Brackenhurst - Sunday 14 January

In between the winds, Duncan, Kev, Kirsten, Sue and myself got another session in at the feeders at Brackenhurst. The weather was cool, calm and cloudy; ideal for ringing. We caught birds steadily over the morning, and finished on a total of 93 birds processed.

Highlights were:-

• Yellowhammer – 32 birds processed, and we now have had 70+ birds this winter. This is already more than the very mild winters of two and three years ago. So, definitely a correlation between mean temperature and birds coming to the feeders. The oldest retrap was from winter 2013/14.
• Song Thrush – only our sixth bird in 10 years, but the second of this winter and the first to be caught at the feeders.
• Great Tit – it's not usual to get an influx of unringed birds this time of year, but 13 is unusual. It shows there’s still stuff to learn about our so called sedentary resident bird species.
• Chaffinch – we had an old bird originally ringed in winter 2011/12.
• It can be tricky to determine if Yellowhammers are juveniles or adults. One of the ageing criteria we use is to look for different generations of feathers in their tertials. See photo below which shows a Yellowhammer with different generations, which makes it a juvenile first winter bird.

Species totals (new/retrap) 64/39, total 93: Robin 0/2, Blackbird 3/5, Fieldfare 3/0, Redwing 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Blue Tit 5/11, Great Tit 13/11, Bullfinch 0/1, Chaffinch 3/1, Yellowhammer 22/8, Reed Bunting 1/0.

Jim

 Yellowhammer showing two generations of tertials making it a first-winter bird. (JL)