I'll add some photos later but on Saturday Mark came around for a ringing session. The sky was unfortunately clear as a bell and there was still a gusty breeze from the west but we decided to try and put the nets up around the garden.
There was plenty of bird activity and the hope that some over-passing Waxwings may drop in added a frisson of excitement. Anyway, we had no time to think about that as we emerged from putting the nets up 'down the dip' we discovered the top net full of 18 birds!
To say it was a hectic first couple of hours is an understatement as the majority of birds were tits with a predilection to get themselves tangled up, especially Coal Tits.
Once we'd taken them out, there were 12 in the bottom nets and we ran out of bags. So some serious processing took place!
We managed a few Bullfinches and Chaffinches as well but Goldfinches were scarce.
Dunnock 1
Robin 1
Blackbird 1
Goldcrest 3
Coal Tit 10 1 retrap (compared to just 9 new last winter!)
Blue Tit 22
Great Tit 13 2 retraps
Magpie 1
Chaffinch 7 1 retrap
Greenfinch 1
Goldfinch 2
Bullfinch 2 2 retraps (retrap rate of 50% so far on this species that indicates their sedentary nature)
A total of 64 plus 6 re-traps - 3 from last winter and 3 from March 2009.
As we put the nets away around 1pm, I heard a Waxwing call overhead and as Mark left, he noticed eight up the road which were still there when we made our way to the match - in fact there were twelve and today five were still in the area. Waxwings from home at last!
There was plenty of bird activity and the hope that some over-passing Waxwings may drop in added a frisson of excitement. Anyway, we had no time to think about that as we emerged from putting the nets up 'down the dip' we discovered the top net full of 18 birds!
To say it was a hectic first couple of hours is an understatement as the majority of birds were tits with a predilection to get themselves tangled up, especially Coal Tits.
Once we'd taken them out, there were 12 in the bottom nets and we ran out of bags. So some serious processing took place!
We managed a few Bullfinches and Chaffinches as well but Goldfinches were scarce.
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| Male Bullfinch |
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| Juvenile Magpie - garden ringing tick! |
Dunnock 1
Robin 1
Blackbird 1
Goldcrest 3
Coal Tit 10 1 retrap (compared to just 9 new last winter!)
Blue Tit 22
Great Tit 13 2 retraps
Magpie 1
Chaffinch 7 1 retrap
Greenfinch 1
Goldfinch 2
Bullfinch 2 2 retraps (retrap rate of 50% so far on this species that indicates their sedentary nature)
A total of 64 plus 6 re-traps - 3 from last winter and 3 from March 2009.
As we put the nets away around 1pm, I heard a Waxwing call overhead and as Mark left, he noticed eight up the road which were still there when we made our way to the match - in fact there were twelve and today five were still in the area. Waxwings from home at last!
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