Brackenhurst - Sunday 29 November

Emboldened by last week's visit to the Brack feeders, Tom and I returned to them on Sunday. Conditions were good i.e. weather calm, overcast and mainly dry. However, it felt damp and the cloud was low, and in such ‘dreich’ conditions there seems to be less movement, and with the exception of tit species, this proved to be the case. Tits accounted for two thirds of the 72 birds handled over the morning.

A few points of note:

• Blue & Great Tit – 4 in 5 had either been ringed the previous week or last winter. Often new unringed birds are mainly juveniles, but this winter we are getting a lot of new adult birds at the site.
• Great Spotted Woodpecker – we’ve not had any for nearly three years, so to catch two ‘new pairs’ is exceptional here.
• Long-tailed Tit – three of birds were ringed at the same time nearly a year ago. Only one was from the previous week’s volery.

Handling totals by species were 72 (25 new / 47 retraps): Blue Tit (7/26), Coal Tit (0/2), Dunnock (1/3), Goldfinch (1/0), Great Spotted Woodpecker (4/0), Great Tit (2/11), Long-tailed Tit (1/5), Redwing (4/0), Robin (3/0), Goldcrest (2/0).

Jim 

Great Spotted Woodpeckers, male (l) and female (r), Brackenhurst, 29 Nov 2020 (J. Lennon)

 

Brackenhurst - Monday 23 November

So it was Brack Wars, Season 13, Episode 1. In other words, Kev and I making the first visit to NTU’s farmland bird winter supplementary feeding site at the Brackenhurst Campus yesterday. These visits are often an early indication of how some of our resident breeding bird species have done in the last year. Normally we’d expect to handle 50/60 birds at this time, but totalled 123.

With the exception of the ‘yammers we had good numbers of most species. Some key results:

Greenfinch – 11 new birds was a major and pleasant surprise. Previously, since 2008, we have only ringed seven Greenfinches here, and none since 2014. Is it possible they’re coming back from their trichomonosis driven decline in the noughties? 

Lesser Redpoll – a new species for us here.

Blue & Great Tit – at 58 processed, probably the most in a single session here at Brack. The adult/juvvie ratio can be an indicator of how successful the preceding breeding season has been? The 33 Blue Tits were split 12 adults / 21 juvvies and Great Tit 16/9. It suggests that perhaps Blue Tits were more productive than Great Tits this year.

Coal Tit – we only have getting these regularly over last three years.

Previously ringed birds (retraps) – other than birds from last winter. The oldest birds were Great Tit (2013), Blue Tit (2017) & Robin (2014).

Handling totals by species were 123 (106 new / 17 retraps): Blackbird (1/0), Blue Tit (27/6), Chaffinch (10/0), Coal Tit (1/1), Dunnock (6/0), Goldfinch (1/0), Great Tit (18/7), Greenfinch (11/0), House Sparrow (8/0), Lesser Redpoll (1/0), Long-tailed Tit (12/1), Redwing (7/0), Robin (1/2), Treecreeper (1/0), Wren (1/0).

Jim

Recent Recoveries

Details of a couple more Black-headed Gulls from the 1st winter period have come through, both seen at Trent Bridge. One (7JJ), had been ringed as an adult in Copenhagen in 2016. Another (VM37), seen several times at Trent Bridge, was ringed in Frederikshaven in Denmark in 2013 as a chick.

An interesting Coal Tit, caught and aged as a 1st winter bird at the end of September at Holme Pierrepont, had been ringed on the coast at Filey Bird Observatory only 2 weeks previously.

Some members of the group have been very busy ringing Lesser Redpolls, and typically, with these have come some recoveries. During operations at Holme Pierrepont, birds were caught that had recently been ringed at Marston (Lincs), Clumber, Wakefield and Hatfield Moor (59km in 1 day!). Also, birds ringed at Holme Pierrepont have been recorded at Sandwich Bay (Kent) and Keyhaven Marsh (Hants).

A Long-tailed Tit, originally ringed by Alex in Mapperley Wood, in 2018, has been captured near Sheffield by Sorby Breck ringers (in between catching Wrynecks and Red-flanked Bluetails!). This is a most unusual movement of 41km for a usually quite sedentary species.

A couple of warbler recoveries to end on, with a Chiffchaff ringed at Bestwood in September, was caught 11 days later at Hayling Golf Course in Hampshire, and a Blackcap from Holme Pierrepont, also ringed in September, was found dead after hitting a window in Folkingham, near Sleaford on 13 October.

Tom

 

October Ringing Sessions

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Tuesday 6 October

The weather was calm with very little breeze. We had a team out consisting of just Gary, Duncan and myself. This autumn's major Lesser Redpoll influx continued, as it is doing over much of the UK, and they dominated the catch today. A few remaining Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps and a late Reed Warbler were also caught along with the first Redwing of the autumn. We finished with a catch of 96 and no retraps made up of: Redwing 1, Song Thrush 1, Blackbird 2, Chiffchaff 2, Blackcap 3, Reed Warbler 1, Goldcrest 2, Long-tailed Tit 1, Goldfinch 1, Lesser Redpoll 79, Reed Bunting 4.

 

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Sunday 11 October

The weather was calm and bright with sunny spells. The team was Duncan and me and again Lesser Redpoll dominated the catch. We finished with a total catch of 76 including 4 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Robin 2/1, Wren 1/1, Chiffchaff 3/0, Blackcap 3/0, Cetti’s Warbler 2/0, Blue Tit 1/1, Goldfinch 1/0, Lesser Redpoll 58/0, Chaffinch 1/0, Reed Bunting 0/1. The oldest retrap was a Reed Bunting from 2019. Still a few Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps hanging on.

 

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Friday 16 October
 
The weather was calm and generally overcast with occasional drizzle. The catching rate was thankfully steady as we had a wary eye on the weather throughout the morning. We had a team out consisting of Gary and myself and finished with a catch of 78 including 6 retraps (including 2 controls) made up of (new/retrap): Redwing 13/0, Robin 0/1, Chiffchaff 3/0, Cetti’s Warbler 1/0, Goldcrest 0/2, Great Tit 2/0, Lesser Redpoll 50/3, Bullfinch 2/0, Reed Bunting 1/0. The retraps were all this years birds. Of the migrant warblers just Chiffchaffs appear to remain, first session of the year here without catching a Blackcap.


Ramsdale Park Golf Centre - Sunday 18 October

The weather was very calm, dry and overcast, perfect netting conditions for our first autumn session for Redwing. We had a team out consisting of Gary, Duncan and myself and we got the nets up just before first light. There seemed to be many thrushes roosting so we were expecting a bigger catch than we actually made, maybe they just dispersed at first light, despite our efforts with MP3s. We also had an MP3 playing Lesser Redpoll and made a small catch. We finished with a total catch of 79 including 8 retraps, made up of (new/retrap): Sparrowhawk 1/0, Redwing 31/0, Blackbird 4/0, Wren 4/0, Robin 2/2, Goldcrest 4/0, Blue Tit 3/2, Great Tit 0/1, Long-tailed Tit 3/3, Lesser Redpoll 18/0, Bullfinch 1/0. The oldest retraps were from 2019. There were a few Fieldfares about but none came low enough to go in a net.

 

Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Friday 23 October

All four weather forecasts I looked at the previous evening got this wrong, supposedly dry until mid/late morning they said. So why was it raining when I left home at 06:15? They did get the light winds correct but the morning was spent opening and closing the nets between the frequent rain showers. However, it appears the redpolls have more or less all moved out with only four attracted to the mp3s playing, but one was another control. We had a team out consisting of Gary, Duncan and myself and finished with a catch of just 13 including 3 retraps (including 1 control) made up of (new/retrap): Redwing 3/0, Wren 0/1, Goldcrest 2/1, Lesser Redpoll 3/1, Reed Bunting 2/0. The retraps were all this year's birds. This I think will tie up activities at the site as the redpoll have gone. Still they provided us with an extra month's activity at the site compared to other years.

Kev

Sparrowhawk, Ramsdale Park, 18-10-20 (G. Goddard)