Duncan, Libby and I made the second visit to Granby on Friday. The weather was initially calmer than predicted, but blew up later. It was pretty chilly with ground frost at dawn, but maybe the very mild autumn has made us soft.
Again, the catch was dominated by Chaffinchs & Great Tits, with most of the birds being caught around the middle of the day. The full catch was 39 new birds with 25 retrapped. The 31 Chaffinches (22 were male) processed is the highest ever for a single session at Granby, and is even more unusual for being in the autumn as higher Chaffinch catches have tended to be in the spring. Also, there were no Dunnocks caught on the first visit and only three on this (two were adults). To account for this, it may be that they had poor winter survival and then a poor breeding season due to the drought like conditions we've been experiencing.
Most of the retraps were from the last 12 months. The exceptions were a Blue Tit ringed as a chick nearby in 2006, and singleton Great Tits and Chaffinches trapped in 2008. Full catch numbers were (new/retrap): Wren 1/-, Dunnock 1/2, Robin 0/2, Blue Tit 3/4, Great Tit 4/13, Treecreeper -/1, Chaffinch 28/3, Greenfinch 1/-, Yelllowhammer 1/-.
There was not much else around bar Redwing, and occasional Skylark, Tree Sparrow, Bullfinch, and Reed Bunting. If the weather's okay, the next session will be Saturday 10 December.
Jim
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