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Monday 30 May 2016

Attenborough CES Visit 3, Sunday 29 May

The third CES visit of the season was carried out on Sunday. The weather overcast with a light wind. The team consisted of Gary, Pete S and myself. We were also joined for part of the session by Amelia, a potential new recruit. Tim Sexton also dropped in with his son Jake.

Unfortunately the catch was small for no obvious reason, the total catch was (new/retrap) 22/7 made up of: Blackbird 2/1, Dunnock 1/1, Wren 2/3, Robin 3/0, Blackcap 2/0, Chiffchaff 6/0, Reed Warbler 4/1, Long-tailed Tit 1/0, Bullfinch 1/1. The oldest retrap was a Reed Warbler from 2013.

Kev

Sunday 29 May 2016

Ramsdale Park Golf Club, Friday 27 May

We held the first ringing session of the year at Ramsdale this morning. The weather was good with little wind and clear skies. The team consisted of Gary, Duncan and myself. The catch was quite slow throughout the morning and the number of warblers caught and heard singing was disappointing considering the numbers caught there last year. However, last year's visits did not start until after the first juvenile warblers were on the wing.

Total catch was (new/retrap) 29/6 made up of: Blackbird 4/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Dunnock 3/1, Wren 2/0, Robin 4/1, Blackcap 2/0, Garden Warbler 3/1, Whitethroat 3/0, Lesser Whitethroat 1/0, Chiffchaff 2/0, Willow Warbler 1/1, Bullfinch 2/2, Linnet 1/0. As would be expected the retraps were all from last year. A Tawny Owl was heard calling during the morning over towards the site of the Barn Owl box!

Kev

Tuesday 24 May 2016

Holme Pierrepont, Sunday 22 May

We held a ringing session at the Grange end of Holme Pierrepont on Sunday morning. The weather was good with only a light wind and clear skies. The team consisted of Gary, Sue, Duncan and myself. We limited the number of nets to start with as campers were on site but they left fairly early on and we then put up a couple more nets. The catch was steady throughout the morning but the number of warblers caught was a little disappointing.

Total catch was (new/retrap) 25/18 made up of: Blackbird 0/1, Song Thrush 1/0, Dunnock 2/2, Wren 1/0, Robin 1/1, Blackcap 1/0, Garden Warbler 1/0, Whitethroat 1/1, Reed Warbler 12/4, Chiffchaff 1/0, Willow Warbler 1/2, Blue Tit 0/1, Great Tit 0/1, Greenfinch 2/0, Reed Bunting 1/5.

The oldest retraps were two Reed Warblers from 2012, one of which we had not recaptured since it was ringed. There were plenty of birds around including Cetti’s and Sedge Warblers that were singing all morning but did not manage to find any of the nets and a Cuckoo that gave great views but despite showing interest in the MP3 player did not like the look of the nets! The best birds around were probably a couple of Hobbies, one of which stayed around for most of the morning and was hunting very close to the base.

Kev

Sunday 22 May 2016

Next-door neighbours

I checked a double pole box tonight. The owners suspected Tawny Owls might be nesting in the top box. I had a quick look in the bottom box first and found a single Tawny Owl chick. Before ringing it, I thought I'd quickly check the top box and as I got closer I could hear bill snapping. I wondered if mum was roosting in it, but when I opened the door I found Barn Owl incubating! It will be interesting to see if both species successfully fledge young, particularly as I have not found any cached rodents yet and the Tawnys seem to be surviving on birds.

Pete


Monday 16 May 2016

Attenborough CES Visit 2, Sunday 15 May

The second CES visit of the season was carried out on Sunday. The weather was good with no wind, clear skies and a temperatures much lower than last week. The team consisted of Gary, Alex, Sue, Nabegh and myself. It was good to have Nabegh out with us again on a visit from Liverpool. The catch was slow first thing but picked up and then a net round at about 10:30 produced 37 birds, half of them Long-tailed Tits. 
Total catch was (new/retrap) 54/18, made up of: Blackbird 2/0, Dunnock 1/2, Wren 7/1, Robin 2/1, Blackcap 5/1, Chiffchaff 2/0, Reed Warbler 1/0, Cetti’s Warbler 0/1, Blue Tit 4/2, Great Tit 7/5, Long-tailed Tit 16/4, Tree Creeper 1/0, Bullfinch 6/1.The oldest retrap was a Robin from 2013. 
First thing in the morning we heard a Tawny Owl call coming from a tree near our base, we looked up and saw an adult Tawny owl perched next to a fluffy chick 20m or so up the tree. The chick stayed there all morning at at one point was fed by the adult, not sure where the nest had been but certainly not in one of our boxes!
Kev

 Tawny Owls (Gary Goddard)

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Recent Recoveries

A bit of a bumper recovery round-up this time, and not dominated by Barn Owls for once!

Firstly, a spate of Mute Swan recoveries seem to have come in. One was a bird ringed in Cossall by SNRG in 2010, which has been resighted at Ilkeston in March this year. The other 6 recoveries also involve birds noted throughout Ilkeston in March, but they had all been ringed in the town about 2 weeks previously!

Otherwise, a Black-headed gull that I have noted (see photo below), which seems to spend its winters at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, has been reported through the group, and was ringed originally in Norway, in 2013, marked with a white darvic (J8TN). I first noted this bird in January 2014, and again in October 2015. In between times it has returned to where it was ringed to breed. It was originally ringed as an 8, so may have done the trip from Norway to Notts several times now.

A couple of Barn Owls made it onto the round-up. One, a bird ringed as a chick in Farndon in 2009, was found without its head in April this year. Another has been found dead in Norwell, after being ringed as an adult in nearby Bathley in 2014.

A Tawny owl, ringed in Plungar in 2005, was found nearby in Orston, in November 2014. It was found sick and unfortunately died in captivity.

And we have had some decent Passerine recoveries:

Jim conducted a New Year's Day ringing session this year in his garden, and caught 2 controls. One, a Redpoll, was originally ringed in September 2014 in the Highlands, and the other was a Goldfinch, ringed in July 2014 in Lanarkshire.

A male Chaffinch, ringed at Granby in November 2012, fell foul of a window in nearby Whatton this year, presumably a local bird. A Yellowhammer met the same fate in Morton on 3 May, after being ringed nearby at Brackenhurst only a few months ago on 20 January.

And a Siskin, ringed at Ramsdale Golf Club in August last year, has been controlled by ringers in Norfolk at Wicken at the beginning of April.

Tom

Monday 9 May 2016

Attenborough CES Visit 1, Sunday 8 May

The first CES visit of the season was carried out on Sunday. The weather was really too good with no wind, clear skies and a temperature that got to 24 Celsius by the time we had finished. The hot sun no doubt had an affect on the catch in the second half of the morning. The team consisted of Gary, Alex, Duncan, Sue, Mick P and myself.

The catch was steady during the first half of the morning but soon dropped off, the highlights being 5 returning warblers retrapped and a new Jay. A mallard tried hard to stay in the nets twice but not hard enough for us to extract it. We did catch the first 3J of the season, a Robin.

Total catch was (new/retrap) 26/6 made up of: Jay 1/0, Blackbird 2/1, Song Thrush 1/0, Dunnock 2/0, Wren 8/0, Robin 2/0, Blackcap 3/3, Chiffchaff 0/1, Reed Warbler 0/1, Cetti’s Warbler 1/0, Blue Tit 1/0, Great Tit 1/0, Long-tailed Tit 1/0, Tree Creeper 1/0, Reed Bunting 2/0.

The oldest retrap was a Blackcap from 2010 that we had not caught since it was originally ringed in the net next to where we caught it this time.

Kev

 Jay (Sue Lakeman)