As can be seen from the map below, reproduced from the 2020 report, Cormorant CX4 (5268887 - purple line) is highly mobile, regularly commuting between Merseyside and the south-east coast. It has now been seen again at Havergate Island NR in Suffolk where it seems to like spending the winter.
The 2020 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.
As we are all restricted to staying at home I’ve felt like it's been important to get some garden birds ringed, as there’s not a lot else going on at the moment. I’ve managed three short sessions so far in January, helped by some decent ringing weather and the fact I've had a bit of time to take off work so I can juggle parenting duties with some bird-time.
The cool weather has brought many finches to the garden, with a flock of 65 goldfinches noted during the cold snap at the start of the month and decent numbers of Chaffinch and Greenfinch. I noted a lot of these birds were coming in later in the day so had a couple of afternoon sessions to try and exploit this. The first session was very successful with 18 Goldfinches caught out of a total of 29 birds. Five days later, I had another go in near-perfect conditions, and only managed 12 birds – maybe I got too greedy. I had another session today mid-morning and it was fairly quiet again with 15 birds caught.
It has been nice to steadily catch Greenfinches, and I’m hoping I get a repeat of the influx of last year's late winter/spring. I have now ringed 4 Blackcaps this winter, all first-year males, and there are still other unringed male and female birds in the garden. I have been catching 1 or 2 each winter so far, so it seems to be a good winter for them, with plenty of reports from other gardens around the county.
Otherwise its business as usual, but there doesn’t seem to be many tits around, particularly Coal Tit and Blue Tit, and big flocks of Long-tailed Tits are absent replaced with small groups of 2-3 birds. Also back in November I managed to trap a Grey Wagtail that had been visiting our pond.
Tom
Another socially-distant session for Jim, Tom and me at the feeders on a cold, still and rather misty morning. The catch was dominated by retrap Blue and Great Tits once again, though seven Blackbirds was high for the site and a suggestion of immigration.
We handled 42 birds (12 new / 30 retraps) as follows: Blackbird (7/0), Blue Tit (2/10), Dunnock (1/4), Great Tit (0/12), Redwing (2/0), Robin (0/4).
As on the previous visit, the majority of the retraps were from this and last winter. Exceptions were Blue and Great Tits from the winter of 2016/17, a Dunnock from 2017/18 and another Great Tit from 18/19.
Yellowhammers were notable by their absence and the only other records of note were three Woodcock flushed from the bottom of Orwin's and some Pink-footed Geese calling up above the clouds.
Pete
It is with great sadness that we learnt of the death of the group's founder, Humphrey Dobinson. He died peacefully at his home in Norway on 21 December, just about making it to the group's 50th anniversary.
Several members visited him at home in 2018 (see pic below) and the trip was blogged about here: https://southnottsringinggroup.blogspot.com/2018/06/snrg-in-norway.html
It was a damp, grey morning during which Jim, Christian and I felt as if we were sitting in the clouds for much of the time. Fortunately, it was still and the dampness rarely enough to stop us netting.
The catching was steady and dominated by retrap tits. As has become the norm, a good number of Chaffinches were caught, but released due to the widespread Fringilla papillomavirus. Thrushes were regular overhead, but only a few could be lured down to the vicinity of the nets.
A total of 51 birds were processed (14 new / 37 retrap), comprising: Blackbird (2/0), Blue Tit (2/19), Bullfinch (1/0), Chaffinch (0/1), Coal Tit (0/2), Dunnock (0/1), Great Tit (2/10), House Sparrow (3/0), Redwing (3/0), Robin (0/2), Wren (1/0), Yellowhammer (0/2).
The majority of retraps were from the last two winters. The exceptions being Blue Tit, Great Tit and Yellowhammer from winter 17/18, and a Robin from 14/15.
Pete
Jim, Christian and I visited Pykett's Farm over the weekend. On Saturday night we set up two lines of nets ready for the morning and put up an owl net. We also had a go at using the thermal imaging camera, finding a surprising number of small passerines at roost, along with larger birds like Pheasants and Moorhens and several rodents crawling around feeding on haws and other berries. We caught a single Barn Owl and watched another pair of Barn Owls through the camera circling high above us.
In the morning we trapped half a dozen Redwings and a tit flock, including a Great Tit ringed in January 2018 by Liz and Geoff on the neighbouring Devon Farm.
Towards the end of the morning a flock of about 300 Pink-footed Geese flew over heading west.
In total we processed 29 birds, comprising (new/retrap): Barn Owl (1/0), Redwing (6/0), Blackbird (1/0), Robin (1/1), Goldcrest (2/0), Long-tailed Tit (11/0), Great Tit (2/2), Blue Tit (1/1).
Pete
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)
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
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
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
Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Monday 21 September
The weather was calm with very little breeze but with clear skies. The catching rate was ok to start but soon dropped as the sun got higher. It was just Gary and me and we and finished with a catch of 43 including 7 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Robin 3/2, Dunnock 3/0, Chiffchaff 8/1, Blackcap 16/0, Reed Warbler 1/1, Cetti’s Warbler 0/2, Blue Tit 3/0, Lesser Redpoll 1/0, Bullfinch 0/1, Reed Bunting 1/0. The oldest retrap was a Bullfinch from 2018. A much reduced, but not surprising, catch of warblers as we head further into autumn.
Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont - Monday 28 September
The weather was calm and bright with sunny spells. The team was Gary, Duncan and me. Catching rate of warblers was quite slow as you would expect at this time of year and at this site, but then we found 10 Lesser Redpoll in the nets and decided at about 0900 to switch one of the MP3 players from warbler calls to Lesser Redpoll. This resulted in another 75 Lesser Redpoll being caught, including one ringed 6 days earlier in Yorkshire and a Siskin. We finished with a total catch of 120 including 6 retraps made up of (new/retrap): Robin 0/2, Dunnock 2/0, Wren 2/0, Chiffchaff 7/2, Blackcap 10/0, Reed Warbler 1/0, Coal Tit 0/1, Blue Tit 2/0, Great Tit 2/0, Lesser Redpoll 84/1, Siskin 1/0, Bullfinch 1/0, Chaffinch 1/0, Reed Bunting 1/0. The oldest retrap was a Robin from 2019. The Coal Tit is very interesting as we have not caught one at this site before, or at least since records were computerised in 1996, so to catch one with a ring on was a surprise. Even more intriguing was the fact that it was wearing a ring from an old sequence of A rings and no data has yet been submitted to the BTO for this ring – and it was a bird of the year with 3 old greater coverts (the ring and age confirmed by both Gary and me). We await a report from the BTO once they have chased up the ringer for the ringing details. I mentioned the catch of Lesser Redpoll to Mick P as he was going out to his site at Bestwood the next day. He said he would take his Lesser Redpoll sound lure and subsequently caught 53 and had to switch his player off a couple of times to keep numbers manageable. We thought this would be our last visit of the year here and we did bring back all the poles and guys, but if we get a suitably calm day in the coming days we may venture back with a couple of nets and MP3 players to see if the Lesser Redpolls are still around!
We have been restricted to the Skylarks end of Holme Pierrepont all summer because the car park at the rowing centre that we use to access the Grange end has been either shut during lockdown or opened too late in the morning. It struck me that some of our warbler numbers seemed high and some low this year so I looked on Demon at catches of new birds in the same period over the last three years just at the Skylarks end. Roughly the same number of visits each year, not exactly the same - but not different enough to make some of the significant changes shown below.
The good:
Chiffchaff - 522% increase on 2018 – 213% increase on 2019.
Willow Warbler - 36% increase on 2018 – 44% increase on 2019.
The bad:
Garden Warbler – 35% decrease on 2018 – 31% increase on 2019.
and the ugly:
Lesser Whitethroat – 41% decrease on 2018 in both 2019 and 2020.
Sedge Warbler - 82% decrease on 2018 – 77% decrease on 2019.
Blackcap, Whitethroat and Reed Warbler numbers were similar each year.
Kev
