Garden Ringing - 11th March

Having unwrapped my birthday prezzies, I headed out to Newton to collect Mark for a day's ringing session in the garden. We briefly called in on the Great Grey Shrike on Waddington Fell as we were passing - it sat in the top of a tree in the glorious morning sunshine - not the best weather for ringing as the birds can see the nets more easily.

In spite of the very fine weather, we trapped 37 birds in all including Great Spotted Woodpecker female, Treecreeper (probable female as the male was singing away nearby and was probably the bird we trapped earlier in the year), Reed Bunting and Siskin (one of a flock of 6 that so nearly went into the net). There haven't been any Redpolls for a few days now but the Goldfinches kept popping in the nets bringing the total to 45 and now the most commonly rung bird in the garden closely followed by the expected Blue and Great Tits. We've had a good run of Robins and this morning there are three more unringed ones not to mention the large flock of unringed Goldfinches on the feeders.

Mark was especially interested in the Treecreeper as, whilst in America, they were trying to sex Brown Creepers from the bill measurements and age them by the darkness of the tail. He's wondering if these traits are similar in Treecreeper - the two we've rung seem to fit the bill (sic). Anyway, he'll have little opportunity to study these on the Farnes where he's going to be for the next six months!



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