Colwick Garden Ringing

We bought our house in Colwick in summer 2017, with the garden being one of the main reasons for our choice as it was mature, well looked after and had some good ringing potential. Feeding birds started right away and over the winter decent numbers of Chaffinch and Goldfinch as well as smaller numbers of other common garden species were soon eating us out of house and home. We also got some interesting species including numerous Blackcaps, several Brambling, Siskin and woodpeckers.

Fast forward to this summer when I obtained my endorsement to mist net in the garden. Since August I've been steadily catching small numbers of birds, as and when I get the chance. I've only managed an hour or two here and there due to other commitments, but it has been enough to catch a decent sample so far and hopefully as the winter goes on I'll start to catch a greater variety of birds.

So far it has been pretty Goldfinch-heavy, but this has included a control from Berkshire. The House Sparrows that haven't been seen since April are back for the winter and I finally caught one on my last session, and I've managed one Blackcap so far, but I haven't seen any others this winter yet.

The obligatory totals so far are as follows: 174 total (147 new/27 Retrap) - Goldfinch (90/6), Blue Tit (18/15), Long-tailed Tit (11/3), Great Tit (12/1), Coal Tit (5/2), 4 Chaffinch, 3 Dunnock, 2 Blackbird, 1 Robin, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Blackcap, 1 Goldcrest and 1 House Sparrow.

Tom

Control Goldfinch, Blackcap and net set up (T. Shields)