Granby, Thursday 8 March

Visit 14 to the GFE, except it was pleasantly warm and Duncan and I were peeling off the layers while we there. This was not that long, as by 10:00 am we had only handled 12 birds and closed the nets early. It was pretty quiet, bar the usual suspects singing and a couple of small flocks of Redwing & Fieldfare.

The only bird of note was our old lady of the hedgerows (see pics below), Yellowhammer R183609, who we re-caught on the first session this winter, but was originally ringed at the site on 12 January 2003. At 9y 1m 26d she's not far off the longevity record for Yellowhammer in Britain and Ireland set in 1982 of 11y 9m 28d.

Full catch numbers were 5/7 (new/retrap): Robin 0/1, Great Tit 0/5, Chaffinch 1/0, Tree Sparrow 1/0, Yellowhammer 3/1.

Jim

Our nine year old Yellowhammer (JL)