Recent Recoveries

To kick off, the Norwegian Black-headed Gull (J8TN) is back again for another winter at Trent Bridge (ringed as an adult in 2013). Another Black-headed Gull seen by Tom at Colwick in November last year was a Polish ringed bird, ringed as a chick at Pyzykona Reservoir in 2015.

Tom has also been checking the Canada Geese around the Meadows area for colour rings and on 6 October, 8 were noted (one with just a metal ring). They were all from the Nottingham University study, with birds from 2016 to 2018 and the oldest from 2009.

A Tawny Owl ringed at Bunny this May as a chick was found dead on the roads in nearby Bradmore on 20 October.

A Sand Martin from the Attenborough colony, ringed as a chick in July 2017 was retrapped at Lax Hill, Rutland in June this year.

A Reed Warbler, ringed at Holme Pierrepont on 15 July was retrapped by ringers in Littington, East Sussex a few weeks later in August, and another ringed at the same site on 21 July was retrapped at Ickelsham on 27 September. Also from Holme Pierrepont, a Garden Warbler ringed on 14 August was retrapped 12 days later at a site in Kent.

One of the few Blackcaps ringed at Brack in early spring this year was a control, it had been ringed at Retford Sewage works in August 2016.

A Blue Tit ringed as a chick by Birklands RG in 2017 was retrapped by Mick at Bestwood in September this year.

A starling from Alex's Garden, ringed at the end of April, met its fate at the hands (paws) of a cat in a nearby garden two weeks later.

Lastly, a Blackbird, ringed as a chick in Watnall in 2015 was found dead on the roads in Greasley in August this year

Tom

Ramsdale Park Golf Centre, Wednesday 17 October

After a couple of attempts to go to this site were called off at the last minute because of the weather, Mick T and I finally made a visit to Ramsdale. We set the same 7 x 18m nets as we did on the last visit, in near perfect conditions. Two mp3 lures were set playing, one with mixed warblers and one with Redwing song. The catch on the first round was effectively repeated on the subsequent rounds, with the vast majority of birds being in the nets at the very top of the hill. The warbler calls attracted nothing, the only warbler caught was close to the Redwing mp3 (but we did hear a Chiffchaff calling as we finished!). The Redwing song worked well as usual and all the Redwings caught were around this mp3 player.

We ended with a catch which was steady throughout the morning, 32 Redwings were nice as few had been reported so far this month with the winds being predominantly from the west. We ended with a total catch 86 including 3 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Blackbird 2/0, Song Thrush 2/0, Redwing 32/0, Dunnock 3/0, Robin 3/1, Blackcap 1/0, Goldcrest 3/0, Treecreeper 1/0, Blue Tit 7/0, Great Tit 7/0, Long-tailed Tit 6/2, Bullfinch 5/0, Lesser Redpoll 6/0, Greenfinch 5/0. The oldest retrap was a Long-tailed Tit from 2015.

Kev

Sibthorpe, Sunday 7 October

It's been a while since I last ringed in my Sibthorpe garden. In fact last session was 19 May! Issie Connell and I set the nets up last Sunday and we had us a busy morning with 108 birds processed.

It looks like the House Sparrows and Goldfinches are species that have bred fairly well in this strange weather year. They accounted for about a half and a quarter of the catch respectively. A pleasant surprise was an early winter Reed Bunting. Oldest birds were a 2015 female House Sparrow and two Goldfinches from 2016.

Species totals (new/retrap) 96/12, total 108, comprising: Dunnock 4/1, Blackbird 2/0, Blue Tit 5/0, House Sparrow 55/8, Goldfinch 29/2, Greenfinch 1/0, Reed Bunting 1/0.

Jim

Holme Pierrepont, Monday 8 October

Mick T, Gary and I went to the Grange end this morning with a view to closing the site down for the year and removing all the poles and guys at the end of the session. The conditions were breezy from the start with mainly overcast skies and we set a limited number of nets with two mp3s playing warbler calls initially. We kept seeing and hearing Jays so we tried changing one of the mp3s later to Jay but it failed to attract their attention!

Catching was slow and other than a few Chiffchaffs we only caught one other migratory warbler, a Blackcap. We ended with a total of 29 birds including 8 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Dunnock 1/0, Blackcap 1/0, Chiffchaff 6/0, Cetti’s Warbler 1/1, Blue Tit 2/3, Great Tit 2/0, Long-tailed Tit 5/4, Chaffinch 2/0, Reed Bunting 1/0. The retraps were all recent birds. Overhead passed a a small party of Redwing followed later by a small party of Fieldfares.

Kev