A much better catch of 62 birds processed (after the recent 11 bird session). The morning was dominated by Yellowhammers (30) and Robins (18), with nine of the former colour ringed. However, tits & finches were notable by their absence, with only one new Chaffinch ringed. For the record, birds processed were (new/retrap): Blackbird 2/0; Dunnock 0/7; Robin 5/13; Chaffinch 1/0; Yellowhammer 25/5; Reed Bunting 2/0.
With 72% of the Robins being retraps, it shows how short of food they must be and shows the importance of maintaining supplementary feeding when food is short supply. It's obvious the harsh weather is affecting the birds in a big way in that they're doing a combination of the following: moved further to find food locally e.g. the tits may have moved to garden peanut feeders; left the area entirely e.g. thrushes & finches; succumbed to starvation & the cold; going to known food sources. On the latter point, we had several older bird retraps who, being more experienced, seem to know where to go for food.
It was pretty quiet bird wise with a single Brambling first thing, the odd Fieldfare & Redwing, a Great Tit holding territory and one Blue Tit heard. However, Orwins had a few Siskin & Goldfinch in the alders. A Cormorant flew over and both Sparrowhawk and Kestrel were hanging about.
Lastly - the first Brack lamb of the season was born today!
Jim
Thanks for pulling the various emails together and making sense of them!
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