Broomfield Winter CES Visit 8 - Sunday 9 February

The final winter CES visit was made to Broomfield today, although it will not be the final ringing visit to the site this winter. As usual the weather forecast was wrong and we arrived on site in rain and with more of a breeze than forecast, but fortunately the rain stopped by the time we had set the first nets. 

We set the usual feeder nets and the Redwing nets, but were not expecting to catch any Redwing as they do not respond well to calls from sound lures late in the winter. There were however good numbers of Redwing and Starling feeding on one of the sports fields along with a couple of Mistle Thrush. 

The feeder nets caught the bulk of the day's catch which totalled 43, comprising: 12 Blue Tit, 3 Great Tit, 16 Long-tailed Tit, 3 Robin, 5 Chaffinch, 3 Blackbird and a surprise single Redwing. We also caught a single Bullfinch but we released it without a ring because it had scaly legs. 

The breeze increased as the morning progressed so all in all a good catch considering the conditions. Overhead we had Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and a decent flock of Lapwing.

Kev

 

Reed Pond Ringing Session - Saturday 1 February

Following a couple of site visits to the Reed Pond Nature Reserve in Lambley, it was agreed that South Notts Ringing Group would hold a ringing session there on 1 February 2025. Whilst I don't think the site lends itself to regular bird ringing, a demo session was useful as it allowed us to collaborate with another local wildlife group, with several of their members visiting on the day, and it possibly helps with their understanding of the birds on site.

After the initial visit, when there didn't seem to be too many birds on site, the volunteers have since established a couple of bird feeders, so as we arrived there seemed quite an encouraging amount of activity and bird song.

We put up three mist nets which resulted in a catch of 37 birds, thanks to the feeders, comprising:
13 Blue Tits, 6 Great Tits, 9 Long-tailed Tits, 3 Chaffinches and single Robin, Dunnock, Woodpigeon, Blackbird, Song Thrush and Kestrel.

Many thanks to the Reed Pond Nature Reserve and the people who came along.

Mick Pearson

 

Brackenhurst Winter CES Visit 7 - Sunday 2 February

On Sunday, the seventh winter CES visit was completed at NTU Brackenhurst. The 3 feeder nets produced a total of 51 birds. This included 15 new Yellowhammers, which seem to have been thin on the ground this winter with just one caught the previous visit. Some of the first year Yellowhammers showed obvious fault bars, like the bird pictured below with a fault bar across the greater coverts.

Totals were as follows (new/retrap): Yellowhammer 15/0, Blue Tit 3/14, Great Tit 3/5, Robin 2/3, Blackbird 3/1 and Dunnock 0/1.

Rowan

Swans

On Friday 31 January, six members of SNRG went to Codnor Park Reservoir with the intention of ringing the 5 cygnets there. We succeeded and we also managed to catch the adults so they were ringed too. Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain permission to colour-ring the birds, but hopefully the metal rings will be read in the future so we know where these swans end up. 

Many thanks to Cromford Canal and Codnor Park Reservoir group (who kindly donated money for the swan rings) and to Codnor Park Fishery.

Mick P