Rushcliffe Country Park, Sunday 12 February

We had another poor catch at RCP despite a week of freezing weather and perfect netting conditions on the morning. We finished on 39 birds, 25 of which were retraps. The best of the retraps were a Bullfinch and Yellowhammer from 2006. The full capture list was (new/retrap): Chaffinch 0/1, Blue Tit 0/2, Yellowhammer 4/7, Great Tit 1/8, Blackbird 4/0, Robin 1/3, Reed Bunting 2/2, Bullfinch 0/1, Goldfinch 3/1.

Kev

NNRG update

Seeing as there seems to be considerable overlap in the membership of our two groups now, take a look at the latest NNRG session which made the Demog Blog...

http://btoringing.blogspot.com/2012/02/belgian-surprise.html

Granby, Sunday 5 February

A decent catch (MIB) 

Duncan, Ian and myself made the eleventh winter visit to Granby yesterday. The snow-covered ground made for (as Pete predicted), a record-breaking morning and it proved so. The cold, calm and overcast weather and covered ground all made for ideal ringing at the Granby feeders. I'd been out in the week to fix up the vandalised hoppers and stick more apples on the hawthorn spikes (only stabbed meself the once). However, none of the apples were left on the Sunday and I imagine the local badgers were on a sugar rush. Birdwise, there were a few thrushes about, c15 Skylarks flew over when the sun broke through and there was also a solitary Lapwing, as well as small flocks of Yellowhammers heading towards the feeders.

5F Fieldfare (MIB)

 

The apples may have worked in that we caught the first Fieldfare of the winter (ninth for the site) and another Song Thrush (sixth for the site), and eight Blackbirds (one was ringed four years ago). There was an upsurge in Great Tits, but with only two of the 24 captures unringed this time. The oldest of them being four years old. Blue Tit T513715 made her fifth appearance of the winter and the twelfth in all since being ringed nearby as a nestling on 20 May 2006. The Chaffinches were on the upswing this time with 35 birds processed. The best of the 13 Chaffinch retraps was P888368, which had been ringed at Granby as a juvenile on 20/01/2002, and had only been re-caught once in between. At just over 10 years old, it's not far off the Britain and Ireland longevity record of 11y 7m 21d set in 1990. As we now expect in such conditions, there were plenty of Yellowhammers early on with 25 of the 44 birds handled being extracted on the first two net rounds. The oldest Yellowhammer had been ringed five years previously. The Reed Bunting catch of 15 birds equalled last winters best ever day total. One of the retraps was from three years ago, which is a record for the site. Half the Reed Buntings ever ringed at Granby have been caught there in the last 12 months. It's encouraging that there are more about, and chimes with their 26% increase in the East Midlands over the last 15 years reported by the BTO's Breeding Bird Survey. As is often the case the more interesting retraps appeared later in the day. The more experienced birds seems to head for likely food sauces when the weather's hard. Oh, and we almost had a female Sparrowhawk, but it escaped the net just before Ian could get to it!

adult Song Thrush (MIB)

 

Full catch numbers were 81/70 (new/retrap): Wren 0/1, Dunnock 1/2, Robin 2/7, Blackbird 6/2, Fieldfare 1/0, Song Thrush 1/0, Blue Tit 2/8, Great Tit 2/21, Chaffinch 22/13, Yellowhammer 33/11, Reed Bunting 11/4.

Reed Bunting (MIB)

I won't be going to Granby this weekend as have visitors. However, a visit there mid-week, the HPP Reed Bunting roost and orchard thrushes near Retford are all in the offing this week. Please contact me if interested in any of these.

Jim

adult male Blackbird (MIB)

Rushcliffe Country Park, Sunday 5 February

The snow fall on Saturday helped keep expectations of a good catch high but despite it being a better catch than last week it was far from good. Gary brought along some kit to catch non-passerines around the lake again and set off to try that whilst Nick and I set the nets around the feeders. Unfortunately all the birds on the lake were clustered in the middle on the only patch of water not frozen and could not be tempted away from it. The catching rate at the feeders was disappointingly low despite the perfect weather conditions and we finished on 50 birds, 34 of which were retraps. The best of the retraps were a Chaffinch from 2006 and a Blackbird and Robin from 2007. The full capture list was (new/retrap): Chaffinch 1/4, Blue Tit 1/3, Yellowhammer 3/3, Dunnock 0/5, Great Tit 1/3, Blackbird 4/4, Robin 5/12, Redwing 1/0.
Kev

Holme Pierrepont waders

I've been joining Chris for more evening sessions at Holme Pierrepont since Christmas in an attempt to catch some waders, in particular one of our target species; the Common Snipe. Obviously so many factors can dictate the number of birds which are present at any one time, from year to year. For example - weather conditions, availability of food and good quality feeding habitat, influx of birds from overseas, not to mention human disturbance.

It seems that the Snipe don't really want to play the game this winter, at each session we have put up fair numbers of birds in the darkness as we walk around the A52 pit, but only a handful seem to be going in the nets. It appears that overall the number of Snipe present this winter seems to be at a low, and when I think back to how rock-hard the fields at Holme Pierrepont have been until quite recently, it's difficult not to guess why.

However, as most of us know, with ringing of this type, it's not always about quantity, but quality. A retrap Redshank which we caught at a recent session was initially ringed back in January 2010 and Chris also told me about the retrap Jack Snipe which he caught earlier this week, which turned out to be a bird ringed last winter at Holme Pierrepont. Also, it is always great to get experience of new birds and to study Woodcock and Lapwing in the hand over the past few weeks has been excellent.

So although a lot of effort goes into work like this, often with only a small number of birds caught, capturing valuable information about them and the importance of sites like Holme Pierrepont as wintering grounds for these species, somehow makes it more than worthwhile. Well, it does to night-time nerds like myself and Chris anyway!

Ian

 

Rushcliffe Country Park, Sunday 29 January

Another cold and frosty start with no wind, all was looking good. Gary had brought along some kit to catch non-passerines around the lake and set off to try that whilst Nick and I set the nets around the feeders. Before we had finished setting Gary was back with a Moorhen! The catching rate at the feeders was disappointingly poor despite the perfect weather conditions and we finished on just 31 birds, 24 of which were retraps. The full capture list was (new/retrap): Chaffinch 1/3, Blue Tit 1/2, Goldfinch 0/4, Yellowhammer 2/4, Dunnock 0/1, Great Tit 0/6, Blackbird 1/1, Robin 1/1, Reed Bunting 0/2, Moorhen 1/0.

Kev

Granby, Sunday 29 January

Duncan, Libby, Pete and myself made visit ten to Granby today. Again, we had cold, calm and overcast weather; ideal for ringing. There were few birds about other then a few small flocks of Fieldfare, several hundred Wood Pigeons feeding on rape seedlings and the local 'yaffle'.

The frost brought the Yellowhammers in again and they dominated the catch with 32 handled. Star birds were the first Song Thrush and Reed Bunting of the winter. The Song Thrush or 'Mavis' as they're known in East Anglia was the fifth for the site and first for three years. Three of the Song Thrushes have been ringed on various 31 Decembers! The Chaffinches dropped from 20 on the last visit to to six this time. Nearly half the Blue & Great Tits were new birds, whereas on last few visits they were virtually all retraps. This often happens mid-winter; not sure what it means.

The full catch was 78 birds (53 new / 24 retrap). All the retraps were from this and last winter bar a 5 yo Blue Tit and 3 yo Yellowhammer. Full catch numbers were (new/retrap): Dunnock 2/-, Robin 2/2, Song Thrush 1/-, Blackbird 4/1, Blue Tit 5/6, Great Tit 6/8, Treecreeper -/1, Chaffinch 5/1, Yelllowhammer 27/5, Reed Bunting 1/-.

The plan is to return to Granby next weekend, as well as possibly going for the HPP Reed Bunting roost on Saturday.

Jim

A nice pair of tits. (male left, female right) (PML)

 An intriguing retrap Robin, known to be an adult and with a dark interior to the upper mandible, yet with four slightly shorter outer greater coverts each supporting a thorn (though these are the orange typical of adults, one would not normally see an abrupt end to the thorns, but a gradual decreas in size across the coverts). Furthermore, it appeared to have two ages of tail feather with those on the bird's right hand side being rather thing and pointed and those on the left being broad and rounded! If you think you can explain this - leave a comment!  (PML)

AGM, Rushcliffe Country Park, Saturday 21 January

A good turn-out for last night's meeting, although some escaped the photo! Thanks to Nabegh for his talk on the Birds of Syria.

Granby, Sunday 15 January

 

  

Yellowhammer & Tree Sparrow (Jackie Lawrence)

Duncan and myself, and special guests Adrian Blackburn and Jackie Lawrence, made the ninth visit to Granby yesterday. At last some nice cold weather to bring the birds in to the feeding station. It was calm, being overcast at first and then bright for most of the session. They were a few thrushes and a Little Owl around as we drove up. Otherwise, the only bird of note was the first Willow Tit sighting of the winter that Adrian heard calling. The sunshine also got the Robins singing.

As we now expect, the frosts brought the Yellowhammers in in good numbers with 12 on the first round and 24 ringed in total. All were first winter birds bar an adult male. The Chaffinches also made their return with 20 processed and, in crude terms, small females (local?) being caught early on and big males (foreign?) being caught later on in the session. The full catch being 59 new birds with 34 retraps. The former being mainly Yellowhammers & Chaffinches and the latter tit retraps. With the cold there were several retraps of older birds (which seem to turn up when they want some dependable food) with two 5 year old birds and 3 & 4 year old Blue Tits together with 6 year old Great Tit and Chaffinch.

Full catch numbers were (new/retrap): Robin 2/3, Blackbird 6/-, Blue Tit -/13, Great Tit 3/13, Treecreeper 1/-, Chaffinch 17/3, Greenfinch 2/-, Bullfinch -/1, Tree Sparrow 4/1, Yellowhammer 24/-.

Lastly - the first pic below is the 1000th Yellowhammer to be ringed at the site!

Jim

1000th Granby Yellowhammer (Jim Lennon)

Treecreeper (Jackie Lawrence) 

The Blackbird below was a 5M with strange moult - 2ogc on right wing and 6 on left and several replaced inner secondaries.

 

Blackbird (Jackie Lawrence)

Rushcliffe Country Park, Sunday 15 January

A cold and frosty start gave us hope that a few more birds might be visiting the feeders than last week. It proved to be much better with more than twice the catch of the previous week, unfortunately many were retraps of recently ringed birds. A new Lesser Redpoll was nice and the oldest retraps we had were a Blue Tit from 2006 and a Robin from 2007. We ended with 57 birds of which 39 were retraps. The full capture list was (new/retrap): Chaffinch 7/5, Blue Tit 1/5, Goldfinch 1/0, Yellowhammer 5/5, Dunnock 0/3, Great Tit 1/11, Blackbird 2/0, Greenfinch 0/1, Lesser Redpoll 1/0, Robin 0/6, Reed Bunting 0/3

Kev

Granby, Sunday 8 January

Duncan, Ian and myself made the eighth visit of the winter to Granby on Sunday. Weather was breezy at first and then calm and overcast for most of the session. It was generally quiet and not many birds were around. Highlights were two Cormorants flying over, and Dunnocks & Robins (encouraged by the balmy weather no doubt) having a bit of a sing-song. Of course, the mild conditions meant the catch was small compared to this time last year. The full catch being 19 new birds with 17 retraps. Two of the Blue Tits had originally been ringed in 2006 (one in a nest box about 1km away) and a Great Tit from 2008. As it was quiet I thought I'd try to tape lure the Tree Sparrows that were hanging around the feeders, and two were caught right next to the player. Full catch numbers were (new/retrap): Wren 1/-, Dunnock 1/-, Robin -/1, Blue Tit -/8 Great Tit 1/8, Chaffinch 4/1, Greenfinch 1/-, Tree Sparrow 3/-, Yellowhammer 7/-.

Jim

Rushcliffe Country Park, Sunday 8 January

Not much to say about this mornings visit to RCP, weather was good but very few birds. We ended with only 23 birds of which 14 were retraps. All the retraps were recently ringed birds. The full capture list was (new/retrap): Chaffinch 1/3, Blue Tit 0/3, Goldfinch 0/1, Yellowhammer 4/5, Dunnock 1/0, Great Tit 0/2, Song Thrush 1/0, Blackbird 1/0, Great Spotted Woodpecker 1/0.
Kev

Holme Pierrepont, Friday 30 December 2011

This Christmas holiday I was lucky enough (thanks to some Melton Mowbray Pork Pie and Cropwell Bishop Stilton bribes) to spend some time with Chris, SNRG's "Lone Sniper".

 

We were hoping to catch some Snipe and Woodcock over on the fields surrounding the A52 pit at Holme Pierrepont one evening as they come in at dusk to feed, but due to the ground being so hard and dry (still!) and the blustery winds we decided to give it a go over near the Grange pit one early morning before dawn. This time we hoped to catch birds coming off the fields to roost in the reedbeds as the sun came up.

 

Unfortunately many of the birds either flew straight over us or avoided the nets and took cover right at the back of the reedbeds amongst the calling Water Rail and noisy Coots.

 

However, we didn't go home disappointed as the early morning light gave us an opportunity to enjoy a few Blackbirds and three Teal which went in the nets, all male, two adult and one young bird. I thought readers of the blog may find my photographs interesting, in particular the tail and wing shots as it is pretty easy to see the contrast in feather colour, two generations, indicating a juvenile.

 

 

I'm hoping for some calm weather as after a recce of the A52 fields later that morning, we discovered many probe marks, wader poo and feathers, suggesting concentrations of birds in certain wetter areas of the site, so fingers crossed for some calm nights.

 

Ian

Notts Wildlife Trust link

Note this link, just added to the list on the right:

http://www.southnottswildlife.org.uk/

HAPPY NEW YEAR!