Summary of recent mist-netting

Since we finished at the winter feeding site, we've not been resting on our laurels. We carried out the usual pre-CES sessions at Attenborough. 

On the first (22 March) we had 144m of net up and caught 35 birds. These included 4 Blackcaps, 3 Chiffchaffs and 5 Treecreepers. 

The next visit was on 29 March and we had 228m of net up and caught 43 birds, this time with 2 Blackcaps, 6 Chiffchaffs and 4 Treecreepers. 

The third visit on 6 April - we had 144m of net again but with just 25 birds, including 2 Blackcaps and 3 Treecreepers. 

The final pre-CES visit, with 132m of net, produced 24 birds including 3 Blackcaps, 1 Chiffchaff but no Treecreepers. 

The 3 visits that produced Treecreepers involved 9 individuals: a healthy population. Parakeets were very vocal on each visit, so it's perhaps only a matter of time before one ends up in a net! 

Yesterday we paid the first spring visit to Holme Pierrepont and with the usual nets set we had just 19 birds. These included 3 Blackcaps, 2 Chiffchaffs, a Cetti's Warbler and two rarities to our nets.....a Reed Bunting and a female Emperor Moth.

Kev

Female Emperor Moth, HPP (KJH)

Visitors to the Garden

With poor weekend weather, I have been unable to get out to ring by myself for a while. However, I
have been watching the birds in my garden. On 2 April, one of the resident families of Blackbirds
brought the first of this year’s fledglings into the garden, making best use of the food we put out for
them. This week, while feeding one of the chicks, I was able to take enough photos of the ring on the
adult male’s leg to determine that I had ringed him in the garden 18 months ago.

Other records of people reading metal rings provides valuable extra data on top of our normal
ringing activities. Data like this submitted to the BTO helps us to track patterns in the bird activity of
individual birds. Members from our group have also read the metal rings on Woodpigeons and Black-
headed Gulls. It’s always worth checking to see if a bird has been ringed, because their movements
can be surprising!

Josh

 

2025 Report

The 2025 SNRG Report is now published and available. If you would like a copy, please email the address at the top of the 'Reports' page - see tab at the top.

 

Bird Feeding Advice

Yesterday saw the release of the latest advice on feeding birds by the RSPB which you can explore here. The accompanying slogan is 'Feed seasonally. Feed safely.' The RSPB advocate feeding only in the months November - April, leaving a gap in summer when natural food is more abundant to help break the cycle of disease reinfection. They also advise against the use of any flat-surface feeders (such as bird tables), as these are the worst for spreading disease. The RSPB highlights the effect that trichomonosis has had, particularly on Chaffinch and Greenfinch populations.

I am in no way disagreeing with their findings or their advice, but it's interesting that in the last couple of years my gut feeling was that I was catching, and seeing more of these two species, so I crunched our numbers.

As ever, I'm not a scientist, data reviewer or bird disease expert, and this small amount of data from a small area in South Nottinghamshire shouldn’t be viewed as anything other than interesting. It cannot be compared to the extensive research carried out by the RSPB and their partners. But looking at our data from 2010 to 2025 it can be seen from the graphs that my gut feeling was correct, and both species have shown a alight increase recently. 

However, the actual reasons for this is anyone’s guess. Perhaps it's due to a reduction in the effects of trichomonosis, but I can't rule out many other factors such as changes in our ringing efforts or ringing sites.

One thing the data has highlighted though is the alarming lack of subsequent encounters of these 2 species, particularly Greenfinch! It will be interesting to keep re-examining the data in the coming years and let's hope that the RSPB's strategy does help reverse the fortunes of the effected species. 

Mick P

 

blue = new birds, orange = subsequent encounters

 

 

 

Leucistic Goldfinch

I caught this interesting individual today. I aged it as a 5 (born last year) and I suspect it was a female based on wing and weight. It reminded me at first of Russian goldfinch skins I’ve seen in collections because they are paler, though the size of a Greenfinch, and still have lots of black. I also checked that this variant occurs in nature and wasn’t an escaped captive.

Holly