Recent Recoveries

Nine recent Barn Owl recoveries have come in. Five were found in February this year:

• A chick ringed in Watnall in June last year, made it to Hykeham near Lincoln, where it was killed on the roads.
• Another chick was ringed in Brock Hill, Leics, in 2011. It was found freshly dead in the same area.
• A Lambley born bird was ringed in July last year and got hit on the roads near Bingham.
• A young bird ringed in Halam, Southwell was also a victim of the roads, being found in Wymeswold.
• A bird ringed as a chick in Stragglethorpe in 2005, not too far from Holme Pierrepont, was eventually killed on the roads, 10 years later in Cosby, Leics.

In March, a further four Barn Owls were reported:

• Yet another Road Casualty, this time a young bird ringed in Hawton last June, found in nearby Shelton.
• Another youngster, ringed in Clifton Wood in June 2013, was found not too far away, in Draycott, having been predated by a mystery animal.
• A bird ringed as a youngster in Caunton last June was killed on the railways near North Muskham.
• And finally, a bird ringed as a breeding adult in Bunny last June, was found dead in the same area.

And now the non-Barn owls:

• A Blackbird ringed in Hucknall in June 2012, was found dead in the same area 3 years later in March this year.
• A net-friendly Blackcap which was originally ringed as a 3J female on 20/8/14 in Bestwood, was controlled twice in the space of 5 days by the Farlington ringing group in Warsash, near Southampton, in September of the same year.

Tom

Granby, Sunday 15 March

The ringing outlook bode well this morning. It being cold and overcast, with lighter than forecast winds. So Alex, Gary and I, together with guest ringers, Kate Moore & Natasja Groenink, quickly got the nets up. The first round produced 13 birds which were mainly Yellowhammers. A decent start, but we only had nine more birds after that and started taking down by 10:30 am. Hard to explain the low numbers, but it was generally quiet bird wise, though the Jays were still about and there are still some winter thrushes flying about.

The oldest of the retraps were: Great Tit from 2011/12; Yellowhammer from 2011/12 and 2012/13. The older male Yellowhammer was interesting in that we've just caught him annually every March since 2012, which suggests he's a fairly local breeder.

Captures were (new/retraps) 22(7/15): Blue Tit 1/4, Chaffinch 1/0, Dunnock 0/1, Great Tit 0/7, Robin 0/1, Yellowhammer 5/2.

Jim

Granby, Sunday 8 March

After beautiful sunny Saturday, it was a rather windy start packing the Landie at Vicars Croft. Only Jim, Gary and myself made it for the morning session. The usual nets were quickly put up and there was plenty of evidence of birds moving around the site, including lots of Yellowhammers and pair of Jays.

It was a steady morning with each net round producing around 10 birds – just enough for me to process on my own and get my eye in on aging and sexing Yellowhammers. The majority of the birds caught were Great Tits, Chaffinch and a number of new Yellowhammers. The final net round added a bit of variety with Tree Sparrow, Long-tailed Tits and one of the Jays that had been calling all morning.

Other birds noted included Buzzard, Green Woodpecker and Skylark.

The majority of the retraps were from last winter, bar a Great Tit from 2011/12 and single Blue and Great Tits from 2010/11.

Total captures were 63 (25 new / 29 retrap): Blue Tit 3/9, Chaffinch 8/2, Dunnock 1/2, Great Tit 3/10, Jay 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 2/0, Robin 3/0, Tree Sparrow 1/0, Yellowhammer 14/4.

Alex

 Tree Sparrow and Jay (A. Phillips)