While the feeders were still in place after the demo, myself and Josh set up two nets at
Allestree. A fresh layer of snow covered the ground, and we moved the base twice to prevent
melting ice from permeating our notebooks.
The majority of the birds we caught were tits. We tried a tape lure for Nuthatch which did attract
the attention of at least two birds, but they didn’t come down to the net. Although Goldfinches
were present throughout the morning we didn’t manage to catch any finches either.
Of note were two adult Great Tits that had arrested their moult. They had retained a small
number of extremely worn inner secondaries and tail feathers. We presume that these birds
didn’t have enough energy to complete their full moult.
We processed a total of 42 birds of 5 species: (new/retrap) Great Tit (14/5), Blue Tit (12/3), Coal Tit (2/2), Goldcrest (3/0), Blackbird (1/0).
We shared some homemade apple cake with a reckless amount of cinnamon.
Holly
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| Great Tit with arrented moult (HJ) |
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| Great Tit with arrested moult (JP) |
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| Blackbird (JP) |
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