringing had also been put off because of the low number of migrant duck on the local lakes.

"Am I the first?"

"Yes. Just shut up; there's a queue building up"

The total catch was 160 - 127 new & 33 recaptures; of these, 86 (60 + 26) were Tufted. Second highest were Gadwall with 48 birds (43 + 5).

Gadwall - soft as tripe?

"That's what you think. I'll be off in a trice"

Compared to the Tufted, the Gadwall were a 'wilder' proposition, prepared to wriggle given the slightest chance. You may have twigged that we ring on the left leg. It's safer for us "amateurs", as you can cradle the bird better. Boss man, Arnold, rings on the right - and much quicker, so much so, you have to keep alert if you're scribing!

"Errol did me today"

There were just 7 Teal, 4 Pochard including 1 retrap, five Wigeon, a lone female Goldeneye and a couple of handfuls of Mallard that had most likely been released at a 'farm' about 3 miles south of here. These last were a bit of a farmyard mixture (but looking to all intents and purposes like the real thing), and most preferred to walk back "to the digs" .

"... and me!"

The noticeable thing was the large number of male birds throughout compared to females, especially with the Tufteds. There were also very few 1CY birds. Sexing is generally easy. Ageing is done on the tail first and foremost, with median coverts, primary tips, eye colour, leg colour, moult limits all playing a part. In the last resort, we age and sex the ones we're not quite sure of after a cloacal examination.

My next job is to put IPMR on trainee Chris's computer and get him inputting these data and working backwards through umpteen years worth. I then might give him a hand putting the recoveries in!

Chalton STW 28/12/2009

Well, Mike, Roy, Sue and myself had the last bash for 2009 here, Very successful with 66 birds caught (36 ringed and 30 retraps ). These are as follows:
Dunno 1/3, Chaff 3/2, Greti 7/16, Robin 2/5, Bluti 5/4, Lotti 9/0, Grefi 1/0, Blabi 3/0 and Redwi 5/0.

A number of plans have been made for 2010 in the form of improving the site. Hopefully these will materialise during the coming months. If there are any volunteers that may wish to lend a hand, please get in touch. A report is being composed for Anglian Water regarding these proposals.

Greenwoodringer

Having abandoned Bedfordshire birds for Christmas & new year, I thought I'd show you a Gloucestershire bird. The Coal Tit (below) was one of 3 caught today.



There were 27 birds of 7 species. Nets were up from about 8.30am to 4pm (less 2 hours for lunch & presents). A further 6 birds were caught on Chritmas eve.

More info & pictures can be seen at www.greenwoodringer.blogspot.com